Sevastopol is a city and a port in the southwestern part of the Crimea, founded in 1783 as the most convenient base for the Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean peninsula. The first four buildings in the city were solemnly laid by the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral Thomas Fomich Mekenzi: a chapel in the name of Nikolai the Wonderworker (now the house of the officers of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia), the house for himself (the "commander's house"), the pier in front of his house (now Grafskaya pier ) and Admiralty Forge.

"Sevastopol" in Greek means "the city of honor", more often a more artistic translation "holy city".

In 1797, by the decree of Paul I, the city was renamed Ahtiyar (after the name of the Tatar village where it was built), but the name Sevastopol did not come out of use and was returned in 1826. By this time, Sevastopol's population reached 30,000 people , most of which were military. In 1830 the first insurrection of sailors and workers broke out against the arbitrariness of the authorities, which was brutally suppressed.

St. Vladimir's Church History of Sevastopol
Port of Sevastopol History of Sevastopol
On the territory of Chersonesos in Sevastopol History of Sevastopol

In 1853, Turkey declared war on Russia, a few months later, a military alliance with it was signed by England and France, not wanting to strengthen Russia's domination of the Black Sea. During the Crimean War, Sevastopol was subjected to a long siege (349 days) and was abandoned by the defenders after taking the enemy's key height - the Malakhov Mound. After the war, the 20-year period of the decline of Sevastopol was followed, since under the terms of the peace treaty signed in 1856, Russia was forbidden to have a navy on the Black Sea.

Participants in the defense of Sevastopol were the outstanding physician, the founder of military field surgery NI Pirogov and the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

The restoration of the fleet began in 1870 g ., and on the eve of the First World War in Sevastopol, there were up to 400 combat, auxiliary and transport vessels .The rapid development of Sevastopol contributed to the formation of the USSR - by early 1941 .in the city lived already 112 thousand .human.Sevastopol has become a powerful naval base .The Great Patriotic War became the hardest test for the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet and ordinary Sevastopolites .Heroic defense of Sevastopol lasted 250 days - the Soviet troops left the city, only having exhausted all the protective resources .May 9, 1944 .almost completely destroyed by the fascists the city was released .

The third feat of Sevastopol is called his revival in the postwar years. In 1999, the Memorial Wall lit the Eternal Flame in memory of the heroic defense of the city during the Second World War. Today Sevastopol as a joint naval base of Russia and Ukraine has a special administrative status.

Film-story about the heroic pages in the history of Sevastopol