Mohyliv

Mohyliv stands on the Dniester opposite the Moldavian bank, where a crossing links Podolia with the lands to the south. The town grew on the site of the older village of Ivankivtsi and took its name from the Moldavian ruler Ieremia Movilă. In 1595 the estate passed to the Polish Potocki family through the marriage of his daughter.

Its position on a contested frontier exposed Mohyliv to the conflicts of the seventeenth century. Cossack forces fought for the town, and it later fell under Ottoman rule before returning to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1793 the second partition of Poland brought Mohyliv into the Russian Empire. Its population included Ukrainians, Poles, Moldavians and Jews, whose communities reflected the town's place between neighbouring lands.