VINNYTSYA

Russian Vinnitsa, also spelled Vinnica, city and administrative centre of Vinnytsya oblast (province), west-central Ukraine. It lies along the Southern (Pivdennyy) Buh River. Founded in 1363 as a fortress by Prince Algirdas of Lithuania, it was often sacked by the Tatars and passed later to Poland and finally, in 1793, to Russia. Town status was conferred in 1795, although the settlement's growth accelerated only after the building of the Kiev-Odessa railway through the town in 1870. Modern Vinnytsya, as the centre of a major agricultural region, produces fertilizers and has food-processing industries in addition to electronics, agricultural equipment, light engineering, clothing, and footwear industries. The city has teacher-training and medical institutes, several theatres, and a philharmonic society. Pop. (1993 est.) 387,000. Russian Vinnitsa, also spelled Vinnica, oblast (province), west-central Ukraine. It is located on the Volyn-Podilsk Upland and includes part of the basins of the Southern (Pivdennyy) Buh and Dniester rivers. Its gently rolling hills are greatly dissected by river valleys and widespread erosion gullies. The north consists of forest-steppe and the south of true steppe, but more than seven-tenths of the surface has been plowed. Agriculture is intensively developed, and about half of the population is rural. The oblast lies in the heart of the chief sugar-beet zone of Ukraine. Other important industrial crops are sunflowers and tobacco; grains are dominated by wheat and corn (maize); orchards are extensive. Dairying and the keeping of beef cattle, pigs, and poultry are well developed. The oblast's communities, apart from Vinnytsya, the administrative centre, are small and are engaged in processing farm produce, especially sugar refining. Area 10,200 square miles (26,500 square km). Pop. (1991 est.) 1,908,400.