Sevastopol

Template:Crimean town Sevastopol (Ukrainian and Russian: Севастополь; Template:Lang-qr), formerly known as Sebastopol, is a port city in Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of Crimean peninsula. It has a population of 328,600 (2004). Former home of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, the city is now a naval base shared by the Russian and Ukrainian Navy.

The unique geographic location and navigation conditions of the city's harbours make Sevastopol an ever-important naval point.

It is also a popular seaside resort and tourist destination, mainly for visitors from the CIS countries.

The trade and shipbuilding importance of Sevastopol's port is growing since the fall of the Soviet Union despite the difficulties that occur from the joint military control over harbours and piers.

Also, Sevastopol is an important centre of marine biology. In particular, studying and training of dolphins has been developing in the city since the end of World War II, initially as a secret naval programme of using these animals in underwater special operations.

Political status and subdivision

Administratively, Sevastopol is a municipality excluded from the surrounding Autonomous Republic of Crimea (see Subdivisions of Ukraine for more details). The territory of the municipality (coloured yellow on the map) is further subdivided into four raions. Besides the city of Sevastopol itself, it also includes 3 towns - Balaklava, Inkerman and Kacha, and 29 villages.

History

Sevastopol rivals Kronstadt and Gibraltar as the most famous naval citadel in Europe. It was founded in 1783, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula. It became an important naval base and later a commercial port. Between 1797 and 1826, the settlement reverted to its original Tatar name - Akhtiyar.

It was besieged by the British and French during the Crimean War, falling after 11 months. A panorama created by Franz Roubaud, and restored after its destruction in 1942, is housed in a purpose-built building, and depicts the situation at the height of the siege, on 18 June 1855.

During World War II Sevastopol withstood an Axis siege for 250 days in 1941–1942. It was liberated by the Red Army on May 9, 1944 and was awarded the title of Hero City a year later.

In 1954, the city with the rest of Crimea was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. As it stated in the Supreme Soviet Decree the transfer was caused by geographic, economic, and cultural closure with Ukrainian SSR. The transfer was also presented by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as a gesture to mark the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav.

At that Soviet times Sevastopol, a city of significant military importance, was a "closed city". It was formally subordinate directly to the republican authorities rather than to local oblast, first of Russian and later of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic administration.

In 1957, the town of Balaklava was incorporated into Sevastopol.

Like the rest of Crimea, Sevastopol remains predominantly Russophone, although there have been some attempts of Ukrainization following the independence of Ukraine with little success.

Etymology of the Name

Sevastopolis (Greek: Σεβαστόπολις) like in other cities at the peninsula of Crimea is a name with a Greek origin and a Greek etymology.

It is a synthetic of two Greek nouns, Sevastos (highly respectable, in direct translation) and Polis (city).

Sevastos or Se{b}astos (Greek: Σε{β=b}αστός) was also a Byzantine synonym of the roman "Augustus" (=directly translated as "Majesty"; someone with a divine origin, thus highly respectable by others).

The Roman/Byzantine emperors were called by the name Augustus (Greek: Αύγουστος)

There is a posibility that the city was named after the Czarina Catherine II of Russia, who was the founder of Sebastopol as the Polis (=city) of the Sebasta (fem.) (=Augusta, =Czarina)

Russian naval base and Ukraine-Russia Black Sea Fleet dispute

Eduard Totleben Monument in Sevastopol (1909).

According to a 1997 treaty, the Russian naval base is declared to be "located in Sevastopol" on the terms of lasting rent, following a long diplomatic and political dispute between Russia and the newly independent Ukraine. At first, Moscow refused to recognize Ukrainian sovereignty over Sevastopol as well as over the surrounding Crimean oblast, arguing that the city was never practically integrated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic due to its military base status. This was later resolved by the bilateral "Peace & Friendship" treaty, stating that Sevastopol belongs to Ukraine as weel as the terms of the fixed long-term lease agreement of some land and resources of Sevastopol by Russia.

Despite this, naval base command and Russian-backed organisations actually control the city, dominating its business and cultural life. Russian society (including highest statesmen) in fact never agreed with the loss of Sevastopol, considering it as temporarily parted from their country. Moscow city authorities, guided by Mayor Luzhkov, continuously sponsor pro-Russian social, educational and cultural activities in Sevastopol (especially those related to Russian Navy servicemen and their families). These activities are directed to promote the city's practical independence from the rest of Ukraine. While Ukrainian-appointed authorities retain formal control of Sevastopol's life (such as of taxation and civil policing), trying to avoid confrontation with base command and Moscow-oriented groups. A few years ago the Communist-dominated city council rejected EBRD loan for renovation of Sevastopol's poor sewage system, declaring that the project intended to increase the city's dependence on the Ukrainian government and the West.

The ex-Soviet Black Sea Fleet with all facilities was divided between Russia's Black Sea Fleet and the Ukrainian Navy after a continuous struggle. Two navies now share some of the city's few harbours and piers, while others were demilitarised or controlled by one country. Sevastopol remains the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Headquarters, while Ukrainian Naval HQ is also based in the city. A judicial row continues over naval hydrographic infrastructure (see hydrographic office) in Sevastopol and on the Crimean coast (especially lighthouses used in civil navigation support).

==External links==

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