Sebastopol, or SEVASTOPOL, a Russian sea-port and fortress, is situated near the south-west extremity of the Crimea, on the southern side of one of the finest natural harbours in the world, miles long from east to west and mile across. The place is celebrated for the long siege of the allies during the Crimean war of 1854-55. The town and harbour were defended by several forts and batteries, mounted by 700 guns in all, some of heavy calibre. The forts were of immense strength, built of limestone faced with granite, on which artillery was found to make but little impression. On the land side, with the exception of a slight loop-holed wall extending partially round the western side, the town, previous to the siege, was entirely undefended; but the earthworks and fortifications then successively extemporised by the genius of General Todleben kept the armies of France and England at bay for eleven months, from October 1854 to September 1855. The place sustained repeated bombardments until the capture of the Malakoff and Redan works, on September 8, 1855, at length forced the Russians to evacuate the lines and retire to the north side. The town was completely ruined; the docks and forts still standing were blown up by French and English engineers, and by the treaty of Paris (1856) were not to be restored; but the restrictions were removed by the abrogation of the neutrality of the Black Sea by the Conference of London (1871). Since the siege the town has been in great part rebuilt, but at first grew slowly. Since 1885 the Russian government have restored the fortifications and reconstructed the docks. Sebastopol is again the naval port for the Black Sea fleet; and since 1899 the commercial port is transferred to Feodosia or Kaffa (q.v.). Before the closing of the commercial port, the value of imports (largely cotton and coal) was in some years over £1,000,000, and the exports (grain) £3,000,000; but the totals fluctuated somewhat violently, owing to customs regulations and good or bad harvests. Pop. (1897) 50,710, exclusive of a garrison of 12,000. Sebastopol was founded on the site of a Tartar village immediately after the Russian conquest of the
Crimea in 1783, under the orders of the Empress Catharine II. The promontory on which it stands was originally colonised by Greeks from Heraclea, in Asia Minor, and became known as the Heracleotic Chersonese.
See CRIMEAN WAR; Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea, Hamley's War in the Crimea (1891), Todleben's Vertheidigung von Sebastopol (4 vols. Berlin, 1864-72), and Leo Tolstoi's vivid description of the siege in Sebastopol (Eng. trans. 1890).