Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast

Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast
Pervomaisk is a city in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Pervomaisk Raion within the oblast. It is located on the Southern Bug River which bisects the city. Pervomaisk also hosts the administration of Pervomaisk urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: 70,170 (2001).
The city is known for being a center (headquarters) of the 46th Rocket Division of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces during the Soviet period.
Until 18 July 2020, Pervomaisk was incorporated as a city of oblast significance. It also served as the administrative center of Pervomaisk Raion even 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 Mykolaiv Oblast to four, the city of Pervomaisk was merged into Pervomaisk Raion.
Etymology
The name derives from the Russian pervomay (первомай) meaning "the first of May," (May Day). The city was formed in 1919 after the Bolshevik victory in the Ukrainian-Soviet war, as a result of the merger of three historic towns in the area.
The name for one of the merged towns, Bohopil (or Bohopol), was derived from the name of a local river Southern Bug which in Polish and Ukrainian is named Boh.
History
The city was formed in 1919 when three neighbouring settlements: the village of Holta (Голта) and the town of Bohopil (Богопіль) around a county city of Olviopol (Ольвіополь) were merged. These towns existed from 1773 and the first settlement in the area was mentioned as early as 1676, it was called Orlyk (Орлик)
In the 17th century Holta was part of Zaporizhian Sich, Bohopil was the customs point of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Olviopol was part of the Russian Empire.
In World War II, Pervomaisk was occupied by the Axis Powers in 1941 and was divided between German occupation authorities on the east bank (Bohopol and Olviopol) and the Romanian-occupied region of Transnistria to the west (Holta). Holta served as the center of the Golta judeţ (district) of Transnistria. Pervomaisk had been more than 1/3 Jewish before the war but most were murdered during the occupation.
Elements of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces arrived in Pervomaisk for the first time as early as June 1960, and were present throughout the Cold War. The U.S.-funded Cooperative Threat Reduction Program began funding dismantlement of the missile infrastructure in the 1990s.
In 2023 the working group of the included Pervomaisk in the list of settlements in Ukraine that contain words with the root "Pervomaisk" ("May 1", the International Workers' Day of the Soviet Union) and can be renamed as part of decommunization and derussification campaigns in Ukraine. Late June 2023 the Pervomaisk City Council initiated a public voting on renaming the city.
Geography
Climate
Notable people
Selig Brodetsky (1888–1954), British mathematician, President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Edgar de Wahl (1867–1948), Baltic German teacher, mathematician and linguist, creator of Interlingue
Remarkable buildings and structures
In Pervomaisk, there is at 48°4'0"N 30°51'29"E a 196 metres tall guyed TV mast, equipped with 6 crossbars running from the mast body to the guys.
Pervomaisk was the former location of the 46th Rocket Division of the 43rd Rocket Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces, formed during the Cold War. The RT-23UTTKh intercontinental ballistic missile silos based at Pervomaisk were destroyed, partially with Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction programme funding, during the 1990s.
Gallery
See also
Lysa Hora
References
External links
Official website of Pervomaisk
Cities in Mykolaiv Oblast
Cities of regional significance in Ukraine
Populated places on the Southern Bug
Populated places established in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
Populated places established in 1919
Yelisavetgradsky Uyezd
Soviet toponymy in Ukraine
Holocaust locations in Ukraine