Mogilev-Podolskii

Mogilev-Podol’skii 

a city of oblast subordination; administrative center of Mogilev-Podol’skii Raion, Vinnitsa Oblast, the Ukrainian SSR. Wharf on the Dniester. Railroad station on the Zhmerinka-Oknitsa line. Population, 29,700 (1973).

Mogilev-Podol’skii was founded in the late 16th century, when a castle was built and named Mogilov in honor of the Moldavian hospodar M. Mogila. Situated on the main Dniester crossing on the route from Moldavia to the Ukraine, the city was an important trade center in the 17th century. It was captured many times by the Turks and the Poles in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1795 it became part of Russia, and in 1796, a district city in Podolia Province. From the second half of the 19th century the development of navigation on the Dniester made the city a center for the grain trade.

Soviet power was established in Mogilev-Podol’skii in January 1918. In February fierce battles were fought against Petliura’s gangs. The Red Army and partisans liberated the city on March 22. Mogilev-Podol’skii became a raion center of Vinnitsa Oblast in 1932. By 1940 the industrial output of the city was ten times that of 1913. During the Great Patriotic War fascist German troops occupied the city (July 19, 1941) and badly damaged it. The Soviet Army liberated Mogilev-Podol’skii on Mar. 19, 1944. The city was completely rebuilt during the postwar five-year plan, and its economy continued to develop in subsequent decades.

Industry is represented by machine-building and instrument-making plants, repair and machine shops, a creamery, a canning factory, and a wine-making plant, as well as by furniture, clothing, unwoven materials, and household chemicals factories. The viticultural Communist Youth International (KIM) Sovkhoz is located in the city. Mogilev-Podol’skii is the site of assembly and Soviet trade technicums, a medical college, and a museum of local lore.