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= Ukrainian Jews during the Khmelnytsky Rebellion =

Turbulent Times in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The seventeenth century was a period of turbulent friction in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, marked by socio-economic unrests of the peasantry, violent conflicts with the Ottoman and the Russian Empires, and political crisis between the monarchy and the Sejm. Among these conflicts, the Cossack rebellion, which took place on the territory of present-day Ukraine stands out because it posed “a major threat to the Commonwealth” in its pursuit to consolidate power in the region.[1] In addition to its political and social effects on the Commonwealth, the Khmelnytsky Uprising marked a pivotal moment in Eastern European history due unprecedented violence against the local Jewish population. Amidst the chaos of the rebellion, Ukrainian Jews found themselves entangled in a complex web of political and social upheaval. A large extent of historical understanding of the uprising comes from contemporary chronicles written by Jewish survivors. Critical evaluation of the information and attitudes provided in chronicles, however, is necessary to comprehensively understand the rebellion and its influence on the Jewish people.

Cossacks and the Beginning of the Uprising
The Ukrainian Cossacks originally “organized themselves into a fighting community to resist periodic Tatar raids” mainly in the south and southeast of Ukraine, constituting a “reservoir of fighting men” and “a source of friction between Poland and the Ottoman Empire.”[2] In addition to pre-existing social-economic and political disagreements, the religious tension intensified the relationships between the Polish monarchy and the Ukrainians. Wandycz asserts that “since most of the native great magnates were then embracing Catholicism and Polish culture, the alienated masses turned to the Cossacks” who became “the defenders of Greek Orthodoxy and the Ukrainian people.”[3] After “the demands of the Cossack hosts to be treated as de facto gentry were scornfully rejected by the Sejm” they organized a popular rebellion against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to oppose prolonged oppression of peasantry and the demeaning practice of serfdom.[4] The uprising was coined the Khmelnytsky Uprising, after its leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky, an elected hetman of Zaporizhian host.[5] Hannover, for instance, explains two reasons for the rebellion, the oppression of the Greek Orthodox Ukrainians, and the role of Jews as tax-farmers and estate managers. The Jewish economic and social dominance “aroused the jealousy of the peasants and resulted in the massacres.”[6] As a result, Cossacks brought destruction to “all whom they perceived to be their oppressors — landlords, wealthy burgers, Catholic clergymen, and Jews.”[7] Prolonged injustice fueled extreme cruelty by the masses.[8]

Between 1648 and 1658 the Zaporizhian Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars and aided by “burghers, some small gentry, and the peasant masses” fought the Commonwealth forces, bringing destruction to the urban centers and villages, massacring Polish nobles and the Jews.[9] The Cossacks' basic socio-economic grievances were aimed at the Polish authorities—particularly the nobility in the Sejm, while the Ukrainian masses manifested their oppression against the Jews. The period between 1648 and 1658 is described as “one of the bloodiest in the Jewish history” due to an incredible extent of “the slaughter, the unbridled cruelty, the unspeakable atrocities” that were committed.[10]

Jews on the Lands of Ukraine
Jews began migrating to the Ukrainian territories, concentrating in the Kyiv region and Podilia, in the late 15th century from Poland and increasingly antisemitic Germany.[11] The largest migration took place in the late 16th century after the Union of Lublin in 1569 created new colonization territories in Ukraine.[12] Between 1569 and 1648 the number of Jews in Ukraine increased from about 4,000 to nearly 51,325, dispersed among settlements around Kyiv, in Podilia, Volhynia, and Galicia.[13] Ukrainian lands attracted Jews because they enjoyed a “measure of peace and economic freedom” while traveling and pursuing business. Jews took advantage of economic opportunities by becoming agents of the Polish landowner, tax collectors, and estate stewards.[14] To satisfy demands of their masters, Jews often increased taxes and burden of the laborers.[15] Jews were identified with the Polish landlords and perceived as “the peasant’s tyrant and oppressor.”[16]

Ukrainian Jews, unlike in other places, were not segregated; they were “well integrated” and lived alongside Christians, which allowed for acquisition of power, respect, wealth, and flourishing institutions.[17] Because Ukrainians remained a political minority with no voice in the city council, especially in places like Lviv, from Ukrainian perspective, they were treated “worse than the Jews” and often petitioned to “limit Jewish activity” due to market monopolization.[18]Ukrainian peasants perceived Jews as “rapacious, deliberate.. exploiters” and mockers of Orthodox faith.[19]Khmelnytsky, on the contrary, was “a prince of God and liberator.”[20] The rebellion brought “great rejoicing among the Ukrainians, and great mourning among the nobles and Jews.”[21] Contemporary historians agree that while the grievances were understandable, the massacres were not justified.[22]

Destruction of the Jewish Communities
Once the rebellion began, such negative attitudes towards Jews manifested themselves through extreme violence. Hanover notes that Khmelnysky’s aim was “to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the Jews.”[23] The author of Istoriia Rusov emphasizes that Cossacks aimed to “clear Ukraine of Poles and Jews wherever they were to be found.”[24]Indeed, in many places the rebels killed everyone they found “without sparing wives and children.”[25] The impact on the specific communities differs greatly from region to region. Southern and eastern regions are believed to have been affected the most, while many Volhynian, Podilian, and Galician Jews survived.[26] The most brutal description of violence Hanover provides is related to the city of Nemirov, where Jews were “skinned alive, rushed by horses, buried alive” or “had their hands and limbs chopped off.”[27] Rakushka-Romanovsky’s description that “the greatest number of Jews perished in Nemyriv and Tulchyn” aligns with Hannover.[28]

Destruction of Jewish communities took many forms and affected each town differently. Some Jews were killed in synagogues, before they were destroyed and set on fire.[29] In Zaslaw and Ostrog rebels destroyed the Catholic monasteries and synagogues, turning them “into stables for horses.”[30] Thousands of Jews also seemed to have escaped as the news of the horror spread. In communities like Polannoe, most inhabitants fled the massacre “casting away all belongings” and throwing away silver and gold to escape more quickly.[31] “Unmindful of their gold and silver” Jews “ran for their lives.”[32] While some fled successfully, others drowned, trying to escape the slaughter.[33]

Cossacks Violence Against the Jewish People
The rare survivors had their property confiscated and were forcefully converted.[34] Rakushka-Romanovsky informs that “many Jews converted to Christianity to save their lives” and renounced the new religion upon escaping.[35]Young Jewish girls were forcefully married to Cossacks, but many preferred to die than to live with an oppressor. Other Jews referred to “fall captive to the Tatarts” and to be taken to Constantinople, rather than perish or convert.[36] Although Hanover’s figure of 20,000 captives is exaggerated, the fact that Jews were taken captives and sold as slaves in Turkey is historically accurate.[37] Noteworthy, not all Jews fled or surrendered. Many Jews and Polish nobles, like those in Tulczyn, decided to fortify their towns and defend the city walls “inflicting heavy losses” on the Cossacks.[38] Weinryb confirms the existence of numerous synagogue-fortresses in Volhynia, Podilia, Brody, and other towns.[39] Fortifications and long sieges caused Jews to perish from plagues and famine in Bar and Lviv.[40]

The Role of Chronicles

The Hebrew chroniclers memorialize a lost world of Ukrainian Jews. They express that “the mid-seventeenth century was a terrible time for everyone in the Ukrainian lands; Jews were not the only ones to die, but they did suffer more than others.”[41] Although the chronicles are invaluable historical sources, they reflect the “emotionally charged refugee atmosphere” and offer memorable depiction of the sufferings that does not always align with factual information.[42] Throughout the chronicle, Hanover refers to Khmelnytsky as “the oppressor Chmiel” sometimes adding a phrase “may his name be blotted out, may God send a curse upon him” to emphasize the hatred and devastation the rebellion brought upon the Jews.[43] Sentences like “We were robbed and crushed, despised and hated” although non factually wrong, aimed at evoking sympathy for the “utter destruction” and “the most violent death in the world.”[44] The 21st century historians also point to a great incompatibility between the scholarly estimates of the casualties and the contemporary chronicles that describe over 100,000 casualties.[45] Stampfer argues that roughly forty percent of the 40,000 Jews living in the region — no more that 18,00-20,000 thousand — perished, while most of the survivors returned and rebuilt their homes, especially in Podilia.[46] Even these estimates evoke sorrow, Stampfer argues, but slaughter was mostly due to popular grievances as no hard evidence exists to prove Khmelnytsky’s planned annihilation of Ukrainian Jewelry.[47]

Chronicles reflect the trauma of the experience and convey the attitudes and relationships among the Jews, Ukrainians, and Poles, rather than the actual numbers and occurrences. The authors of the Jewish chronicles were motivated by a desire to arouse emotions and maintain the sacred memory of the victims.[48] Chronicles are an invaluable source of understanding the relationships between the people and the causes of the uprising. They help analyze the life of Jews in Ukraine prior to the uprising, explain the tensions with the peasants and provide contextualization for later conflicts. [1]  Piotr S. Wandycz, The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present, Routledge, 2001: 91.

[2] Wandycz, The Price of Freedom, 91.

[3] Wandycz, The Price of Freedom, 91.

[4] Wandycz, The Price of Freedom, 91.

[5] Wandycz, The Price of Freedom, 91-92.

[6] Bernard D. Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” in Harvard Ukrainian Studies 1, no. 2 (1977): 170.

[7] Frank E. Sysyn, “A Contemporary’s Account of the Causes of the Khmel’nyts’kyi Uprising,” in Harvard Ukrainian Studies 5, no. 2 (1981): 245.

[8] Sysyn, “A Contemporary’s Account of the Causes of the Khmel’nyts’kyi Uprising,” 249.

[9] Wandycz, The Price of Freedom, 92.

[10] William B. Helmreich, Foreword to Abyss of Despair (Yeven Metzulah): The Famous 17th Century Chronicle

Depicting Jewish Life in Russia and Poland during the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648-1649, New Brunswick, (2005): 1.

[11] Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” 156.

[12] Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” 156.

[13] Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” 157.

[14] Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” 156-58.

[15] Helmreich, Foreword to Abyss of Despair, 1.

[16] Helmreich, Foreword to Abyss of Despair, 1.

[17] Helmreich, Foreword to Abyss of Despair, 1.

[18] Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” 161-62.

[19] Zenon E. Kohut, “The Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Image of Jews, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Historical Memory,” in Jewish History 17, no. 2 (2003): 141.

[20] Nathan Nata Hannover, and Abraham J. Mesch, Abyss of Despair (Yeven Metzulah): The Famous 17th Century Chronicle Depicting Jewish Life in Russia and Poland during the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648-1649, Brunswick, (2005): 46.

[21] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 48.

[22] Kohut, “The Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Image of Jews, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Historical Memory,” 142.

[23] [23] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 47.

[24] Kohut, “The Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Image of Jews, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Historical Memory,” 150.

[25] Roman Rakushka-Romanovsky, “Eyewitness Chronicle” in Zenon E. Kohut, “The Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Image of Jews, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Historical Memory.” Jewish History 17, no. 2 (2003): 146.

[26] Shaul Stampfer, “What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648?” in Jewish History 17, no. 2 (2003): 215.

[27] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 43.

[28] Rakushka-Romanovsky, “Eyewitness Chronicle” in Kohut, “The Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Image of Jews, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Historical Memory,” 146.

[29] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 88.

[30] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 71.

[31] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 67-68.

[32] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 42.

[33] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 51.

[34] Rakushka-Romanovsky, “Eyewitness Chronicle” in Kohut, “The Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Image of Jews, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Historical Memory,” 146.

[35] [35] Rakushka-Romanovsky, “Eyewitness Chronicle” in Kohut, “The Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Image of Jews, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Historical Memory,” 146.

[36] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 45.

[37] Stampfer, “What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648?” 218.

[38] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 54.

[39] Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” 158.

[40] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 82-83.

[41] Stampfer, “What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648?” 222.

[42] Weinryb, “The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the Cossack-Polish War,” 166.

[43] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 25, 36.

[44] Hannover, Abyss of Despair, 79, 81.

[45] Stampfer, “What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648?” 207.

[46] Stampfer, “What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648?” 216.

[47] Stampfer, “What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648?” 208.

[48] Stampfer, “What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648?” 210.