Kamianets-Podilskyi (Ukrainian: Кам'янець-Подільський, IPA: [kɐmjɐˈnɛt͡sʲ poˈd⁽ʲ⁾ilʲsʲkɪi̯, ˈkamjɐnet͡sʲ] ⓘ; Polish: Kamieniec Podolski) 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.
Kamianets-Podilskyi is a historical center of Podillia 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.
Name
Originally known as Kamianets, 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, Polish: kamień) or kamen, meaning 'stone' in Old Slavic. The second part of its name relates to the historic region of Podillia (Ukrainian: Подíлля, Polish: Podole), of which Kamianets-Podilskyi is considered to be the historic capital. Therefore, the town name literally means 'The Stone of Podilia'.
Equivalents of the name in other languages are: Polish: Kamieniec Podolski; Russian: Каменец-Подольский, romanized: Kamenets-Podolsky or Каменец-Подольск, Kamenets-Podolsk; Romanian: Camenița Podoliei; Latin: Camenecium; Ottoman Turkish: كامانىچه, romanized: Kamaniçe; Hungarian: Kamenyeck-Podolszk; Yiddish: קאָמענעץ ,קאמיניץ, romanized: Komenets, Komenits.
History
Classical antiquity
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. 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'.
Principality of Halych and Tatars (11th c.–1241)
Modern Kamianets-Podilskyi was first mentioned in 1062, when it belonged to smaller principality of Terebovlia, then Halych principality and Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Around 1230, the Galician prince Lev Danilovich invited Armenians to join his army to defend the eastern border of his state. In gratitude for their good military service, the prince rewarded them with estates and land near Kamianets. In 1241, it was destroyed by the Mongolian invaders.
Polish rule (1352–1672)
In 1352, it was inherited by the Polish King Casimir III. In 1374 the city was granted Magdeburg Law by prince George Koriatovich. 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). In 1378 it became seat of a Latin 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. Starting from the late 15th century, separate Ruthenian and Armenian courts functioned in the city based on the respective law of each community. 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). Starting from the 15th century, it was, along with Lviv, the most important centre of trade in the region, as well as the biggest fortress in the eastern part of Poland.
Ottoman rule (1672–1699)
In 1672 the city was captured by the Turks and their ally hetman Petro Doroshenko. 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, Kitayhorad, Kırıvçe, Zhvan (It was known as Ijvan during Ottoman rule) and Mıhaylov. 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. Most, after about three years of exile in the Balkans, moved to the territories remaining within Poland, chiefly Lwów and Stanisławów.
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. According to Polish historian Dariusz Kołodziejczyk, after realizing their inability to hold the surrounding region under their power, the Ottomans resettled the burghers of Kamianets, moving the Armenians to Philippopolis and the Jews to Adrianople and Istanbul.
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1699–1793)
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. 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.
Russian rule (1793–1915)
After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the city belonged to the Russian Empire, where it was the capital of the Podolia Governorate. In the 19th century, city's fortifications lost their importance due to the development of military technology, and in 1808 were disbanded, with the fortress being turned into a prison. 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 Diocese of Kamianets-Podilskyi was abolished by the Russians authorities. It was re-established in 1918 by Pope Benedict XV.
Due to its remote location near the tripoint of Russia, Austria and Romania, as well as the absence of a railway connection, which would appear only in 1914, the city stagnated during most of the 19th century, remaining an administrative centre with an economy based on crafts. According to the Russian census of 1897, Kamianets-Podilskyi remained the largest city of Podolia with a population of 35,934.
At the same time, the city had a large degree of cultural importance, with the local seminary producing several notable Ukrainian activists, such as Stepan Rudansky, Mykola Leontovych, Anatoli Svydnytsky and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky. An archaeological society and a museum were established here by Yukhym Sitsinskyi. 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. In 1914, a direct railway line linked the city to Proskurov.
World War I and Ukrainian People's Republic
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. On 6 March 1918, the city became the seat of the newly established Podillia zemlia of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which was disbanded on 29 April 1918 by Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadsky, who brought back old governorate divisions of the Russian Empire. During that period a university was established in the city.
During the Directorate period, the city was chosen as de facto capital of Ukraine after the Russian communist forces occupied Kyiv. In 1919 it also served as the seat of government of Western Ukraine. During the Polish-Soviet War, the city was captured by the Polish Army on the night of 16–17 November 1919 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 Zozulyntsi 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.
Soviet rule (1921–1991)
In late 1920, 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. Afterwards, it was administratively part of the Podolia Governorate of Ukraine.
Poles, Jews 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 Armenian minority. 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 Podolia, the last resort of independent Ukraine. Early on, Kamianets-Podilskyi was the administrative center of the Ukrainian SSR's Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast, but in 1940 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. 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 people died of hunger.