Samar, Ukraine

الموسوعة الحرة

Samar (Ukrainian: Самар[sɐˈmɑr]), formerly known as Novomoskovsk (Ukrainian: Новомосковськ, IPA:[nowomoˈskɔu̯sʲk]ⓘ) until 2024, is a city and municipality in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Samar Raion within the oblast. Samar is located predominantly on the right bank of the Samara River, a left tributary of the Dnieper River. The city is located 27 kilometres (17 mi) from the administrative center of the oblast, Dnipro. As of January 2022, Samar's population was approximately 69,855.[2]

History

A city with the name Samar (now known as Old Samar) has existed from the end of the 17th century.[3][4] The Cossacks abandoned the town in 1688 when Russia built the Bohorodytska Fortress in the city. Soon after, the former inhabitants of the Old Samar founded another settlement named Samar upstream the Samara River. In 18th-century documents, the city is also named Samarchyk, Novoselytsia or Palanka. The town was the administrative center of the Samara Palanka (province) of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.[3][5]

In 1777, a town named Yekaterinoslav, meaning "the glory of Catherine" (after Russian empress Catherine II),[6] was built on the location. The site was badly chosen – spring waters transformed the city into a bog.[7][8] The surviving settlement was in 1794 renamed to Novomoskovsk.[3][9][10] The city name Yekaterinoslav was given to current Dnipro.[8]

Holy Trinity Cathedral in the 1880s

The city is famous for the Holy Trinity Cathedral, built in 1778 by Yakym Pohrybniak from wood without any nails. A novel dedicated to the cathedral by Ukrainian writer Oles Honchar became a classic of 20th-century Ukrainian literature.

In 1917 the Ukrainian People's Republic tried to rename Novomoskovsk to Samar.[3][5] During the Ukrainian War of Independence, from 1917 to 1920, it passed between various factions. Afterwards it was administratively part of the Katerynoslav Governorate of Ukraine.[11][12][13]

Until 18 July 2020, Novomoskovsk was incorporated as a city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Novomoskovsk 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 Novomoskovsk was merged into Novomoskovsk Raion.[14][15]

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the city council voted in January 2024 to rename Novomoskovsk to Nova Samar (Нова Самарь).[16] On 19 September 2024, the Supreme Council of Ukraine voted to rename Novomoskovsk to Samar.[17]

Demographics

In 2001, Samar (at the time Novomoskovsk) had a population of 71,860 people. In terms of ethnicity, Ukrainians constitute a large majority, accounting for over 80% of the population. The second-largest group are people with an ethnic Russian background (13%), while the remaining population consists of Belarusians, Germans, Armenians, people of Turkic origin, Jews and Romani people. The exact ethnic composition was as follows:[18]

Ethnic groups in Samar
percent
Ukrainians
84.45%
Russians
13.34%
Belarusians
0.48%
Armenians
0.30%
Romani
0.28%
Moldovans
0.11%
Azerbaijanis
0.11%
Jews
0.10%
Tatars
0.10%
Germans
0.07%

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑"Новомосковськ, Україна — статистика 2025". uk.globalpopulations.com.
  2. ↑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.
  3. 1234Ratsybarska, Yuliia (13 May 2023). Подалі від Москви. Як перейменують місто Новомосковськ на Дніпропетровщині?[Farther from Moscow. How to rename the city of Novomoskovsk in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast?]. Radio Free Europe (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  4. ↑Mikhail Levchenko. Hanshchyna (Ганьщина Україна). Opyt russko-ukrainskago slovari︠a︡. Tip. Gubernskago upravlenii︠a︡, 1874.
  5. 12Meshko, Konstiantyn (2023-05-01). Не Новомосковськ, а Самар[Not Novomoskovsk, but Samar]. Istorychna Pravda.
  6. ↑Cybriwsky, Roman (2018). Along Ukraine's River: A Social and Environmental History of the Dnipro. Central European University Press. p. 61. ISBN 9789633862049.
  7. ↑"www.eugene.com.ua Dnepropetrovsk History". Eugene.com.ua. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  8. 12Establishment and development of the Dnipropetrovsk city (Виникнення і розвиток міста Дніпропетровськ). The History of Cities and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR.
  9. ↑(in Ukrainian)New Kodak, Museum Of Dnipro City History (26 March 2022)
  10. ↑S. S. Montefiore: Prince of Princes – The Life of Potemkin
  11. ↑С. Хургін (1922). Адміністраційна Мапа Української Соц. Рад. Республіки (Map). 1:1,680,000 (in Ukrainian). Kharkiv: Народний комісаріат внутрішніх справ.
  12. ↑С. Я. Хургин (1921). Карта Украинской Социалистической Советской Республики (Map). 1:1,680,000 (in Russian). Народный комиссариат внутренних дел.
  13. ↑Административная карта Украины (Map). 1:1,050,000 (in Russian). Народный комиссариат внутренних дел. 1923.
  14. ↑"Про утворення та ліквідацію районів. Постанова Верховної Ради України № 807-ІХ". Голос України (in Ukrainian). 2020-07-18. Retrieved 2020-10-03.
  15. ↑"Нові райони: карти + склад" (in Ukrainian). Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України. 17 July 2020.
  16. ↑Rudenko, Iryna; Palamarchuk, Polina; Vahner, Olha (2024-01-23). "Новомосковськ на Дніпропетровщині отримав нову назву: за який варіант проголосували депутати". Suspilne (in Ukrainian).
  17. ↑Проект Постанови про перейменування окремих населених пунктів та районів[Draft resolution on renaming individual populated places and raions]. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  18. ↑"Національний склад міст". Datatowel.in.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2024-11-08.