Vinnitsa

Vinnitsa (in Ukrainian Вінниця) is an Ukrainian city located at approximately 260 km in the south-west of Kiev, in the center of the country. It is bathed by the southernmost Boug. Vinnitsa is the capital of the Oblast de Vinnitsa. Its population was of 332 400 people in 2004. One finds there mechanical engineering industries and of clothes industry.

History before 1937

The history of the city is indissociable history of the Ukraine which is a long fight for the right to independence. The history of Vinnitsa begins in 1363 when the Large-Duke of Lithuania Olgierd, exploiting the defeat of the Tatars of the Horde of Gold, appendix the province of Podolie.

The history of the city starts with the construction of a fortress in 1363 by the duke Koriatovitch to protect the Podolie from the invasions tatares. Vinnitsa underwent more than 30 invasions tatares between 1400 to 1569: it was on one of the tracks of the horde and was completely destroyed in 1431 and 1561. In spite of these difficult conditions, the city developed like regional market, administrative center, while preserving its military function. The Cosaques, which formed themselves part of the population, came to run out their products of fishing there, drives out and plundering. In 1545 273 houses and 7 years ago after 429 houses. A new fortress of wood on the island of Kamp was built in 1558, the “new city” appeared on Right Bank of the river Boug and the “old city” continued its development on left bank of the river. The new fortress nevertheless was burned by Tatars in 1580. Following the Union of Lublin, the Ukraine was integrated into the Poland and Vinnitsa, seat of court and place of the assemblies of noble, became in 1598 the capital in fact of the province of Bratslav.

The proof of its significant role in the life of the area is the exemption of the taxes of the trade in all the Lithuanian territory as from 1580. The significant development of the cultural life of the citizens occurred for this period. The catholics finished the construction of their two monasteries in 1617 and 1624. In 1642, the collegial one of the Jesuits. Thanks to the efforts of Petro Mohila, celebrates cultural patron, and of Mikhailo Kropyvnytskiy, the person in charge of Bratslav, the orthodoxe college is open in 1632.

The significant event of the 17th century is the defeat of the Polish army in March 1651 by the troops cossacks of Ivan Bohoun. The city became the center of the area after the establishment of the province of Podilla in 1797. And at the beginning of 1798 the " Gorodovoye Polojeniye" (law on local autonomy) was established in Vinnitsa while on all the territory of Russia it will be adopted only after 1801. As from this time, one notices the constant growth of the city. In 1860, there were 10.000 inhabitants, 5 schools, a hospital, 180 stores and a theater.

The urban development was pushed by the iron construction Kiev - the Baltic and the opening of the communication Kozyatyn - Zdolbouniv. Thus the possibility of a direct connection with Kiev, Odessa, Moscow, Saint-Pétersbourg and the Poland became possible.

During the 40 last years of the 19th century, Vinnitsa increases. It occupies the first place in the area of Podilla in term of convenience of circulation. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city considerably will change. In 1911, the first line of water provision was built, electricity was installed. In 1912 the connection of the tram between Zamostya and it center town is opened, the construction of the phosphate factory is completed. Since 1914, Vinnitsa became the administrative center of the province of Podilla.

The government of the popular republic of Ukraine functioned temporarily in the Savoy hotel, located at the center town at the time of the period 1917-1918.

In 1923, the city became the center of the area, and since 1932, the administrative center of the area is established in Vinnitsa.

Massacres of 1937-1938

The city will suffer from irreplaceable human losses due to Stalinist repressions. June 7th, 1937, a meeting at the House of the Party, Lénine boulevard, decides to make of Vinnitsa the center of repression in Ukraine. 30.000 old men of the area of 17 with more than 50 years were stopped; 18.000 prisoners were interned in the municipal prison (300 people in cells planned for 18!) and 12.000 in close careers. More than 10.000 were exterminated in the buildings of the NKVD and were buried in several places of the city: in various common graves: park of Civilization, military cemetery roadway of Litine and plantation of fruit trees of Dolinki. Pushing crauté to the maximum, they construitont a track of dance on one of the mass graves… Three mass graves will be exhumed by the occupying German Nazis in 1943.

The massacre was planned by several people: Lavrenti Beria, Lazare Kaganovitch, Levitski (police chief of the oblast of Vinnitsa), the Kharitonov general (ordering the military district of south-west) and Tcheremych, statistician of the oblast. It was put at execution by the local direction of NKVD: the commander Sokolinski (chief of the local NKVD), Abramovitch (chief of the prison), Rosenbaum (assistant of the precedent), Chyrin (section head of safety of the NKVD) and Tomtchynski (chief of the special sections of the NKVD). At this meeting, Kaganovitch will declare (it will be necessary to specify the source of the assertions): “That do I make my people if it betrays the doctrines of our chiefs? I exterminate it! ” “It is necessary that justice is made, nevertheless it would amount to 100 million”. “To exterminate 40 million individuals, it is enough to destroy the forces which of this 40 million made people precisely”.
" One could reconstitute the scenario what had done without. In 1937 and 1938, teams of NKVD foamed the cities and the villages of the area, stopping people. The wife of one of the victims testified to the words addressed to her husband by the henchmen of NKVD during her arrest: “Eh, you, dog! You lived enough… ”. Other witnesses reported that personal revenges seem to have been the causes of certain arrests, like the covetousness of a house or an apartment or a verbal threat uttered with a simple member of the Communist party. It thus appears that the majority of the arrests was it for reasons personal but often related to the ethnic character. For the Ukrainians that had not been strictly speaking new, for more than twenty years already they were looked with suspicion by the townsmen, primarily Russian or Jewish and members of the Communist party, and their opposition to collectivization had forever put them at the round of applause of the company soviétique." (http://www.ukraine-europe.info/ua/dossiers.asp?1171031438)

History after 1942

Other damage will be made by the Germans, who, because of the proximity of the seats of Werenwolf of Wehrmacht, had installed a special diet with Vinnitsa. During the Second world war, the number of inhabitants passed from 100.000 to 27.000. On the 50 factories, only 10 had survived, 1880 houses were completely destroyed. Because of the efforts of the inhabitants of the city and people of the other areas of the country, the industry of the city was practically reconstituted towards the end of 1948. And soon, after electricity, the radio and the metallurgy, other industries developed with the center of the area. The Trolleybus is inaugurated in 1964, thus equipping the town of a modern means of circulation urban.

Tourism

The 20 last years of its life, Nicolaï Pirogov, celebrates it surgeon, founder of the Russian Red Cross, will pass them to Vinnitsa. It also saved Giuseppe Garibaldi of gangrene. The city devoted a museum to him.

Under the patronage of UNESCO, the largest collection of icons of Podilla is exposed in the museum of the regional studies.

Climate

The city is located at 49 degrees of northern latitude and enjoys a moderate climate: a long and hot summer, ensuring a sufficient level of moisture and comparatively a rather short winter and relatively not very severe. The average temperatures in January are of -5,8ºC, in July +18ºC. The quantity of annual precipitations is of 638 Misters.

Because of the presence of rich grounds and favorable climate, the territory of today of the city was arranged since ancient times.

References and notes

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