Clockwise from top: St Catherine's cathedral, Memorial in Park Slavy, view of the Dnieper in Kherson, the clock tower of the Kherson Regional Art Museum, a monument to Potemkin in Potomkinskyi Garden Square.
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Before 1774, the area where Kherson is situated today belonged to the
Crimean Khanate. A German-language map in 1736 (inset) shows a settlement of Bilschowscei at the site of today's Kherson. A French-language map of the site in 1769 (inset) shows a Russian-built fort or
sconce named St. Alexandre. This had been built in 1737 during the
Russo-Turkish War and served the
Zaporizhian Sich as an administrative center, run by local
Cossacks.
The
Russian Empire annexed the territory in 1774, and a decree of
Catherine the Great on 18 June 1778 founded Kherson on the high bank of the Dnieper as a central fortress of the
Black Sea Fleet.
1783 saw the city granted the rights of a district town and the opening of a local shipyard where the hulls of the Russian Black Sea fleet were laid. Within a year the Kherson Shipping Company began operations. By the end of the 18th century, the port had established trade with France, Italy, Spain and other European countries. Between 1783 and 1793 Poland's maritime trade via the Black Sea was conducted through Kherson by the Kompania Handlowa Polska. In 1791, Potemkin was buried in the newly built St. Catherine's Cathedral. In 1803 the city became the capital of the
Kherson Governorate.[4]
Industry, beginning with breweries, tanneries and other food and agricultural processing, developed from the 1850s.[citation needed] In 1897 the population of the city was 59,076 of which, on the basis of their first language, almost half were recorded as Great Russian, 30% as Jewish, and 20% Ukrainian.[8] During the
revolution of 1905 there were workers' strikes and an army mutiny (an armed demonstration by soldiers of the 10th Disciplinary Battalion) in the city.[9]
The Bolsheviks dissolved SR-dominated Assembly after its first sitting,[11] and proceeded to force from Kiev the
Central Council of Ukraine (Tsentralna Rada) whose response to the
Leninist coup had been to proclaim the independence of the
Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). But, before the Bolsheviks could secure Kherson, they were obliged to cede the region under the terms of the March 1918
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to the German and Austrian controlled
Ukrainian State. After the withdrawal of German and Austrian forces in November 1918, the efforts of the UPR (the
Petluirites) to assert authority were frustrated by a
French-led Allied intervention which occupied Kherson in January 1919.[12]
In March 1919, the
Green Army of local warlord
OtamanNykyfor Hryhoriv ousted the French and Greek garrison and precipitated the Allied evacuation from
Odesa. In July, the Bolsheviks defeated Hryhoriv who had called upon the Ukrainian people to rise against the "Communist impostors" and their "Jewish commissars",[13] and had perpetrated pogroms,[13] including in the Kherson region.[14] Kherson itself was occupied by the counter-revolutionary Whites before finally falling to the Bolshevik
Red Army in February 1920.[4] In 1922 the city and region was formally incorporated into the
Ukrainian SSR a constituent republic of the
Soviet Union.[citation needed]
The population was radically reduced from 75,000 to 41,000 by the
famine of 1921–23, but then rose steadily, reaching 97,200 in 1939.[15] In 1940, the city was one of the sites of executions of
Polish officers and
intelligentsia committed by the Soviets as part of the
Katyn massacre.[16]
World War II and post-War period
Further devastation and population loss resulted from the
German occupation during the
Second World War. The German occupation, which lasted from August 1941 to March 1944, contended with both Soviet and Ukrainian nationalist (
OUN) underground cells. The Kherson district leadership of the OUN was headed by
Bohdan Bandera [
uk] (brother of OUN leader
Stepan Bandera).[17] The Germans operated a Nazi prison and the Stalag 370
prisoner-of-war camp in the city.[18][19]
In the post-war decades, which saw substantial industrial growth, the population more than doubled, reaching 261,000 by 1970.[20] The new factories, including the Comintern Shipbuilding and Repairs Complex, the Kuibyshev Ship Repair Complex, and the Kherson Cotton Textile Manufacturing Complex (one of the largest textile plants in the Soviet Union), and Kherson's growing grain-exporting port, drew in labour from the Ukrainian countryside. This changed the city's ethnic composition, increasing the Ukrainian share from 36% in 1926 to 63% in 1959, while reducing the Russian share from 36 to 29%. The Jewish population never recovered from the
Holocaust visited by the Germans: accounting for 26% of residents in 1926, their number had fallen to just 6% in 1959.[20]
In independent Ukraine
With a turnout of 83.4% of eligible voters, 90.1% of the votes cast in Kherson Oblast affirmed Ukrainian independence in the
national referendum of 1 December 1991.[21] With
the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kherson and its industries experienced severe dislocation. Over the following three decades, the population of both the city and the region declined, reflecting both a significant excess of deaths over live births and persistent net-emigration from the area.[22][23]
In July 2020, as part of the general administrative reform of Ukraine, the Kherson Municipality was merged as
Kherson urban hromada into newly established
Kherson Raion, one of five raions in the
Kherson Oblast of which the city remained the administrative centre.[26][27]
A "City Profile", part of the SCORE (Social Cohesion and Reconciliation)[28]Ukraine 2021 project funded by
USAID, the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the
European Union, concluded that "more than 80% of citizens in Kherson city feel their locality is a good place to live, work, and raise a family". This was despite a low level of trust in the local authorities in whom corruption was perceived to be high. It also found that, while more inclined to express support for co-operation with Russia than for membership of the EU, "citizens in Kherson feel attached to their Ukrainian identity".[29]
2020 local election
In the last free elections before the 2022 Russian invasion, the
Ukrainian local elections held on 25 October 2020, the results of Kherson City Council elections were as follows:[30]
The parties widely perceived as
pro-Russian, and
Euro-skeptic,[31]Opposition Platform,
Volodymyr Saldo Bloc, and
Party of Shariy (3.9%) had a combined vote of just over 30% of the total, and secured 20 out of the 54 seats on the city council. In the wake of the invasion, the Opposition Platform and the Party of Shariy were banned by the National Security Council for alleged ties to the
Kremlin.[32][33][34]
Under the Russian occupation, locals continued to stage street protests against the invading army's presence and in support of the unity of Ukraine.[42][43] According to the Ukrainian government, the Russian military sought to create a puppet
Kherson People's Republic in the style of the Russian-backed separatist polities in the
Donbas region and tried to coerce local councillors into endorsing the move, detaining those activists and officials who opposed their design.[44]
By 26 April 2022, Russian troops had taken over the city's administration headquarters and had appointed both a new mayor,[45] former
KGB agent
Alexander Kobets, and ex-mayor
Volodymyr Saldo as a new civilian-military regional administrator.[46] The next day,
Ukraine's Prosecutor General said that troops used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a further pro-Ukraine rally in the city centre.[45] In an indication of an intended split from Ukraine, on the 28th the new administration announced that from May it would switch the region's payments to the
Russian ruble. Citing unnamed reports about alleged discrimination of Russian speakers, its deputy head,
Kirill Stremousov said that "reintegrating the Kherson region back into a Nazi Ukraine is out of the question".[47]
On 30 May, the Russian-backed occupation authority in Kherson claimed that it had started exporting last year's grain from Kherson to Russia. They would also be working on exporting sunflower seeds.[48]
On 6 June, it was reported by the Ukrainian mayor of Kherson,
Ihor Kolykhaiev, that the occupiers had conducted a meeting of more than 70 Russian sympathizers aimed at conducting a referendum on the region integrating the occupied areas into Russia. His sources told him that the dates discussed were two: in September or at the end of 2022.[49] As a Russian election was going to take place on 11 September, the Kherson vote would be scheduled to coincide with that day.[50] An elected official in Russia named
Igor Kastyukevich had discussed this plan on 7 June, following the visit to Kherson of
Sergei Kiriyenko, the deputy chief of staff of the Russian presidential administration.[49][51]
By June, the occupiers were switching Ukrainian schools to their educational curriculum and Russian SIM cards were on the market. Kolykhaiev witnessed the occupiers distributing Russian passports. A cafe frequented by the occupiers was bombed on 7 June and at least four people were injured.[49] Stremousov said on 29 June that "The Kherson region will decide to join the Russian Federation and become a full-fledged subject as one unified state."[50] On the same visit, Kiriyenko spoke at the
United Russia party's humanitarian aid center in Kherson: "The Kherson region's admission into Russia will be complete, similar to Crimea," recalling the
2014 Crimean status referendum.[52]
On 18 June, it was announced that Russian
FSB officers were in the process of moving from hotels to apartments that had been vacated by Ukrainians.[53]
In late June, the first Russian bank opened in Kherson,[54] while
Oleksii Kovalov, an ex-member of the Ukrainian
Servant of the People party, survived an assassination attempt after he had been appointed vice-president.[55]
On 24 June, Dmytro Savluchenko, who led the Directorate for Family, Youth, and Sports of the Russian occupation administration, was assassinated by the explosion of a car bomb.[56]
On 29 June, the Ukrainian mayor of Kherson,
Ihor Kolykhaiev, was detained by Russian security forces.[57]
On 5 July, Volodymyr Saldo announced that the former deputy head of government in the Russian exclave of
Kaliningrad Sergei Yeliseyev, a graduate of the
FSB Academy, was to assume the presidency of the oblast.[54][55]
On 28 August 2022, the vice-president of the occupation administration (Kovalev) was found shot dead inside his own apartment in
Zaliznyi Port.[58] His wife was stabbed in the same attack and she died later in the hospital.[59]
Russian forces were ordered to withdraw from the city by defence minister
Sergei Shoigu and regroup on the eastern side of the
Dnieper on 9 November 2022. Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian troops were destroying bridges connecting the city to the other bank of the river.[62][63] On 11 November, Ukraine announced that its forces had entered the city following the Russian withdrawal.[64][65]
Before retreating, the Russian army destroyed infrastructure facilities of the city (communications, water, heat, electricity,
TV tower),[66][67] looted two main museums (
Local History Museum and the
Art Museum), transporting their items to Crimean museums,[68][69] and took away several monuments to historical figures.[70][71]
Tsentralnyi Raion, also known as the Central Raion, [76] is the central and oldest district of the city. Includes departments:
Tavriiskyi [
uk], Pіvnichnyi and
Mlyny [
uk].[citation needed] It was known as Suvorivskyi Raion until October 2023, when it was renamed in compliance with nationwide laws on
derussification of toponymy.[76] The old name was derived from that of the Tsarist Russian military leader
Alexander Suvorov.[citation needed]
Dniprovskyi Raion [
uk], named for the
Dnieper river. Includes departments: Antonivka, Molodizhne, Zelenivka, Petrivka, Bohdanivka, Soniachne, Naddniprianske, Inzhenerne.[citation needed]
Korabelnyi Raion [
uk], which includes the following departments: Shumenskyi, Korabel, Zabalka, Sukharne, Zhytloselyshche, Selyshche-4, Selyshche-5.[citation needed]
Kherson is connected to the national railroad network of Ukraine. There are daily long-distance services to
Kyiv,
Lviv and other cities.
Air
Kherson is served by
Kherson International Airport.[81] It operates a 2,500 x 42-meter concrete runway, accommodating Boeing 737, Airbus 319/320 aircraft, and helicopters of all series.[82]
Education
There are 77 high schools as well as 5 colleges. There are 15 institutions of higher education, including:
^Kolykhaiev's whereabouts are unknown as of 19 August 2022,[update] on 28 June 2022 he was abducted by Russian forces during the
occupation of Kherson[2]
^
abcd"Херсон", Большая Советская Энциклопедия, том 46 (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Vol. 46), Б. А. Введенский 2-е изд.(B. A. Vvedensky ed.. 2nd Edition). . М., Государственное научное издательство «Большая Советская энциклопедия» (State Scientific Publishing House), 1957, pp. 121–122
^Херсон // Советская историческая энциклопедия / редколл., гл. ред. Е. М. Жуков. том 15. М., государственное научное издательство «Советская энциклопедия», 1974. ("Kherson", Soviet Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 15, E. M. Zhukov. ed., State Scientific Publishing House), 1974. pp. 504–506, 571–573
^
abWerth, Nicolas (2019). "Chap. 5: 1918–1921. Les pogroms des guerres civiles russes". Le cimetière de l'espérance. Essais sur l'histoire de l'Union soviétique (1914–1991) [Cemetery of Hope. Essays on the History of the Soviet Union (1914–1991)]. Collection Tempus (in French). Perrin.
ISBN978-2-262-07879-9.
^Владимир Ковальчук. Богдан – загадочный брат Степана Бандеры Газета «День», No. 30, 20 февраля 2009 года. // day.kyiv.ua ("Vladimir Kovalchuk. Bogdan is Stepan Bandera's mysterious brother", The Day, No. 30, 20 February 2009. // day.kyiv.ua)
^"Gefängnis Cherson". Bundesarchiv.de (in German).
Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
^"Нові райони: карти + склад" (in Ukrainian). Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України. 17 July 2020.
Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
^Newton, Andrew.
"SCORE Index". www.scoreforpeace.org.
Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2022.