| Official Name: | Kamianets-Podilskyi | ||||||||||
| Native Name: | Ukrainian: Кам'янець-Подільський | ||||||||||
| Settlement Type: | City | ||||||||||
| Pushpin Map: | Ukraine Khmelnytskyi Oblast#Ukraine | ||||||||||
| Mapsize: | 225px | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Type: | Country | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Type1: | Oblast | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Name1: | Khmelnytskyi Oblast | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Type2: | Raion | ||||||||||
| Leader Title: | Mayor | ||||||||||
| Leader Name: | Mykhailo Positko | ||||||||||
| Established Title: | First mentioned | ||||||||||
| Established Date: | 1062 | ||||||||||
| Established Title2: | City rights | ||||||||||
| Established Date2: | 1432 | ||||||||||
| Area Total Km2: | 27871 | ||||||||||
| Population As Of: | 2022 | ||||||||||
| Population Total: | 96896 | ||||||||||
| Population Density Km2: | auto | ||||||||||
| Timezone: | EET | ||||||||||
| Utc Offset: | +2 | ||||||||||
| Timezone Dst: | EEST | ||||||||||
| Utc Offset Dst: | +3 | ||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 48.6833°N 26.5833°W | ||||||||||
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code | ||||||||||
| Postal Code: | 32300—32318 | ||||||||||
| Area Code: | +380-3849 | ||||||||||
| Module: |
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| Subdivision Type3: | Hromada | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Name3: | Kamianets-Podilskyi urban hromada |
Kamianets-Podilskyi (Ukrainian: Кам'янець-Подільський, in Ukrainian pronounced as /kɐmjɐˈnɛtsʲ poˈd⁽ʲ⁾ilʲsʲkɪj/) is a city on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi. Formerly the administrative center of Khmelnytskyi Oblast, the city is now the administrative center of Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion within the oblast. It hosts the administration of Kamianets-Podilskyi urban hromada.[1] Population:
Kamianets-Podilskyi is a historical center of Podolia region, serving as a capital of the Duchy of Podolia, Podolian Voivodeship, Podolia Eyalet, Podolia Governorate, and Podolian District. During the Ukrainian–Soviet War, the city officially served as the temporary capital of the Ukrainian People's Republic from 1919 to 1920.[2]
Originally known as Kamianec, its name was changed to the current following the partitions of Poland and occupation by the Russian Empire in 1795.
The first part of the city's dual name originates from kamin{{' (Ukrainian: камiнь) or kamen, meaning 'stone' in Old Slavic. The second part of its name relates to the historic region of Podilia (Ukrainian: Подíлля), of which Kamianets-Podilskyi is considered to be the historic capital. Therefore, the town name literally means 'The Stones of Podilia'.
Equivalents of the name in other languages are: Polish: Kamieniec Podolski; Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Camenița Podoliei; Latin: Camenecium; Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: كامانىچه|Kamaniçe; Hungarian: Kamenyeck-Podolszk; Yiddish: קאָמענעץ,קאמיניץ|Komenets, Komenits;[3] Russian: Каменец-Подольский|Kamenets-Podolskiy; English: Kamenets-Podolsk.[4]
Kamianets-Podilskyi is located in the southern portion of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast, located in the western Ukrainian region of Podillia. The area where the city is located is part of the Podolian Upland which is notable for its elevated places known as Tovtry (see Podilski Tovtry National Nature Park) and creating a canyon-like relief feature.
The Smotrych River, a tributary of the Dniester, flows through the city. The total area of the city comprises 27.841NaN1.[5] Among other notable neighboring cities, Kamianets-Podilskyi is located about 101km (63miles) from the oblast's administrative center, Khmelnytskyi and across Dniester in southwestern direction 88km (55miles) from Chernivtsi, an administrative center of the neighboring Chernivtsi Oblast.
Several historians consider that a city on this spot was founded by the ancient Dacians, who lived in what is now modern Romania, Moldova, and portions of Ukraine.[6] Historians write that the founders named the settlement Petridava or Klepidava, which originate from the Greek word petra or Latin lapis 'stone' and Dacian dava 'city'.[7]
Modern Kamianets-Podilskyi was first mentioned in 1062, when it belonged to smaller principality of Terebovlia, then Halych principality[8] and Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, as a town of the Kyivan Rus'[9] state. In 1241, it was destroyed by the Mongolian invaders.[10]
In 1352, it was inherited by the Polish King Casimir III. In 1374 the city was granted Magdeburg Law. In 1370, the Dominican monastic order began to function in Kamianets, a monastery was founded, and soon the Franciscans founded their own monastery in the city. Later, monks of other orders moved: Jesuits (1608), Discalced Carmelites (1623), Trinitarians (1699).[11] In 1378 it became seat of a Roman Catholic Diocese. In 1432 King Sigismund I the Old granted Kamieniec Podolski city rights. It was an important royal city of Poland. In 1434 it became the capital of the Podolian Voivodship and the seat of local civil and military administration. The ancient castle was reconstructed and substantially expanded by the Polish kings to defend Poland from the southwest against Ottoman and Tatar invasions, thus it was called the gateway to Poland. In 1510, a peace treaty was signed in the city between Poland and the Principality of Moldavia.
During the free election period in Poland, Kamianets-Podilskyi, as one of the most influential cities of the state, enjoyed voting rights (alongside Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Gdańsk, Lwów, Wilno, Lublin, Toruń and Elbląg).
After the Treaty of Buchach of 1672, Kamianets-Podilskyi was briefly part of the Ottoman Empire and capital of Podolya eyalet. It was also sanjak of pasha (central sanjak) of this eyalet with nahiyas of Kropotova, Satanova, İskala,, Kırıvçe, (It was known as Ijvan during Ottoman rule) and Mıhaylov.[12] To counter the Turkish threat to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, King Jan III Sobieski built a fortress nearby, Okopy Świętej Trójcy (now Okopy, Ternopil Oblast; meaning "the Entrenchments of the Holy Trinity"). In 1674, local Armenians, who made up one of the main Armenian communes in Poland up to that point, were expelled by the Ottomans.[13] Most, after about three years of exile in the Balkans, moved to the territories remaining within Poland, chiefly Lwów and Stanisławów.[14]
In 1687, Poland attempted to regain control over Kamianets-Podilskyi and Podolia, when the fortress was unsuccessfully besieged by the Poles led by Prince James Louis Sobieski.
In 1699, the city was given back to Poland under King Augustus II the Strong according to the Treaty of Karlowitz. The fortress was continually enlarged and was regarded as the strongest in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The preserved ruins of the fortress still contain the iron cannonballs stuck in them from various sieges.
During this period, Bishop Dembowski, at the instigation of the Frankists, convened a public disputation at Kamieniec Podolski, in November 1757, and ordered all copies of the Talmud found in his bishopric to be confiscated and burned.[15] Accounts of the Talmud burning differ—contemporary sources say that up to a thousand copies of the Talmud were destroyed, though other reports say only one copy was burned. Dembowski himself died days after the events. A plague broke out and the local priests exhumed his body and cut the head off to prevent any further disaster.[16]
After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the city belonged to the Russian Empire, where it was the capital of the Podolia Governorate. The Russian Tsar Peter the Great, who visited the fortress twice, was impressed by its fortifications. One of the towers was used as a prison cell for Ustym Karmeliuk, a prominent peasant rebel leader of the early 19th century, who managed to escape from it three times. In 1798, Polish nobleman Antoni Żmijewski founded a Polish theater in the city. It was one of the oldest Polish theaters. In 1867 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamyanets-Podilskyi was abolished by the Russians authorities. It was re-established in 1918 by Pope Benedict XV.
According to the Russian census of 1897, Kamianets-Podilskyi remained the largest city of Podolia with a population of 35,934.
In 1906, the local society "Prosvita" was established in the city, thanks to its activities, the study of the Ukrainian language was introduced in primary and parish schools.[17] On 1 July 1910, more than 48 percent of the city's residents were Jews. The city was located in the settlement zone that the Russian Empire had set aside for Jews. In 1914, a direct railway line linked the city to Proskurov.
During World War I, the city was occupied by Austria-Hungary in 1915.
After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the city was briefly controlled by the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Hetmanate before ending up as part of the Ukrainian SSR when Ukraine fell under Bolshevik power. During the Directorate period, the city was chosen as de facto capital of Ukraine after the Russian communist forces occupied Kyiv.[18]
During the Polish-Soviet War, the city was captured by the Polish Army on the night of 16–17 November 1919[19] and was under Polish administration from 16 November 1919, to 12 July 1920 as capital of the Podolian District.
In July 1920 battles between units of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the Red Army took place in the village Veliki Zozulintsi and surrounding villages nearby Kamianets-Podilskyi. On 7 July 1920 soldiers of the 6th Reserve Rifle Brigade of the UPR Army were taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks. After refusing to join the Red Army, captured UPR soldiers were executed. In Veliki Zozulintsi a mass grave of 26 UPR soldiers is located.[20]
After the defeat of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the Ukrainian-Soviet war, the city was occupied by the Red Army. The area including Kamianets-Podilskyi was ceded to Soviet Ukraine in the 1921 Treaty of Riga, which determined its future for the next seven decades as part of the Ukrainian SSR.
See also: Red Terror.
Poles and Ukrainians have always dominated the city's population. However, as a commercial center, Kamianets-Podilskyi has been a multiethnic and multi-religious city with substantial Jewish and Armenian minorities. Under Soviet rule it became subject to severe persecutions, and many Poles were forcibly deported to Central Asia. Massacres such as the Vinnytsia massacre have taken place throughout Podillya, the last resort of independent Ukraine. Early on, Kamianets-Podilskyi was the administrative center of the Ukrainian SSR's Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast, but the administrative center was later moved to Proskuriv (now Khmelnytskyi).
In December 1927, TIME Magazine reported that there were massive uprisings of peasants and factory workers in southern Ukraine, around the cities of Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Tiraspol and others, against Soviet authorities. The magazine was intrigued when it found numerous reports from the neighboring Romania that troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, causing no less than 4,000 deaths. The magazine sent several of its reporters to confirm those occurrences which were completely denied by the official press naming them as barefaced lies.[23] The revolt was caused by the collectivization campaign and the lawless environment in the cities caused by the Soviet government.
The Holodomor of 1932-1933, a terrible crime of the totalitarian system, did not escape the city. Although the situation was somewhat better than in other regions, this was largely due to the proximity of the border with the modern western Ukrainian territories. Given the border status of Kamianechchyna, the population, especially from the villages located on the Zbruch River, tried to move to the modern western regions. There, Podolians exchanged their belongings for bread and grain. There were many cases when people were hired for the opportunity to eat or worked for bread. However, not everyone was able to do this: along the border with Poland along the Zbruch River and the border with Romania along the Dniester River, barricading lines were set up in many places, and Soviet punitive bodies were guarding the borders. The situation was also difficult in the city, according to data in 1932-1933, 585[24] people died of hunger.[25] [26] [27]
During the years of the Great Terror, namely 1937-1938, 9,009 people of various nationalities and professions were convicted in Kamianets-Podilskyi, 62 people were arrested on charges of espionage, and hundreds of people were evicted from the city by the families of "enemies". people", for example 101 families of Polish nationality (see Polish Operation of the NKVD). For example, on the territory of the Roman Catholic Church of Archangel Michael, in the former monastery of the Dominican sisters, the Soviet authorities set up a prison, and in its dungeon - a torture chamber. In the 1930s, most of all, in 1937, people were shot in the basements of the monastery. According to some memories, for example, up to a hundred people were brought in a day. Twenty were sent to camps in the north, the rest disappeared. During this period, 11,634 Polish and German families, or at least 46,500 citizens, were evicted from Podillia.[28] [29]
Following the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, the administrative center of the oblast was moved from the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi to the city of Khmelnytskyi.
Kamianets-Podilskyi was occupied by the German troops on 11 July 1941 in the course of Operation Barbarossa.[30] German, Ukrainian, and Hungarian police massacred 23,000 Jews 27–28 August 1941.
On 26 March 1944 the town was occupated by the Red Army after German occupation in the battle of the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket. After the capture of the city by the Soviet army, the population's disloyalty to the Soviet government was manifested not by a desire to continue the fight against the Nazis, but people were tired of the difficult periods of the German-Soviet war. But the Red Army launched active mobilization measures from the very first days of entering the city. Such measures significantly reduced the quality of the selection of conscripts, and also negatively affected the level of their training. The pernicious practice of their immediate use in hostilities began from the first days of mobilization, therefore a significant number of mobilized residents of Kamianets and local villages died in the subsequent phases of the Dnieper–Carpathian offensive in the territory of neighboring regions. Sending poorly trained, and most often poorly dressed and armed people into battle was more reminiscent of a cruel act of revenge for the disloyalty to the Stalinist government shown in 1941, for such units a conventional name appeared - «Chornopidzhachnyky».[31] Thereafter Kamianets remained in Soviet Ukraine until the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Ukrainian Insurgent Army
A structural network of the OUN functioned on the territory of the city: Kamianets-Podilsky District, which belonged to the UPA-South. During the German occupation, Ukrainian national forces formed local self-government bodies: the regional administration, the regional department of education. Hryhoriy Kybets was appointed the head of the regional administration.[32]
In January 1942, the Nazis began mass arrests and executions of people from Bandera in Kamianets-Podilskyi, more than 150 Ukrainian nationalists were shot.
In 1944-45, the 19th tactical division of the Kamianets UPA, the Lysonya military district, and the UPA-West military group operated on the territory of Kamianechchyna in 1944-45. The department was later divided into two parts in the summer of 1945. And self-defense bush units of the UPA from Ternopil Oblast also went on raids.[33]
Soviet occupation after 1944
See also: Sixtiers and Ukrainian Helsinki Group. In 1986, the population of the city reached 100,000 people, according to this indicator, Kamianets moved from the category of medium to large cities.
On 16 October 1990, a rally was held in the city in support of the students of Kyiv, who announced a hunger strike as a sign of protest against the government's policies. In the central square of the city, the demands of the students to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR regarding the adoption of laws on local self-government and the non-signing of the Union Treaty, and to the City Council regarding the raising of the blue-yellow flag were approved. On 16 October the presidium of the city council satisfied the students' demand and was the first in Khmelnytskyi to raise the national flag.[34]
On 16 July 1990, the new Ukrainian parliament adopted a declaration of sovereignty.[36]
On 16 January 1991, Pope John Paul II re-established the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, which was dissolved under Soviet occupation.
Since 24 August 1991, Kamianets-Podilskyi has been part of independent Ukraine and is a significant economic, cultural, educational and tourist center of the state.[37] [38] [39]
In 2004, residents of the city actively participated in the Orange Revolution, people held rallies on the Renaissance Square.[40]
On 1 December 2013, city students from the Ivan Ohienko National University, Podilsk State Agrarian and Technical University and other educational institutions protested in the city, marching in a column through the streets and forming a viche near the city council, they expressed their anger at the authorities for their arbitrariness.[41]
In the future, many residents of the city gathered every day for vigils under the city council to express their protests against the regime and to support the Euromaidan in Kyiv. The largest rally in terms of numbers took place on 26 January 2014, about 2,000 people took part in it.[42] [43] [44]
, Kamianets-Podilskyi was the third-largest city of Podolia after Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi. In 2015, the city center completed the construction of the European Square, where the flags of the European Union countries fly, according to officials, this will be a confirmation of the European choice of the city and Ukraine.[45]
Until 18 July 2020, Kamianets-Podilskyi was incorporated as a city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Khmelnytskyi Oblast to three, the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi was merged into Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion.[46] [47] [48]
The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on the morning of 24 February 2022, during rocket fire.
In 2015, the construction of the European Square was completed in the city center, where the flags of the European Union countries fly, according to officials, this will be a confirmation of the European choice of the city and Ukraine.[49]
Thanks to the EU program "Measures for Economic Growth" and cooperation with the public organization "Eidos", the city received a grant of 1.8 million hryvnias to support small and medium-sized enterprises, conduct seminars, business trainings, and promote products.
Until 2022, the fight against the Soviet past began with the removal of the Lenin monument from its pedestal on 18 August 1992. The decommunization of the squares, streets and alleys of Kamianets-Podilskyi partially took place in 1990-1993. In 2016, the process was continued in the city 14 streets and 16 alleys were renamed. The streets were renamed on: Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, Heroes of the Krut, Andrey Sheptytsky, Ustym Karmaliuk, Roman Shukhevych, Jan de Witte and others.
After the 2022 Russian invasion, scholars of Eastern Europe have renewed awareness of Russian colonialism and interest in decolonizing scholarship.[50] [51] [52]
In the first stage of 2022, 18 streets, five squares and one park were given new names in the city. This is how the streets of Kvitka Cisyk, Yevhen Konovalets, Stepan Bandera, Ivan Mazepa, Pavlo Skoropadskyi, Yaroslav the Wise, Heroes of Mariupol and the fallen participants of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine appeared. A Soviet tank from its pedestal and communist symbols were also dismantled.[53]
In the second stage of 2023, 29 streets and 11 alleys received new names. The streets were renamed on: Heroes of the ZSU, Heroes of the UPA, Sichovykh Striltsiv, Solomiya Krushelnytska, Liubomyr Huzar, Petro Sahaidachny, Volodymyr Ivasyuk, Oleksandr Koshyts, John Paul II, alleys: Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, Myroslav Skoryk, Gustaw Belke (zoologist), Vasyl Stefanyk and others. More than 80 toponyms changed their names in the villages of the hromada.
During the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–58), the Jewish community of Kamianets-Podilskyi suffered much from Khmelnytsky's Cossacks on the one hand, and from the attacks of the Crimean Tatars (their main object being the extortion of ransoms) on the other.[54]
About the middle of the 18th century, Kamianets-Podilskyi became celebrated as the center of the furious conflict then raging between the Talmudic Jews and the Frankists. The city was the residence of Bishop Dembowski, who sided with the Frankists and ordered the public burning of the Talmud, a sentence which was carried into effect in the public streets in 1757.
Kamianets-Podilskyi was also the residence of the wealthy Joseph Yozel Günzburg. During the latter half of the 19th century, many Jews from Kamianets-Podilskyi emigrated to the United States, especially to New York City, where they organized a number of societies.
See main article: article and Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre.
One of the first and largest Holocaust massacres carried out in the opening stages of war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, took place in Kamianets-Podilskyi on 27–28 August 1941. The killings were conducted by the Police Battalion 320 of the Order Police along with Friedrich Jeckeln's Einsatzgruppen, the Hungarian soldiers, and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police.[55] [56] According to Nazi German reports, in two days a total of 23,600 Jews from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Ghetto were murdered, including 16,000 expellees from Hungary.[57] As the historians of the Holocaust point out, the massacre constituted a prelude to the Final Solution conceived by the Nazis at Wannsee several months later. Eyewitnesses reported that the perpetrators made no effort to hide their deeds from the local population.[58]
According to the data of the first all-Ukrainian population census in 2001, the population of the city was 99,610 people.[59]
The city is located on the territory of the Podilian dialect, which belongs to the group of Volhynian-Podilian dialects of the southwestern group. The West-Podilian dialect, which has common features with the Dniestrian Ukrainian dialect, and the South-Podilian dialect, which has common features with the Pokuttia–Bukovina dialect, are common in the city.[60] [61] [62] Kamianets-Podilskyi is included in the "Atlas of the Ukrainian Language".[63]
Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:[64]
| Language | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Ukrainian | 91.22% | |
| Russian | 7.08% | |
| Polish | 0.1% | |
| Yiddish | 0.02% | |
| German | 0.01% | |
| other/undecided | 1.57% |
All major religious groups in Ukraine are represented in the city, a large part of Kamianets residents are Catholics, many are Orthodox.[65] Throughout history, various Catholic monastic orders have functioned in Kamianets-Podilskyi: Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Capuchins, Discalced Carmelites, Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, Trinitarians, and as of 2023, the city has Pauline orders and the Society of Christ.[66]
Kamianets-Podilskyi is located within a humid continental climate with warm summers.
The different peoples and cultures that have lived in the city have each brought their own culture and architecture. Examples include the Polish, Ruthenian and Armenian market squares. Famous tourist attractions include the ancient castle, and the numerous architectural attractions in the city's center, including the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Holy Trinity Church, the Polish City Hall, and the numerous fortifications.
Ballooning activities in the canyon of the Smotrych River have also brought tourists. In May and October, the city hosts Ballooning festivals.[67] In addition, everyone can book a balloon flight even not during the time of the festival.
Since the late 1990s, the city has grown into one of the chief tourist centers of western Ukraine. Annual Cossack Games (Kozatski zabavy) and festivals, which include the open ballooning championship of Ukraine, car racing and various music, art and drama activities, attract an estimated 140,000 tourists and stimulate the local economy. More than a dozen privately owned hotels have recently opened, a large number for a provincial Ukrainian city.
"Respublica" Festival is a music and art festival for youth featuring modern music, literature, and street art. This festival is held annually, gathering hundreds of young art lovers, musicians, and art enthusiasts. Many of the city's buildings are decorated with murals, created during these festivals. The murals depict historical events, as well as modern concepts.
Kamianets-Podilskyi is twinned with:
Dolný Kubín, Slovakia
Kalisz, Poland[68]
Brantford, Canada[69]
Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
Mariestad, Sweden[71]Kamianets-Podilskyi's other sister cities are:
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