Gaidamak massacre - the curse of Ukraine returns?
The current president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko is a person who is clearly not burdened by excessive education. However, of all the sciences, his successes are minimal, perhaps, in history. Otherwise, he would probably have thought before sparing the energy to rekindle the church conflict on earth, which threatens to spill over into bloody confrontation, where a “religious war” broke out 250 years ago, in terms of the number of victims and its monstrous cruelty in Russian history. not having.
This means, of course, the so-called “Gaidamatchina” or, as it is often called “koliivshchyna” - a large-scale indignation that engulfed a significant part of Right-Bank Ukraine in 1768 and led to a horrific massacre that was stopped only by introducing regular parts of the Russian army. However, let's take it in order ... First of all, about the name. Historians and philologists argue about its origin to this day. Some argue that it simply comes from the word “count”, for it was precisely these that were originally the main “weapons” of the rebels. Others argue that the roots here are more likely in the Polish “track”, that is, the “turn”. However, the closest to the truth, perhaps, are those who see the explanation for the fact that among the "people's avengers" there were a considerable number of "coli". That is, in almost every village there were professional cattle slaughterers who very skillfully managed with knives and the like guns to kill pigs and cows. The closest synonyms for the word “colium” are “butcher” or “flayer”. And just they very accurately convey the essence of what was happening in those days in Ukraine ...
How did it all start? Just from the questions of faith. In a research published in 1895 by the historical and philological society at the Nezhin Institute, I.V. Galata "On the History of the Uman Massacre" directly affirmed
I apologize for the very extensive quotation - however, it is in it that lies the key to understanding all the horrors that we will discuss later.
The time preceding the “koliivschina” was, in fact, the period of the next attempt to “Europeanize” Ukraine. Calling a spade a spade - its total rinsing. After a long “struggle for independence”, this unfortunate land went through a period called by historians “Ruin” - which was not slow to take advantage of the brisk nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who saw in Ukraine the eternal source of free fertile land and humble “cattle”. For the time being, the Russian Empire lacked the strength to come to the rescue - and hell reigned on the Right Bank. It was not even the Polish king who ruled there, but, which was much worse, the then "oligarchs" - tycoons who did not recognize any laws at all - neither God's, nor human. The matter was aggravated by the fact that the "rulers" and their loyal servants in this case were Catholics without exception. The Orthodox in the lands of Poland was not just anyone - he was less than no one. An empty place in relation to which any arbitrariness and atrocities could be created.
Lawlessness, committed on lands inhabited by fraternal people, could not leave indifferent the then ruler of Russia - Catherine the Great. And she knew how to convince ... The “law on dissidents" adopted by the Polish Sejm, equalizing the rights of Catholics and Orthodox (mainly Ukrainians and Belarusians), the gentry referred to as "proclaimed at gunpoint of Russian guns." And immediately constituted the so-called “confederation” in the city of Bar (today - the territory of the Vinnitsa region of Ukraine), and speaking in terms of the present day - an illegal armed group, whose members, scattered all over the Right Bank, began to do such that even today She gets acquainted with the historical evidence of those days, her hair stands on end.
With particular ecstasy and sophistication, the Confederates hunted the Orthodox clergy. The priests were not just killed - they were muzzled to death, harnessed to plows, locked up with thorns, hammered into blocks. I simply will not dare to list the remaining "amusements" of the gentry, who called themselves Christians, and who manifested themselves in the extermination of the priesthood and religious monasticistic sadistic ingenuity, worthy of just some demons. Incidentally, when it was not possible to catch the Orthodox for torture, the Uniate priests, who went under the control of the Papal throne, also went into action. Shakalya temples and monasteries flocked the Confederates and robbed without any analysis at all. Silently gazing at all this, the people accumulated black hatred under their hearts and inexorably filled with anger. Sooner or later, all this “combustible material” inevitably had to explode. He rushed ...
Subsequently, the “proud sons of Poland”, frightened by the “Gaidamachchina” before enuresis and lifelong nightmares, tried to claim that the uprising was “provoked from Russia”. Nothing like this! The falsity of these accusations was proved both by an investigation carried out directly “in hot pursuit” and by subsequent investigations by historians. Petersburg had absolutely nothing to do with the “Kolivism”. But the savage Bar Confederation, which provoked this, was generously sponsored from Paris. Here about this, there are just very specific evidence and evidence.
Yes, in the history of the uprising there appears a certain “golden letter of Catherine”, about which the future “hydamaks” allegedly spoke in the Motroninsky monastery, where it all started from, or some mysterious “hieromonk” who delivered her “from Pitemburkha itself”, or one of the leaders of the uprising - Maxim Zheleznyak. The latter, incidentally, did not trifle, quickly declared himself "hetman of all Right-Bank Ukraine." True - clarifying that this is part of the Russian Empire. So what is there with a letter ?! Yes, it was not her! Rather, it was “-” - as later on with Emelyan Pugachev, a multitude of diverse impostors who claimed the throne of Russia and the leaders of various riots. This "letter", of course, existed only in the imagination of the rebels, thereby giving them a certain "legitimacy" - though only in their own eyes. She has many different opinions about Catherine II — but she wasn’t exactly crazy enough to sign and send decrees with the permission to “exterminate all Poles, Catholics, and Jews without exception.”
And just this is precisely what the “Haidamaks” detachments, which were widely dispersed across the territory of the Right Bank — in the Kiev region, Cherkashchina, Polesie, Podolia and even Volhynia — started with all zeal. The riot was not just “meaningless and merciless” - it was just inhumanly cruel. They didn’t spare anyone - neither the gentry taken with weapons, nor the women, nor the elderly, nor the small children. “Gaydamaky” left behind them rivers of blood and mountains of corpses - only a person with very big oddities could admire their terrible “feats” and sing those in poetry, as the “great classic of Ukrainian literature Taras Shevchenko” subsequently did. They were also great masters to make fun of the victims - for example, Catholic priests, Jews and ... dogs were hanging on trees along the roads next to trees. At the same time, a tablet with the corresponding text was left at the place of execution, clarifying that the "co-religionists" had found their end here! In fairness, it should be noted that the “heydaks” got this hellish “creative” from the Confederates. It’s just that they didn’t hang Catholic but Orthodox priests - otherwise the “composition” and the accompanying inscription to it were exactly the same.
The apotheosis of the “koliivschina” was an episode that Ukraine did not like to remember under any authority. This is no wonder - the so-called "Uman massacre" is the most shameful, indelible and unforgettable spot in Ukrainian history. For no oppression, including for faith, can justify the cold-blooded and total destruction of 10 thousand Poles captured in this city, Jews and Ukrainians who joined the Union, and, at the same time, another 2 thousand completely Orthodox compatriots - for "sympathy for enemies ". Some historians also speak of more than 20 thousand victims ... It is definitely difficult to assert anything - this topic in Ukrainian historiography, to put it mildly, is poorly developed. One thing is known for sure - the rebels in the most atrocious ways killed the inhabitants of the whole city, together with refugees who had the misfortune to take refuge there, and did not spare the people of the surrounding area.
By the way, it was near Uman that the person who entered history joined the rebels as the second leader of the “gaidamaks” - the centurion of the outward Cossacks of the magnate Pototsky Ivan Gont. He and his detachment were supposed to actually save the inhabitants of the besieged city, but according to the old Ukrainian custom - to commit betrayal without blinking an eye, inflamed with "patriotic feelings", quickly ran over to their side. The idea (but not the means!) Of the Gaydamaks was, in principle, correct, but there was also an oath! However ... The oath and the "true Ukrainians" ... It's funny.
All this terrible lawlessness ended (in Uman, the “Haidamaks” did not think to stop - they went on to kill further) with the appearance of regular Russian troops on the Right Bank. Gont and Zheleznyak, after a short attempt to resist, were captured under Uman by a detachment of Colonel Guryev. By the way, the Don Cossacks played a significant role in the defeat of the “koliivschina” - for some reason they did not show any “brotherly feelings” for the Ukrainian Cossacks who had come to butchery, looting and infanticide. It is very interesting that the fate of the captive participants in the uprising developed very differently. Those who had unambiguous Polish citizenship were given the Commonwealth. Gontu - including. Subsequently, it turned out that a special commission of Poles created on this occasion, for a year of hard work in the town of Kodnya, sent more than three hundred of them to the next world, and this was done by the most lively methods. The former centurion accepted a terrifying death ... Those whom Catherine and her subordinates recognized as “their own” were much more fortunate - yes, they whipped, branded, sent to Nerchinsk ... But they did not execute a single one. What can you do - not Europeans, Russian barbarians. Many of the convicts, by the way, were subsequently commuted their sentences - penal servitude was replaced by exile. And the rogue Zheleznyak, with fifty comrades in general, managed to get away from the stage that went to Siberia, disarming the guard! The truth did not run for long - its traces are lost in the bowels of the Moscow Detective Order.
The overall outcome of the chain of events, which was initiated by the “coliivism”, is extremely entertaining. And it causes a sea of historical associations. Turkey, on whose territory the “Haidamaks”, pursuing the Confederates, attacked, decided, using an excuse, to fight with Russia - the unfinished leaders of the gang from Bar and their French masters really aroused it. As a result, the Ottoman Porta suffered a crushing defeat, and lost ... Crimea! Well, not only him - Kuban, by the way, too. And four years later, Poland was already played out. The uncontrollable “state”, which has become a hotbed of the most diverse troubles and a source of headache for all of Europe, was simply erased from the world map. So the first section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth happened ... Some members of the “koliivschina” managed to “emerge” in the ranks of the rebel army of Emelyan Pugachev - which was one of the reasons why Catherine ordered the dispersal of the Zaporizhzhya Sich. However, this is a completely different story ...
"Koliivschina" is the eternal curse of Ukraine, which they have been striving to bring to oblivion for centuries. The uprising that began as a result of religious oppression drowned half the country in the blood. Only absolute lunatics can today in Ukraine deliberately pit believers of different faiths - as if trying to raise the bloody ghosts of “gaydamak” from the depths of hell ...
This means, of course, the so-called “Gaidamatchina” or, as it is often called “koliivshchyna” - a large-scale indignation that engulfed a significant part of Right-Bank Ukraine in 1768 and led to a horrific massacre that was stopped only by introducing regular parts of the Russian army. However, let's take it in order ... First of all, about the name. Historians and philologists argue about its origin to this day. Some argue that it simply comes from the word “count”, for it was precisely these that were originally the main “weapons” of the rebels. Others argue that the roots here are more likely in the Polish “track”, that is, the “turn”. However, the closest to the truth, perhaps, are those who see the explanation for the fact that among the "people's avengers" there were a considerable number of "coli". That is, in almost every village there were professional cattle slaughterers who very skillfully managed with knives and the like guns to kill pigs and cows. The closest synonyms for the word “colium” are “butcher” or “flayer”. And just they very accurately convey the essence of what was happening in those days in Ukraine ...
How did it all start? Just from the questions of faith. In a research published in 1895 by the historical and philological society at the Nezhin Institute, I.V. Galata "On the History of the Uman Massacre" directly affirmed
It was found out with obvious convincingness that the Haidamak disturbances did not occur on the basis of economic The troubles were not a consequence of the heavy material oppression that allegedly gravitated over the Haidamaks at that time, but had, so to speak, a purely spiritual and religious character. It was a fierce and desperate struggle between representatives of two hated confessions - Catholicism and Orthodoxy, of which the former was violently and brutally imposed on the followers of the other.
I apologize for the very extensive quotation - however, it is in it that lies the key to understanding all the horrors that we will discuss later.
The time preceding the “koliivschina” was, in fact, the period of the next attempt to “Europeanize” Ukraine. Calling a spade a spade - its total rinsing. After a long “struggle for independence”, this unfortunate land went through a period called by historians “Ruin” - which was not slow to take advantage of the brisk nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who saw in Ukraine the eternal source of free fertile land and humble “cattle”. For the time being, the Russian Empire lacked the strength to come to the rescue - and hell reigned on the Right Bank. It was not even the Polish king who ruled there, but, which was much worse, the then "oligarchs" - tycoons who did not recognize any laws at all - neither God's, nor human. The matter was aggravated by the fact that the "rulers" and their loyal servants in this case were Catholics without exception. The Orthodox in the lands of Poland was not just anyone - he was less than no one. An empty place in relation to which any arbitrariness and atrocities could be created.
Lawlessness, committed on lands inhabited by fraternal people, could not leave indifferent the then ruler of Russia - Catherine the Great. And she knew how to convince ... The “law on dissidents" adopted by the Polish Sejm, equalizing the rights of Catholics and Orthodox (mainly Ukrainians and Belarusians), the gentry referred to as "proclaimed at gunpoint of Russian guns." And immediately constituted the so-called “confederation” in the city of Bar (today - the territory of the Vinnitsa region of Ukraine), and speaking in terms of the present day - an illegal armed group, whose members, scattered all over the Right Bank, began to do such that even today She gets acquainted with the historical evidence of those days, her hair stands on end.
With particular ecstasy and sophistication, the Confederates hunted the Orthodox clergy. The priests were not just killed - they were muzzled to death, harnessed to plows, locked up with thorns, hammered into blocks. I simply will not dare to list the remaining "amusements" of the gentry, who called themselves Christians, and who manifested themselves in the extermination of the priesthood and religious monasticistic sadistic ingenuity, worthy of just some demons. Incidentally, when it was not possible to catch the Orthodox for torture, the Uniate priests, who went under the control of the Papal throne, also went into action. Shakalya temples and monasteries flocked the Confederates and robbed without any analysis at all. Silently gazing at all this, the people accumulated black hatred under their hearts and inexorably filled with anger. Sooner or later, all this “combustible material” inevitably had to explode. He rushed ...
Subsequently, the “proud sons of Poland”, frightened by the “Gaidamachchina” before enuresis and lifelong nightmares, tried to claim that the uprising was “provoked from Russia”. Nothing like this! The falsity of these accusations was proved both by an investigation carried out directly “in hot pursuit” and by subsequent investigations by historians. Petersburg had absolutely nothing to do with the “Kolivism”. But the savage Bar Confederation, which provoked this, was generously sponsored from Paris. Here about this, there are just very specific evidence and evidence.
Yes, in the history of the uprising there appears a certain “golden letter of Catherine”, about which the future “hydamaks” allegedly spoke in the Motroninsky monastery, where it all started from, or some mysterious “hieromonk” who delivered her “from Pitemburkha itself”, or one of the leaders of the uprising - Maxim Zheleznyak. The latter, incidentally, did not trifle, quickly declared himself "hetman of all Right-Bank Ukraine." True - clarifying that this is part of the Russian Empire. So what is there with a letter ?! Yes, it was not her! Rather, it was “-” - as later on with Emelyan Pugachev, a multitude of diverse impostors who claimed the throne of Russia and the leaders of various riots. This "letter", of course, existed only in the imagination of the rebels, thereby giving them a certain "legitimacy" - though only in their own eyes. She has many different opinions about Catherine II — but she wasn’t exactly crazy enough to sign and send decrees with the permission to “exterminate all Poles, Catholics, and Jews without exception.”
And just this is precisely what the “Haidamaks” detachments, which were widely dispersed across the territory of the Right Bank — in the Kiev region, Cherkashchina, Polesie, Podolia and even Volhynia — started with all zeal. The riot was not just “meaningless and merciless” - it was just inhumanly cruel. They didn’t spare anyone - neither the gentry taken with weapons, nor the women, nor the elderly, nor the small children. “Gaydamaky” left behind them rivers of blood and mountains of corpses - only a person with very big oddities could admire their terrible “feats” and sing those in poetry, as the “great classic of Ukrainian literature Taras Shevchenko” subsequently did. They were also great masters to make fun of the victims - for example, Catholic priests, Jews and ... dogs were hanging on trees along the roads next to trees. At the same time, a tablet with the corresponding text was left at the place of execution, clarifying that the "co-religionists" had found their end here! In fairness, it should be noted that the “heydaks” got this hellish “creative” from the Confederates. It’s just that they didn’t hang Catholic but Orthodox priests - otherwise the “composition” and the accompanying inscription to it were exactly the same.
The apotheosis of the “koliivschina” was an episode that Ukraine did not like to remember under any authority. This is no wonder - the so-called "Uman massacre" is the most shameful, indelible and unforgettable spot in Ukrainian history. For no oppression, including for faith, can justify the cold-blooded and total destruction of 10 thousand Poles captured in this city, Jews and Ukrainians who joined the Union, and, at the same time, another 2 thousand completely Orthodox compatriots - for "sympathy for enemies ". Some historians also speak of more than 20 thousand victims ... It is definitely difficult to assert anything - this topic in Ukrainian historiography, to put it mildly, is poorly developed. One thing is known for sure - the rebels in the most atrocious ways killed the inhabitants of the whole city, together with refugees who had the misfortune to take refuge there, and did not spare the people of the surrounding area.
By the way, it was near Uman that the person who entered history joined the rebels as the second leader of the “gaidamaks” - the centurion of the outward Cossacks of the magnate Pototsky Ivan Gont. He and his detachment were supposed to actually save the inhabitants of the besieged city, but according to the old Ukrainian custom - to commit betrayal without blinking an eye, inflamed with "patriotic feelings", quickly ran over to their side. The idea (but not the means!) Of the Gaydamaks was, in principle, correct, but there was also an oath! However ... The oath and the "true Ukrainians" ... It's funny.
All this terrible lawlessness ended (in Uman, the “Haidamaks” did not think to stop - they went on to kill further) with the appearance of regular Russian troops on the Right Bank. Gont and Zheleznyak, after a short attempt to resist, were captured under Uman by a detachment of Colonel Guryev. By the way, the Don Cossacks played a significant role in the defeat of the “koliivschina” - for some reason they did not show any “brotherly feelings” for the Ukrainian Cossacks who had come to butchery, looting and infanticide. It is very interesting that the fate of the captive participants in the uprising developed very differently. Those who had unambiguous Polish citizenship were given the Commonwealth. Gontu - including. Subsequently, it turned out that a special commission of Poles created on this occasion, for a year of hard work in the town of Kodnya, sent more than three hundred of them to the next world, and this was done by the most lively methods. The former centurion accepted a terrifying death ... Those whom Catherine and her subordinates recognized as “their own” were much more fortunate - yes, they whipped, branded, sent to Nerchinsk ... But they did not execute a single one. What can you do - not Europeans, Russian barbarians. Many of the convicts, by the way, were subsequently commuted their sentences - penal servitude was replaced by exile. And the rogue Zheleznyak, with fifty comrades in general, managed to get away from the stage that went to Siberia, disarming the guard! The truth did not run for long - its traces are lost in the bowels of the Moscow Detective Order.
The overall outcome of the chain of events, which was initiated by the “coliivism”, is extremely entertaining. And it causes a sea of historical associations. Turkey, on whose territory the “Haidamaks”, pursuing the Confederates, attacked, decided, using an excuse, to fight with Russia - the unfinished leaders of the gang from Bar and their French masters really aroused it. As a result, the Ottoman Porta suffered a crushing defeat, and lost ... Crimea! Well, not only him - Kuban, by the way, too. And four years later, Poland was already played out. The uncontrollable “state”, which has become a hotbed of the most diverse troubles and a source of headache for all of Europe, was simply erased from the world map. So the first section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth happened ... Some members of the “koliivschina” managed to “emerge” in the ranks of the rebel army of Emelyan Pugachev - which was one of the reasons why Catherine ordered the dispersal of the Zaporizhzhya Sich. However, this is a completely different story ...
"Koliivschina" is the eternal curse of Ukraine, which they have been striving to bring to oblivion for centuries. The uprising that began as a result of religious oppression drowned half the country in the blood. Only absolute lunatics can today in Ukraine deliberately pit believers of different faiths - as if trying to raise the bloody ghosts of “gaydamak” from the depths of hell ...
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