"City on the Border": Uman as an urbanized space of inter-ethnic compromise (interaction) or conflict? (1616-2018)

Abstract

Each city has its own history, but not every city emerges and develops on the frontier. Uman was the zone of several frontiers: geographical, civilizational, military, political, ethno-confessional, and cultural. While the frontier was moving, the city remained where it was, with its own internal borders already formed. Uman as a locality appeared on the Great Steppe Frontier. The first written mention dates back to 1616. Since then, the city has been the centre of magnate latifundias (Kalinowski, Potocki), an administrative-territorial centre (regiment, county, district), an important military unit (a regiment, a centre of military settlements, a permanent troops disposition), playing a significant role in the economic development of the region. During the 17th-18th centuries, Uman was one of the most important fortresses in the region, where the interests of the Commonwealth, Zaporozhian Sich, later the Zaporozhian Army, the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire, Moldova and many others clashed. With the 1793 Second Partition of Poland, Uman became part of the Russian Empire until 1917. The events of the 20th century had a great impact on the city, which, due to its rich and controversial past, has formed bright ethnic-confessional and mental features. The history of Uman has always been interpreted differently, because since its foundation, it has hosted representatives of various ethnic communities and social states, with their mentality and religious denominations - Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Armenians, Moldovans, and others, - who conflict, interact, cut corners to coexit in its urbanized space. The 400-year-old history of Uman with many tragic and heroic pages creates its tourist potential, with 20 % of all historical, architectural and cultural sites of Cherkasy region concentrating here.