Smila (Ukrainian: Смiла, Russian: Смела) is a city located on the Tyasmyn River in the Cherkasy Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The city is itself a raion (district) within the oblast as well as serving as the administrative centre of the wider Smiliansky Raion. It is located 23 km from the oblast's capital, Cherkasy.
Smila had an estimated population in 2006 of 69,400.
According to legend, during one of the numerous Golden Horde raids, a local girl guided the Kievan Rus army to the rear of the invaders. The enemies were defeated but the girl was killed by one of their arrows. Nobody knew her name, so that when a colony was later established at the place, the settlers named it simply Smila (from the Ukrainian smila, meaning "brave girl") in her honour.
The settlement was first mentioned in the 16th century when it was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1648–54 Smila was a squadron town of the Chyhyryn regiment of Cossacks. In 1773 the city obtained Magdeburg rights and in 1795 it became a part of the Russian Empire.
Smila saw rapid development following the opening of a railway line through the city in 1876, but in the 20th century it suffered repeated devastations: in World War I, in the Ukrainian famine of 1932–33 (the Holodomor), and in World War II. Economic depression also followed the fall of the Soviet Union: in the 1990s, industrial production fell by over 70% and Smila lost more than 10% of its population. Each time, however, the city recovered, and Smila is now once again experiencing growth.
he economic emphasis is on mechanical engineering, and the food industry is also of importance.
Smila, where the Kiev–Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa–Russia rail routes cross, is one of the most important railway junctions in Ukraine. The large station at the junction is named after Ukraine's national poet, Taras Shevchenko.
