Nikolaev

a city and administrative center of Nikolaev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. It is situated on the left bank of the Bug Liman of the Black Sea, at the confluence of the Iuzhnyi Bug and Ingul rivers. It is a river port and seaport and a railroad junction of lines to Odessa, Kherson, Snigirevka, and Dolinskaia. Nikolaev has an airport. The city is divided into four urban raions. In 1974 the population numbered 428,000 (174,000 in 1939, 235,000 in 1959, and 331,000 in 1970).

Nikolaev was founded as a fortification in 1784. A shipyard was built there in 1788, and in 1789 Nikolaev became a city. In 1802–03 it was a provincial city. From 1803 to 1861 it was under the jurisdiction of the naval administration. It later became part of Kherson Province. From 1805 to 1913, Nikolaev was under a military governor (until 1856, together with Sevastopol’). From 1900 to 1917 it was a gradonachal’stvo (an administrative unit consisting of a city and its adjacent territory). In 1862 a commercial port and customs house were opened. The Nikolaev-Znamenka railroad line began operation in 1873. Between 1895 and 1897 the Naval’ and Chernomor’e plants were built, as well as an agricultural machinery plant.

In 1897 the Southern Russian Workers’ Union was founded, and in 1898 the first Marxist workers’ circles were organized. These merged in 1901 to form the Nikolaev Committee of the RSDLP. The workers of Nikolaev took part in the strike in the south of Russia in 1903, in the Revolution of 1905–07, and in the Nikolaev strike of 1916. Soviet power was established in Nikolaev on Jan. 14(27), 1918. From Mar. 17, 1918, the city was occupied by Austrian and German troops, and from December 1918, by Anglo-French interventionist forces. On Aug. 17, 1919, it was occupied by the White Guards. On Jan. 31, 1920, it was finally liberated by the Red Army.

From 1920 to 1922, Nikolaev was the administrative center of Nikolaev Province, and from 1923 to 1930, of Nikolaev District. From 1932 to 1937 it was within Odessa Oblast. Since 1937 it has been the administrative center of Nikolaev Oblast.

During the years of the prewar five-year plans, Nikolaev became one of the largest industrial centers in the southern Ukraine and a major center for the construction and repair of seagoing vessels. The gross output in 1941 was 14 times greater than that in 1913. On Aug. 16, 1941, Nikolaev was occupied by fascist German troops, who inflicted extensive damage on the city. On Mar. 28, 1944, it was liberated by the Soviet Army. During the first postwar five-year plan (1946–50), the city was completely rebuilt. In 1970 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Admiral S. O. Makarov was born in Nikolaev.

Nikolaev is one of the most important industrial and cultural centers of the southern Ukraine. The leading branch of industry is machine building, especially shipbuilding. Local plants produce material-handling equipment and fitter’s and assembler’s instruments. There are shipyards and an experimental electrohydraulics plant. The Dormashina Plant, which produces road-building equipment, is located in the city. Light industry is well developed and includes knitwear and clothing enterprises, a shoe factory, and a perfume-glassware combine. The food-processing industry includes a meat-packing plant, a flour mill, and a bread bakery, as well as a confectionery factory and beer breweries. The city also has plants producing construction materials and furniture.

Nikolaev has shipbuilding and pedagogical institutes, a construction engineering department of the Odessa Construction Engineering Institute, a cultural and educational department of the Kiev Institute of Culture, and nine specialized secondary schools, including shipbuilding, construction, railroad transportation, and agricultural technicums. The city has a museum of local lore, an art museum, three theaters (a Ukrainian music and drama theater, a Russian drama theater, and a puppet theater), and a philharmonic society. Nikolaev is the home of the Nikolaev Astronomical Observatory, which is a branch of the Central Astronomical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It also has a television center.

Nikolaev was built according to a regular general plan (1790; architect, I. E. Starov). Buildings the classical style include the St. Nicholas Church (1817), the Officers’ Assembly Hall (1820; now the House of the Navy Officers), and the observatory (1827). Modern Nikolaev is being built according to a general plan approved in 1969 and drafted by the architects A. N. Rappoport, M. A. Iorish, and V. N. Tolmachev. A number of public buildings have been built, including the Iunost’ cinema (1966; architect, V. I. Dobrovinskaia), the pedagogical institute (1966; architects, G. P. Skuratovskii and V. P. Skuratovskii), the House of Artists (1971; architect, E. Ia. Kindiakov), the House of Political Education (1973; architect, E. K. Grigor’eva), and Hotel Nikolaev (1974; architect, A. Ia. Semenova). Residential housing is being built, for example, in the Sukhoi Fontan urban raions (1966–71; architect, N. A. Feoktistova). There is a memorial complex dedicated to the 68 heroic members of a landing party who lost their lives in the liberation of Nikolaev during the Great Patriotic War. The memorials, which are in bronze and granite, were designed by the sculptor A. M. Izmalkov and the architect A. N. Dushkin (1948) and by the sculptor Iu. P. Pommer and the architects V. P. Popov and O. P. Popov (1974).

a city (since 1940) and administrative center of the Nikolaev Raion, L’vov Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Population, 12,400 (1973). It is located 3 km from the Nikolaev-Dnestrovskii railroad station on the L’vov-Stryi line. There is a cement and mining combine, a plant producing reinforced-concrete objects, a dairy, and food-processing enterprises.