Ochakov

Ochakov (əchä`kəf), city, Ukraine, on the Dnieper-Buh estuary and on the Black Sea. It is the center of an agricultural district and a seaport with fishing industries. In the 7th and 6th cent. B.C., there were several Greek colonies in the area, and Ochakov is on the site of the ancient Greek city of Alektor. In 1492 a Crimean khan built a fortress called Kara-Kermen there. When the Turks took control of it, they renamed it Ochakov. In the 16th and 17th cent., the Ukrainian Cossacks attacked the Turks at Ochakov. The city fell to the Russians (1788) during the Russo-Turkish War from 1787 to 1792. In the Crimean War it was occupied (1855) by the allies. Ochakov is near the site of the ancient Greek colony of Olbia.

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Ochakov 

a city and the administrative center of Ochakov Raion, Nikolaev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Situated on the bank of the Dnieper estuary, 58 km south of the city of Nikolaev. Seaport. Population, 14,200 (1974). The city has an experimental mussel- and oyster-canning branch of the Antarktika Complex, a winery, a bread bakery, a milk plant, and industrial and food-processing combines. The Chernomorets fishing kolkhoz is located in Ochakov, as are the A. V. Suvorov Museum of Military History and the P. P. Shmidt Museum.

In 1492 the Crimean khan Mengli Girei built on the site of the demolished Polish fortress of Daszów the Kara-Kermen Fortress, which soon passed to Turkey and was renamed Achi-Kale. The fortress subsequently became a military naval base and a bulwark of Turkish domination on the Northern Black Sea Coast. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–39, Russian troops took Ochakov on July 2 (13), 1737; but in accordance with the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), Ochakov remained in Turkish possession. In the course of the siege of Ochakov during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–91, the Russian fleet inflicted a defeat on the Turkish fleet in the estuary; and the Russian Army, under the command of G. A. Potemkin, captured the fortress by storm on Dec. 6 (17), 1788. According to the terms of the Iaşi Peace Treaty of 1791, Ochakov was ceded to Russia. In 1906 the trial of the participants in the uprising led by P. P. Shmidt on the cruiser Ochakov was held in the city of Ochakov.

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Ochakov 

a cruiser of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the crew of which fought in the Sevastopol’ uprising of 1905. It was laid down in 1901, but construction was not completed nor was the ship armed by the time of the uprising. The ship joined the fleet in 1907. Its displacement was 6,645 tons. Its armament included 12 152-mm and 22 smaller guns. It could take a crew of 570, but in 1905 it had 380 men aboard.

The uprising on the Ochakov was organized by the Bolshevik military organization, headed by A. I. Gladkov, N. G. Antonenko, Churaev, R. V. Dokukin, Chibanenko, and V. I. Pletnev. On November 8, disturbances began among the ship’s sailors, who set forth a number of demands, some of which were of a general political nature. On November 13 the sailors arrested the cruiser’s officers, elected deputies to the Soviet of Sailors’, Soldiers’, and Workers’ Deputies, and established ties with the insurgent seamen of a naval division and the soldiers and workers on shore.

Lieutenant P. P. Shmidt, who was elected commander of the fleet by the insurgents, reached the Ochakov on November 14. The Ochakov was then joined by 11 small ships. On November 15 artillery fire was opened on the insurgent ships. Fire broke out on the Ochakov and other ships, and the crews abandoned the ships. The uprising was suppressed. The insurgents, who included 41 men from the Ochakov, were put on trial in February 1906. Lieutenant Shmidt, Seaman Antonenko, Machinist Gladkov, and Conductor S. P. Chastnik were sentenced to death and were shot. The rest were sentenced to various terms of hard labor and prison.

From 1907 to 1917 the ship was called the Kagul, and in April 1917 was renamed the Ochakov. In 1918 the Ochakov was captured by the White Guards and named the General Kornilov. In 1920, Wrangel took the ship to Bizerte.

REFERENCE

Voennye moriaki v period Pervoi russkoi revoliutsii 1905–1907 gg. Moscow, 1955. Pages 92–116.