Kamianets-Podilskyi

Kamianets-Podilskyi or Kamyanets-Podilsky (Template:Lang-ua, Kam”ianets’-Podil’s’kyi, Polish Kamieniec Podolski) is a city located on the Smotrich river in south-western Ukraine. Historically, it is the ancient capital of Podolia, administratively, a part of Khmelnytsky Oblast (province) and a center of the Kamianets-Podilskyi raion (district) within it. As of 2004, the city had 99,068 inhabitants.

The first word of the city's dual name originates in the word kamen or kamin which means simply stone in Slavic languages where it entered almost unaltered from Proto-Indo-European language. The second name connects to Podolia (Podillya) historical area. Hence, the name is written and pronounced similarly in such languages as Ukrainian, Polish, Russian (Каменец-Подольский, Kamenets-Podolsky), and Latin (Camenecium).

The fortress

History

The town was first mentioned in 1062 as one of the towns of the Kievan Rus'. In 1241 it was sacked and destroyed by the Mongol or Tatar invaders. In 1352 it was annexed by the Polish king Casimir the Great and became the capital of the Podole Voivodship, the seat of local civil and military administration. The ancient castle was reconstructed and significantly expanded by the Polish kings to defend Poland from the south-east against the Ottoman Empire and Tatar invasions. After the Treaty of Buczacz of 1672 it was briefly a part of Turkey and a capital of a local eyalet. To counter the threat, king Jan III Sobieski built a nearby fortress of Okopy Świętej Trójcy. In 1699 the city was again recaptured by Poland. The fortress was constantly expanded and was considered to be the strongest in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Stefan Batory Tower - one of the city gates

Since the Partitions of Poland, in 1793, the city belonged to the Russian Empire where it was a capital of Podol'skaya guberniya. With the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 the city was briefly incorporated into several short-living Ukrainian states: Ukrainian People's Republic, the Hetmanate, and the Directoriya ending up with Ukrainian SSR (Soviet Ukraine) when the nation fell under the Bolshevik power. During the Polish-Bolshevik War the city was captured by the Polish Army, but later ceded to Bolshevik Russia in the Treaty of Riga (1921) which defined the future of the area for the years to come with the Soviet Union as part of the Ukrainian SSR.

The Poles and Ukrainians have always dominated the city's population. However, as a trade city, Kamianets-Podilskyi has been a multiethnic and multireligious settlement with significant Jewish and Armenian minorities. The multi-ethnic town was subject to severe persecutions and under the Soviet rule most of the Poles living there were forcibly deported to Siberia. Initially Kamianets-Podilskyi was the capital of the Ukrainian SSR's Podil'ska oblast' , but soon the administration centre was moved to Proskuriv (now Khmelnytskyi).

Tourist attractions

Kamianets-Podilskyi is famous for its ancient fortress, and ballooning activities in the canyon of the Smotrych river. Since 1998, Kamianets-Podilskyi has been growing, due to the city becoming a center for tourism. Annual Kozats'ki zabavy ("Cossack fun") festivals, which include open ballooning championship of Ukraine, car racing, various music, art and drama actions, attract an estimated 140,000 tourists annually and stimulate the local enoncomy. More than dozen privately-owned hotels were recently built there, which is a significant number for a provincial Ukrainian city.

People

• Stanisław Koniecpolski, fought here
• Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, livd here
• Mendele Mocher Sforim, lived here

• Maurice Zbriger, born here

See also

• Subdivisions of Ukraine
• History of Ukraine
• Culture of Ukraine
• History of Poland
• Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket

External links

• Satellite photo
• Soviet topographic map 1:100,000
• "The old fortress on the Smotrich river", and article in Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), June 28 - July 5, 2002, available online in Ukrainian and in Russian