Nikopol (, ) is a city and municipality (hromada) in Nikopol Raion in the south of Ukraine, on the right bank of the Dnieper River, about 63 km south-east of Kryvyi Rih and 48 km south-west of Zaporizhzhia. Population:

Nikopol is the fourth-most populous city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Located on a cape by the Kakhovka reservoir, it is a powerful industrial city with several pipe-producing factories, such as the Interpipe corporation, and steel rolling mills, such as the factory of ferroalloys, constituting Nikopol metropolitan area.

Formerly, the settlement served as one of the capital cities of the Zaporizhian Sich and was known as one of the main crossings over the Dnieper.

General information

thumb|upright|left|Soviet city's emblem (1966) depicting the Southern Pipe Factory. The top shows a crossing of a ceremonial mace [[bulawa, and a variation of Cossack szabla]]

Renamed by the Russian Empire into Slaviansk and later Nikopol (after ), the city has a rich preceding history. Between 1638 and 1652, it was the settlement of Mykytyn Rih (, literally Mykyta's bend or Mykyta's horn), a capital of the Zaporozhian Sich. It was one of the main crossings over the Dnieper, located on the shore of the Great Meadow.

The 1911 edition of Encyclopedia 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."

In 1900, its 21,282 inhabitants were Ukrainians, Jews and Mennonites, who carry on agriculture and shipbuilding. The former Sich, or fortified camp of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, brilliantly described in N. V. Gogol's novel Taras 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. as evidenced by remnants of a settlement discovered on banks of . In burial mounds from the copper–bronze epoch of the 3rd–1st millenniums BCE were found stone and bronze tools, clay sharp-bottomed ornamental dishes. In 1652, due to conflict with the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, Kosh Otaman Fedir Liutay moved the administrative seat to Chortomlyk.

During World War II, Nikopol was occupied by the German Army until 18 February 1944. Albert Speer referred to it as the "center of manganese mining", and, therefore, of vital importance to the German war effort.

The Soviet policy of industrialization created the Kakhovka 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 former Zaporizhian Host, with their burial sites.

Until July 2020, Nikopol was incorporated as a city 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.

Just a few kilometres west of the city, the Kosh otaman Ivan Sirko is buried.

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, 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).

Geography

Climate

Demographics

As of the 2001 Ukrainian census, Nikopol had a population of 138,218 inhabitants, of whom the majority are ethnic Ukrainians. Russians account for a quarter of the city's population, smaller Minorities are Belarusians, Germans and Jews. In terms of spoken languages, almost 60% of the population considers Ukrainian to be their first language, while roughly 40% considered Russian as their native language. The exact ethnic and linguistic composition was:

There is bus station, railway station and river port, which connect the town with other cities.

Nikopol River Port facilitates transportation for the metallurgical industry and travel.

Culture

Sports

  • FC Nikopol
  • FC Metalurh Nikopol

<gallery>

File:Nikopol' Shevchenka 6 Staroobryadova Tserkva 02 (YDS 4914).jpg|Old Believers' Church

File:Церква Різдва Богородиці в Сулицькому (мур.) 2.JPG|Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary

File:Монумент в честь богини Ники.jpg|Monument to goddess Nike

File:Ул.Первомайская, г.Никополь.jpg|A street in Nikopol

File:Центральный универмаг Никополя.jpg|Nikopol central department store

File:Nikopol Elektrometalurh Stadium 4.jpg|Elektrometalurh Stadium

</gallery>

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Nikopol is twinned with:

  • Lloydminster, Canada
  • Perth, Scotland
  • Halmstad, Sweden

References

  • Official city website