УКРАЇНА UKRAJINA | UKRAINE |
Автономна Республіка Крум Avtonomna Respublika Krym | Autnomous Republic of Crimea |
Ялтиська міська рада Jaltis'ka mis'ka rada | Jalta city municipality |
The resort city of Ялта (Jalta) is situated at the southern coast of the Crimean Pennnsula, which forms Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta has a opulation of about 80,600 (2004), Yalta municipality has a population of about 133,700 (2014). The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by the Greek conquerors who were looking for a safe shore (γιαλός – yalos in Greek) on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black Sea, surrounded by the mountain range Ai-Petri. It has a warm humid subtropical climate and is surrounded by numerous vineyards and orchards.
Yalta was first recorded in the 12th century by an Arab geographer, who described it as a Byzantine port and fishing
settlement. It became part of a network of Genoese trading colonies on the Crimean coast in the 14th century, when it was
known as Etalita or Galita. Crimea was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1475, which made it a semi-independent
subject territory under the rule of the Crimean Khanate but the southern coast with Yalta was under direct Ottoman rule
forming the Eyalet of Kefe (Feodosiya). Yalta was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783, along with the rest of Crimea,
sparking the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). In the 19th century, the town became a fashionable resort for the Russian
aristocracy and gentry. Leo Tolstoy spent summers there and Anton Chekhov in 1898 bought a house (the White Dacha) here,
where he lived until 1902; Yalta is the setting for Chekhov's short story, "The Lady with the Dog", and such prominent
plays as "The Three Sisters" were written in Yalta. The town was also closely associated with royalty. In 1889 Tsar
Alexander III finished construction of Massandra Palace a short distance to the north of Yalta and Nicholas II
built the Livadia Palace south-west of the town in 1911. During the 20th century Yalta was the principal holiday resort of
the Soviet Union. In 1920, Vladimir Lenin issued a decree "On the Use of Crimea for the Medical Treatment of the Working
People" which endorsed the region's transformation from a fairly exclusive resort area into a recreation facility for tired
proletarians. Numerous workers' sanatoria were constructed in and around Yalta and the surrounding district. The Soviet
elite also came to Yalta; the Soviet premier Joseph Stalin used the Massandra Palace as his summer residence. Yalta was
occupied by the German Army from 9 November 1941 to 16 April 1944. The town came to worldwide attention in 1945
when the Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" powers — the Soviet Union, the United States and the
United Kingdom — was held at the Livadia Palace.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalta, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta]