Mykolaiv Миколаїв
City
Ukrainian transcription(s)
• National, BGN/PCGN	Mykolaiv
• ALA-LC	Mykolaïv
• Scholarly	Mykolajiv
Top to bottom and left to right: Museum of Shipbuilding and the Fleet, Mykolaiv Building Professional College [uk], Mykolayiv Regional Museum of Local History, Lutheran Church of Christ the Redeemer, Mykolaiv [uk], Roman Catholic church of Saint Joseph, Mykolaiv [uk], Cathedral of Our Lady of Kasperov, Mykolaiv [uk]
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname:  "City of Shipbuilders"
Mykolaiv Location of Mykolaiv Show map of Mykolaiv Oblast Mykolaiv Mykolaiv (Ukraine) Show map of Ukraine
Coordinates: 46°58′30″N 31°59′42″E / 46.97500°N 31.99500°E / 46.97500; 31.99500
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Mykolaiv
Raion	Mykolaiv
Hromada	Mykolaiv urban
Founded	1789
City rights	1789
Government
• Mayor	Oleksandr Senkevych [uk][1] (Proposition[1])
Area
• Total	260 km2 (100 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[2]
• Total	470,011
• Density	1,800/km2 (4,700/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code	54000
Area code	+380 512
Vehicle registration	BE
Website	mkrada.gov.ua/

Mykolaiv (Ukrainian: Миколаїв, IPA: [mɪkoˈlɑjiu̯] ^ⓘ; Russian: Николаев, romanized: Nikolayev) is a city and a hromada (municipality) in southern Ukraine. Mykolaiv is the administrative center of Mykolaiv Raion (district) and Mykolaiv Oblast (province). The city of Mykolaiv, which provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea, is the location of the most downriver bridge crossing of the Southern Bug river. This city is one of the main shipbuilding centers of the Black Sea. Aside from three shipyards within the city, there are a number of research centers specializing in shipbuilding such as the State Research and Design Shipbuilding Center, Zoria-Mashproekt and others. As of 2022, the city has a population of 470,011 (2022 estimate).^[2] Mykolaiv holds the honorary title Hero City of Ukraine.

The city serves as a transportation hub for Ukraine, containing a sea port, commercial port, river port, highway, railway junction, and airport.

Much of Mykolaiv's land area consists of parks. Park Peremohy (Victory) is a large park on the peninsula just north of the city center, on the north side of the Inhul river.

Name

The city is known under two names, which differ in Ukrainian and Russian; there are several transliterations of each name. The Ukrainian name of the city is Микола́їв, transliterated as Mykolaiv. The Russian name, Никола́ев, transliterates as Nikolaev or as Nikolayev. The city's founding was made by the Russian conquests during the Second Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792. Founded by Prince Grigory Potemkin as Nikolaev, it was the last of the many cities he established. On 27 August 1789,^[3] Potemkin ordered its naming near the wharf at the mouth of the Ingul river, on a high, cool and breezy spot where the Ingul river meets the Southern Bug river. To build the city he brought in peasants, soldiers, and Turkish prisoners; 2,500 were working there during 1789. The shipyards were built first (1788).^[4]

Potemkin named the city after Saint Nicholas, the patron of seafarers, on whose day (6 December) he had obtained victory at the siege of Ochakov^[5] in 1788. The name Nikolaev is known from the legal order (writ) Number 1065 by Prince Potemkin to Mikhail Faleev [ru] dated 27 August 1789.^[6]

In 1920, after the establishment of Soviet power, the Odesa provincial council (of laborers and peasants' deputies) petitioned the Soviet Ukrainian government—the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee (VUTSIK)—to rename the city of Mykolaiv to Vernoleninsk ("Faithful to Lenin"). As the city of Mykolaiv was a district center of the Odesan province, presumably, the petition would have been initiated by the Odesa city council, but documentary evidence of this so far has not been identified. On 15 April 1924 the Plenum of the Central Administrative-Territorial Commission of the VUTSIK considered and rejected the petition of the Odesan executive committee. Perhaps the members of the Soviet-Ukraine government thought that the name sounded too obsequious.^[7]

Information regarding the alleged renaming of Mykolaiv was disseminated by German maps of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as in German encyclopedic publications in 1927 and 1932, which show Vernoleninsk on the USSR part of the European maps. The city was designated as Mykolaiv in publications of the same map in other languages.^[7]

To distinguish Mykolaiv from the much smaller west Ukraine city of Mykolaiv in Lviv Oblast, the latter is sometimes called "Mykolaiv on the Dniester" after the major river that it is situated on, while the former is located on the Southern Bug, another major river, and may also be called "Mykolaiv on the Bug".

History

Archaeologists have found proof of ancient settlements on the territory of Mykolaiv.^[8] In 2018, archaeologists discovered a sunken Ancient Greek ship near the Mykolaiv region, dating from the fifth century BC, the period of Greek colonization of the Northern Black Sea. Researchers stated: "This Ancient Greek ship is one of the oldest known in the Northern Black Sea."^[9]

The city has long had close associations with shipbuilding.^[10]

The area was populated throughout time by Scythians, ancient Greeks, Slavic tribes, hordes of nomads and free Zaporozhian Cossacks. However, the intensive settlement of the Mykolaiv peninsula started in the last quarter of the 18th century already after the liberation of the northern Black Sea coast region from the Ottoman Empire.

The Russian Empire's Black Sea Navy Headquarters was in Mykolaiv for more than 100 years until the Imperial Russian Navy moved it to Sevastopol, near the southern tip of the Crimean Peninsula. During the Crimean War (1853-1856), Mykolaiv became the main rear base to support Russia's efforts in the war. Most businesses that were created in the city belonged to the military-industrial complex, and, consequently, Mykolaiv was closed to foreigners for many decades.^[11]

By the late 19th century, Mykolaiv's port ranked third in the Russian Empire (after Saint Petersburg and Odesa) in trade with foreign countries. Grain-export suppliers of the steppe region (of Ukraine and Southern Russia) were the greatest in the Russian Empire. Mykolaiv had become a great industrial center in the Southern Ukraine.^[11]

Jews started to settle in Mykolaiv in the late 18th century.^[12] By being in the area west of the Dnieper which was where Jews were legally allowed to reside (the Pale of Settlement), Mykolaiv became a major Jewish centre of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. During the course of the 19th century, the Czarist governments largely banned Jews from living east of the Dnieper River. In 1866 restrictions were lifted and the Jewish community of Mykolaiv developed rapidly but years later Jews suffered in the pogroms of May 1881 and April 1899. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (the seventh leader in the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty) was born in Mykolaiv on 18 April 1902. In 1920, Soviet power was established.^[11] In 1926 there were 21,786 Jews (about 20.8% of the total population) in Mykolaiv.^[13]

In the course of Operation Barbarossa Mykolaiv was occupied on 16 August 1941 by German invaders. In September, German forces massacred over 35,000 non-combatants, many of them Jews, in the city and its region. During the occupation, an underground partisan sabotage group, the Mykolaiv Center, conducted guerilla activities. On 28 March 1944 the city was liberated, in part because of Soviet Senior Lieutenant Konstantin F. Olshansky's marines and their daring raid during which the majority of his troops were killed.

In the post-war period Mykolaiv became one of the shipbuilding centers of the USSR, with three shipyards: Black Sea, 61 Kommunara, and Okean.

The asteroid 8141 Nikolaev (1982 SO4) was discovered in 1982 by Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and was named in honor of the city.^[14]

In March 2012, Mykolaiv gained international notoriety for lawlessness and police corruption following the rape and murder of Oksana Makar.^[15] Her three attackers were apprehended, but two were released because of family connections to local government officials. After a media outcry and public protests, all three attackers were charged with her murder.

During the Euromaidan protests of 2013–2014, Mykolayiv was the scene of anti-Yanukovich protests. After the victory of Euromaidan, the situation calmed down somewhat until 7 April 2014, when some pro-Russians tried to take over the local administration building. Pro-Ukrainians stopped them from taking over the administration building and destroyed the pro-Russian camp not far from it, after which the situation in the city became calm.^[16]

Until 18 July 2020, Mykolaiv was incorporated as a city of oblast significance. It also served as the administrative center of Mykolaiv and Vitovka Raions even though it did not belong to any of these raions. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Mykolaiv Oblast to four, the city of Mykolaiv was merged into Mykolaiv Raion.^[17][18]

In February and March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian military forces attacked Mykolaiv and placed it under siege.^[19] Ukrainian forces barred Russian forces from the city, though Russian artillery continued to shell it.^[20][21][22] By July, half of the pre-war population had left the city.^[23]

Administrative status

Mykolaiv is the administrative center of Mykolaiv Oblast (region), as well as that of Mykolaiv Raion. It hosts the administration of Mykolaiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.^[24]

Geography

Mykolaiv is located in a primarily flat terrain area, the fertile, grain-producing steppe region of southern Ukraine. The nearest mountains to Mykolaiv are 300 km (186 mi) south, at the southern end of the Crimean Peninsula. The lack of any mountain barriers north of Mykolaiv means that cold Arctic winds can blow south, unimpeded by any terrain elevation, to Mykolaiv in winter.

Mykolaiv is on a peninsula along the estuary of the Southern Bug river where it meets the Inhul River, 65 km (40 mi) from the Black Sea.^[25] Both the Inhul River and the Southern Bug River follow very winding courses just before they join at the northeast corner of Mykolaiv. This has created several long and narrow peninsulas just north of Mykolaiv, and the main part of Mykolaiv is itself on a peninsula at a 180-degree bend in the Southern Bug River.

The area of the city is 260 km² (100 sq mi).^[26]

Mykolaiv is in the second time zone (Eastern European Time).

Ecology

Mykolaiv has environmental issues, which is common in many cities in Ukraine, such as pollution of water, the air, and groundwater; drinking water quality, noise, waste management, and conservation of biological diversity in the city.^[27] One of Mykolaiv's most urgent problems is the disposal of solid household waste.^[28]

The city has 18 preserved sites, totaling about 12 km² (5 sq mi):^[29]

• The Mykolaiv Zoo
• The monuments of landscape art: Park Peremohy, Park People's Garden, 68 Paratroopers Park, Square, The Sivašskij, The Boulevard Bunker, Linea (Line) Park, Young Heroes Park; Youth Park in the Ingul district^[30]
• The Botanical Natural Monument Memory Square
• The Dubki Reserved Nature boundary
• The Balabanovka Forest Reserve
• The Reservoir Hydrological Reserve
• The Turkish Fountain Hydrological Natural Monument
• The Dubka (oak) 4 Botanical Nature Monument

Climate

The city's climate is moderately continental- cold semi arid steppe climate with cold winters and warm to hot summers.^[25][31] Mykolaiv's average temperature is 10 °C (50 °F). The lowest average temperature is in January −3.1 °C (26 °F), the highest in July 22.3 °C (72 °F).^[31]

Mykolaiv has an average of 472 mm (19 in) of precipitation per year, with the lowest precipitation in October, and the most in July. Mykolaiv has mild snow cover every year.^[31]

Average relative humidity is 73% for the year; the lowest humidity is in August (60%); the highest in December (86%).^[31] The lowest cloud are seen in August; the highest are in December.^[31]

The prevailing winds come from the North; the least frequent source of wind is the Southeast. The maximum wind speed is in February, the lowest is from July through September. In January, the average wind speed is 4.1 m/s (meters per second); in July, the average is 3.1 m/s.^[31]

Population

Ethnicity	1897[40]	1926[41]	1939[42]	1959[43]	1989[44]	2001[44]	2017[45]
Ukrainians	8.5%	29.9%	49.7%	59.7%	63.2%	72.6%	84%
Russians	66.3%	44.6%	31.0%	30.3%	31.2%	22.6%	12%
Jews	19.5%	20.8%	15.2%	6.8%	2.1%	0.5%
Belarusians	0.2%	0.3%	0.7%	1.0%	1.1%	0.8%
Bulgarians	0.1%	0.2%	0.6%	0.6%
Poles	2.8%	1.7%
Germans	0.9%	1.1%	0.9%	0.1%

Language

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:^[46]

Language	Number	Percentage
Ukrainian	214 710	42.17%
Russian	289 224	56.81%
Other or undecided	5 168	1.02%
Total	509 102	100.00%

As of 2017, 63% of the population spoke Russian at home, 7% Ukrainian, and 28% spoke both Ukrainian and Russian equally.^[45]

According to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in April-May 2023, 30% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 61% spoke Russian.^[47]

Awards

The Soviet Government awarded Mykolaiv the Order of the Red Banner of Labour on 31 December 1970, for successfully fulfilling its assignments for the development of industrial production, in the USSR's five-year economic plan.

On 25 March 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Mykolaiv the title of Hero City of Ukraine due to the Battle of Mykolaiv.^[48]

Administrative districts

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Mykolaiv
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