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Podolia
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The region of Podolia (also spelled Podilia or Podillya) is a historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova is also a part of Podolia. (; ; ; ; )
Geography
Podolia lies south of Volhynia, southwest of the Kiev Region, northeast of the Dniester River, and east of Galicia across the Zbruch River, a tributary of the Dniester.
It has an area of about 40,000 km˛, extending for from northwest to southeast on the left bank of the Dniester.
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Encyclopedia
The region of Podolia (also spelled Podilia or Podillya) is a historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova is also a part of Podolia. (; ; ; ; )
Geography
Podolia lies south of Volhynia, southwest of the Kiev Region, northeast of the Dniester River, and east of Galicia across the Zbruch River, a tributary of the Dniester.
It has an area of about 40,000 km˛, extending for from northwest to southeast on the left bank of the Dniester. In the same direction run two ranges of relatively low hills separated by the Southern Bug, ramifications of the Avratynsk heights.
Two large rivers, with numerous tributaries, drain the region: the Dniester, which forms its boundary with Moldova and is navigable throughout its length, and the Southern Bug, which flows almost parallel to the former in a higher, sometimes swampy, valley, interrupted in several places by rapids. The Dniester forms an important channel for trade in the areas of Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Zhvanets and other Podolian river-ports.
In Podolia, "black earth" (chernozem) soil predominates, making it a very fertile agricultural area. Marshes occur only beside the Bug. A moderate climate predominates, with average temperatures at Kamianets-Podilskyi of ( in January, in July).
Russian-ruled Podolia in 1906 had an estimated population of 3,543,700, consisting chiefly of Ukrainians. Significant minorities included Poles and Jews, as well as 50,000 Romanians, some Germans, and a few Armenians.
The chief towns include Kamianets-Podilskyi, the traditional capital, Balta, Bratslav, Haisyn, Letychiv, Lityn, Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Nova Ushytsia, Olhopil, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, and Yampil. In Moldova, the major podolian cities are Camenca and Rîbnita.
Podolia is known for its cherries, mulberries, melons, gourds, and cucumbers.
History
The country has had human inhabitants since at least the beginning of the Neolithic period. Herodotus mentions it as the seat of the Graeco-Scythian Alazones and possibly Scythian Neuri. Subsequently the Dacians and the Getae arrived. The Romans left traces of their rule in Trajan's Wall, which stretches through the modern districts of Kamianets-Podilskyi, Nova Ushytsia and Khmelnytskyi.
During the Great Migration Period, many nationalities passed through this territory or settled within it for some time, leaving numerous traces in archaeological remains. Nestor in the Primary Chronicle mentions four apparently Slavic tribes: the Buzhans and Dulebes along the Bug River, and the Tivertsi and Ulichs along the Dniester. The Avars conquered these peoples in the 7th century. Prince Oleg of Kiev, extended his rule over this territory known as the Ponizie, or "lowlands." These lowlands later became a part of the Ruthenian principalities of Volhynia, Kiev, and Galicia, with the capital at Bakota at one time. In the 13th century, the Mongols plundered Ponizie; Algirdas (Olgierd), prince of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, freed it from their rule following his victory against the Golden Horde in the Battle of Blue Waters of 1362, annexing it to his own territories under the name of Podolia, which has the same meaning as Ponizie. Polish colonisation began in the 14th century.
After the death of the Lithuanian prince Vytautas the Great (Vitovt) in 1430, Podolia became part of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, with the exception of its eastern part, the Province of Bratslav, which remained in Lithuania until its union with Poland in the Union of Lublin of 1569. Apart from an Ottoman occupation (1672 - 1699), the Poles retained Podolia until the partitions of their country in 1772 and 1793, when the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and Imperial Russia annexed the western and eastern parts respectively.
From 1793-1917, part of the region was the Podolia Governorate (Russian: ?????????? ???????? [Podol’skaja gubernija]; Ukrainian: ?????????? ???????? [Podil’s’ka hubernija]) in southwestern Russia bordering with Austria across the Zbruch River and with Bessarabia across the Dniester. Its area was 36,910 km˛.
The Austrian Habsburgs took control of western Podolia (sometimes also called "Southern Podolia") in 1772 in the first partition of Poland by the Russian, Prussian and Austrian Empires. At this time, the Emperor Joseph II toured the area, was impressed by the fertility of the soil, and was optimistic about its future prospects. Poland disappeared as a state in a third partition in 1795 but the Polish gentry continued to maintain local control in both eastern and western Podolia over a peasant population which was primarily ethnically Ukrainian whose likeness with the East Slavic population of the Habsburg Monarchy was showcased in a book by Adam F. Kollár published strategically in 1772 and employed as an argument for the annexation by the Habsburgs. The Ternopil (Tarnopol) region of western Podolia was briefly taken by Russia in 1809 but reverted to Austrian rule in 1815. Within the Austrian Empire, western Podolia was part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria which, in 1867 with the formation of Austria-Hungary, became an ethnic-Pole-administered autonomous unit under the Austrian crown.
At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Austrian Podolia witnessed a large-scale emigration of its peasant population to western Canada.
With the collapse of Austria-Hungary following World War I in November 1918, western Podolia was included in the West Ukrainian People's Republic, but came under Polish control in 1919 which was confirmed in the Poland–Ukrainian People's Republic agreement in April 1920. Podolia was briefly occupied in 1920 by Soviets during the course of the Polish-Soviet War. After the Peace of Riga the Polish control was recognized by the USSR.
In Poland from 1921 to 1939, western Podolia was part of the Tarnopol Voivodeship. Eastern Podolia remained to the Ukrainian SSR and between 1922 and 1940, in the southwestern part, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created.
In 1927 there was a massive uprising of peasants and factory workers in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Tiraspol and other cities of southern Ukrainian SSR against Soviet authorities. Troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, causing around 4000 deaths, according to US corespondents sent to report about the insurrection, which was at the time completely denied by the Kremlin official press.
In 1939 after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and the Soviet invasion of 17 September 1939, the area became part of Soviet Ukraine. Many local inhabitants were deported to concentration camps. Following German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, most of Podolia was occupied by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The area of Podolia between the Southern Bug below Vinnytsia and the Dniester was occupied by Axis Romania as part of Transnistria.
From July 1941, through March 1944, (mostly prior to autumn 1943) those Jewish inhabitants who were not lucky enough to be sent to Concentration camps were subjected to the vicious mass-extermination & shooting campaigns of the Einsatzgruppen--designated A thru D, these four paramilitary squads were made up of Organization Todt administrators, SS troops, local police and paramilitary, and Muslim SS police from Serbo-Croatia. Reliable estimates including German, Soviet, and local records indicate that upwards of 1.6 million, perhaps as many as 2 million, Jews mere murdered in this fashion. Most were buried in mass graves, but many instances of communities being forced en masse into community buildings or synagogues that were then burnt, or herded into local mines that were subsequently dynamited, are of record. Podolia had been the center of a thriving Jewish community and culture since the late 17th century. All of that was extinguished within less than three years
In 1944 the Podolia again fell to the Soviets and in 1945, when Poland’s eastern border was formally realigned along the Curzon line, the whole of Podolia remained in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Most remaining Poles and Jews fled or were expelled to the People's Republic of Poland.
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