Vinnytsia


Vinnytsia is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast in Ukraine. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Raion, one of the six raions of Vinnytsia Oblast. It has a population of 356,379.
The city's roots date back to the Middle Ages. It was under Lithuanian and Polish control for centuries. From 1653 to 1667, Vinnytsia was a regimental city of the Hetman state, and in 1793, it was ceded to the Russian Empire. During the 1930s and early 1940s, the city was the site of massacres, first during Stalin's purges and then during the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Nazi occupation. A Cold War–era airbase was located near the city. Currently, Vinnytsia is developing as one of the most comfortable cities for life in independent Ukraine.

Name

The name of Vinnytsia appeared for the first time in 1363. It is assumed that the name is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "", meaning "a bride price." This name can be explained by the fact that Vinnytsia and the surrounding land were captured by Lithuanian Duke Algirdas in the 14th century, and then, they were given to his nephews.
In addition to the Ukrainian Вінниця, in other languages of the region, the name of the city is,,,, and. English sources used the Russian-derived Vinnitsa from the early 19th century until the 1990s and Winnica or Winnicza before that, reflecting the ultimate political authorities of those respective eras. According to the official transcription of DSTU 9112:2021, Вінниця should be rendered as Vinnycja in the Ukrainian Latin alphabet.

Geography

Location

Vinnytsia is located about southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, north-northwest of the Black Sea port city of Odesa, and east of Lviv.
It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast, as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Vinnytsia Raion within the oblast. The city itself is directly subordinated to the oblast.

Climate

The city has a warm-summer humid continental 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 and in July. The average annual precipitation is.
Over the course of a year there are around 6–9 days when snowstorms occur, 37–60 days when mists occur during the cold period, and 3–5 days when thunderstorms with hail occur.

Ecology and climate change

On 28 January 2022, Vinnytsia City Council announced Vinnytsia Green Deal by signing the Declaration and approving the Roadmap of measures for the implementation of its principles and approaches within the community.

History

Early history

Vinnytsia, known in Polish as Winnica, has been an important trade and political center since the fourteenth century, when Fyodor Koriatovych, the nephew of the Lithuanian Duke Algirdas, built a fortress against Tatar raiders on the banks of the Southern Bug. The original settlement was built and populated by Aleksander Hrehorovicz Jelec, a hetman under Lithuanian Prince Švitrigaila. Aleksander Jelec built the fort, which he commanded as starosta afterwards.
In the 15th century, Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon granted Vinnytsia Magdeburg city rights. In 1566, it became part of the Bracław Voivodeship. Between 1569 and 1793 the town was a part of Poland. In 1648, Vinnytsia found itself at the epicenter of the Cossack uprisings led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In February 1651, during the defense of the city, Ivan Bohun's Cossack regiment defeated a 20,000-strong Polish army. Vinnytsia was part of the Hetman state until 1667, and during 1672-1699 was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Under Polish rule, Vinnytsia was a royal city. On 18 March 1783, Antoni Protazy Potocki opened the Polish Trade Company in Vinnytsia. The 1st Infantry Regiment of the Polish Crown Army was stationed in the city in 1788 before it was relocated to Piotrków Trybunalski.

Late modern period

After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 the Russian Empire annexed the city and the region. Russia moved to expunge the Roman Catholic religion. Catholic churches in the city, including what is currently the Transfiguration Cathedral, were converted to Russian Orthodox churches.
In the Russian census of 1897, Vinnytsia had a population of 30,563. It was the third largest city in Podolia region after Kamianets-Podilskyi and Uman. After railway connections were completed in 1871, Vinnytsia developed rapidly economically and infrastructurally. The city architect Hryhorii Artynov erected a number of buildings, which still shape the city image.
During the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1920, Vinnytsia was chosen three times as the seat of government structures of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The residence of the Directory was Savoy Hotel, which turned the city into a de facto capital. On 16 May 1920, a meeting was held in Vinnytsia between the heads of Ukraine and Poland, Symon Petliura and Józef Piłsudski.
Soviet Vinnytsia became an industrial giant with an emphasis on sugar production, but in the shadow of its prosperity it experienced a devastating man-made famine occurred in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933.
The Vinnytsia massacre was the mass execution of between 9,000 and 11,000 people in Vinnytsia by the Soviet secret police NKVD during the Great Purge in 1937–1938.

World War II

Vinnytsia was occupied by German troops on 19 July 1941 during World War II. While Vinnytsia had a pre-war Jewish population of over 34,000, only 17,000 of these Jews remained, with the rest of them successfully being evacuated to the interior of the Soviet Union beforehand. Virtually all of the Jews who remained in Vinnytsia under Nazi occupation were murdered in the Holocaust.
Nazi atrocities were committed in and near Vinnytsia by Einsatzgruppe C.
In 1942 a large part of the Jewish quarter of Yerusalimka was destroyed by Germans.
Related to that period is an infamous photo, known as The Last Jew of Vinnytsia. Recent research has suggested that the photograph was probably made in another town, Berdichev, and not Vinnitsya The Last Jew in Vinnitsa is a photograph taken during the Holocaust in Ukraine showing an unknown Jewish man—probably on 28 July 1941—about to be shot dead by a member of the Einsatzgruppen, a mobile death squad of the German Schutzstaffel. The victim is kneeling beside a mass grave already containing bodies; behind, a group of SS and Reich Labor Service men watch.
Adolf Hitler sited his eastern headquarters, Führerhauptquartier Werwolf or Wehrwolf, at the Wehrmacht headquarters near the city. The complex was built in 1941–1942 by Russian prisoners of war. Many of them were killed. Hitler's accommodation consisted of a log cabin built around a private courtyard with its own concrete bunker. The complex included about 20 other log buildings, a power station, gardens, wells, three bunkers, a swimming pool, and wire and defensive positions.
Hitler spent a number of weeks at Wehrwolf in 1942 and early 1943. The few remains of the Wehrwolf site, described in one report as a "pile of concrete" because it was destroyed by the Nazis in 1944, can be visited. Plans to create a full-fledged museum had not come to fruition as of August 2018.

Later Soviet era

After the end of World War II, Vinnytsia was the home for major Soviet Air Forces base, including an airfield, a hospital, arsenals, and other military installations. The headquarters of the 43rd Rocket Army of the Strategic Rocket Forces was stationed in Vinnytsia from 1960 to the early 1990s. The 2nd Independent Heavy Bomber Aviation Corps, which later became 24th Air Army, was stationed in Vinnytsia from 1960 to 1992.

Independent Ukraine

The Ukrainian Air Force Command has been based in Vinnytsia since 1992. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the command center was significantly damaged by Russian cruise missiles on 25 March 2022.
On 14 July 2022 the center of the city was attacked with three Russian cruise missiles. Missiles hit the local NeuroMed clinic and House of the Officers, which was currently used as a concert hall. Due to the strike 27 people were killed, 80 were hospitalized. The next day the Russian Ministry of defense said that the target was top-ranking Ukrainian military officers and representatives of foreign military industry companies.
On 12 October 2022, a pilot Vadym Voroshylov destroyed 5 "Shahed 136" drones near Vinnytsia. Due to damage to the plane, Vadym ejected in Vinnytsia oblast, having previously diverted the fighter jet from the settlement. For this, he was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.
In 2023, the city of Vinnytsia opened a representative office to the European Union, becoming the fourth Ukrainian sub-national administration or organisation to take up an offer to use office space in the European Committee of the Regions.

Population

As of 1 July 2025, the population of Vinnytsia is 356 379 people.
By population, among cities of Ukraine Vinnytsia ranks among the 10 largest cities.

Education and science

Educational institutions of the city of Vinnytsia:
  • 63 preschool education institutions. Electronic registration is available for enrolling children in communally owned pre-school education institutions;
  • 55 institutions of general secondary education.
  • 8 institutions of state-owned professional education;
  • 3 community-owned out-of-school education institutions:
  • * Vinnytsia City Palace of Children and Youth;
  • * Vinnytsia city center of artistic and choreographic education of children and youth "Barvinok";
  • * Center for Extracurricular Education "School of Success".
There are many universities and research institutions in Vinnytsia:
There is also the Regional Universal Scientific Library named after prominent local historian Valentyn Otamanovskyi in Vinnytsia.