Vladimir Putin during the ceremony of laying flowers at the monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow in honor of National Unity Day said :
“Mariupol is a very famous, ancient, one might say, Russian city. Peter I founded, as you know, his first military flotilla there, won the first victories, then Suvorov made his steppe campaigns there, and Catherine the Second built up these lands. This is a very interesting place. Of course, there is work to be done there.”
In Russian historiography, Mariupol as a city in the Russian Empire was founded in 1778, already under Catherine II. Then it was called Pavlovsk. However, this was preceded by the existence on this territory of the Kalmius settlement – the territory of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks – with the settlement of Domakha with the Kalmius fortress as a center. In 1778-1779, the Russian authorities evicted the Christian population from there to the Crimea, and Russians were resettled in their place. Therefore, Ukrainians believe that in 1778 Domakha was simply renamed in the Russian way.
The first flotilla in Mariupol appeared, of course, not under Peter, and not even under Catherine, but only during the years of the civil war . In March of that year, the Red Azov military flotilla was created in the city, consisting of eight ships, which fought against the White Guard front of General Wrangel. After the civil war, the Red Azov military flotilla was disbanded, but in 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, it was created again. She participated in the Kerch-Feodosia landing operation of 1941 – 1942, in the offensive of the troops of the Southern Front in August-September 1943, in the Kerch-Eltingen landing operation of 1943, in securing the Kerch crossing in 1943 -1944. In April 1944, it was disbanded, and the Danube military flotilla was created on its basis.