Ancient history Neolithic burial grounds excavated on the shore of the
Sea of Azov date from the end of the third millennium BCE. Over 120 skeletons have been discovered, with stone and bone instruments, beads, shell-work, and animal teeth. Being near the
Muravsky Trail exposed it to frequent
Crimean–Nogai slave raids and plundering by Tatar tribes, preventing permanent settlement and keeping it sparsely populated, or even entirely uninhabited, under Tatar rule. Hence it was known as the
Wild Fields or the 'Deserted Plains' (
Campi Deserti in Latin).
Cossack period In this region of
Eurasian steppes, the
Cossacks emerged as a distinct people in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Below the
Dnieper Rapids were the
Zaporozhian Cossacks,
freebooters organized into small, loosely-knit, and highly mobile groups who were both
livestock farmers and
nomads. The Cossacks would regularly penetrate the steppe to fish and hunt, as well as for migratory farming and to herd livestock. Their independence from governmental and landowner authority attracted to join them many peasants and serfs fleeing the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and
Grand Duchy of Moscow. The
Treaty of Constantinople in 1700 further isolated the region, as it stipulated that there should be no settlements or fortifications on the coast of the Azov Sea to the mouth of the
Mius River. In 1709, in response to a Cossack alliance with
Sweden against Russia, Tsar
Peter the Great ordered the
liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich, and their complete and permanent expulsion from the area. In 1733, Russia was preparing for a
new military campaign against the
Ottoman Empire and therefore allowed the return of the Zaporozhians, although the territory officially belonged to Turkey. Under the Agreement of
Lubny of 1734, the Zaporozhians regained all their former lands, and in return, were to serve in the Russian army in war. They were also permitted to build a new stockade on the
Dnieper River called
New Sich, though the terms prohibited them from erecting fortifications. These terms allowed only for living quarters, in Ukrainian called
kureni. The nearest district to modern Mariupol was the Kalmius District, but its border did not extend to the mouth of the
Kalmius River, although this area had been part of its migratory territory. After 1736, the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the
Don Cossacks (whose capital was at nearby
Novoazovsk) came into conflict over the area, until Tsarina
Elizabeth issued a decree in 1746 declaring the Kalmius River the dividing line between the two Cossack hosts. Sometime after 1738, the treaties of
Belgrade and
Niš in 1739, in addition to the Russian-Turkish convention of 1741, as well as the following likely concurrent land survey of 1743–1746 (resulting in the demarcation decree of 1746), the Zaporzhian Cossacks established a military outpost on "the high promontory on the right bank of the Kalmius river." Though the details of its construction and history are obscure, excavations have revealed Cossack artifacts, including others, within the enclosure being approximately 120 square meters in the shape of a square. The outpost was likely a modest structure in that it lay within the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and the erection of fortifications on the Sea of Azov was prohibited by the
Treaty of Niš. The
last Tatar raid, launched in 1769, covered a vast area, overrunning the New Russian Province with a huge army in severe wintertime weather. The raid destroyed the Kalmius fortifications and burned all the Cossack winter lodgings. thereby laying claim to the region, including the site of future Mariupol, from the Ottoman Empire. Following the victory of the Russian forces, the
Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca eliminated the endemic threat from Crimea. In 1775,
Zaporizhzhia was incorporated into the
New Russian Governorate, and part of the land claimed behind the Dnieper fortified line including modern Mariupol was incorporated in the newly re-established
Azov Governorate.
Russian Empire and Soviet Union After the
Russo-Turkish War from 1768 to 1774, the governor of the
Azov Governorate, Vasily A. Chertkov, reported to
Grigory Potemkin on 23 February 1776 that ruins of ancient
domakhas (homes) had been found in the area, and in 1778 he planned the new town of
Pavlovsk. However, on 29 September 1779, the city of Marianοpol () in Kalmius County was founded on the site. For the Russian authorities the city was named after the Russian Empress
Maria Feodorovna; its
de facto title came from after the
Greek settlement of Mariampol, a suburb of
Bakhchysarai in
Crimea. The name was derived from the
Hodegetria icon of the Holy
Theotokos and the
Virgin Mary. Subsequently, in 1780, Russian authorities forcibly relocated many Orthodox Greeks from Crimea to the Mariupol area, in what is known as the
Eviction of Christians from the Crimea. In 1782, Mariupol was an administrative seat of its
county in the Azov Governorate of the
Russian Empire, with 2,948 inhabitants. In the early 19th century, a customs house, a church-parish school, a port authority building, a county religious school, and two privately founded girls' schools were built. By the 1850s the population had grown to 4,600 and the city had 120 shops and 15 wine cellars. In 1869, consuls and vice-consuls of Prussia, Sweden, Norway, Austria-Hungary, the Roman States, Italy, and France established their representative offices in Mariupol. After the construction of the railway line from
Yuzovka (later Stalino and Donetsk) to Mariupol in 1882, much of the wheat grown in the
Yekaterinoslav Governorate and coal from the
Donets Basin were exported via the port of Mariupol (the second largest in the South Russian Empire after
Odesa), which served as a key funding source for opening a hospital, public library, electric power station and urban water supply system. Mariupol remained a local trading centre until 1898, when the Belgian subsidiary
SA Providence Russe opened a steelworks in
Sartana, a village near Mariupol (now the
Ilyich Steel & Iron Works). The company incurred heavy losses and by 1902 was bankrupt, owing 6 million francs to the Providence company and needing to be re-financed by the
Banque de l'Union Parisienne. The mills brought cultural diversity to Mariupol as immigrants, mostly peasants from all over the empire, moved to the city looking for a job and a better life. The number of workers increased to 5,400. In 1914, the population of Mariupol reached 58,000. However, the period from 1917 onwards saw a continuous decline in population and industry due to the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent
Russian Civil War. During the
Ukrainian War of Independence, from 1917 to 1920, it passed between various factions. Afterwards, it was administratively part of the
Donets Governorate of Ukraine. In 1933, a new steelworks (
Azovstal) was built along the Kalmius River.
World War II During
World War II, the city was under
German military occupation from 8 October 1941, to 10 September 1943. sent nearly 50,000 young men and girls as
forced laborers to Germany and deported 36,000 prisoners to
concentration camps. During the occupation, the Germans focused on "the complete and quick destruction" of Mariupol's
Jewish population, as part of the
Holocaust. The Germans shot about 8,000 Mariupol Jews from 20 October 1941, to 21 October 1941. is installed in a suburb of Mariupol in memory to the murdered Jews of the city. The work consists of a
seven-pointed menorah, a
Star of David and two commemorative steles with inscriptions in Russian: The
Choral Synagogue of Mariupol was reportedly undamaged during the hostilities. Reportedly, the Germans opened a hospital in the building, and when they retreated, tried to set fire to it. The Germans operated four transit camps for prisoners of war in Mariupol, consecutively Dulag 152 in 1941–1942, Dulag 172 in 1942, Dulag 190 in 1942–1943 and Dulag 201 in 1943, as well a subcamp of the Stalag 368
POW camp in 1943. Mariupol was liberated by the Soviet
Red Army on 10 September 1943. In 1948, Mariupol was renamed "Zhdanov", after the recently deceased close
Stalin ally
Andrei Zhdanov, who had been born in the city. The historic name of the city "Mariupol" was restored in 1989 after a popular grassroots movement advocated for the name change.
Russo-Ukrainian War War in Donbas and economic downturn Following the Ukrainian
Revolution of Dignity in 2014,
pro-Russian movements and protests erupted across eastern Ukraine, including Mariupol. This unrest later evolved into the
Russo-Ukrainian War between the Ukrainian government and Russia together with the separatist forces of the self-proclaimed
Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). In May of that year, a battle between the two sides broke out in Mariupol after it briefly came under DPR control. On 13 June 2014, the city was recaptured by government forces, and, in June 2015, Mariupol was proclaimed the temporary
administrative centre of
Donetsk Oblast until the city of
Donetsk could be recaptured by the Ukrainian forces. The city remained peaceful until the end of August 2014, when DPR separatists together with a detachment of the
Russian Armed Forces captured Novoazovsk, located east of Mariupol near the
Russo-Ukrainian border. This followed an
offensive by pro-Russian forces from the east, which came within of Mariupol, before an overnight counter-offensive pushed the separatists away from the city. In September, the two sides agreed to a
ceasefire, halting that offensive. Minor skirmishes continued on the outskirts of Mariupol in the following months. from the village of
Shyrokyne around east of Mariupol city limits.
Grad rockets fired by separatist forces hit residential areas of Mariupol, killing at least 30 people. A
Bellingcat investigative team concluded that the shelling was instructed, directed and supervised by Russian military commanders in active service with the
Russian Ministry of Defence. The attack exposed the city's vulnerability to separatist attacks. As a result, in February 2015, Ukrainian forces
launched a surprise assault on Shyrokyne, forcing the separatists out from Shyrokyne and neighbouring villages by July 2015. In May 2018, the
Crimean Bridge was opened, linking mainland Russia to
Crimea, which had been
annexed in 2014 in the opening stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War. On 26 October 2018,
The Globe and Mail reported that the bridge had reduced Ukrainian shipping from its
Azov Sea ports (including Mariupol) by about 25%.
2022 Russian siege during the
siege of Mariupol During the full-scale
Russian invasion of Ukraine of 2022, Mariupol was a strategic target for Russian forces and their proxies. It came under artillery bombardment on the first day of the invasion, and was placed
under siege by Russian forces. By early March, a severe humanitarian crisis developed in the city, which a
Red Cross worker later described as "apocalyptic", citing food shortages, severe damage to infrastructure, and a lack of sanitation. The siege was marked by
war crimes committed by Russian forces, most notably a Russian airstrike on
a maternity hospital, and a second strike on
Mariupol Theater, which was being used as a
air raid shelter by hundreds of civilians at the time of the strike. By late April, Russian and separatist troops had pushed deep into most of the city. They separated Ukrainian troops from the remaining defenders of the
Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, which contained a complex of bunkers and tunnels. The Ukrainians besieged in Azovstal held out until 16 May 2022, when the last troops in the plant surrendered, and the city fell into Russian control. The
United Nations (UN) and the Ukrainian authorities estimated that up to 90% of Mariupol's residential buildings had been damaged or destroyed. Estimates for the number of civilians killed ranged from the UN's list of confirmed deaths Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Mariupol the title of
Hero City of Ukraine due to Ukrainian forces' "valiant defense" of the city. The latter was especially controversial, as the Ukrainian authorities restored many historic names during the
decommunization process, all of which predated the Soviet Union. In August 2023, the
Institute for the Study of War reported that the
Ukrainian Resistance Center had claimed to have gained access to documents detailing Russian plans to conduct a decade-long ethnic cleansing campaign in occupied Mariupol. The ISW reported that the depopulation of Ukrainians through deportation and Russian efforts to attract Russian citizens to move to the city is likely to be an ethnic cleansing campaign in addition to being apparent violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The 2023 Ukrainian documentary about the siege,
20 Days in Mariupol, won the 2024
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. The estimates of the pre-war population that remained in the city in 2024 varies from to . In February 2024, the
Financial Times investigated Mariupol under Russian occupation. The Russians want to show their process of rebuilding and "Russifying" the city. Russian businessmen were profiting from contracts, but locals were living in half-built homes, with poor construction work plaguing dozens of apartment blocks across the city. In November 2024, Ukrainian MP
Maxym Tkachenko said that around one third of the estimated people that fled Mariupol during the city's siege had returned to living in the city, primarily due to inadequate government support when living elsewhere. A day later, he said that "There is no such data. It was my unfounded and emotional assumption." == Geography ==