Until 18 July 2020, Pervomaisk was incorporated as a city of oblast significance. It also served as the administrative center of Pervomaisk Raion even though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Mykolaiv Oblast to four, the city of Pervomaisk was merged into Pervomaisk Raion.[4][5]
Etymology
The name derives from the Russianpervomay (первомай) meaning "the first of May," (May Day). The city was formed in 1919 after the Bolshevik victory in the Ukrainian-Soviet war, as a result of the merger of three historic towns in the area.
The name for one of the merged towns, Bohopil (or Bohopol),[6] was derived from the name of a local river Southern Bug which in Polish and Ukrainian is named Boh.
History
The city was formed in 1919, when three neighbouring settlements: the village of Holta (Голта), the town of Bohopil (Богопіль), and county city of Olviopol (Ольвіополь) were merged.
Holta was a village founded in 1762. It was located in the Ottoman Empire[13] until its annexation by Russia in 1791.[7] In the late 19th century, despire its village status, it had two breweries and an iron factory, and its population exceeded 4,000.[13] It is located in the historic region of Yedisan.
In World War II, Pervomaisk was occupied by the Axis Powers in 1941 and was divided between German occupation authorities on the east bank (Bohopol and Olviopol) and the Romanian-occupied region of Transnistria to the west (Holta). Holta served as the center of the Golta judeţ (district) of Transnistria. Pervomaisk had been more than 1/3 Jewish before the war but most were murdered during the occupation.
Elements of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces arrived in Pervomaisk for the first time as early as June 1960, and were present throughout the Cold War. The U.S.-funded Cooperative Threat Reduction Program began funding dismantlement of the missile infrastructure in the 1990s.[14]
In 2023, the working group of the National Commission on State Language Standards [uk] included Pervomaisk in the list of settlements in Ukraine that contain words with the root "Pervomai" ("1 May", the International Workers' Day of the Soviet Union) and can be renamed as part of decommunization and derussification campaigns in Ukraine.[15] In late June 2023 the Pervomaisk City Council initiated a public voting on renaming the city.[15] In April 2024, the Commission supported to rename Pervomaisk to Olviopol.[16] However, on 9 October 2024, the proposed name Olviopol did not get enough votes in the Verkhovna Rada,[17] and neither did the name Olviia.[18] Since 7 October 2024, the vote for another proposed name, Bohoslavsk, is pending.[19]
Geography
Climate
Climate data for Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast (1981–2010)
At the time of the only Ukrainian census conducted after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city counted a population of 70,746 inhabitants, which made it the second-largest city in the region after Mykolaiv, which counted 509,102 inhabitants at the time. The city is mostly Ukrainian, yet a sizeable Russian minority resides in within the settlement's boundaries.
The exact ethnic and linguistic composition was as follows:[21][22]
^Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom VII (in Polish). Warszawa. 1886. p. 519.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom I (in Polish). Warszawa. 1880. p. 287.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Krykun, Mykola (2012). Воєводства Правобережної України у XVI-XVIII століттях: Статті і матеріали (in Ukrainian and Polish). p. 522. ISBN978-617-607-240-9.
^ abSłownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom III (in Polish). Warszawa. 1882. p. 113.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
