- Smila, Ukraine
Smila ( _uk. Смiла, _ru. Смела) is a city located on the
Tyasmyn River in the Cherkasy "Oblast " (province) of centralUkraine . The city is itself a "raion " (district) within the oblast as well as serving as the administrative centre of the wider Smiliansky Raion. It is located 23 km from the oblast's capital,Cherkasy .Smila had an estimated population in 2006 of 69,400.
History
According to legend, during one of the numerous
Golden Horde raids, a local girl guided theKievan Rus army to the rear of the invaders. The enemies were defeated but the girl was killed by one of their arrows. Nobody knew her name, so that when a colony was later established at the place, the settlers named it simply Smila (from the Ukrainian "smila", meaning "brave girl") in her honour.The settlement was first mentioned in the 16th century when it was a part of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . In 1648–54 Smila was a squadron town of the Chyhyryn regiment ofCossack s. In 1773 the city obtainedMagdeburg rights and in 1795 it became a part of theRussian Empire .Smila saw rapid development following the opening of a railway line through the city in 1876, but in the 20th century it suffered repeated devastations: in
World War I , in the Ukrainian famine of 1932–33 (theHolodomor ), and inWorld War II . Economic depression also followed the fall of theSoviet Union : in the 1990s, industrial production fell by over 70% and Smila lost more than 10% of its population. Each time, however, the city recovered, and Smila is now once again experiencing growth.Economy
The economic emphasis is on
mechanical engineering , and thefood industry is also of importance.Smila, where the
Kiev –Dnipropetrovsk andOdessa –Russia rail routes cross, is one of the most important railway junctions in Ukraine. The large station at the junction is named after Ukraine's national poet,Taras Shevchenko .Sister cities *flagicon|USA
Newton, Iowa , USA
*flagicon|RussiaRzhev , RussiaReferences
*uk icon (1972) "Icтopia мicт i ciл Укpaїнcькoї CCP - Черкаськa область (History of Towns and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR - Cherkasy Oblast)", Kyiv.
External links
*uk icon [http://smila.osp-ua.info/ Official city website]
*uk icon [http://smela.org/ Unofficial city website]
*ru icon [http://smila.org.ua/ Блог города Смела (Smila city blog)]
*uk icon [http://www.smila-newton.iatp.org.ua/ Smila-Newton sister city partnership website]
*en icon [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ua-sml.html Smila on a site devoted to Ukrainian Heraldy]
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