Smila, Ukraine

Encyclopedia : S : SM : SMI : Smila, Ukraine

Smila (Ukrainian: Смiла) is a city located in the Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Smiliansky Raion (district), the city itself is also designated as a seperate raion within the oblast. It is located 23km from the oblast capital, Cherkasy.

The current estimated population is 69,400 (as of 2006).

Contents

1 History
2 Economy
3
4 References
5 External links

History

According to legend, during one of the numerous Golden Horde raids, a local girl guided the Kievan Rus army to the rear of invaders. The enemies were defeated but the girl has been killed by their arrow. Nobody knew her name. When a colony appeared on the place, settlements named it Smila (from the Ukrainian smila meaning "brave").

The settlement was first mentioned in XVI century when a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 1648-1654 Smila was a Cossack squadron town within Chyhyryn regiment. In 1773 the city obtained Magdeburg rights. In 1795 it became a part of Russian Empire. The city speed up its development following the opening of a railroad in 1876. In the XX century it suffered from devastating World War I, II, Holodomor, and economic depression following the fall of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, the industrial production sank over 70% and Smila lost more than 10% of population. But each time the city recovered, and now it's once again experiencing growth.

Economy

The economic emphasis is on mechanical engineering, besides it food industry is of importance. Aluminium ore stores are diminished i proximity of the city.

Smila is one of the most important railway junctions in Ukraine. It is crossed by Kiev-Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa-Russiarail routes.

Newton, Iowa.

References

() (1972) Icтopia мicт i ciл Укpaїнcькoї CCP - Черкаськa область (History of Towns and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR - Cherkasy Oblast), Kyiv.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.