Bratslav Брацлав, בראַסלעװ Bracław | |
|---|---|
 Church of Our Lady of the Scapular | |
 Coat of arms | |
  Bratslav Location of Bratslav Show map of Vinnytsia Oblast Bratslav Bratslav (Ukraine) Show map of Ukraine | |
| Coordinates:48°48′53″N28°56′41″E / 48.81472°N 28.94472°E /48.81472; 28.94472 | |
| Country |  Ukraine |
| Oblast | Vinnytsia Oblast |
| Raion | Tulchyn Raion |
| Hromada | Bratslav settlement hromada |
| Founded | 1362 |
| Area | |
• Total | 19.2 km2 (7.4 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 201 m (659 ft) |
| Population (2022)[1] | |
• Total | 4,872 |
| • Density | 254/km2 (657/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+02:00 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+03:00 (EEST) |
| Postal code | 22870—871 |
| Area code | +380 4331 |
Bratslav (Ukrainian:Брацлав,IPA:[ˈbrɑtslɐu̯];Yiddish:בראַסלעװ) is arural settlement inUkraine, located inTulchyn Raion ofVinnytsia Oblast, by theSouthern Bug river. It is amedieval European city and a regional center of the EasternPodolia region (seeBracław Voivodeship) founded by government of theCrown of the Kingdom of Poland, which dramatically lost its importance during the 19th–20th centuries. Population:4,872 (2022 estimate)[1]
In addition to theUkrainianБрацлав (Bratslav), in other languages the name of the city isPolish:Bracław andYiddish:בראַצלעוו or בראַסלעװ,Bratslev. Today also pronounced Breslev orBreslov as the name of aHasidic group, which originated from this town.
The first written mention of Bratslav dates back to 1362. City status was grantedMagdeburg Rights in 1564. Bratslav belonged to theGrand Duchy of Lithuania until theLublin Union of 1569, when it became avoivodeship center in theCrown of the Kingdom of Poland as part of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In the early 16th century, theStarosta of Bratslav andVinnytsia (Winnica) wasHetmanKostiantyn Ostrozky, who commanded Polish–Lithuanian army in theBattle of Orsha. Nevertheless, Ostrozky was unable to protect Bratslav and its castle from destruction in 1497, when the town was raided byCrimean Tatars. The castle was rebuilt and reinforced by order of Polish KingAlexander I Jagiellon, but it was destroyed once again, in 1551, during a Tatar raid commanded byKhanDevlet I Giray, after which Bratslav turned into a desert.
In 1564, Bratslav was grantedMagdeburg rights, and five years later, following theUnion of Lublin, it was annexed by theKingdom of Poland, becoming capital of theBratslav Voivodeship, which existed for over 200 years. During this time, Bratslav (then named Bracław inPolish) by the authorities, was property of Polish kings, and was ruled by the starostas.
In 1570, a special commission of the PolishSejm marked boundaries of the Bratslav Voivodeship. In the west, it reached theDniestr and the Murachwa rivers, in the north it went along the so-called Black Tatar Trail. With top-quality soil, the so-calledchernozem, Bracław Voivodeship was the most fertile region ofPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1589 inWarsaw, the Sejm granted coat of arms to the town: a cross in red field, with blue shield in the middle. In 1598, Polish Parliament decided to move the seat of local courts andsejmiks from Bratslav to Vinnytsia, and as a result, Winnica became a de facto capital of the voivodeship, even though it was still named after Bracław.
On 5 October 1594Zaporozhian Cossacks underSeveryn Nalyvaiko murdered, nearBratslav Castle, atabor of the localPolish nobility, who tried to escape theNalyvaiko Uprising. In 1648, during theBohdan Khmelnytsky rebellion, Bracław became aCossack regimental city, part of the UkrainianHetman state, which was later assimilated by theTsardom of Russia. In 1667, under theTreaty of Andrusiv, Russia returned the city to Poland. The city was ruled by theOttoman Empire between 1672 and 1699, returning then to Poland once more. It became part of theRussian Empire after theSecond Partition of Poland in 1793, along with the rest of the formerly PolishRight-bank Ukraine. Under Russia, Bratslav was anuezd (district) center in thePodolia Governorate. As the city had no access to arailroad, its importance and population gradually declined.
Bratslav is famous inJudaism as the place whereRabbi Nachman lived and taught between 1802 and 1810. Rabbi Nachman was the founder of one of the major branches ofHasidism,Breslover Hasidism, and an author of Jewish mystical works. After the 1917 revolution Judaism had been strongly persecuted. The history of this persecution is well illustrated by the life of Bratslav rabbi Moishe Yankel Rabinovich who served as a rabbi from 1919 to 1968.[3]
In 1926 Bratslav had a population of 7,842 (Source=Columbia-Lippincott Gazetteer).
During World War II, Bratslav was occupied by German and Romanian armies on 22 July 1941, and was made into a ghetto for Jews of Bratslav and its vicinities. According to Romanian reports, there were 747 Jews in Bratslav in the end of December 1941. On 1 January 1942 most Jews were transferred to an extermination camp, and 50 people were drowned in the South Bug river. Two labor camps for German construction companies Todt-Dorman and Horst und Jessen were opened in August 1942. They hosted about 1,200 Jews deported from Romania, as well as about 300 Ukrainian Jews. The labor schedule was designed to exhaust all prisoners: work in masonry, without days off, from dawn till dusk, with a 30-minute lunch break. On 23 September 1942 all elderly and children were shot in a neighboring forest. The executions continued regularly after that date. In April 1943, Todt-Dorman camp was closed, and the prisoners were transferred to Horst und Jessen. Bratslav was part ofTransnistria Governorate inKingdom of Romania till its liberation on 17 March 1944 byRed Army.
Until 26 January 2024, Bratslav was designatedurban-type settlement. On this day, a new law entered into force which abolished this status, and Bratslav became a rural settlement.[4]
355 yard(1849), 5,085(1858), 7,217(1885), 6,148(1888), 8,260(1893), 7,863(1897), 10,342(1905), 5,607(1923), 7,842(1926), 3,974(1939), 3,964(1959), 4,359(1970), 6,622(1979), 6,386(1989), 6,044(2001), 5,643(2011), 4,995(2021)
Distribution of the population by native language according to the2001 census:[5]
| Language | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Ukrainian | 91.7% |
| Russian | 8.1% |
| other/undecided | 0.2% |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
