Nikopol, Ukraine

Nikopol (Ukrainian: Ні́кополь [ˈn⁽ʲ⁾ikopolʲ]; from Ancient Greek: Νικόπολις, lit. 'City of Victory') is a city and municipality in Nikopol Raion of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine, on the right bank of the Dnieper River, about 100 km south-west of Dnipro. Population: 107,464 (2021 est.)[1]

For the town in Bulgaria, see Nikopol, Bulgaria.
Nikopol
Нікополь
City of regional significance
City Administration Building.
Flag
Coat of arms
Nikopol
Nikopol in Ukraine
Nikopol
Nikopol (Ukraine)
Coordinates: 47°34′N 34°24′E
Country Ukraine
Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
RaionNikopol Raion
Founded1639
City status1915
Area
 • Total59 km2 (23 sq mi)
Elevation
70 m (230 ft)
Population
 (2021)
 • Total107,464
 • Density2,764/km2 (7,160/sq mi)
Postal code
53200—53239
Area code(s)+380-5662
Websitewww.nikopol-mrada.dp.gov.ua
Soviet city's emblem (1966)

In terms of population, Nikopol is the third biggest city in the oblast as well as among the top 50 nationwide. The city is also a powerful industrial and transportation center in the country conveniently located by the Kakhovka reservoir. In 1638–1652 the settlement of Mykytyn Rih served as a capital of Zaporizhian Sich (Zaporizhian Host the Lower).

Encyclopædia Britannica description

The 1911 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica gave the following description of Nikopol: It was formerly called "Mykytyn Rog", and occupies an elongated peninsula between two arms of the Dnieper at a point where its banks are low and marshy, and has been for centuries one of the places where the middle Dnieper can most conveniently be crossed.

Note, during the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian language, then widely still considered a dialect of a broader Russian language, had yet to be recognized as a full language and the Moscow dialect, which serves as the standard for Modern/Contemporary Russian, was used as the standard for formal writing. This changed with the Soviet era when a Western Ukrainian dialect was set as the standard for a newly official Ukrainian Language.

In 1900, its 21,282 inhabitants were Ukrainians, Jews and Mennonites, who carry on agriculture and shipbuilding. The old Sich, or fortified camp of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, brilliantly described in N. V. Gogol's novel Taras Bulba (1834), was situated a little higher up the river. A number of graves in the vicinity recall the battles which were fought for the possession of this important strategic point. One of graves, close to the town, contained, along with other Scythian antiquities, a well-known precious vase representing the capture of wild horses. Even now Nikopol, which is situated on the highway from Dnipro to Kherson, is the point where the "salt-highway" of the Chumaks (Ukrainian salt-carriers) to the Crimea crosses the Dnieper. Nikopol is, further, one of the chief places on the lower Dnieper for the export of corn, linseed, hemp and wool.

History

Archaeological excavations
See also: Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla

According to archaeological excavations, the city's area was populated as early as the Neolithic epoch in the 4th millennium BCE[2] as evidenced by remnants of a settlement discovered on banks of Mala Kamianka River.[2][3] In burial mounds of copper-bronze epoch in the 3rd-1st millenniums BCE were found stone and bronze tools, clay sharp-bottomed ornamental dishes.[2] Here also were researched burials of Scythian-Sarmatian period in the 2nd century BCE – the 2nd century CE.[2]

Mykytyn Rih / Mykytyn Sich
See also: Zaporizhian Sich

In the beginning of 16th century in place of Nikopol appeared a river crossing over Dnieper controlled by Cossacks, Mykytyn Rih.[2] According to a folk legend, it was established by a Cossack Mykyta Tsyhan.[2] Under the same name the crossing is mentioned in diary of the Holy Roman Empire envoy Erich Lassota von Steblau who visited Zaporizhian Sich in 1594.[2]

In 1638-1639 Cossacks led by F.Linchai built here a fort which is conditionally named as Mykytyn Sich (Ukrainian: Микитинська Січ).[4][5] Soon due to conflict with Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, in 1652 Kosh Otaman Fedir Liutay moved the administrative seat to Chortomlyk.[6][5]

By 1648, in the close proximity of today's Nikopol, Mykytyn Sich was built, renowned for the fact that it was here that Bohdan Khmelnytsky was elected as the Hetman of Ukraine, and it was here that the rebellion against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth started. Until 1775, the time of the Sich sacking, it was called "Mykytyn Rih", "Mykytyn Pereviz", or simply "Mykytyne". The name rih (Ukrainian for horn) was given because the locality rose at a place reminiscing a peninsula, as it was almost surrounded by the Dnieper river (see Kryvyi Rih). Mykytyne was a town of the Kodak Palanka, an administrative division of the Zaporizhian Sich. Later it was renamed into Slovianske and then Nikopol.

Sloviansk / Nikopol

In 1956 the Soviet policy of industrialization created the Kakhovka Reservoir, submerging what could be now the most sacred place of an early distinctly Ukrainian statehood: the lands of the former Zaporizhian Host, with their burial sites.

During World War II, Nikopol was occupied by the German Army until 18 February 1944. Albert Speer referred to it as the "center of manganese mining", and therefore of vital importance to the German war effort.[7]

Until 18 July 2020, Nikopol was incorporated as a city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Nikopol Raion though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to seven, the city of Nikopol was merged into Nikopol Raion.[8][9]

Just a few kilometres west of the city, the Kosh otaman Ivan Sirko is buried.

Nowadays Nikopol is one of the largest towns in the region with the population of 120 774 (2013). The largest manufactures are former Nikopol Tube Plant, established in 1931,[10] which is now divided into smaller plants (e.g. Centravis, Interpipe Niko Tube), and Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, which is the largest in Europe and second in the world in producing Ferromanganese (FeMn) and Ferrosilicomanganese (FeSiMn). There is bus station, railway station and river port, which connect the town with other cities.

Climate
Climate data for Nikopol, Ukraine (1981–2010)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 0.3
(32.5)		 1.0
(33.8)		 6.6
(43.9)		 15.3
(59.5)		 22.2
(72.0)		 25.9
(78.6)		 28.6
(83.5)		 28.1
(82.6)		 22.0
(71.6)		 14.7
(58.5)		 6.4
(43.5)		 1.5
(34.7)		 14.4
(57.9)
Daily mean °C (°F) −2.4
(27.7)		 −2.2
(28.0)		 2.6
(36.7)		 10.2
(50.4)		 16.5
(61.7)		 20.4
(68.7)		 22.8
(73.0)		 22.1
(71.8)		 16.4
(61.5)		 10.0
(50.0)		 3.4
(38.1)		 −1.0
(30.2)		 9.9
(49.8)
Average low °C (°F) −4.8
(23.4)		 −4.8
(23.4)		 −0.5
(31.1)		 5.7
(42.3)		 11.0
(51.8)		 15.1
(59.2)		 17.1
(62.8)		 16.1
(61.0)		 11.4
(52.5)		 6.0
(42.8)		 0.8
(33.4)		 −3.3
(26.1)		 5.8
(42.4)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 35.4
(1.39)		 35.1
(1.38)		 33.1
(1.30)		 36.9
(1.45)		 39.4
(1.55)		 56.3
(2.22)		 40.4
(1.59)		 32.1
(1.26)		 38.6
(1.52)		 33.5
(1.32)		 42.0
(1.65)		 39.7
(1.56)		 462.5
(18.21)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 7.7 6.2 6.8 6.2 6.3 7.1 5.4 3.9 5.1 4.7 6.5 7.0 72.9
Average relative humidity (%) 84.3 81.4 77.1 67.1 62.8 65.3 62.0 60.2 67.7 75.2 84.1 84.7 72.7
Source: World Meteorological Organization[11]

Industry

Nikopol River Port facilitates transportation for the metallurgical industry and travel.[12]

Culture

Sports
  • Transfiguration church
  • Old Old Believers' Church
  • Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary
  • Nikopol quay
  • Monument to goddess Nike
  • A street in Nikopol
  • Nikopol central department store
  • Elektrometalurh Stadium

International relations
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Ukraine

Twin towns — Sister cities

Nikopol is twinned with:

References
  1. Чисельність наявного населення України на 1 січня 2021 / Number of Present Population of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2021 (PDF) (in Ukrainian and English). Kyiv: State Statistics Service of Ukraine.
  2. Nikopol (Нікополь). The History of Cities and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR.
  3. Demianov, V. Mala Kamianka (МАЛА́ КА́М’ЯНКА). Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine
  4. Bazhan, O. Nikopol (НІКОПОЛЬ). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine
  5. Shcherbak, V. Mykytyn Sich (МИКИТИНСЬКА СІЧ). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. 2009
  6. Shcherbak, V. Chortomlyk Sich (ЧОРТОМЛИЦЬКА СІЧ). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine
  7. Speer, Albert (1995). Inside the Third Reich. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 430. ISBN 9781842127353.
  8. "Про утворення та ліквідацію районів. Постанова Верховної Ради України № 807-ІХ". Голос України (in Ukrainian). 2020-07-18. Retrieved 2020-10-03.
  9. "Нові райони: карти + склад" (in Ukrainian). Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України.
  10. "IНТЕРПАЙП НIКО ТЬЮБ". nikotube.interpipe.biz. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  11. "World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1981–2010". World Meteorological Organization. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  12. "Nikopol". encyclopediaofukraine.com. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  13. "Lista municipiilor înfrățite din România" [List of municipality twinnings in Romania] (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2017-01-29. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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