Ustylug – one of the ancient towns in Volyn. It has been known since the annals (1150). Later it was called in different ways – Ustilogov (1545), Uschilug (1576), Uscilug (1577). At some time, the town was even named Ruzhyiampol (1765), the name was gained in the 18th century in honor of Rozalia Rouge Potey from Zagorovsky with the emblem of Golden Rouge on a blue background.
The Poles shared the town with the Lithuanians, and after the final occupation they built a Capuchin church here when the town belonged to the Volyn Voivodeship. Later, the Russians built a wooden church when the town remains in the Volodymyr-Volyn district of the Volyn province of the Russian Empire.
At the beginning of the 19th century City College with Polish language teaching was opened in Ustyluh. All this is maintained by the local landowners and the Catholic clergy. However, after the suppression of the Polish uprising in 1831, the government closed the College and for a long time there were no educational institutions in Ustyluh.
Since 1845, there have been 2 small leather factories in the city which were the main occupation of the locals. And it is at this time that the importance of the border city is fixed to Ustyluh.
In the last quarter of the XIX – early XX centuries it was a regular provincial town with a patriarchal everyday life. Here worked 2 candle and alcohol-purification factories. Most mentions remained about the activity of the family of Nossenko Gavriil Trofimovich from whose genus Katerina Nossenko, the first wife of Igor Stravinsky, came from.
The appearance of Stravinsky in the town of Ustyluh dates back to 1889 and according to archival data was connected with the fact that the parents of Igor Stravinsky – Fyodor and Anna wanted to visit relatives – the Nossenko family.
At the beginning of the XX century, in 1908 a customs office was built here which also increased the city’s revenues. For the rest of the intellectuals here were quite favorable conditions. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing left of past luxury. All this has disappeared from Ustyluh since the beginning of the First World War.
