Sevastopol is translated from Greek as "famous city." This area was developed many centuries ago. So, even five hundred years before the advent of a new era, there existed a Greek colony - the famous city of Chersonesos. The choice of this place was due to the following circumstances: on the entire Black Sea coast there is no way to find a more convenient bay.
Further development
One hundred and twelfth year BC was marked by the entry of Chersonesos into the Pontic-Bosporus state, and then it became part of the great empire - the Roman Empire. After the fall of the latter, the city was under the wing of Byzantium. Soon Chersonesus became a control center of the Byzantine colonies on the Black Sea coast. At a fast pace, trade and industry developed in it. Russian princes first heard about Chersonesos, even when it was called Korsun (IX-XIII centuries).
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the history of Sevastopol entered a new round: the city was conquered by the Turks and lost its significance, because it was simply not interesting to the new rulers. Port cities were no longer administrative centers, and their places were occupied by settlements in the center of the peninsula. So, Bakhchisaray received the status of the capital of the khans, of particular importance were the Ak-Mosque (from 1748 Simferopol) and Karasubazar. All of them were far from the sea.
Everything is changing
Subsequently, Crimea became part of the Russian Empire. In 1783, Catherine II ordered the construction of the city on the site of the village of Akhtiar, located near the ruins of Korsuni (Khersones).
Why does Sevastopol have a special status? The fact is that since its inception, he played the role of the main base of the entire Black Sea Fleet. The city has always had great military and political significance.
Four years after the formation, the status of Sevastopol was finally consolidated: the city began to be a naval port, the Crimean civil administrative authorities were transferred to it. Thus, in 1767 there was a separation of the city from the Tauride region and its reckoning to the naval ports of national importance. The history of Sevastopol was replenished with a new fact: he became completely subordinate to St. Petersburg and became a separate administrative district. The city was ruled by a naval administration. Naturally, she was appointed from St. Petersburg.
On February 23, 1804, Emperor Alexander the First issued a decree securing the special status of Sevastopol as the main military port. At the same time, simple merchant ships were forbidden to enter it. The only exceptions were distressed vessels. After repair, they were required to immediately leave the port.
On April 30, 1809, the status of the city was expanded. Sevastopol also became the main fortress of the Black Sea. Since then, it raised the same fortress flag as in Vyborg, Kronstadt and Sveaborg.
Barbaric destruction
In 1853, the Crimean War broke out. Enemies besieged Sevastopol - the city of sailors - for three hundred and forty-nine days. As a result, it turned into ruins, and with it the entire Black Sea Fleet (it was flooded in the raid by order of Admiral Nakhimov). In 1856, the Crimean War came to an end. The Paris world was concluded . According to this document, Russia was forbidden to organize a fleet in Sevastopol again. Until 1871, it was a trading city and a customs station. After the annulment of the aforementioned peace treaty, Alexander the Second restored the status of Sevastopol as the central naval port of the Empire on the Black Sea. The year 1875 was marked by the construction of railway lines connecting Sevastopol with St. Petersburg and Moscow. In 1891, the construction of the Vladimir Church was completed, and a year later the opening of the Chersonesus Museum took place. So, by 1894 the city completely restored its status. The naval base in Sevastopol regained its former importance. The admiralty slipways were not empty: the construction of warships of various classes (even squadron battleships) was under way.
Mark of distinction
It is noteworthy that a special emblem was approved for Sevastopol. Its fundamental distinguishing feature has become a clear national significance. Not a single city, provincial or regional emblem could boast of this. So, it depicted a shield of red color (as in the capital), behind it - two crossed gold anchors (as in all large port cities, for example, St. Petersburg). The griffin was chosen as the emblem - like that of the Romanovs’ house, but not red on a silver field, but rather, which symbolized historical rather than tribal, biological or dynastic continuity. This once again confirms the special military-historical situation of the city.
So why does Sevastopol have a special status, even despite the fact that it was considered a fortress of the third class? After all, he simply did not have enough fortifications to raise his level! Despite the poor fortification and technical equipment, for Russia Sevastopol (the area of the city is nineteen thousand hectares) has always been very important. Everything is explained simply: it was the only major fortification on the entire marine southern boundary of the state.
New direction
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, more and more vacationers began to be interested in the Black Sea. Sevastopol began to develop as a resort. Numerous hotels and pensions were built. In 1914, the Romanov Institute of Physical Treatment Methods was opened. Specialists began to actively study the effects of Crimean air, mud and sea baths on human health. At the biological station, the fauna and flora of the Black Sea were carefully studied. Later, the institution was transformed into a serious research center. At its base was opened Aquarium of marine fish. For Russia, this was a novelty.
Revolutionary spirit
Sevastopol did not stay away from the events of the first Russian revolution. As you know, in June 1905, a red flag proudly hoisted over the battleship “Potemkin”, and already in November this year, an uprising led by Lieutenant Schmidt began on ships belonging to the Black Sea Fleet. Soon the rebellion was suppressed, and its instigators were expected to be shot.
War time
The entry of Russia into the First World War occurred in 1914. At the end of October, the German cruiser Goeben fired on Sevastopol. The enemy attack was repelled by the cruiser George the Victorious and coastal batteries. The Russian fleet, courageously overcoming difficulties, achieved success in battles on the waters of the Black Sea.
As a result of careful mining of the Bosphorus Strait, the enemy lost one mine-layer, one hundred and twenty motor and sailing schooners, as well as eleven transports. The aforementioned battleship Goeben was blown up by mines on December 13, 1914.
In total, during the First World War, thanks to the efforts of the Black Sea Fleet, up to fifty Turkish ships and about three hundred other ships were destroyed. In 1915, it was supplemented by two battleships, five destroyers, six submarines and two air transport with seaplanes on board.
A huge role in the success of the Russian fleet is assigned to Admiral Kolchak. He took command of the fleet in 1916. The admiral developed a plan for the capture of the Bosphorus Strait and the attacks of Istanbul, but the 1917 revolution did not allow his ideas to materialize.
Sevastopol status in the USSR
The remains of the White Army were evacuated from the city in November 1920. The process was taken over by General Wrangel. Together with the troops, Sevastopol left the last ships of the Black Sea Fleet. From this moment begins the Soviet history of the city. Along with this, the Red Fleet was reborn. The Sevastopol Marine Plant began to function again. He carried out orders for the repair and construction of ships. More and more modern ships were being created, the defense of the city from the coast was strengthened, airfields and coastal batteries were being built.
The status of Sevastopol in the USSR was restored. The city again became the most important naval center; it was actively rebuilt after the battle destruction. In 1926, an art museum and a drama theater were opened. In the vicinity of the city, wine-producing farms were formed. At that time, the city was inhabited by about one hundred thousand people (if you count with the sailors).
And again the war ...
The already established peaceful life of the city was interrupted with the outbreak of World War II. On June 22, 1941, residents of Sevastopol saw four enemy aircraft flying in a turbulent sky. It started at 3.15 in the morning at fifteen minute intervals. Each aircraft had two bottom magnetic mines to block the exit from the city bay. The forces of the Black Sea Fleet answered the enemy with artillery fire. An hour earlier, the Navy’s People’s Commissar for the Black Sea Fleet Kuznetsov ordered the announcement of operational readiness number one. As a result of his foresight, the enemy’s plan to completely mine the exit from the bay and destroy the blocked ships was foiled. Only three of the eight dropped mines fell on the fairway.
The German command decided to attack Sevastopol again. A map of the city suggested that this could also be done from the shore. Fascist troops managed to break into the Crimea in September forty-first. On October 29, the city was under siege, and the next day German troops tried to capture it. The fifty-fourth battery of the Black Sea Fleet was the first to meet the enemy. She stabbed the eleventh motorized convoy under the command of General Manstein. Almost simultaneously, the forces of the Marine Corps, urgently formed from sailors from ships and cadets of the naval school, joined. A truly heroic defense of the city began. It lasted two hundred and fifty days. Soviet troops withstood the pressure of the enemy and did not cede their native land.
After this failure, the German command made three more attempts to take the city: on November 11 and December 17 the forty-first, and also on June 7 the forty-second year.
Chasin, a French historian, calculated that over the past twenty-five days, the Germans dropped as many bombs on the Sevastopol 250-day siege as England did on Germany in two years of military operations.
After the defeat of the Crimean front, the Nazis were able to cut all the waterways of the Caucasus and Sevastopol. Thus, the besieged city was left without food. The battles for Sevastopol were fought until the fourth of July, and in some areas until the twelfth, until the time when the Soviet fighters did not reach the end of the ammunition. About seventy thousand officers, soldiers and sailors were captured because they could not be evacuated.
Sevastopol defense was of undeniable military and political importance during the Great Patriotic War. What did the heroic fighters do? They blocked a large number of Romanian and German troops, frustrating all the plans of the fascist command. The notorious "spring offensive" of the Germans was frustrated, including due to the courage of Sevastopol. Their iron endurance led to the fact that the Nazis suffered impressive human and material losses (in eight months of the siege, four hundred fascist tanks, nine hundred aircraft, many military guns were destroyed, up to three hundred thousand soldiers were wounded or killed). In addition, the enemies lost in pace and in time.
In April forty-fourth, the process of liberation of Sevastopol began. On April 15th, the advanced units of the 4th Ukrainian Front managed to reach the defensive lines of the city. Sapun Mountain, which became the site of the key position of the German defense, was taken on May 7 by soldiers of the Primorsky and 51st armies. On May 9, 1944, the city was finally liberated. At Cape Chersonesos, Soviet soldiers captured the remnants of the Nazi troops.
Since May 1965, Sevastopol - Hero City. History has shown that it is not in vain that it has the status of the country's most important fortification object.
Recovery
The war ended, but these were not all the trials through which the population of the city passed. Sevastopol was to be restored. This required thousands of workers. During the fighting, Sevastopol was almost completely destroyed. Photos of the city of that time evoke horror: a beautiful place lay in ruins. Experts estimate that the material damage caused by the Nazis amounted to two and a half billion rubles! The city was completely deprived of communications, transport, and communication systems. In addition, ninety percent of residential developments were destroyed. It was painful to look at Sevastopol. Photos of the city will forever remain a gloomy monument of the brutality of war.
After defeating the enemy, the equally difficult recovery phase began. In the city at that time only three thousand civilians remained alive. It was discussed above why Sevastopol has a special status. Given this information, it becomes clear the decision of the Soviet government to rebuild the city among the first.
In the late fifties, work began on the formation of a nuclear missile navy. New developments in the field of missile weapons were tested in the Black Sea. Since then, the Black Sea Fleet and the cooperating associations of the USSR Armed Forces could successfully confront any aggressors, not only off the Turkish coast, but also in the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea.
Why does Sevastopol have a special status? After the war, the city became also the largest industrial center. So, it actively developed fishing and fish processing production. On the basis of the Monsoon instrument-making plant, radio equipment and a wide range of navigation devices were produced. Specialists of the marine plant built and repaired civil and military ships.
general information
Twin cities of Sevastopol - Kronstadt, St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Moscow, Kerch, Istanbul and Minsk. This list is updated from time to time. On the fourteenth of June is annually celebrated the day of the city. Sevastopol is filled with music, various festivals, exhibitions and concerts are held. Solemn events take place over two weeks.
The city was dedicated by the famous singer Alexander Marshal. "The Great Russian City of Sevastopol" - a song that is an unofficial anthem. It can often be heard at city day celebrations.
Sevastopol is a closed city from 1939 to 1959. For twenty years, at the entrance from Yalta and Simferopol, special posts of commandant service operated.
In August 1991, Crimea and Sevastopol (the city of sailors) moved to the newly proclaimed independent republic - Ukraine. The Russian fleet was able to stay in the city only on a leasehold basis.
In March 2014, the independent Republic of Crimea was proclaimed, in which Sevastopol was given special status. This was made possible thanks to a popular referendum held a day earlier. After an appeal to the Russian Federation, members of the Crimean parliament prepared a draft interstate agreement on the entry of the Republic of Crimea into the Russian Federation. On March 21, this document was ratified by the President of the Russian Federation.
As you can see, even a brief history of Sevastopol allows us to assess the historical significance of this city.