September 17 in the history of Mykolaiv combined the city’s anniversary, one of the symbols of the regional center and modern shipbuilding. On this day Mykolaiv residents celebrated the 200th anniversary of the city, a monument to Saint Nicholas was unveiled in Chestnut Square, and the unique dredger vessel “Mykolaivets” was launched at the NIBULON shipyard. The Korabelnyi District also has a special connection to the date: it was on September 17, 1996 that the hryvnia finally became the sole legal means of payment in Ukraine, and the first banknotes of the national currency once arrived in the country by sea through the local special port “Oktyabrsk”.
September 17, 1989: Mykolaiv celebrated its 200th anniversary
The main city celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Mykolaiv that day took place at the Central City Stadium and at the yacht club. The former district head Valerii Mykolaiovych Valetskyi in the book “Yeidnyi Korabelnyi” recalled that within the Korabelnyi District the anniversary was marked earlier — on September 10, 1989 — and that the district had spent the whole year preparing for the big date: building and improving facilities, repairing facades and territories.
September 17, 1996: the hryvnia became the sole legal means of payment in Ukraine
The monetary reform, which lasted from September 2 to 16, 1996, ended with the transition to the hryvnia, and from September 17 the coupon-karbovanets ceased to be used as a means of payment. For the Korabelnyi District of Mykolaiv this story has special significance: the first hryvnias printed abroad as early as 1992 were secretly delivered by sea through the special port “Oktyabrsk” — the present-day port “Olvia.” We told about this operation in detail earlier.
September 17, 2005: a monument to Saint Nicholas was unveiled in the center of Mykolaiv
In Chestnut Square, on the occasion of the 215th anniversary of Mykolaiv, a monument to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker — the patron of seafarers and the city — was solemnly unveiled. The monument was created from donations by residents, and the names of the benefactors were engraved on the pedestal. The sculptor was Ivan Bulavytskyi, and the architects were Oleksandr Bondar and Anatolii Pavlov.
September 17, 2017: “Mykolaivets” was launched in Mykolaiv
At the NIBULON shipbuilding and ship-repair plant the self-propelled dredger of project SDS-15, “Mykolaivets,” was launched. The dredger was built in Mykolaiv for dredging works on Ukrainian rivers, in ports and near terminals; the vessel could operate with a bucket, cutterhead and hydraulic hammer at depths up to 15 meters.
This day in Ukraine and the world
September 17, 1989 saw the opening of the first festival of contemporary Ukrainian music “Chervona Ruta” at the “Bukovyna” stadium in Chernivtsi, which became one of the landmark cultural events of the late Soviet era. And on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution.
Thus September 17 linked for Mykolaiv the city’s jubilee, the appearance of one of the most famous symbols of its center and modern shipbuilding. And the Korabelnyi District has its own connection to the main economic event of that date — it was through its port gates that the first banknotes of the future hryvnia arrived in Ukraine four years before the reform.
Previously we wrote:
- Hryvnias — 30 years: how the first money from Canada secretly arrived in the Korabelnyi District
- Gas-turbine firstborn, the legendary “Shar” and aviation over Kulbakyne: what made September 15 memorable in Mykolaiv
- Construction of the house of pioneers, a shop, a gym: how they prepared for Mykolaiv’s 200th anniversary in the Korabelnyi District
- Two city days in the Korabelnyi District of Mykolaiv
