City History

Kamenka as a settlement was famous from the beginning of the XVII century. Its foundation is connected with the escaping of the peasants from Podoliya, Kievshchina and other Ukrainian regions. They fled from social, national and religious oppression and populated the rocky banks of the Tyasmin. The first written record of Kamenka as an inhabited locality - "sloboda" - goes back to 1649.

Kamenka formed a part of the Russian empire after the partition of Poland. At that time the city belonged to L. Davydov who then (in 1820) passed it into the ownership of his son - V. Davydov, retired colonel who was uniting around himself progressive intelligentsia of those times.

In 1823 V. Davydov together with S. Volkonskiy headed Kamenka Board of the South Decembrists' Society. P. Pestle', S. Muraviev-Apostol, N. Bestuzhev-Riumin and other famous Decembrists visited Kamenka.

Pushkin's and Tchaikovsky's visiting the city is a separate page in the history of Kamenka of the XIX century. Pushkin was here twice - in 1820-1822, and wrote several poetic works here.

Tchaikovsky, in his turn, visited in Kamenka his sister Aleksandra, L. Davydov's wife, almost every year during 1855-1878. Here in Kamenka the music from Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin" was played for the first time, here he created a lot of his other works.

Industry and trade began to develop in Kamenka in the first half of the XIX century with the foundation of the spirit factory, the sugar-refinery and the mill.

With the laying of the railroad in 1876 the economic life of the city enlivened. As the result the population grew to 8808 citizens in 1900. There were two orthodox churches, a synagogue, a Jewish praying house, a specialized school (college), two general schools, a hospital, five coaching inns and thirty two shops in the city.

In Soviet times Kamenka became a district center. In 1956 it received the status of the city.

Machine-building plant, which manufactured machinery for textile and chemical industries, increased its production. About 3000 workers, engineers and technicians were working at the plant in 1970s. Its production was exported to twenty countries of the world. The sugar-refinery and the spirit factory also increased its productions.