Melitopol

In July 1769, Russian military commanders built a redoubt there, and Zaporizhia Cossacks carried out their duty service there. On 2 February 1784, Catherine II issued the decree to create the Taurian Province on the lands that had been won. The deputy of Novorossiya Grigory 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. Among others, Germans were encouraged to settle in the new province, and some villages in this area were for many years German-speaking, such as Heidelberg (now Pryshyb) some 50 km (31 mi) to the north of Melitopol.[2]

Novoalexandrovskaya sloboda, Redin and Fomin painting

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 Ukraine and Russia. On 7 January 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 19th century, the "Honey-city"[3] 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.

Further development of the city was closely connected with trade, iron and engineering industries, and railway service in the Crimean direction. In the early twentieth century there were fifteen thousand people living in Melitopol. 30 factories and 350 shops operated in the city at that time. In the second half of the twentieth century there was a strong economic growth of the city: new factories, plants, and housing estates were constructed. Sixteen Melitopol business enterprises received All-Soviet Union significance status. Industrial products were exported to more than 50 countries.

The Old Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Melitopol, destroyed by the Bolsheviks in the 1930s

According to the 1897 census, Jews made up 42% of the total population.[11]

According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, the population of the city was 160352. Ukrainians made up 55.1% of the city's population, Russians 38.9%, and Bulgarians 1.8%.[12]

Melitopol City Hall

There is a design project of the Intercultural Park, prepared by a group of European architects and designers led by Mark Glaudemans – Director of the European Laboratory for urban planning, the Dean of the Academy of Architecture and Urbanism (city of Tilburg, Netherlands).[14] In Melitopol removed first short film in 2015, "The Zone".

Melitopol has 38 monuments, memorials and statues registered.[15] One of them is the statue of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the famous hetman of the Zaporozhian Host. His images are printed on Ukrainian 5 hryvnia's banknotes. The other one represents Ostap Bender a hero of the book of Ilf and Petrov "12 chairs".

Statue of Bohdan Khmelnytsky

Melitopol has a number of museums, including the Melitopol Museum of Local History, which holds a collection of 60,000 objects relating to the history, culture and environment of the city.[16] On 10 March 2022, after the Russian attack on the city, the director of the museum, Leila Ibragimova, was arrested at her home by Russian forces, was interrogated in an unknown location and liberated.[17] [18]

There is a well-developed, internationally important engine-constructing industry. Thanks to the rich historical heritage, economic and geographical situation and enterprising citizens the city has developed mechanical engineering, light and food industry. The city's development is driven by engineering industries, that have received new impulse with the establishment of more than 100 new small and medium engineering business enterprises, united in the cluster "AgroBOOM".

Machine engineering complex of the city is represented by 8 large plants and more than 100 small and medium-sized enterprises formed after 1991. Mechanical engineers of the city mainly produce goods for the agricultural sector.

Enterprises include:

• The plant BIOL makes dishes,
• The PLANT OF INNOVATION TECHNOLOGIES is manufactures high-tech electronic equipment, software, high-frequency generators, equipment for ground handling of airliners (Airbus, Bombardier, Boeng, AN, Il, Tu), frequency converters for railway, urban transport, subway.
• The plant TALCO collaborates with General Motors and Festo.
• The plant AUTOPRIVOD is produces YaMZ engines.
• The only plant in Ukraine that produces engines for cars is AvtoZAZ-MOTOR.
• The plant AVTOTSVETLIT is the only plant in Ukraine that produces five types of complex castings (steel, cast iron, magnesium, and aluminium); it also produces shock absorbers for VAZ.
• The company ROSTA performs the commercialisation of research in agricultural machinery and irrigation systems.
• The plant MzTK is a unique enterprise that produces turbines for mobile equipment.
• The plant TERMOLIT induction furnaces for foundry operations and other products of metal processing.

The following companies can be called the basis of light industry in the city:

• Melitopol Sewing Production Enterprise exports its goods. The factory has "dressed" the Air France and Polaris French railway employees, Dutch police and firefighters, and Italian tax police.
• Melitopol Knitting Factory Nadezhda is a manufacturer of knitwear products.
• Furniture production is well developed; more than 20 small and medium enterprises are working in this field, distributing its products throughout Ukraine.

Thanks to the proximity of the agricultural areas and raw materials of the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the food industry is well represented in the city. The main enterprises of the food industry are:

• Melitopol Meat Processing Plant produces sausages.
• Melitopol Milk Plant and Oil Extraction Plant are enterprises that belong to a major food-holding, Olkom.
• Melitopol grain elevator.

Students in Melitopol in 2016

In 1874, a technical school was founded in the city which, after a series of reforms and transformations, became Tavria State Agrotechnological University.

The city now has two public universities − Tavria State Agrotechnological Academy[20] and Bohdan Khmelnytsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University,[21] as well as a private institute – Zaporizhzhia Institute of Economics and Information Technologies.

A long history of universities and schools is one of the reasons that Melitopol is called "the city of students". More than 10% of its citizens are students.

The strong system of education is represented by different types of educational institutions at all levels of accreditation: two universities, four branches of different universities in Ukraine, seven professional schools, and three colleges.

26 pre-schools are operating in the city, in which 6,000 young citizens are being educated. For more than 500 children with special needs under the age of seven years, there are rehabilitation programs to provide the needed services.

Educational services for 14,000 students are provided by 23 secondary schools. There is a center of labor training and professional orientation for young people. A network of six non-school institutions are the following: the Centre of Ecological-Naturalistic Art for Youth, the Center of Tourist and Local Lore Creativity for Youth, the Station of Young Technicians, the Vodvudenko Palace for Children and Teenagers Creativity, Small Academy of Sciences, and the Center of Children and Teenagers. Other creative centers unite nine communal hobby clubs.

Melitopol railway station

The aerodrome close to the city, where the 25th Transport Aviation Brigade is based, is not used for passenger services.

The two main highways leading through Melitopol are the M14 Odesa-Novoazovsk Highway and the M26 Kharkiv-Simferopol National Highway.

Melitopol railway station acts as the transit point for passengers travelling between Moscow and the Crimea. The city is called the "gateway to the Crimea".

Melitopol has two bus stations, the older one operates local services, whereas buses from the newer station form part of the national bus service. The marshrutkas, which operate on 34 routes throughout the city, are the main type of public transport used. During the Soviet period, bus companies, including Ikarus, LiAZ, LAZ, and PAZ, ran around 15 routes.

Melitopol's road network is 333 km (207 mi) long. 70% of the city's roads are of inadequate quality.

Melitopol is twinned with:

• Brive-la-Gaillarde, France
• Barysaw, Belarus
• Pukhavichy Raion, Belarus
• Kėdainiai, Lithuania
• Sliven, Bulgaria

• Dmytro Dontsov, who influenced the establishment of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, a right-wing group that strove for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union during the 1930s
• Mikhail Lifshitz, Soviet philosopher of art and literary critic
• Pavel Sudoplatov, Soviet intelligence officer
• Grigory Chukhray, Soviet film director and screenwriter
• Yevhen Khacheridi, professional footballer (born 1987)
• Shishi Masaru, sumo wrestler, only Ukrainian in the history of the sport to reach the status of sekitori

• Media related to Melitopol at Wikimedia Commons
• Melitopol official website
• Melitopol investment portal
• Melitopol guidebook
• Melitopol – the honey-city: multilingual portal
• Melitopol from Encyclopædia Britannica
• Melitopol map