Vinnytsia Oblast (Ukrainian: Вінницька область, romanized: Vinnytska 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).
History
Vinnytsia Oblast, first established on February 27, 1932, originally comprised raions (regions) of the following former okruhas of Ukraine (districts of Soviet Ukraine):
Uman Okruha
Berdychiv Okruha
Vinnytsia Okruha
Mohyliv Okruha
Tulchyn Okruha
Shepetivka Okruha
Proskuriv Okruha
Kamianets Okruha
In 1935 bordering territories of the oblast were transformed into Soviet border districts: Shepetivka Okrug, Proskuriv Okrug, and Kamianets Okrug. In 1937 the Kamianets Oblast, based on the border districts, was formed (it later became Khmelnytsky Oblast).
During World War II the occupying Axis powers split the territory of Vinnytsia Oblast between the General District Shitomir (Zhytomyr in Reichskommissariat Ukraine) and the Transnistria Governorate of the Kingdom of Romania.
In October 1941 the Romanians established a concentration camp in the oblast, it detained mostly Jews.
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 202 km (126 mi) 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%.
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:
Native language of the population of the raions, cities, and city councils of Vinnytsia Oblast according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:
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 Russified during the Soviet era. Dynamics of the ratio of the languages of instruction in general secondary education institutions in Vinnytsia Oblast:
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)
The Podillya's folk icon-painting tradition is well known in Ukraine. Its manifestation are long home iconostases painted on canvas in the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th cc. Red, green and yellow colours are prevailing, the faces of the saints depicted are a little bit long, their eyes are almond-like. On these iconostases, the most worshipped family saints were painted. The collections of Podillya's folk iconostases are possessed by Vynnytsya Art Museum and The Museum of Ukrainian Home Icons in the Radomysl Castle.
There are several palaces in the province, the most notable in Tulchyn, Voronovytsia, Khmilnyk, Nemyriv and Cherniatyn.
Economics
Industry
The oblast's industrial potential is represented by such enterprises as the Ladyzhyn thermal power station, associations "Zhovten", "Infrakon", "Maiak", "Krystal", "Vinnytsia Bearing Works", "Khimprom", tens of processing and light industry enterprises. In all about 400 enterprises of various industrial sectors are functioning in the oblast. The largest of them are situated in the oblast capital.
The Vinnytsia oblast has 12.7% of the industrial production potential, 2% of the cost of fixed production assets and 2.6% of the industrial output.