Balta is a small town 200 km from Odessa, Ukraine (former Soviet Union)
Its population is ca. 20 000.
The town was found in the 16th century.
According to the archeological findigs the first settlements here existed at least 5-6 thousand years ago.

In the late 17th and in the 18th centuries the town existed as 2 separate ones located on the opposite banks of Kodyma river. The first one was Turkish frontier  settlement and fortress named Balta. The second one was Polish town of  Józefgród ("Yusefgrud") named after polish prince Yuzef Lubomirski, the founder of  the local fortress.  These two parts were joined in 1797 when the land became a territory of Russian Empire.

In the 19th and in the early 20th century the population of the town consisted predominantly of Jews (55-82 %, nowadays about 0.5-1 %), Russian Orthodox believers (15-25%, now 85-90 %, including such ethnic groups as Russians, Ukrainians, and Moldavians), Roman Catholics (Poles, 4-9%), and Old Russian Orthodox believers also known as starovers (4-12%). The town was well known as  a market town. That was a junctions of the main roads from the South to the North and from the West to the East of Russia and Ukraine.

In 1924–1929 Balta was the capital of the Moldavian Autonomic Soviet Socialist Republic that was a part of Ukraine and the Soviet Union. After the formation of Moldavian Soviet Republic  in 1940 Balta became a district center in Ukraine.

Nowadays Balta is still a raion (district) center in Odesa oblast (Odessa region).  The city has a furniture, brick, clothing factories, and a food industry. Balta Teacher's Training College and Vocational School are leading educational institutions. Museum of Local History and Ukrainain Ethnographic Museum (School No 1) are available.

For detailed information reffer to the russian page

 e-mail: baltatown@narod.ru