Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia
Вінниця
Mykhailychenko Street

Flag

Coat of arms
Map of Ukraine with Vinnytsia highlighted.
Coordinates:
Country
Oblast
Raion
Ukraine
Vinnytsia Oblast
Vinnytsia City Municipality
Founded 1363
Government
 - Head of City
Council
Volodymyr Borysovych Groysman
Area
 - Total 60.94 km2 (23.5 sq mi)
Population
 - Total 350,400
 - Density 5,066/km2 (13,120.9/sq mi)
Postal code 21000-
Area code(s) +380 43
Sister cities Birmingham, Kielce, Peterborough, Rîbniţa (Rybnytsia)
Website www.vmr.gov.ua

Vinnytsia (Ukrainian: Вінниця, pronounced [ˈwinnɪtsʲa]; Russian: Винница; also known by other names) is a city located on the banks of the Southern Buh River, in central Ukraine.

Contents

Names

Vinnytsia is also known by a variety of other names, such as Vinnytsya, Vinnitsa (Russian: Винница), Vinnica (Polish: Winnica) and Romanian: Vinniţa. All of the variations of the city's name originate with the Slavic word for Vineyards, ultimately derived from Latin vīnea for the word vine. Some of these reflect names in foreign languages that have had historical influences on the city.

The Transfiguration Cathedral in Vinnytsia (1758).

Geography

Vinnytsia is located about 260 km (160 mi) from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, 429 km (267 mi) from the port city Odessa, and 369 km (229 mi) from Lviv.

It is the administrative center of the Vinnytsia Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Vinnytskyi Raion (district) within the oblast. The city itself is also designated as its own separate raion within the oblast, and rests in the historic region of Podillia.

The current estimated population is 350,400.

Since the end of World War II, Vinnytsia has been the home for a major Air force base, including an airfield, a hospital, arsenals, and other military installations. The Ukrainian Air Force Command has been based in Vinnytsia since 1992.

Climate

A long lasting warm summer with a sufficient quantity of moisture and a comparatively short winter is characteristic of Vinnytsia. The average temperature in January is −5.8 °C (22 °F) and 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) in July. The average annual precipitation is 638 mm (25 in).

Throughout the year, 6–9 days per year include snowstorms, 37–60 days of the year include mists during the cold period, and 3–5 days include thunder storms with hail.

History

A member of Einsatzgruppe D is about to shoot a man sitting by a mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. Present in the background are members of the German Army, the German Labor Service, and the Hitler Youth.[1] The back of the photograph is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa".

Vinnytsia has been an important trade and political center since the fourteenth century, when Fedir Koriatowicz, the nephew of the Lithuanian Duke Olgerd, built a fortress (1363) against Tatar raiders on the banks of the Southern Bug. From that time on, the town became a factor in ongoing disputes between Lithuania, Tatars (who burnt the fortress in 1580), Poland, Turkey (which ruled the city and region from 1672 to 1699), Cossacks and eventually Russia, which annexed the city and region following the Second Partition of Poland in 1793. Russia moved to expunge the Roman Catholic religion - Catholic churches in the city (including what is now the Transfiguration Cathedral) were converted to Russian Orthodox churches.

Victim's graves from the Vinnytsia massacre during the Stalinist repression of 1937-1938 were exhumed by the invading Germans in 1943.

Adolf Hitler sited his easternmost headquarters FHQ Wehrwolf near the town and spent a number of weeks there in 1942 and early 1943.

Nazi atrocities were committed in and near Vinnytsia by Einsatzgruppe D. Estimates of the number of victims run as high as 28 thousand. This included the virtual extinction of the town's large Jewish population. One not-particularly-famous photo, The Last Jew of Vinnytsia, shows a member of Einsatzgruppe D about to execute a Jew kneeling before a mass grave.[2]

Constructions

Mansion-museum of Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov.

Famous people from Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia's water tower (now the War Veteran's Museum).

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Vinnytsia is twinned with:

3D model

Town's model was made by State Scientific Production Enterprise «GeoSystem» [1] Here you can review it [2]

See also

References

Notes

  1. Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2nd edition, 2006, p. 93.
  2. "The last Jew in Vinnitsa [1941", World's Famous Photos, Retrieved on 2010-08-26.

External links