Kamyanets-Podilsky is an ancient city by the River Smotrych (an estuary of the Dniester). It has long attracted archaeologists, historians, literati, and filmmakers. In the fall of 2003, it was visited by a group of journalists led by The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna, who took part in the festivities marking the 85th anniversary of the State University of Kamyanets-Podilsky and presented the two-volume collection of Ukraine Incognita and Dvi Rusi from The Day Library Series (see The Day, No. 32 of October 28, 2003). This author was fortunate enough to live in Kamyanets, as the city had been known centuries ago and is still referred to by locals, for about ten years and would like to dwell on its remarkable history.
Archaeological data make it possible to assume that the territory was inhabited by Eastern Slavic tribes in the early centuries AD. Scholars believes that an early feudal town had emerged in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, based on these settlements. It is mentioned in Armenian annals dating from 1060-62. The first Armenians settled in Kamyanets in the eleventh century and lived there for quite some time, forming a community specializing in trade and crafts. A Rus’ (Ukrainian) community also appeared, likewise doing trading and leaving behind cultural sites and fortifications.
The city’s history followed a long and winding path, at times marked by tragic events. Kamyanets was part of the Halych-Volyn Principality and in the mid-thirteenth century it suffered from the Mongol-Tatar Horde. In the fourteenth century, Kamyanets and the rest of Podillia were annexed by Lithuanian princes. After the sixteenth-century Livonian War with Muscovy, the city went to Poland under the 1569 Union of Lublin. In 1563, Kamyanets received the honorable status of a royal city and became the center of Poland’s wojewуdstwo (province) of Podillia, but in 1672 Podillia was seized by the Turks who would stay there for 27 years.
In 1793, Podillia became part of the Russian Empire and two years later Kamyanets became the center of Podillia province. Different peoples have thus lived in Podillia for centuries, each with its religion and culture. This heterogeneity could not help but leave a trace in the form of different, particularly religious, structures with their respective ethnic coloration. The Poles built two beautiful cathedrals, the Central and the Dominican, used by the Turks as mosques, attaching a minaret to the Central Cathedral. When the Poles returned they did not tear down the minaret but added a statue of the Virgin Mary, symbolizing the victory of the Christian faith. The statue is still there, the Mother of God proudly towering over the city. The Dominican Cathedral, built in the first half of the fourteenth century, was abandoned for a long time, until restored by the Potocki family in the first half of the seventeenth century. It boasts three different styles: Gothic, Baroque, and Renaissance.
If you walk down from the Old City, you will see the Pidzamche suburb by the steep rocky canyon in the Smotrych basin, to the left of the Castle Bridge linking the Old Castle to the city. It is an area in front of the castle, the fortress, and the road of Karvasary (the name originates from caravansary). Legend has it that Karvasary had been the route plied by foreign merchants headed for the Armenian, Ukrainian, and Polish markets. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Church of the Exaltation of the Cross is another historical site, an excellent example of wooden architecture. The church and its belfry with a tall hipped roof represent the style of Old Rus’. On an elevation across the river stretch the Russian farms. The Polish ones are also across the river, but to the west of the city. After World War II, the Polish farms looked like a long street lined by squat cottages, a market square, and a beautiful Eastern Orthodox church. Another such church was among the Russian farms.
The City Hall, formerly the seat of the Polish municipal authority, is in the center of the Old City. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it witnessed the city’s varied public and political life. In 1670, the Polish Sejm liquidated the municipal authority and deprived Kamyanets of the self-government granted by the Magdeburg Law back in 1374. There are archival records of the Ukrainian and Armenian communities rebelling against arbitrary Polish rule. The populace was outraged by such highhandedness and by the conduct of the Catholic Church. The Ukrainian-Ruthenian original inhabitants refused to adopt the Greek Catholic creed. They were punished by eviction and made to settle in the unfortified outskirts. But the Ukrainian community built a complex system of defense using the river. Its design makes one marvel at the fortification artisans’ skill even now. Unfortunately, only the Ruthenian (Rus’) Gate has survived the ravages of time, after repeated restorations, thus considered as dating from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Restoration work was carried out in the second half of the twentieth century.
There is a beautiful sixteenth century stone building on one of the Old City streets, former mansion of the Polish Czartoryski aristocratic dynasty. Its architecture and interior testify to both the proprietors’ high lifestyle and the local artisans’ talent, capable of producing architectural masterpieces (other examples being the Central, the Dominican Cathedral, and the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross).
Polish rule and Catholic dominance ended at the turn of the nineteenth century; the wealthy aristocrats left the city, leaving behind Polish craftsmen, burghers, and common folk that became part of the Ukrainian-Ruthenian populace.
A great deal of work has been done to fill in the gaps, blank pages in Ukrainian history over the years of independence. These gaps are especially evident in Soviet history textbooks. Among other things, it became public knowledge that the UNR Directory government moved to Kamyanets in June 1919. In November that same year, pressed by advancing Polish troops, the UNR authorities left the city. In November 1920, the UNR government left Ukraine. In other words, Kamyanets-Podilsky was the de facto capital of the Ukrainian National (or People’s) Republic in 1919-20.
The cataclysms of Soviet history, with their brilliant and tragic sides, could not help but affect the city and its residents. Its provincial nature (geographically but by no means culturally) served in a way to cushion the shock of the zigzags of the party’s “guiding and directing” course, in the form of directives from the Center. Some people left Kamyanets-Podilsky while other arrived and settled there. Yet the spirit of this ancient city, its grand and unhurried style, invariably charged the newcomers with local pride. Ukrainians and Russians, Jews and Poles continue to live like good neighbors in an environment with distinct traces of different cultures merging into a singular cultural and spiritual atmosphere.
In terms of political division, Kamyanets-Podilsky is a district center of Khmelnytsky oblast, although the city is apparently way above this administrative status. In the number of historical and cultural sites (over 150 in all) it ranks third after Kyiv and Lviv (according to the Universal Encyclopedic Dictionary, K, 2001, p. 601 [in Ukrainian]). It may well become a tourist mecca in this century, and it deserves it. Godspeed! And may God help it with the financing of restoration works on such unique sites, each being Ukraine’s national pride (Den, No. 8, January 21, 2004 {not translated in this digest}that a project had been worked out to this end).
In conclusion, this author wishes to propose a volunteer organization be founded, something like the Kamyanets-Podilsky Association, to unite all residents, those born in this beautiful city or who have worked here at different periods and were then scattered by fate across Ukraine and abroad.
