Melitopol
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| Melitopol Мелітополь Kyzyl-Yar (until 1816) Novoalexandrovka (until 1842) |
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| Coordinates: | |||
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| Country | Ukraine | ||
| Oblast | Zaporizhia | ||
| Established | 1784 | ||
| Government | |||
| - Mayor | Dmytro Viktorovich Sychov | ||
| Area | |||
| - Total | 51 km² (19.7 sq mi) | ||
| Population (January 1, 2005) | |||
| - Total | 151,000 | ||
| Postal Index | 72300 | ||
| Twin Cities | |||
| - Brive-la-Gaillarde | France | ||
| Website: http://www.mlt.gov.ua | |||
Melitopol (Ukrainian: Мелітополь, translit. Melitopol’, Russian: Мелитополь, Greek: Μελιτόπολις) is a city in the Zaporizhia Oblast[1] of the southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna[2] River that flows through the eastern edge of the city and into the Molochnyi Liman, which eventually joins the Sea of Azov. The city was formerly named Kyzyl-Yar until 1816, and Novoalexandrovka until 1842. Serving as the administrative center of the Melitopolskyi Rayon,[3] the city itself is directly subordinate to the oblast center. The estimated population as of 2005 is around 151,000.[citation needed] Generally, the Russian language is spoken in the city.
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[edit] Transportation
- Melitopol has a railroad station that serves as the transit point for passengers going from Moscow to the Crimea 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 (Ukrainian: Іл-76, Russian: Ил-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 marshrutkas 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, LiAZ, LAZ, PAZ running around 15 routes.
- The common length of the roads of Melitopol is 333 km, 70% of them do not meet the basic requirements.
[edit] Industry
There is a well-developed, internationally important engine-constructing industry. There are also food, light, and construction materials industries.
[edit] Monuments, memorials and statues
Like any post-Soviet city, Melitopol has many standart memorials, monuments etc., which were produced by factories and transported throughout the Soviet Union. However, some items were made by artists.
[edit] 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[4] and the Public Pedagogical University of Melitopol.[5] it has a large staircase in the center of the city, a very famous place for wedding pictures.
[edit] History
In ancient times, there was a small Noghai aul of Kyzyl-Yar where the modern Melitopol is settled. In July 1769, Russian military commanders built a redoubt 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 Novorossiya 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 sloboda[6] 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[7] 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.
[edit] Melitopol in World War II
In 1941, the Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Germany. The city became strategically important due to its location. The Red Army was not ready for the war and had to retreat. The Nazis occupied Melitopol on October 6, 1941.
The Germans kept centralized supplement. The Soviet Mezhraybaza sel'khozsnaba i himsnaba (Russian: Межрайбаза сельхозснаба и химснаба) of Melitopol still ran. In fact, a variety of items were stored at the base, including fertilizers, pesticides, tools, spare parts for reaping machines and binders, etc. It supported the running enterprises of Melitopol and surrounding settlements with goods. Since the Soviet monetary system remained, the enterprises paid the Soviet rubles and kopecks, not the German marks. 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 going to keep 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:
| An order to provide bilingual labels | |
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| Russian: Приказ от 1942 года | English: An order of 1942 |
| Всем старостам сёл.
С получением сего Вам необходимо организовать следующее: По всем организациям, которые находятся на Вашей территории, необходимо изготовить и написать вывески: на сельуправу, магазины, медучастки, больницы, МТС, заготзерно, общинные дворы рыбзаводы и т. д. Вывески написать на немецком и украинском языках. |
To all of the heads of the villages.
On receiving this, You must organize following: For all of the establishments, which are on Your territory, You must make and write labels: For village offices, first-aid stations, hospitals, machinery and tractor stations, the offices of grain procurements, communal yard, fish factories etc. The labels must be written in the German and Ukrainian languages. |
Selling, buying and killing the cattle and the poultry were strictly forbidden; they were severely controlled to be sent to Germany. As for the rest, the German soldiers were fed with their meat, milk and eggs. Notwithstanding the prohibition, the population might kill pigs by special permission.
| A direction about pigs | |
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| Russian: Распоряжение от 16 сентября 1942 г. | English: A direction of September 16, 1942 |
| Распоряжение с/х команды района от 16-IX-42 г.
Для того, чтобы просить разрешение, необходимо сдать свинью в заготскоте и получить там квитанцию. Вес данной свиньи должен быть не меньше 100 кг. Свинья, которую хозяин думает убить, должна быть весом не меньше, чем та, которую он сдал Семье разрешается раз в год убить свинью, а также зарезать одну свинью на две семьи и разделить мясо. |
Direction of the agriculture team of the district as of 16-IX-42.
To ask permission, one needs to hand a pig over to the cattle procurement station and to receive the bill there. The considered pig's weight must not be less than 100 kg. The pig, which is supposed by the owner to be killed, must not be smaller than one having been left in the station. A family is allowed to kill one pig a year, also, one more pig may be cut for two families and shared between them. |
[edit] Special notes
[edit] The Stone Grave
There is the unique relic of the Stone Grave (Ukrainian: Кам'яна могила, translit. Kamyana mohyla, Russian: Каменная могила) 12 kilometers north of Melitopol. It is a relic of sandstone from the Sarmatian epoch of the Tertiary period. The coordinates are 46°56'59.33"N 35°28'11.59"E.
[edit] Novobogdanovka
On May 6, 2004, the munition depots of Novobogdanovka, a village in the Melitopolskyi Rayon, 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.[8] 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.[9] However, the controlled explosions took several lives too. As of April 2008, the depots have not yet been completely disarmed.[10]
[edit] Cherry
A symbol of Melitopol is Chereshnya Melitopolskaya,[11] a type of Wild Cherry for which the city is known.
[edit] Town twinning
Melitopol is currently twinned with:
[edit] External links
- Melitopol : Forum
- Melitopol : Portal
- Melitopol from Encyclopedia Britannica.
[edit] References
- ^ Oblast means province
- ^ Milky
- ^ Rayon means district
- ^ Taurian State Agrotechnological Academy official site
- ^ Public Pedagogical University of Melitopol official site
- ^ (arch.) sloboda - large village
- ^ i.e. Melitopol
- ^ 2004 Darwin Award: The Army's a Blast
- ^ citation needed
- ^ citation needed
- ^ translated Melitopol Cherry
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