Dnipropetrovsk

Dnipropetrovsk (Дніпропетро́вськ ) or Dnepropetrovsk (Днепропетро́вск ), formerly Yekaterinoslav (Екатериносла́в, Катериносла́в, translit. Katerynoslav) is Ukraine's fourth largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central part of the country. Dnipropetrovsk is the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Within the Dnipropetrovsk Metropolitan area the population is about 1,004,000 to 1,360,000 people.

A vital industrial centre of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk was one of the key centres of the nuclear, arms, and space industries of the Soviet Union. In particular, it is home to the Yuzhmash, a major space and ballistic missile design bureau and manufacturer. Because of its military industry, Dnipropetrovsk was a closed city until the 1990s.

Dnipropetrovsk is a powerhouse of Ukraine's business and politics as the native city for many country's top-importance figures. Ukraine's politics is still defined by the legacy of Leonid Kuchma, Pavlo Lazarenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko whose intermingled careers started in Dnipropetrovsk.

Nomenclature
Over time, Dnipropetrovsk has been known by a number of names:


 * Yekaterinoslav 1776–1782, reestablished 1783–1797
 * Novorossiysk 1797–1802
 * Yekaterinoslav 1802–1918
 * Katerynoslav / Yekaterinoslav 1918–1926
 * Dnipropetrovsk / Dnepropetrovsk 1926–1992
 * Dnipropetrovsk 1992–present

It is also referred to as Katerynoslav, also Catharinoslav on maps of the nineteenth century.

In some Anglophone media the city was also known as the Rocket City.

In 1918, the Central Council of Ukraine proposed to change the name of the city to Sicheslav; however, it was never officially fulfilled.

Geography
The city is built mainly upon the both banks of the Dnieper, at its confluence with the Samara River. In the loop of a major meander, the Dnieper changes its course from the north west to continue southerly and later south-westerly through Ukraine, ultimately passing Kherson, where it finally flows into the Black Sea. The city's location always provided significant opportunities for the advancement of agriculture, mainly due to the natural irrigation provided by the river and the resulting fertile soils.

The area the city is built on is mainly devoid of hills and other geographical features. Being mainly flat, the land is easy to use, which explains why the city has been able to grow to such a great extent over the past 200 years. Whilst most residential, commercial, and industrial districts of the city are along the less marshy south bank of the river, some residential, commercial, and industrial areas have developed on the previously less-hospitable northern bank.

Nowadays both the north and south banks play home to a range of industrial enterprises and manufacturing plants. The airport is located about 15 km south-easterly of the city.

The centre of the city is constructed on the right bank which is part of the Dnieper Upland, while the left bank is part of the Dnieper Lowland. The old town is situated atop of a hill that is formed as a result of the river's change of course to the south. The change of river's direction is caused by its proximity to the Azov Upland located southeast of the city.

One of the city's streets, Prospekt Karla Marksa, links the two major architectural ensembles of the city and constitutes an important thoroughfare through the centre, which along with various suburban radial road systems, provides some of the area's most vital transport links for both suburban and inter-urban travel.

Climate
During the summer, Dnipropetrovsk is very warm (average day temperature in July is 24 to 28 C, even hot sometimes 32 to 36 C. Temperatures as high as 36 °C have been recorded in May. Winter is not so cold (average day temperature in January is -4 to 0 C, but when there is no snow and the wind blows hard, it feels extremely cold. A mix of snow and rain happens usually in December.

The best time for visiting the city is in late spring — late April and May, and early in autumn: September, October, when the city's trees turn yellow. Other times are mainly dry with a few showers.

"However, the city is characterized with significant pollution of air with industrial emissions." The "severely polluted air and water" and allegedly "vast areas of decimated landscape" of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk that some consider an environmental crisis. Though exactly where in Dnipropetrovsk these areas might be found is not stated.

Ancient times
After the last Ice Age (10,000 years ago) the settling of the Prydniprovia area began more intensely. In c.3500–2700 BC the first farmers lived here (people of the so-called Cucuteni-Trypillia culture).

The Cimmerians, ancient equestrian nomads who bred cattle, occupied the North Pontic steppe zone including Prydniprovye; their culture and civilization flourished between about 1000 and 800 BC. The Cimmerians were driven out by the nomadic Scythians (700 BC), who in turn were overcome by the Sarmatians from the East (200 BC).

The mighty, broad Dnieper River (Greeks called it the Borysthenes, 'Borysphen' in local pronunciation) with its picturesque islands and peaceful backwaters, lush flood-meadows and shadowy oak woods stretches along river valleys and ravines. Abundant game and fish in local forests and waters are a result of good climate and vast fertile land. All this attracted hunters, fishers, cattle-breeders and land-tillers to these parts.

In the 3rd and 4th century, about 40 km south of the modern city, the village of Bashmachka (Башмачка) was one of the centres of the Goths. A little later their place was taken by first the Huns, the Avars, the Bulgars, and the Magyars. After them the Slavs began to settle in the area.

The middle ages


A monastery was founded by Byzantine monks on Monastyrsky Island, probably in the 9th century (870 AD). The Dnipropetrovsk area was ruled by a steppe nomadic people called the Cumans or Kipchaks who ruled this area until the Mongol invasions. The Tatars destroyed the monastery in 1240.

At the beginning of the 15th century, Tatar tribes inhabiting the right bank of the Dnieper were driven away by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Unfortunately, by the mid-15th century, the Nogai (who lived north of the Sea of Azov) and the Crimean Khanate invaded these lands. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crimean Khanate agreed to a border along the Dnieper, and further east along the Samara River, i.e. through what is today the city of Dnipropetrovsk. It was in this time that there appeared a new force – the free people – Cossacks. They later became known as Zaporozhian Cossacks (Zaporizhia – the lands south of Prydniprovye, translate as "The Land Beyond the Weirs [Rapids]"). This was a period of raids and fighting causing considerable devastation and depopulation in that area; the area became known as the 'Wilderness' (Russian Дикое поле) (Ukrainian Дике Поле).

16th–18th centuries


The first fortified town in what is now Dnipropetrovsk was probably built in the mid-16th century, and is now referred to as "Stari Kodaky" (Old Kodaky). In 1635, the Polish Government built the Kodak fortress above the Dnieper Rapids at Kodaky (on the south-eastern outskirts of modern Dnipropetrovsk), partly as a result of rivalry in the region of Poland, Turkey and Crimean Khanate, and partly to maintain control over Cossack activity (i.e. to suppress the Cossacks raiders and to prevent peasants moving out of the area). On the night of 3/4 August 1635, the Cossacks of Ivan Sulyma captured the fort by surprise, burning it down and butchering the garrison of about 200 West European mercenaries under Jean Marion. The fort was rebuilt by French engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan for the Polish Government in 1638, and had a mercenary garrison. Kodak was captured by Zaporozhian Cossacks on 1 October 1648, and was garrisoned by the Cossacks until its demolition in accordance with the Treaty of the Pruth in 1711. The ruins of the Kodak are visible now. There is currently a project to restore it and create a tourist centre and park-museum.

Under the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654, the territory became part of the Russian Empire. For practical purposes, the Prydniprovye lands remained a self-governing border area until the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich in 1775.

The Zaporozhian village of Polovytsia was founded in the late-1760s, between the settlements of Stari (Old) and Novi (New) Kodaky. It was located at the present centre of the city to the West to district of Central Terminal and the Ozyorka farmers market.

1775–1917: Modern city establishment
The city that is now called Dnipropetrovsk was founded as part of the expansion of the Russian Empire into the lands North of the Black Sea, known as the Novorossiysk gubernia. The city was originally known as Yekaterinoslav, which translates in English to "The glory of Yekaterina" (Catherine the Great). It became the administrative centre of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate.

Cossack and Russian armies fought against the Ottoman Empire for control of this area in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ended this war in July 1774; and in May 1775 the Russian army destroyed the Zaporozhian Sich, thus eliminating the political independence of Cossacks. In 1774 Prince Grigori Potemkin was appointed governor of Novorossiysk gubernia, and after the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, he started founding cities in the region and encouraging foreign settlers. The city of Yekaterinoslav was founded in 1776, not in the current location, but at the confluence of the River Samara with the River Kil'chen' at Loshakivka, north of the Dnieper. By 1782, the city population was 2,194. However the site had been badly chosen because spring waters were transforming the city into a bog. The settlement was later renamed Novomoskovsk. In 1783, Yekaterinoslav was refounded on its current site, on the south bank of the Dnieper, near the Zaporozhian village of Polovytsia. The population of Yekaterinoslav-Kil'chen' were (according to some sources) transferred to the new site. Potemkin's plans for the city were extremely ambitious. It was to be about 30 by in size, and included:

The site for the Potemkin palace was bought from retired Cossack yesaul (colonel) Lazar' Globa, who owned much of the land near the city. Part of Lazar' Globa's gardens still exist and are now called Globa Park.
 * Transfiguration Cathedral (the claim that it was intended as the largest in the world probably results from confusing Potemkin's reference to San Paulo-fuori-le-mura in Rome with St Peter's Basilica. )
 * The Potemkin palace
 * A magnificent university (never built)
 * A botanical garden on Monastyrskyi Island
 * Wide straight avenues through the city.

A combination of Russian red tape, defective workmanship, and theft resulted in what was built being less than originally planned. Construction stopped after the death of Potemkin and his sponsor, Empress Catherine. Plans were reconsidered and scaled back. The size of the cathedral was reduced, and it was completed in 1835. From 1797 to 1802 the city was called Novorossiysk.

Despite the bridging of the Dnieper in 1796 and the growth of trade in the early 19th century, Yekaterinoslav remained small until the 1880s, when the railway was built and industrialization of the city began. The boom was caused by two men: John Hughes, a Welsh businessman who built an iron works at what is now Donetsk in 1869–72, and developed the Donetsk coal deposits.; and Alexandr Pol', a Ukrainian who accidentally discovered the Kryvyi Rih iron ores in 1866, during archaeological research. The Donetsk coal was necessary for smelting pig-iron from the Kryvyi Rih ore, producing a need for railway to connect Donetsk with Kryvyi Rih. Permission to build the railway was given in 1881, and it opened in 1884. The railway crossed the Dnieper at Yekaterinoslav. The city grew quickly; new suburbs appeared: Amur, Nyzhnodniprovsk and the factory areas developed. In 1897, Yekaterinoslav became the third city in the Russian Empire to have electric trams. The Higher Mining School opened in 1899, and by 1913 it had grown into the Mining Institute.

Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 resulted in revolts against the Tsar in many places including Yekaterinoslav. Tens of people were killed and hundreds wounded. There was a wave of anti-Semitic attacks.

From 1902 to 1933, the famous historian of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, Dmytro Yavornytsky, was Director of the Dnipropetrovsk Museum, which was later named after him. Before his death in 1940, Yavornytsky wrote a History of the City of Yekaterinoslav, which lay in manuscript for many years. It was only published in 1989 as a result of the Gorbachev reforms.

1917–1919: Civil War
After the Russian February revolution in 1917 Yekaterinoslav became a city within autonomy of Ukrainian People's Republic under Tsentralna Rada government. In November 1917 the Bolsheviks led a rebellion and got power for a short time. The city experienced occupation of German and Austrian-Hungarian armies that were allies of Ukrainian Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi and helped him to keep authority in the country.

In the time of the Ukrainian Directorate government, with its dictator Symon Petlura, the city had periods of uncertain power. At times the anarchists of Nestor Makhno held the city, and at others Denikin's Volunteer Army. Military operations of the Red Army, which came in from the North, captured the city in 1919, and despite attempts by Russian General Wrangel in 1920, he was unable to reach Yekaterinoslav. The War ended the following year.

1919–1944: in the Soviet Union and under Nazi rule
The city was renamed after the Communist leader of Ukraine Grigory Petrovsky in 1926. Petrovsky was later involved in the organization of Holodomor.

Dnipropetrovsk was under Nazi occupation from 17 August 1941 to 25 October 1943.

During the past century, the economic activity of the city has defined its political importance. Dnipropetrovsk and the surrounding oblast are the birthplace of the "Dnipropetrovsk Faction", an influential informal political group inside the CPSU, members of which were the industrial and party elite. Leonid Brezhnev, a native of the nearby city of Dniprodzerzhyns'k and later the Communist Party General Secretary, assured members of this group of a prominent place in Soviet society and politics. Members of this group are believed by many political scientists to have ruled not only the Ukrainian SSR but also the entire Soviet Union up to the accession of Mikhail Gorbachev to the position of CPSU General Secretary and President of the Soviet Union.

1944–1987: as a closed city in the Soviet Union
As early as July 1944, the State Committee of Defense in Moscow decided to build a large military machine-building factory in Dnipropetrovsk on the location of the pre-war aircraft plant. In December 1945, thousands of German prisoners of war began construction and built the first sections and shops in the new factory. This was the foundation of the Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory. In 1947 and 1948 this factory produced the first cars and special military automobiles.

Joseph Stalin suggested special secret training for highly qualified engineers and scientists to become rocket construction specialists. He recommended introducing a new college degree at Dnipropetrovsk State University: a master of sciences in rocket construction.

In 1954 the administration of this automobile factory opened a secret design office with the name “Southern” (konstruktorskoe biuro Yuzhnoe – in Russian) to construct military missiles and rocket engines. Hundreds of talented physicists, engineers and machine designers moved from Moscow and other large cities in the Soviet Union to Dnipropetrovsk to join this “Southern” design office. In 1965, the secret Plant #586 was transferred to the Ministry of General Machine-Building of the USSR. The next year this plant officially changed its name into “the Southern Machine-building Factory” (Yuzhnyi mashino-stroitel’nyi zavod) or in abbreviated Russian, simply Yuzhmash.

The first “General Constructor” and head of the “Southern” design office was Mikhail Yangel, a prominent scientist and outstanding designer of space rockets, who managed not only the design office, but the entire factory from 1954 to 1971. Yangel designed the first powerful rockets and space military equipment for the Soviet Ministry of Defense. Moscow sent specialists and invested money into Yangel and his colleagues’ projects. Yangel collaborated with talented engineers who later became the leaders of military production in Dnipropetrovsk and the official directors of Yuzhmash. Two close collaborators of Yangel and of his successor V. Utkin (1971–1990) were the Yuzhmash directors Leonid Smirnov (1952–1961) and Aleksandr Makarov (1961–1986).

In 1951 the Southern Machine-building Factory began manufacturing and testing new military rockets for the battlefield. The range of these first missiles was only 270 km. By 1959 Soviet scientists and engineers developed new technology, and as a result, the “Southern” design office (KBYu – as abbreviated in Russian) started a new machine-building project making ballistic missiles. Under the leadership of Yangel, KBYu produced such powerful rocket engines that the range of these ballistic missiles was practically without limits. During the 1960s, these powerful rocket engines were used as launch vehicles for the first Soviet space ships. During Makarov’s directorship, Yuzhmash designed and manufactured four generations of missile complexes of different types. These included space launch vehicles Kosmos, Tsyklon-2, Tsyklon-3 and Zenit. Under the leadership of Yangel’s successor, V. Utkin, the KBYu created a unique space-rocket system called Energia-Buran. Yuzhmash engineers manufactured 400 technical devices that were launched in artificial satellites (Sputniks). For the first time in the world space industry, the Dnipropetrovsk missile plant organised the serial production of space Sputniks. By the 1980s, this plant manufactured 67 different types of space ships, 12 space research complexes and 4 defense space rocket systems.

These systems were used not only for purely military purposes by the Ministry of Defense, but also for astronomic research, for global radio and television network and for ecological monitoring. Yuzhmash initiated and sponsored the international space program of socialist countries, called Interkosmos.

On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, KBYu had 9 regular and corresponding members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 33 full professors and 290 scientists holding a Ph.D. They awarded scientific degrees and presided over a prestigious graduate school at KBYu, which attracted talented students of physics from all over the USSR. More than 50,000 people worked at Yuzhmash. At the end of the 1950s, Yuzhmash became the main Soviet design and manufacturing centre for different types of missile complexes. The Soviet Ministry of Defense included Yuzhmash in its strategic plans. The military rocket systems manufactured in Dnipropetrovsk became the major component of the newly born Soviet Missile Forces of Strategic Purpose.

According to contemporaries, Yuzhmash was separate entity inside the Soviet state. After a long period of competition with the Moscow centre of rocket construction of V. Chelomei (a successor of Koroliov) Yuzhmash rocket designs won in 1969. Since that time leaders of the Soviet military industrial complex preferred Yuzhmash rocket models. By the end of the 1970s, this plant became the major centre for designing, constructing, manufacturing, testing and deploying strategic and space missile complexes in the Soviet Union. The general designer and director of Yuzhmash supervised the work of numerous research institutes, design centres and factories all over the Soviet Union from Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, to Voronezh and Yerevan. The Soviet state provided billions of Soviet rubles to finance Yuzhmash projects.

Officially, Yuzhmash manufactured agricultural tractors and special kitchen equipment for everyday needs, such as mincing-machines or juicers for peaceful Soviet households. In official reports for the general audience there was no information about the production of rockets or spaceships. However, hundreds of thousands of workers and engineers in the city of Dnipropetrovsk worked in this plant and members of their families (up to 60% of the city population!) knew about the “real production” of Yuzhmash. This missile plant became a significant factor in the arms race of the Cold War. This is why the Soviet government approved of the KGB’s secrecy about Yuzhmash and its products. According to the Soviet government’s decision, the city of Dnipropetrovsk was officially closed to foreign visitors in 1959. No citizen of a foreign country (even of the socialist ones) was allowed to visit the city or district of Dnipropetrovsk. After the late 1950s ordinary Soviet people called Dnipropetrovsk “the rocket closed city.”

Only during perestroika was Dnipropetrovsk opened to foreigners again in 1987. (see in detail in Sergei I. Zhuk, Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: The West, Identity, and Ideology in Soviet Dniepropetrovsk, 1960–1985 (Baltimore, MD: the Johns Hopkins University Press & Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2010), 18–28.

After 1991: Since Ukrainian independence
In June 1990, the women’s department of Dnipropetrovsk preliminary prison was destroyed in prison riots. In the ten years that followed, women under investigation (i.e. not convicted) in Dnipropetrovsk oblast were either held in Preliminary Prison 4 in Kryvyi Rih or in "detention blocks" in Dnipropetrovsk; this contravened Ukrainian Law "On preliminary incarceration". Journeys from Kryviy Rih took up to six hours in special railway carriages with grated windows. Some prisoners had to do this 14 or 15 times. After complaints by the ombudsman (Nina Karpacheva) the head of the State prison department of Ukraine (Vladimir Levochkin) arranged that finances were given for the provision of women cells in Dnipropetrovsk Preliminary Prison, making the lives of the 15,000 unconvicted women-detainees easier from August 2000.

In 2005, the most powerful representative of the "Dnipropetrovsk Faction" in Ukrainian politics was Leonid Kuchma, the former President of Ukraine and former senior manager of Yuzhmash.

In June and July 2007, Dnipropetrovsk experienced a wave of serial killings that were dubbed by the media as the work of the Dnipropetrovsk maniacs. In February 2009, three youths were sentenced for their part in 21 murders.

On 27 April 2012, four bombs exploded near four tram stations in Dnipropetrovsk, injuring 26 people.

Cityscape
Dnipropetrovsk is a primarily industrial city of around one million people; in being such it has developed into a large urban centre over the past few centuries to become, today, Ukraine's third-largest city.

Immediately after its foundation Dnipropetrovsk, or as it was then known 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. Neo-classical structures of brick and stone construction were preferred and the city began to take on the appearance of a typical European city of the era. Of these buildings many have been retained in the city's older Zhovtnevy Raion (district). Amongst the most important buildings of this era are the Transfiguration Cathedral, and a number of buildings in the area surrounding Karla Marksa Prospekt.

Over the next few decades, until the October Revolution in 1917 the city did not change much in appearance and the predominant architectural style remained that of neo-classicism. Notable buildings built in the era preceding the Bolshevik's rise to power and the establishment of communist Ukraine and later its absorption into the Soviet Union, include the main building of the National Mining University, which was built in 1899–1901, the art-nouveau inspired building of the city's former Duma, the Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum, and the Mechnikov Regional Hospital. Other buildings of the era that did not fit the typical architectural style of the time in Dnipropetrovsk include, the Ukrainian-influenced Grand Hotel Ukraine, the Russian revivalist style railway station (since reconstructed), and the art-nouveau Astoriya building on Karla Marksa Prospekt.

Once the bolsheviks had taken power in Dnipropetrovsk the city was gradually purged of tsarist-era monuments and monumental architecture was stripped of Imperial coats of arms and other non-socialist symbolism. In 1917, a monument to Catherine the Great that stood in front of the Mining Institute was replaced with one of Russian academic Mikhail Lomonosov. Later, due to damage from the Second World War, a number of large buildings were reconstructed. The main railway station, for example, was stripped of its Russian-revival ornamentation and redesigned in the style of Stalinist social-realism, whilst the Grand Hotel Ukraine survived the war but was later simplified much in design, with its roof being reconstructed in a typical French mansard style as opposed to the ornamental Ukrainian baroque of the pre-war era. Other badly damaged buildings were, more often than not, demolished completely and replaced with new structures. This is one of the main reasons why much of Dnipropetrovsk's central avenue, Karla Marksa Prospekt, is designed in the style of Stalinist Social Realism. Many pre-revolution buildings were also reconstructed to suit new purposes. For example, the Emperor Nicholas II Commercial Institute in Dnipropetrovsk was reconstructed to serve as the administrative centre for the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a function it fulfils to this day. Other buildings, such as the Potemkin Palace were given over to the proletariat, in this case as the students' union of the Dnipropetrovsk National University.

After the death of Stalin and appointment of Khrushchev, a Ukrainian, as party secretary, the industrialisation of Dnipropetrovsk became even more profound, with the Southern (Yuzhne) Missile and Rocket factory being set up in the city. However, this was not the only development and many other factories, especially metallurgical and heavy-manufacturing plants, were set up in the city. At this point Dnipropetrovsk became one of the most important manufacturing cities in the Soviet Union, producing many goods from small articles like screws and vacuum cleaners to aircraft engine pieces and ballistic missiles. As a result of all this industrialisation the city's inner suburbs became increasingly polluted and were gradually given over to large, unsightly industrial enterprises. At the same time the estensive development of the city's left bank and western suburbs as new residential areas began. The low-rise tenant houses of the Khrushchev era (Khrushchyovkas) gave way to the construction of high-rise prefabricated apartment blocks (similar to German Plattenbaus). In 1976 in line with the city's 1926 renaming a large monumental statue of Grigoriy Petrovsky was placed on the square in front of the city's station.

To this day the city is characterised by its mix of architectural styles, with much of the city's centre consisting of pre-revolutionary buildings in a variety of styles, stalinist buildings and constructivist architecture, whilst residential districts are, more often than not, made up of aesthetically simple, technically outdated mid-rise and high-rise housing stock from the Soviet era. Despite this, the city does have a large number of 'private sectors' were the tradition of building and maintaining individual detached housing has continued to this day.

Since the independence of Ukraine in 1991 and the economic development that followed, a number of large commercial and business centres have been built in the city's outskirts.

Demographics
Between 1923 and 1933 the Ukrainian proportion of the population of Dnipropetrovsk increased from 16% to 48%. This was part of a national trend. These demographic numbers are not illustrative of the current demography of the city.

Attractions
The city has a variety of theatres (plus an Opera) and museums of interest to tourists. There are also several parks, restaurants and beaches.

The major streets of the city were renamed in honour of Marxist heroes during the Soviet era. The central thoroughfare is known as Karla Marksa Prospekt, a, wide and long boulevard that stretches east to west through the centre of the city. It was founded in the 18th century and parts of its buildings are the actual decoration of the city. In the heart of the city is Zhovtneva [October] Square, which includes the majestic cathedral founded by order of Catherine the Great in 1787.

On the square, there are some remarkable buildings: the Museum of History, Diorama "Battle for the Dnieper River (World War II)", and also the park in which one can rest in the hot summer. Walking down the hill to the Dnieper River, one arrives in the large Taras Shevchenko Park (which is on the right bank of the river) and on Monastyrsky Island. This island is one of the most interesting places in the city. In the 9th century, the Byzantine monks based a monastery here.

A few areas retain their historical character: all of Central Avenue, some street-blocks on the main hill (the Nagorna part) between Pushkin Prospekt and Embankment, and sections near Globa (formerly known as Chkalov park until it was recently renamed) and Shevchenko parks have been untouched for 150 years.

The Dnieper River keeps the climate mild. It is visible from many points in Dnipropetrovsk. From any of the three hills in the city, one can see a view of the river, islands, parks, outskirts, river banks and other hills.

There was no need to build skyscrapers in the city in Soviet times. The major industries preferred to locate their offices close to their factories and away from the centre of town. Most new office buildings are built in the same architectural style as the old buildings. A number, however, display more modern aesthetics, and some blend the two styles.

Sport
The city also houses the Ukrainian Premier League football club, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. This club, commonly seen as representing the city at large, holds a record for being the only Soviet team to win the USSR Federation Cup twice; since independence they have gone on to win the Ukrainian Championship once and the Ukrainian League Cup three times. Despite Dnipro's dominance, a number of other teams also call Dnipropetrovsk their home, these include, amongst others, FC Lokomotyv Dnipropetrovsk and FC Spartak Dnipropetrovsk, both of which have large fan bases in the city. On a national/international stage however, no team from the city has met with the same level of success experienced by FC Dnipro.

Recently the city built a new soccer stadium; the Dnipro-Arena has a capacity of 31,003 people and was built as a replacement for Dnipro's old stadium, Stadium Meteor. The Dnipro-Arena hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification game between Ukraine and England on 10 October 2009. The Dnipro Arena was initially chosen as one of the Ukrainian venues for their joint Euro 2012 bid with Poland. However it was dropped from the list in May 2009 as the capacity fell short of the minimum 33,000 seats required by UEFA.

The city is the centre of Ukrainian bandy. The Ukrainian Federation of Bandy and Rink-Bandy has its office in the city.

Economy
Dnipropetrovsk is a major industrial centre of Ukraine. It has several facilities devoted to heavy industry that produce a wide range of products, including cast-iron, rolled metal, pipes, machinery, different mining combines, agricultural equipment, tractors, trolleybuses, refrigerators, different chemicals and many others. The most famous and the oldest (founded in the 19th century) is the Metallurgic Plant named after Petrovsky. The city also has big food processing and light industry factories. Many sewing and dress-making factories work for France, Canada, Germany and Great Britain, using the most advanced technologies, materials and design. Dnipropetrovsk has also dominated in the aerospace industry since the 1950s; construction department Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and Yuzhmash are well known to the specialists all over the world.

Dniproavia, an airline, has its head office on the grounds of Dnipropetrovsk International Airport.

Education
Dnipropetrovsk is a major educational centre in Ukraine and is home to two of Ukraine's top-ten universities; the Dnipropetrovsk National University and National Mining University.

In 2003 158 schools of all varieties were registered as operating in Dnipropetrovsk. As was later recorded in 2010, around 80,000 pupils between the ages of six and nineteen study in schools in the city (of which there were, by 1 September 2010, 164). Of this figure almost 9,000 pupils were in their first year of compulsory education.

Currently the city has 173 kindergartens, 39 of which are within educational establishments, and in which around 30 000 children are educated. There are also 5 orphanages in the city, and in 1992 the first judicial lyceum in Ukraine was founded in Dnipropetrovsk.

In 2006 Dnipropetrovsk hosted the All-Ukrainian Olympiad in Information Technology; in 2008, that for Mathematics, and in 2009 the semi-final of the All-Ukrainian Olympiad in Programming for the Eastern Region. In the same year as the latter took place, the youth group 'Eksperiment', an organisation promoting increased cultural awareness amongst Ukrainians, was founded in the city.

Higher education
Dnipropetrovsk currently has 14 state-run higher educational institutions, and a large number of private institutions.

The list below is a list of all current state-organised higher educational institutions (not included are non-independent subdivisions of other universities not based in Dnipropetrovsk).

Currently around 55, 000 students study in Dnipropetrovsk, a significant number of whom are students from abroad.

Local transportation


The main forms of public transport used in Dnipropetrovsk are trams, buses, electric trolley buses and marshrutkas—private minibuses. In addition to this there are a large number of taxi firms operating in the city, and many residents have private cars.

The city's municipal roads also suffer from the same funding problems as the trams, with many of them in a very poor technical state. It is not uncommon to find very large potholes and crumbling surfaces on many of Dnipropetrovsk's smaller roads. Major roads and highways are of better quality. In recent years the situation has, however, been improving, with a number of new used trams bought from the German cities of Dresden and Magdeburg, and a number of roads, including Schmidt Street and Moskovsky Street being reconstructed with modern road-building techniques.

Dnipropetrovsk also has a metro system, opened in 1995, which consists of one line and 6 stations. Work on other stations was abandoned when the city ran out of money for this project; two of these abandoned building works are in the central portion of Karla Marksa Prospekt. Completion of the next two stations is necessary to make the municipal subway system profitable. At the present time the completion date is unknown. As of 2011 the central portion of the city's metro line has seen renewed construction efforts and the metro has been transferred to municipal ownership in the hope that this will help it secure a loan from the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction. Current plans envision the three station section from Teatralna, through Tsentralna, to Muzeina completed by 2015.

Suburban transportation
Dnipropetrovsk has some highways crossing through the city. The most popular routes are from Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia. Transit through the city is also available. As of 2011 the city is also seeing construction of a southern urban bypass, which will allow automobile traffic to proceed around the city centre. This is expected to both improve air quality and reduce transport issues from heavy freight lorries that pass through the city centre.

The largest bus station in eastern Ukraine is located in Dnipropetrovsk, from where bus routes are available to all over the country, including some international routes to Russia, Poland, Germany, Moldova and Turkey. It is located near the city's central railway station.

In the summertime, there are some routes available by hydrofoils on the Dnieper River, whilst various tourist ships on their way down the river, (Kiev–Kherson–Odessa) tend to make a stop in the city. Dnipropetrovsk's river port is located close to the area surrounding the central railway station, on the banks of the river. It is a good example of constructivist architecture from the late period of the Soviet Union.



Railways
The city is a large railway junction, with many daily trains running to and from Eastern Europe and on domestic routes within Ukraine. There are two railway terminals, "Dnipropetrovsk Glavnij" (main station)and "Dnipropetrovsk Yuzhnyi" (south station).

Two express passenger services run each day between Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk under the name 'Capital Express'. Other daytime services include suburban trains to towns and villages in the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Most long-distance trains tend to run at night to reduce the amount of daytime hours spent travelling by each passenger.

Domestic connections exist between Dnipropetrovsk and Kiev, Lviv, Simferopol, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Truskavets, Donetsk, Kharkiv and many other smaller Ukrainian cities, whilst international destinations include, amongst others, Minsk in Belarus, Moscow's Kursky Station and Saint Petersburg's Vitebsky Station in Russia, Baku – the capital of Azerbaijan, and the Bulgarian seaside resort of Varna.

Air travel
The city is served by an Dnipropetrovsk International Airport and is connected to European and Middle Eastern cities with daily flights.

Notable people from Dnipropetrovsk

 * Oksana Baiul — figure skating Olympic Gold Medalist in 1994
 * Helena Blavatsky — founder of Theosophical Society
 * Dnepropetrovsk maniacs serial killers, Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck.
 * Marina Maximillian Blumin — Singer/Songwriter and Kokhav Nolad contestant
 * Katherine Esau — botanist
 * Kyrylo Fesenko — NBA basketball player


 * Linor Goralik — writer
 * Ilya Kabakov — contemporary artist
 * Leonid Kogan — violinist
 * Victor Kravchenko — Soviet dissident
 * Inessa Kravets — long jumper and triple jumper (holds women's record in triple jump)
 * Leonid Kuchma — President of Ukraine in 1994–2005
 * Pavlo Lazarenko — Prime Minister of Ukraine in 1996–97
 * Leonid Levin — computer scientist
 * Igor Morozov (singer) — Russian-Ukrainian opera singer, soloist of Moscow's Bolshoi-Theatre, "People's Artist of Russia"
 * Mikhail Nekrich — musician
 * Igor Olshansky — NFL defensive tackle
 * Viktor Petrov – Ukrainian historian and writer also known under his pen names Domontovych and Ber
 * Gregor Piatigorsky — cellist
 * Viktor Pinchuk — Ukrainian business oligarch
 * Olesya Povh – Olympic bronze medalist runner
 * Sergei Prokofiev — composer
 * Inna Ryzhykh – professional triathlete
 * Boris Sagal – American television and film director, born there.
 * Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — "Lubavitcher Rebbe" headed the Worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch Movement. Posthumously awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.
 * Moses Schönfinkel — logician and mathematician
 * Oleg Tverdokhleb — Athlete – 400 metre hurdles
 * Yulia Tymoshenko — Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005 and 2007–10
 * Tatiana Volosozhar — figure skating Olympic Gold Medalist in 2014

See also List of mayors and political chiefs of the Dnipropetrovsk city administration.

Twin towns and sister cities
The city of Dnipropetrovsk is twinned with: