The history of Kropyvnytskyi starts with the human settlement in the area of the city, which is believed to have begun around the Middle Paleolithic. The area would then be inhabited by successive cultures. However, the modern founding of the city would come after the creation of New Serbia in 1751, when a fortress was requested to protect the area. The Imperial Russian government approved this fortress shortly thereafter; it would be called the Fortress of St. Elizabeth, with construction beginning on 18 June 1754, which is considered the founding date of the city. Settlements around the fortress would then pop up, with some early suburbs being Bykove and Permski. In March of 1764, under Catherine II, as part of a reorganisation plan, the territory of New Serbia was merged to form the Novorossiya Governorate, of which the fortress was made the capital until March 1765, when the capital was moved to Kremenchug. In the aftermath of this decision, the fortress lost much of its significance, although the settlement around the fortress grew significantly and eventually was designated as a chartered county town known as Yelysavethrad. The town was designated a city shortly thereafter in 1785, after the Fortress of St. Elizabeth was formally disarmed. After a period of large trade growth, with Yelysavethrad becoming one of the largest trade centres in southern Ukraine, the city was put under military-settlement administration in 1829, which it would remain under until 1861. Initially, in the 1800s, the city was hit by major disasters, such as fires that destroyed large parts of the city, although by the late 1800s the city gradually recovered. During this time, it rapidly expanded, becoming particularly known for its cultural significance in theatre.
However, during the subsequent Ukrainian War of Independence, which was part of the Russian Civil War, the city constantly saw action, changing hands between the Ukrainian People's Republic, Bolsheviks, Imperial Germans, White movement, and members of the Hryhoriv Uprising. The Hryhoriv Uprising in the city saw one of the deadliest pogroms during the war in Ukraine, which killed 1,300 to 3,000 Jews before it ended. Bolshevik control was eventually consolidated by 1920, and the city was annexed into the Soviet Union in 1922. In the aftermath of the civil war, the city's name was changed from Yelysavethrad to Zinovievsk in 1924, then to Kirovo in December 1934, and finally in January 1939 to Kirovohrad with the formation of the Kirovohrad Oblast, of which it was named the administrative centre. After the start of Operation Barbarossa during World War II, the city was captured by German forces in August 1941. During the occupation, the city was annexed into Reichskommissariat Ukraine. As part of the Holocaust, over 5,000 Jews of the estimated 14,641 pre-war population were massacred by German forces. The city was eventually liberated during the Kirovograd offensive in early January 1944 by the Soviets. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city became part of an independent Ukraine in 1991. In the early 2000s, the city became widely known in Ukraine due to its political crises, with frequent accusations of electoral fraud. There were also some attempts to rename the city, although calls for this would not become widely popular until post-Euromaidan. Like most city centres in Ukraine, the city would see widespread protests during Euromaidan from November 2013 until February 2014, which drew thousands of people. In the aftermath, as part of the decommunnisation in Ukraine, the city was subject to renaming because Kirovohrad was associated with the Soviets, which was approved in July 2016 under the name Kropyvnytskyi. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city took in thousands of internally displaced people from the front, with the number amounting to 85,000 as of 2026. The city has also been the target of frequent air strikes since the start of the invasion, which have killed multiple people and destroyed residential buildings.
Antiquity
The earliest evidence of human habitation in the area around Kropyvnytskyi comes from the Stone Age, when a 1989 expedition by M. Maliuk found two flint tools, likely Mousterian, as they were dated to the Middle Paleolithic. However, no archaeological finds have been found that were dated to the subsequent periods until the Chalcolithic to Bronze Age era. Most of the evidence from these periods is kurgans, such as those that were found near the power station in 1928 and near Pravdy Avenue in 1987, which contained goods like pottery. The best-known kurgan in the city was found on Popova Street in 2004, which had 21 burials from different cultures, alongside a wooden ritual wagon. A notable non-kurgan find was from the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, which included a flat copper axe, and a workshop from the Bronze Age that had four axes. In the Scythian era, not much evidence has been found due to grave-robbing, although three Scythian-era kurgans were found in 1884, and in 1992, in nearby Pervozvanivka, two more kurgans were found. Similarly, only graves of the Sarmatians have been excavated near kurgans that were placed near Yamnaya culture mounds.
During the Soviet era, the popular book History of Cities and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR claimed that prior to the founding of modern-day Kropyvnytskyi, there were already winter settlements in the area of the city used by Zaporozhian Cossacks as early as the second half of the 16th century. Historian Serhii Shevchenko corroborates this through a regional state archive, which said there had been a "been a winter settlement of the Zaporozhian Zavada", which is said to be the namesake of the present-day neighbourhood of Zavadivka. Another Cossack settlement said to be present in the area is Lelekivka, which was said to be founded by the Cossack Yakym Leleka of Tsybuleve, who by 1756 headed the areas near the Inhul. Other Cossack settlements in the area that have been claimed to be from the Cossacks include the neighbourhoods of Kovalivka and Balka, and a former Old Believer settlement.
Founding of the fortress and city
In order to better protect the settlements of New Serbia upon their founding, in October 1751, General Jovan Horvat requested the Imperial Russian government to construct a fortress. The government approved this in decree No. 9919 on 24 December 1751, ordering the Russian Senate and Collegium to consider Horvat's plans, which they did, approving most of them in decree No. 9921 of 29 December 1751. In decree No. 9921, the government ordered that "an earthen fortress be made, which is to be named the fortress of St. Elizabeth", although it did not specify a location until the follow-up order by a charter on 11 January 1752, which further specified the fortress to be in New Serbia. This charter also specified that the area of the fortress would be under self-governance, and it also permitted both settlement and trade with the neighbouring states, such as the Crimean Khanate.
In February 1752, to get the project off the ground, Major-General Ivan Glebov was appointed chief commander of the project, with Horvat becoming commander of the regiments that would be settled into the area as part of New Serbia. Glebov, after being appointed, ordered that the surveyor Omelian Hurjev find a location in New Serbia for the site of the new fortress. However, Hurjev instead recommended that the fortress be on a hill about 200 sazhen from the right bank of the Inhul, although it was not within the territory of New Serbia (it was 4 km south of the border of New Serbia). Glebov justified the site being chosen because he said it would be good for trade, such as with the surrounding neighbours, that the hill was close to the river, it had forest; and that there was both stone and clay in the area. The Senate and Collegium then reviewed this in early 1753, from March to April, formally approving Glebov's proposal on 8 April 1753, adding that it would be a good location due to it being in the middle of two other fortresses, those at Novoarkhanhelsk and Mishuryn Rih. The earliest drafts for the fortress date to 20 April 1753, signed by Alexander Weiss, with a later plan dated to 16 May 1754 by an engineer-captain von Vitver also existing.
The actual construction of the fortress was approved on 31 March 1754, with the ceremonial laying of the fortress starting on 18 June 1754, which is considered the founding date of the city. During the construction over the next few months, more than 5,500 workers were brought in, most of whom were Ukrainian Cossacks from the Myrhorod Regiment and Poltava Regiment. The chief builder chosen was Ludwig Johann Menzelius. Initially, the fortress was supposed to take 120 days to be built, but funds and war caused the fortress's construction to be paused in October 1754, when it was mostly completed, and it took until 1756 for work to resume, with artillery and manpower being assigned to it then. During and after the fortress's construction, many people settled in the area, including Old Believers, Serbs, Moldovans, Greeks, and Russians. The early suburbs that they formed were Bykove (after Captain Bykov, also known as the "Greek suburb") and Permski (after a regiment from Perm). Old Believer settlements founded include Zlynka and Klyntsi, although most resided within the fortress area. The first church was founded soon afterward in 1755, known as the Holy Life-Giving Trinity in the middle of the fortress; it was a wooden church and single-tier. That year, a magistrate also appeared, and a burgomaster was elected (Ivan Ivanchenko) - although the new settlement was not granted city status, some have argued this amounted to de facto Magdeburg law status. The settlement up to this point, until 1764, did not have an official name - a French map from 1754 by Robert de Vaugondy just lists the settlement as "Єлисавет Город", or Yelysavet town, which was in reference to the fortress, a practice common in Cossack naming. A year later, on 25 April 1755, Maksym Taran of the Zaporozhian Sich wrote "....єдучи чрез Гардъ до города Елисавету с трома бутами виномъ", thus referring to the town as Елисавету, or Yelysavet(a).
Imperial Russian city Late 1700s and end of the fortress
On 22 March 1764, Catherine II approved a reorganisation plan for the new territories that had been submitted by Nikita Panin. Under this new reorganisation, the territory of New Serbia was merged with Cossack territory to make the Novorossiya Governorate, with its capital being the Fortress of St. Elizabeth within the city. The area was also made the capital of one of the provinces of the governorate, the Yelysavethradska province. This designation would not last long, though, as the capital was moved to the newly revived city of Kremenchug on 26 March 1765 following the liquidation of the Cossack Hetmanate. In the aftermath of this liquidation, the significance of the fortress fell sharply, with it then being designated in reserve and as a storehouse for the arsenal. The settlement itself was designated as a chartered county town of the namestnichestvo, and it was also the first time that the name Yelysavethrad was used to describe the settlement. Yelysavethrad, despite its loss in influence, already by 1776 recorded more than a thousand buildings and 4,720 people. Most of these people were Ukrainians, as the Greek community, although still having a functioning executive self-governing body in the town, had resettled in the newer cities in Odesa and Mariupol - by the end of the 1700s, only around 100 remained.