Tetiiv district is a picturesque and ancient historical land, it is a true pearl of the Kyiv region, situated in its southern-western part. Its area is 75.5 km2. It is interesting that the highest point of the Kyiv region is located in Tetiiv district near the village of Vysoke at 280 meters above sea level. A highway stretches in south-western direction from Volodarka over the picturesque Rossa and its tributary Ros’ka. The town of Tetiiv, the district center, is located on the banks of this small river, 30 km from Volodarka and 148 km from Kyiv. The name of the town comes from the name of the Prince Tetii of the Polovets, mentioned in the chronicle of 1185 among the Polovets princes, captured as prisoners by the coalition of Rus’ princes. However, in accordance with local tales, the ancient name of the town is Tymoshnia. The Greeks lived in it, and they built their church. Traces of fortifications of this town have been noticed as early as the nineteenth century on the left bank of the Ros’ka river.
Tetiiv is the town of ancient history. The implements, found here, justify the fact that people lived in the area of modern-day Tetiiv as early as the Bronze Age (second-first millennia B. C). Close to the town there are four burial mounds, and the remnants of the rampart from an ancient settlement remain in the town. In the twelfth century Tetiiv repeatedly suffered nomadic attacks, and later it was completely destroyed by the Mongols. At the end of the sixteenth century and during the first half of seventeenth century the villages of Sloboda, Plokhanivka, Snihurivka appeared around the town, they belong to Tetiiv even now. This is how it became the center of a considerable eldership and a huge magnate landownership.
Residents of Tetiiv actively participated in Liberation war of 1648 — 1654. Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi stopped here on a march to Volyn’.
Several burial mounds and remains of a military camp in the shape of earthen ramparts remain to our time in Koshev, located on the Ros’ fifteen kilometers from Tetiiv. The latter stretch to the west and to the east from the village. Here comes the name of the settlement: «Kosh» in the parent Sumerian language means «a camping ground, a camp». There are two mounds, located one kilometer to the west from the village. In 1708 Colonel I. Iskra and a military judge V. Kochubei were executed on the one, now called «The grave of Kochubei». In 200 years a monument-obelisk was inaugurated near Koshev, with the following inscription: «To Kochubei and Iskra, loyal to their Motherland and their oath, from grateful countrymen in commemoration of 200 years of their martyrdom (14 July 1708 – 14 July 1908)». Contemporary research of that historical period discovered another point of view during 1708, shed light upon the true and noble intentions of Ivan Mazepa to make Malorossia of that time an independent one, in order to liberate it from those numerous oppressions, which it was suffering from the last Moscow Tsar and the first Emperor of Russia, Peter. Thus, Iskra and Kochubei, who officially did not betray Peter the Great, and in fact forgot about their native Motherland — Ukraine, and did not enter the circle of its glorious knights, those ones, who cared for its happy future.
In the future Tetiiv became one of the centers of Haidamaks’ movement. On 19 July 1768 a Cossack detachment led by Cossack Seredynenko, drove the Polish nobility out of the town, and their belongings had been distributed among the poor. The units of the rebels were established here, and for several times they have been turning out the Polish oppressors from Tetiiv. After the suppression of the rebellion the Polish nobility launched a violent reprisal. Almost a thousand of resident were hung on the gallows in Tetiiv. The high grave at the entrance to the village of Rosishky reminds the contemporaries of the tragic fate of their predecessors even now.
Tetiiv district suffered much during famine in 1932—1933, when 27% of population died, and in the town of Tetiiv that figure raised as high as 37%. With time the Great Patriotic War scorched this land.
During all times people have been the main treasure of the state. This land brought up the famous Ukrainian poet and statesman Ivan Drach, the writers V. Zhurakivs’kyi and V. Herasymchiuk, the painter V. Rohol, a master of the arts and an author of over 300 paintings and graphics S. Yaremyn, the People’s Artist of Ukraine Lidiia Matsievs’ka-Morynets. The life goes on. And this favorable land will give birth to even more gifted people.