About me
My mother and I are both English teachers in Poltava, Ukraine, where we also live.
Poltava is a city in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Poltavskyi Raion (district) within the oblast.
Poltava is probably best known as the site of a 1709 battle between a coalition of Cossacks, led by Mazepa, and the Swedes (Charles XII) against the Russian army of Czar Peter I which is the most famous of the battles of the Great Northern War. The subsequent Russian victory in battle established Russia’s prominent position in Europe and consequently Ukraine’s decline.
The battlefield and its monuments are the major draw. A museum displays the rather large uniform of Czar Peter, who was unusually tall. In town, visit the October Park, the gun-barrel-shaped Column of Glory and the Spassky Church, which is actually an outer shell protecting an earlier, wooden church inside.