Bershad

The city of Bershad, known since 1459 as a fortress with a six-meter rampart on the southern border of the Principality of Lithuania, is located 60 km from Kryzhopol , 35 km from the site of the historic battle of Bohdan Khmelnitsky near Batog .

In the middle of the XIV century. Podillia was an independent principality, headed by a family of princes Koriatovich . Brothers Yuri, Alexander, Konstantin and Fedor successfully maneuvered between strong neighbors - Lithuania, Volhynia and Poland, focusing more on the latter. Subsequently, the Lithuanian prince Vitovt, concentrating all his forces against Poland, endowed Podillian lands with another representative from the Gediminovich’s cohort - Dmitry Koribut, the son of the famous Olgerd. If this is so, then Prince Koribut is the ancestor of the Zbarazhsky and Vishnevetsky dynasties known in the region. Later, the Lithuanian authorities strengthened their positions in Eastern Podolia, building a number of new fortifications, including in Litin , Mogilev , Teplika , Bershadi.

The local tradition calls the year of foundation 1459 , although this date is conditional, because it was not confirmed by archival data.

At the turn of the 15-16 centuries. most of the Ukrainian lands were devastated by the Crimean Tatars. At the border with the Tatars there was only a military-political association of Cossacks.

In 1569, Lithuania and Poland united, which led to active colonization by peasants and aristocracy. During the XVI century. in Europe, consumption has risen sharply. Landowners reacted promptly and began to graze livestock for export in the Bratslav region, create estates, and develop the nitrate industry necessary for the production of gunpowder. Consequently, the owners of large and small estates had a decisive positive influence on the development of the region. Over time, the largest landowners here became the princes of Zbarazh. It is known that the siege of Zbarazhsky, Vasily Bosoy, put up a fortress in Bershadi, which later became the nest of the local Cossacks.

By the Seimas Ordinance of 1609, the Polish tycoon Valenti-Alexander Kalinovsky received Umanshchina for significant services to the crown. Therefore, the possessions of two well-known families collided precisely in the Bershad region, probably along the Southern Bug River.

After the death of Jerzy Zbarazhsky, the Pinsk elder, royal Kravchik, Krakow kashtelyan, the last of his kind, all the property of the Zbarazhskys passed to his aunt Marusha Zagorovsky, and from her to her daughter Anna, the wife of Konstantin Vishnevetsky, the Russian military. The estates, including the Bershad volost, fell into the hands of the Vishnevetsky. Ivan Franko , speaking of the fatal mistake of the Poles, noticed that Warsaw sent out crown troops to destroy the Cossacks, which was a natural defender of the borders of the Polish and Ukrainian lands from the Tatars and, accordingly, should have been Poland's most faithful ally.

The Zbarazh brothers were in favor of strengthening the border, but in vain. “We must fight now, not ask,” they said. Their position can be understood, because the possessions of the family in the Bratslav region directly went to the dangerous southern borders. As you know, the border with Turkey then passed along the Savran river, that is, Bershad was a border fortress.

In 1617, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth faced the threat of an attack by the Ottomans, who sent their best commander Iskender Pasha to Ukraine. The Bush agreement was concluded, according to which the Polish side undertook to pay tribute to the Tatars, not to interfere in the affairs of Moldova, Transylvania and Wallachia, to ban Cossacks from going to the Black Sea , to destroy the border Cossack fortresses Bershad and Rashkov .

I. Franko tells about the sad events of 1617 in the article “Burning Bershadi”. During the Polish-Turkish talks in Bush, the Turks complained: thanks to their energy in all matters, the position of foreman in Bershadi, Vasily Bosoy taught the townspeople to start making frequent attacks. Shortly before, for example, Barefoot, capturing the brother-in-law of one of the Turkish governors, defiantly held him in shackles. The envoys of Sultan Ahmed complained about the impudence of the Cossacks and reminded of old and new insults. Under this pretext, they sought to destroy the towns that were the centers of the Cossacks. The Poles resisted the demand to destroy so many important fortresses; and then the Turks uttered the ultimatum of the Sultan that if the Poles did not agree to destroy the Bershad fortress, located above the Askiyaka River, nicknamed the Small Dnieper, they were ordered to disrupt the negotiations. The proud nobility realized, "that it is easier to come to peace through harm than through war." The Poles were only careful not to be opposed by the princes of Zbarazh, who owned the place. However, everything was settled by the crown hetman Zholkevsky. He agreed with Jerzy Zbarazhsky, who at that time was with his warriors at the location of the hetman troops. The latter generously lost Bershad, especially since after the Cossack attack on his estates in 1613, the elder Zbarazhsky became an opponent of the Cossacks.

On the eve of the destruction of Bershadi, the Cossacks were urgently sent on a campaign, as if to meet the horde. Then the envoy of the prince by the name of Pyaskovsky arrived with a Polish detachment to Bershadi. Having informed the townspeople that they were threatened by an attack by enemies, he persuaded them to hide in a safe place. He himself, without wasting time, ordered several initiates in secret to set fire to the city.

All cities of that time were fortified. They had a shaft with a wooden picket fence to repel cavalry attacks, and the second shaft, the “castle”, had, of course, a double row of fortifications with a ditch between them. The remains of the old land ramparts-fortifications were stored in Bershadi for a long time and even ended up in the city coat of arms of 1796, as well as on the modern coat of arms. Even in the middle of the last century, the presence of ramparts was evidenced by specialists who certified the monuments of history and culture. Now in the list of such monuments ramparts do not appear. Local historians point to the right bank of the Doha River within the modern city bus station and the Agromash enterprise, where the Cossack fortress is located.

The Bershad Cossacks did not know about the plan of the nobility and were sure that the city was burned by the Turks.

The inhabitants of Bershadi were transported to the left bank of Doha, where a new settlement was established. A large number of Jews who were engaged in trade, craftsmanship and innkeeping arrived in it. In the history of Bershadi, the stage of the formation of a trade and craft town began, as it remained until the 20th century.

In 1648, Bershad became the hundredth city of the Uman Regiment . Cossacks of the regiment took part in hostilities against Poland, while a large number of civilians were affected - Poles and Jews were mercilessly destroyed by Haidamak detachments. In 1667, Bershad moved to Poland after the signing of the Andrus Peace .

In 1672, the city was destroyed by troops of the Ottoman Empire . In 1734, the city's Cossacks joined the Haidamaks.

In 1793, the city passed to the Russian Empire . In 1797, Bershad was a county town in the Podolsk province , and since 1804, in the Olgopol district.

During the first Russian revolution in 1906, sugar factory workers created a factory committee. Its members took part in the congress of representatives of workers of sugar factories in the Olgopol district, which took place in August 1917. The congress created the district committee of the union of workers of sugar factories.

During the Civil War, power passed from hand to hand. In August 1918, Soviet power was proclaimed here. In 1922 Bershad became the center of Olgopol County. In 1923, the Kolos and Sickle agricultural cooperatives were created in the city.

During World War II, Bershad was twice the scene of hostilities. On July 29, 1941, Bershad was occupied by units of the 1st Hungarian Corps (commander Bela Miklos ), who, during the offensive along the Tulchin-Trostyanets-Bershad line, repelled the counterattack of Soviet troops near Gordievka and stopped to rest in Bershad. Soon Bershad became part of Transnistria - the Romanian occupation zone in Ukraine. The occupation authorities set up a Jewish ghetto in the city, where they kept the Jews of the city, as well as those brought from Bessarabia and Bukovina, including the Bessarabian Jewish writer and Yiddish poet Mordeche Goldenberg . Many residents of the ghetto died of starvation and disease, or were killed. The second time the front passed through Bershad on March 14, 1944, when the city was liberated by parts of the Second Ukrainian Front .

In 1989, the population was14,134 people ^[4] .

In 1765, 438 Jews lived in Bershadi, 650 in 1787, 3370 in 1818, 6603 in 1897 (74.3% of the total population), 7400 (60.7%) in 1910, and in 1939 in the year 4271 (74%), in 1959 - about 2.2 thousand, in 1970 - about 1.8 thousand (15.8%) in 1979 - about 1.5 thousand (11.9% ) The community suffered during the uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Bolshevik revolution and the civil war from all sides of the conflict, the Second World War from the Nazis and their accomplices. In the 1990s, most Jews immigrated to Israel and the United States. In 1998, 180 Jews lived in Bershadi, in 2001, 70.

In 1900, the city was inhabited by about 4.5 thousand Jews, while the total population was approx. 7 thousand. The number of Jewish craftsmen reached 500. The Jewish community owned a synagogue and six houses of worship.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Bershad was famous for Jewish Talit weavers. Towards the end of the century, demand for talit decreased, and industry began to decline, which led most of the weavers to emigrate to the United States.

• Alberton, Meir Iosifovich (1900-1947) - Soviet Jewish writer.
• Rafael from Bershadi (Bershad tsadik) is a Hasidic tzaddik buried in Tarashche.
• Kovalenko Yuri Viktorovich - lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Hero of Ukraine (posthumous)
• Penzyur (Veksler) Julia Kharitonovna (1938) - journalist and teacher, author of numerous articles on the Holocaust
• Pruszkowski, Witold (1846-1896) - Polish artist
• Grigory Pogonchik - initiator of the study of the history of the Holocaust in Bershad region
• Ovadyahu, Shmuel (1892-1963) - Israeli artist.
• Boris Zitserman - journalist, poet.
• Marina Stavniychuk - Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, member of the CEC (1999–2007), Presidential Representative to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the Central Election Commission (2007–2010), Advisor to the President (2011–2014).
• Geyser Matvey Moiseevich - writer, doctor of philological sciences, Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation.
• Yuri Florin - songwriter, author of the poem "Lucky".
• Neonila Yavorskaya - teacher of Ukrainian language and literature
• Dovgopol Oleg Anatolievich - head of the state administration of Tiraspol .

Industry: distillery, factories of milk powder and metal products, furniture and clothing factories. Electrical plant, food enterprises. Museum of Local Lore.

In 1827, the first sugar factory in Ukraine was built in Bershadi, which Bershad was famous for a long time, called “sugar Donbass”. Currently, the plant does not produce sugar; the production of aerated concrete was established in the premises of the plant.

The spiritual needs of the population of the region are provided by more than 30 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic community, and the Jewish community. Outstanding architectural monuments are the watchtower and the watermill in the village. Balanovka, archaeological - burial mounds of the Bronze Age (Barlovka, Stavki), settlement of the Scythian time (Kosharintsy).

About 2 thousand people are engaged in entrepreneurial activity. The largest industrial enterprises are: Bershad Distillery, Bershadmoloko, Bershad Brewery, Bershad Electrotechnical Plant, Bershad District Enterprise Agromash. In the village of Viytivka there is a powerful poultry plant "Bershad".

In the region of 40 comprehensive schools, vocational and children's music schools. There are stations for young technicians and young naturalists, a home for children's creativity, and a youth sports school. Since 1967, a medical school has been operating - an educational institution of the first level of accreditation.

In addition to the central district hospital and polyclinic, there are 7 district hospitals, 6 hospital outpatient clinics, 3 family medicine outpatient clinics, 26 feldsher-obstetric centers, and a sanitary-epidemiological station.

It offers residents of the district 44 cultural institutions of club type, 40 libraries, a regional museum of local lore, a museum of history s. Balanivka, the village culture museum and the gallery of the artist Procopius Kolesnik in the village of Potashnya.

• Bershad ua. Інформаційний портал
• Portal of Bershad district Bershad site
• Photo album m. Bershad, 5000 photos Bershadі and Bershadsky district
• Forum Mist Bershad
• Bershad - an article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• Shanghai Bershad. Old photos of the Bershad "Shanghai"

• Bershch . Virsky D.S. // Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine: T. 1: A-B / Editorial: V. A. Smoliy (head) and ін. NAS of Ukraine. Institute of History of Ukraine. - K .: V-in "Science Dumka", 2003. - 688 p.: Il.

• Bershad // Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron . - SPb. , 1908-1913.
• Bershad // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Berzsada // Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich - Warszawa: Filip Sulimierski i Władysław Walewski, Tom I (Aa - Dereneczna), 1880.
• Berszad // Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich. - Warszawa: Filip Sulimierski i Władysław Walewski, Tom XV, cz. 1 (Abablewo - Januszowo), 1900.