Plyskiv

Plyskiv (Ukrainian: Плисків, Russian: Плискoв, Polish: Plisków) is a village in Pohrebyshche Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. Population is 1,439 (2006).

Pliskov was first mentioned in Polish archive documents in 1552. Pliskov was settled on the banks of the river Rosen (Ros), by the German Jews who were given permission by the Polish King to settle in the Polish Kingdom (Rzeczpospolita). In 1795, this place became part of the Russian Empire ( after the partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria-Hungary), and was already named Pliskovo. The name “Pliskov” originates from the bird Pliska (Плиска) that lived in the woods around Pliskov.

Before the October 1917 Revolution, there were three synagogues, a bath house by the river, a cemetery, two drug stores, two hotels, four smithies, four mills, three water mills and a steam mill, two barber shop, a diner, and many stores and workshops inside the shtetel center. Once a week a big market was arranged at the Market Place, where peasants sold their goods and bought the goods that the Jewish shop owners and craftsmen were selling.

There were 220 houses in Pliskov, in which, according to the first census conducted in 1892, lived 1,320 Jews. The houses varied. Wealthy families lived in good quality brick houses with tin roofs. Poorer families lived in houses with thatched roofs. Pliskov was famous for its mineral spring named “Brover”. In the wintertime it did not freeze, and in the summertime, even during the hottest days, water did not disappear and was always cold. All year round the water-carrier delivered water from this spring to the customers who paid a small fee for the service.

For 300 years Pliskov was a small Jewish town (shtetl), first in Poland than Russia, USSR and finally destroyed by Nazi Germany and local Nazi collaborators during World War II . The Jewish population of Pliskov and surrounding shtetls, such as Pogrebishche, Justingrad, Lipovets, Shpicentsy, Zhivotovo, Dashev and Tetiev were often victims of Pogroms, assaults and persecution which took place from the days when these towns came into being and until their complete disappearance after World War II (1939-1945). Khmelnickiy’s Cossacks (1648-1654), Gaydamaks (1736-1768), Pogroms of late 19th and early 20th century (most notable Pliskov Pogrom of 1914), Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War (1917-1921) and finally World War II are a few of the most notable events which made Jewish life difficult in Pliskov and in Eastern Europe in general. There were pogroms organized by Petlura’s and Denikin’s gangs. Also pogroms and massacres of Jews in 1918-1919 organized by the White Armies as well as detachments of Red Army soldiers. In the summer of 1920, Red Cossacks of the Budenniy Army also robbed Jews. All of these pogroms, robberies and murders forced many Jews to seek refuge in the United States.

...
Wikipedia