Nikolaev Ukraine Information

Mykolaiv (Ukrainian: Миколаїв), also widely known as Nikolayev (from Russian Николаев), is a major city in southern Ukraine. Name of city - There are several variations of the city's name. In Ukrainian, the city is named Микола́їв, for which the transliteration is Mykolaiv, or, more rarely, Mykolayiv. The Russian name is Никола́ев, which transliterates as Nikolaev or Nikolayev.

Nikolaev (Mykolaiv,Mikolaiv in Ukrainian) is located in Southern Ukraine, about 600 km south-east from Kiev, 150 km from Odessa and 80 km from the Black Sea on the estuary of the Southern Bug and Ingul rivers. Its population is about 518,400.This territory has been home to different peoples for a long time since the Stone Age. The Slavs have inhabited this territory since the 3rd century AD. It was one of the Southern provinces of Kievan Rus. But the Slavs were forced out from this land by the Tatar-Mongol Horde in the 13th century AD. Ottoman Turkey conquered it at the end of the 15th century.

The 18th century was marked by a number of the Russian-Turkish wars. Russia began to build its fleet. In 1788 dockyard Ingulskaya appeared in the estuary of the Ingul River. And a new town grew around it very quickly. 

History

The town was founded in 1789 by the Russian Governor General of Novorossiya, Prince Grigori Potemkin, initially as a shipyard called simply a New Shipyard on the Ingul river. Kniaz Potemkin signed an order to construct a shipyard on August 27, 1789, which is considered to be the city's birth date. The shipyard was to undertake the repair of naval ships in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). Later Potemkin ordered the shipyard to be named Nikolaev to commemorate the date when Ochakov fell to the Russian troops under his command on December 6, 1788, close to the day of Saint Nicholas (Nikolay) December 19, in the Russian Orthodox Church calendar.

The history of the city has always been closely connected to ship building. Captain Georgy Brusilov of the ill-fated Arctic ship St Anna was born in Mykolaiv in 1884. The late Lubavicher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born in Mykolaiv in 1902.

The governor-general of this territory, Prince Grigory Potyomkin ordered to give to the town the name Nikolaev to honor the victory of the Russian army over the Turks on the day of St. Nikolay, the seamen's patron. The decree was signed on the 27th of August 1789. And this date is considered to be the city's birthday.

The name "St. Nikolay" was given to the first frigate with 46 cannons launched from the new dockyard. This was the beginning of shipbuilding industry, the industry in which Nikolaev has been majoring since then. At the end of the 19th century Nikolaev was one of the biggest trading centers in Russia. During World War II heroic defenders of Nikolaev saved the seaport from barbaric destruction. The city is situated between two rivers - the South Bug and the Ingul. The city was named by Prince Potemkin in honor of St. Nikolaj 209 years ago. From ancient times Nikolaev has been the center of shipbuilding. On its wharfs the largest ships of the former USSR were built. In the time of imperial Russia Nikolaev was the headquarters of the Commander-in-chief of the Black Sea fleet.

Today Nikolaev is the center of shipbuilding industry of Ukraine. Headquarters of Ukrainian shipbuilding corporations are situated here. The names of great naval commanders, writers, poets and artists are connected to Nikolaev. The city is built on territory of ancient antiquity with an unmapped network of catacombs, of an antiquity much older than the famous Odessa Catacombs, near the ancient Greek city-state Ol'viya. Nikolaev has remarkable parks and reserves. The largest zoo has a variety of fauna and is third in size in the territory of the former USSR.

The highest part of the South Bug River is named "Ukrainian Switzerland" because of a beautiful landscape with fast rivers, thresholds and covered rocks as in Kazak’s legends. The well known artist V.V. Vereshagin lived and worked in Nikolaev. Presently a lot of the artist's famous paintings are kept here in Nikolaev in a museum that bears his name. In an observatory constructed in 1821 is a unique collection of devices for the observation of celestial bodies. Having come to visit us, you will acquaint yourself with a land rich in history and culture which still keeps some secrets.

Within Ukraine Nikolaev is famous as the city of Russian brides. When you are sitting in Nikolaev's cafes in summer on our main street Sovetskaya you will not be able to take your eyes off the street where stunningly beautiful single nikolaev ladies are walking alone or with others.