Medzhybizh

Medzhybizh Castle in 1871

The Orthodox church under renovation inside Medzhybizh castle. Originally built in 1586 as a Polish Catholic church.

19th-century mill buildings adjacent to the mill dam and the lake on the Southern Bug

Medzhybizh is first mentioned in chronicles as an estate in Kievan Rus. It was given to Prince Svyatoslav by the prince of Kyiv in the year 1146. In 1148, ownership transferred to Rostyslav, the son of Yuri Dolgoruky. The wooden fortress that stood there was destroyed in 1255. After the Mongol incursion, by 1360, the town and surrounding territory passed into the hands of the Lithuanians. The town suffered from numerous attacks by the Tatars in 1453, 1506, 1516, 1546, 1558, 1566, and 1615. In 1444 the town was incorporated into lands administered by Poland. In the 16th century, the territory was controlled by the Sieniawski and Potocki Polish noble families. In 1511 work began to replace the wooden palisades with massive stone fortifications, many of which can still be seen today. A dam was built across the Southern Bug river to provide a defensive lake, and a rhomboid Medzhybizh Castle with four towers was built. The state-of-the-art fortifications made Medzhybizh one of the strongest military sites in the region and led to the rise of its prosperity in the next three centuries. - In 1571 a census was recorded, listing the population as being made up of 95 Ruthenians, 35 Jews, and 30 Poles. In 1593 Adam Sienawski gave the town Magdeburg rights.

In the mid-16th century the Zasławski family, a Polish noble family, turned Medzhybizh into an impregnable fortress. The Zaslavskys used Medzhybizh as their base from which to defend the southern borders from the incursions of the Ottoman Turks and Crimean Tatars.[3]

In 1648 the cossack uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky captured the town 3 times and held the region for the period of 1 year. At the time, there were approximately 12,000 residents living in Medzhybizh and its environs. Of this number there were 2500 Jews living in Medzhibozh in the year 1648 out of a total Jewish population of Podolia of 4000 souls (spread between 18 communities). The massacre of Jews by the Cossacks under the command of Danylo Nechay and Maksym Kryvonis occurred July 20, 1648 in Medzhybizh, almost all 2500 Jews were either killed or taken into captivity at the time of the massacre.[4][5] The Jewish population in Medzhybizh was virtually eradicated, and there were no burials recorded for several years after 1648, consistent with depopulation.

Jan Casimir and Khmelnitsky negotiated a treaty in 1649, however, the hostilities continued in 1651 and 1653. In 1657 the Hungarian Prince Rákóczi took the city, ceding it to the Turks in 1672. It remained under their administration until 1682. By 1661, only a handful of Jews remained in Medzhybizh. In the 1678 census their numbers increased to 275 souls.

Weakened by the Cossack uprising, Podolia was invaded and occupied by Turkey in 1672. Medzhybizh became part of the Turkish Eyalet of Kamieniecki as "Mejibuji" and was a sanjak center with nahiyas of Mejibuji, Poloskiruf, Çornosturuf and Konstantın.[6]

In 1682, Medzhybizh was recaptured by the Poles under Jan Sobieski. However, Poles did not regain full control until 1699 because the town was frequently ravaged by ongoing struggles between the Poles and Turks.

After Medzhybizh was recaptured from the Turks, it went through what many consider its golden age during the 17th and 18th centuries. Under the Sieniawski family and later the Czartoryski family, the town prospered. Medzhybizh successfully defended itself from several Haidamak attacks. By the mid-18th century, Medzhybizh was the seat of power in Podilia Province. It had a population of nearly 5,000 of which there were 2,500 Jews.

In 1790 45-years old Kościuszko, who garrisoned here, fell in love with 18-years old Tekla Zurowska. There are known several love letters.[7] Due to age and apparent lack of financial resources on the side of Kościuszko, the parents didn't consent to wedlock, despite the fact the love was reciprocated.

In 1793, Medzhybizh fell into Russian hands during the second partition of Poland. The Czartoryski family continued to own the town until Prince Adam Czartoryski was forced into exile in 1831. During Russian rule, the seat of power for Podilia moved from Medzhybizh to Kamianets-Podilskyi. The economy of Medzhybizh deteriorated because the railroad line bypassed the town to the south. The nearby town of Letychiv, however, flourished.

In the late 1880s through World War I, Medzhybizh became a center of military activity, housing an important garrison within its castle grounds.

A commemorative plaque marks the place where the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko stayed in October 1846 participating in an archeological expedition. It is here that he composed his famous poem "Rozryta mohyla" – "The Ransacked Grave".

After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the territory was occupied by German and Hungarian troops until the end of World War I. Medzhybizh was the scene of numerous pogroms during the Russian Civil War (Ukrainian Civil War) of 1919–1922. The town changed hands many times as different militia units from either the Bolsheviks, Ukrainian Nationalists, Poles, or Whites gained temporary control. What little wealth was left was stripped in these pogroms, turning the entire area into ruins.

Under Soviet rule starting 1922, the region's economy improved. Electricity, schools, roads and other infrastructure were built. Several kolkhozi (collective farms) were established near Medzhybizh.

In the early 1930s, pressure from the government to break the peasant resistance to collectivization resulted in famines throughout Ukraine. Recently a museum dedicated to the memory of the many local inhabitants who died during the Holodomor was opened in Medzhybizh containing original documents from the area relating to the shooting of all villagers who opposed entering the kolhoz collective farms.[8]

Monument to the approximately 3,000 Medzhybizh Jews who were executed in three nearby ravines in 1942

Medzhybizh fell to German troops during Operation Barbarossa on July 8, 1941 with relatively light resistance. It remained under German occupation until it was liberated by Soviet forces on March 24, 1944.

Medzhybizh was astride an important east–west supply road that the German occupant's administration wanted to expand into an autobahn-like highway. This road led directly between the city of Proskuriv (now Khmelnytskyi) and routes westward into Germany and the city of Vinnytsia with routes to the eastern front. Vinnytsia was the site of Hitler's headquarters bunker in Soviet territory where he personally directed the war between 1942 and 1943.

The German Nazis set up Jewish ghettos in Medzhybizh and in Letychiv to assist Organisation Todt in providing slave labor for the road building project. Because of this special road project, Medzhybizh retained its Jewish population longer than most of the surrounding communities, where Einsatzgruppen units executed entire populations of Jews shortly after the beginning of German occupation. When the road project was completed in the summer of 1942, the Einsatzgruppen units were called in and three separate mass shootings of Jews occurred between August 21, 1942 and October 31, 1942 that murdered all Jews in the ghetto. Soviet authorities reported that a total of 2,558 Jews were murdered in ravines to the west of town.

Roman Shukhevych, commander of the Nachtigall Battalion stopped in Medzhybizh and there refused to fight against the Soviets for the Nazis until Yaroslav Stetsko was released from custody. The Battalion was disarmed and sent to Germany.

In 1959 the main Uspenska Cathedral was destroyed and the stones used for roads to the various farms around the city. In 1965 the Dominican Cathedral was blown up.

Until 18 July 2020, Medzhybizh belonged to Letychiv Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Khmelnytskyi Oblast to three. The area of Letychiv Raion was merged into Khmelnytskyi Raion.[9][10]

A large museum in memory of the victims of the Holodomor is located in the fortress. There is a number of expositions available to visitors explaining the tragic events of 1930–1932. The castle houses a small museum devoted to the Ukrainian history of the town.

Several Jewish sites are either being restored or were recently renovated as they have become an important Jewish tourist attraction. The old Jewish cemetery is the site of ongoing restoration efforts. The location of its famous graves are now protected by a modern building. The Apter Rav's shul is currently undergoing renovation. A complete re-creation of the Besht's shul was recently constructed on its original site.

A new hachnosas orchim building has been erected in 2012 and in 2015 on the Yom Hillula of the Baal Shem Tov that falls on Shavuos, another building to accommodate over 200 guests for sleeping was made available. Yisroel Meir Gabbai of Oholei Tzadikim, has built a mikvah connected and right by the spring of where the Baal Shem Tov use to immerse himself. The project took five years and cost an estimated $500,000. The premises are accessible 24 hours a day.

18th-century gravestones at the old Jewish cemetery in Medzhybizh

Gravestone of the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhybizh

Medzhybizh was the home to at least two synagogue buildings and numerous small minyanim. One synagogue still stands today but is used for other purposes. It was the synagogue of R. Avraham Yehoshua Heshel, the Apter Rov. In early 2008, it was bought by the Ohalei Zaddikim organization and is slated for reconstruction. The other synagogue, the Baal Shem Tov's old wooden synagogue, was torn down for firewood during World War II. It has recently been rebuilt according to plan.

Medzhybizh also contains two Jewish cemeteries. The old Jewish cemetery contains the grave of the Baal Shem Tov and other famous and notable Jews. It has turned into something of a tourist attraction, a magnet for Hasidic Jews from all over the world. The new Jewish cemetery has graves from the early 19th century through to the 1980s. A Nazi mass killing site outside of town holds the graves of almost 3,000 Jews in 3 different trenches.