The Haidamaks were a para-military Ukranian breakaway group of organized brigands – mostly of local Cossacks and peasantry – directed mainly against the Polish nobility in right-bank Ukraine. However, the Jews and the Jesuits often became the ‘targets of opportunity.’
Russia: The Haidamaks reach Uman. The Haidamak peasant serfs and Cossacks rioted much in the same vein as Chemielnicki one hundred and twenty years earlier. At Uman, the Poles and Jews defended the city together under the Polish commander, Ivan Gonta. The next day, convinced by Zheleznyak the Polish revolutionary that only the Jews would be attacked, Gonta (betrayed the Jews and) allowed the fortified city to be entered by the Haidamaks without a fight. Approximately 8000 Jews were killed, many of them trying to defend themselves near the synagogue.
As soon as the Jews were all massacred, the Haidamaks (the paramilitary bands) began to kill the Poles. Although the Haidamaks began in the 1730’s, the main rioting was during the years 1734, 1750 and 1768. It is estimated that during these years 20,000 (and up to possibly 33,000) Jews were killed. The Haidamaks became part of the Ukrainian national movement and are celebrated in folklore and literature.
[Historians lack precision on all the various inter-related components here.]
– after Eli Birnbaum