Mohyliv-Podilskyi

Mohyliv-Podilskyi [Могилів-Подільський; Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyj]. Map: V-8. A city (2018 pop 31,166) on the Dnister River and a raion center in Vinnytsia oblast. In 1595 Stanisław Rewera Potocki founded a town at the site of Ivankivtsi village and named it after his father-in-law, Yarema (Ieremia) Mohyla (Movilă), a prince of Moldavia. A few years later a castle was built. In the 17th to 19th centuries the town was known under various names, such as Mohyliv, Mohyliv-na-Dnistri, and Mohyliv-Dnistrovskyi. Located on the trade route from Ukraine to Moldavia, it grew rapidly into an important trading center and the largest town in Podilia. Its inhabitants took part in a number of popular uprisings—that of Severyn Nalyvaiko in 1595 and others in 1614 and 1637–8. In 1648 Mohyliv-Podilskyi became a regiment center in Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossack Hetman state (see Mohyliv-Podilskyi regiment). It was destroyed during the Cossack-Polish War in 1649 and 1654. After participating in Ivan Sirko's uprisings in 1664 and 1671, it was captured by the Turks (1672–99). The town gained the rights of Magdeburg law in 1743 and developed into a flourishing economic and cultural center. In 1616 its Orthodox brotherhood set up a printing press, and in the 18th century printed books in Ukrainian, Russian, Greek, and Moldavian. In 1795 Mohyliv came under Russian rule and was turned into a county center of Podilia gubernia. In the second half of the 19th century it regained its commercial importance as a river port for the exporting of farm products. By 1897 its population had reached 32,440, much of it (17,000) Jewish. During the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20) the town witnessed many battles. In June 1919 the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic defeated the Red Army near Mohyliv. In 1923 the city was officially named Mohyliv-Podilskyi. Today the city's chief industries are machine building and food processing. Its finest architectural monuments are Saint Nicholas's Cathedral (1754) and Saint George's Church (1809–19).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]