Koliyivschyna

Koliyivschina 1768-1769 ( _uk. Коліївщина, from Ukr. "impaling") was a Ukrainian Cossack and peasant rebellion against Poland, which was responsible for the murder of noblemen (szlachta), Jews, Uniates, and Catholic priests across the part of the country west of the Dnieper river. This rebellion was aiming at stopping social, national, and religious oppression of Ukrainians. It was simultaneous to the Confederation of Bar and a "de facto" civil war in Poland (Poland had during the rule of king Sigismund III an internal policy of imposition of Catholicism on non-Catholic population. When the king under the pressure of the Russian Crown signed the document in which Orthodox was equated in rights with Catholicism, szlachta rebelled). It is unclear whether the hostilies were started by the Catholic or Orthodox paramilitary units.

The peasant rebellion quickly gained momentum and spread over the territory from the right bank of the Dnieper River to the river Syan. At Uman it led to a massacre of legendary proportions. Some twenty thousand Catholics and Jews were herded into their churches and synagogues and killed in cold blood. In three weeks of unbridled violence the rebels killed over 20,000 people. The leaders of the uprising were Cossacks Maksym Zalizniak and Ivan Gonta. The latter was a Registered Cossack who joined Zalizniak near Uman while he was sent by Polish Crown Hetman Potocki to protect it. Gonta was in fact а sotnyk (i.e. a commander of a unit of 100 sabers) of the "Uman Regiment".

The rebellion was suppressed by the joint forces of Polish and Russian armies.

More recent evidence has shown the actual number of deaths to be 20,000, rather than the previously claimed 200,000.(Magocsi, p.300)

The rebellion was followed by reprisals by both Polish and Russian forces, with numerous hangings, decapitations, quarterings and impalings.

Koliyivshchyna in popular culture

Taras Shevchenko's epic poem "Haidamaky" ("The Haidamakas") chronicles the events of the Koliyivshchnyna.

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