Initially there were two neighbouring villages named
Zmierzynki Wielkie ("Big Zmierzynki") and
Zmierzynki Małe ("Small Zmierzynki"), administratively located in the Winnica County in the
Bracław Voivodeship in the
Lesser Poland Province of the
Kingdom of Poland. The former was a possession of the
Potocki family and the latter of the Głowacki family. The villages were annexed by
Russia in the
Second Partition of Poland (1793), and their names were Russified to
Zhmerynka from the Polish
Zmierzynka. In 1870, a railway station was built, and the settlement began to develop more rapidly. In 1903 it was granted city rights, however, the first mayor,
Pole Karol Wroński, was appointed only in 1905. With the fall of Tsarist Russia during
World War I, in 1917, the town became part of the newly established
Ukrainian People's Republic. During the war between
Poland,
Ukraine and
Soviet Russia, the town was captured successively by the Soviets in March 1919, by the Ukrainians in June 1919, by the Soviets in January 1920, by the Poles in April 1920, and by the Soviets in June 1920, eventually becoming part of the
Soviet Union. The city suffered during the
famine in 1932–1933. Zhmerynka was occupied by the
Romanian Army during the
Second World War from 17 July 1941 until 20 March 1944 and incorporated into the
Transnistria Governorate. ==Geography==