Vinnytsia Oblast (, ), also referred to as Vinnychchyna (), is an oblast in central Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia. The oblast has a population of
History Vinnytsia Oblast was established on 27 February 1932 as part of an administrative reorganization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It originally comprised raions that had previously formed parts of several abolished okruhas:
Uman Okruha Berdychiv Okruha Vinnytsia Okruha Mohyliv Okruha Tulchyn Okruha Shepetivka Okruha Proskuriv Okruha Kamianets Okruha
In 1935, territories along the western border of the oblast were reorganized into the Shepetivka, Proskuriv and Kamianets border okrugs. In 1937, these territories were separated from Vinnytsia Oblast to form Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast, which was later renamed Khmelnytskyi Oblast.
World War II and the Holocaust Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the territory of present-day Vinnytsia Oblast was occupied by German and Romanian forces. The oblast was subsequently divided between two occupation regimes. Its northern and eastern areas were incorporated into the General District of Zhytomyr within the German-administered Reichskommissariat Ukraine, while a substantial part of its southern and southwestern territory was incorporated into the Romanian-administered Transnistria Governorate.
The division placed Jewish communities in the oblast under different German and Romanian systems of persecution. In German-occupied areas, Einsatzgruppen, German police units and their auxiliaries carried out mass shootings of Jews as part of the systematic murder of Jewish communities in the occupied Soviet territories. Mass killings and ghettos were established in a number of communities in the German-controlled portion of the oblast.
In the Romanian-controlled portion of the oblast, Romanian authorities established ghettos, camps and forced-labour sites for local Jews and for Jews deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina. Romanian authorities deported tens of thousands of Jews from those regions to Transnistria, where they were confined alongside local Ukrainian Jews in overcrowded ghettos and camps. Hunger, exposure, disease, forced labour, abuse and mass executions caused widespread mortality.
Numerous communities in present-day Vinnytsia Oblast became sites of ghettos, camps or other Jewish detention sites, including Bershad, Balanivka, Bratslav, Chechelnyk, Dzhuryn, Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Mytky, Obodivka, Olhopil, Pechera, Rohizka, Sharhorod, Tulchyn, Vapniarka and other localities. Some ghettos held both local Jews and thousands of deportees from Bessarabia and Bukovina. In Bershad, for example, thousands of Jews were confined under Romanian rule, while in Bratslav approximately 750 Jews were held in a ghetto before most were transferred to the Pechora concentration camp.
The Vapniarka concentration camp, established by Romanian authorities in October 1941, became one of the best-known camps in the region. Its prisoners included Jews and political prisoners. In 1942, prisoners there were deliberately fed fodder containing toxic grass pea, causing paralysis and other symptoms of lathyrism.
Roma were also deported by Romanian authorities from Romania to the Transnistria Governorate. Thousands died from starvation, disease, exposure and other lethal conditions during their deportation and confinement.
The Red Army recaptured the territory of Vinnytsia Oblast during its westward advance in 1944, ending German and Romanian occupation.
Geography
The oblast is located in the historic regions of Podolia and Right-bank Ukraine and borders seven other administrative oblasts of Ukraine. Along the southwest of the oblast the Dniester river passes. A long section of the state border with Moldova.
The Vinnytsia oblast has appreciable mineral deposits and other exploitable raw materials. There are 1,159 deposits and other various mineral resources, tens of peat deposits, unique deposits of granite and kaolin, garnet and fluorite that have been explored. The raw kaolin deposits are the world's largest, containing 800 million tons. Furthermore, a number of medicinal mineral springs have been found in the oblast, with health benefits comparable to the radon springs found in the town of Khmilnyk.
The unique decorative qualities of Vinnytsia's granites, sorbites, vinnytsites, and charnockites are used to manufacture stone, facing slabs, window sills, monuments, etc. Three granite deposits (consisting of 10 million cubic metres; 13 million cubic yards) have been explored and are mined, and experimental mining is carried out in eight other deposits. Multiple enterprises have been utilizing these resources for more than a century.
The Vinnytsia oblast is the only oblast of Ukraine containing large pelicanite resources (39 deposits with the total inferred resources of about 170 million tons).
The lignite, commonly known as brown coal, found in Vinnytsia is similar in quality to the well-known lignite of Dniprobas and can be used for energy purposes utilizing the semi-coking and hydrogenation methods. Three lignite deposits in the oblast, containing about 50 million tons, have been preliminarily explored and an additional three deposits are in the exploration stage.
The building materials industry widely uses local sand and gravel. There are five sand deposits, all of which are exploited, of which one is used for silicate bricks, three for building mortars and one for ballast.
The town of Khmilnyk in Vinnytsia is home to a popular radon mineral spring, whose therapeutic properties have been ascertained and utilized for numerous health benefits. Also 21 table water springs have been prospected, ten of which have been certified and at five filling has already been arranged ("Rehina", "Kniazhna", "Shumylivska", "Podilska" and "Rosiana"). Also, "Myrhorodska" type mineral water has been found. It is probable that there are many more radon deposits in the oblast that, once found, can be exploited.
Bauxite, the ore used aluminum manufacturing, has recently been discovered in Podolia. Geologists estimate that this deposit contains about 3 million tons of ore.
Demographics According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, ethnic Ukrainians accounted for 94.9% of the population of Vinnytsia Oblast, and ethnic Russians for 3.8%. Етнічний склад населення України, 2001 рікБанк даних, перепис 2001 року
Language
Due to the Russification of Ukraine during the Soviet era, the share of Ukrainian speakers in the population of Vinnytsia Oblast gradually decreased between the 1970 and 1989 censuses, while the share of Russian speakers increased. Native language of the population of Vinnytsia Oblast according to the results of population censuses:Итоги Всесоюзной переписи населения 1959 года: Украинская ССР, стр. 168—193Численность и состав населения СССР: по данным Всесоюзной переписи населения 1979 года. Центральное статистическое управление СССР, 1984Чорний С. Національний склад населення України в ХХ сторіччі (2001)Итоги Всесоюзной переписи населения 1970 года. Том IV — М., Статистика, 1973 1959197019892001 Ukrainian90.9%92.0%90.7%94.8% Russian6.4%7.1%8.6%4.7% Other2.7%0.9%0.7%0.3%
Native language of the population of the raions, cities, and city councils of Vinnytsia Oblast according to the 2001 Ukrainian census: UkrainianRussian Vinnytsia Oblast 94.8%4.7% City of Vinnytsia 84.7%14.4% City of Zhmerynka 90.8%8.5% Mohyliv-Podilskyi (city council) 92.3%7.0% Koziatyn (city council) 94.9%4.8% Ladyzhyn (city council) 88.4%11.3% City of Khmilnyk 97.1%2.6% Bar Raion 97.4%2.4% Bershad Raion 97.2%2.5% Vinnytsia Raion(in pre-2020 borders) 97.6%2.0% Haisyn Raion(in pre-2020 borders) 96.3%3.5% Zhmerynka Raion(in pre-2020 borders) 97.7%2.1% Illintsi Raion 98.1%1.4% Koziatyn Raion 98.3%1.3% Kalynivka Raion 97.8%2.0% Kryzhopil Raion 98.8%0.9% Lypovets Raion 98.8%1.1% Lityn Raion 98.5%1.4% Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion(in pre-2020 borders) 98.2%1.6% Murovani Kurylivtsi Raion 98.8%1.1% Nemyriv Raion 97.5%2.1% Orativ Raion 99.1%0.7% Pishchanka Raion 97.6%1.6% Pohrebyshche Raion 98.8%1.1% Teplyk Raion 98.8%0.9% Tomashpil Raion 96.6%2.9% Trostianets Raion 98.1%1.7% Tulchyn Raion(in pre-2020 borders) 96.9%2.8% Tyvriv Raion 96.4%3.1% Khmilnyk Raion(in pre-2020 borders) 99.1%0.7% Chernivtsi Raion 99.2%0.6% Chechelnyk Raion 98.5%1.2% Sharhorod Raion 98.9%0.9% Yampil Raion 97.6%1.7%
Ukrainian is the only official language on the whole territory of Vinnytsia Oblast.
According to a poll conducted by Rating from 16 November to 10 December 2018 as part of the project «Portraits of Regions», 75% of the residents of Vinnytsia Oblast believed that the Ukrainian language should be the only state language on the entire territory of Ukraine. 12% believed that Ukrainian should be the only state language, while Russian should be the second official language in some regions of the country. 8% believed that Russian should become the second state language of the country. 5% found it difficult to answer.
On 15 August 2024, Vinnytsia Oblast Military Administration approved the «Programme for the Development and Functioning of the Ukrainian Language in All Spheres of Life in Vinnytsia Oblast for 2024—2028», the main objective of which is to strengthen the positions of the Ukrainian language in various spheres of public life in the oblast.
According to the research of the Content Analysis Centre, conducted from 15 August to 15 September 2024, the topic of which was the ratio of Ukrainian and Russian languages in the Ukrainian segment of social media, 82.6% of posts from Vinnytsia Oblast were written in Ukrainian (78.5% in 2023, 73.5% in 2022, 26.2% in 2020), while 17.4% were written in Russian (21.5% in 2023, 26.5% in 2022, 73.8% in 2020).
After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Vinnytsia Oblast, as well as Ukraine as a whole, experienced a gradual Ukrainization of the education system, which had been RussifiedBarbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934-1980," American Political Science Review 78 (December 1984): 1019-1039. during the Soviet era. Dynamics of the ratio of the languages of instruction in general secondary education institutions in Vinnytsia Oblast:«Статистичний щорічник України за 1998 рік» — К., 1999. — — Language of instruction, % of pupils 1991—1992 1992—1993 1993—1994 1994—1995 1995—1996 2000—2001 2005—2006 2007—2008 2010—2011 2012—2013 2015—2016 2018—2019 2021—2022 2022—2023 Ukrainian 81.3 83.8 87.4 89.9 91.0 98.0 99.0 99.0 99.5 99.6 99.6 99.7 99.96 100,0 Russian 18.7 16.2 12.6 10.1 9.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.04 —
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, in the 2023—2024 school year, all 161,470 pupils in general secondary education institutions in Vinnytsia Oblast were studying in classes where Ukrainian was the language of instruction. —
Age Overall 0-14 years: 14.9% (male 124,640/female 117,422) 15-64 years: 68.1% (male 531,953/female 571,923) 65 years and over: 17.0% (male 88,770/female 185,245) (2013 official) Median total: 40.4 years male: 37.1 years female: 43.5 years (2013 official)
Historical sites
The old historical castles in Bar attract a big number of domestic visitors and foreign tourists every year, including: St. Pokrovsky Orthodox Church; St. Anna Roman Catholic Cathedral; St. Pokrovsky Monastery; Old Fortress.
The city of Bar is a popular tourist location because it is where the mathematician Viktor Bunyakovsky was born.
The following sites were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine. The Villa of Mykola Pyrogov Nemyriv Scythian settlement Ancient Slavic cave temple (Bushi relief)