Archeological evidence discovered in the area of present-day Kharkiv indicates that a local population has existed in that area since the second millennium BC. Cultural artifacts date back to the Bronze Age, as well as those of later Scythian and Sarmatian settlers. There is also evidence that the Chernyakhov culture flourished in the area from the second to the sixth century.
Establishment
The city was founded by re-settlers who were running away from the war that engulfed Right-bank Ukraine in 1654 (see Khmelnytsky Uprising). The group of people came onto the banks of Lopan and Kharkiv rivers where stood an abandoned settlement. Some sources indicate that the city was founded by the eponymous, near-legendary character, called Kharko (a diminutive form of the name Kharyton, Ukrainian: ???????). At first the settlement was a self-governed under the jurisdiction of a voivode from Chuhuiv that is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the east. The first appointed voivode from Moscow was Voyin Selifontov in 1656 who started to build a local ostrog (fort). At that time the population of Khakriv was just over 1,000 half of which were local cossacks, while Selifontov brought along a Moscow garrison of another 70 servicemen. The first Kharkiv voivode was replaced in two years after constantly complaining that locals refuse to cooperate in building of the fort. Kharkiv also became the centre of the local Sloboda cossack regiment as the area surrounding the Belgorod fortress was being heavily militarized. With the resettlement of the area Ukrainians it became to be known as Sloboda Ukraine, most of which was included under the jurisdiction of the Razryad Prikaz (Military Appointment) headed by a district official from Belgorod. By 1657 the Kharkiv settlement already had a fortress with underground passageways.
In 1658 the new voivode was appointed Ivan Ofrosimov who worked on forcing locals to kiss cross on the loyalty to the Moscow Tsar. The locals
