Zaporozhye, former (until 1921) Aleksandrovsk, is a city and administrative center of Zaporozhye oblast, southeastern Ukraine, on the Dnieper river just below its former rapids. Zaporozhye is a railway junction and river port. Zaporozhye has an airport. Population of Zaporozhye is about 930 000 (2002 est.). Zaporozhye stretches for several miles along the Dnieper, with a green belt separating Zaporozhye industrial and residential sectors.
The fortress Aleksandrovsk was founded in 1770 to ensure government control over the Zaporozhye Cossacks, whose headquarters were on nearby Khoritsa Island. The settlement became a town in 1806. In 1918 Soviet power was established in Zaporozhye. Since 1939 Zaporozhye has been the center of the oblast.
The growth of Zaporozhye dates from the construction in 1927-1932 of the Dnieper hydroelectric station, then the largest in the world. In World War II the dam was destroyed, but it was subsequently reconstructed. On the left bank of the Dnieper River nearby the Dnieper hydroelectric station a new part of Zaporozhye has come into being - so called New Zaporozhye.
On the basis of the power, a large metallurgical industry developed, including the Zaporozhstal iron and steel plant, factories specializing in high-grade steels made in electric hearths, ferroalloys, titanium and aluminum smelting. Zaporozhye has one of the largest strip-rolling mills of Ukraine. Coke by-products supply is an important chemical industry of Zaporozhye. A range of engineering and light industries includes the manufacture of automobiles and electrical apparatus in Zaporozhye.
There are teacher-training, pharmaceutical and machine-building institutes in Zaporozhye.
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