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
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 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.
Occupation and
nutrition issues
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 agriculture 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 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:
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.
—A
German officer, An order the spring
of 1942
Selling, buying and killing the
cattle
and the
poultry
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.
Direction of the
agriculture
team of the district as of 16-IX-42.
To ask
permission, one has 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.
—A
German officer, A direction of
September 16, 1942
Another way was to introduce a new
holiday,
to make people celebrate and eat together.
To the heads of
the villages administrative boards, 29-IX-42.
On October 6,
1941, the victorious armies of Great Germany have entered
our territory and from this day our territory is free from
Stalin's Jeudo communistic gang. To honor setting Ukrainian
people free it is necessary to set a holiday to all
population. Upon this day working in communities, schools
and establishments must be stopped. I recommend to spend the
day relaxing, having organized any games and entertainments
for children and cultural rest for adults. For carrying out
the holiday it is allowed to prepare vodka and to cut
animals, to make a good dinner.
The communities are allowed to buy one item of horned
livestock from kolkhoz farmers to make a dinner for all
members in the brigades of a given community, and where the
collective farm livestock is based, then it is possible to
take it from the
kolkhoz
herd to prepare the common dinner. On the day of the holiday,
collect meeting and the head of the village board will speak
with greetings...
—A
German officer, An order of
September 29, 1942
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
arrest.
Resistance
The Wotan Line Battle
Battles for the city
Battle for
Melitopol's liberation
Culture
Melitopol has
38 monuments, memorials and statues registered.
Statue of
Bogdan Khmelnitsky
One of them is the statue of
Bogdan Khmelnitsky,
the famous
hetman of
Ukraine. His images are printed on Ukrainian 5
hryvnia's
banknotes.
T-70.
This memorial is a real tank, which was used in the battle
for Melitopol's liberation
Special notes
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.
Its exact coordinates are
 46°56′59.33″N
35°28′11.59″E
/ 46.9498139°N
35.4698861°E
/
46.9498139; 35.4698861
Novobogdanovka
On
May 6, 2004, the munition depots of
Novobogdanovka,
a village in the Melitopolskyi
Raion,
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. As of April 2008, the depots have been almost
completely disarmed.
Cherry
A symbol of
Melitopol is
Chereshnya Melitopolskaya,
a type of
Wild Cherry
for which the city is known.
Town twinning
Melitopol
is currently
twinned
with:
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
to the
Crimea
and back. The city is also called the "gateway to the Crimea".
- 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.
Industry
There is a well-developed, internationally important
engine-constructing
industry. There are also food, light, and construction materials
industries. |
