← Home

Sevastopol

A port city on the southwestern coast of Crimea, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1917–1918 Sevastopol became a focal point of the struggle for the Ukrainization of the fleet and the preservation of the state sovereignty of the UNR under the leadership of the Sevastopol Ukrainian Council. In the autumn of 1920 the city turned into a venue for diplomatic negotiations between the military mission of the UNR and the White Guard government of Wrangel. It suffered extensive destruction during World War II and found itself in a catastrophic municipal condition in the postwar decade (1944–1954). In the 1990s it became the center of the revived Plast scouting movement in independent Crimea.

Overview

Despite the imperial myth of the "city of russian glory," in 1917–1920 Sevastopol had distinctive Ukrainian civic-political structures and diplomatic enclaves. In the autumn of 1920 a delegation of the UNR Directorate (Mykhailo Lytvynenko, Levko Chykalenko) arrived here, which conducted negotiations with the Wrangel government and communicated with local Ukrainian activists (Chernysh, V. Lashchenko, I. Leontovych) and military officers (Vasyl Kyrii).

Key Details

• Ukrainian movement (1917–1918): In June 1917 the Sevastopol Ukrainian Council was founded, headed by Kostiantyn Velychko. It published the Bulletin of the Sevastopol Ukrainian Council (Byuleten SUR).
• UNR diplomatic negotiations with Wrangel (1920): In the autumn of 1920 Sevastopol received the UNR delegation. Here meetings took place with General Vasyl Kyrii, ministers Petro Struve and A. Kryvoshein, General Petro Wrangel, as well as the prominent satirist Arkadii Averchenko. A Ukrainian canteen of the Kotliarevsky family operated in the city.
• Red Terror in the winter of 1918: Bolshevized sailors dispersed the SUR and executed more than 250 people, including Noman Chelebidzhikhan.
• Monument to Petro Kishka (1956): On 26 May 1956, in a square on Malakhov Avenue, a monument was unveiled to the sailor-scout Petro Kishka with a russified inscription "Koshka."
• Sewerage and municipal crisis: In the postwar decade the city lacked a proper sewerage system and adequate sanitary cleaning. Systematic reconstruction and infrastructural development were provided by Ukraine after 1954.
• Postwar mine threat (1946): On 17 October 1946, off the coast of Sevastopol, the fishing seiner "Shkval" blew up on a Soviet mine, illustrating the tragic consequences of the lack of minesweeping in the city's waters.
• Loss of the battleship "Novorossiysk" (1955): On 29 October 1955, as a result of a sabotage operation by the 10th MAS Flotilla under the command of Valerio Borghese, the flagship Novorossiysk exploded and sank in Sevastopol Bay, taking the lives of 829 sailors.
• Postwar reconstruction and Ukraine's resources: The first emergency resources (a 750 kW mobile power plant from Kyiv, 10,000 m³ of timber floated down the Dnipro) arrived from the UkrSSR immediately in May 1944. Despite a 1948 USSR decree, the reconstruction of Sevastopol in 1949–1953 proceeded slowly. Only in 1954 did the city exceed its prewar housing stock, and on 19 February 1957 the Sevastopol city committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine reported the completion of reconstruction. From June 1957 the city and the "Sevastopolbud" trust were subordinated to the Kherson economic council (sovnarkhoz). During the UkrSSR period (1960s–1970s) large-scale restoration was carried out of the Grafska Pier, the Panorama, the Monument to the Sunken Ships, the Kroshytsky Art Museum, and others.
• Plast outpost (Sevastopol Stanytsia): On 3 March 1997 the Sevastopol Stanytsia of the NSOU "Plast" was founded.
• Refutation of the myth of the "city of russian glory": research by V. Verkhovsky characterizes Sevastopol as a concentration of systemic military-political defeats of russia — from the defeat in the Crimean War of 1853–1856 with the scuttling of the fleet to the German occupation and the scuttling of ships in World War I (1918) and the surrender of the city in World War II.

Sources and Links

• Who Rebuilt Sevastopol — an article by Serhii Konashevych in "Krymska svitlytsia" (2018, No. 39) about the reconstruction of the city.
• Reconstruction of Sevastopol after World War II (1944–1954) — a conceptual analysis of the city's reconstruction with the participation of the UkrSSR.
• Serhii Konashevych — author of historical studies about Sevastopol.
• The City of russian Misfortune — an article by Valerii Verkhovsky ("Krymska svitlytsia," 2016, issue No. 48).
• Sevastopol as the "city of russian defeat" — a concept refuting the imperial myth of the "city of russian glory."
• A Wasted Decade — an article by Petro Volvach in the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia" (2017, Nos. 11–12).
• The Loss of the Battleship "Novorossiysk" — the 1955 disaster in Sevastopol Bay.
• Valerio Borghese — commander of the Italian saboteurs who blew up the battleship in Sevastopol.
• Seiner "Shkval" — the disaster of a fishing vessel from the detonation of a mine off Sevastopol.
• "What the Revolution Gave Us": attempts to unite Sevastopol with Ukraine in 1917–1918 — a source about the Ukrainian movement in Sevastopol.
• A Journey to Crimea in 1920 (Abridged) — Levko Chykalenko's memoirs of the stay of the Ukrainian mission in Sevastopol in the autumn of 1920.
• The State of Industry and the Construction Sector of Crimea in the Postwar Decade (1944–1954) — an analysis of the pace and resource provision of Sevastopol's reconstruction.
• Negotiations of the UNR Directorate with Wrangel (1920) — historical context of the 1920 negotiations in Sevastopol.
• Vasyl Kyrii — a general, former officer of the UNR, who looked after the Ukrainian mission in Sevastopol.
• Arkadii Averchenko — a native of Sevastopol who held conversations with Ukrainian activists.
• Petro Struve — Minister of Foreign Affairs in Sevastopol in 1920.
• Petro Wrangel — commander of the White forces in Sevastopol.
• Levko Chykalenko — member of the Ukrainian delegation in Sevastopol.
• The Stolen Name: how Kishka was "Koshka" — an article by Serhii Konashevych in "Krymska svitlytsia" (2017, No. 38) about the construction and coverage of the monument to sailor Kishka.
• Petro Kishka — a legendary sailor, hero of the defense of Sevastopol.
• Sevastopol Ukrainian Council (1917–1918) — a representative body of Ukrainians in Sevastopol.
• Kostiantyn Velychko — head of the Sevastopol Ukrainian Council.
• Noman Chelebidzhikhan — mufti and head of the government of the Crimean People's Republic, killed during the terror in Sevastopol.
• Red Terror in Sevastopol (winter 1918) — a chronicle of Bolshevik executions.
• Bulletin of the Sevastopol Ukrainian Council — the printed organ of the SUR.
• Silno! Krasno! Oberezhno! Bystro! — an article about the history of the Plast movement in Crimea and the founding of the Sevastopol Stanytsia.
• The Plast Movement in Crimea — an overview of the history of "Plast" activity on the territory of Crimea.
• The Dehydrated Crimean Decade — an article by Petro Volvach, the main source of data on the municipal condition of Sevastopol.
• Water Supply of Crimea in the Postwar Decade (1944–1954) — context of the water and municipal crisis.
• Black Sea Fleet — the naval base that determined the development of the city.
• Sevastopol Railway Junction and Crimean Railway Branches — the transport infrastructure of the city.
• Tauric Chersonesos — an ancient polis on the territory of modern Sevastopol.
• "Poetic Atlas of Crimea" (the 1989 edition and its criticism) — Sevastopol as the central argument for the "russianness" of Crimea in the literary canon; panegyric poetry of the Crimean and World War II periods.
• Louis Boussenard — a French belletrist writer, author of the novel "The Zouaves of the Malakhov Mound" (Zuavy z Malakhova kurhanu) about the Crimean War; the main character fights near Sevastopol in a Zouave unit (section "Crimea in the Works of Foreign Literature").
• Mark Twain — an American writer who visited the destroyed Sevastopol in 1867 aboard the steamship "Quaker City" and described the ruins in the book "The Innocents Abroad" (Prostaky za kordonom) (section "Crimea in the Works of Foreign Literature").
• Olena Kysilevska – "Along the Native Land" — memoirs and essays about visiting Sevastopol, the Museum of the Defense of the City, and its ports during a sea voyage.
• Olena Kysilevska — a Ukrainian writer and public figure, author of the collection of essays "Along the Native Land" (Po ridnomu krayu) (1955).
• Energy Resources of the Black Sea Shelf — research by the Sevastopol Institute of Southern Seas on methane gas hydrates in the Black Sea.