The history of Zaporizhzhia shows the origins of Zaporizhzhia, a city located in modern-day Ukraine.
Pre-foundation history
Archaeological finds show that about two or three thousand years ago Scythians lived around the modern city. Later, Khazars, Pechenegs, Kuman, Tatars and Slavs dwelt there. The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks passed through the island of Khortytsia. 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).
In the 1550s, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky erected Khortytsia Castle, consisting of wood-earth fortifications on the small island Little Khortytsia which is near the western shore of Khortytsia island. Some historians and archeologists consider these fortifications to be a prototype for the Zaporizhzhian Sich — the stronghold of the paramilitary peasant regiments of Cossacks.
Russian Empire (1654–1917) Foundation of Zaporizhzhia
In 1770 the fortress of Aleksandrovskaya () 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.Я. П. Новицкий. История города Александровска, (Екатеринославской губ.) в связи с историей возникновения крепостей Днепровской линии 1770–1806 г. – Екатеринослав: Типография Губернского Земства, 1905. – 176 с. It is uncertain in whose honour the fortress was named. Some believe that it was Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn, the general who served Catherine the Great.Pospelov, pp. 25–26 Other possibilities are Prince Alexander Vyazemsky or Alexander Rumyantsev.З історії Олександрівська
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 ().
Mennonite settlers
In 1789, Mennonites from the Baltic city of Danzig (Gdańsk) accepted the invitation from Catherine the Great to settle several colonies in the area of the modern city. The island of Khortytsia was gifted to them for "perpetual possession" by the Russian government. In 1914, the Mennonites sold the island back to the city. The Mennonites built mills and agricultural factories in Alexandrovsk.
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. At present, few Mennonites live in Zaporizhzhia, although in the area many industrial buildings and houses built by Mennonites are preserved.Friesen, R. Building on the Past: Mennonite Architecture, Landscape and Settlements in Russia/Ukraine. Raduga Publications, 2004.
The ferry In 1829, it was proposed to build a cable ferry across the Dnieper. The ferry could carry a dozen carts. The project was approved by Tsar and later was used in other parts of the Russian Empire. In 1904 the ferry was replaced by the Kichkas Bridge (see next section), which was built in the narrowest part of the river called "Wolf Throat", near to the northern part of the Khortytsia Island.
Establishment of railway and Kichkas Bridge The first railway bridge over the Dnieper was the Kichkas () Bridge, which was designed by Y.D. Proskuryakov and E. O. Paton. The construction works were supervised by F. W. Lat. The total bridge length was . It crossed the river with a single span of . The upper tier carried a double-track railway line, whilst the lower tier was used for other types of vehicles; both sides of the bridge were assigned as footpaths. It was built at the narrowest part of the Dnieper river known as Wolf Throat. Construction started in 1900, and it opened for pedestrian traffic in 1902. The official opening of the bridge was 17 April 1904, though railway traffic on the bridge only commenced on 22 January 1908. The opening of the Kichkas Bridge led to the industrial growth of Alexandrovsk.The bridges of Zaporizhzhia (Мосты Запорожья) , by L. Adelberg (Адельберг Л), pub RA Tandem st, Zaporizhzhia, 2005.
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.Official Portal Zaporizhzhia city authorities, History (Офіційний портал, Запорізької міської влади, Історія міста) , accessed 11 April 2011.
Ukrainian War of Independence (1917–1921) The Kichkas Bridge was of strategic importance during the Ukrainian War of Independence and Russian Civil War, and carried troops, ammunition, the wounded and medical supplies. Because of this bridge, Alexandrovsk and its environs was the scene of fierce fighting from 1918 to 1921 between the Red Army and the White armies of Denikin and Wrangel, Petliura's Ukrainian People's Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic and German-Austrian troops, and after their defeat, the struggle with insurgents led by Hryhoriv and Makhno. The bridge was damaged a number of times. The most serious damage was inflicted by Makhno's troops when they retreated from Alexandrovsk in 1920 and blew a gap in the middle of the bridge.
Afterwards, it became the capital of the newly formed Zaporizhzhia Governorate of Ukraine.
People's Commissar of Railways Felix Dzerzhinsky of the Bolshevik government ordered the repair of the bridge. The metallurgical plant of the Bryansk joint-stock company (present day Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant) in Katerynoslav (today Dnipro) built a replacement section. The Kichkas Bridge reopened on 14 September 1921. On 19 October 1921, the Soviet Council of Labor and Defense (chaired by Lenin) awarded the Yekaterininsky railroad the Order of the Red Banner of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic for the early restoration of the Kichkas Bridge.
In the time of Soviet Ukraine as a part of the USSR (1922–1991)
Industrialization in the 1920 – 1930s
At the beginning of 20th century, Zaporizhzhia was a small unremarkable rural town of the Russian Empire, which acquired industrial importance during the industrialization carried out by the Soviet government in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1929–1932, a master plan for city construction was developed. At from the old town Alexandrovsk at the narrowest part of the Dnieper river was planned to build the hydroelectric power station, the most powerful in Europe at that time. Close to the station should be constructed the new modern city and a giant steel and aluminum plants. Later the station was named "DnieproHES", the steel plant – "Zaporizhstal'" (Zaporizhzhia Steel Plant), and the new part of the city – "Sotsmisto" (or "Sotsgorod" in Russian, meaning "Socialist city").New world review, p40Меерович М. Г. Соцгород – базовое понятие советской градостроительной теории первых пятилеток Production of the aluminum plant ("DAZ" – Dnieper Aluminium Plant) according to the plan should exceed the overall production of the aluminum all over Europe at that time.
(GIPROMEZ) developed a project of creation of the Dnieper Industrial Complex. GIPROMEZ consulted with various companies, including the of Chicago (USA), which participated in the design and construction of the blast furnaces.
In the 1930s the American United Engineering and Foundry Company built a strip mill, which produced hot and cold rolling steel strip. This was a copy of the Ford River Rouge steel mill. Annual capacity of the mill reached . Strip width was .The Soviet economy and the Red Army, 1930–1945, by Walter Scott Dunn, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995 , page 13. There was a second section that used a Soviet copy of the Demag AG strip mill that produced wide strip steel.
The hydro-electric dam, DniproHES
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. The principal designer of the project was I. G. Alexandrov, the construction manager – A. V. Vinter, the chief architect – V. A. Vesnin and the chief American advisor – the colonel Hugh Cooper. The installed generating capacity was 560 megawatts, the length of a convex dam was , the width was , the height was .
Eight turbines and five electrical generators were designed and manufactured in the United States. The other three generators were made at the Leningrad factory Electrosila. After commissioning the Dnieper rapids were flooded, and the river became navigable from Kyiv to Kherson. In 1980 a new generator building was built, and the station power was increased to 1,388 megawatts
The city of Socialism (Sotsgorod)
Between the hydroelectric dam and industrial area in from the centre of the old Alexandrovsk was established residential district No. 6, which was named Sotsgorod (or Sotsmisto in Ukrainian). In 20th doctrinaire idealistic enthusiasm of the architects was reflected in the intense debate about the habitation of the socialist community. The architects believed that by using new architectural forms they could create a new society. District No. 6 was one of the few implementations of urban development concepts. The construction of the district began in 1929 and finished in 1932.
The main idea guiding the architects was the creation of a garden city, a city of the future. 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. Nikolai Kolli, V. A. Vesnin, , V. G. Lavrov and others designed the DniproHES and SotsGorod. Le Corbusier visited the town few times in the 1930s. The architects used the ideas of the constructivist architecture.
The ring house the building No. 31 at Independent Ukraine Street (formerly – 40 years of Soviet Ukraine Street) was designed by V. G. Lavrov. Families of the Soviet and American engineers, advisors, and industry bosses lived in Sotsgorod at that time. However, most of the workers during the construction of the hydro-power station and plants lived in dugouts at No. 15 and Aluminum districts. The south border of the Sotsgorog is limited by Verkhnya Ulitsa (Upper Street) and north border – by the hydroelectric power station. At the intersection between Sobornyi Avenue and Verkhnia Street, architect I.L. Kosliner set a tower with seven stories. This tower supposedly indicates the entrance gate of Sotsgorod from the south (from Alexandrovsk). Closer to the dam, the second tower was raised (architects I.L. Kosliner and L.Ya. Gershovich). Both towers point out a straight line of the central street of the district.
The names of the streets have changed several times. The original name of Metallurgist Avenue was Enthusiasts Alley. This road leads to the factories. At that time, they believed that people going to the plant had only positive feelings like joy, pride, and enthusiasm. At the end of the road stands a 1963 sculpture of the metallurgist by sculptor Ivan Nosenko. During the German occupation, it was named Shevchenko Avenue. Later it was renamed Stalin Avenue; and after his death, it got the present name of Metallurgist Avenue. Sobornyi Avenue originally had the name Libkhnet Avenue. "Forty Years of Soviet Ukraine" Street was once called Sovnarkomovska Street and during the German occupation Hitler Alley.
Big Zaporizhzhia