Khmelnitskii

(until 1954, Proskurov), a city and the administrative center of Khmel’nitskii Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Situated on the upper course of the Iuzhnyi Bug River. Railroad and highway junction. Population, 167,000 (1977; 37,000 in 1939, 62,000 in 1959, and 113,000 in 1970).

In the 15th century a fortified military post existed on the site of what is now Khmel’nitskii. The post was incorporated into Russia in 1793 and became a city in 1795. In 1797 the city was made part of Proskurov District of Podol’e Province. From 1923 to 1930 and from 1935 to 1937 it was the administrative center of Proskurov Okrug, and in 1941 it became the administrative center of Kamenets-Podol’skii Oblast (known as Khmel’nitskii Oblast since 1954). On July 8, 1941, the city was occupied by Fascist German aggressors; it was liberated on Mar. 25, 1944, by the troops of the First Ukrainian Front as a result of the Proskurov-Chernovtsy Operation. The city was renamed in honor of Bog-dan Khmel’nitskii to mark the 300th anniversary of the union of the Ukraine and Russia.

Industry in Khmel’nitskii includes machine building, metal-working, and the manufacture of electrical equipment; products of these branches of industry include transformer substations, thermoplastic recording and reproduction systems, assembled tractor units, and forging and pressing equipment. The city also has plants for the manufacture of consumer goods (including footwear, knitwear, stitched garments, and fine leather goods), chemical products, and building materials (sanitary-engineering products, cement, bricks, and reinforced concrete products). Other industry includes sugar processing, meat packing, and the processing of dairy products.

Khmel’nitskii has a technological institute of social services, an electromechanical technicum, a Soviet trade technicum, a cooperative trade technicum, a music school, a pedagogical school, and a medical school. Cultural institutions include the G. I. Petrovskii Oblast Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater, an oblast puppet theater, a philharmonic society, and a museum of local lore.