KONOTOP, a district town of Russia, in the government of Tchernigoff, 137 miles north-east of Kieff, on the railway from this town to Kursk. Its 10,000 inhabitants live by agriculture, boat-building, and trade. Situated in a district which produces a good deal of corn and is also engaged in cattle and sheep breeding, it has a brisk and rapidly increasing trade in agricultural produce. The town was founded in 1635 by the Poles, who built a strong citadel, the ruins of which still exist. In 1648 it was taken by the Cossacks of Khmelnitzky, and in 1659, during Vigoysky’s insurrection, Russian troops besieged it.