Vinnytsia in the context of "Vinnytsia massacre"

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⭐ Core Definition: Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia (/ˈvɪnɪts(j)ə, ˈvn-/ VIN-it-s(y)ə, VEEN-; Ukrainian: Вінниця, IPA: [ˈwinːɪtsʲɐ] ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Raion, one of the six raions of Vinnytsia Oblast. It has a population of 356 379 (2025).

The city's roots date back to the Middle Ages. It was under Lithuanian and Polish control for centuries. From 1653 to 1667, Vinnytsia was a regimental city of the Hetman state, and in 1793, it was ceded to the Russian Empire. During the 1930s and early 1940s, the city was the site of massacres, first during Stalin's purges and then during the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Nazi occupation. A Cold War–era airbase was located near the city. Currently, Vinnytsia is developing as one of the most comfortable cities for life in independent Ukraine.

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👉 Vinnytsia in the context of Vinnytsia massacre

The Vinnytsia massacre was the mass execution of between 9,000 and 11,000 people in the Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia by the Soviet secret police NKVD during the Great Purge in 1937–1938, which Nazi Germany discovered during its occupation of Ukraine in 1943. The investigation of the site first conducted by the international Katyn Commission coincided with the discovery of a similar mass murder site of Polish prisoners of war in Katyn. Among the 679 dead identified by the Germans in 1943, there were also a certain number of Russians and 28 Poles (according to the latest data, the number of Poles killed by the NKVD in the city could amount to over 3,000). Nazi propaganda invoked mention of the massacre to illustrate communist terror by the Soviet Union.

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Vinnytsia in the context of Vinnytsia Oblast

Vinnytsia Oblast (Ukrainian: Вінницька область, romanizedVinnytska oblast, IPA: [ˈwinːɪtsʲkɐ ˈɔblɐsʲtʲ]), also referred to as Vinnychchyna (Ukrainian: Вінниччина), is an oblast in central Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia. The oblast has a population of 1,509,515 (2022 estimate).

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Vinnytsia in the context of 1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine

The Soviet invasion of Ukraine was a major offensive by the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army against the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) during the Soviet–Ukrainian War. The invasion was first planned in November 1918, after the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and was launched in the first days of January 1919, with the occupation of Kharkiv. Its aim was to join Ukraine to the RSFSR, as the country was of significant economic, demographic and strategic importance for the Bolsheviks. In the longer term, the capture of the Black Sea coast was to prevent an intervention by the Allies in support of the Volunteer Army. Finally, the Bolsheviks intended to extend the area they control as far as possible to the west, in order to be able to support the other revolutionary movements in Europe.

In the first days of January 1919, by joining forces with local workers' units, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division [uk] took Kharkiv, which was announced as the seat of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine. Then they quickly captured most of northern and eastern Ukraine, and on 5 February 1919, they occupied Kyiv. The Directorate of Ukraine moved to Vinnytsia, then to Kamianets-Podilskyi. By spring, the Red Army had reached the Zbruch and repelled a counteroffensive by the Ukrainian People's Army (UPA) that threatened Kyiv.

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Vinnytsia in the context of Podolia Governorate

Podolia Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. It bordered Volhynian Governorate to the north, Kiev Governorate to the east, Kherson Governorate to the southeast, Bessarabia Governorate to the south, and Austria to the west. Its administrative centre was Kamenets-Podolsky (Kamianets-Podilskyi), which later moved to Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia). The governorate covered areas of Ukraine's partially Khmelnytskyi and most of Vinnytsia Oblasts, along with the fractionally recognised state of Transnistria.

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Vinnytsia in the context of Vinnytsia railway station

Vinnytsia railway station (Ukrainian: Станція Вінниця) is the main railway station in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. It first opened in 1870, and is a part of Southwestern Railways.

According to the "Investment Atlas of Ukraine", the station receives around 1.3 million passengers every year.

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Vinnytsia in the context of Nuclear weapons and Ukraine

Ukraine, formerly a republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 to 1991, once hosted Soviet nuclear weapons and delivery systems on its territory. The former Soviet Union had its nuclear program expanded to only four of its republics: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. After its dissolution in 1991, Ukraine inherited about 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 nuclear warheads that remained on Ukrainian territory. Thus Ukraine became the third largest nuclear power in the world (possessing 300 more nuclear warheads than Kazakhstan, 6.5 times less than the United States, and ten times less than Russia) and held about one third of the former Soviet nuclear weapons, delivery system, and significant knowledge of its design and production. While all these weapons were located on Ukrainian territory, they were not under Ukraine's control.

In 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer these weapons to Russia for dismantlement and became a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, in exchange for economic compensation and assurances from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom to respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty within its existing borders. Almost twenty years later, Russia, one of the parties to the agreement, invaded Ukraine in 2014.

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