Sumy Oblast (Ukrainian: Сумська область, translit. Sums’ka oblast’; also referred to as Sumshchyna – Ukrainian: Сумщина) is an oblast (province) in the northeastern part of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Sumy.

Other important cities within the oblast include Konotop, Okhtyrka, Romny, and Shostka.

As of 1 May 2004, the population is 1,255,866, which includes 886,100 city/town-dwellers, and 483,700 villagers.

The Sumy Oblast is situated in the northeastern part of Ukraine. The area of the oblast' (23,800 km²), comprises about 3,95% of the total area of the country.

The obalst' borders the Bryansk Oblast (Russia) on the northeast, the Kursk Oblast (Russia) on the east, the Poltava on the southwest, the Kharkiv Oblasts on the south, and the Chernihiv Oblast on the west.

The following historic-cultural sited were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.

The Sumy Oblast was established on 10 December 1939. Today it comprises 18 raions (districts), 15 cities, 7 city municipalities, 20 Urban-type settlements, 384 village councils, and 1500 villages.

Sumy (Ukrainian: Суми [ˈsumɪ], Russian: Сумы) is a city on the Psel River in Ukraine, and the capital of the Sumy Oblast. As of 2004, the city's population is 283,700. It is served by Sumy Airport.

Sumy was founded in 1652 at the bank of the Psel River (a left tributary of the Dnieper) as a Cossack fortress. It was intended to protect Sloboda Ukraine from the Crimean Tatar attacks. After their attacks discontinued and the territory was incorporated into the Russian Empire, Sumy evolved into an important economical centre. During the German occupation of Ukraine during World War II (1941 – 1943), Sumy sustained heavy damage. The war over, destroyed parts of the city were rebuilt anew. Sumy has been a twin town of Celle, Germany since January 17, 1990.

The city used to be divided into two city raions (districts): Zarichny and Kovpak. However, they were liquidated in 2006.

The majority of residents are Christians (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants) There is also a Jewish minority.

Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev (Russian: Михаи́л Петро́вич Арцыба́шев); (November 5, 1878 – March 3, 1927) was a Russian writer and playwright, and a major proponent of the literary style known as naturalism. He was the great grandson of Tadeusz Kościuszko and the father of Boris Artzybasheff, who emigrated to the United States and became famous as an illustrator.

Artsybashev was born in Khutor Dubroslavovka, Akhtyrka Uezd, Kharkov Gubernia (currently Sumy Oblast, Ukraine). His father was a small landowner and a former officer. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was only 3 years old. He attended school in Okhtyrka until the age of 16. From 1895 to 1897 he was an office worker. He studied at the Kharkov School of Drawing and Art (1897–1898). During this time he lived in poverty, and was often unable to buy art supplies. In 1897 he attempted suicide. In 1898 he married Anna Vasilyevna Kobushko, with whom he had his son Boris. The couple separated in 1900.

In 1898 he relocated to Saint Petersburg, where he worked as a freelance journalist, and published humorous stories. In 1901 he was expelled from the city for taking part in a demonstration. He wrote his first important work of fiction, the story Pasha Tumanov in 1901, but was unable to publish it until 1905 due to its being banned by the censor.

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (Ukrainian: Андрі́й Рома́нович Чикати́ло; 16 October 1936 – 14 February 1994) was a Soviet serial killer, nicknamed The Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper and The Rostov Ripper who committed the murder of a minimum of 52 women and children between between 1978 and 1990 in the Russian SFSR. Chikatilo confessed to a total of 56 murders and was tried for 53 of these killings in April, 1992. He was convicted and sentenced to death for 52 of these murders in October 1992 and subsequently executed in February 1994.

Chikatilo was known by such titles as The Rostov Ripper and The Butcher of Rostov because the majority of his murders were committed in the Rostov Oblast of the Russian SFSR.

Andrei Chikatilo was born in the village of Yablochnoye (Yabluchne) in modern Sumy Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR. He was born soon after the famine in Ukraine caused by Joseph Stalin's forced collectivisation of agriculture. Ukrainian farmers were forced to hand in their entire crop for statewide distribution. Mass starvation ran rampant throughout Ukraine and reports of cannibalism soared. Chikatilo's mother, Anna, told him that his older brother Stepan had been kidnapped and cannibalized by starving neighbors, although it has never been independently established whether this actually happened.