Dnipro
In 1645, a fortress named Novyi Kodak rose on the south-eastern outskirts of what is now Dnipro. Cossacks of Ivan Sulyma destroyed this Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth structure within months of its completion. The settlement that emerged around the fortress became known as Polovytsia by the mid-1730s. Documentary evidence suggests at least 3,000 people lived in New Kodak before the fortress was demolished under the Treaty of the Pruth in 1711. Russian Empress Catherine II signed an Imperial Ukase on the 23rd of January 1784 directing that the gubernatorial city be moved to the right bank of the Dnieper River near Kodak. A report from Azov Governor Vasily Chertkov to Grigory Potemkin dated the 23rd of April 1776 first mentioned the provincial city called Yekaterinoslav. Potemkin envisioned this new capital as the Athens of southern Russia alongside Moscow and Saint Petersburg. He planned for a viceregal palace, a university, courts of law, and a botanical garden. The Transfiguration Cathedral foundation stone was laid during her celebrated Crimean journey in 1787. Austrian Emperor Joseph II, Polish king Stanisław August Poniatowski, and French and English ambassadors attended the ceremony. The site chosen for the original 1776 town proved badly selected because spring waters transformed it into a bog. That surviving settlement later became Novomoskovsk. The current city did not expand to encompass the territory of Chertkov's Yekaterinoslav of 1776.
John Hughes, a Welsh businessman, built an iron works at Yuzovka between 1869 and 1872. Russian geologist Alexander Pol discovered the Krivoy Rog iron ore basin in 1866. In 1884, a railway supplying pig iron foundries in Krivoy Rog with Donbass coal crossed the Dnieper at Yekaterinoslav. This spur stimulated further industrial development and created new suburbs named Amur and Nyzhniodniprovsk. By 1904, the population had tripled to reach 157,000 people. A largely Yiddish-speaking Jewish community of 40,000 constituted more than a third of the city's population by the early 20th century. In 1883, three days of rioting destroyed Jewish business and persuaded many to temporarily leave the city. About 100 Jews were killed and two hundred wounded during anti-Semitic attacks following the 1905 defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. Local historian Andrii Portnov stated that 40% of the local Yekaterinoslav population was Jewish in the years leading up to World War I. In 1932, Dnipropetrovsk's regional metallurgical plants produced 20 per cent of the entire cast iron and 25 per cent of the steel manufactured in the Ukrainian SSR. The Holodomor famine of 1932, 33 devastated the surrounding countryside. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast lost between 3.5 million and 9.8 million people during this period. The percentage of residents recorded as Ukrainian rose from 36 per cent in 1926 to 54.6 per cent in 1939.
As early as July 1944, the State Committee of Defence in Moscow decided to build a large military machine-building factory on the location of the pre-war aircraft plant. Thousands of German prisoners of war began construction in December 1945. This formed the foundation of the Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory. In 1954, the administration opened a secret design office designated OKB-586 to construct military missiles and rocket engines. Hundreds of physicists, engineers, and machine designers from Moscow joined the high-security project. In 1965, Plant No. 586 was transferred to the USSR Ministry of General Machine-Building and renamed Yuzhmash. Nikita Khrushchev boasted in 1960 that it was producing rockets like sausages. Dnipropetrovsk was officially closed to foreign visitors in 1959. No foreign citizen, even of a socialist state, was allowed to visit the city or district. Citizens were held by Communist authorities to a higher standard of ideological purity than the rest of the population. Their freedom of movement was severely restricted until 1987 during perestroika when civil restrictions were lifted. The population increased from 259,000 people in 1945 to 845,200 in 1965. In September and October 1972, workers downed tools in several factories demanding higher wages and better living conditions.
On the 1st of December 1991, 90.36% of Dnipropetrovsk's voters approved the declaration of independence made by the Ukrainian parliament on the 24th of August. By 2021, the city's population had been reduced to 981,000 after standing at over 1.2 million in 1991. On the 26th of January 2014, 3,000 anti-Viktor Yanukovych activists attempted but failed to capture the Regional State Administration building. Two days later about 2,000 public sector employees called an indefinite rally in support of the Yanukovych government. Dnipropetrovsk Mayor Ivan Kulichenko left Yanukovych's Party of Regions on the 22nd of February 2014 for peace in the city. Lenin Square was renamed Heroes Square on that same day. The statue of Lenin on the square was removed. In March 2014, the city's Lenin Square was renamed Heroes of Independence Square. A monument to the Ukrainian military fighting the Russo-Ukrainian War replaced another Lenin monument in June 2014. To comply with the 2015 decommunization law, the city was renamed Dnipro in May 2016. By summer 2016, more than 350 streets, alleys, driveways, squares and parks were renamed. Karl Marx Avenue became Yavornytskyi Avenue honoring the once neglected city historian. Five of the eight urban districts received new names.
In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022, Dnipro became a logistical hub for humanitarian aid. Roughly equidistant from the war's major theatres in the east and south, the city's location proved critical for supplying the Ukrainian defence effort. The Russians first hit Dnipro on the 11th of March 2022. Three air strikes close to a kindergarten and an apartment building killed at least one person. On the 15th of March, Russian missiles hit Dnipro International Airport, destroying the runway and damaging the terminal. An air strike destroyed an oil depot in the early hours of the 6th of April. A Ukrainian government spokesperson said that the airport had been completely destroyed as the result of a Russian attack on the 10th of April. On the 15th of July, a Russian missile attack killed four people and injured sixteen others. As part of the derussification campaign, 110 toponyms in the city were renamed from February to September 2022. Schmidt Street was renamed Stepan Bandera Street. In December 2022, Dnipro removed all monuments to figures of Russian culture and history. The most deadly attack occurred on the 14th of January 2023 when a missile strike on an apartment building killed 40 people and injured 75.
Immediately after its foundation, Yekaterinoslav began to develop exclusively on the right bank of the Dnieper River. At first, the city developed radially from the central point provided by the Transfiguration Cathedral completed in 1835. Neoclassical structures of brick and stone construction were preferred. Many buildings have been retained in the older Sobornyi District. Notable pre-1917 buildings include the main building of the Dnipro Polytechnic built between 1899 and 1901. Once Yekaterinoslav became part of the Soviet Union, monumental architecture was stripped of Imperial coats of arms. Following World War II damage, badly damaged buildings were often demolished completely. In the early 1950s, much of Dnipropetrovsk's centre was rebuilt in the Stalinist style of Socialist Realism. Akademik Yavornitskyi Prospekt is designed in this style. The main railway station was redesigned in the style of Stalinist social-realism. As industrialization continued, low-rise tenant houses of the Khrushchev era gave way to high-rise prefabricated apartment blocks. A large monumental statue of Grigoriy Petrovsky was placed on the square in front of the city's railway station in 1976. The 1976 Petrovsky statue was destroyed by an angry mob on the 29th of January 2016. In December 2023, the Dnipro City Council renamed 92 other toponyms including Yuri Gagarin Avenue.
Common questions
When was the city of Dnipro founded and what was its original name?
The settlement that emerged around Novyi Kodak fortress became known as Polovytsia by the mid-1730s. Russian Empress Catherine II signed an Imperial Ukase on the 23rd of January 1784 directing that the gubernatorial city be moved to the right bank of the Dnieper River near Kodak. A report from Azov Governor Vasily Chertkov to Grigory Potemkin dated the 23rd of April 1776 first mentioned the provincial city called Yekaterinoslav.
What industrial developments occurred in Dnipropetrovsk during the early 20th century?
John Hughes, a Welsh businessman, built an iron works at Yuzovka between 1869 and 1872. By 1904, the population had tripled to reach 157,000 people. In 1884, a railway supplying pig iron foundries in Krivoy Rog with Donbass coal crossed the Dnieper at Yekaterinoslav.
How did World War II affect the military industry of Dnipro?
As early as July 1944, the State Committee of Defence in Moscow decided to build a large military machine-building factory on the location of the pre-war aircraft plant. Thousands of German prisoners of war began construction in December 1945. This formed the foundation of the Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory.
When was the city of Dnipro officially renamed from Dnipropetrovsk?
To comply with the 2015 decommunization law, the city was renamed Dnipro in May 2016. By summer 2016, more than 350 streets, alleys, driveways, squares and parks were renamed. Karl Marx Avenue became Yavornytskyi Avenue honoring the once neglected city historian.
What major events occurred during the Russian invasion of Ukraine involving Dnipro?
The Russians first hit Dnipro on the 11th of March 2022. Three air strikes close to a kindergarten and an apartment building killed at least one person. The most deadly attack occurred on the 14th of January 2023 when a missile strike on an apartment building killed 40 people and injured 75.