Ukraine: Baturyn
Baturyn was established in the 11th century but achieved the most prominence in the 17th century under Hetman Bogdan Khmelnytskyi and the Cossack State. In the 18th century, Baturyn twice served as the capital of the autonomous Cossack Republic of the Left-Bank Ukraine from 1669 to 1708 and from 1750 to 1764. In the first episode, Baturyn grew to a 20,000 population regional trade center under Hetman Ivan Mazepa at the beginning of the 18th century (with 40 churches and monasteries and a college), until Mazepa decided to flip out from his allegiance with the Russian Empire and switch to support Sweden in its Northern War with Russia. That didn’t go very well with Peter the Great who sent one of his premier military commanders, Alexander Menshikov, to completely erase Baturyn from the face of the earth. The Russian army burned the entire town and killed everyone (around 8,000 civilians), the city turning into a ghost town. The town was rebuilt in the 1750s by another Hetman Kirill Razumovskiy, who resurrected the Cossack Hetmanate, albeit as a Russian puppet. It was only in 2002, when then independent Ukraine under President Yushchenko restores the Baturyn Fortress and it’s churches, as well as the nearby Razumovskiy Palace.
