Oleksandriia (Ukrainian: Олександрія, IPA: [oleksɐnˈdrijɐ]) is a city in Kirovohrad Oblast, central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Oleksandriia Raion and Oleksandriia urban hromada [uk].[2] Oleksandriia is located within the Kryvyi Rih metropolitan area.

Oleksandriia
Олександрія
  • Clockwise from top: Oleksandriia Theater
  • Firefighters' Building
  • Zemstvo Administration
  • Sobornyi Square
Flag of Oleksandriia
Coat of arms of Oleksandriia
Oleksandriia is located in Ukraine
Oleksandriia
Oleksandriia
Oleksandriia is located in Ukraine Kirovohrad Oblast
Oleksandriia
Oleksandriia
Coordinates: 48°40′N 33°07′E / 48.667°N 33.117°E / 48.667; 33.117
Country Ukraine
OblastKirovohrad Oblast
RaionOleksandriia Raion
Metropolitan areaKryvyi Rih metropolitan area
HromadaOleksandriia urban hromada
Government
 • MayorSerhiy Kuzmenko[1] (nonpartisan[1])
Area
 • Total55 km2 (21 sq mi)
Elevation
107 m (351 ft)
Population
 (2022)
 • Total76,097
Zip code
28000-28019

In 2001, it had a population of 93,357, and including the villages (selo) and urban type settlements in the city municipality a population of 103,856. In 2022, it had a population of 76,097 (2022 estimate).[3]

History

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In the 16th - the first half of the 18th century, the lands of the modern city and the territories adjacent to it belonged to the Hetmanate and Zaporozhian Sich. The city is first mentioned in 1746, as the settlement Usivka (Ukrainian: Усівка).[4] According to XVIII century data, in the 1740s, a regiment of Kremenchuk Cossacks of the Myrorod regiment "Hryhoriy Usyk with his brother Sydor, Pylyp Usyk and his brother Kyrylo" settled in the city. Although they werent the first settlers in these territories.[5][6][unreliable source?]

 
Monument to Cossack Vus, the founder of the city

Therefore, the year 1739 can be considered the date of foundation of the settlement, when Mykhailo Ovramenko's neighbors, Stepan Tereshchenko and Roman Kasyan, a Cossack of the Kremenchuk regiment, began to live here.[7] In 1752 the settlement accounted for some 256 men.[8] During the establishment of the Russian colony of New Serbia in 1752–64, the 3rd Company of New Serbia was quartered in Usivka Pandurs. In place of Usivka, the sconce Bechey (after the Serbian city of Bečej) encampment was established.

In 1764, New Serbia was liquidated, and Usykivka became part of the Elizabethan province of Novorossiya Governorate, which existed until 1783, when its territory was included in the Yekaterinoslav Viceroyalty. In 1784, the Russian government gave the settlement a Hellenic name of Oleksandriisk and later Oleksandriia.

In 1793, 738 people lived here. In 1858, 7,800 people lived in Oleksandriia.[9] At the beginning of the 20th century, 14,007 people lived in Oleksandriia.[10] From 1806 to 1922, Oleksandriia was a county (uyezd) seat.

 
Panorama of the city, 1900

During the Ukrainian War of Independence and Ukrainian–Soviet War in 1917, branches of the Ukrainian Free Cossacks appeared on the territory of Oleksandriia. Because of Red Terror in May 1919, the city of Oleksandria was the center of an anti-Bolshevik uprising led by Otaman Nykyfor Hryhoriv, whose forces were brutally suppressed by the Red Army on 23 May 1919.[11]

During the Holodomor of 1932–1933, at least 1,729 residents of the city died[12]

On 6 August 1941, (during World War II) the Red Army of the Soviet Union left the city to the Nazi Germany Wehrmacht without a fight. During the Nazi occupation, the city lost almost its entire Jewish population (est. ~2,500).[13] The Nazi administration also executed over 5,500 Soviet prisoners of war as part of the Nazi stance on the issue of the Soviets not signing the 1929 Geneva Convention. The city was recovered by the Soviet armed forces on 6 December 1943.[14]

In 2013, 82,819 residents lived here.

 
Monument to fallen heroes

During the war in the east of Ukraine, 24 warriors from Olexandria died, in whose honor a monument in the form of a cross with a trident was opened on Independence Day 2017[15]

Until 18 July 2020, Oleksandriia was designated as a city of oblast significance and belonged to Oleksandriia Municipality. It was the administrative center of Oleksandriia Raion even though it did not belong to the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kirovohrad Oblast to four, Oleksandriia Municipality was merged into Oleksandriia Raion.[16][17]

On 15 April 2022, at 10:26 p.m., two Russian missiles hit the infrastructure of the city's airport.[18]

In 2023, on Independence Day, the Memorial Alley of those killed in the Russo-Ukrainian war was opened[19]

Population

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Historical population
YearPop.±%
189714,007—    
192618,255+30.3%
193919,755+8.2%
195935,190+78.1%
197069,416+97.3%
197982,059+18.2%
1989102,611+25.0%
200193,357−9.0%
201183,339−10.7%
202276,097−8.7%
Source: [20]

Language

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Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:[21]

Language Percentage
Ukrainian 86.3%
Russian 13.19%
other/undecided 0.51%

Geography

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Climate

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The climate of Oleksandriia is classified as humid continental (Köppen classification: Dfb). Winters are cold and mild, while summers are hot. January is usually the coldest month (average temperature -5 °C), its hottest month is July (average temperature 21.5 °C). With no dry season, winters are snowy and summers are rainy. Its wettest month is June (66 mm), its driest is March (30 mm), with an average annual precipitation of 526 mm.

Climate data for Oleksandriia, Ukraine (1949-2011)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) −1.8
(28.8)
−1
(30)
3.8
(38.8)
13.7
(56.7)
21.1
(70.0)
25.2
(77.4)
27.1
(80.8)
26.4
(79.5)
20.7
(69.3)
13.4
(56.1)
5.3
(41.5)
0.9
(33.6)
12.9
(55.2)
Daily mean °C (°F) −5
(23)
−4.2
(24.4)
0.2
(32.4)
8.8
(47.8)
15.6
(60.1)
19.7
(67.5)
21.5
(70.7)
20.5
(68.9)
15
(59)
8.7
(47.7)
2.3
(36.1)
−1.8
(28.8)
8.4
(47.1)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −8.1
(17.4)
−7.4
(18.7)
−3.3
(26.1)
4
(39)
10.2
(50.4)
14.2
(57.6)
15.9
(60.6)
14.7
(58.5)
9.4
(48.9)
4.1
(39.4)
−0.7
(30.7)
−4.4
(24.1)
4.1
(39.4)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 39
(1.5)
34
(1.3)
30
(1.2)
39
(1.5)
45
(1.8)
66
(2.6)
66
(2.6)
48
(1.9)
39
(1.5)
33
(1.3)
40
(1.6)
47
(1.9)
526
(20.7)
Source: Climate-data.org[22]

Places of interest

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A popular place to visit in the town is Oleksandriia's square, known as Soborna Square ("Соборна площа").

International relations

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Twin towns

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Oleksandriia is twinned with:

Friendship agreement

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Notable people

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Oleksandriia mayor election 2020, Central Election Commission of Ukraine
  2. ^ "Александрийская городская громада" (in Russian). Портал об'єднаних громад України.
  3. ^ Чисельність наявного населення України на 1 січня 2022 [Number of Present Population of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022] (PDF) (in Ukrainian and English). Kyiv: State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2022.
  4. ^ (in Ukrainian) Oleksandriia, NASU Institute of History of Ukraine (last reviewed in 2010)
  5. ^ Дещо про «козака Вуса» - Олександрійське козацтво
  6. ^ До історії заснування поселення Усівка Н. Жахалова. Блог Олександрійського краєзнавчого музею
  7. ^ «До історії заснування поселення Усівка». 28 січня 2015. Блог Надії Жахалової
  8. ^ "ОЛЕКСАНДРІЯ, ОЛЕКСАНДРІЙСЬКИЙ РАЙОН, КІРОВОГРАДСЬКА ОБЛАСТЬ". ukrssr.com.ua (in Ukrainian). 10 October 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  9. ^ «Одесский вестник» № 42, 1856 Повна стаття в перекладі українською
  10. ^ Географія рідного краю. Ф. Н. Спектор, С. М. Рубін. Київ — 1996. ISBN 966-557-004-8
  11. ^ Михайличенко Д. Ю. Травнева військово-політична криза в УСРР, 1919 р. // Вісник Харківського національного університету ім. В. Н. Каразіна. — Сер. Історія України. — Вип. 5. — Харків, 2002. — С. 137.
  12. ^ Олександрійці вшанували пам’ять жертв Голодомору
  13. ^ About Oleksandriia at "The Untold Stories: The Murder Sites of the Jews in the Occupied Territories of the Former USSR", Yad Vashem website
  14. ^ Geoffrey P. Megargee (1619). Encyclopedia of camps and ghettos, 1933-1945. Vol. II, partie B.
  15. ^ У День Незалежності, в Олександрії відкрили пам'ятник загиблим за Україну
  16. ^ "Про утворення та ліквідацію районів. Постанова Верховної Ради України № 807-ІХ". Голос України (in Ukrainian). 18 July 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Нові райони: карти + склад" (in Ukrainian). Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України.
  18. ^ "Кіровоградщина: росіяни вдарили ракетами по аеродрому в Олександрії". Українська правда (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  19. ^ В Олександрії відкрили Алею пам’яті захисників (ФОТО)
  20. ^ "Cities & Towns of Ukraine".
  21. ^ "Рідні мови в об'єднаних територіальних громадах України".
  22. ^ "Climatological Normals for Oleksandriia, Ukraine (1949-2011)". Climate-data. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  23. ^ "Договір про дружбу з Батом підписано". Oleksandriia City Council. 11 August 2023.
  24. ^ Crossing the English Channel