.
Gorodok, Ukraine
"Greiding", “Grayding” “Graydung”,
“Graydunk” (Yiddish) (Hebrew) הורודוק
“Horodok” [Ukr] Городок
,
“Gorodok” [Rus] , "Gorodok-Proskurovskiy” [Rus], “Gródek” [Pol]
Region: Podolia
Lat: 49°10’ N, Long: 26°34' E
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the Poles
retained Podolia until the partitions of their country in 1772 and 1793, when the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and Imperial Russia annexed the western and eastern parts respectively.”
(Source: Wikipedia)The following map shows that the Polish Lithuanian
Commonwealth at its formation controlled most what is modern day Ukraine.
(Source: Wikipedia) If shown on
this map, Gorodok would be located approximately 30 miles north of
“Kamieniec” in “Podolskie” province.
The Khmelnytsky
Uprising, 1648–1657, was a Cossack rebellion in Ukraine between the years
which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland. Widespread
atrocities were committed against the Jewish people by the Cossacks during
this period.
The Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667,
also called Thirteen
Years' War First Northern War, ]War for Ukraine was a major conflict between Tsardom of Russia and
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Russian Period 1793-1917
During the Russian period Gorodok was a small town in Kamenets
Podolsk County, which was a part of the Podolia Governorate. “The Podolia Governorate or Government of Podolia, set up after the Second Partition of Poland, comprised a governorate (guberniya) of the Russian Empire from 1793 to 1917, of the Ukrainian People's Republic from 1917 to 1921, and of the Ukrainian SSR from 1921 to 1925.” (Source: Wikipedia). The Podolia governorate (guberniya) was one of the designated areas in which the Czarist regime
permitted Jews to settle, i.e. the Pale of Settlement. Post
1917 Period
‘In April 1919 the
Volhynian Group units of the Army
of the Ukrainian National Republic fought several battles there against Bolshevik
forces. It (Gorodok) was a raion center in Proskuriv
okruha
(1923–30), Vinnytsia oblast (1932–7), and Kamianets-Podilskyi
oblast (1937–54). Machine
tools and foodstuffs are produced there.” [Source: Encyclopedia
of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988); as taken from the Internet
Encyclopedia of Ukraine] Gorodok An overview of the history of Gorodok can be found in this
article that appears on a Ukrainian website. The article refers to Gorodok as
one of the oldest cities in Ukraine and highlights the importance of the city
for Ukrainian Catholics. Gorodok celebrated its 650th anniversary
in 2012. Jewish History Jews
settled in Gorodok before 1630. In
the late 1640's and early 1650’s during the Khmelnitsky massacres the town
was devastated and the Jewish community was badly affected by Cossack raids. In 1653 the town was
besieged by a 30-thousand Bogdan Khmelnitsky army. Poles, Ukrainian Uniates
and Jews hid behind the walls of Gorodok Castle. Cossacks took the castle by
storm, destroyed it, and massacred everybody. As recorded by one of Bogdan
Khmelnitsky contemporaries, "... they spared neither nobility nor
riffraff." (Source:http://risu.org.ua/ua/relig_tourism/r_maps/regions/khmelnytska/gorodok/44462/) In the nineteenth century Jews played an important
role in the industrial and commercial development of the town during which
time it became a district center. (Source: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life
Before and During the Holocaust by Spector, Shmuel 2001, p. 446) Gorodok
business directories (refer to lower half of table) at end of the
nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries show Jews to have been
widely involved in commerce and manufacture. As
stated on the Town Life page, in the 1870s there was one synagogue and four
houses of worship (Beit Tfila). There was also one farm classified as
“Kosher”. (Source: Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego"
publ. 1881). By 1893 there were two
synagogues and five houses of workship (Beit Tfila). (Source: The "Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic
Dictionary" publ.1893). A good source of background information
relevant to Gorodok can be found in the article History of the Jews in
Podolia, located on the Jewish Gen website. The Jewish population of
Gorodok (percent in parentheses): 1765
- 645 Jews, 1870s
– 2500 (33%) 1893
– 3362 (42%) 1897
- 3194 (37%), In
the early 20th century 3,325 (42%) 1910
- 4.020 (36%), 1926
- 2,494 (30%), 1939
- 2329 (29%). Knowing
the number of Jews and their percentage of the population enables us to
calculate the total population of the town and, by extension, the total
number of non-Jews. Between 1910 and 1926 the Jewish population dropped by
1,526 or 38%, presumably reflecting to some degree the out-migration of the
residents to other countries of Europe and to North and South America. World
War I 1914-1917, the Ukrainian-Soviet War of 1917–1921, and
economic factors might also have been a factor in these population changes.
As the table below shows, the non-Jewish population also declined during that
period by almost 20%. Finally, from 1897 to 1910, there was a very large
increase in both the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, perhaps showing the
growing economic importance of the town. All of these factors need further
research to determine to what degree they explain the population changes in
the town.
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