This article is about the shipbuilding port and administrative center of Mykolayivs'ka oblast', in southern Ukraine. For the smaller Ukrainian town, see Mykolayiv, L'vivs'ka oblast'.

Mykolayiv (Ukrainian Миколаїв), also known by its Russian name Николаев (Nikolaev or Nikolayev) is a city in Southern Ukraine with the population of 514,000 (2001 estimation). The city is the center of the Mykolayivs'ka oblast'. It lies along the estuary of the Southern Bug (Ukr.: Pivdenny Buh; Rus.: Yuzhny Bug) river at its confuelnce with the Inhul (Ingul) river, 65 kilometers from the Black Sea.

History

The town was founded in 1789 by the Governor General of Novorossiya Knyaz Potemkin initially as a shipyard called simply a New Shipyard on the Ingul river. Knyaz Potemkin signed an order to construct a shipyard on April 27, 1789, which is considered to be a city birth date. The shipyard was to serve for the repair of the Russian Navy ships in the Russo-Turkish war. Later Potemkin ordered the shipyard to be named Nikolaev to commemorate the date of fall of Ochakov to the Russian troops under his command on December 6, 1788, the day of Saint Nicholas (Nikolay) in the Russian Orthodox Church.

The history of the city has always been closely connected to the ship building. (To be continued).

The only Russian Navy aircraft carrier currently in commission Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov was built in Mykolayiv.

Economy

Today Mykolaiv is a major ship building center of Ukraine (as, earlier, of the whole Soviet Union) and an important riverport. The city has 3 major shipyards some of which capable of building large navy ships. Other important industries are mechanical engineering, power engineering, metallurgy and cosmetics.