Samar (Ukrainian: Самар), formerly known as Novomoskovsk (Ukrainian: Новомосковськ) until 2024, is a city and municipality in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Samar Raion within the oblast. Samar is located predominantly on the right bank of the Samara River, a left tributary of the Dnieper River. The city is located 27 kilometres (17 mi) from the administrative center of the oblast, Dnipro. As of January 2022, Novomoskovsk's population was approximately 69,855.[2]
History
A city with the name Samar (now known as Old Samar) has existed from the end of the 17th century.[3][4] The Cossacks abandoned the town in 1688 when Russia built the Bohorodytska Fortress in the city. Soon after, the former inhabitants of the Old Samar founded another settlement named Samar upstream the Samara River. In 18th-century documents, the city is also named Samarchyk, Novoselytsia or Palanka. The town was the administrative center of the Samar Palanka [uk] (province) of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.[3][5]
In 1777, a town named Yekaterinoslav, meaning "the glory of Catherine" (after Russian empress Catherine II),[6] was built on the location. The site was badly chosen – spring waters transformed the city into a bog.[7][8] The surviving settlement was in 1794 renamed Novomoskovsk.[3][9][10] The city name Yekaterinoslav was given to current Dnipro.[8]
The city is famous for the Holy Trinity Cathedral, built in 1778 by Yakym Pohrybniak from wood without any nails. A novel dedicated to the cathedral by Ukrainian writer Oles Honchar became a classic of 20th-century Ukrainian literature.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the city council voted in January 2024 to rename Novomoskovsk to Nova Samar (Нова Самарь).[13] On 19 September, the Verkhovna Rada voted to rename Novomoskovsk to Samar.[14]
Demographics
In 2001, Samar (at the time Novomoskovsk) had a population of 71,860 people. In terms of ethnicity, Ukrainians constitute a large majority, accounting for over 80% of the population. The second-largest group are people with an ethnic Russian background (13%), while the remaining population consists of Belarusians, Germans, Armenians, people of Turkic origin, Jews and Romani people. The exact ethnic composition was as follows:[15]
