Ustym Karmaliuk

Ustym Karmlyuk by Vasily Tropinin

Ustym Yakymovych Karmаliuk (or Karmeliuk Ukrainian: Устим Якимович Кармалюк (Кармелюк)) (March 10, 1787 – October 22, 1835) was a Ukrainian peasant outlaw who became a folk hero. He is often referred to as the "Ukrainian Robin Hood" and "the last Haydamak".

Early Age

Karmalyuk was born a serf in the settlement of Holovchyntsi in Lityn uyezd of Podolie Governorate. There is little known about his early life except that he possessed some literacy and was fluent in Russian, Polish and Yiddish, besides his native Ukrainian language, as attested by the police documents of the time. He was taken by his owner at the age of 17 to work as a servant in the manor, but was notoriously insolent. As a result his owner decided to forcibly send him into Russian military service, in order to remove him from others whom he was inciting to rebellion.

Established Revolutionary

Karmaliuk was enlisted to serve in the Imperial Russian Army in Kamianets-Podilskyi. He was forcibly inducted into the Russian Imperial Army, and served in the Napoleonic Wars of 1812 in an Uhlan regiment, but eventually escaped and organized rebel bands who attacked merchants and landowners, while distributing the booty between the poor. He was captured in 1814, and was sentenced in Kamianets-Podilskyi to run a gauntlet of 500 "spitzruten" blows, a typical military punishment. He was then sent to serve out the 25-year term of service in a military unit in the Crimea, but he fled again, returning to northern Podilia. Once again he organized rebel bands in Proskuriv, Letychiv, and Lityn regions, attracting a wide support base among the serfs, Jews and even Poles. The rebellions intensified over the years, and then had spread not only to other parts of Podilia, but also to the neighboring provinces of Volynia, Kyivshchyna, and Bessarabia. Karmaliuk escaped from the castle where he was held captive, but was captured yet again in 1817-18. The second time, he was sentenced to 25 blows with the knout in front of the town hall and sent to far-away Siberia. In 1822, Karmaliuk was arrested yet again and jailed for the third time in the castle's Pope's Tower.[a] On the night of March 12–13, 1823, Ustym Karmaliuk organized an escape with his fellow inmates, during which he was injured and captured just two weeks later. In April 1823, Karmaliuk was sentenced to 101 hits with the knout in front of the town hall. Karmaliuk's mishaps and numerous arrests have caused 20,000 Podolians to be oppressed. By the early 1830s Karmaliuk's guerrilla army was approximately 20,000 strong, with over 1,000 raids on the estates of the Polish and Russian landowners over a 20-year period. The response of the Tsar was to station military units in those regions hardest hit by Karmaliuk. Karmaliuk was caught four times and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia, but escaped each time, returning to Lityn and Letychiv Districts. A tower in the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle bears the name of its famous prisoner.

Unlike the Haidamaks of the previous century Karmaluk bore no ill will towards the poor of all ethnic groups and minorities in Ukraine, Jews in particular, and as a result they supported him en masse. His close companions were the Poles Jan and Alex Glembovski, Feliks Jankovski and Alexander Wytwycki and Jews Avrum El Itzkovych, Abrashko Duvydovych Sokolnytsky and Aron Viniar. Many Jews were prosecuted for participating in Karmalyuk's raids and aiding and abetting him. In general, Karmalyuk inspired unprecedented loyalty in all his supporters.

Karmalyuk's death

On October 22, 1835, a Tsarist posse closed in on the Karmaliuk gang at the house of a Ukrainian peasant by the name of E. Protskova, in the hamlet of Shlyakhovi-Korychyntsi near Derazhnia. There, they successfully ambushed the gang. Karmaliuk was shot and killed, at the age of 48. His body was brought to Letychiv where he was buried. A monument in his honor has been erected there in the 20th century. The man who killed Karmaliuk, Polish nobleman F. Rutkovsky, was given a medal by the Tsar himself and was granted a pension for life. According to the legend, Karmalyuk was impervious to bullets, and was killed by the only thing that could get him, a lead garment button.

Karmalyuk in Art and Literature

Karmalyuk is a subject of many art- and folk-songs. He is sometimes referred to as "the Houdini of Podilia", as no prison was able to hold him for very long. Affectionately, he is known as the last Haidamak of Ukraine.

Karmaliuk was the subject of three portraits by Russian painter Vasily Tropinin. There are a few different versions of Karmaliuk's acquaintance with the artist. According to one version Tropinin was introduced to Karmaliuk by his friend physician Prokopy Danylevsky, who had given medical help to Karmaliuk people. According to another version, Tropinin painted Karmaliuk inside prison. Three portraits of Karmaliuk by Tropinin survive. One is kept in the Nizhny Tagil art museum, another is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery and the third is in the Russian Museum.

Karmalyuk was the subject of a number of poems by the songwriter Tomasz Padura, some of which became folk songs.

Footnotes

a.^ In honor of Karmaliuk, the Pope's Tower where he was frequently held captive in is also referred to as "Karmaliuk's Tower."

Bibliography