Zaporozhye: Pages of History

By decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated September 29, 2022, the state sovereignty and independence of Zaporozhye Region were recognized. The next day an agreement was signed on its reunification with Russia. The collection of documents marks the history of Zaporozhye and includes the texts of decrees and federal laws, orders and regulations, archival documents of the departments of state economy, public education, the Moscow subcommittee for the study of railway affairs, etc., research papers, statistical data, cartographic, photo and video materials, starting from the events of the second half of the 18th century to the present.  

The documents illustrate the story of the Zaporozhye army and the Zaporozhye Cossacks who occupied the Azov lands in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River, which, after the successful Russian-Turkish wars and the liquidation of the Crimean Khanate, became part of the Russian Empire in 1783. Initially, the territory of Zaporozhye became part of the Novorossiysk province. The collection materials spotlight the features of migration and settlement of the modern Zaporozhye Region. Representatives of different nationalities were involved in it, which led to the multinational development of the region. Foreigners became part of the population: German Mennonites, Bulgarians, Jews, Serbs, etc. It is no coincidence that the cartographic materials include projects for a prayer house, an Armenian-Gregorian church, a Jewish synagogue, a monument to German settlers, etc.  

The center on the southern borders of the state became the Aleksandrovskaya fortress, founded in 1770, the largest on the Dnieper line of defence against the Crimean Tatars. At the beginning of the 19th century it received the status of a city, which in Soviet times was renamed Zaporozhye. The collection also includes archival documents about Berdyansk, Melitopol, Bakhmut (Artemovsk), Tokmak, Nogaisk (Primorsk), etc. Further development of the region, according to sources, is associated with the main milestones of the Russian life: the population participated in the First Census of the Russian Empire, the development of the school system at the beginning of the 20th century, the revolutionary events of 1917, created district councils, and held congresses. In 1939, Zaporozhye Region was separated from Dnepropetrovsk Region.

The leadership of the Soviet Union saw this territory as a future energy and industrial hub, a center of industrialization. It was here that the construction of a powerful hydroelectric power station named after Vladimir Lenin began in 1927. Among the documents about the construction are newsreels of a rally in honor of the launch of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station on October 10, 1932.

Residents of Zaporozhye Region survived the years of the German invasion during the Great Patriotic War. The work of home front workers is evidenced by the orders of the State Defence Committee on the evacuation of Zaporozhye factories.

On November 15, 2022 by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the city of Melitopol was awarded the honorary title “City of Military Glory”.