KAMIANETS-PODILSKYI

'Kamianets-Podilskyi' (, translit. ''Kam”yanets’-Podil’s’kyi''; also referred to as 'Kamyanets-Podilsky' or 'Kamenets-Podolsky') is a city located on the Smotrich River in the western Ukraine. Formerly the administrative center of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast (, translit., ''Kamyanets-Podil'ska oblast’''), the city is now the administrative center of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion (district) within the Khmelnytsky Oblast (province), after the administrative center of the oblast was moved from the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi to the city of Khmelnytskyi in the 1941. The city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast.
The current estimated population is around 99,068 (as of 2004).

Contents

Nomenclature

History

Sister cities

Tourist attractions

People

See also

External links

Nomenclature

The first part of the city's dual name originates from ''kamin’'' () or ''kamen'', meaning "stone" in the Old East Slavic language. The second part of the name relates to the historic region of Podolia (, translit. ''Podillia'') of which Kamianets-Podilskyi is considered to be the historic capital.
The name is written and pronounced similarly in different languages:

★ Polish: Kamieniec Podolski

★ Romanian Cameniţa

★ Turkish: Kamaniçe

★ , translit. ''Kamenets-Podolsky''

★ Latin: Camenecium

★ Yiddish: קאַמענעץ

History

The town is first mentioned in 1062 as a town of Kievan Rus'. In 1241 it was sacked and destroyed by Mongol (Tatar) invaders. In 1352 it was annexed by the Polish King Casimir III, and became the capital of Podole 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 southeast against Ottoman and Tatar invasions. After the Treaty of Buczacz (1672) it was briefly part of Turkey and capital of a local eyalet. To counter the Turkish threat to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, King Jan III Sobieski built a fortress near by, Okopy Świętej Trójcy ("the Entrenchments of the Holy Trinity"). In 1699 the city was given back to Poland according to 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 cannon balls stuck in them from various sieges.
From the Second Partition of Poland (1793), the city belonged to the Russian Empire, where it was the capital of ''Podol'skaya Guberniya''. The Russian Emperor 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 nineteenth century), who managed to escape from it three times.
With the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the city was briefly incorporated into several short-lived Ukrainian states — the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Hetmanate, and the Directoriya — and ended up in the Ukrainian SSR (Soviet Ukraine) when Ukraine fell under Bolshevik power. During the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921) the city was captured by the Polish Army, but it was later ceded to Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Riga (1921), which determined the future of the area for the next seven decades as part of the Ukrainian SSR.

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 most of the Poles were forcibly deported to Siberia. Early on, Kamianets-Podilskyi was the capital of the Ukrainian SSR's ''Podil'ska Oblast' '', but the administrative center was soon moved to Ploskyriv (now Khmelnytskyi).

Sister cities

The city is twinned with Ejmiatsin, the spiritual capital of Armenia.

Tourist attractions

Kamianets-Podilskyi is famous for its ancient fortress, and for ballooning activities in the canyon of the Smotrich River. Since 1998 the city has been growing as a tourist center. Annual ''Kozats'ki zabavy'' ("Cossack Games") 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 been built there, a large number for a provincial Ukrainian city.

People

★ Stanisław Koniecpolski fought here.

★ Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski lived here.

★ Mendele Mocher Sforim lived here.

★ Maurice Zbriger was born here.

★ David Günzburg was born here.

★ Zvee Scooler, who is best known as the Rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof, was born here.

★ Szymon Okolski lived here.

★ Krzysztof Radzilowski was a town official in 1768.

See also

★ History of Ukraine

★ Culture of Ukraine

★ History of Poland

★ Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket.

External links

★ Satellite photo

★ Soviet topographic map 1:100,000

★ Kamianets-Podilskyi information tourism centre, in Ukrainian

★ "The old fortress on the Smotrich River," in ''Zerkalo Nedeli'' (Weekly Mirror), June 28 - July 5, 2002, available online in Ukrainian and in Russian

★ Podolsky address-calendar 1895. Kamianets - Podilskyi. 1895 (rus)