Balta, Ukraine

Balta
Балта
City
The city view
The city view
Flag of Balta
Flag
Coat of arms of Balta
Coat of arms
Balta is located in Ukraine
Balta
Balta
Location of Balta in Odesa Oblast
Balta is located in Odesa Oblast
Balta
Balta
Balta (Odesa Oblast)
Coordinates: 47°56′24″N 29°37′19″E / 47.94000°N 29.62194°E / 47.94000; 29.62194
Country Ukraine
OblastOdesa Oblast
RaionPodilsk Raion
HromadaBalta urban hromada
Founded1526
Government
 • MayorSerhiy Mazur[1]
Area
 • Total
22.97 km2 (8.87 sq mi)
Elevation
[2]
23 m (75 ft)
Population
 (2022)
 • Total
Decrease 17,854
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code
66100—66105
Area code+380 4866
Website[1]

Balta (Ukrainian: Балта, pronounced [ˈbɑɫtɐ] ⓘ; Romanian: Balta; Polish: Bałta;[3] Yiddish: באַלטאַ) is a city in Podilsk Raion, Odesa Oblast in south-western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Balta urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.[4] Population: 17,854 (2022 estimate).[5] The city's population was 19,772 as of the 2001 Ukrainian Census.[6]

History

Historic coat of arms of Józefgród

The first mentions of Balta, a town on the right bank of the Kodyma River, go back to 1526. In the 18th century, Polish nobleman Józef Aleksander Lubomirski founded the border town of Józefgród, named after him, on the left bank of the Kodyma, opposite of Ottoman-ruled Balta.[3] In 1768, a Polish unit of the Bar Confederation fled across the border to Ottoman-ruled Balta, followed by chasing Russian troops, who then burned the town, an event that sparked the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774).[3] In 1776, King Stanisław August Poniatowski vested Józefgród with town rights and established two annual fairs.[7] It was a private town of the Lubomirski family, administratively located in the Bracław County in the Bracław Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland.[8]

Balta and Józefgród were annexed by Russia in 1791[7] and 1793, respectively. In 1797, Józefgród, by then renamed to Yelensk (Еленськ) and Balta were merged into one town, retaining the name of the latter.[7] It is located in the historic Podolia region.[9] According to the Russian census of 1897, with a population of 23,363 it was the fourth largest city of Podolia after Kamianets-Podilskyi, Uman and Vinnytsia. In 1900, the city's Jewish population numbered 13,235.[9]

Pogroms occurred in Balta in 1882 and 1905.[10]

From 1924–1929, the city was the capital of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.[7] With the annexation of Bessarabia in 1940, Balta became a part of the Odesa Oblast of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[7] It was occupied by German and Romanian troops on 5 August 1941 and became part of Transnistria Governorate in Kingdom of Romania until its recapture on 29 March 1944 by Red Army.

Until 2016, Balta was part of Balta Raion. On 4 February 2016, it was designated the city of oblast significance but remained the administrative center of the raion.[11] It was incorporated as the center of Balta Municipality. The municipality was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Odesa Oblast to seven. The area of Balta Municipality was merged into Podilsk Raion.[12][13]

Population

Historical population
YearPop.±%
18499,810—    
186014,154+44.3%
189723,363+65.1%
195917,922−23.3%
197020,317+13.4%
197920,929+3.0%
198923,293+11.3%
200119,962−14.3%
201618,955−5.0%
Source: [3]

Ethnicity

Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:[14]

Ethnic composition of Balta
percent
Ukrainians
 
 82.74%
Russians
 
 13.46%
Moldovans
 
 1.70%
Ashkenazi Jews
 
 0.56%
Belarusians
 
 0.37%
Bulgarians
 
 0.23%
Armenians
 
 0.13%
Poles
 
 0.10%
Georgians
 
 0.09%

Language

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:[15]

Language Percentage
Ukrainian 81.02%
Russian 17.41%
other/undecided 1.57%

Notable people

References

  1. ^ "Biographical reference". Balta City Council (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2013-04-19. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  2. ^ "Balta (Odesa Oblast, Balta Raion)". weather.in.ua. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom I (in Polish). Warszawa. 1880. p. 96.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ "Балтская громада" (in Russian). Портал об'єднаних громад України.
  5. ^ Чисельність наявного населення України на 1 січня 2022 [Number of Present Population of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022] (PDF) (in Ukrainian and English). Kyiv: State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2022.
  6. ^ "Balta, Odesa Oblast, Balta Raion". Regions of Ukraine and their Structure (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Historical reference". Balta City Council (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2013-04-19. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  8. ^ Krykun, Mykola (2012). Воєводства Правобережної України у XVI-XVIII століттях: Статті і матеріали (in Ukrainian and Polish). p. 532. ISBN 978-617-607-240-9.
  9. ^ a b "Balta, Ukraine". JewishGen Locality Page. JewishGen. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  10. ^ Encyclopedia Judaica, "Balta, Ukraine." Retrieved 10/1/2018.
  11. ^ "Законодатели согласились на все предложения". Thesis (in Russian). 4 February 2016.
  12. ^ "Про утворення та ліквідацію районів. Постанова Верховної Ради України № 807-ІХ". Голос України (in Ukrainian). 2020-07-18. Retrieved 2020-10-03.
  13. ^ "Нові райони: карти + склад" (in Ukrainian). Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України. July 17, 2020.
  14. ^ "Національний склад міст за переписом 2001 року".
  15. ^ "Рідні мови в об'єднаних територіальних громадах України".