Classical antiquity Several historians consider that a city on this spot was founded by the ancient
Dacians, who lived in what is now modern
Romania,
Moldova, and portions of Ukraine. Historians write that the founders named the settlement
Petridava or
Klepidava, which originate from the
Greek word
petra or
Latin lapis '
stone' and
Dacian dava 'city'.
Principality of Halych and Tatars (11th c.–1241) Modern Kamianets-Podilskyi was first mentioned in 1062, when it belonged to smaller principality of
Terebovlia, then
Halych principality and
Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Around 1230, the Galician prince
Lev Danilovich invited
Armenians to join his army to defend the eastern border of his state. In gratitude for their good military service, the prince rewarded them with estates and land near Kamianets. In 1241, it was destroyed by the
Mongolian invaders.
Polish rule (1352–1672) Gate is part of the city's old fortification complex In 1352, it was inherited by the
Polish King
Casimir III. In 1374 the city was granted
Magdeburg Law. In 1370, the
Dominican monastic order began to function in Kamianets, a monastery was founded, and soon the
Franciscans founded their own monastery in the city. Later, monks of other orders moved:
Jesuits (1608),
Discalced Carmelites (1623),
Trinitarians (1699). In 1378 it became seat of a
Latin Catholic diocese. In 1432 King
Sigismund I the Old granted Kamieniec Podolski city rights. It was an important
royal city of Poland. In 1434 it became the capital of the
Podolian Voivodship and the seat of local civil and military administration. To counter the Turkish threat to the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, King
Jan III Sobieski built a fortress nearby, Okopy Świętej Trójcy (now
Okopy, Ternopil Oblast; meaning "the Entrenchments of the Holy Trinity"). In 1674, local Armenians, who made up one of the main
Armenian communes in Poland up to that point, were expelled by the Ottomans. Most, after about three years of exile in the
Balkans, moved to the territories remaining within Poland, chiefly
Lwów and
Stanisławów. In 1687, Poland attempted to regain control over Kamianets-Podilskyi and Podolia, when the fortress was unsuccessfully besieged by the Poles led by Prince
James Louis Sobieski. File:Kamianets-Podilskyi map 1691.jpg|A 1691
French map depicting the city's
old town neighbourhood and castle, surrounded by the winding
Smotrych River File:План міста Кам'янця (1684).jpg|1684 map depicting the city's
old town File:Franz von Reilly Kamjanez-Podilskyj (Кам'янець-Подільський) und Chotyn (Хотин).jpg|
Kamieniec on the map of Johann Franz Joseph von Riley (1789)
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1699–1793) In 1699, the city was given back to Poland under King
Augustus II the Strong according to the
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
cannonballs stuck in them from various sieges. During this period,
Bishop Dembowski, at the instigation of the
Frankists, convened a public disputation at Kamieniec Podolski, in November 1757, and ordered all copies of the
Talmud found in his bishopric to be confiscated and burned. Accounts of the Talmud burning differ—contemporary sources say that up to a thousand copies of the Talmud were destroyed, though other reports say only one copy was burned. Dembowski himself died days after the events. A plague broke out and the local priests exhumed his body and cut the head off to prevent any further disaster.
Russian rule (1793–1915) After the
Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the city belonged to the
Russian Empire, where it was the capital of the
Podolia Governorate. In the 19th century, city fortifications lost their importance due to the development of military technology, and the fortress was turned into a prison. One of the towers was used as a
prison cell for
Ustym Karmeliuk, a prominent peasant rebel leader of the early 19th century, who managed to escape from it three times. In 1798,
Polish nobleman Antoni Żmijewski founded a Polish
theater in the city. It was one of the oldest Polish theaters. In 1867 the
Diocese of Kamianets-Podilskyi was abolished by the Russians authorities. It was re-established in 1918 by
Pope Benedict XV. According to the
Russian census of 1897, Kamianets-Podilskyi remained the largest city of Podolia with a population of 35,934. In 1906, the local society "
Prosvita" was established in the city, thanks to its activities, the study of the Ukrainian language was introduced in primary and parish schools. On 1 July 1910, more than 48 percent of the city's residents were
Jews. The city was located in the
settlement zone that the Russian Empire had set aside for Jews. In 1914, a direct railway line linked the city to
Proskurov. File:Kamieniec Podolski.jpg|Lithograph of Napoleon Horda between 1862 and 1876 File:Kamyanets-fortress 1865.jpg|Kamianets-Podilskyi fortress 1865 File:Каменец-Подольский с высоты птичьего полёта (нач. XX в.).jpg|Kamenets from a height, the beginning of the 20th century File:Кам'янець-Подільський. Вигляд південного боку з ратушної вежі.jpeg|Church of St. Nicholas, 1902 File:Польський ринок1906.jpg|Polish market, centralny plac, 1906 File:Kamieniec-Pod. - Centralny plac (02).jpg|Centralny plac, 1906-1910 File:Kamieniec-Pod. Pocztowa ulica.jpg|Postova Street, to the right of the Jewish shops, Old Town, 1910 File:Кам'янець-Подільський аерозйомка 1914.jpg|Kamianets-Podilskyi aerial survey, 1914 File:Kamianets-Podilskyi-1918.jpg|Austro-Hungarian troops enter the Kamianets-Podilskyi, 1918 File:Staremisto1.jpg|Kamianets-Podilsky bridge, 1918 ===World War I and Ukrainian People's Republic (
UNR and
ZUNR) === During
World War I, the city was occupied by
Austria-Hungary in 1915. After the
collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the city was briefly controlled by the
Ukrainian People's Republic and the
Hetmanate During the
Polish-Soviet War, the city was captured by the
Polish Army on the night of 16–17 November 1919 and was under
Polish administration from 16 November 1919, to 12 July 1920 as capital of the
Podolian District. In July 1920 battles between units of the
Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the
Red Army took place in the village Veliki Zozulintsi and surrounding villages nearby Kamianets-Podilskyi.
Soviet rule (1921–1991) After the defeat of the
Ukrainian People's Republic in the
Ukrainian-Soviet war, the city was occupied by the Red Army. The area including Kamianets-Podilskyi was ceded to
Soviet Ukraine in the 1921
Treaty of Riga, which determined its future for the next seven decades as part of the Ukrainian SSR.
Poles, Jews 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
Armenian minority. Under Soviet rule it became subject to severe persecutions, and many Poles were
forcibly deported to Central Asia. Massacres such as the
Vinnytsia massacre have taken place throughout Podillya, the last resort of independent
Ukraine. Early on, Kamianets-Podilskyi was the administrative center of the Ukrainian SSR's
Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast, but the administrative center was later moved to Proskuriv (now
Khmelnytskyi). In December 1927,
TIME Magazine reported that there were massive uprisings of peasants and factory workers in southern Ukraine, around the cities of
Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Kamianets-Podilskyi,
Tiraspol and others, against
Soviet authorities. The magazine was intrigued when it found numerous reports from the neighboring
Romania that troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, causing no less than 4,000 deaths. The magazine sent several of its reporters to confirm those occurrences which were completely denied by the official press naming them as
barefaced lies. The revolt was caused by the
collectivization campaign and the lawless environment in the cities caused by the
Soviet government. The
Holodomor of 1932-1933, a terrible crime of the totalitarian system, did not escape the city. Although the situation was somewhat better than in other regions, this was largely due to the proximity of the border with the modern western Ukrainian territories. Given the border status of Kamianechchyna, the population, especially from the villages located on the
Zbruch River, tried to move to the modern western regions. There, Podolians exchanged their belongings for bread and grain. There were many cases when people were hired for the opportunity to eat or worked for bread. However, not everyone was able to do this: along the border with Poland along the Zbruch River and the border with Romania along the Dniester River, barricading lines were set up in many places, and Soviet punitive bodies were guarding the borders. The situation was also difficult in the city, according to data in 1932-1933, 585 people died of hunger. During the years of the
Great Terror, namely 1937-1938, 9,009 people of various nationalities and professions were convicted in Kamianets-Podilskyi, 62 people were arrested on charges of espionage, and hundreds of people were evicted from the city by the families of "enemies". people", for example 101 families of Polish nationality (see
Polish Operation of the NKVD). For example, on the territory of the Catholic Church of Archangel Michael, in the former monastery of the Dominican sisters, the Soviet authorities set up a prison, and in its dungeon - a torture chamber. In the 1930s, most of all, in 1937, people were shot in the basements of the monastery. According to some memories, for example, up to a hundred people were brought in a day. Twenty were sent to camps in the north, the rest disappeared. During this period, 11,634 Polish and German families, or at least 46,500 citizens, were evicted from
Podillia.
World War II Following the
Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of
World War II, the administrative center of the oblast was moved from the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi to the city of
Khmelnytskyi. Kamianets-Podilskyi was occupied by the German troops on 11 July 1941 in the course of
Operation Barbarossa. German, Ukrainian, and Hungarian police
massacred 23,000 Jews 27–28 August 1941. On 26 March 1944, the town was re-occupied by the
Red Army after German occupation in the
battle of the
Kamenets-Podolsky pocket. After the capture of the city by the Soviet army, the population's disloyalty to the Soviet government was manifested not by a desire to continue the fight against the Nazis, but people were tired of the difficult periods of the
German-Soviet war. But the
Red Army launched active mobilization measures from the very first days of entering the city. Such measures significantly reduced the quality of the selection of conscripts, and also negatively affected the level of their training. The pernicious practice of their immediate use in hostilities began from the first days of mobilization, therefore a significant number of mobilized residents of Kamianets and local villages died in the subsequent phases of the
Dnieper–Carpathian offensive in the territory of neighboring regions. Sending poorly trained, and most often poorly dressed and armed people into battle was more reminiscent of a cruel act of revenge for the disloyalty to the Stalinist government shown in 1941, for such units a conventional name appeared - «Chornopidzhachnyky». Thereafter Kamianets remained in
Soviet Ukraine until the
Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Ukrainian Insurgent Army A structural network of the
OUN functioned on the territory of the city: Kamianets-Podilsky District, which belonged to the UPA-South. During the German occupation, Ukrainian national forces formed local self-government bodies: the regional administration, the regional department of education. Hryhoriy Kybets was appointed the head of the regional administration. In 1944-45, the 19th tactical division of the Kamianets
UPA, the Lysonya military district, and the UPA-West military group operated on the territory of Kamianechchyna in 1944-45. The department was later divided into two parts in the summer of 1945. And self-defense bush units of the UPA from Ternopil Oblast also went on raids.
Soviet rule after 1944 In 1986, the population of the city reached 100,000 people, according to this indicator, Kamianets moved from the category of medium to large cities. In 1989, the Cultural Landscape of Canyon in Kamenets-Podilsk was listed on the
Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in Ukraine. On 16 October 1990, a rally was held in the city in support of the students of Kyiv, who announced a hunger strike as a sign of protest against the government's policies. In the central square of the city, the demands of the students to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR regarding the adoption of laws on local self-government and the non-signing of the Union Treaty, and to the City Council regarding the raising of the blue-yellow flag were approved. On 16 October the presidium of the city council satisfied the students' demand and was the first in Khmelnytskyi to raise the national flag.
Independent Ukraine On 16 July 1990, the new Ukrainian parliament adopted a
declaration of sovereignty. On 16 January 1991,
Pope John Paul II re-established the
Diocese of Kamianets-Podilskyi, which was dissolved under Soviet rule. Since 24 August 1991, Kamianets-Podilskyi has been part of independent Ukraine and is a significant economic, cultural, educational and tourist center of the state. In 2004, residents of the city actively participated in the
Orange Revolution, people held rallies on the Renaissance Square. On 1 December 2013, city students from the
Ivan Ohiienko National University, Podolia State Agrarian and Technical University and other educational institutions protested in the city, marching in a column through the streets and forming a viche near the city council, they expressed their anger at the authorities for their arbitrariness. In the future, many residents of the city gathered every day for vigils under the city council to express their protests against the regime and to support the
Euromaidan in Kyiv. The largest rally in terms of numbers took place on 26 January 2014, about 2,000 people took part in it. , Kamianets-Podilskyi was the third-largest city of Podolia after
Vinnytsia and
Khmelnytskyi. In 2015, the city center completed the construction of the European Square, where the flags of the
European Union countries fly, according to officials, this will be a confirmation of the European choice of the city and Ukraine. Until 18 July 2020, Kamianets-Podilskyi was incorporated as a
city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Khmelnytskyi Oblast to three, the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi was merged into
Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion. The
Russian invasion of Ukraine began on the morning of 24 February 2022, during rocket fire.
European integration of the city and cooperation with the European Union In 2015, the construction of the European Square was completed in the city center, where the flags of the
European Union countries fly, according to officials, this will be a confirmation of the European choice of the city and Ukraine.
Decolonization in the city Until 2022, the fight against the Soviet past began with the removal of the Lenin monument from its pedestal on 18 August 1992. The
decommunization of the squares, streets and alleys of Kamianets-Podilskyi partially took place in 1990-1993. In 2016, the process was continued in the city 14 streets and 16 alleys were renamed. The streets were renamed on:
Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred,
Heroes of the Krut,
Andrey Sheptytsky,
Ustym Karmaliuk,
Roman Shukhevych,
Jan de Witte and others. After the 2022 Russian invasion, scholars of Eastern Europe have renewed awareness of Russian colonialism and interest in decolonizing scholarship. In the first stage of 2022, 18 streets, five squares and one park were given new names in the city. This is how the streets of
Kvitka Cisyk,
Yevhen Konovalets,
Stepan Bandera,
Ivan Mazepa,
Pavlo Skoropadskyi,
Yaroslav the Wise,
Heroes of Mariupol and the fallen participants of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine appeared. A Soviet tank from its pedestal and communist symbols were also dismantled. In the second stage of 2023, 29 streets and 11 alleys received new names. The streets were renamed on:
Heroes of the ZSU,
Heroes of the UPA,
Sichovykh Striltsiv,
Solomiya Krushelnytska,
Liubomyr Huzar,
Petro Sahaidachny,
Volodymyr Ivasyuk,
Oleksandr Koshyts,
John Paul II, alleys:
Dmytro Vyshnevetsky,
Myroslav Skoryk,
Gustaw Belke (zoologist),
Vasyl Stefanyk and others. More than 80 toponyms changed their names in the villages of the
hromada.
Jewish history During the
Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–58), the
Jewish community of Kamianets-Podilskyi suffered much from Khmelnytsky's Cossacks on the one hand, and from the attacks of the
Crimean Tatars (their main object being the extortion of ransoms) on the other. About the middle of the 18th century, Kamianets-Podilskyi became celebrated as the center of the furious conflict then raging between the Talmudic Jews and the
Frankists. The city was the residence of Bishop Dembowski, who sided with the Frankists and ordered the public
burning of the Talmud, a sentence which was carried into effect in the public streets in 1757. According to Nazi German reports, in two days a total of 23,600 Jews from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Ghetto were murdered, including 16,000
expellees from Hungary. As the historians of the Holocaust point out, the massacre constituted a prelude to the
Final Solution conceived by the Nazis at
Wannsee several months later. Eyewitnesses reported that the perpetrators made no effort to hide their deeds from the local population. == Population ==