Bilohirsk
The city is located 25 miles east-northeast of Simferopol on the Biiuk Karasu river. The city's both Russian and Ukrainian names literally are translated as "white mountains", and the Crimean Tatar name Qarasuvbazar means "bazaar on the Karasu river".
The site is low, but the town is surrounded by hills, which afford protection from the north wind. The town has a characteristic Crimean Tatar atmosphere. Placed on the high road between Simferopol and Kerch, and in the midst of a country rich in cereal land, vineyards and gardens, Qarasubazar ('black water market') used to be a chief seat of commercial activity in Crimea; including a large slave market but it is gradually declining in importance, though still a considerable centre for the export of fruit.
The caves of Akkaya close by give evidence of early occupation of the area. When in 1736 Khan Fetih Giray was driven by the Russian Empire from Bakhchysarayi, he settled at Karasubazar, but next year the town was captured, plundered and burned by the Russian army.
Retreating NKVD shot a number of local people in the streets in 1941. Qarasuvbazar was occupied by the German army from 1941 to 1944 during World War II. During the occupation, the Germans executed the town's Jews in an anti-tank trench.
After the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the town was renamed Belogorsk per Stalinist detatarization policy.
Map - Bilohirsk
Map
Country - Ukraine
Flag of Ukraine |
During the Middle Ages, Ukraine was the site of early Slavic expansion and the area later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated into rival regional powers and was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The area was then contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers for the next 600 years, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century, but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately absorbed by the Russian Empire. Ukrainian nationalism developed, and following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was formed in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a man-made famine. During World War II, Ukraine was devastated by the German occupation.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
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UAH | Ukrainian hryvnia | â‚´ | 2 |
ISO | Language |
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HU | Hungarian language |
PL | Polish language |
RU | Russian language |
UK | Ukrainian language |