Kremenchuk, Ukraine

Coordinates: 49°04' N, 33°25' E
Alternate Names:Kremenchuk [Ukr], Kremenchug [Rus], Krementchug [Yid], Krementschuk [Ger], Kremeńczug [Pol], Krzemieńczuk, Krementschug, Krimentshuk [Rus, Ukr, Yid]

Location

Kremenchuk is the administrative center of Kremenchuk Raion (district) within the Poltava Oblast (province). It is located in central Ukraine, perched on the banks of the Dnieper River where it began as fortress on the river’s left bank in 1571. Today it is one of the leading industrial centers in Ukraine, known for its heavy industry and a large oil refinery. 

Kremenchuk's strategic position along the Dnieper—one of Europe’s longest rivers—has long played a key role in its history and development. The “Dnieper route” was the major medieval trade artery that ran from Scandinavia, across the Baltic Sea, then followed a network of rivers, including the Dnieper, through present-day Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine to the Black Sea and Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The river fostered the growth of cities along its path such as Kyiv, Smolensk, and Novgorod—and Kremenchuk. By the mid-1700s, Kremenchuk was already a recognized port city. Within a century, Kremenchuk had the largest of the ten piers operating in the Poltava province section of the river. By the end of the 1800s, the annual cargo traffic was almost 400,000 tons.

In the early 1870s, the Kremenchuk railroad was expanded and a rail bridge was built across the Dnieper to Kriukiv (which later became a part of the city). These changes allowed the city to connect to Russia's rail system and further transformed the city, allowing it to grow into a major industrial and transport hub. Kremenchuk's railway connections enabled the flow of goods, not only across the country, but also to the Baltic and Black Sea ports and to trains that led to Germany and the Netherlands. These same rail improvements also made it more feasible for Kremenchuk's Jews and other immigrants to leave.