Kremenchuk is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnieper River. The city serves as the administrative center of Kremenchuk Raion and Kremenchuk urban hromada within Poltava Oblast. Its population is approximately 215,271 (2022 estimate), ranking 31st in Ukraine. In 2001, the Ukrainian government included the city in the list of historical settlements.
Originally established on the left bank, Kremenchuk eventually incorporated the city of Kriukiv on the right bank. The Kriukiv Railway Car Building Works is one of the oldest railway-repair and rail-car-building factories in Eastern Europe, dating from 1869.
Following defeat in the Crimean War began the installation of a network of railroads in Russia, and in 1869 in Kriukiv were built small railcar repair shops, while in 1872 the city of Kriukiv was connected with Kremenchuk by a railroad bridge over the Dnieper. In 1870 in Kremenchuk a factory was built that produced and maintained agrarian equipment and iron cast products. In 1899 a network of tramway transportation was introduced in Kremenchuk that existed until the complete establishment of Soviet regime in Ukraine in 1921. During the Russian February Revolution of 1917, power in the city was controlled by a council (soviet) of workers’ deputies which was dominated by the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and the head of the city council was the future Ukrainian Communist leader Yuriy Lapchynskyi. During the Ukrainian–Soviet War, on 26 January 1918, Russian Bolshevik troops secured the city, however already in February of the same year they had to withdraw due to the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and advance of German and Ukrainian armies. Following the World War I hostilities between the Bolshevik Russia and Ukraine renewed and on 1 February 1919 the Russian Red Army once again secured the city. However, in May of the same year Kremechuk was engulfed in the insurgency of Otaman Grigoriev who earlier sided with Bolsheviks and drove the international force of Triple Entante from Odesa. From July to December 1919 the city was occupied by the Russian “White Guard” troops of Anton Denikin. Following their withdrawal, the Denikin’s troops blew up the railroad bridge. In 1920–1922, the city was the administrative center of the short-lived Kremenchuk Governorate during a peasant insurgency (Kholodnyi Yar) near Chyhyryn (just west of the city). During the 1930s, Kremenchuk’s industry was transformed, its Kriukiv railcar repair shops became a railcar manufacturing factory, while its factory in production of agrarian equipment changed to manufacturing road equipment. During World War II (1939–1945), Kremenchuk suffered heavily under Nazi occupation. It was occupied from 15 September 1941, to 29 September 1943. More than 90% of the city’s buildings were leveled over the course of the war. 29 September, the day when the city was liberated from the Nazis in 1943, is celebrated in Kremenchuk as City Day. Despite a remarkable post-war recovery and a healthier economy, Kremenchuk lacks much of the architectural charm and distinctly Ukrainian (rather than Russian) character of its sister city, the oblast capital of Poltava.
The 1897 All-Russia Census recorded the Jewish population of Kremenchuk at 29,768, or at 47% of the total population. Growth of the city’s Jewish population stagnated, still hovering at 28,969 by 1926, around 50% of the population, later heavily falling to 19,880 by 1939. Nazi forces occupied Kremenchuk on 9 September 1941, setting restrictions on Jewish purchases and forcing them to wear the Yellow Star of Jude. On 27 September 1941, they were exiled from the city, and forced to move into the Ghetto in Novo-Ivanovka. Many Jews who hid throughout the city were later caught and forced into the Ghettos as well. Between October 1941 and January 1942, a total of around 8,000 Jews were shot and killed in various instances of execution over the months, although the community was not entirely wiped out. The Ghetto and town were liberated 29 September 1943 by the Red Army. A Jewish community of over 5,000 remained in the city throughout the 1950s, although dwindled in the 1990s during migration to Israel.
Oleh Babayev, the mayor of Kremenchuk was assassinated on 26 July 2014. Oleh Babayev opposed separatism and promoted national unity, prior to becoming mayor he was a member of the Batkivshchyna political party which opposed Victor Yanukovich. His political views and Kremenchuk’s large industrial base may have been the motivation for the attack. During the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine security at the Kremenchuk Reservoir was heightened as it was seen as a possible target for saboteurs. Until 18 July 2020, Kremenchuk was designated as a city of oblast significance and did not belong to Kremenchuk Raion even though it was the center of the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Poltava Oblast to four, the city was merged into Kremenchuk Raion. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kremenchuk has been under attack by Russian forces. On 27 April and 12 May an oil refinery was hit by Russian missiles and will be out of operation for months. On 27 June a shopping mall was hit by Russian missiles and caught fire, 16 people died and 59 were injured. Just after the strike, a nearby factory was hit. Russian authorities claimed that the factory hosted weapons supplied by the US and European countries. In 2014, the factory was known to repair armoured personnel carriers (BTR-70s).
