Melitopol

Melitopol (Ukrainian: Мелітополь, translit. Melitopol’, Russian: Мелитополь) is a city in the Zaporizhia Oblast of the southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna River that flows through the eastern edge of the city and into the Molochnyi Liman, which eventually joins the Sea of Azov. The city was formerly named Kyzyl-Yar until 1816, and Novoalexandrovka until 1842. Serving as the administrative center of the Melitopolskyi Raion, the city itself is directly subordinate to the oblast center. The estimated population as of 2007 is around 158,700. Generally, the Russian language is spoken in the city.

Melitopol is a pilot city of the Council of Europe and the European Comnission Intercultural cities programme.

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.

Melitopol has 38 monuments, memorials and statues registered.

One of them is the statue of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the famous hetman of Ukraine. His images are printed on Ukrainian 5 hryvnia's banknotes.

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.

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.

- 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's cantonment has an aerodrome, which is not used for passenger service. There is present a park of Il-76 (Ukrainian: Іл-76, Russian: Ил-76) transport planes.
- 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.

There is a well-developed, internationally important engine-constructing industry. There are also food, light, and construction materials industries.

- Dmytro Dontsov - influenced the establishement of OUN
- Pavlo Sudoplatov - lieutenant-general of KGB, killed Yevhen Konovalets