Sevastopol is a hero city located on the Black Sea coast. Due to the presence of large ports, the large industrial, scientific, cultural and tourist center of the Republic of Crimea is distinguished by developed sea trade. In ancient times, there was a Greek colony on the site of Sevastopol - Khersones, so the settlement, among other things, also has a rich historical past.
A brief history of the city and demography
The city was founded in 1783, and at that time a small population of Sevastopol was represented by sailors of the Black Sea Fleet. The village was more like a military camp, strict discipline reigned around. Several thousand sailors and soldiers accounted for only a couple of hundred civilians.
The situation began to change when the crew of the Black Sea Fleet began to acquire families. Many resigned. Active development of family life in Sevastopol and population growth attracted various merchants and traders.
A major demographic leap occurred in the early nineteenth century. The reason for this was the order for the mass construction of Vice Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet M.P. Lazarev. It was this event that led to the influx of labor, and the civilian population finally began to prevail.
Another decree contributed to population growth, which was already issued at the imperial level. All merchants and artisans, at the will of the emperor, were given quotas for living in Sevastopol: visitors over the next three years from the moment of resettlement were exempted from taxes, and after this period the amount of fees was only half of the assigned amount. This influenced the fact that the population of Sevastopol quickly became larger than in other cities of the Crimean peninsula. Accordingly, the infrastructure of the village began to develop more actively.
Crimean war: fertility decline and war losses
The operations of the times of the Crimean War turned into ruins of Sevastopol. The city held the defenses to the last, but the enemy broke through. The population of Sevastopol was reduced to three thousand inhabitants. Having destroyed the Lazarevsk admiralty, the invaders deprived the city of an economic basis. And after the liquidation of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol was completely called a ghost town. In this state, the city was for the next thirty years.
The revival of Sevastopol contributed to the construction of rail links with Moscow. An international commercial port was opened, which accepted both domestic and foreign ships. Soon the city regained the status of the main naval base.
Bloody twentieth century
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the city was a progressive cultural, economic and commercial center. The population growth of Sevastopol has reached fifty thousand inhabitants.
But war came again, only the First World War, and then the civil and revolution. All these events led to the fact that Sevastopol became ten thousand less. People died not only from hostilities, but also from disease and hunger. The city invariably tried to get to its feet, recovering from the devastation, but who could know that it was only the calm before the storm.
The Great Patriotic War began for the population of Sevastopol an hour and a half earlier than for other cities of the Soviet Union. By the ninth of May, the forty-first year, about two thousand inhabitants lived in the city, before the war the figure was about one hundred thousand. The enemy did not spare anyone: half of the townspeople were evacuated, most of the remaining went to the front, the rest, if they were not executed by the Nazis, were killed by bombing or starvation.
In the postwar period, the population gradually grew due to the fact that those who were evacuated or forcibly taken to concentration camps returned to their homes. To permanent residents were added workers who rebuilt the city. The return of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet also contributed to the influx of people.
National composition of the population
At present, the population of Sevastopol is four hundred twenty eight thousand people. The city can rightfully be considered multinational, because the indigenous people make up only half of the population.
On the territory of modern Sevastopol live:
- Russians, who make up fifty percent of the total number of citizens;
- Ukrainians, mostly from the southern, eastern and central regions of the country;
- Jews
- Armenians
- Belarusians
- Tatars
- Moldavians.
All national groups get along well with each other and speak their native languages fluently. Such ethnic diversity in no way interferes with the development and existence of the city.
