Emergence , showing the areas of Right-bank Ukraine where haidamaks based their activities The term "haidamak" was used in Polish and
Muscovite sources in relation to Cossacks starting from the time of
Khmelnytsky Uprising in the mid-17th century. However, the emergence of haidamaks as a separate phenomenon is related to the consequences of the
Treaty of Prut, which was signed in 1711 and led to a renewed partition of Ukraine between Muscovy and Poland. Starting from that time, Cossacks loyal to
hetman Pylyp Orlyk and the
Zaporozhian Sich engaged in raids on Right-bank Ukraine in order to expel the Polish administration from the area. Those "unruly Cossacks" became widely known as haidamaks. The first mention of the work "haidamaka" in official documents dates from 1717. Haidamaks waged war mainly against the Polish
nobility and collaborationists in
Right-bank Ukraine, though the movement was not limited to the right bank only, and they participated in
Zaporozhian raids on the
Cossack szlachta in
Left-bank Ukraine as well. The latter raids occasionally deteriorated to common robbery and murder, for example in the so-called
Matsapura case in the Left Bank in 1734. The haidamak movement included representatives of various social strata: peasants, townspeople, impoverished nobles, Cossacks and even monks. They engaged in attacks against merchants, officials and small army units, robbed warehouses and destroyed estates. Haidamak outfits were usually led by Zaporozhian Cossacks not aligned with any neighbouring power. Living in the lands of Zaporozhian Sich,
Cossack Hetmanate and
Ottoman Ukraine, they remained outside of the reach of Polish authorities, and many even took official positions in government and military. From time to time, haidamaks would gather in military encampments (
sich) to prepare for the next campaign. Local population in
Dnieper Ukraine, including monks from local
Orthodox monasteries, widely supported the rebels, recognizing them as protectors of their civic, religious and economic rights, delivered them food, supplied with weapons, provided shelter and warned about enemy presence. Many joined the ranks of haidamaks themselves. and the
Haidamaka hang a Jew by his heels. Ukrainian folk art, 19th century Usually gathering in spring, when trees started providing cover for their movements, One of the main centres of haidamak activity was the
Motronyn Monastery near Chyhyryn, then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1717 the post of its
hegumen was taken by a former Cossack
sotnyk Ustym Sakhnenko (clerical name Ignatius), who headed the monastery for almost 40 years and turned it into a refuge for Zaporozhians. The first big wave of haidamak rebellions, which took place in 1729–1730, saw the emergence of rebel bands in nearby Chyhyryn and Medvedivka. The insurrection spread to
Podolia and
Volhynia. After
Augustus III gained the throne of Poland-Lithuania in 1734, the Russian military suppressed the uprising, although small raids by haidamakas against Polish nobility continued in the following years under the leadership of
Hnat Holy.
1750 Captured haidamaks were executed according to the norms of
military law, with many of them being hanged on the Russian-Polish border as a warning. Despite such measures, by 1737 haidamak bands were once again raiding the area, and their activity was registered in the outskirts of
Letychiv, Smila,
Bila Tserkva, Sharhorod,
Nemyriv,
Lysianka and
Subotiv. Between 1737 and 1741, 110 Cossacks were hanged by the military administration of
Uman on suspicion of haidamak activities. Due to the lack of military personnel in the
Commonwealth army, many squads fighting haidamaks consisted of fellow Cossacks, who were in many cases unreliable. Authorities of Russian Empire, in their turn, issued demands to exterminate the haidamak movement in Zaporozhian territories to the Sich leadership, and dispatched troops to aid them, but those were in many cases inefficient and couldn't stop the growth of the movement. A spark which ignited the new rebellion was the uprising of
Bar Confederation, whose supporters issed the motto of "defense of faith and freedom", forcibly convening the local population in
Kaniv, Chyhyryn and Smila, making them pledge allegiance to their revolt and threatening to eradicate the "schismatics". In late March 1768, a Cossack named
Maksym Zalizniak, who at the time served as a monk at the Motronyn Monastery, was visited by several Zaporozhians headed by Yukhym Shelest, who presented him a letter supposedly written by the
kish otaman, urging them to start a campaign against the Confederates and Jews. The original letter was never discovered, and Shelest himself was killed in a quarrel several days later, but the rumours about the upcoming rebellion spread around the vicinity, and by the end of April up to 1000 insurgents had gathered in
Kholodny Yar not far from the monastery. They elected Zalizniak otaman, and one of the priests performed a
moleben for the success of the campaign. In late May, following the entry of Russian forces into Right-bank Ukraine, the detachment left Kholodny Yar, and in early June Zalizniak issued
universals, calling for the murder of Poles and Jews. Among the locals, stories emerged about the existence of a "Golden Charter", supposedly issued by
the empress and allowing to destroy the whole Polish and Jewish population. Contemporary observers considered the rebellion to be a consequence of a deliberate provocation by Russian authorities, who aimed to use social tensions, xenophobia and religious fanaticism of Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks for their own benefit. Zalizniak's squad soon increased its size to 2,000, and passed across nearby cities and villages such as Medvedivka,
Zhabotyn, Smila,
Korsun,
Bohuslav, Kaniv and Lysianka, slaughtering their Polish and Jewish inhabitants. On 20–21 June Zalizniak's forces approached Uman, which was guarded by the local militia of
Potocki family headed by
Ivan Gonta. After the town had been surrounded, Gonta joined the rebels, and the fortifications were soon overwhelmed. As a result, thousands of people, most of them Jews, Poles and Uniates, both local inhabitants and
refugees from nearby areas, were
massacred. Among the victims were 400 students of the local
Basilian college, whose bodies were thrown into wells. Along with Zalizniak's detachment, around 30 smaller rebel squads were active during the rebellion, which spread across the territories of Kiev and
Bracław Voivodeships, as well as large chunks of Volhynia and Podolia. In captured territories the nobility,
Ukrainian Catholics,
Jesuits and above all the Jews, were murdered
en masse, which led to a quick response by the Polish army. In late June or early July, one of the haidamak bands crossed the
Ottoman border and burned the town of
Balta, causing an international scandal. As a result, Russian troops encircled the main haidamak encampment near Uman and arrested over 1000 people. Most of them, being subjects of the Commonwealth, were transferred to the Polish side, while the rest were transported to
Kyiv. Those haidamaks delivered to the Poles were executed, with Gonta himself being
quartered. Those kept by the Russian side, among them Maksym Zalizniak, were sentenced to
whipping and tagging, had their nostrils torn and were exiled to
Nerchinsk katorga. The last flare-up of the haidamak violence occurred in 1830s, during the
Ustym Karmaliuk rebellion. This final chapter of haidamak history was unique in large part due to the support the rebellion enjoyed not only among the peasantry, but also among the Poles and the Jews, who were marginalized and rendered destitute by the Russian Empire. ==Tactics and structure==