Ukraine
In the beginning was the Khmelnytsky Uprising…
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1648
The Khmelnytsky Uprising, also known as the Cossack–Polish War, or the Khmelnytsky insurrection, was a Cossack rebellion that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which led to the creation of a Cossack Hetmanate in Ukraine. Under the command of hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars and local Ukrainian peasantry, fought against Polish domination and Commonwealth’s forces. The insurgency was accompanied by mass atrocities committed by Cossacks against the civilian population, especially against the Roman Catholic and Ruthenian Uniate clergy and the Jews, as well as savage reprisals by Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, the voivode (military governor) of the Ruthenian Voivodeship.
The uprising has a symbolic meaning in the history of Ukraine’s relationship with Poland and Russia. It ended the Polish Catholic szlachta’s domination over the Ukrainian Orthodox population; at the same time, it led to the eventual incorporation of eastern Ukraine into the Tsardom of Russia initiated by the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement, whereby the Cossacks would swear allegiance to the tsar while retaining a wide degree of autonomy. The event triggered a period of political turbulence and infighting in the Hetmanate known as the Ruin. The success of the anti-Polish rebellion, along with internal conflicts in Poland, as well as concurrent wars waged by Poland with Russia and Sweden (the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) and Second Northern War (1655–1660) respectively), ended the Polish Golden Age and caused a secular decline of Polish power during the period known in Polish history as “the Deluge”.
In Jewish history, the Uprising is known for the atrocities against the Jews who, in their capacity as leaseholders (arendators), were seen by the peasants as their immediate oppressors and became the subject of antisemitic violence.
Modern Ukraine with the historic Zaporizhia region shown in color
Khmelnytsky Uprising as seen by German-speaking Jews
The Massacre of the Jews of Poland
The Jewish Story | Unpacked | November 03, 2021
After the expulsions from Western Europe, Ashkenazi Jews found a new home in Poland. In the 17th century, Poland was home to one third of the world’s Jewish population, and was considered the center of Jewish life. Polish Jews became prosperous economically and religiously, but also faced escalating persecution.
Jews were blamed for the Black Plague and the destruction of church property but the worst was yet to come with the rebellion of the Cossacks, a group of Eastern Europeans made up of runaway serfs, bandits and traders.
The organizer of this rebellion was Bogdan Chmielnicki, or “Chmiel the Wicked,” who banded the Cossacks and peasants of Ukraine into armies that led pogroms, savagely destroying more than 300 Jewish towns and massacring thousands of Jews over nine years.
Despite these atrocities, Polish Jewish life was slowly rebuilt, but Chmielnicki will forever be remembered as one of Jewish history’s unforgivable villains.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:31 Jewish settlement in Poland and the Jewish Golden Era
01:00 Escalating persecution
01:43 Bogdan Chmielnicki's rise to power
03:08 Jews as an active arm of the oppressive Polish system
03:36 The massacre of Jews
04:47 Rebuilding Jewish life in Poland
05:03 Ukrainian national hero
05:26 Outro
Yiddishland
French Map of Yiddish dialects between 15th and 19th century
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