Dnipropetrovsk

Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk (Russian: Днепропетро́вск [dʲnʲɪprəpʲɪˈtrofsk]), originally Ekaterinoslav (Russian: Екатериносла́в [jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnɐˈslaf], Ukrainian: Катериносла́в, translit. Katerynoslav) is Ukraine's third largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is 391 kilometres (243 mi) southeast of the capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central part of Ukraine. Dnipropetrovsk is the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Administratively, it is incorporated as a city of oblast significance, the centre of Dnipropetrovsk municipality and extraterritorial administrative centre of Dnipropetrovsk Raion. Population: 997,754 (2013 est.).

The Russian city of Ekaterinoslav, known by this name until 1925, was formally inaugurated by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great in 1787 as the administrative centre of the newly acquired vast territories of New Russia, including those ceded to Russia by the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774). The city was originally envisioned as the Russian Empire's 3rd capital city, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A vital industrial centre of Soviet Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk was one of the key centres of the nuclear, arms, and space industries of the Soviet Union. In particular, it is home to the Yuzhmash, a major space and ballistic missile design bureau and manufacturer. Because of its military industry, Dnipropetrovsk was a closed city until the 1990s. Its name is in honor of Grigory Petrovsky (in combination with the river passing through).

Dnipropetrovsk is a powerhouse of Ukraine's business and politics as the native city for many of the country's most important figures. Ukraine's politics are still defined by the legacies of Leonid Kuchma, Pavlo Lazarenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko whose intermingled careers started in Dnipropetrovsk.

History

Toponymy

Over time, Dnipropetrovsk has been known by a number of names:

• Ekaterinoslav 1776–1782, reestablished 1783–1797
• Novorossiysk 1797–1802
• Ekaterinoslav 1802–1918
• Sicheslav 1918
• Katerynoslav / Yekaterinoslav 1918–1926
• Dnipropetrovsk / Dnepropetrovsk 1926–1992
• Dnipropetrovsk 1992–present

It is also referred to as Katerynoslav, also Catharinoslav on maps of the nineteenth century.

In some Anglophone media the city was also known as the Rocket City.

In 1918, the Central Council of Ukraine proposed to change the name of the city to Sicheslav; however, it was never officially fulfilled.

On 15 May 2015 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a bill banning communist propaganda; the new law means that that places and street names associated with Communism have to be renamed within a six months period that started on 15 May 2015. Since Dnipropetrovsk was renamed after Communist leader Grigory Petrovsky (in 1926) the city will be renamed. Mid-April 2015 a commission was already being set up to choose a new name.

Middle Ages

Kipchak statues near the Historical Museum, Karla Marksa Prospekt

A monastery was founded by Byzantine monks on Monastyrsky Island, probably in the 9th century (870 AD). The Tatars destroyed the monastery in 1240.

At the beginning of the 15th century, Tatar tribes inhabiting the right bank of the Dnieper were driven away by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. By the mid-15th century, the Nogai (who lived north of the Sea of Azov) and the Crimean Khanate invaded these lands. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crimean Khanate agreed to a border along the Dnieper, and farther east along the Samara River (Dnieper), i.e. through what is today the city of Dnipropetrovsk. It was in this time that there appeared a new force – the free people – Cossacks. They later became known as Zaporozhian Cossacks (Zaporizhia – the lands south of Prydniprovye, translate as "The Land Beyond the Weirs [Rapids]"). This was a period of raids and fighting causing considerable devastation and depopulation in that area; the area became known as the Wild Fields.

Early modern

Map of Kodak fortress, which was constructed in 1635.

The first fortified town in what is now Dnipropetrovsk was probably built in the mid-16th century, In 1635, the Polish Government built the Kodak fortress above the Dnieper Rapids at Kodaky (on the south-eastern outskirts of modern Dnipropetrovsk), partly as a result of rivalry in the region between Poland, Turkey and Crimean Khanate, and partly to maintain control over Cossack activity (i.e. to suppress the Cossack raiders and to prevent peasants moving out of the area). On the night of 3/4 August 1635, the Cossacks of Ivan Sulyma captured the fort by surprise, burning it down and butchering the garrison of about 200 West European mercenaries under Jean Marion. The fort was rebuilt by French engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan for the Polish Government in 1638, and had a mercenary garrison. Kodak was captured by Zaporozhian Cossacks on 1 October 1648, and was garrisoned by the Cossacks until its demolition in accordance with the Treaty of the Pruth in 1711. The ruins of the Kodak are visible now. There is currently a project to restore it and create a tourist centre and park-museum.

Under the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654, the territory became part of the Russian Empire. For practical purposes, the Prydniprovye lands remained a self-governing border area until the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich in 1775.

The Zaporozhian village of Polovytsia was founded in the late-1760s, between the settlements of Stari (Old) and Novi (New) Kodaky. It was located at the present centre of the city to the West to district of Central Terminal and the Ozyorka farmers market.

The city establishment

Map of Ekaterinoslav, 1885. Main Post Office, 1870 Yekaterinoslav Avenue, 1910

Dnipropetrovsk was originally known as Ekaterinoslav, which could be approximately rendered as "the glory of Catherine", presumably with reference to Catherine the Great (technically, the naming might have been in honour of Saint Catherine of Alexandria). It was founded in 1776 as the administrative centre of Russia's newly re-established Azov Governorate, which in 1783 was merged into a much bigger Ekaterinoslav Viceroyalty; later, from 1796 to 1802, as Novorossiysk, it was the centre of the recreated Novorossiya Governorate, and subsequently, till 1925, of the Ekaterinoslav Governorate.

Cossacks and the Russian army had fought against the Ottoman Empire for control of this area in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ended this war in July 1774; and in May 1775 the Russian army destroyed the Zaporozhian Sich, thus eliminating the political autonomy of Cossacks. In 1775, Prince Grigori Potemkin was appointed governor of Novorossiya, and after the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, he started founding cities in the region and encouraging foreign settlers. The original town of Yekaterinoslav was founded in 1776, not in the current location, but at the confluence of the River Samara with the River Kil'chen' at Loshakivka, north of the Dnieper. By 1782, the city population was 2,194. However the site had been badly chosen because spring waters were transforming the city into a bog. The settlement was later renamed Novomoskovsk. In 1783, Yekaterinoslav was refounded on its current site, on the south bank of the Dnieper, near the Zaporozhian village of Polovytsia. The population of Yekaterinoslav-Kil'chen' were (according to some sources) transferred to the new site. Potemkin's plans for the city were extremely ambitious. It was to be about 30 by 25 km (19 by 16 mi) in size, and included Transfiguration Cathedral (the claim that it was intended as the largest in the world probably results from confusing Potemkin's reference to San Paulo-fuori-le-mura in Rome with St Peter's Basilica.); The Potemkin palace; university (never built); botanical garden on Monastyrskyi Island and wide straight avenues through the city.

The cathedral's foundation stone was laid by Empress Catherine II and Austrian Emperor Joseph II, during Catherine's Crimean journey on 20 May [O.S. 9 May] 1787, which was heralded as the official date of founding the city. Nevertheless, the cathedral as originally designed was never to be built. The site for the Potemkin palace was bought from retired Cossack yesaul (colonel) Lazar' Globa, who owned much of the land near the city. Part of Lazar' Globa's gardens still exist and are now called Globa Park.

A combination of yet another Russo-Turkish war that broke out later in 1787, bureaucratic procrastination, defective workmanship, and theft resulted in what was built being less than originally planned. Construction stopped after the death of Potemkin and his sponsor, Empress Catherine, who was succeeded by her son Paul I known for his open antipathy to his mother's policies and undertakings. Plans were reconsidered and scaled back. The size of the cathedral was reduced, and it was completed in 1835.

Despite the bridging of the Dnieper in 1796 and the growth of trade in the early 19th century, Ekaterinoslav remained small until the 1880s, when the railway was built and industrialization of the city began. The boom was caused by two men: John Hughes, a Welsh businessman who built an iron works at what is now Donetsk (then Yuzovka) in 1869–72, and developed the Donetsk coal deposits; and the Russian geologist Alexander Pol, who discovered the Krivoy Rog iron ore in 1866, during archaeological research.

The Donetsk coal was necessary for smelting pig-iron from the Krivoy Rog ore, producing a need for a railway to connect Yozovka with Krivoy Rog. Permission to build the railway was given in 1881, and it opened in 1884. The railway crossed the Dnieper at Ekaterinoslav. The city grew quickly; new suburbs appeared: Amur, Nyzhnodniprovsk and the factory areas developed. In 1897, Ekaterinoslav became the third city in the Russian Empire to have electric trams. The Higher Mining School opened in 1899, and by 1913 it had grown into the Mining Institute.

Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, among other things, resulted in widespread revolts against the government in many places of Russia, Ekaterinoslav being one of the major hot spots. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds wounded. There was a wave of anti-Semitic attacks.

From 1902 to 1933, the historian of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, Dmytro Yavornytsky, was Director of the Dnipropetrovsk Museum, which was later named after him. Before his death in 1940, Yavornytsky wrote a History of the City of Ekaterinoslav, which lay in manuscript for many years. It was only published in 1989 as a result of the Gorbachev reforms.

Civil War

After the Russian February revolution in 1917, Ekaterinoslav became a city within autonomy of Ukrainian People's Republic under Tsentralna Rada government. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks led a rebellion and took power for a short time. The city experienced occupation by German and Austrian-Hungarian armies that were allies of Ukrainian Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi and helped him to keep authority in the country.

In the time of the Ukrainian Directorate government, with its dictator Symon Petlura, the city had periods of uncertain power. At times the anarchists of Nestor Makhno held the city, and at others Denikin's Volunteer Army. Military operations of the Red Army, which came in from the North, captured the city in 1919, and despite attempts by Russian General Wrangel in 1920, he was unable to reach Yekaterinoslav. The War ended the following year.

Soviet Union and Nazi rule

The city was renamed after the Communist leader of Ukraine Grigory Petrovsky in 1926. Petrovsky was later involved in the organization of Holodomor.

Dnipropetrovsk was under Nazi occupation from 17 August 1941 to 25 October 1943.

Closed city

As early as July 1944, the State Committee of Defense in Moscow decided to build a large military machine-building factory in Dnipropetrovsk on the location of the pre-war aircraft plant. In December 1945, thousands of German prisoners of war began construction and built the first sections and shops in the new factory. This was the foundation of the Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory.

The city's 'Gorky' Theatre of Russian Drama was constructed during the Stalinist period.

Joseph Stalin suggested special secret training for highly qualified engineers and scientists to become rocket construction specialists.

In 1954 the administration of this automobile factory opened a secret design office with the name "Southern" (konstruktorskoe biuro Yuzhnoe – in Russian) to construct military missiles and rocket engines. Hundreds of talented physicists, engineers and machine designers moved from Moscow and other large cities in the Soviet Union to Dnipropetrovsk to join this "Southern" design office. In 1965, the secret Plant #586 was transferred to the Ministry of General Machine-Building of the USSR. The next year this plant officially changed its name into "the Southern Machine-building Factory" (Yuzhnyi mashino-stroitel’nyi zavod) or in abbreviated Russian, simply Yuzhmash.

The first "General Constructor" and head of the "Southern" design office was Mikhail Yangel, a prominent scientist and outstanding designer of space rockets, who managed not only the design office, but the entire factory from 1954 to 1971. Yangel designed the first powerful rockets and space military equipment for the Soviet Ministry of Defense.

In 1951 the Southern Machine-building Factory began manufacturing and testing new military rockets for the battlefield. The range of these first missiles was only 270 kilometres (168 miles). By 1959 Soviet scientists and engineers developed new technology, and as a result, the "Southern" design office (KBYu – as abbreviated in Russian) started a new machine-building project making ballistic missiles. Under the leadership of Yangel, KBYu produced such powerful rocket engines that the range of these ballistic missiles was practically without limits. During the 1960s, these powerful rocket engines were used as launch vehicles for the first Soviet space ships. During Makarov’s directorship, Yuzhmash designed and manufactured four generations of missile complexes of different types. These included space launch vehicles Kosmos, Tsyklon-2, Tsyklon-3 and Zenit. Under the leadership of Yangel’s successor, V. Utkin, the KBYu created a unique space-rocket system called Energia-Buran. Yuzhmash engineers manufactured 400 technical devices that were launched in artificial satellites (Sputniks). For the first time in the world space industry, the Dnipropetrovsk missile plant organised the serial production of space Sputniks. By the 1980s, this plant manufactured 67 different types of space ships, 12 space research complexes and 4 defense space rocket systems.

These systems were used not only for purely military purposes by the Ministry of Defense, but also for astronomic research, for global radio and television network and for ecological monitoring. Yuzhmash initiated and sponsored the international space program of socialist countries, called Interkosmos.

The unfinished 'Parus' hotel on the embankment has become a symbol of poor economic planning in the Soviet era.

On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, KBYu had 9 regular and corresponding members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 33 full professors and 290 scientists holding a Ph.D. They awarded scientific degrees and presided over a prestigious graduate school at KBYu, which attracted talented students of physics from all over the USSR. More than 50,000 people worked at Yuzhmash. At the end of the 1950s, Yuzhmash became the main Soviet design and manufacturing centre for different types of missile complexes. The Soviet Ministry of Defense included Yuzhmash in its strategic plans. The military rocket systems manufactured in Dnipropetrovsk became the major component of the newly born Soviet Missile Forces of Strategic Purpose.

According to contemporaries, Yuzhmash was a separate entity inside the Soviet state. After a long period of competition with the Moscow centre of rocket construction of V. Chelomei (a successor of Koroliov) Yuzhmash rocket designs won in 1969. Since that time leaders of the Soviet military industrial complex preferred Yuzhmash rocket models. By the end of the 1970s, this plant became the major centre for designing, constructing, manufacturing, testing and deploying strategic and space missile complexes in the Soviet Union. The general designer and director of Yuzhmash supervised the work of numerous research institutes, design centres and factories all over the Soviet Union from Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, to Voronezh and Yerevan. The Soviet state provided billions of Soviet rubles to finance Yuzhmash projects.

Officially, Yuzhmash manufactured agricultural tractors and special kitchen equipment for everyday needs, such as mincing-machines or juicers for peaceful Soviet households. In official reports for the general audience there was no information about the production of rockets or spaceships. However, hundreds of thousands of workers and engineers in the city of Dnipropetrovsk worked in this plant and members of their families (up to 60% of the city population!) knew about the "real production" of Yuzhmash. This missile plant became a significant factor in the arms race of the Cold War. This is why the Soviet government approved of the KGB’s secrecy about Yuzhmash and its products. According to the Soviet government’s decision, the city of Dnipropetrovsk was officially closed to foreign visitors in 1959. No citizen of a foreign country (even of the socialist ones) was allowed to visit the city or district of Dnipropetrovsk. After the late 1950s ordinary Soviet people called Dnipropetrovsk "the rocket closed city." Only during perestroika was Dnipropetrovsk opened to foreigners again in 1987.

Contemporary

In June 1990, the women’s department of Dnipropetrovsk preliminary prison was destroyed in prison riots. In the ten years that followed, women under investigation (i.e. not convicted) in Dnipropetrovsk oblast were either held in Preliminary Prison 4 in Kryvyi Rih or in "detention blocks" in Dnipropetrovsk; this contravened Ukrainian Law "On preliminary incarceration". Journeys from Kryviy Rih took up to six hours in special railway carriages with grated windows. Some prisoners had to do this 14 or 15 times. After complaints by the ombudsman (Nina Karpacheva) the head of the State prison department of Ukraine (Vladimir Levochkin) arranged that finances were given for the provision of women's cells in Dnipropetrovsk Preliminary Prison, making the lives of the 15,000 unconvicted women-detainees easier from August 2000.

In 2005, the most powerful representative of the "Dnipropetrovsk Faction" in Ukrainian politics was Leonid Kuchma, the former President of Ukraine and former senior manager of Yuzhmash.

In June and July 2007, Dnipropetrovsk experienced a wave of serial killings that were dubbed by the media as the work of the Dnipropetrovsk maniacs. In February 2009, three youths were sentenced for their part in 21 murders.

On 27 April 2012, four bombs exploded near four tram stations in Dnipropetrovsk, injuring 26 people.

During the 2014 Euromaidan regional state administration occupations protests against President Viktor Yanukovych were also held in Dnipropetrovsk. On 26 January an 3,000 anti-Yanukovych activists attempt to capture the local regional state administration building failed. This was mirrored by instances of rioting and the beating up of anti-Yanukovych protesters. Dnipropetrovsk Governor Kolesnikov called the anti-Yanukovych protesters 'extreme radical thugs from other regions'. Two days later about 2,000 public sector employees called an indefinite rally in support of the Yanukovych government. Meanwhile, the government building was reinforced with barbed wire. On 19 February 2014 there was an anti-Yanukovych picket near the Regional State Administration. On 22 February 2014 after another anti-Yanukovych picket near the Regional State Administration Dnipropetrovsk Mayor Ivan Kulichenko left Yanukovych's Party of Regions "for peace in the city". Simultaneously the Dnipropetrovsk City Council vowed to supports "the preservation of Ukraine as a single and indivisible state", although some members called for separatism and for federalization of Ukraine. The City Council also decided to rename city's Lenin Square into "Heroes of Independence Square". In the Regional State Administration building protesters dismantled Viktor Yanukovych portrait. 22 February 2014 was also the day that Yanukovych was ousted out of office, after violent events in Kiev.

According to media reports, Dnipropetrovsk was relatively quiet during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, with pro-Russian Federation protestors outnumbered by those opposing outside intervention. In March 2014 the city's Lenin Square was renamed "Heroes of Independence Square" in honor of the people killed during Euromaidan. The statue of Lenin on the square was removed. In June 2014 another Lenin monument was removed and replaced by a monument to the Ukrainian military fighting the War in Donbass

Geography

An aerial view of Dnipropetrovsk. The Dnieper River, city's left and right banks, and a number of bridges can be seen.

The city is built mainly upon both banks of the Dnieper, at its confluence with the Samara River. In the loop of a major meander, the Dnieper changes its course from the north west to continue southerly and later south-westerly through Ukraine, ultimately passing Kherson, where it finally flows into the Black Sea.

Nowadays both the north and south banks play home to a range of industrial enterprises and manufacturing plants. The airport is located about 15 km (9.32 mi) south-east of the city.

The centre of the city is constructed on the right bank which is part of the Dnieper Upland, while the left bank is part of the Dnieper Lowland. The old town is situated atop a hill that is formed as a result of the river's change of course to the south. The change of river's direction is caused by its proximity to the Azov Upland located southeast of the city.

One of the city's streets, Prospekt Karla Marksa, links the two major architectural ensembles of the city and constitutes an important thoroughfare through the centre, which along with various suburban radial road systems, provides some of the area's most vital transport links for both suburban and inter-urban travel.

Transport

Local transportation

The main forms of public transport used in Dnipropetrovsk are trams, buses, electric trolley buses and marshrutkas—private minibuses. In addition to this there are a large number of taxi firms operating in the city, and many residents have private cars.

The city's municipal roads also suffer from the same funding problems as the trams, with many of them in a very poor technical state. It is not uncommon to find very large potholes and crumbling surfaces on many of Dnipropetrovsk's smaller roads. Major roads and highways are of better quality. In recent years the situation has, however, been improving, with a number of new used trams bought from the German cities of Dresden and Magdeburg, and a number of roads, including Schmidt Street and Moskovsky Street being reconstructed with modern road-building techniques.

Dnipropetrovsk also has a metro system, opened in 1995, which consists of one line and 6 stations. Work on other stations was abandoned when the city ran out of money for this project; two of these abandoned building works are in the central portion of Karla Marksa Prospekt. Completion of the next two stations is necessary to make the municipal subway system profitable. At the present time the completion date is unknown. As of 2011 the central portion of the city's metro line has seen renewed construction efforts and the metro has been transferred to municipal ownership in the hope that this will help it secure a loan from the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction. Current plans envision the three station section from Teatralna, through Tsentralna, to Muzeina completed by 2015.

Suburban transportation

Bridges linking the city's right and left banks are heavily used.

Dnipropetrovsk has some highways crossing through the city. The most popular routes are from Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia. Transit through the city is also available. As of 2011 the city is also seeing construction of a southern urban bypass, which will allow automobile traffic to proceed around the city centre. This is expected to both improve air quality and reduce transport issues from heavy freight lorries that pass through the city centre.

The largest bus station in eastern Ukraine is located in Dnipropetrovsk, from where bus routes are available to all over the country, including some international routes to Russia, Poland, Germany, Moldova and Turkey. It is located near the city's central railway station.

In the summertime, there are some routes available by hydrofoils on the Dnieper River, whilst various tourist ships on their way down the river, (Kiev–Kherson–Odessa) tend to make a stop in the city. Dnipropetrovsk's river port is located close to the area surrounding the central railway station, on the banks of the river. It is a good example of constructivist architecture from the late period of the Soviet Union.

Rail

The city is a large railway junction, with many daily trains running to and from Eastern Europe and on domestic routes within Ukraine.

There are two railway terminals, Dnipropetrovsk Glavny (main station) and "Dnipropetrovsk Yuzhnyi" (south station).

Two express passenger services run each day between Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk under the name 'Capital Express'. Other daytime services include suburban trains to towns and villages in the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Most long-distance trains tend to run at night to reduce the amount of daytime hours spent travelling by each passenger.

Domestic connections exist between Dnipropetrovsk and Kiev, Lviv, Simferopol, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Truskavets, Donetsk, Kharkiv and many other smaller Ukrainian cities, whilst international destinations include, amongst others, Minsk in Belarus, Moscow's Kursky Station and Saint Petersburg's Vitebsky Station in Russia, Baku – the capital of Azerbaijan, and the Bulgarian seaside resort of Varna.

Aviation

The city is served by an Dnipropetrovsk International Airport (IATA: DNK) and is connected to European and Middle Eastern cities with daily flights. It is located 15 kilometres (8 NM) southeast from the city center.

Culture

Attractions

Entrance to the Taras Shevchenko Park in Dnipropetrovsk.

The city has a variety of theatres (plus an Opera) and museums of interest to tourists. There are also several parks, restaurants and beaches.

The major streets of the city were renamed in honour of Marxist heroes during the Soviet era. The central thoroughfare is known as Karla Marksa Prospekt, a, wide and long boulevard that stretches east to west through the centre of the city. It was founded in the 18th century and parts of its buildings are the actual decoration of the city. In the heart of the city is Zhovtneva [October] Square, which includes the majestic cathedral founded by order of Catherine the Great in 1787.

On the square, there are some remarkable buildings: the Museum of History, Diorama "Battle for the Dnieper River (World War II)", and also the park in which one can rest in the hot summer. Walking down the hill to the Dnieper River, one arrives in the large Taras Shevchenko Park (which is on the right bank of the river) and on Monastyrsky Island. This island is one of the most interesting places in the city. In the 9th century, the Byzantine monks based a monastery here.

A few areas retain their historical character: all of Central Avenue, some street-blocks on the main hill (the Nagorna part) between Pushkin Prospekt and Embankment, and sections near Globa (formerly known as Chkalov park until it was recently renamed) and Shevchenko parks have been untouched for 150 years.

The Dnieper River keeps the climate mild. It is visible from many points in Dnipropetrovsk. From any of the three hills in the city, one can see a view of the river, islands, parks, outskirts, river banks and other hills.

There was no need to build skyscrapers in the city in Soviet times. The major industries preferred to locate their offices close to their factories and away from the centre of town. Most new office buildings are built in the same architectural style as the old buildings. A number, however, display more modern aesthetics, and some blend the two styles.