Otchakoff

Otchakoff, a seaport of Russia, stands on the north shore of the estuary of the Dnieper, 38 miles ENE. of Odessa. It occupies the site of the ancient Alector, and has beside it the ruins of the once important Greek colony of Olbia. In 1492 the khan of the Crimea built here a strong fortress, which was taken by the Russians under Münnich in 1737, recovered in 1738, and again captured after a long siege by Potemkin in 1788, and definitively annexed by Russia. After it had been bombarded by the Allied fleet in 1855 the Russians demolished the fortifications. In 1887 a ship-canal was opened here, which makes the estuary of the Bug and Dnieper much more easily accessible to large ships. Pop. 6977.