Nova Kakhovka
Nova Kakhovka [Нова Каховка; Nova Kaxovka]. See Google Map; see EU map: VII-14. A city (2022 pop about 35,000) on the left bank of the Dnipro River alongside the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station and a river port, in the middle of Kherson oblast. Its city council, forming Greater Nova Kakhovka until July 2020, included (2020 populations) the city of Nova Kakhovka (35,795), the adjacent (to the east) city of Tavriisk (10,360), the town (smt) of Dnipriany (4,089, to the west) and villages (to the west, Korsunka and Novi Laheri, and southwest, Maslivka, Obryvka, Pishchane, Raiske, and Topolivka, their rural pop 5,912) for a total population of of 65,783. Since 2020 it became the administrative center of the enlarged Kakhovka raion; its city council, however, was altered to exclude the city of Tavriisk, but to include the settlements of Kozatske and Vesele on the right bank of the Dnipro River while retaining Dnipriany, Raiske, and Topolivka and the villages of Korsunka, Maslivka, Novi Laheri, Obryvka and Pishchane, for a total 2022 population of 44,427.
History. On 20 September 1950, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to build the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station with a dam and a sluice that would create the Kakhovka Reservoir to generate electricity, enhance shipping along the Dnipro River, and provide water supply for irrigation. To facilitate this project, a city was built for its workers. Planning and building the city was assigned to the Kharkiv branch of the Ukrainian SSR’s city construction planning office, the Academy of Construction and Architecture of the Ukrainian SSR, and the Dniprobud construction organization, coordinated by the architect, A. Matorin. Work began in December 1950, next to the HEP station, on the site of the small village Kliuchove (first mentioned in 1891 [on land obtained in 1889 by 3 Swiss colonists who would have grapes cultivated for winemking]). When the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR approved the city’s name on 28 February 1952, this became the official founding date of Nova Kakhovka—a modern, planned city with wide streets, laid out on a grid and lined with greenery.
Initially, the city housed builders of the HEP station, engineers, geologists, and project managers; then it included personnel managing the station and others working in supporting industries (construction, electricity machine-building, and food processing) and services (administration, education, health and transportation). Its population grew quickly, reaching (in thousands) 44.0 in 1979 and 56.6 in 1989. In the post-Soviet economic recession its growth slowed and peaked at 61.0 in 1993–94, and with ageing population, began to decline: 60.0 (1995), 52.1 (2001), 48.4 (2012), and 44.2 (2022). According to the 2001 population census, the ethnic make-up of the city’s population was (in percent) predominantly Ukrainian (73.81), with a significant Russian minority (23.37), and very few Belarusians (0.91), Armenians (0.30), Moldavians (0.16), Poles (0.16), Tatars (0.15), and others (1.14). Its composition by declared mother tongue was bilingual (in percent): Ukrainian (53.2), Russian (45.9), and others (0.8).
In post-Soviet Ukraine, the city’s state enterprises were privatized. Nova Kakhovka gained its first Orthodox Church, the Saint Andrew’s Cathedral (built 1994–2012, becoming the seat of the Nova Kakhovka eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate in 2007). Houses of worship of other faiths also opened: the Birth of Christ Pentacostal Church, the Evangelical Church of Ukraine and the Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The Russian Federation’s annexation of the Crimea and incursion into the Donbas in 2014 prompted in response defense efforts and de-Sovietization campaign, involving the removal of some statues and name changes of some streets (2015–16). Russian full-scale invasion and military occupation of the city since February 2022 were met with local protests. They were countered by Russian authorities with orchestrated pro-Russian rallies and the placement (30 April 2022) of the Vladimir Lenin monument in front of city hall. The Russian use of the city as a military base and logistics center became a target for Ukrainian counter-offensive from across the Dnipro River; their strike of an ammunition depot (12 July 2022) damaged buildings, killed 8 and injured 80. Later, the nighttime detonation of Russia-controlled Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station (6 June 2023) caused the emptying of the Kakhovka Reservoir, which resulted in severe flooding in riverside parts of the city and downstream, with over 50 deaths and damage to some 30,000 buildings.
Economy. In addition to hydroelectric power, the city’s industries specialized in hydroelectric machinery and equipment. In 1990 the largest enterprises produced electric machinery, hydraulic metal structures, plastic parts, and procured their assembly; construction was supported by the production of asphalt and reinforced-concrete structures. There were also a home-building combine, a furniture factory, a creamery, and 2 industrial state farms.
With privatization (approved in 1995), the industries became market-oriented and more diversified. By 2020 the main ones were: 1) the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station (named in 2000 after P. Neporozhny, its chief building engineer, an asset of the Ukrhidroenerho private corporation), 2) ZKEM LLC (formerly part of the Nova Kakhovka Electric Machine Building Plant, developing and producing large electric motors and generators, est 1955), 3) TPO Nova Kakhovka Electromechanical Plant, 4) the JSC Hidrostal (formerly, PAT Ukrhidromekh, the Nova Kakhovka Plant of Hydraulic Metal Structures, est 1960), 5) Olesia LLC (a design and construction company, producing reinforced concrete and metal structures), 6) Energy Product LLC (one of the largest plants in Ukraine for the production of cellular autoclaved concrete [foam concrete]), 7) Novyi Svit LLC (metal windows and doors, wooden doors and furniture), and 8) Nova Kakhovka Furniture LLC. Food and beverage processing increased to include 1) Kakhovka Protein Agro LLC (the largest soybean processing complex in Ukraine, selling internationally through Tavria Agro Bio Invest), 2) PJSC House of Vintage Cognacs ‘Tavriya’ (one of the largest producers and exporters of cognacs in Ukraine, also produces wines), 3) PJSC Nova Kakhovka Agribusiness (processing milk to produce butter and cheeses), 4) LLC Nova Kakhovka Meat Processing Plant ‘Mriia’, 5) LLC Kakhovka sausages, 6) LLC ‘Pivdenmlyn’ (processeing wheat to produce flour, pasta), and 7) Agro Plus (vinegar). Supporting agriculture are 1) Solodukhin Agrotrade Co. (horticulture, vegetable growing, viticulture), and 2) Agrozoosvit (animal feed).
Supporting the industries and workers were administration, education, finance, marketing, and transportation services. Technical training was provided in 1990 by 3 tekhnikums: 1) agricultural hydro melioration, mechanization, and electrification, 2) electro-mechanical, and 3) tool-making; there were 3 other vocational-technical schools. In the post-Soviet period the postsecondary education was upgraded to colleges and diversified with new institutions. The upgraded ones were: 1) the Nova Kakhovka Agricultural College, a branch of the Dmytro Motornyi Tavriia State Agrotechnological University (Melitopol, Zaporizhia oblast); 2) the Nova Kakhovka Professional Electrotechnical Lyceum; 3) the Nova Kakhovka Instrument-Making Technical School (the former tool-making tekhnikum). Other upgrades were: 4) the Nova Kakhovka Higher Professional School (a junior college with specialties in engineering, production and construction); and 5) the Nova Kakhovka Polytechnic College of the Odesa Polytechnic National University (the former NKEMT). The 6) Nova Kakhovka Polytechnic Institute and 7) Nova Kakhovka Humanities Institute, an affiliate of the private Open International University of Human Development ‘Ukraine’ (Kyiv), the only humanities school in Nova Kakhovka, were both private.
The city had 2 hospitals and a polyclinic, a psychiatric dispensary, several dental clinics, a private medical center, 2 children’s sanatoria, the Tavriia sanatorium, and 5 hotels.
Passenger transportation was provided by bus (both within and inter-city) and railway (Kakhovka station in Tavriisk, 2 km E of city limits). Excursions by hydrofoil were available along the Dnipro River to Kherson in the Soviet period, and renewed by a private firm in 2017. Closest airfield for small planes was at Kakhovka. Closest airport with scheduled passenger planes was in Kherson. Freight was handled by trucks, trains (freight yard in Tavriisk) and river barges (dock in Tavriisk).
Culture. Developed as a showcase Soviet city, Nova Kakhovka had a notable palace of culture, a summer theater, the cinema palace, the art gallery named after A. Havdzinsky (who worked here during the construction of the dam and city), the city’s historical museum, a winemaking museum, and the literary memorial museum of the poet Anatolii Bakhuta. The city’s library system had 12 branches, including the central library, a library for youth, and one for children. Its public school system had 5 regular schools, a lyceum, a gymnasium, an immersion English language school, an arts school, a music school, and 3 sports schools for children and youth.
The city had many diverse creative performance groups. At the palace of culture were 15 folk amateur groups: 1) the folk dance ensemble Molodist (dir. I. Shtunder), 2) contemporary dance ensemble Roksolana (O. Rubanenko), 3) Kapelle choir and 4) Men’s T. Oliinyk Choir (both dir. N. Sheveleva), 5) veterans’ choir (S. Rychkova), 6) women’s choir (M. Hryn), 7) women’s vocal ensemble ‘Chysti Kliuchi’ (S. Oliinyk), 8) estrada studio ‘Dzherela’ (T. Siedina), 9) ‘Zabava’ (O. Sheremet), 10) brass orchestra (R. Belashev), 11) folk musical instrument orchestra (V. Yarotnyk), 12) folk musical instrument ensemble (L. Lazareva), 13) female bandurist trio ‘Merezhyvo’ (L. Vovnenko), 14) drama theater (V. Starostenko), 15) youth theater (A. Lazarev). Also popular were the 1) estrada song group ‘Perlyna Tavrii’ (V. Vasylenko), and 2) the violin ensemble ‘Renesans’ of the arts school (O. Yelizarov). Considered exemplary were the dance ensembles 1) ‘Strumochok’ (M. Yushchenko) and 2) ‘Sonechko’ (A. Melnychenko), and 3) the choir ‘Sonet’ of the children’s music school (S. Babenko). Of note locally were 1) the ensemble ‘Dzhereltse’ of the Nova Kakhovka gymnasium (O. Stupakov), 2) the vocal trio ‘Horlytsia’ (S. Oliinyk), and 3) the vocal ensemble ‘Viter mandriv’ (S. Bondar), both at the palace of culture.
Nova Kakhovka not only hosted regular performances of their own creative groups and folk ensembles, but also regional and international competitions. Major festivals included 1) the Tavriia Rock-n-roll (held 1986–95, 2005–05 і 2011–12), 2) the annual ‘Vivat, musica’ international classical music competition (est in 2000), and 3) the biannual all-Ukrainian folk music festival the ‘Chumak Trail.’ City festivals were: 1) ‘Vynotaur,’ 2) Water of Life, 3) pride in Cossack heritage, and 4) Emerald city, with competition in song, readings, fine arts, and choreography.
Good sports facilities and personnel enhanced sports in the city. They included a stadium, 21 sports halls, 110 sports grounds and a water sports base. The Enerhiia stadium was home of the Enerhiia football team (founded 1952, Ukrainian second league, Kherson oblast champions 25 times, dissolved in April 2022 due to Russian invasion). It had 2 MX tracks and a venue for motoball (where motorcycle riders play the ball; the city’s team was the silver champion of Ukraine in 2001). The Dynamo archery sports complex, capable of accommodating 70 athletes at a time, hosted the Cup of Ukraine competition, in which the Nova Kakhovka team took eighth place in 2002. The city’s 13 tennis courts and outstanding coaches made the Nova Kakhovka tennis school one of the strongest in Ukraine.
The city had its daily newspaper (published both in Ukrainian and Russian) Nova Kakhovka (1974–91) replaced by Narodna trybuna (1991–2012), then renamed Nova Kakhovka (2012–17). In 2017 there were 5 weekly publications and 5 internet news sources.
Major attractions of the city are its riverside parks, notably the part designed by S. Faldzynsky, squares, and treed boulevards. The elegant buildings from the 1950s are decorated with unique ‘stone embroidery.’ Soviet monument commemorating the Red Army defending its position against the White Volunteer Army in 1920, the fallen Red Army soldiers during the Second World War, and an obelisk for the unknown soldier in the Park of Glory remain. Following the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence they were supplemented with statues of Taras Shevchenko (2002) and Oleksander Dovzhenko (2012) in the riverside parks, and monuments to: 1) the liquidators of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, 2) teachers, 3) Swiss colonists who established the villages of Kliuchove, Luhove, and Osnova, 4) the victims of the Famine-Genocide of 1932–3 and 5) the heroes of Ukraine. The Saint Andrew’s Cathedral (2012) was given (2004) pride of place on a vacant treed square (formerly village cemetery).
City plan. Located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, on the SW side of the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station, Nova Kakhovka forms an irregular rectangle. In 2014 its base in the north extended along the river from ENE to WSW (7.5 km); its ENE side, from the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station and dam sluice SSE along the dam embankment and then the North Crimean Canal to the road and rail bridges over the canal (3.5 km); the S side, to the WSW, along a bypass road and rail spur, then turning W, more toward the river (9.5 km); and the west side, N to the river (1.8 km), thus closing the rectangle; the city limits in 2014 occupied an area of 21.4 sq km; with a subsequent extension along the river 1 km W to include Raiske 2, the area was increased to 22.7 sq km.
In 1990 parks and plantings covered 493 ha, or 21.7 percent of the city’s area. Current land uses (in percent of total area of the city) are: residential with institutional and commercial (28), of which multi-story apartments (16) and individual homes with gardens (4); industrial (18), parks (20), open grassland (18), pine woods (16).
According to the official plan of the city (2014), the old nucleus, called the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station Settlement, occupies 1.5 sq km (or 6.6 percent of the city’s area) and contains the city core. It forms a rectangle along the river from about 1 km SW of the dam for 2.5 km to the WSW and about 0.5 km inland from the riverside park. Going inland, its main streets parallel to the river are: Dnipro (originally Stalin) Avenue, Historic (formerly Lenin) Street, Heroes of Ukraine (formerly Karl Marx) Street, both with impressive 2–3-story apartment buildings, then Hydrobuilders’ Street, with less impressive 2-story apartments, and then Saint Andrew’s (formerly Kalinin) Street and its S perimeter, Friendship (formerly Dzerzhinsky) Street, the last two rows of blocks with 2 story residential homes. Its E limit is the First of May Street and its W limit, Fishermen’s (formerly Kuibyshev) Street.
The city core is along Dnipro Avenue. At its central NNW-SSE axis, between Park (formerly Komsomol) Street and Gorky Street (S side of Dnipro Avenue), is the administration building (initially, for the power plant construction, now city hall) and (N side, in the Faldzynsky park), the cultural center, both offset from the avenue by squares. South of city hall, in the SE corner of that block, is the city’s historical museum. In the row of blocks S of it (between Historic and Heroes of Ukraine streets) is the Park of Glory with an obelisk to the unknown soldier, and S of it, the Nova Kakhovka Central Hospital. Among the apartment buildings to the E and W of this axis are other administrative offices and various services and shops.
West of the cultural center, the riverside park contains some eateries, then the Prosecutor’s Office, facing Novoselivska Street, which leads SSE to enclose a block containing School No. 1. West of the Prosecutor’s Office is a tuberculosis clinic for children. Then, at its western NNW-SSE axis, facing Cathedral (formerly Shchors) Street is a grand monument to the Red Army fallen in the Second World War; to the south, Cathedral Street passes on both sides School No. 3 and beyond it, the Saint Andrew’s Cathedral. Northwest of the grand monument is a dock for passenger watercraft and inland from it a restaurant; then, W of it, the Dovzhenko Park with the statue of Oleksander Dovzhenko. Facing Pushkin Street, the park was re-developed with a new Premier Inn; W of it is a recreational park and a beach off Dnipro Avenue and Maiakovsky Street. The western end of the core area is defined by Fishermen’s Street. The riverside with a stately hotel has been enhanced with newer apartments, boat launches and a new Maximarine yacht club.
East of the central axis, facing Zatyshna Street (formerly Pioneers Street), the riverside park contains the summer theater, featuring a statue of Taras Shevchenko; to the south, Zatyshna Street circumnavigates School No. 2. East of the summer theater in the riverside park is a playground with rides for children and a zoo. East of this is a large complex of athletic facilities, including the Enerhiia Stadium, a second football pitch, tennis courts, an archery field and a light athletics field; E of this are 2 hotels, and beyond them, a Skoda dealership and the Evangelical church.
South of the sports complex and E of the First of May Street is a commercial block. There, (S side of Dnipro Avenue) it includes Power Gym, and E of the First of May Street is the city farmers’ market, other commercial enterprises, and the city’s fire station. East of this commercial block, across Factory Street, are industries serviced by railway spurs, including the Hidrostal and Novyi Svit plants, some others now in ruins. Both commercial and industrial blocks are defined by Dnipro Avenue in the N and French (formerly Partisan Commune) Street in the S. The city bus depot is located on the N side of French Street. The industrial block is serviced by the ENE-WSW Industrial Street in the center. In the E these 3 streets link to Highway E58 / P47, which crosses over the Kakhovka Dam to the NNW, has a narrow belt of single family homes on its W side, and to the SSE a wider belt of similar homes with small gardens between its E side and railway tracks and the North Crimean Canal.
The city also expanded to the SE, S and W. A broad triangular area (apex 0.55 km, base 3.4 km), SSE of Friendship Street and SSW of French Street and bound in the S by Bukin Street, contains 7 blocks of mostly 5 to 9 story apartment neighborhoods with small parks, schools, and shops; there is a supermarket on French Street (S side); on the First of May Street (E side) is the Yunist movie theater and E of it, a gymnasium with its tennis courts and sports field, and (W side) a park square with a monument marking 40th anniversary of the Second World War victory, and S of it, the Nova Kakhovka Professional Electrotechnical Lyceum. At the continuation of the central axis on Gorky Street is the Nova Kakhovka Agricultural College with its garden and sports field. Near the W end of this triangular mixed residential area is the Kinozona outdoor movie theater. Outside the SE corner of this triangular area is the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station’s transformer station, with a corridor of power lines leading W of it, along and S side of Bukin Street, bypassing residential areas N of it; also S of Bukin Street, at Soborna Street, is a monument to the victims of Famine-Genocide of 1932–3.
The southern rectangular area (2.8 km E-W by 1.5 km N-S) was developed S of the power lines to the Bypass Road. Divided by the First of May Street, it consists of industrial (E side) and mixed residential W side). The industrial part, serviced by rail spurs, is marked in the N by the Electric-machine-builders Street and in the S by the Bypass Road. Factories include (from N to S) the electric machine building plant, the Olesia LLC (a design and construction company), a furniture plant, and the Energy Product LLC complex (makers of cellular autoclaved concrete). Next to it is an array of ground-based solar cells. Of the mixed residential sector, its central-western part is named ‘Sokil’ after the control instrument making plant built there, and its eastern part—‘Elektromash’—after the factory just E of it, comprises mostly of 5–9-story apartment neighborhoods, with schools and service facilities. In ‘Elektromash’, along the First of May Street (N to S, W side) are some shops, the Nova Kakhovka Electrotechnical Lyceum, the Nova Kakhovka Polytechnic College, and a buffer of pine woods, with the Nova Kakhovka MX Track behind it. Going W along Sokil’s main E-W arterial, Victory Avenue, (N side) is the Nova Kakhovka Higher Professional School and next to it, the Nativity of Christ Pentacostal Church. Along Gorky Street, Sokil’s central arterial (going N to S), are apartment complexes, a supermarket (NW corner of Victory Avenue), S of it the Nova Kakhovka Humanities Institute (E side) and then (W side) a hospital campus. Along Soborna Street, Sokil’s western perimeter (going N to S), S of Dovzhenko Street (its northern perimeter) (E side), are multi-story apartments; on the W side, near the W end of Victory Avenue, is the Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church of Ukraine. South of the Bypass Road is a narrow belt of commercial enterprises, served by rail spurs from a bypass rail line. West of the southern residential development and north of the Bypass Road and rail line, the area (5.35 sq km) consists of pine woods or grassland on Oleshia Sands, otherwise prone to wind erosion. SW of it, across the Bypass Road, is the city’s sewage treatment plant and W of it, its water treatment plant.
North of the open area and the corridor of power lines, from its old nucleus Nova Kakhovka expanded west from Fishernen’s Street along the river. Here, the residential belt (1 km), between Dnipro Avenue and Bukin Street, is mostly single story family housing with tiny gardens. Along the shore is another yacht club and tennis club. This segment is terminated by the high voltage power line corridor, that swings N to cross the Dnipro River. Beyond the corridor, housing continues for 1.25 km to Raiske 2 (now part of Nova Kakhovka). Raiske 2 is the home of the vintage cognac ‘Tavriia’ plant. It is located on the left bank of the Dnipro River at the terminus of the bypass railway spur.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Vodotyka, T. ‘Nova Kakhovka’ in Entsyklopediia istoriï Ukraïny vol 7 (Kyiv 2010)
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Ihor Stebelsky
[This article was updated in 2025.]