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Both the boundaries of the Ukraine and the people ruling the area have changed markedly over time. The attitides toward Jews has varied significantly. Jewish history in the Ukraine began with the Khazars (6th century AD). The Kazar Empire became a major power, controling what is now the Ukraine as well as adjacent areas (8-10th centuries). Jews from Christian Europe (especially Byzantium) sought refuge in the Kazar Empire. The royal family evetually adopted Judaism. As a result, the Ukraine developed on of the largest Jewish communities in Europe. Lithuania-Poland conquered the Ukraine (14th century). An expanding Russian Tsarist Empire defeated the Poles and seized he Ukraine and susequentkly Lithuania and large areas pf Poland. The Germans seized much of the Ukraine in World War I and were in the process of creating a satellite state when the Western Allies cracked the Western Front and forced the Germans to request an armistice (November 1918). In the mean time the Russian Revolutioin broke out and the Ukraine became on of the battlefields in the resulting Civil War (1919-21). The Blolsheviks managed to gain control of much of the Ukraine. The new Polish state in a war with the Bolsheciks manahged to gain control of areas of Beylorusia and the wesern Ukraine. World War II began with the invasion of Poland (September 1939). The Germans invaded first from the west followed by the Soviets from the east. The Soviets annexed eastern Poland. The southeastern area was incprporated into the Ukrainian, SSR. The Jewish population of the Ukraine at the onset of World War II nymbered about 1.5 million people. This was about 3 percent of the overall population. About 3.5 million people were eventually evacuated. Availablesources suggest that Jews were over represented in the evacuations because they were primarily urbanized and well educated and generally supported the regime. Those evacuated included scientists, skilled workers, and government officials. Some sources suggest that as many as one-half to two-thirds of Ukranian Jews managed to escape east and avoid the NAZI Holocaust. A factor here was where they lived. The furthur east they lived, the more chance they had to evacuate.
The Jews were primarily apeople who existed within the Roman Empire. Anatolia was an important part of the Roman Empire and Constaninople a major imperial city even before the division of the E,pire and the foundation of Byzantium. The Roman Empire never colonized the northern coast of the Black Sea (the Crimea and the southern Ukraine). The Bzantines did for a time control the Crimea. Roman and Byzantine traders were, however, active throughout the Black Sea. We know there were Jewish communities in Anatolia and Constantinople. Thus it surely must the case that Jewish traders were among those active along the northern Black Sea coast. We have, however, not yet found evidence of Jewish settlment in what is now the Ukraine during the Roman era.
Jewish history in the Ukraine began with the Khazars (6th century AD). The Khazars were a Turkic people who controlled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas. They reached the lower Volga and Ukraine (6th century AD).
The Kazar Empire became a major power, controling what is now the Ukraine as well as adjacent areas (8-10th centuries). The Khazars were noted for their legal system, tolerance, and cosmopolitanism. They controlled the riverine trade routes between the Baltic and Islamic Abbasid Caliphate empire centered in Baghdad. The Khazars allied with the Byzantine Empire. They waged a series of successful wars against the Caliphates. The Turkic peoples were primitive animists and as they came in contact with the more civililized peoples their religion was in a state of flux. Jews from Christian Europe (especially Byzantium) sought refuge in the Kazar Empire. It is unclear when Jews first appeared in the Khazar Kingdom and the Ukraine in general. It have been soon after the collapse of the Roman Empire, about the same time the Khazars established control of much of the Ukraine (6th century).
Jews appear to have settled along the River Dnieper and in the eastern and southern Ukraine, including the Crimea.
It is not entirely clear where the Ukranian Jews originated. The Byzantine Empire seems to have been the primary origin and in the 6th century this included Mesopotamia. Some sources also suggest Persian Jews. It is unclear to what extent European Jews moved east into the Ukraine. Christian suppresion of the Jew was not yet as pronounced in the early MiddlecAges as it was to become so such migration may have been limited. The Khazar Kingdom was attractive because it permitted Jewds to practice their religion without interference.
Jews over time integrated into Khazar society. Many married Khazars. The Khazar royal family evetually adopted Judaism (8th century). This promoted the adoption of Judaism by the wider Khazar socirty. Large numbers of Khazars adopting Judaism to varying degrees, The Khazars read the Torah, observed the Sabbath, and kept to kosher dietary practice. Khazars even switched to Hebrew for the the official written system. The Khazar kingdom was a rare island of religious toleration at a time of growing religious intolerance. As a result, the Ukraine developed on of the largest Jewish communities in Europe.
Khazaria Jews appear to have played a role in founding the important Jewish community in Poland and other Eastern European Jewish communities.
The Khazar Jewish community of mixed origins, including both ethnic Jews and Khazars of Turkic origins. Khazaria reached its greatest power and extent (8th-10th centuries).
The Khazar Kingdom suffered a series of military reverses. The first was a Russian invasion from the north.
the Russians sacked the capital (965). A more devestating invasion was that of the Mongols (1241). The Mongols not only devestated Khazaria, but moved east and defeated a Polish Army. Poland was also devestated. The Polish monarchy and nobility to rebuild their country and repopulate areas where the Mongols had killed or driven out the population, recruited immigrants from western Europe, primarily neighboring Germany. They were allowed to settle towns and villages. German Jews were among the new settlers. Christian crusaders had killed Jews in large numbers (11-th and 12th centuries) and more pogroms were launched in the aftermath of the Black Death epidemic fo which Jews wee blamed (14th century). Thus thus the surviving Jewish communities in Western Europe was driven east. In some cases whole communities were expelled. Poland thus offered a a safe have for desperate Jews. The European Jewish refugeees encountered an already existing Jewish community in Poland--Jews of Khazar origins. Thus Jews in Poland shared a common religious heritage, but not a language. As a result, a new language developed--Yiddish. This included many different linguistic threads, Middle German, Hebrew, and Polish and German-Hebrew.
Jews of Khazar origins spoke Hebrew and not the original Turkic Khazar language so there was a minimal Khazar linguistic influence. The relative importance of the population in numerical terms was surely another factor. Yiddish thus became the Ashkenazi national Jewish language.
Lithuania-Poland conquered the Ukraine (14th century). The Khazar Kingdom never recovered from the Mongol invasion. Poland in contrast became a major European power. Poland united with Lithuania through dynastic links. Jews from western Poland seeking economic opportunity began migrating east into the Ukraine. The migration was at first limited, but gradually increased , especially as Poland -Lithuania expanded and consolidated its control over the Ukraine. Available data suggests ne estimate reports there were 20,000-30,000 Jews were living in 60 communities throughout Poland-Lithuania (late 15th century). These numbers should be viewed in the context that European populations were much smaller at the time than modern populations. The Ukraine became the major center of Jewish life in Poland-Lithuania. The Treaty of Lublin formally established the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth (1569). The Commonwealth was essentially a Polish kingdom. Attitudes toward the Jews began to shift and harden. It was the monarchy and nobility that had encouraged Jewish immigration to develop their lands and increase revenue. The Church had very different attitudes toward the Jews. The Church pressured the nobility to place restrictions on Jewish economic activities. In addition, the nobulity was a very small part of the Polish people. And in the Ukraine they ruled as foreign landowners. Most Poles and Ukranians were peasants and here the Church had great influence with the peasantry. Jews settling in the Ukraine generally entered the trades, in large measure because the Church resricted Jewish land ownership. Jews were active in developing markets, selling dye, cloth, horses, cattle, and other items. Jews because they unlike the peasantry was literate and often capable in foreign languages. Jewish communities in different places attempted to establish and maintain contacts. This placed Jews in a unique position to engage in international commerce. Ukranian Jews unlike Christians often had contacts in the Ottoman Empire which proved useful in commerce. They also engaged in money lending and banking, largely because the Church prohibited usury. Learned Jews also began pyscicians. All of this contributed to the development of anti-Semitism among the peasantry. But even more important in Poland and the Ukraine was the Polish nobility decision to Jews as customs and tax collectors. This occurred because the nobility could trust Jews more than locals with ties to the peasantry. In addition, as the Jews were literate they had the needed skills to maintain records. This more than anything else promoted the rise of anti-Semitism. The peasantry, including the Ukranian cossacks came to despise Jews who they saw as prospering unfairly off of their labor. The Polish nobility decided to gain more control over the Ukranian cossacks. The result was a rebellion in which the cossacks turned against both the Polish landowners and the Jews.
The Ukranian Cossacks begin to appear in history after the Polish conquest of the Ukraine. Ukranian peasants seeking to escape from feudal serfdom (15th century). Many escapred to the area of the lower Dnieper largely outside of Polish control. Here they also faced encrochment from Tartars and Turks. The word "Cossock" meant free people. The Cossocks were rugged individualists and superb horsemen. The Poles were unable to subdue them and they gradually grew in numbers and power. Eventually attitudes shifted from running away to liberating the Ukraine and driving out the Polish nobility. The Cossacks finally struck in the mid-17th century. Cossack leader Bohdan Chmielicki was the mastermind of the rebellion. He not only targeted the Polish overlords, but the Jews as well. He accused the Polish nobels of selling the Ukranian people as slaves “into the hands of the accursed Jews.” He launched his campaign (1648). Chmielicki's military campaign wa accompanied by mass slaughter of both Poles and Jews. It was on of the bloodiest events of the 17th century. Some Jews managed to flee, often prefering slavery at the hands of the Crimean Tartars. Most of the Ukranian Jews were brutally murdered accompanied by unimagined tortures. Estimates suggest that 100,000 Jews were murdered and 300 communities destroyed. Surviving Jews came to call the event "The Deluge". It was not, however, just the Jews who suffered. The Cossack insurrection and resulting war brought wide spread devestation and eventually famine and disease.
Chmielicki Cossacks did succeed in throwing off Polish control, but only for a brief period. Polish forces scoired an important victory (1651). He was forced to sign a treaty that was far short of his goals.
This struggle with the Cossacks greatly weakened the Commonwealth (Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom). Chmielnicki helped convince the Cossacks to give their allegiance to the Russian czars and sought a treaty with the rising state of Moscow (Muscovy) for protection from Poland. The agreement was known as the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654). Poland then sought to negotiate with the Cossaks and reached a compromise known as the Union of Hadyach (1658). An extended war bewtween Poland and the Russians followed. Jews fared poorly during this conflict. There were instances of Russian forces adter seizing a town, massacreing all of the Jews. The fighting eventually led to the Treaty of Andrusiv (1667) in which Poland and Russia partitioning the Ukraine. Poland seeded the northeastern Ukraine to the Russians. Tsar Peter I supressed the Cossacks after the Mazzepa Rebellion. An expanding Russian Tsarist Empire defeated the Poles and seized the Ukraine and susequentkly Lithuania and large areas of Poland. Russian Tsars did not permit Jews in Russia. The conquest of the Baltics (especially Lithuania), Poland, and the Ukraine brought large numbers of Jews within the Tsarist Empire. The Pale of Settlement was establishged (1791). Despite the Chmielnicki massacres, Jewish life did not end in the Ukraine. Jewish migration to the Ukraine resumed. Jews in fact plyed a role in the economic recovery of the Ukraine (17th-18th centuries). Anyi-Semitism remained a permanent aspect of Jewish life in the Ukraine. This in part created the conditions for spirtitualist revival movemens. Perhaps the most important was the Hasidism movement. Other movements were Hibbat Zion, the Bilu and the Am Olam movements as well as the “Spiritual Biblical Brotherhood,” seeking to return Jews to the religious purity of the Bible and move toward Christianity. The Tsarist monarchy feeling increasing pressure challenging absolutism in the 19th century launched a renewed program of anti-Smitism. There were terrible pograms often conducted by Cossacks (1880s). There were a terrible series of pogroms (1881). This lead to massive Jewish emigration. Many American Jews trace their roots to the emigratiob fron the Tsarist Empire during the late-19th and early-20th centuries.
The Germans seized much of the Ukraine in World War I. This was a very different German Army than that which entered the Ukrain in 1941. The Germans were less ant-Semetic than the Russians or the local Ukranians. There were no masssacres of civilians. In the mean time the Russian Revolution broke out (1917). The Bolshevicks seized control of the Russian state in the October Rvolution. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk forced on the Bolsheviks separated the Ukraine fron Russia. The Germans were in the process of creating a satellite Ukranian state when the Western Allies cracked the Western Front and forced the Germans to request an armistice (November 1918).
The Ukraine became one of the principal battlefields in the Civil War following the October Revolution (1919-21). Fighting in the Ukraine was very confused. There were Red and White forces as well as Ukranian Bolsheviks and nationalists. The Poles were also involved. The French landed an army in Odessa, but after a short tme evacuated, in part because they couldn't figure out who was who. Large numbers of Ukranian Jews, perhaps 300,000, left the Ukraine after the October Revolution moving to other parts of the new Soviet Union. Many other remained in the Ukraine. There is no precise accounting, but perhaps 100,000 were murdered during the Civil War fighting. A Ukrainians National Council sought an independent Ukraine.
The Bolsheviks managed to gain control of much of the Ukraine. The new Polish state fought a war with the Bolsheviks and managed to gain control of areas of Beylorusia and the western Ukraine.
World War II began with the invasion of Poland (September 1939). The Germans invaded first from the west followed by the Soviets from the east. The Soviets annexed eastern Poland. The southeastern area was incprporated into the Ukrainian, SSR. The Jewish population of the Ukraine at the onset of World War II nymbered about 1.5 million people. This was about 3 percent of the overall population. About 3.5 million people were eventually evacuated. Availablesources suggest that Jews were over represented in the evacuations because they were primarily urbanized and well educated and generally supported the regime. Those evacuated included scientists, skilled workers, and government officials. Some sources suggest that as many as one-half to two-thirds of Ukranian Jews managed to escape east and avoid the NAZI Holocaust. A factor here was where they lived. The furthur east they lived, the more chance they had to evacuate.
Behind the German and Romanian combat forces which swept east were the NAZI Einsatzgruppen C and D. YThese were especially trained units of 500 to 1,000 men who were mobile killing squads with orders to kill Jews. As soon as a city was secured, the Einsatzgruppen began rounding up and killing Jews. Major actions were conducted at Lutsk, Zhitomir and Berdichev. The Romanian Army which participated in the invasion also participated in the killing of Jews. The killoing continued throughout the summer of 1941. They suceeded in killing about 0.6 million Ukraniamn Jews. SS Standartfuehrer Paul Blobel was particularly diligent in carrying out his orders. He commanded Sonderkommando 4A, Einsatzgruppe C. And he participated in the the huge killing operation at Kiev. The killing was conducted at Babyn Yar (Babi Yar) (September 29-30, 1941). Blobel's unit reported killing killed 33,771 Jews in only 2 days. That was about half of the 70,000 Jews killed at Babi Yar. Blobel was tried after the War at Nuremberg and hanged in Landsberg Prison (June 8, 1951). This was where Hitler had been jailed after the Beer Hall Putch and wrote Mein Kampf. The Ukranians are often accused of cooperating with the NAZIs in the killing of Jews. We are not yet able to assess these charges. There is substantial reason for these charges. It is, however, a more complicated issue than often presented. One author focusng on the Ukraine provides a nuanced discussion. [Berkhoff] The Jews of course were only the first step. Overall NAZI plans called for large-scale killing of Ukranians as well as deportations and servitude for those not killed. There were actions against the Ukranians although not on the industrial scale of the Jewish Holocaust. (We will never know for sure what would have happened to the Ukranians had the NAZIs won the War but almost certainly there would have been horendous actions.) There were collaborators of course in every country. Wether there wetre more in the Ukraine than other countries we are not sure. It is true that there was a great deal of anti-Soviet feeling among Ukranian nationalists many if whom saw Jews as supportive of both Communism and the Soviet regime. Miltia groups sometimes referred to as Ukranian Police did aid the NAZIs both in actiins against the Jews, but in anti-Partisan operations. The composition of these units, however, was not entirely ethnic Ukranines, but included Poles, Volksdeutsche, While Russians, and Russians.
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