Balta, Ukraine

History

The first mentions of Balta, a town on the right bank of the Kodyma River, go back to 1526. In the 18th century, Polish nobleman Józef Aleksander Lubomirski founded the border town of Józefgród, named after him, on the left bank of the Kodyma, opposite of Ottoman-ruled Balta. In 1768, a Polish unit of the Bar Confederation fled across the border to Ottoman-ruled Balta, followed by chasing Russian troops, who then burned the town, an event that sparked the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774).

Balta and Józefgród were annexed by Russia in 1791 and 1793, respectively. In 1797, Józefgród, by then renamed to Yelensk (Еленськ) and Balta were merged into one town, retaining the name of the latter. According to the Russian census of 1897, with a population of 23,363 it was the fourth largest city of Podolia after Kamianets-Podilskyi, Uman and Vinnytsia. In 1900, the city's Jewish population numbered 13,235.

Pogroms occurred in Balta in 1882 and 1905.

From 1924–1929, the city was the capital of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. and became part of Transnistria Governorate in Kingdom of Romania until its recapture on 29 March 1944 by Red Army.

Until 2016, Balta was part of Balta Raion. On 4 February 2016, it was designated the city of oblast significance but remained the administrative center of the raion. It was incorporated as the center of Balta Municipality. The municipality was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Odesa Oblast to seven. The area of Balta Municipality was merged into Podilsk Raion.

Population

Ethnicity

Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:

Language

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:

Notable people

• Aryeh Altman, Israeli politician
• Yuly Aykhenvald, Ukrainian Jewish literary critic
• Zellig Harris, American linguist, mathematical syntactician, and methodologist of science
• Vsevolod Holubovych, Prime Minister of the Ukrainian People's Republic
• Grigori Panteleimonov, Russian sport shooter who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Aryeh Leib Schochet, Rabbi
• Samuel (Sholem) Schwarzbard, (1886–1938), Yiddish poet, watchmaker, soldier, anarchist; grew up in Balta
• Louis E. Stern (b. 08/27/1886 d. 01/11/1962), American International Lawyer, patron and friend of Chagall, Picasso, Klee and Miro, collection left to Philadelphia Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum
• Judah Even Shemuel
• Iosif Shkolnik, was a painter and set designer
• Alexander Veprik, composer and music educator
• David Palatnik (1913–1998), Moldavian architect

References

References

1. "Biographical reference". Balta City Council.
2. "Balta (Odesa Oblast, Balta Raion)". weather.in.ua.
3. "Балтская громада". Портал об'єднаних громад України.
4. "Balta, Odesa Oblast, Balta Raion". [[Verkhovna Rada.
5. . (1880). "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom I".
6. "Historical reference". Balta City Council.
7. "Balta, Ukraine". [[JewishGen]].
8. Encyclopedia Judaica, "[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/balta Balta, Ukraine]." Retrieved 10/1/2018.
9. (4 February 2016). "Законодатели согласились на все предложения". Thesis.
10. (2020-07-18). "Про утворення та ліквідацію районів. Постанова Верховної Ради України № 807-ІХ.".
11. (July 17, 2020). "Нові райони: карти + склад". Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України.
12. "Національний склад міст за переписом 2001 року".
13. "Рідні мови в об'єднаних територіальних громадах України".