Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

CHMIELNICKI, BOGDAN
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often been detained and tortured by the army; thousands have been killed in combat and
in executions, and many have also suffered rape and torture. Massacres have been frequent
since 1980. Mass detention has taken place, and thousands have been placed in so-called
cluster villages—effectively a form of concentration camp under the direct jurisdiction of
the army. In addition to all this, it has been alleged that the state supports the forcible
conversion of the Jummas (who include among their number Buddhists and Hindus) to
Islam, together with the destruction of Jumma temples and shrines. One of the fundamental
reasons for the persecution of the Jummas has been a desire on the part of the central
authorities to force the Jummas off their land in order to make way for large-scale
resettlement of Bangladeshis. Settlers have been able to take over land and even whole
villages from the Jummas; it has been estimated that the settlers now make up nearly onethird
of the total population of the CHT. Despite all this, on December 2, 1997, the JSS
managed to sign a treaty with the Bangladeshi government, though this has failed to guarantee
the necessary safeguards to the Jummas as it has not addressed the core issues of settler
encroachment and the ongoing militarization of the region.
Chmielnicki, Bogdan (c. 1595–1657). Antisemitic Cossack Ukrainian nationalist leader,
and rebel against Polish overlordship of Ukraine. In Ukrainian his name can be transliterated
as “Bohdan Khmelnytsky,” whereas in Russian it becomes “Bogdan Khmel’nitski.” Reference
to “Bogdan Chmielnicki” is thus a synthesis of the Ukrainian or Russian version of
his first name and the Polish variation of his surname, and it is that combination that has
most commonly entered general usage. Chmielnicki does not seem to have come from a
Cossack background, though he embraced both the Cossack cause and Orthodox Christianity
as he grew to maturity. Ultimately, he became leader of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
and hetman, or supreme leader, of Ukraine. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a vast
state incorporating Ukraine among its domains, experienced a number of rebellions against
its rule during the early seventeenth century, with the worst being led by Chmielnicki himself
between 1648 and 1654. The attempt to overthrow Polish rule became a civil war
between forces loyal to the Commonwealth and Chmielnicki’s Cossacks. The most obvious
representatives of Polish rule in many parts of Ukraine were Jewish Arendas, leaseholders of
estates, farmland, or mills, with hunting and fishing rights, who were given authority to collect
taxes from the Ukrainian peasantry on behalf of the Polish aristocracy and crown. It was
the Jewish Arendas who thus bore the full brunt of Cossack fury, and, as Chmielnicki’s Cossacks
swept through Ukraine, widespread destruction of Jewish towns and farms became
commonplace. Large-scale massacres of Jews occurred, with perhaps as many as one hundred
thousand Jewish deaths during the uprising. At least three hundred Jewish communities
were completely destroyed, as the Jews were deliberately targeted, first, because of their identification
with Polish rule and, second, because of their Jewishness. In 1654, Chmielnicki’s
Cossacks allied themselves with tsarist Russia, and the full weight of the combined Cossack
and Russian forces became too great for the Commonwealth to hold back. By the Treaty of
Pereyaslav (1654), Ukraine became a Russian territory.
The Chmielnicki massacres made a deep impression on the Jews of eastern Europe.
The despair generated by the massacres led indirectly to a rise in the number of messianic
pretenders over the course of the next hundred years—the most notable of
whom, Shabbetai Zvi (1626–1676), failed to deliver the Jews from their desolation and
cast them into a despondency that was relieved by only the appearance of the Ba’al
Shem Tov (c. 1700–1760) in the eighteenth century.