About Khmelnitskiy

Khmel'nyts'kyy, city in western Ukraine, capital of Khmel'nyts'kyy Oblast, on the Southern Bug River, about 280 km (about 170 mi) southwest of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Khmel'nyts'kyy is a rail and highway junction, and an industrial center in the fertile Podolian Upland (the area between the Dniester and Southern Bug rivers), where wheat, corn, and sugar beets are grown. Among its industries are machine building, food processing, and the production of consumer goods and building materials. Institutions include a technological institute, technical schools and colleges, a regional museum, a music and drama theater, a puppet theater and a philharmonic orchestra. Known since the end of the 15th century as Ploskyriv (Ploskirow), it was renamed Proskuriv in 1780. In 1793 the town became part of the Russian Empire, gaining the status of a city in 1795. From 1918 to 1920 it was part of the Ukrainian National Republic, and then became part of the Ukrainian republic in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) until Ukraine's independence in 1991. In 1954 Proskuriv was renamed Khmel'nyts'kyy to mark the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, which the Ukrainian Cossack hetman, or leader, Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyy, signed with Moscow, thereby ending the Cossacks' revolt against Poland and aligning them with Russia. Population (1996 estimate) 259,000.