August 4 in the history of Mykolaiv and the present-day Korabelnyi District is associated with the city’s first film screening, a major shipbuilders’ strike, Bolshevik requisitions in Bohoyavlensk, the work of the “Okean” plant, and Russian shelling.
August 4, 1896: the first film was shown in Mykolaiv
At Yakov Sheffer’s theater the city’s first film screening was held, but the showing proved unsuccessful: instead of a clear image the audience saw flickering silhouettes and greeted the novelty with whistles and hisses. Already in October 1896 townspeople were shown a genuine device by the brothers Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière, after which film screenings began to gain popularity.
August 4, 1908: hundreds of shipbuilders stopped work
Because of reduced piece rates work at the Mykolaiv shipbuilding plant was stopped by 483 workers of the mechanical shop, and the next day the strike was supported by all 2,636 workers of the enterprise. Whether the shipbuilders managed to secure a return to their former pay is not indicated in the available historical account.
August 4, 1920: in Bohoyavlensk they began preparing meat requisitions
The Bohoyavlensk volost committee decided to create a commission for meat distribution, which was to ensure the forced seizure of food from the residents of Bohoyavlensk — the present territory of the Korabelnyi District. Requisitions of grain, livestock, horses and property undermined local households, and already in 1921 the famine claimed the lives of more than 2,000 residents.
August 4, 2021: a flagpole made at the “Okean” plant was installed
In the “Young Heroes” square in Mykolaiv they completed the installation of a flagpole 72 meters high and weighing about 30 tons, which was manufactured by the Okean shipbuilding plant in the Korabelnyi District. The structure consisted of 3 sections, and 2 truck cranes were used to lift it.
August 4, 2022: Russians shelled Mykolaiv
Around 04:00 and after 06:00 Russian occupiers shelled two districts of Mykolaiv: residential buildings were damaged, a neglected two-story structure was destroyed, a fire broke out, one rocket hit the roadway and another hit the sidewalk. There were no deaths or injuries; however after the enemy attacks a coniferous decking in the Balabanivskyi forest also caught fire.
This is how the date August 4 has remained in the city’s history: from Mykolaiv residents’ unsuccessful first encounter with cinema and the shipbuilders’ struggle for wages — to the Bolshevik plundering of Bohoyavlensk and Russian rockets that, a century later, once again brought danger to the residents of Mykolaiv.
Earlier we wrote:
- Fire and destruction: the occupiers shelled two districts of Mykolaiv in the morning
- After enemy shelling, coniferous decking burned in the Balabanivskyi forest
- In Mykolaiv they installed a giant flagpole made at the “Okean” plant
- A detachment of Bohoyavlensk insurgents on tachankas began an advance on Mykolaiv
