Bolhrad

Bolhrad is a small city in Odesa Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, in the historical region of Budjak, and the administrative centre of Bolhrad Raion and of the Bolhrad urban hromada. It was founded in 1821 by Bulgarian settlers in Bessarabia under General Ivan Inzov, whom residents revere as the founder of the city. It belonged to Moldavia from 1856 to 1859 and to Romania from 1859 to 1878, was part of the Moldavian Democratic Republic in 1917 and 1918, and then of the Kingdom of Romania until the Soviet Union occupied it in 1940; it is now part of independent Ukraine. Bessarabian Bulgarians form a large share of the population and locals regard the city as the unofficial capital of Budjak; the 2001 census found Bulgarians the largest ethnic group, with Ukrainians and Russians next. The Georgi Sava Rakovski High School, founded in 1858, is the oldest high school of the Bulgarian National Revival. The population was 14,818 in a 2022 estimate.