Krasilov is the old shtetl, located on the border of
Podolia and Volhynia, halfway between Proskurov and
Starokonstantinov. The name "Krasilov" [the root of the
word means “beautiful”] is a tribute to the beauty of the
surrounding area: wooded hills on the shores of the
tranquil river Sluch [Случь] and the
famous Podolia oak groves and orchards. The first
written record of Krasilov was in 1444, but this
territory was inhabited since the Neolithic period. Near
Krasilov there was the site of an ancient settlement,
surrounded by a moat and a rampart. Medieval Russia, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland and Grand
Duchy of Lithuania [Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth], and the Russian Empire after the second
partition of Poland - this is the list of countries with
which Krasilov has been associated. Crimean
Tatars’ plundering raids, short-lived Turkish
rule, slaughter of Khmelnytsky’s [1648] and Koliivschina
[1768] uprisings, pestilence, fires and pogroms - all this
happened to the people of Krasilov. Krasilov sovereigns
were Michael Olehnovich, a vassal of the Grand Duke of
Lithuania Svydrygailo (XV century), the princes
Ostrozhskys (late XV - XVI century), and Sapiehas (XVIII -
XX century).
Jews came to Krasilov at the turn of the XVI and
XVII centuries, and were all killed by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnytsky’s Cossacks. Jewish life has resumed
in the first half of the XVIII century. A large stone
synagogue was built in the late XVIII century.
In the second half of the XIX century the railroad
came through Krasilov. Two branches crossed here: Kiev -
Brest and Zhmerinka - Volochysk. The railroad opening
eased the supply of raw materials to the sugar factory
from the landlords’ economies; the economics of Krasilov
and the entire area improved.
In 1913 Krasilov housed the Petty Bourgeoisie
Council, the recruiting station, post and telegraph
office, district hospital, rope factory, Preygerzon’s
small leather factory, and machine shops, which later
developed into a machine-building factory. There was the
Great Synagogue and four prayer houses, a Jewish school
and a private women's college, and also the private
library, owned by Joseph Ber Landa. In 1847, there was a
Krasilov Jewish society of 1,737 souls. In 1897 there were
2,563 Jews in Krasilov, about 40% of the population. Among
the Jewish craftsmen were tailors, leather workers and
shoemakers, roofers, tinsmiths, carpenters, glaziers,
blacksmiths and metalworkers. There were poor widows and
small traders burdened with large families that depended
on the charitable support of the community. They were so
poor that, in the words of my father, a match had to be
split into four parts. But there were some very wealthy
people - tenants who ran steam mills and quarries, timber
merchants, and wholesalers. And there were those whom
Yu.D.Gzhimaylo (Ю. Д. Гржимайло), a local historian,
author of "Town over the Sluch" (Мiсто над Случем), 1992,
calls the "landlords". Since last decades of XIX centuries
estates of the last big landowners, members of
Sapieha-Chorba family, were divided into pieces and passed
from person to person, among them - Jews. |
