Berdychiv

Berdychiv (, ; ; ; ) is a historic city in Zhytomyr Oblast, northern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Berdychiv Raion within the oblast. It is south of the administrative center of the oblast, Zhytomyr. Its population is approximately

The area has seen various cultural influences and political changes over time, from its early settlement by the Chernyakhov culture to its position within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and later, the Russian Empire. Berdychiv was an important trading and banking center in its heyday, but the town became impoverished after the banking industry moved to Odesa in the mid-19th century. Berdychiv was also a significant center of Jewish history, with a large Jewish population and an important role in the development of Hasidism. However, during World War II, the Nazis and their collaborators brutally massacred tens of thousands of Jews in Berdychiv. Before the Holocaust, about 80 percent of the town’s population was Jewish.

The city has seen continued conflict, with damage sustained during the Russian invasion of Ukraine beginning in 2022.

Name

In addition to the Ukrainian (Berdychiv), in other languages the name of the city is , and .

History

Early history

The territory on which the city is located was inhabited as early as the 2nd millennium BC. Bronze Age settlements and the remains of two settlements of the Chernyakhov culture were discovered here.

In 1430, Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas (великий князь литовський Вітовт) granted the rights over the area to Kalinik, the procurator (намісник) of Putyvl and Zvenyhorodka, and it is believed that his servant named Berdich founded a khutor (remote settlement) there. However the etymology of the name Berdychiv is not known.

In 1483, Crimean Tatars destroyed the settlement. In 1545, Berdyczów was mentioned as a property of the Polish-Lithuanian magnate Tyszkiewicz family, and in a 1546 document settling the border between Poland and Lithuania within the Polish–Lithuanian union.

Polish rule

According to the Union of Lublin (1569), Berdyczów passed to Poland within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was granted city rights in 1593 and was a private town, administratively located in the Żytomierz County in the Kijów Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province.

The fortified Carmelite monastery was built from 1627 to 1642 with funding from Janusz Tyszkiewicz Łohojski. In 1643, Bishop Andrzej Szołdrski laid the foundation stone of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Michael Archangel and Saint John the Baptist. Berdyczów became a Catholic pilgrimage destination and an important defensive fortress on the eastern flank of Western Christian civilization.

In 1687, Teresa Tyszkiewicz married , and Berdyczów passed to the Zawisza family of Łabędź coat of arms. Berdyczów flourished during the rule of Kings Augustus III of Poland and Stanisław August Poniatowski. which in 1777 printed the oldest Polish encyclopedia for children.

thumb|18th-century view of the Carmelite monastery (by Teodor Rakowiecki)

In 1768, Kazimierz Pulaski defended the city with his 700 men surrounded by royal army during Bar Confederation.

The town underwent rapid development after king Stanisław August Poniatowski, under pressure from the powerful Radziwiłł family, granted it the unusual right to organize ten fairs a year. This made Berdychiv one of the most important trading and banking centers in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and later, the Russian Empire. At the time, the saying "Pisz na Berdyczów!" ('Send letters to Berdychiv!') had an idiomatic meaning; because merchants from all over Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and the rest of eastern and central Europe were sure to visit the town within two or three months of each other, it became a central poste restante (post office box) of the region. Later, because of the phrase being used in a popular poem by Juliusz Słowacki, "Pisz na Berdyczów!" acquired a second meaning as a brush-off; "send me a letter to nowhere" or "leave me alone".

thumb|Ohel (tomb-prayer house) [[Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev]]

According to the census of 1789, Jews constituted 75% of Berdychiv's population. In 1797, Prince Radziwill granted seven Jewish families the monopoly privilege of the cloth trade in the town. By the end of the 18th century, Berdychiv became an important center of Hasidism. As the town grew, a number of noted scholars served as rabbis there, including Lieber the Great, Joseph the Harif and the Tzadik Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev (the author of Kedushat Levi), who lived and taught there until his death in 1809. Berdychiv was also one of the centers of the conflict between Hasidim and Mitnagdim.

In the Russian Empire

In 1793, after the Second Partition of Poland and the annexation of Right-Bank Ukraine to the Russian Empire, Berdychiv became part of the Volyn Province as a town of Zhitomirsky Uyezd. In 1798, it had 864 houses and 4820 people. The town was the administrative centre of the Berdichevsky Uyezd, a part of the Kyiv Governorate (1796–1925).

Trade began to decline since 1798, however it revived during the Napoleonic Wars in 1812–1814. In 1837, the Polish resistance organization was founded in the city. The banking industry was moved from Berdychiv to Odesa (a major port city) after 1850, and the town became impoverished again in a short period of time.

thumb|Early 20th-century view of the city

Until the mid-19th century, Berdychiv was one of the biggest cities in Ukraine as centre of grain and cattle trade and small-scale industry, such as mercery and shoemaking. and was famous for its cantors.

World War I and interwar period

By World War I, the city's population had reached around 100,000,

thumb|Former Red Cross Hospital

After the fall of Tsarist Russia, the town was under control of the newly formed Ukrainian People's Republic from 1917 to 1919. In early 1918 German troops passed through the city along with Ukrainian forces, including Sich Riflemen, and defeated the Bolsheviks. Polish troops also liberated dozens of Polish hostages, who were brought by the Soviets to the town from Zhytomyr.

In the 1920s, the Yiddish language was officially recognized and, beginning in 1924, the city had a Ukrainian court of law that conducted its affairs in Yiddish. In 1923, Berdychiv became the center of the district and district of the same name, and in 1937 it entered the Zhytomyr region.

By 1926 Jews compised 55% of Berdychiv's population.

The city suffered from the man-made famine Holodomor of 1932-1933. In 2008, the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide published the National Book of Memory of the Victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. Zhytomyr region. The book has 1116 pages and consists of three sections. According to historical records, more than 2,490 people died during Holodomor in 1932-1933.

In 1936, part of the Polish population was expelled by the Soviets to Kazakhstan. By 1939 Berdychiv's population consisted of 66,000 inhabitants. The ghetto was liquidated on 5 October 1941, when all the inhabitants were murdered. Eyewitnesses stated that Ukrainian auxiliary police aided the 25-member shooting squad in corralling Jews into the ghetto, policing it, and killing those who attempted to escape. One witness to a mass killing of Jews in Berdychiv said, "They had to wear their festivity-dresses. Then their clothes and valuables were taken. The pits were dug and filled in by war prisoners who were executed shortly after."

According to figures from the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission, a total of 10,656 individuals had been murdered here by the end of 1943.

The Nazis likely killed 20,000 to 30,000 Jews in Berdychiv, but a 1973 Ukrainian-language article about the history of Berdychiv says, "The Gestapo killed 38,536 people." ()

thumb|Although this photograph is often identified as [[The Last Jew in Vinnitsa it is now believed to show an unknown Jewish man—probably on 28 July 1941 in Berdychiv—about to be shot dead by Jakobus Onnen, a member of Einsatzgruppe C.]]

The Germans operated a Nazi prison, a forced labour camp, a Jewish forced labour battalion and temporarily the Stalag 339 prisoner-of-war camp in the town.

An infamous photograph from the Holocaust in Ukraine is believed by researchers to have been made at Berdychiv. The photo is known as The Last Jew in Vinnitsa, showing an unknown Jewish man—probably on 28 July 1941—about to be shot dead by a member of the Einsatzgruppen, a mobile death squad of the German . The victim is kneeling beside a mass grave already containing bodies; behind, a group of and Reich Labor Service men watch. Recent research has suggested that the photograph was probably taken at the abandoned Berdychiv Carmelite Monastery, which can be seen in an alternative print of the photograph, and not in Vinnytsia.

Berdychiv was the hometown of Soviet novelist Vasily Grossman, who worked as a war correspondent. Grossman's mother was murdered in the massacre. He wrote a detailed description of the events for publication in The Black Book, edited by Grossman and Ilya Ehrenburg, which dealt with the German treatment of Soviet Jews in the Holocaust. Originally meant for publication in the Soviet Union, it was banned there; one volume was eventually published in Bucharest in 1947. The original manuscript is in the archive of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. A detailed account of the massacre as told by the narrator's mother appears in a fictionalized context in Grossman's novel Life and Fate, which is widely available in an English translation by Robert Chandler.

Postwar era

Under the Soviet rule Berdychiv developed as a centre of sugar industry, machine building and light industry, and served as an important railway hub. Several establishments of higher education were active, as well as a theatre and a historical museum. The territory of the Carmelite Monastery was transformed into a historical reserve.

Demographics

{| border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="5" style="margin:auto;"

! style="background:#efefef;" | Year !! style="background:#efefef;" | Total population !!! style="background:#efefef;" | Jewish population

| 1789

| 2,640

| 1,951 (75%)

| 1847

| ?

| 23,160

| 1861

| ?

| 46,683

| 1867

| 52,563

| 41,617 (80%)

| 1926

| 55,417

| 30,812 (55.6%)

| 1941

| ?

| 0

| 1946

| ?

| 6,000

| 1972

| 77,000

| 15,000 (est)

| 1989

| 92,000

| ?

| 2001

| 88,000

| 1000

Ethnicity

Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:

Language

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:

{| class="standard"

! Language

! Percentage

| Ukrainian

| align="right"| 88.96%

| Russian

| align="right"| 10.59%

| other/undecided

| align="right"| 0.45%

Notable people

Alphabetically by surname. Pseudonyms treated as one word.

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), French novelist and playwright, married in Berdychiv
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924), Polish and British writer
John Demjanjuk (born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk; 1920–2012), Ukrainian-American accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out while serving as a guard at Nazi extermination camps during World War II
Der Nister, pen name of Pinchus Kahanovich (1884–1950), Yiddish author, philosopher, translator, and critic
Charles Joachim Ephrussi, the patriarch of the Ephrussi family grain dynasty
Lipa Feingold (1878–1945), American jeweler and composer
Abraham Firkovich, Karaite hakham
Polina Gelman, member of the Night Witches
Abraham Goldfaden (1840–1908), considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre
Israel Grodner (1887), one of the founding performers in Yiddish theater
Vasily Grossman (1905–1964), Soviet Russian writer and journalist
Hessye Halperin, mother of actor Jacob Pavlovich Adler (1855–1926)
Felix Lembersky, fine arts, painter (1913–1970), born and raised in Berdychiv, worked as theater stage designer
Osip Mikhailovich Lerner (Y. Y. Lerner), writer, critic, and folklorist
Raquel Liberman (1900–35), Jewish-Polish victim of human trafficking who broke up the notorious Zwi Migdal forced-prostitution ring in Argentina.
Viacheslav Mishchenko (born 1964), Ukrainian photo artist and painter
Mendele Mocher Sforim, pen name of Sholem Yankev Abramovich, Jewish author and one of the founders of modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature
Vsevolod Nestayko (1930–2014), Ukrainian children's writer
Pedotser, whose real name was A.M. Kholodenko (1828-1902), a Klezmer violin virtuoso
David Petrovsky (1886–1937) — the mayor of the city and the chairman of the Jewish community of Berdychiv in 1918–1919, a member of the Central Committee of the General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, a member of the Central Committee of the Jewish Socialist Federation and the Socialist Party of America, the editor of the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper in New York, journalist, political and economic scientist, the statesman of the Soviet Union.
Antoni Protazy Potocki, szlachta (owned and organized several factories in the village of Makhnivka, near Berdychiv)
Anatoliy Puzach (1941–2006), Soviet football player and Ukrainian coach
Sholem Aleichem, pen name of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich (1859–1916), leading Yiddish author and playwright, lived here doing research for his novels in the 1880s
Boris Sidis (1867–1923), Ukrainian American psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education
Valeriy Skvortsov (1945–) Soviet high jumper; European champion
Stempenyu, stage name of Iosef Druker (1822–79), a klezmer violin virtuoso and bandleader
Dmytro Tymchuk (1972–2019) Ukrainian Army Reserve colonel, "informatsiinyi sprotyv" group coordinator
Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev (Levi Yosef Yitzhak of Berdichev; 1740–1809), Torah commentator, chassidic rabbi, leader, religious songwriter, and leader of the Berditchev Hasidic dynasty.

Some sources erroneously claim that the pianist Vladimir Horowitz was born in Berdychiv. Horowitz's birth certificate unequivocally gives Kyiv as his birthplace.

Gallery

File:18-104-0005 Evropeyska 25.jpg|Church of St. Barbara

File:Berdychiw Karmelity Fronton dp.jpg|Carmelite monastery

File:18-104-0036 Berdychiv Monastery RB.jpg|Carmelite monastery

File:Житловий будинок. м. Бердичів.JPG|A dwelling house in Berdychiv

File:Комерційне училище (у минулому), нині педагогічний кледж.jpg|Former commercial college

File:Berdyczow Szewczenka 14 SAM 3966.JPG|Former hospital building

File:Особняк В. С. Гроссмана (photo by Karpenko Y).JPG|Grossman's Mansion, Berdychiv

File:Бердичів. Загребельна синагога (13).jpg|Synagogue

File:Berdyczow Nikolska church SAM 3958.JPG|Saint Nicholas Church

File:Пантеон на могилі цадика Леві Іцхака Бердичівського, Бердичів.jpg|Jewish cemetery

</gallery>

Berdychiv on stage

:See: Abraham Ellstein

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

"My Berdychiv" – history, present, people (in Ukrainian language)
Jewish History of Berdichev, Part 1 and Part 2 at Jewishgen.org
Berdichev at Simon Wiesenthal Center
Berdychiv lands from the earliest times to the beginning of the 20th century (1999, in Ukrainian language: Бердичівська земля з найдавнішших часів до початку ХХ ст.)
PBS Independent Lens: "Berdichev"
The murder of the Jews of Berdychiv during World War II, at Yad Vashem website
Holocaust and Remembrance in Berdychiv, at http://www.holocaust.kiev.ua