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Kherson Херсон
St. Catherine's Cathedral, 1780s
Coat of arms
Map of Ukraine with Kherson highlighted.
Kherson Location of Kherson
Coordinates: 46°38′0″N 32°35′0″E / 46.633333°N 32.583333°E / 46.633333; 32.583333Coordinates: 46°38′0″N 32°35′0″E / 46.633333°N 32.583333°E / 46.633333; 32.583333
Country Oblast Municipality City Rayons	Ukraine Kherson Oblast Kherson City Dneprovski rayon Suvorovski rayon Komsomolski rayon
Founded	June 18, 1778
Government
- Mayor City Council Chairman City council City Council Seats City Rayon Council Chairman CityRayon council CityRayon Council	Volodymyr Saldo
Area
- Total	135.7 km2 (52.4 sq mi)
Population (2007)
- Total	358,000
- Density	2,651/km2 (6,866.1/sq mi)
Postal code	73000
Area code(s)	+380 552
Sister cities	Rzeszów
Website	www.city.kherson.ua

Kherson (Ukrainian and Russian: Херсон) is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast (province), and is designated as its own separate raion (district) within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry. The current estimated population is 329,000 (as of 2007).

History

Until 1774, the region belonged to the Crimean Khanate. Kherson was founded in 1778 by Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, on the orders of Catherine the Great. The city was built under the supervision of General Ivan Gannibal on the site of a small fortress called Aleksanderschanz. The name Kherson is a contraction of Chersonesos, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea. One of the first buildings in the Kherson Fort was the Church of St. Catherine where Potemkin was eventually buried. The last tarpan was caught near Kherson in 1866.

Demographics

As of Ukrainian National Census (2001), the ethnic groups living within Kherson are:

• Ukrainians - 76.6%
• Russians - 20.0%
• Other - 3.4%

Population

Administrative divisions

There are three city raions. Two of them still carry mark of a colonial city of Russia.

• Dnipro Raion, named after Dnieper river.
• Komsomol Raion, named after the Russian Communist youth organization, Komsomol.
• Suvorov Raion, named after the Russian General Suvorov.

Education

• Kherson state agrarian university
• Kherson state university
• Kherson national technical university
• International University of Business and Law

Main sights

• The Church of St. Catherine was built in the 1780s, supposedly to Ivan Starov's designs, and contains the tomb of Prince Potemkin.
• Kherson TV Tower — is a famous construction located in the city.
• Adziogol Lighthouse, hyperboloid structure designed by V.G.Shukhov, 1911

Famous people

• Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet, Ukrainian-born film director, screenwriter, and actor.
• Evgeny Kucherevsky, Ukrainian football coach of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (died 2006)
• Larissa Latynina, a Soviet gymnast who was the first female athlete to win nine Olympic gold medals
• Tatiana Lysenko, a Soviet and Ukrainian gymnast who won the gold medal on the balance beam at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
• Moshe Sharett, the second Prime Minister of Israel (1953-1955)
• Sergei Stanishev, Ex-Prime Minister of Bulgaria
• Mircea Ionescu-Quintus, a Romanian politician, writer, and jurist
• John Howard (died in Kherson in 1790)
• Salomon Rosenblum, later known as Lieutenant Sidney Reilly, a secret agent and international adventurer and playboy who was at one time employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service. He is reputed to be the real inspiration for Ian Fleming's spy character, James Bond.
• Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist.
• Yefim Golïshev (1897-1970) Painter and composer associated with the Dada movement in Berlin..
• Nikolai Grinko, Ukrainian Soviet-era film actor
• Abram Petrovich Gannibal, founder of the city
• Alexander Suvorov, founder of the city
• Grigory Potyomkin, founder of the city

Sister Cities

• Rzeszów, Poland
• Zalaegerszeg, Hungary
• Shumen, Bulgaria
• Kent, Washington, United States
• Zonguldak, Turkey
• Oslo, Norway

External links

• 0552.com.ua - city site of Kherson.
• Kherson city administration website (Ukrainian)
• Kherson patriots (Ukrainian)
• Kherson info&shopping (Ukrainian)
• List of cities of Ukraine by population

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