Kherson
| Kherson Херсон | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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  Kherson Location of Kherson | |||
| Coordinates: 46°38′0″N 32°35′0″E / 46.63333°N 32.58333°ECoordinates: 46°38′0″N 32°35′0″E / 46.63333°N 32.58333°E | |||
| Country Oblast Municipality City Rayons |
 Ukraine Kherson OblastKherson City Dneprovski rayon Suvorovski rayon Komsomolski rayon | ||
| Founded | 18 June 1778 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Volodymyr Mykolayenko (Independent)[1] | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 135.7 km2 (52.4 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 46,6 m (1,529 ft) | ||
| Population (2015) | |||
| • Total | 333,737[2] | ||
| Postal code | 73000 | ||
| Area code(s) | +380 552 | ||
| Website | www.city.kherson.ua | ||
Kherson (Ukrainian: Херсо́н; Russian: Херсо́н) is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast (province), and is designated as its own separate raion (district) within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry. Estimated population as of 2007 was 329,000.
Since the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, Kherson also houses the office of Presidential representative of Ukraine in Crimea headed by Nataliya Popovych.[3]
History
Until 1774, the region belonged to the Crimean Khanate.
Kherson was founded in 1778 by Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, on the orders of Catherine the Great. The city was built under the supervision of General Ivan Gannibal on the site of a small fortress called Aleksanderschanz. The name Kherson is a contraction of Chersonesos, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea. One of the first buildings in the Kherson Fort was the Church of St. Catherine where Potemkin was eventually buried. The last tarpan was caught near Kherson in 1866. During World War II, Kherson was occupied by the German Army from 21 August 1941 to 13 March 1944. During the Ukainian revolution of 2014 the city whas the scene of riots against president Yanukovich during which the main Lenin statue of the city was toppled by protesters. After the revolution the city became relatively calm.
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Imperial coat of arms
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Soviet coat of arms
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Early Ukrainian coat of arms
Demographics
Ethnicity
As of Ukrainian National Census (2001), the ethnic groups living within Kherson are:
- Ukrainians – 76.6%
- Russians – 20.0%
- Other – 3.4%
The ethnic groups living within Kherson as of the 1926 Census:
- Ukrainians – 36%
- Russians – 36%
- Jews – 25%
- Belorussians – 0.2%
- Germans – 0.4%
Languages
| Languages | 1897[4] | 2001[5] |
|---|---|---|
| Ukrainian | 19.6% | 53.4% |
| Russian | 47.2% | 45.3% |
| Jewish | 29.1% | |
| Polish | 1.7% | |
| German | 0.7% |
Population
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1790 | 24,000 |
| 1926 | 58,000 |
| 1939 | 97,000 |
| 1959 | 158,000 |
| 1981 | 361,000 |
| 2004 | 354,000 |
| 2007 | 329,000 |
Administrative divisions
There are three city raions. Two of them still carry mark of a colonial city of Russia.
- Dnipro Raion, named after the Dnieper river.
- Komsomol Raion, named after the Russian Communist youth organization, Komsomol.
- Suvorov Raion, named after the Russian General Suvorov.
Climate
| Climate data for Kherson | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 15.2 (59.4) |
18.6 (65.5) |
22.7 (72.9) |
32.0 (89.6) |
37.7 (99.9) |
39.5 (103.1) |
40.5 (104.9) |
40.7 (105.3) |
33.3 (91.9) |
32.0 (89.6) |
21.8 (71.2) |
16.5 (61.7) |
40.7 (105.3) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 1.4 (34.5) |
2.3 (36.1) |
7.7 (45.9) |
15.7 (60.3) |
22.3 (72.1) |
26.4 (79.5) |
29.2 (84.6) |
28.9 (84) |
22.8 (73) |
15.6 (60.1) |
7.7 (45.9) |
2.8 (37) |
15.2 (59.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −1.7 (28.9) |
−1.3 (29.7) |
3.2 (37.8) |
10.1 (50.2) |
16.1 (61) |
20.4 (68.7) |
22.9 (73.2) |
22.3 (72.1) |
16.7 (62.1) |
10.4 (50.7) |
4.1 (39.4) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
10.3 (50.5) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −4.5 (23.9) |
−4.5 (23.9) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
4.9 (40.8) |
10.1 (50.2) |
14.6 (58.3) |
16.8 (62.2) |
16.0 (60.8) |
11.3 (52.3) |
5.9 (42.6) |
1.0 (33.8) |
−2.8 (27) |
5.7 (42.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −26.3 (−15.3) |
−24.4 (−11.9) |
−20.2 (−4.4) |
−7.9 (17.8) |
−1.5 (29.3) |
5.8 (42.4) |
9.2 (48.6) |
6.6 (43.9) |
−5.0 (23) |
−7.6 (18.3) |
−16.2 (2.8) |
−22.2 (−8) |
−26.3 (−15.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 29 (1.14) |
30 (1.18) |
29 (1.14) |
32 (1.26) |
40 (1.57) |
52 (2.05) |
44 (1.73) |
35 (1.38) |
42 (1.65) |
32 (1.26) |
38 (1.5) |
33 (1.3) |
436 (17.17) |
| Average rainy days | 9 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 114 |
| Average snowy days | 11 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 | 4 | 8 | 39 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 86 | 83 | 78 | 69 | 66 | 66 | 63 | 62 | 69 | 77 | 85 | 87 | 74 |
| Source: Pogoda.ru.net[6] | |||||||||||||
Transport
Air
Kherson is served by Kherson International Airport providing both passport and customs control. It operates a 2,500 x 42-meter concrete runway, accommodating Boeing 737, Airbus 319/320 aircraft, and helicopters of all series.
The official airport website is http://www.airport.kherson.ua and additional info can be found at http://www.aisukraine.net. The tel no is +380 552 33-71-87.
Rail
Kherson is connected to the national railroad network of Ukraine. There are daily long-distance services to Kyiv, Lviv and other cities.
Education
There are 77 high schools, as well as 5 colleges. Besides these, there are 15 institutions of higher education.
- Kherson State Agrarian University
- Kherson State University
- Kherson National Technical University
- International University of Business and Law
Main sights
- The Church of St. Catherine was built in the 1780s, supposedly to Ivan Starov's designs, and contains the tomb of Prince Potemkin.
- Jewish cemetery – Kershon has a large Jewish community which was established in the mid-nineteenth century.[7] From 1959 until 1990 there was no synagogue in Kherson. Since then, both Jewish life and Kherson have really grown and developed in an atmosphere of peace.[8] Nevertheless, the Jewish cemetery has regularly suffered from acts of vandalism. The graves have been repeatedly covered with trash and the tombstones destroyed and desecrated. On 6 April 2012, an act of vandalism, at the Jewish cemetery, occurred on the most important festival in the Jewish calendar, the festival of Passover. The fire, which was set, immediately spread over an area of about 700 square meters and caused severe damage to the graves and tombstones.[9]
- Kherson TV Tower – is a famous construction located in the city.
- Adziogol Lighthouse, a hyperboloid structure designed by V.G.Shukhov, 1911
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Dormition Cathedral
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St. Aleksandra Church
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Kherson Fortess
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Potemkin monument
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Historical architecture on Suvorov Street in Kherson
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Central bank office
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Bank office located in an old house
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Cinema hall
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Fregat hotel
Sports
The city is set to house the revived Ukrainian Premier League and UEFA Europa League football club, Tavriya Simferopol.[10]
Notable people
- Georgy Arbatov (1923–2010), political scientist.[11]
- Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet, Ukrainian-born film director, screenwriter, and actor.
- Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, better known as Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist was born in Kherson in 1879.
- Abram Petrovich Gannibal, founder of the city
- Yefim Golïshev (1897–1970) Painter and composer associated with the Dada movement in Berlin.
- Nikolai Grinko, Ukrainian Soviet-era film actor
- John Howard (died in Kherson in 1790)
- Mircea Ionescu-Quintus, a Romanian politician, writer, and jurist
- Evgeny Kucherevsky, Ukrainian football coach of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (died 2006)
- Larisa Latynina, a Soviet gymnast who was the first female athlete to win nine Olympic gold medals
- Tatiana Lysenko, a Soviet and Ukrainian gymnast who won the gold medal on the balance beam at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
- Sergei Polunin, Ukrainian ballet dancer
- Grigory Potyomkin, founder of the city
- Salomon Rosenblum, later known as Lieutenant Sidney Reilly, a secret agent and international adventurer and playboy who was at one time employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service. He is reputed to be the real inspiration for Ian Fleming's spy character, James Bond.
- Moshe Sharett, the second Prime Minister of Israel (1953–1955)
- Sergei Stanishev, Ex-Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- Alexander Suvorov, founder of the city
- Mikhail Yemtsev, science fiction writer
Twin cities
References
- ↑ http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/304223.html
- ↑ "Population Quantity". UkrStat (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 7 January 2016.
- ↑ Official website. Presidential representative of Ukraine in Crimea.
- ↑ Национальный состав населения городов (по языку) Всероссийская перепись населения 1897
- ↑ Ukrainian census in Kherson Oblast. State Statistics Service.
- ↑ "Pogoda.ru.net" (in Russian). May 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
- ↑ "KHERSON". JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
- ↑ Zalman, Nelson. "Anti-Semitic Incitement, Poor Economy Have Kherson's Jews Worried". Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
- ↑ "Вандалы подпортили светлый еврейский праздник Песах". Bagnet.org. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
- ↑ Ukraine trying to revive Crimean champion football club, USA Today (19 June 2015)
- ↑ Levy, Clifford J. "Georgi A. Arbatov, a Bridge Between Cold War Superpowers, Is Dead at 87", The New York Times, 2 October 2010. Accessed 4 October 2010.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kherson. |
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Look up kherson in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Pictures of Kherson
- Kherson city administration website (Ukrainian)
- Kherson patriots (Ukrainian)
- Kherson info&shopping (Ukrainian)
- Kherson Photos (Russian)
- The murder of the Jews of Kherson during World War II, at Yad Vashem website.
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