Kakhovka

Kakhovka [Каховка; Kaxovka]. Map: VII-14. City (2014 pop 37,266), raion center, and river port in Kherson oblast, situated on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Established in 1791 at a site of the Crimean Khanate fortress of İslâm Kermen, it grew into an important grain and wool trading town; the largest employment exchange for agricultural laborers in southern Ukraine was located there in the late 19th century. Electric-welding and irrigation equipment, reinforced-concrete materials, furniture, and food products are manufactured there. The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station, the second-largest of the Dnipro Cascade of Hydroelectric Stations, was built in the vicinity of the city in 1950–6. Since 1957 a historical museum, and since 1964 a branch of the Institute of Electric Welding of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, have been located there.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]