Pervomaisk (Ukrainian: Первома́йськ Pervomajs'k) is a city in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine and the center of the Pervomaiskyi Raion. It is located on the Southern Bug river which bisects the city. Its population in 2001[update] was 70,170.
The name derives from the Russian pervomaj (первомай) meaning "May Day," i.e., the first of May, referring also to the city's formation on 1 May 1919 from the merger of three neighbouring cities: Holta or Golta (Голта), Bohopol' or Bogopol' (Богополь), and Ol'viopol' (Ольвіополь). Bohopol literally means the city of God, from Slavic Boh or Bog, God, although it can also be explained as coming from the Southern Bug (Polish: Boh). These cities existed from 1773 and settlement in the area was mentioned as early as 1676.
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In World War II, Pervomaisk was occupied by the Axis Powers in 1941 and was divided between German occupation authorities on the east bank (Bohopol and Olviopol) and the Romanian-occupied region of Transnistria to the west (Holta). Holta served as the center of the Golta judeţ (district) of Transnistria. Pervomaisk had been more than 1/3 Jewish before the war but most were murdered during the occupation.
In Pervomaisk, there is at 48°4'0"N 30°51'29"E a 196 metres tall guyed TV mast, equipped with 6 crossbars running from the mast body to the guys.
Pervomaisk was the former location of the 46th Division of the 43rd Rocket Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces, formed during the Cold War. (http://www.ww2.dk/test/46rd.htm) One of the commanders of the division, appointed in 1991, was General Major Mikhail Filatov. (Woff, Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, B39-16) The SS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile silos based at Pervomaisk were destroyed, partially with Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction programme funding, during the 1990s.
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