1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Starodub

STARODUB, a town of Russia, in the government of Chernigov, 98 m. N.E. of the city of Chernigov. It is regularly built, with broad straight streets, and the houses are surrounded by large gardens. Pop. 12,451; Little Russians with about 5000 Jews. Tanning and the manufacture of copper wares are carried on, and there is a trade in corn and hemp exported to Riga and St Petersburg. As early as the 11th and 12th centuries Starodub was a bone of contention between different Russian princes, who appreciated its strategic position. The Mongols seem to have destroyed it in the middle of the 13th century, and its name does not reappear until the following century. During the 15th and 16th centuries the Russians and Lithuanians were continually disputing the possession of its fortress, and at the beginning of the 17th century it became a stronghold of Poland.