In 1785, the board of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate ordered the Novomoskovsk Zemstvo Court to establish the Huliaipole state military settlement for protection from the Crimean Khanate. Archival data confirmed that the first settlers came to the newly formed settlement from the territory of Starodubsky District, and later Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, Poltava region and Sloboda Ukraine. The name "Huliaipole" (lit.'walk-about field') reflected the nature of the area where it was founded, which had frequently played host to fairs for a long time before the settlement's foundation. The settlement was traditionally divided into centuries, administrative-territorial units formed along military lines.[1] Hundreds of people from Podolia, Pishchanka, Guryan, Verbiv, Bokhansky, Kherson and later Poland settled in this way. In 1794 the settlement had 150 yards. The inhabitants of the region were actively engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry.
In 1797 the wooden Orthodox Church "Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Christ" was built, and Huliaipole became the township center of Alexandrovsky Uyezd.
Industrialization
From the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, the village of Huliaipole was transformed into a commercial and industrial town. In 1859, the first trades fair took place in Huliaipole. There were more than fifty trading companies with a total turnover of 1 million rubles. Next to them there were a large number of shops. The increased trade contributed to a large influx of population.
In the post-reform period, industrial enterprises emerged one after another in Huliaipole. In 1882, Krieger's factory of agricultural machinery began operating. Ten years later, another such plant and steam mill was opened by the industrialist Kerner. Both factories produced harvesters, horse threshers, choppers, and so on. The landowner Schroeder also had a large steam mill. In the following years, distilleries, several oil mills, and warehouses were put into operation. There were 18 shops in the village, and about three dozen merchants traded. In 1898, the Chaplyne–Berdyansk railway was laid nearby, which had a positive effect on the economic development of the village.
There were two agricultural machinery factories, four distilleries and one brewery in Huliaipole. There were three steam mills in Huliaipole and dozens more in the surrounding villages and economies that were part of Huliaipole parish. Besides them, there were a large number of peasant "windmills" around. In addition, there were two brick and tile factories in Huliaipole and twelve in villages and hamlets.
Along with industrial enterprises, in the village there were a dozen small, semi-artisanal productions - a crew workshop, several potters, as well as oil mills, smithies, carpentry and other workshops.
From 1884 until the First World War, Zemstvo exhibitions and auctions of agricultural and industrial products took place in Huliaipole every three years.
During the industrialization of the 1930s, a rapid industrial development began to take place in Huliaipole,[4] resulting in it gaining city status in 1938.[7][8] Meanwhile, at least 108 residents of Huliaipole died during the Holodomor of 1932–1933.[9]
In 1952, a brick factory, a butter factory, a garment and footwear factory, a pedagogical school, a secondary school, four seven-year schools, six elementary schools, a cinema and a club functioned here.[4] In 1970, there was an agricultural machinery plant, a paint and varnish plant, an auto repair plant, a household goods plant, a cheese-making plant and a shoe factory.[7]
By the time of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, the basis of the city's economy was an agricultural machinery plant, a paints and varnishes plant, a shoe factory and food industry enterprises.[4] In May 1995, the Government of Ukraine approved the decision on the privatization of the agricultural machinery plant,[12] the paints and varnishes plant, regional agricultural and chemistry plants.[13] In July 1995, a decision was approved on the privatization of the state farm.[14] On 17 December 2004, the economic court of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast filed a bankruptcy case against a privatized agricultural machinery plant.[15] On 17 July 2020, as a result of administrative-territorial reform and liquidation of Huliaipole Raion, the city became a part of Polohy Raion.[16]
The town of Huliaipole is located in the Gaichur river valley[4][7] (the name of the reservoir is etymologized from the Turkic languages: gai "free" + chur "steppe"[24]), upstream at a distance of 3.5 km is the village of Marfopil, downstream at a distance of 1.5 km is the village of Zelene. It is located 8 km from the railway station of the same name and 98 km from the regional center of Zaporizhzhia (via highways H08 and T 0814). In the north, Polohy Raion borders with Synelnykove Raion of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, in the east - with Donetsk.
^ abcdeГуляй Поле // Большая Советская Энциклопедия. / редколл., гл. ред. Б. А. Введенский. 2-е изд. том 13. М., Государственное научное издательство «Большая Советская энциклопедия», 1952. стр.194
^ abcdГуляйполе // Большая Советская Энциклопедия. / под ред. А. М. Прохорова. 3-е изд. том 7. М., «Советская энциклопедия», 1972.
^ abГуляйполе // Большой энциклопедический словарь (в 2-х тт.). / редколл., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. том 1. М., "Советская энциклопедия", 1991. стр.349
^Справочник «Освобождение городов: Справочник по освобождению городов в период Великой Отечественной войны 1941—1945». М. Л. Дударенко, Ю. Г. Перечнев, В. Т. Елисеев и др. М.: Воениздат, 1985. 598 с.
^Исаев А. В. От Дубно до Ростова. — М.: АСТ; Транзиткнига, 2004.
^Господарським судом в Запорізькій області 17.12.2004 року порушено провадження у справі № 19/222 (04) про банкрутство ВАТ "Гуляйпільський завод «Сільмаш» // газета «Голос України», № 25 (3525) від 10 лютого 2005