Melitopol ' onMouseout='HidePop("58885")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Romanization_of_Ukrainian">translit.
The romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian is the representation of the Ukrainian language using Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, a variation of Cyrillic....
Melitopol’, ) is a
cityA city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement. Although there is no agreement on technical definitions distinguishing a city from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status...
in the
Zaporizhia OblastZaporizhia Oblast is an oblast of southern Ukraine...
of the southeastern
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
. It is situated on the
MolochnaMolochna River is a river in the Zaporizhia Oblast of central Ukraine. It flows into the Molochny Liman in the Azov Sea. Its length is 197 km and its drainage basin is 3,450 km²...
River that flows through the eastern edge of the city and into the Molochnyi Liman, which eventually joins the
Sea of AzovThe Sea of Azov is the world's shallowest sea, linked by the Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south. It is bounded on the north by Ukraine, on the east by Russia and on the west by the Crimean peninsula. The Don River flows into it.-Geology and bathymetry:The sea is long and wide and has...
. The city was formerly named
Kyzyl-Yar until 1816, and
Novoalexandrovka until 1842. Serving as the
administrative centerCapital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of the Melitopolskyi Raion, the city itself is directly subordinate to the oblast center. The estimated population is around 158,700. Generally, the
Russian languageRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
is spoken in the city.
Melitopol is a pilot city of the
Council of EuropeThe Council of Europe is the oldest international organisation working towards European integration, having been founded in 1949. It has a particular emphasis on legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
and the European Comission
Intercultural citiesThe Intercultural City programme is a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. It stimulates new ideas and practice in relation to the integration of migrants and minorities....
programme.
History
In ancient times, there was a small Noghai
aulAn aul is a type of fortified village found throughout the Caucasus mountains, especially in Dagestan. The auls of Svanetia , with their distinctive medieval towers, have been recognized as a World Heritage Site...
of Kyzyl-Yar where the modern Melitopol is settled. In July 1769, Russian military commanders built a
redoubtA redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main line of defense and can be a permanent structure or a...
there, and Zaporizhia Cossacks carried out their duty service there. On February 2, 1784, Ekaterina II issued the decree to create the Taurian Province on the lands that had been won back. The deputy of
NovorossiyaNovorossiya is a historic area of lands also known in Polish as Dzikie Pola and now mostly located in southern Ukraine, in southern Russia, in Bessarabia and in Transnistria....
His Highness Prince Potemkin signed the relation to establish a town that very year - and Cossacks' families and those of retired soldiers of Suvorov settled on the right bank of the Molochna River. In 1816, the settlement got the name
slobodaSloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement". The status of "sloboda" varied over the time and territory. Initially the settlers of a sloboda were freed...
of Novoalexandrovka. Its population was increasing due to the importation of peasants from the northern provinces of the Ukraine and Russia. On January 7, 1842, the sloboda was recognized as a town and received the new name of Melitopol after a port city of Melita (from Greek
Μέλι (meli) - "honey") which had been situated on the mouth of the Molochna River. At the end of the XIX century, the
Honey-city had been developed as a trade center - there were some banks, credit organizations and wholesale stores. The largest enterprises in the city at the time were the iron foundry and the Brothers Klassen's machinery construction factory (1886), the railroad depot and the workshops.
Melitopol in World War II
In 1941, the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
was attacked by
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
. The city became strategically important due to its location. The
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
was not ready for the war and had to retreat. The Nazis occupied Melitopol on October 6, 1941.
Occupation and nutrition issues
The
GermansGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
kept centralized supplement. The Soviet
Mezhraybaza sel'khozsnaba i himsnaba of Melitopol still ran. In fact, a variety of agriculture items were stored at the base, including
fertilizerFertilizers are chemical compounds applied to promote plant and fruit growth. Fertilizers are usually applied either through the soil or by foliar feeding...
s,
pesticideA pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest.A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substance intended for:- preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest....
s, tools, spare parts for reaping machines and
binderThe reaper-binder, or binder, was a farm implement that improved upon the reaper. The binder was invented in 1872 by Lauren Shmauren. In addition to cutting the small-grain crop, it would also tie the stems into small bundles, or sheaves...
s, etc. It supported the running enterprises of Melitopol and surrounding settlements with goods. Since the Soviet monetary system remained, the enterprises paid the Soviet
rubleThe ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. It is currently the currency unit of Belarus, Russia, and Transnistria, and was the currency unit of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union...
s and kopecks, not the
German markThe Deutsche Mark or German mark was the official currency of West Germany and, from 1990 until the adoption of the euro, all of unified Germany...
s. Also, no one of the enterprises was renamed, including the
Kaganovich artel, the collective farm of
the Red Cossacks, the artel of
Lenin's Way. However, the Germans were not tolerant to the Soviet order. The amount of German language documents began to increase and interpreters became strongly required. Most of the people who were ready to collaborate with the Germans were not competent enough in their language. Taking account of this fact, the German commanders submitted bilingualism:
Selling, buying and killing the
cattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
and the
poultryPoultry is the category of domesticated birds that people keep for the purpose of collecting their eggs, or killing for their meat and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as...
were strictly forbidden; they were severely controlled to be sent to Germany. The meat, milk and eggs were used to feed the soldiers. Notwithstanding the general prohibition, the population might kill animals by special permission.
Another way was to introduce a new
holidayThe words holiday or vacation have related meanings in different English-speaking countries and continents, but usually refer to one of the following activities or events:...
, to make people celebrate and eat together.
Celebrations, which were not introduced by the Nazi, were not welcome. Feasts, plays and especially dances were prohibited until the war would be over. The punishment for infringement of the prohibition was a fine and an
arrestAn arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the investigation and prevention of crime. The term is Anglo-Norman in origin and is related to the French word arrêt, meaning "stop".-United States:...
.
Culture
- Intercultural cities
The Intercultural City programme is a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. It stimulates new ideas and practice in relation to the integration of migrants and minorities....
Melitopol has
38 monuments, memorials and statues registered.
One of them is the statue of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the famous
hetmanHetman was the title of the second highest military commander used in 15th to 18th century Poland, Ukraine and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, known from 1569 to 1795 as the Rzeczpospolita....
of Ukraine. His images are printed on Ukrainian 5
hryvnia'sThe hryvnia, sometimes hryvnya or grivna; sign: ₴, code: UAH), has been the national currency of Ukraine since September 2, 1996. It replaced the karbovanets at the rate of 1 hryvnia = 100,000 karbovantsiv...
banknotes.
The Stone Grave
There is the unique relic of
the Stone GraveKamyana Mohyla is an archaeological site in the Molochna River valley, about a mile from the village of Terpinnya, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine.
...
' onMouseout='HidePop("48294")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Romanization_of_Ukrainian">translit.
The romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian is the representation of the Ukrainian language using Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, a variation of Cyrillic....
Kamyana mohyla, ) 12 kilometers north of Melitopol. It is a relic of sandstone from the Sarmatian epoch of the Tertiary period. Its exact coordinates are
Novobogdanovka
On May 6, 2004, the munition depots of Novobogdanovka, a village in the Melitopolskyi
RaionA raion is a type of administrative unit of some post-Soviet states. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is almost always translated as "district"...
, caught fire. The depot had been storing various rockets, which began to explode, littering numerous houses with debris, blowing out their windows and destroying their walls. Some sources have reported that soldiers guarding the depot caused the explosion through accidental carelessness with their lit cigarette butts. The accident later occurred several more times because the arms had been already damaged by the very first fire and become untransportable. After the accidents officials stated that it was necessary to disarm the depots and that the only measure available to do so was to carry out controlled explosions on a regular basis.
However, the controlled explosions took several lives too. , the depots have been almost completely disarmed,
Cherry
A symbol of Melitopol is
Chereshnya Melitopolskaya, a type of
Wild CherryThe Wild cherry, Sweet cherry or Gean is a species of cherry, native to Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus, and northern Iran, with a small disjunct population in...
for which the city is known.
Town twinning
Melitopol is currently
twinnedSister cities, also known as town twinning, is an agreement between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties...
with:
Brive-la-GaillardeBrive-la-Gaillarde is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Corrèze department. The population of the urban area was 89,260 as of 1999...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
Education
In 1874, a technical school was founded in the city, which, after a series of reforms and transformations, became Taurian State Agrotechnological Academy.
The city now has two universities − the Taurian State Agrotechnological Academy and the Melitopol State Pedagogical University.
Transportation
- Melitopol has a railroad station that serves as the transit point for passengers going from Moscow
Moscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
to the CrimeaCrimea or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is the only autonomous republic of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name.The territory of Crimea was conquered and controlled many times throughout its history...
and back. The city is also called the "gateway to the Crimea".
- The city's cantonment has an aerodrome, which is not used for passenger service. There is present a park of Il-76 transport planes.
- The city has two bus stations: the more new intercity station and the old station of local buses. Two highways lead through Melitopol: The M14 Odesa-Novoazovsk Highway and the M26 Kharkiv-Simferopol National Highway.
- The marshrutka
Marshrutka , from marshrutnoye taksi is a share taxi in the CIS countries, the Baltic states, and Bulgaria. Marshrutnoye taksi literally means routed taxicab...
s are the sole kind of the city's public transport. They run 34 routes. They work from 5:00 a.m. till 12:30 a.m. (from 05:30 till 00:30). Formerly, in the days of existing the USSR, there were buses of Ikarus, LiAZLIAZ may refer to:* LIAZ, automotive factory in Czech Republic.* LiAZ, bus factory in Russia....
, LAZLaz, or LAZ, may refer to:* Wolfgang Lazius or Laz* Laz people* Laz language* L’vivs’ky Avtomobil’ny Zavod * Laz, wife of the Babylonian God NergalPlaces* Laz, Finistère, a commune in Finistère département, France...
, PAZPavlovsky Avtobusny Zavod is a manufacturer of buses in Russia, located in the city ofPavlovo, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.The building of the factory started in 1952, and in the same year the first buses PAZ-651 were produced. The government had a plan to produce 10,000 buses per year. In 1960, the...
running around 15 routes.
- The common length of the roads of Melitopol is 333 km, 70% of them do not meet the basic requirements.
Industry
There is a well-developed, internationally important
engineAn engine is a machine that produces mechanical force and motion from another form of energy . It is also referred to as a prime mover. An automobile makes use of several motors to start the car and drive the car's various pumps – but the power plant that propels the car is called an engine...
-constructing industry. There are also food, light, and construction materials industries.
Native born
- Dmytro Dontsov
Dmytro Ivanovych Dontsov was a Ukrainian nationalist writer, publisher, journalist and political thinker whose radical ideas were a major influence on the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.-Biography:...
- influenced the establishement of OUN
- Pavlo Sudoplatov
Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was a member of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union who rose to the rank of lieutenant general...
- lieutenant-general of KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
, killed Yevhen KonovaletsYevhen Konovalets was a military commander of the UNR army and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement...
External links