On an 1845 Russian map, "Machnowka" was the chief city of the Machnowka uyezd in Kiev guberniya, while Berdychiv was just a small town in Zhytomyr county (uyezd) of Volhynian Governorate (gubernia). When the railroads were developed (some time after 1860), the railroad went through Berdychiv and Koziatyn ( east of Makhnivka), but bypassed Makhnivka. This caused Makhnivka to decline, while both Berdychiv and Koziatyn grew. Sometime around the turn of the century, Berdychiv was separated from Volhynian Governorate and joined to Kiev Governorate, replacing Makhnivka as the chief city of the county (which was renamed from the Makhnovka county to the Berdichev county).