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Sevastopol - Culture

Sevastopol is the largest non-freezing commercial and fishing Black Sea port of Ukraine and one of the major industrial, scientific, and cultural centres of the country and Eastern Europe in general. Located on the site of the ancient Greek colony, Khersonesus, the city itself and the Black Sea Fleet, based in Sevastopol, have occupied a prominent place in Russian and Soviet history.

The city is located at the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula, on the same parallel with the Italian city of Milan and the French city of Lyon.

The population is about 390.100 (as of 07.01.99), including Russian - 74.4%, Ukrainian - 20.6%, with the remaining 5% comprised of 26 nationalities (Belarusian, Crimean Tartar, Jews, Armenian, Greek, German, Bulgarian, Moldavian, Polish, Estonian, Latvian, Korean, etc.). The absolute majority of the population is Russian-speaking..

Sevastopol is divided into four districts (boroughs) - Leninsky, Nakhimovsky, Gagarinsky, and Balaklavsky. It includes the towns of Inkerman and Balaklava and 46 townships (former villages). The official languages of the city is Russian and Ukrainian and the religion is mostly Eastern Orthodox.

Governed by the laws of Ukraine, the city has a special "directly governed" status (unlike other Crimean cities it is directly subordinate to the central Ukrainian government, not the Crimean authorities). The only other city in Ukraine with the same status is the capital, Kiev. Legislative authority - the City Assembly consisting of elected deputies. Executive authority - city administration.

Educational Institutions include 12 research institutes and organizations, including 2 scientific research institutes of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences , the Sevastopol State Polytechnical University (with 10 thousand students), the Sevastopol Institute of Nuclear Energy, the Sevastopol Naval Institute, 12 technical schools and professional schools, 60 comprehensive schools, colleges and lyceums.

Otherwise, there are 4 theatres, including the Lunacharsky Theatre, one of the oldest Russian theatres; 11 arts and entertainment centres; 10 museums, numerous libraries, including the famous Morskaya Biblioteka (the Navy Library) of the Black Sea fleet ; 4 stadiums; and 3 yacht clubs.

The whole city is one big museum, with over 1,800 monuments and memorials. Among them are Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, British, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Italian, Jewish, and other historic sites such as the world-famous Khersonesus, "Panorama of the Heroic Defense of Sevastopol during the 1854 - 1855 Crimean War", diorama "Storm of Sapun Mountain on May 7, 1944", "British Crimean Military Memorial," etc. Sevastopol is annually visited by more than 500,000 tourists.

The advantageous geographical situation of the city, its favorable natural climatic conditions, as well as the availability of highly developed industrial, scientific, and human resources make the Sevastopol region one of the most promising international tourist, commercial, and industrial centres of Europe.

The urban and Ship parties in turn are divided by a Southern bay. On the official data, in 1844 in Sevastopol there were 41155 inhabitants. The large part of the population was the military people; the civilians consisted of families of military men, officials, handicraftsmen - tailors, shoemakers, tinmans - and the fine dealers. How did Sevastopol of the period looked like?  On three hills, divided by deep beams, there were houses constructed mainly of white inkerman's stone. The centre was placed around a Southern hill (where today a ring of central streets and squares lays). The Main Street was Ekaterinenskaya street, beginning from Ekaterinenskaya square (nowadays - Nahimov square). In this street there lived the general governor, the urban head, rich merchants, ship's boys school, naval barraks and working crews.

On Large Sea there were houses of sea officers and officials, army and naval commissars. They were small mansions with front gardens, making a pleasant impression on travellers. Immediately behind the comfortable main streets (in the area of present Historical parkway, the central market) there existed the beggars' side-street, richly populated by labour folk. One of them was on the  top of a Southern hill, nicknamed "ridge of lawlessness ". Hovels of the poor men were moulded here richly and chaotically (building went on without any urban plan and the sanctions), narrowness and the deprivations derivated illnesses, drunkenness. Under the instruction of M. P. Lazarev the planning of new buildings made this area of the city a modern and picturesque district. Beautiful buildings, parkways, and monuments are visible approaching the city on board a ship. Southern and ship's bays were the military harbour of Sevastopol.

On coast of other bays - Streleckaya, and Kazachya - the ships were under construction and were under repair in admiralty, which was on the southwest part of  Southern bay. Here were built dry docks, considered in that time top of the Art of Engineering . Improvement of the fortification of a black sea fortress was constantly worked on. In 30-40 years on both  parts of a Large bay stone coastal casemating type batteries were constructed - Konstantinovskaya , Mihaylovskaya, Aleksandrovskaya, Nikolaevskaya and Pavlovskaya. Two of them - Konstantinovskaya and Mihaylovskaya - keep intact up to nowadays by becoming an integral part of Sevastopol road.

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