Вінниця, or Винница, or Vinnitsa, or Vinnytsya

On Thursday, we head to the city of Вінниця (that's the Ukrainian spelling) in central Ukraine, well west of Kiev. Selma, Angelina and I -- with our translator, Yulia -- will be doing two days of civic journalism training for a group of newspaper and radio journalists. That happens on Friday and Saturday. Then, Selma and Angelina are going to head to Kiev, and I will spend Sunday doing a workshop on computer-assisted reporting.

Here is what Wikipedia says about where we're going:

Vinnytsia (Ukrainian: Вінниця, Russian: Винница, translit. Vinnitsa; also referred to as Vinnytsya, Polish: Winnica) is a city located on the banks of the Southern Buh River river, in central Ukraine. ... The current estimated population is 332,400.

Vinnytsia is located about 260 km from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev (Kyiv), 429 km from the port city - Odessa (Odesa), and 369 km from Lviv.

Vinnytsia was an important trade and political center of note since as early as the sixteenth century. More specifically, the city played a significant role during Cossack wars as well as during World War II. Great Purge victims' graves were exhumed by the Germans in 1943.

Adolf Hitler sited his easternmost headquarters near the town and spent a number of weeks there in 1942 and early 1943.

Famous people from Vinnytsia

Alexander Lerner Soviet-Israeli cybernetic and dissident.

Mykhailo Kotsybyns’ky Ukrainian author of novels and short stories. His home is a museum.

Nikolai Pirogov famous Russian doctor who retired here. His home is a museum and his chapel tomb is open to visitors.

---

We're taking the train from Kharkiv to Vinnitsa -- 14 or 15 hours. On Sunday night, after the CAR workshop, Yulia and I will catch a train to Kiev, meet up with Selma and Angelina, then take a sleeper train back to Kharkiv. It leaves Kiev at 10:30 p.m. and arrives in Kharkiv at 6:30 a.m.

The city of Vinnitsa has a nice-looking Web site. It has a link to an English-language version, but it doesn't work.

---

On a completedly unrelated note ... here are some photos of cats. First, one I saw today outside the JIA office:



And here's a cat waiting outside the metro station near the History Museum: