SKVIRA, a district town of European Russia, in the government of Kieff, 77 miles south-west of Kieff, and 27 miles from the Fastova railway-junction. It is merely a big village, with 14,200 inhabitants, mostly engaged in agriculture, and has municipal institutions only as the seat of the administration of the district. There is a considerable export of grain and cattle from the district, which is fertile and has many villages of from 3000 to 5000 inhabitants. In the 14th century Skvira was a far more important town than now, but the wars destroyed it, so that two centuries later it Was left uninhabited; it was settled anew by Prince Röżinski, and the population slowly reached the number of 1000 by the end of the last century. The town has grown rapidly during the last ninety years.