The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth once was a large kingdom. Its political problems began in 1654-1667 when Bogdon Chelmenytsky, a Cossack, pledged to Russia, devastated the kingdom. Just prior to its division among Russia, Prussia, and Austria, Poland's Jewish population reached 430,000 (excluding Eastern Galicia). In Lithuania, there were 157,300 Jews. History of the Jewish People.
The economic breakdown in the Commonwealth in the second half of the 17th century has often been seen as a result of the destruction of the country caused by wars. There were also other depressing factors present that affected at that time large portions of Europe, to which the manorial, serfdom-based economy of the Commonwealth had tried to adjust. The particular solutions adopted resulted eventually in deterioration of the effectiveness of agricultural practices, lower productivity and …show more content…
Having just celebrated the seventh day of Passover, the city's 50,000 Jews (a third of the popula¬tion) now fell prey to barbarism. Four who tried to defend 13 Asia St. on Monday were killed; a boy's tongue was cut out while the two year old was still alive. A group of 150 Jews in the New Bazaar succeeded in driv¬ing away their aggressors until a police officer arrested some of these defenders and broke up the remaining body. Meyer Weissman, blinded in one eye from youth, begged for his life with the offer of sixty rubles; taking this money, the leader of the crowd destroying his small grocery store gouged out Weissman's other eye, saying: "You will never again look upon a Christian child." Nails were driven through heads; bodies, hacked in half; bellies, split open and filled with feathers. Women and girls were raped, and some had their breasts cut
The economic breakdown in the Commonwealth in the second half of the 17th century has often been seen as a result of the destruction of the country caused by wars. There were also other depressing factors present that affected at that time large portions of Europe, to which the manorial, serfdom-based economy of the Commonwealth had tried to adjust. The particular solutions adopted resulted eventually in deterioration of the effectiveness of agricultural practices, lower productivity and …show more content…
Having just celebrated the seventh day of Passover, the city's 50,000 Jews (a third of the popula¬tion) now fell prey to barbarism. Four who tried to defend 13 Asia St. on Monday were killed; a boy's tongue was cut out while the two year old was still alive. A group of 150 Jews in the New Bazaar succeeded in driv¬ing away their aggressors until a police officer arrested some of these defenders and broke up the remaining body. Meyer Weissman, blinded in one eye from youth, begged for his life with the offer of sixty rubles; taking this money, the leader of the crowd destroying his small grocery store gouged out Weissman's other eye, saying: "You will never again look upon a Christian child." Nails were driven through heads; bodies, hacked in half; bellies, split open and filled with feathers. Women and girls were raped, and some had their breasts cut