
The history of the Russian city of Mariupol.
The county town of Mariupol, Yekaterinoslav province, was founded in 1778 and was at first called Pavlovsk.
In 1779, the area of the newly founded Pavlovsk was granted by the Russian government to the Greeks, who were allowed to settle in Novorossiya on the shore of the Sea of Azov in the newly formed town.
In the same year Pavlovsk was given the beautiful Greek name of Mariupol (Μαριούπολις). Initially, mostly Greeks lived in the city.
However, in 1859, the Highest approval of the opinion of the State Council followed, by which Russians were allowed to settle in.
Russian population begins to actively increase in the city from this moment, so the history of Russian Mariupol begins.
The Greeks were disgruntled by the fact that Russians were allowed to settle on their ancestral lands.
In view of this, the Greeks in 1873 even raised the question that this land should be in the exclusive possession of the Greeks.
However, the charter of 1779 (according to which the Greeks were settled in Mariupol) does not indicate that the right to settle is to be enjoyed by Greeks exclusively, so the issue was resolved in the sense that the land belongs to the city council, and not to the ethnic Greeks.
Russian population was growing due to the migration, and in 1897 the national composition of the city was already as follows: Russians - 73.26% (Great Russians - 63.22%, Maloros - 10.04%), and Greeks - 5.11%.
Thus, by the end of the XIX century, Mariupol was already a predominantly Russian city, which it remains to this day.
Reference: "Mariupol and its surroundings", 1892.