SHTETLINKS SNITKOV
THE CIVIL NATURE OF JEWISH SNITKOV -
A SKETCH OF THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES
Population History
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (EJL, p. 1207) takes Snitkov back as far as 1765, when the area was still part of Poland. It reports a total of 281 Jews in residence then throughout the town and nearby villages. More than 130 years later, in 1897, when Snitkov had been firmly within the Russian Empire's Pale for a century, the Jewish population numbered 1,126 (out of a total population of 2,886 - or 39 per cent). In 1927, several years after the great waves of emigration and the firming of the Soviet regime, Snitkov numbered slightly more Jews than in 1897 - 1,181. The Road from Letichev (RFL) reports that in 1905 the community numbered 1,564 in 187 houses, somewhat higher than EJL's contemporary numbers,Civic Notes
With nearly two hundred households, the Jewish population ran the economic and social gamut from well off and 'balehbotisheh' (educated leading citizens), to the ignorant and poverty-ridden. The language Snitkov's Jews spoke was a particular Yiddish dialect called zhargon. This is a genuine dialect, and not a corruption of the French-English word 'jargon'.
Administratively, RFL puts it in the Letichev Uyezd (district) at the turn of the 20th century, and privately owned -- by a non-Jew, a typical situation; the landlord was one E. L. Ignatev (p. 818). However, according to the cover page of the 1892 tax poll, the 1883 Box and Candle Tax records (RAF), the Podolia Geographic Dictionary at JewishGen, and this author's great-uncles, it was in the Mogilev-Podolskiy uyezd, during at least the 1880s and 1890s.
Geography and Economic Activity
Despite its smallish size, lack of any distinctive feature or activity, and its distance from a major waterway or the later 19th century railroads of the Empire's modernization period, Snitkov was a dynamic town. In fact, the Empire's bureaucratic pyramid of community designations, awarded the shtetl of Snitkov 'mestechko ' or merchant village status, i.e., large and productive enough to be officially considered a type of town (RFL, p.818).
It was situated in the center of a spider’s web of local paths and roads linking several small villages and hamlets, and located in the middle of good farming land (c.f. 1942 Map ). The larger town of Mikhailpol (Mikhailovtsy) was less than 5 miles to the northwest. Four shtetlech were within four miles or less in various directions: Dolinyany (Dol’nyany), Supovka, Barok, and Krivokizhintsy (see all in ShtetSeeker), and there were several water mills nearby as well. Possibly this modestly central location - coupled with its residents’ energy - is what facilitated an economic growth beyond its size.In 1897, according to RFL, most of Snitkov's 40 stores or shops were Jewish-owned.
Women as well as men ran businesses, though a woman’s male relations might overtly act for her. The town also boasted more than one 'traktir' - inns with sleeping and possibly stabling accomodations, 'traveler's restaurants' where a bed might be thrown in at night, taverns and bakeries, general stores, fabric/clothing shops, and more. These were owned variously by Jews and Christians. The farmers and villagers lived in the surrounding hamlets. Though predominantly Christian, some were Jews,
Sources agree that economically, Snitkov's Jewish population was engaged mainly in commerce, either acting as agents or sub-agents, or retailing a variety of goods and services to the townspeople and to the rural population, and, most importantly, marketing the local farm production in town and to distant locations. In Snitkov’s shops, farmers bought implements and household goods which they could not provide for themselves, and the townpeople, Jewish and Christian, bought what they needed and could afford in the way of clothing and household items. The rural and village populations around the town also included many folk-art crafts-men and -women, mostly producing wooden items, fabric work or weavings. Snitkov’s merchants marketed these objects.
There was a large field or "square" at the town which may also have been a regular livestock fairground or market, and which was partly bounded by two churches.
(Comment: Despite the presence of an upper class, life in Snitkov was generally hard -- no surprise. My late father was a child there before World War One, and once recalled his grandfather in what struck us as odd terms:"He stood straight, tall, not like the others. His beard was white - clean.... I don’t remember him ever carrying anything."It turned out to be a reference to the working condition of Jewish traders and workmen, most of whom did not own wagons or horses, but were daily "carrying the Torah" as they called it -- bearing heavy packs of goods and farm produce on their backs, between the farmers and Snitkov, and out to the bigger markets. As my father was one of the last of many grandchildren, his grandfather may well have carried the Torah in his younger years.)
Jewish-Christian Relations
As to the Christian population, it’s interesting that there are some differences of expert opinion as to its size. Unlike the EJL, RFL states Snitkov's residents were almost all Jewish. There certainly were some Christians, as that is what makes a shtetl rather than a ghetto. My father’s late-life memoir soon to appear on this site recalls two churches (Greek and Russian Orthodox) and Christian businesses, which, if correct, suggests a Christian presence of some size in the town. All seemed to live in what democracies today consider normal compatibility. As a child he was not afraid to wander through the streets.
He also recalled some competition for the same consumer market - not that he or they used that term - between Christian and Jewish business owners. He wasn't aware of this spilling over beyond the commercial level, whatever the undercurrents. It is possible some of the Jewish traders or shopkeepers were sponsored by Christian landlords; a saloon-keeper might be an 'arendator', a lessee-cum-rent-collector (RJUTS); that would offer some protection - until the next spate of resentment of Jews as agents of "oppression", which my father never reported. Sometimes, depending on the current laws governing Jewish business restrictions (i.e., selling alcohol), a trustworthy Christian might be the owner of record or the 'face' of a business.
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Copyright Michelle Frager 2004.