Єврейське населення Уманщини наприкінці XVIII – на початку ХХ ст.

Abstract

Дисертація присвячена комплексному дослідженню єврейської історії на теренах Уманщини від кінця XVIII до початку ХХ ст. У дослідженні вивчено стан наукової розробки проблеми єврейської історії на Уманщині, доведено, що наразі бракує комплексних досліджень з окресленої тематики. Основу дослідження склала джерельна база, зокрема великий пласт архівних документів. Вивчено процес формування смуги єврейської осілості та єврейського питання в Російській імперії. Показано динаміку змін соціального становища єврейського населення та його трансформації в окреслених хронологічних межах. Визначено головні галузі господарства, де частка єврейського капіталу була значною. Встановлено, що більшість єврейського населення Уманщини проживала в місті Умані та містечках повіту. Саме тут сформувались центри культурного життя євреїв. Досліджено окремі аспекти функціонування єврейської освітньої системи на Уманщині, як релігійної, так і світської. Встановлено, що Уманщина була осередком громадського життя єврейської громади, а пізніше, наприкінці ХІХ – на початку ХХ ст. – і політичного. The dissertation covers comprehensive study of Jewish history in Uman region from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. The research analyzes the state of scientific development of the problem of Jewish history in Uman region. It has been proven that there is lack of comprehensive research on the outlined topic. Instead, there is a fairly large number of general works devoted to the life of Jews in the strip of settling, which became assistive in the preparation of a dissertation research. The basis of the study was the source base, archival documents in particular. Most of them are introduced to scientific research for the first time. The process of forming Jewish settlement and «Jewish question» in the Russian Empire were studied in this work. The dissertation describes methods which the authorities used to solve it, and it has been proven that, in general, they did not achieve their goal. It was discovered that the efforts of the first emperors who faced «Jewish problem» were chaotic and aimed at the administrative arrangement of new subjects. However, later on, the empire changed its moderately liberal attitude toward the Jews, turning to the use of force in an attempt to integrate them into the empire's society. For this purpose, it was intended to serve recruiting and «re-education» with the help of military service. The social situation of the Jewish population is investigated, the dynamics of its changes and transformations in the specified chronological limits is also shown. It was determined that the Jewish population in Uman region was mainly townspeople, and much less of Jewish population were peasants. The peculiarity of the caste structure of the Jews was that they formed the basis of the merchant's status in the Uman region, successfully competing with representatives of other nationalities. It has been proven that the Jewish population in Uman region was traditionally economically active, the main branches of the economy, where the share of Jewish capital was significant, or even greater than the total capital of Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, etc. The flour mill industry was quite profitable in particular. Renting mills, estates or their parts, taverns was also traditionally a Jewish occupation. They were actively involved in the industrial development of Uman, which started in the second half of the 19th century and lasted till the beginning of the 20th century. Owing to the Jewish capital, the city turned into a large industrial and commercial center of the Right Bank Ukraine. Jews were actively involved in industrial development in Uman. The Jewish community as a whole was quite wealthy, with no tax debts. However, the layers of the poor existed – it lived on the Old Market. It was determined that the majority of the Jewish population of the Uman region lived in the city of Uman and towns of powiat. Centers of cultural life of the Jews were formed here, which varied considerably in the second half of the 19th century. Some aspects of the Jewish educational system functioning in Uman region, both religious and secular are also analyzed. It was determined that Uman region was the center of community life of the Jewish community, and later, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries political as well. It has been established that at different times political groups successfully operated in Uman region. The range of political preferences of the Jews was quite varied. However, the socialist party was favored at that time. Identities of some participants in political competitions in Uman region were established in this work. Jewish life in Uman and Right-Bank Ukraine as a whole was similar, however, it had its distinctive features. Thus, according to the number of Jewish population, Uman region was in the first place in the whole Kyiv province. Uman was the first place in the whole Russian Empire where Jewish school based on the ideas of Jewish enlightenment – Haskalah, which testifies high level of culture and education of the inhabitants of Uman.