Ukraine: Dnipro
Dnipro (formerly Dnepropetrovsk, but recently renamed in 2016 during decommunization) is the capital of the Dnepropetrovsk Oblast/Region (which wasn’t renamed – go figure why). It’s the fourth largest city in Ukraine with around a million population. The city was originally founded as Ekaterinoslav by Catherine the Great of Russia as the capital of the newly acquired Russian territories ceded from the Ottowan Empire, with the original plan of turning this into the third largest city of the Russian Empire after Moscow and St Petersburg. In the 1920s, it became a massive industrial hub of the Soviet Ukraine and was renamed into Dnepropetrovsk. In the 1950-60s, the city was the center of the Soviet ballistic missile construction and was a “closed” city. Today, it’s a beautiful city with a lot of historical buildings, museums, even skyscrapers, and quite a lot of “moneyed” inhabitants (it’s industrial past has produced quite a few oligarchs during the wildly corrupt 90s, who invested into Dnipro’s beautification and exclusiveness later on). Century-old buildings coexist with glass skyscrapers, Gaudi-like houses stand near agolden-domed orthodox cathedrals, while Soviet-era brutalist monuments compete with nationalistic Ukrainian displays and structures, and much more of similar contrasts. Great parks and great restaurants as well!
