Dolyna

Dolyna is a city in Kalush Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, south-western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Dolyna urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: In 2001, population was around 20,900. History The city's history reaches the 10th century, making it one of oldest in the region. By the 14th century Dolyna became renowned for its salt mine. In 1349 the city came under the rule of the Kingdom of Poland, where it remained until 1772 (see Partitions of Poland). In 1525 Dolyna, or Dolina, as it is called in Polish, was granted city rights under the Magdeburg law and the right to trade salt similar to that of Kolomyia. In 1740 in the city there was a riot of opryshky (Ukrainian rebels). In 1772 the city fell to Austrians and in 1791 it lost its status. During the second half of the 19th century a railroad line linking Stryi with Stanislaviv was led through the city. By the end of the 19th century big fires destroyed the town completely. The first decade of the new century was dedicated to the revival of the town. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, reborn Polish and Ukrainian states struggled for control over Dolyna in a fratricidal war won by Poles (see Polish-Ukrainian War). In the Second Polish Republic, the town, with population of almost 10 000, belonged to the Stanisławów Voivodeship and was the capital of the Dolina County. Neighboring villages were inhabited by German settlers, who came there in the times of Joseph II. During World War II the city was occupied by the USSR (September 1939 - June 1941), Hungary (July 1941), and Germany (August 1941 – 1944). During the German occupation, the Jewish population of Dolyna was murdered with only a few survivors. Most were murdered in Dolyna itself, including on August 3, 1942 when German police and their Ukrainian police auxiliaries drove 3500 Jews into the market square. They shot numerous children, sent some of the able bodied to labor camps, and took the remaining 2500 to the Jewish cemetery where they were shot. After the Germans removed valuables from the bodies, they ordered locals to bury the bodies in a mass grave. Some Jews had hidden and fled to the forests to join Jewish partisan groups. However, Ukrainian policeman and the Germans hunted down those in hiding and murdered them too.