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Mykolaiv
Mykolaiv; Миколаїв
	Lenin Avenue in Mykolaiv.
; Flag	; Coat of arms
	Nickname(s): City of shipbuilders
	Map of Ukraine with Mykolaiv highlighted
	; Mykolaiv Location of Mykolaiv
	Coordinates: 46°58′0″N 32°00′0″E / 46.966667°N 32°E
Country; Oblast; Raion	Ukraine; Mykolaiv Oblast; Mykolaiv City Municipality
Founded	1789
City rights	1789
	Government
- Mayor	Volodymyr Chaika
	Area
- Total	259.83 km2 (100.3 sq mi)
	Population (2008)
- Total	505,900
- Density	1,959/km2 (5,073.8/sq mi)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	54000
Area code(s)	+380 512
Licence plate	BE
Website	mykolayiv.osp-ua.info

This article is about the shipbuilding port in southern Ukraine. For the smaller town in Lviv Oblast of Ukraine, see Mykolaiv, Lviv Oblast.

Coordinates: 46°58′N 32°0′E / 46.967°N 32°E / 46.967; 32

Mykolaiv (Ukrainian: Миколаїв), also widely known as Nikolayev (from Russian Николаев), is a major city in southern Ukraine.

[edit] Name of city

There are several variations of the city's name. In Ukrainian, the city is named Микола́їв, for which the transliteration is Mykolaiv, or, more rarely, Mykolayiv. The Russian name is Никола́ев, which transliterates as Nikolaev or Nikolayev.

[edit] Geographical position

The city is located 65 kilometers (40 mi) from the Black Sea along the estuary of the Southern Buh river (where it meets the Inhul River)..

[edit] Administrative status

Mykolaiv is the administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast (province), as well as that of both the Mykolaivsky and Zhovtnevy raions (districts) within the oblast. However, Mykolaiv is also a city of oblast subordinance, and is thus subject directly to the oblast authorities rather to the raion administration housed in the city itself.

[edit] Economy

Today Mykolaiv is a major shipbuilding center of Ukraine (as, earlier, of the whole Soviet Union) and an important riverport. The city has three major shipyards one of which is capable of building large navy ships. Other important industries are mechanical engineering, power engineering, metallurgy and cosmetics.

[edit] History

The town was founded in 1789 by the Russian Governor General of Novorossiya, Prince Grigori Potemkin, initially as a shipyard called simply a New Shipyard on the Ingul river. Kniaz Potemkin signed an order to construct a shipyard on August 27, 1789, which is considered to be the city's birth date. The shipyard was to undertake the repair of naval ships in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). Later Potemkin ordered the shipyard to be named Nikolaev to commemorate the date when Ochakov fell to the Russian troops under his command on December 6, 1788, close to the day of Saint Nicholas (Nikolay) December 19, in the Russian Orthodox Church calendar.

The history of the city has always been closely connected to ship building. Captain Georgy Brusilov of the ill-fated Arctic ship St Anna was born in Mykolaiv in 1884.
The Lubavicher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born in Mykolaiv in 1902.