Initially, a small Hutsul settlement with the remnants of a small castle destroyed by the Turks, Kosiv was founded on the Ribnica (river). The first written mention of it is in the Grant Charter of Lithuanian Duke Svitrigaila, on September 31, 1424.[citation needed] At that time, the village was in the territory of what is today Old Kosiv. In 1565, not far from modern-day Kosiv, Starosta of Sniatyn, Tenczynski founded a town named Rukiv (Polish: Rukow). Polish Crown HetmanJerzy Jazlowiecki, the owner of Kuty, later destroyed it. Some years later, the town was recovered and named Kosiv (the earlier village of this name thus became Old Kosiv). Until 1772, Kosiv/Kosów was under Polish control.
In 1939, Kosów Huculski became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Invasion of Poland. Here, in September 1939, the government of Poland crossed the Romanian border. Despite this pact, Kosiv was occupied by Nazi Germany from July 1, 1941, until April 2, 1944. After that time it was, again, a member of the Soviet Union, until the independence of Ukraine in 1991.[6]
At the beginning of World War II, around 3700 Jews lived in Kosiv. In October, 1941, the German security police, leading on Pidzamche street to the so-called "Town Mountain", rounded up and shot more than 2000 Jews, burning them in mass grave. In April 1942, the authorities forced 1000 Jews to move to Kolomyja, though some returned to Kosiv. In September, most of the remaining Jews in Kosiv were rounded up. Some were shot in Kosiv, 500 were sent to prison, and the rest sent to Kolomyja and from there to Belzec where they were immediately murdered. In October and November, the Jews left behind and in hiding were murdered in Kosiv. About 100 Kosiv Jews survived, some hiding with sympathetic local inhabitants, others by fleeing the area.[7][8]
Today, the town of Kosiv borders on the towns and villages of Babyn, Horod, Smodna, Cherhanivka, Staryi Kosiv, Verbovets and Pistyn. The distance from the railroad station in Vizhnytsa is 12 kilometers, from Zabolotiv is 25 kilometers and from Kolomyia — 35 kilometers. Roads with all neighbouring districts connect the city. The total length of roads is 362 kilometers. 160 kilometers of these roads are paved.
^Megargee, Geoffrey (2012). Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. Volume II, 797–798. ISBN978-0-253-35599-7.