Haidamaka

Hajdamaken ( from the Turkish haydamak, hajdamak - Raiders, Hungarian - lightly armed warriors) were peasants and Cossacks who took part in Ukraine right of the Dnieper ( Dnipro ukrain. ) on the so-called Hajdamakenaufstand 1768.

Throughout the 18th century, the rural population was exploited by the Polish szlachta of feudalism. 1768 then became a relentless peasant uprising in the struggle against foreign domination. Were led insurgent Hajdamaken of the Zaporozhian Cossacks Maksym Zaliznyak and deserting from the Polish Guard officer Ivan Honta.

With the introduction of serfdom by the Polish nobility worsened the living conditions of the rural population. The Hajdamaken taught at a horrible massacre (June 1768) in the town of Uman, where the Polish nobility had fled. In addition to the Polish nobility were also Jesuits and members of the Uniate Church, which were regarded as allies of the Catholic Poles, as well as many Jews victim of the fury of the insurgents. Jews formed in Galicia and Volhynia long time the middle class between Polish landowners and the Ruthenian peasants. They were active as merchants and innkeepers, often referred to as estate manager and tax collector of the nobility, which they had made ​​during the uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky mid-17th century the target of hatred.

In the poem Hajdamaken Taras Shevchenko describes the situation at that time the Ukrainian peasants.