History of Zaporizhzhia
[citation needed] These territories were called the "Wild Fields", because they were not under the control of any state (it was the land between the highly eroded borders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Ottoman Empire).
Archeologists consider these fortifications to be a prototype for the Zaporizhzhian Sich — the stronghold of the paramilitary peasant regiments of Cossacks.
[citation needed] In 1770 the fortress of Aleksandrovskaya (Александровская) was erected and is considered to be the year of the foundation of Zaporizhzhia.
As a part of the Dnieper Defence Line the fortress protected the southern territories of Russian Empire from Crimean Tatar invasions.
[4] In 1775, Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Küçük Kaynarca peace treaty, according to which the southern lands of the Russian Plain and Crimean peninsula became Russian-governed territories.
As a result, the Aleksandrovskaya Fortress lost its military significance and converted into a small provincial rural town, known from 1806 under the name Alexandrovsk (Александровск).
[5] During the Russian Revolution and especially by World War II most of the Mennonites had fled to North and South America as well as being forcefully relocated to eastern Russia.
[7] In 1916, during World War I, the aviation engines plant of DEKA Stock Association (today better known as the Motor Sich) was transferred from Saint Petersburg.
[8] The Kichkas Bridge was of strategic importance during the Russian Civil War, and carried troops, ammunition, the wounded and medical supplies.
The most serious damage was inflicted by Makhno's troops when they retreated from Alexandrovsk in 1920 and blew a 40-metre-wide (130 ft) gap in the middle of the bridge.
[12] State Institute for Design of Metallurgical Plants [ru] (GIPROMEZ) developed a project of creation of the Dnieper Industrial Complex.
[13] The turning point in the history of the city was the construction of the hydro-electric dam (DniproHES), which began in 1927 and completed in 1932.
In 1980 a new generator building was built, and the station power was increased to 1,388 megawatts Between the hydroelectric dam and industrial area in 10 km (6.2 miles) from the centre of the old Alexandrovsk was established residential district No.
Multi-storey houses (not more than 4 floors) with large, roomy apartments were built in Sotsgorod with spacious yards planted with grass and trees around the buildings.
This project was designed for the city, to enable a half-million people to live in seven different areas: Voznesenka, Baburka, Kichkas, Alexandrovsk, Pavlo-Kichkas, Island Khortytsia, and (omitted).
[17] On 18 August 1941, elements of the German 1st Panzergruppe reached the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia on the right bank and seized the island Khortytsia.
[16][18] The Red Army blew a 120m x 10m hole in the Dnieper hydroelectric dam (DniproHES) at 16:00 on 18 August 1941, producing a flood wave that swept from Zaporizhzhia to Nikopol, killing local residents as well as soldiers from both sides.
[16] During this time people dismantled heavy machinery, packed and loaded them on the railway platform, marked and accounted for with wiring diagrams.
[16] The Krivoy Rog – Stalingrad and Moscow – Crimea railway lines through Zaporizhzhia were important supply lines for the Germans in 1942–43, but the big three-arch Dnieper railway bridge at Zaporizhzhia was blown up by the retreating Red Army on 18 August 1941, with further demolition work done during September 1941.
The loss of Kharkiv and other cities caused Adolf Hitler to fly to this headquarters on 17 February 1943, where he stayed until 19 February and met the army group commander Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, and was persuaded to allow Army Group South to fight a mobile defence that quickly led to much of the lost ground being recaptured by the Germans in the Third Battle of Kharkov.
[7] In mid-August 1943, the Germans started building the Panther-Wotan defence line along the Dnieper from Kyiv to Crimea, and retreated back to it in September 1943.
[28] The Soviet Southwestern Front, commanded by Army General Rodion Malinovsky, attacked the city on 10 October 1943.
[28] When the defenders succeeding in holding up the attacks, the Red Army reinforced its troops and launched a surprise night attack at 22:00 on 13 October,[16][29] "laying down a barrage of shellfire bigger than anything... seen to date (it was here that entire 'divisions' of artillery appeared for the first time) and throwing in no fewer than ten divisions strongly supported by armour".
[16] The city has a street between Voznesenskyi and Oleksandrivskyi Districts and a memorial in Oleksandrivskyi District dedicated to Red Army Lieutenant Mykola Yatsenko [uk; ru] who commanded the first tank to enter Zaporizhzhia; he and his crew were killed in the battle for the city.
[31] In mid-November 2020, a Turkish contractor announced that it was starting the final stage of commissioning the first phase of construction.
[32] During the 2014 Euromaidan regional state administration occupations protests against President Viktor Yanukovych were also held in Zaporizhzhia.
[33] On 23 February 2014 Zaporizhzhia's regional state administration building was occupied by 4,500 protesters,[34] Mid-April 2014 there were clashes between Ukrainian and pro-Russian activists.
[39][40] The names honoring Soviet leaders in the titles of industrial plants, factories, culture centres and the DniproHES were removed.
[46] On 30 September, hours before Russia formally annexed Southern and Eastern Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces launched S-300 missiles at a civilian convoy, killing 30 people and injuring 88 others.
[47][48][49][50] On 9 October, Russian forces launched rockets at residential buildings, killing at least twenty people.
