Kyiv vs Scranton

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Kyiv or Kiev (Ukrainian: Київ) is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. Its population in July 2015 has been 2,887,974 (though greater estimated numbers have been cited in the media ), making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.Kyiv is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural center of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech businesses, higher education institutions, and historical landmarks. The town has an extensive system of public transport and infrastructure, including the Kyiv Metro. The city's name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, one of its four legendary creators. During its history, Kyiv, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several phases of prominence and obscurity. The city probably existed as a commercial centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the wonderful trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kyiv was a tributary of the Khazars, until its capture by the Varangians (Vikings) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the town became a capital of the Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state. Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasions in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal value in the outskirts of the lands controlled by its powerful neighbours, first Lithuania, then Poland and Russia.

The city prospered again during the Russian Empire's Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. In 1918, following the Ukrainian People's Republic declared independence from Soviet Russia, Kyiv became its capital. From 1921 onwards Kyiv was a town of Soviet Ukraine, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, and, from 1934, Kyiv was its capital. The town was almost completely ruined during World War II but quickly recovered from the postwar years, remaining Soviet Union's third-largest city. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991, Kyiv remained Ukraine's capital and experienced a steady influx of cultural migrants from different regions of the country. During the country's transformation into a market economy and electoral democracy, Kyiv has continued to be Ukraine's biggest and wealthiest city. Its armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science and technology, but new sectors of the economy such as services and finance facilitated Kyiv's increase in salaries and investment, as well as providing continuous funding for the development of housing and urban infrastructure. Kyiv emerged as the most pro-Western area of Ukraine; parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections.

Source: Wikipedia

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Scranton is the sixth-largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat and largest city of Lackawanna County in Northeastern Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley and hosts a federal court building for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. With an estimated population in 2019 of 76,653, it is the largest city in northeastern Pennsylvania and the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of about 570,000. The city is conventionally divided into nine districts: North Scranton, Southside, Westside, the Hill Section, Central City, Minooka, East Mountain, Providence, and Green Ridge, though these areas do not have legal status. Scranton is the geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley and northeastern Pennsylvania, and the largest of the former anthracite coal mining communities in a contiguous quilt-work that also includes Wilkes-Barre, Nanticoke, Pittston, and Carbondale. Scranton was incorporated on February 14, 1856, as a borough in Luzerne County and as a city on April 23, 1866. It became a major industrial city, a center of mining and railroads, and attracted thousands of new immigrants. It was the site of the Scranton General Strike in 1877. People in northern Luzerne County sought a new county in 1839, but the Wilkes-Barre area resisted losing its assets. Lackawanna County did not gain independent status until 1878.

Under legislation allowing the issue to be voted by residents of the proposed territory, voters favored the new county by a proportion of 6 to 1, with Scranton residents providing the major support. The city was designated as the county seat when Lackawanna County was established in 1878, and a judicial district was authorized in July 1879. The city's nickname "Electric City" began when electric lights were introduced in 1880 at the Dickson Manufacturing Company. Six years later, the United States' first streetcars powered only by electricity began operating in the city. Rev. David Spencer, a local Baptist minister, later proclaimed Scranton as the "Electric City".The city's industrial production and population peaked in the 1930s and 1940s, fueled by demand for coal and textiles, especially during World War II. But while the national economy boomed after the war, demand for the region's coal declined as other forms of energy became more popular, which also harmed the rail industry. Foreseeing the decline, city leaders formulated the Scranton Plan in 1945 to diversify the local economy beyond coal, but the city's economy continued to decline. The Knox Mine disaster of 1959 essentially ended coal mining in the region. Scranton's population dropped from its peak of 143,000 in the 1930 census to 76,000 in the 2010 census. The city now has large health care and manufacturing sectors.

Source: Wikipedia