The city mapSoviet city's emblem (1966) depicting the Southern Pipe Factory. The top shows a crossing of a ceremonial macebulawa, and a variation of Cossackszabla
Nikopol is the fourth-most populous city inDnipropetrovsk Oblast. Located on a cape by theKakhovka reservoir, it is a powerful industrial city with several pipe-producing factories, such as theInterpipe corporation, and steel rolling mills, such as thefactory offerroalloys, constituting Nikopol metropolitan area.
Formerly, the settlement served as one of thecapital cities of theZaporizhian Sich and was known as one of the main crossings over the Dnieper.
Renamed by the Russian Empire into Slaviansk andlater Nikopol (afterAncient Greek:Νικόπολις,lit. 'City of Victory'), the city has a rich preceding history. Between 1638 and 1652, it was the settlement ofMykytyn Rih (Ukrainian:Микитин Ріг, literallyMykyta's bend orMykyta's horn), acapital of theZaporozhian Sich. It was one of the main crossings over the Dnieper, located on the shore of theGreat Meadow.
The 1911 edition ofEncyclopedia Britannica gave the following description of Nikopol: "It was formerly called Nikitin Rog, and occupies an elongated peninsula between two arms of the Dnieper at a point where its banks are low and marshy, and has been for centuries one of the places where the middle Dnieper can most conveniently be crossed."[3]
In 1900, its 21,282 inhabitants wereUkrainians,Jews andMennonites, who carry on agriculture and shipbuilding.[citation needed] The formerSich, or fortified camp of theZaporozhian Cossacks, brilliantly described inN. V. Gogol's novelTaras Bulba (1834) was situated a little higher up the river. Several graves in the vicinity recall the battles fought to possess this important strategic point.
One of the graves, close to the town, contained, along with otherScythian antiquities, a well-known precious vase representing the capture of wild horses. Even now Nikopol, which is situated on the highway from Dnipro toKherson, is the point where the "salt-highway" of theChumaks (Ukrainian salt-carriers) to theCrimea crossed the Dnipro. Nikopol is, further, one of the chief places on the lower Dnieper for the export of corn, linseed, hemp, and wool.
According to archaeological excavations, the city's area was populated as early as theNeolithic epoch in the 4th millennium BCE[4] as evidenced by remnants of a settlement discovered on banks ofMala Kamianka River [uk].[4][5] In burial mounds from the copper–bronze epoch of the 3rd–1st millenniumsBCE were found stone and bronze tools, clay sharp-bottomed ornamental dishes.[4] Also found were burials from theScythian–Sarmatian period, between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE.[4]
At the beginning of the 16th century, in the location of modern Nikopol, appeared a river crossing over theDnieper controlled byCossacks, calledMykytyn Rih.[4] According to a folk legend, a Cossack named Mykyta Tsyhan established it.[4] Under the same name, the crossing is mentioned in the diary of theHoly Roman Empire envoyErich Lassota von Steblau, who visited theZaporizhian Sich in 1594.[4]
By 1648, in the proximity of today's Nikopol, Mykytyn Sich was built. It is renowned for the location ofBohdan Khmelnytsky being elected as the Hetman of Ukraine and as where theKhmelnytsky Uprising against thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth started. Until 1775, the time of theSich sacking, it was called "Mykytyn Rih", "Mykytyn Pereviz", or simply "Mykytyne".
The namerih (Ukrainian for horn) was given because the locality rose at a place reminiscing a peninsula, as it was almost surrounded by theDnieper river (seeKryvyi Rih). Mykytyne was a town of the Kodak Palanka, an administrative division of theZaporizhian Sich. Later, it was renamed into Slovianske and then Nikopol.
In the 18th century,Grigoriy Potyomkin ordered the building of an Imperial Russian fortress at Slaviansk. Eventually, the project was scrapped. Soon after theliquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1782, the settlement was renamed Nikopol.
DuringWorld War II, Nikopol was occupied by theGerman Army until 18 February 1944.Albert Speer referred to it as the "center ofmanganese mining", and, therefore, of vital importance to the German war effort.[9]
The Soviet policy of industrialization created theKakhovka Reservoir which existed from 1956 to 2023, submerging what could be now the most sacred place of an early distinctly Ukrainian statehood: the lands of the formerZaporizhian Host, with their burial sites.
Until July 2020, Nikopol was incorporated as acity of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Nikopol Raion, though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to seven, the city of Nikopol was merged into Nikopol Raion.[10][11]
Nikopol is one of the largest towns in the region, with a population of 105,160 in 2022. The largest manufacturers include the former Nikopol Tube Plant, established in 1931,[12] which is now divided into smaller plants (e.g. Centravis, Interpipe Niko Tube). The Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world in the production of Ferromanganese (FeMn) and Ferrosilicomanganese (FeSiMn).
As of the2001 Ukrainian census, Nikopol had a population of 138,218 inhabitants, of whom the majority are ethnicUkrainians.Russians account for a quarter of the city's population, smaller Minorities areBelarusians,Germans andJews. In terms of spoken languages, almost 60% of the population considersUkrainian to be their first language, while roughly 40% consideredRussian as their native language. The exact ethnic and linguistic composition was:[15][16]
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