Ruzhyn (Ukrainian: Ружин; Polish: Rużyn; Russian: Ружин translit. Ruzhyn; Yiddish: רוזשין Rizhn) is an urban-type settlement in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic alphabet and Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High Urban-type settlement (посёлок городско́го ти́па posyolok gorodskogo tipa; селище міського типу selyshche mis'koho typu; Zhytomyr Oblast (Житомирська область translit Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe.
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History
Archaeological discoveries of stone tools and carvings, dating to 5000 BCE were made in the Ruzhyn area. This was termed the Trypillian culture. The Cucuteni culture, better known in the countries of the former Soviet Union as Trypillian culture or Tripolie culture, is a late Neolithic The nomadic Scythians controlled the area from approximately 500-300 BCE, replaced by the Sarmatians, who were based on the western banks of the Dniester. The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Dniester (Дністер translit Dnister; Nistru is a river in Eastern Europe. Later, a Hellenistic Antiv culture built a defensive wall near Ruzhyn, and extended its territorial reach to all the area between the Dniester & Dnieper Rivers. Hellenization (or Hellenisation) is a term used to describe the spread of Greek culture. Traces of this culture have been found with discoveries of coins, glassware, and ceramics, which date up to the fifth century CE. A 12th-13th century cross was found in Ruzhyn, attesting to the arrival of Christianity in the area. Sherbiv (as Ruzhyn was then known) was the home of a Mongol Khan, along with his 13 slaves. Khan, alternately spelled lowercase as khan, qāān for their chief between 283 - 289 and was used as a state title by the Rouran confederation
Ruzhyn's history is that of Ukraine, as a whole:
- founding of Kievan Rus in 885 by Count Oleg
- occupation by the Mongol Golden Horde in the mid-13th century
- occupation by Lithuanian nobles from 1398-1449
- the "Independence War" against Poland, led by Bogdan Chmielnitski from 1648-57, in which tens of thousands of Jews were massacred
Polish noblemen began to wield influence in the western Ukraine. Kievan Rus′ (Ки́евская Русь romanised: Kievskaya Rus', rusʲ also written as Kyivan Rus′ (Ки́ївська Русь or Kievan This article refers to the medieval Turkic state For the Irish rock band see The Golden Horde (band. This article discusses the history of Lithuania and of the Lithuanians. Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmel'nyts'kyi (Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький commonly transliterated as Khmelnytsky; known in PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ In 1596, one – Count Kirik Ruzhynsky – changed the name of the town from Sherbiv to Ruzhyn. In 1608, Kirik's brother Adam aided Dmitri – a false pretender to the throne in Moscow – to raise an army which consisted of a thousand horsemen. To raise the funds, he leased some of his lands and mortgaged the town of Ruzhyn to Kristof Kevlitch. With the defeat of Dimitri's revolt by the Romanovs, the Ruzhynsky properties fell into disarray. The House of Romanov (Рома́нов rʌˈmanəf was the second and last imperial Dynasty of Russia, which ruled the country from 1613 to 1917
In the mid-17th century, a cathedral was built in nearby Belilovka – and Chmielnitski's Cossacks marched through Ruzhyn for the first time on December 1648. The Cossacks (Каза́ки́ Kazaki; Козаки́ Kozaki; Kozacy are a group of martial people living in the southern Steppe regions of Eastern The land was subsequently partitioned and granted to Cossack officers. Forests were cleared for farming – and life became peaceful. By 1651, Ruzhyn was prospering. With a peace treaty signed between Russia-Ukraine and Poland in 1667, lands including Ruzhyn reverted to Polish control. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Ruzhyn was controlled soon after by Count Vishnievetsky.
In 1736, the local manager of Pavolich and Ruzhyn had 35 Jewish citizens killed, and their properties, valued at 180,000 zlotys, were confiscated. The złoty (/ˈzwɔtɨ/, plural for numbers ending in 2 3 and 4 (except 12 13 and 14 złote /ˈzwɔtɛ/ plural for all other numbers złotych /ˈzwɔtɨx/ The first burials in Ruzhyn's Jewish cemetery are thought to date to 1776.
Meanwhile, the Catholic cathedral was built in Ruzhyn, and in 1845 a 6-bed hospital was added to its holdings. The fabric industry, with the establishment of two factories, became a cornerstone of industry in the town. A leather factory, owned by August Wolf, started operations in 1862. Subsequently, brick factories, liquor distilleries, oil processing plants & steam-powered mills sprung up throughout Ruzhyn; as did a post office, another hospital, an Orthodox church and a synagogue. A synagogue (from Greek: grc συναγωγή transliterated synagogē, "assembly" he בית כנסת beit knesset, "house of
By 1906, Ruzhyn was a mixture of Ukrainians, Poles and Jews and surpassed 4,000 residents. Including the suburb of Balamutivka would have brought the total to over 6,000. Ukrainians were educated in state-run schools; Jews in heders and yeshivas; and Poles in clandestine Polish schools (in Balamutivka). A Cheder (alternatively Cheider, in Hebrew חדר, meaning "room" is a traditional elementary school teaching the basics of Judaism Yeshiva or yeshivah (jəʃi'və ( Hebrew: ישיבה "sitting (n The town, by 1908, had established a theatre, cinema, Catholic cathedral and its own electric power station.
With the onset of World War I, the army mobilized many citizens – and provisions and horses were demanded for the war effort. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Following a brief period of Ukrainian independence (1916-18), the Germans marched into Ruzhyn on February 27, 1918. They left one week after the Armistice, on November 18, 1918.
In a 1919 pogrom, Jews were robbed and beaten, and a large tribute was exacted from the community.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Joseph Stalin's Bolshevik government and troops called for provisions from Ukraine, the "bread-basket of the Europe". Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Under this "New Economic Policy", the peasantry's produce was harvested, through mandatory quotas, only to be shipped to the population centers of Moscow, St. Petersburg etc. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River During the period known today as the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, between 6-7 million Ukrainians were starved to death. The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season
Many strikes against this policy shook Ruzhyn. A top-secret report by the NKVD (precursor to the KGB) entitled "Counter-Revolutionary Activities in Ruzhyn District" reported that 70% of Ruzhyn and Balamutivka's 543 farmers had been grouped into a kolkhoz (a collective) and that there was a marked increase of "banditism", as people stole & scrounged for anything to eat. The NKVD ( НКВД, ru Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел ''Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del'') or People's Commissariat A kolkhoz () plural kolkhozy, was a form of Collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state Farms ( Sovkhoz,
During this period, cannibalism was witnessed in various places throughout Ukraine, among them, the Ruzhyn District. By 1939, the Jewish community dropped to 1,108 people.
Jewish and Hassidic history
It was at this time, that Ruzhyn became one of the most important centers of Hasidic Judaism. Hasidic Judaism (also Chasidic, etc from the Hebrew: he '''''חסידות''''', Chassidus, meaning "piety" from the Hebrew It is most famous for the presence and establishment of the "royal court" of a very important and legendary Hasidic leader. Rabbi Israel Friedman (1796-1850) was the great-grandson of the Maggid of Mezritch, the chief disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. Rabbi Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhyn ( 1797 - 1850) ( ישראל פרידמאן מרוז'ין) was a Hasidic Rebbe. Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch ( דוב בער ממזריטש (1704/1710(? &ndash 1772-12-04 OS) was a disciple of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Rabbi Yisroel (Israel ben Eliezer (רבי ישראל בן אליעזר August 27, 1698 (18 Elul &ndash May 22, 1760) often called Rabbi Friedman, commonly known – even today – as the Heiliger ("Holy") Ruzhyner, established Ruzhyn as a place of pilgrimage to other seeking deeper spiritual understanding. He was famous for his luxurious lifestyle – which he humbly espoused was an honor to the glory of the Torah.
Ruzhyn became one of the most important centers of Jewish learning in the world. Torah study is the study by Jewish people of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Responsa, Rabbinic literature and similar He sponsored the founding of one of the most important synagogues in Jerusalem – which was later named after him, the Tiferes Yisrael Synagogue. A synagogue (from Greek: grc συναγωγή transliterated synagogē, "assembly" he בית כנסת beit knesset, "house of Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the The impressive dome had been donated by Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria, who visited the synagogue on his way to the dedication of the Suez Canal. Franz Joseph I Karl (- German, in English Francis Joseph I Charles, see the name in other languages) (18 August 1830 &ndash 21 November The Suez Canal is a Canal in Egypt. Opened in 1869 it allows Water transportation between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation
In 1838, following accusations of having had informers murdered, the czar himself issued orders for the Rebbe's arrest. He spent 22 months in a Kiev dungeon, before spending six more months in a prison in Kamenitz. He was released, without ever being charged or tried, on Shushan Purim. Purim ( Hebrew: פורים Pûrîm " lots " related to Akkadian pūru) is a Jewish holiday that commemorates Hearing that the czar had ordered his re-arrest, the Rebbe fled to Kishinev (Moldova), then to Iasi (Romania) Austria, and then re-settled in Sadagora (Bukovina-Ukraine), where he founded a large synagogue and re-established his Hasidic court. Chişinău (kiʃi'nəw (also known as Kishinev, Кишинёв Kishinyov) is the capital and largest city of Moldova. Iaşi (pronunciation in Romanian: /jaʃʲ/ or Jassy, is a city and municipality in north-eastern Romania. Sadhora (Садгора Sadagóra Sădăgura סאדיגורא Sadigora also Sadiger) is now a Microraion of Chernivtsi city which is located 6km from He died ten years later, leaving six sons to continue his path. Each of them founded Hasidic dynasties in their own right.
By 1863, the town's population totaled 2,663, most of which were Jews. A winery was leased to one Yankel Shapiro in 1880 and managed by Shia Klatchny. The lease passed to Yankel's son, Abram, in 1896 who also leased a steam-powered grist mill. The sugar factory, in nearby Toporakh, was owned by Moshe Isayevich Gorovitz and run by his manager, Yosef Franzovich Lissel. A brewery was built, as was a 72-bed hospital, which catered almost exclusively to the Jewish community. The merchants of Ruzhyn were known for their highly-valued horses, where brought to Berdichev on market days. Berdychiv (Бердичів Polish: Berdyczów Берди́чев translit In 1890, Ruzhyn was administered by Anton Ossipovich Zlotnitsky. In 1897, of a total population of 5,016 people, the Jewish community numbered 3,599.
In 1905, the first rumblings of what would become the Bolshevik Revolution were heard in Ruzhyn. The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution Young Jewish workers in Ruzhyn, associated with The Bund, led by S. Ostrovsky distributed Socialist publications and called for strikes. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution In October of that year, several strikers (S. Ostrovsky, Y. Mogilevsky, L. Pavalotsky, S. Trusevich and V. Urinova-Rabinovich) were arrested and sentenced to prison terms in a gulag in the Archangel Gubernia in Siberia. The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Arkhangelsk (Арха́нгельск formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving With some wrangling, their parents arranged that they were to be allowed to go abroad for three years; under penalty of the gulag if they should return before the end of the term. However, with the czar wildly claiming that 90% of the revolutionaries were Jews, pogroms swept the Russian Empire – notably in Ukraine and Bessarabia (Moldova). The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Bessarabia ( Basarabia in Romanian, Бесарабія in Ukrainian, Бессарабия in Russian, Бесарабия in Bulgarian Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova ( Republica Moldova) is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania Pogroms, led by Cossacks – set for immediately after the Orthodox Easter - tore into the Jewish communities, killing and looting Jews in scattered towns & villages. A pogrom is a form of Riot directed against a particular group whether ethnic religious or other and characterized by destruction of their Homes Businesses The Cossacks (Каза́ки́ Kazaki; Козаки́ Kozaki; Kozacy are a group of martial people living in the southern Steppe regions of Eastern In Ruzhyn, Cossacks entered the heder, throwing the students out into the street. A Cheder (alternatively Cheider, in Hebrew חדר, meaning "room" is a traditional elementary school teaching the basics of Judaism
WWII and the Holocaust
The Germans, violating their own treaty with the Soviet Union (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement), invaded the USSR in 1941. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 On July 17 the German army seized Ruzhyn, intending to preserve the kolkhoz system – merely diverting the collected produce from its intended destination in Moscow to its own warehouses. The Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Ukraine Reich Commission was the civil administration of much of German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern All craftsmen were expected to contribute to the Nazi German Army. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Not only were provisions demanded (milk, foodstuffs, meat and warm clothing), but also an annual head tax of 200 rubles was imposed on the town. Resistance would be severely punished.
The Germans and local Ukrainian policeman ("Polizei") killed the Jews of Ruzhyn in many brutal stages. In a forest nearby, are three mass graves (killings occurred on 9/10/41), marked today by fencing and a plaque. There is one mass grave (where killings occurred on 5/1/42) on the outskirts of the town. An obelisk-shaped monument and plaque marks this large mass grave. This monument and those in the forest were constructed by a group of Ruzhiners after the war. Supposedly, another exists – whose location is still a mystery – but may be close to the three mass graves, in the forest.
The Germans organized local policemen, termed "Polizei" to carry out the killings of the Jews. One group, the "Oum" was led by Kostu Stepan Michalavich. The largest group of Polizei was led by Rodenko. While other members of these killing squads were hanged by the Soviets after the war, Rodenko was only arrested in the 1970's and died in prison, awaiting trial. The Red Army began to push the Germans out of the Ruzhyn area on December 24, 1943. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya
As far as Jewish history is concerned, the sanctification of the mass graves of the Jewish community of Ruzhyn is the last chapter.
Notable residents
- Rabbi Israel Friedman, the Ruzhiner Rebbe, sponsor of the Tiferes Yisrael Synagogue in Jerusalem. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the
- Berl Repetur, signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Berl Repetur (ברל רפטור 1902 – 23 March 1989) was a Zionist activist Israeli politician and one of the signatories of the Israeli The Israeli Declaration of Independence (הכרזת העצמאות Hakhrazat HaAtzma'ut or מגילת העצמאות Megilat HaAtzma'ut) made on 14 May
Nearby municipalities
- Pohrebysche (South)
- Skvyra (East)