The history of Dnipro starts with the human settlement of the city, which is first attested in the Neolithic period. In the Antiquity, the area of the future city was ruled by Scythians and a number of other tribes. In the Middle Ages, an Orthodox monastery existed on one of the islands on the Dneper, which now lays in the city borders. The region was devastated by the Mongol invasion of Rus' and later came under the influence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period, settlements of Zaporozhian Cossacks appeared on the lands of modern-day Dnipro, and a Polish fortress was constructed on one of the rapids south of the city.
After the Cossack rebellion of 1648, the area came under the rule of Zaporozhian Sich, a self-governed republic of Ukrainian Cossacks. After the Treaty of Andrusovo, the Zaporozhian Sich came under joint Muscovite–Polish protectorate, and according to the Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686) the Sich came under control of the Tsardom of Russia. In the 18th century, the Lower Dnieper area was a scene of numerous wars between the Russian Empire, Crimean Tatars and the Ottomans. Ukrainian Cossack troops played a key role in the Russian conquest and colonization of the former Wild Fields and the incorporation of the Black Sea region into the Russian Empire. To facilitate the assimilation of the newly acquired territories, empress Catherine the Great abolished the Cossack autonomy in Ukraine and founded new settlements to increase the imperial influence. One of these settlements, founded on the territory of Zaporozhian sloboda Polovytsia received the name of Yekaterinoslav ( – Katerynoslav). This event started the history of future Dnipro as a major urban centre.
In the late 18th to early 19th century, Yekaterinoslav (between 1796 and 1802 known as Novorossiysk, was the centre of first Novorossiya and later Yekaterinoslav Governorate. With the start of industrialization in the mid-19th century, the city became a major centre of heavy industry. A number of scientific institutions were founded in Yekaterinoslav, and it became an influential centre of culture. The city's population before the Russian Revolution was multinational, with the majority of the population consisting of Russians, Jews and Ukrainians, but minorities of Poles, Germans and other ethnicities of the Russian Empire were also prominent. A number of ethnic conflicts emerged during this time, including the pogroms during the 1905 revolution.
After the February Revolution and abdication of the tsar, a local council (soviet) was formed in the city. This time was marked by rivalry between Russian Bolsheviks and Ukrainian nationalists and Social Democrats. The former wished to preserve Ukraine under the rule of Russia, to use its resources for the future world revolution; the latter wished Ukraine to receive autonomous rights. As a result, after the Bolshevik Coup in Russia, which local Communists supported, Katerynoslav became a place of fighting, which comprised a part of Ukrainian War of Independence and the wider Russian Civil War. Anarchist forces led by Nestor Makhno, as well as German and Austro-Hungarian troops, also played a role in fighting over the city. Finally, in 1919 the Communist installed its control over the city as part of the new de jure independent Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
After 1922 Katerynoslav became part of the newly founded Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was one of the nominally autonomous member republics. In 1926 the city was renamed to Dnipropetrovsk ( – Dnepropetrovsk). Under the Soviet rule, the city continued to develop as an industrial centre, especially in branches of metallurgy, machine-building and chemical industry. Processes of industrialization led to increased migration from surrounding rural areas, which contributed to Ukrainization. By 1939, more than half of Dnipropetrovsk's population were of Ukrainian ethnicity.The emergency evacuation of cities: a cross-national historical and geographical study, by Wilbur Zelinsky, Leszek A. Kosiński, pub Rowman & Littlefield, 1991, . During the Second World War the city was occupied by Nazi Germany, and most of local Jews were exterminated as part of the Holocaust.
After the war Dnipropetrovsk became a major centre of Soviet military industry, and produced a number of prominent politicians and functionaries who held a number of important positions in the Soviet, and later Ukrainian government (see Dnipropetrovsk clan). The city was also infamous as one of the centres of punitive psychiatry in the USSR. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 Dnipropetrovsk became part of independent Ukraine. It has been known as a powerhouse of banking and trade, as well as a major administrative and political centre. According to the Ukrainian laws on Decommunization, in 2016 the city was renamed to Dnipro.
Early history
Human settlements in current Dnipropetrovsk Oblast date from the Paleolithic era. According to archeological finds, in the Paleolithic period (7—3 thousand Anno Domini) human settlements appear near the in what is now Chechelivskyi District and on Monastyrskyi Island. A Neolithic stonecrafter's house has been excavated in one of Dnipro's city parks. In the Bronze Age the area was settled by diverse tribes. Traces of Cimmerian settlements during the Bronze Age have been found near today's Taras Shevchenko Park. The area of modern Dnipro was part of the Scythian empire from approximately the 1st century BC until the 3rd century BC. During the Migration Period (300–800) nomadic tribes of the Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, and Magyars passed through the lands of the Dnieper region, they came into contact with local agricultural East Slavs.
The area of modern Dnipro was part of the Kievan Rus' (882–1240). The region witnessed fighting between the armies of Kievan Rus' and Khazars, Pechenegs, Tork people and Cumans. In the 13th century the Dnieper region was devastated during the Mongol Empire conquest of Kievan Rus'. The area of modern Dnipro city was incorporated into the Mongol's khanate Golden Horde.
In the 15th century the area became part of the Kiev Voivodeship (1471–1565) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Archeological finds in today's Dnipro's urban district Samarskyi District suggest that the important river crossing was a trading settlement from at least 1524. A 1526 map by Polish cartographer Bernard Wapowski indicated a settlement existed on the territory of modern Dnipro. The Dnipro city council officially set 1526 as the date of the city's foundation in August 2026. (Previously 1776 was the official date of the foundation of Dnipro.) This year of foundation is based on the existence of the Stara Samar settlement on the territory of the modern Dnipro. Starting in December 2025 the city council had been consulting with experts to set a new official year of the city's foundation; since they believe 1776 "is a myth of imperial Russia", and that the city existed many years before 1776.
In 1635, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth built the Kodak Fortress above the Dnieper Rapids at Kodaky on the south-eastern outskirts of modern Dnipro near the current Kaidatsky Bridge, New Kodak, (26 March 2022) only to have it destroyed within months by the Cossacks of Ivan Sulyma.Plokhy, Serhii, The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine, pub Oxford University Press, 2001, , pages 26, 37, 40, 51, 60–1, 142, 245, and 268. Rebuilt in 1645, it was captured by Zaporozhian Sich in 1648.
Around the fortress a settlement emerged that became a town in (province) of the Zaporizhian Sich called . Cossacks often hid the true number of the population to reduce taxation and other obligations, but according to documentary evidence, it can be assumed that the population of New Kodak was at least 3,000 people. The fortress was garrisoned by Cossacks until the Sich, allied with the Ottoman Empire and their Tartar vassals, drove out the encroaching Tsardom of Russia. Under the terms of the Russian withdrawal—the Treaty of the Pruth in 1711—the Kodak fortress was demolished.day.kyiv.ua Above Kodak, this year the unique fortress marks its 375th anniversary, by Mykola Chaban, 2010.
In the mid-1730s the fortress and Russians returned, living in an uneasy cohabitation with local cossacks. From mid-century they co-existed with the Zaporozhian sloboda (or "free settlement") of Polovytsia located on the site of today's Central Terminal and the Ozyorka farmers market.Establishment and development of the Dnipropetrovsk city (Виникнення і розвиток міста Дніпропетровськ). The History of Cities and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR.
In the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) the Zaporozhian cossacks allied with Empress Catherine II. No sooner had they assisted the Russians to victory than they faced an imperial ultimatum to disband their confederation. The liquidation of the Sich destroyed their political autonomy and saw the incorporation of their lands into the new governates of Novorossiya. In 1784, Catherine ordered the foundation of new city, commonly referred to at the time as Katerynoslav.
In 2001 the seal of Kodak Palanka became the central element of Dnipro's coat of arms and Dnipro's official flag.
Imperial city
Establishment of Catherine's city The first written mention of a town in the Russian Empire called Yekaterinoslav can be found in a report from Azov Governor Vasily Chertkov to Grigory Potemkin on 23 April 1776. He wrote "The provincial city called Yekaterinoslav should be the best convenience on the right side of the Dnieper River near Kaydak..." (Which referred to ). In 1777, a town named Yekaterinoslav (the glory of Catherine), was built to the north of the present-day city at the confluence of the Samara and Kilchen rivers. The site was badly chosen – spring waters transformed the city into a bog. The surviving settlement was later renamed Novomoskovsk.S. S. Montefiore: Prince of Princes – The Life of Potemkin
The territory of modern Dnipro, despite the modern-day city's size, still has not expanded to encompass the territory of (Chertkov's) Yekaterinoslav of 1776. On 22 January 1784 Russian Empress Catherine the Great signed an Imperial Ukase directing that "the gubernatorial city under name of Yekaterinoslav be moved to the right bank of the Dnieper river near Kodak". The new city would serve Grigory Potemkin as a Viceregal seat for the combined Novorossiya and Azov Governorates.
In 1778, the town was used to hold resettled Greek and Armenian Christians from the Emigration of Christians from Crimea in 1778. Over the next few years, the Armenians were resettled to Nakhichevan-na-Donu, whereas the Greeks were resettled to the vicinity of the city of Mariupol.