STARODUB, a district town of Russia, in the government of Tchernigoff, 116 miles to the north-east of that town, on the marshy banks of a small tributary of the navigable Sudost. It is regularly built, with broad straight streets, the houses being surrounded by large gardens. Its 23,890 inhabitants—Little Russian descendants of former Cossacks, with about 5000 Jews—support themselves chiefly by gardening and agriculture. Tanning is also carried on, and the trade in corn and hemp exported to Riga and St Petersburg has some importance.

Starodub at one time played a prominent part in the history of the Ukraine. As early as the 11th and 12th centuries it was a bone of contention between different Russian princes, who appreciated the value of its strategic position. The Mongols seem to have destroyed it, and its name does not reappear till the 14th century. During the 15th and 16th centuries the Russians and Lithuanians were continually disputing the possession of its fortress, and at the beginning of the 17th century it became a stronghold of Poland.