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'Simferopol' (English pronunciation: []) (; ; , literally: ''The white mosque'') is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in southern Ukraine. The city is situated on the small Salhir River.

Contents

Geography and climate

History

Modern City

Sister cities

Famous people from Simferopol

References

External links

Geography and climate

Simferopol is located in the southern portion of the Crimean peninsula. The Simferopol Reservoir is located near the city, providing the area with clean drinking water.
The climate is dry and warm, with soft winters. The average temperature in January is –0.5°С, and +21.2°С in July. The average rainfall is 509 mm per year, and there is a total of 2,469 hours of sunlight per year.

History

A famous archaeological site known as Scythian Neapol, the remnants of an ancient capital of the Crimean Scythians, is located within the city's boundaries.
Later, the Crimean Tatar town of Aqmescit was located in the area of modern Simferopol.
Russians renamed the city Simferopol in 1784 after the conquest of Crimea by Catherine II of Russia. In Greek, ''Συμφερόπολις'' (''Sympheropolis'') means "the city of usefulness". In 1802, Simferopol became the administrative center of the Taurida Governorate. During the Crimean War of 1854-1856, the Russian army reserves and a hospital were located in the city. More than 30,000 Russian soldiers were buried in the vicinity of the city.
In the 20th century, Simferopol once again was affected by wars in the region. At the end of the Russian Civil War, the headquarters of General Pyotr Wrangel, leader of the anti-Bolshevik White Army, were located there. On November 13, 1920, the Red Army captured the city and on October 18, 1921, Simferopol became the capital of the ''Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic''.

Retreating NKVD shot a number of prisoners on October 31, 1941 in the NKVD building and city prison [1]. During World War II Simferopol was occupied by the German army between November 1, 1941 and April 13, 1944.
Germans perpetrated one of the largest war-time massacres in Simferopol, killing in total over 22,000 locals — mostly Russians, Jews, Krymchaks, and Gypsies. On one occasion, on December 13, 1941, the Einsatzgruppen D under Otto Ohlendorf killed at least 14,300 Simferopol residents.
The Soviets liberated Simferopol in April of 1944. And on May 18, the Crimean Tatar population of the city with the whole Crimean Tatar nation was forcibly deported to Central Asia.
After the war, on April 26, 1954, Simferopol, together with the rest of Crimea, was transferred from Russia to the Ukrainian SSR by Nikita Khrushchev.

Modern City

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Simferopol became the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within newly independent Ukraine. Today it has a population of 363,600 (as of 2004) who are mostly ethnic Russians. There are also significant Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minorities.

After the Crimean Tatars returned from exile in the 1990s, several new Crimean Tatar suburbs appeared, as returned much more Tartars compared to number of exiled. Nowdays practice of illigal seizure of land is widly spread among Tartars.
The city has a railway terminus, serving millions of summer tourists each year, and the Simferopol Airport. The world's longest trolley bus line connects Simferopol to Yalta on Crimea's Black Sea coast.

Sister cities

Simferopol is currently twinned with:

★ Heidelberg ();

★ Kecskemét ();

★ Salem ();

★ Bursa ();

★ Rousse ().
Heidelberg is Simferopol's sister city since 1991. In the center of the city, there is a "Heidelberg House", which was constructed in 2000 from the private donation of Mr. Manfred Lautenschlaeger, the founder of MLP AG, Heidelberg. The House belongs to two partner organizations: ‘Freundeskreis Heidelberg – Simferopol’ (Heidelberg, Germany) and ‘Circle of Friends Simferopol – Heidelberg’ (Crimea, Ukraine). It earned an international reputation due to a number of projects and activities in the field of culture, education and social support.

Famous people from Simferopol

★ Andriy Hryvko, a Ukrainian cyclist who rides for Team Milram.

★ Kelly Holiday, Electronica and Hip-Hop DJ and producer (Kelly Holiday website)

★ Adolph Joffe, a Russian Communist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and a Soviet diplomat

★ Yana Klochkova, a Ukrainian swimmer, who has won five Olympic medals in her career, with four of them being gold.

★ Zara Levina, a Russian composer

★ Yuri I. Manin, a Russian-born mathematician

★ Sergey Karjakin, the youngest chess grandmaster in history at the age of 12 years and 7 months.

★ Ekaterina Serebrianskaya, an individual rhythmic gymnast

★ Lev Sigalevich, painter

★ Oleg Kotov, Col. Russian Air Force, Expedition 15 Soyuz Commander & Flight Engineer

References

External links

★ simferopol.org — Official website

★ simf.org.ua — Informational portal

★ simferopol.ws — Information about the city, photos, history.

★ ''What to Put on Crimea's Center Coat of Arms?'' 22 May, 2006 UNIAN report (in Ukrainian; includes images of suggested CoA versions)

★ thecrimea.org.ua — The Heidelberg House in Simferopol