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Historical and Geographical Background
Oleksa Dovbush (Dobosh, Dobosz, Dowbusz [1700-45]), also known as Dovboshchuk, was a famous leader of the opryshoks (oprishki, opryszki) in 1738-45. The opryshoks were social brigands, 'noble robbers', and can be defined as representatives of an anti-feudal and national liberation movement active in the Carpathian Mountains, mostly in the Hutsul region, Pokuttia and Bukovyna (Bukowina, Bucovina), from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. There is no general agreement among specialists on the term opryshoks. It is variously explained as deriving from the Russian words ryskat' (scour, hunt after, prowl), oprichnik (private person), oprochnik (separated, asunder), the Romanian opresk (to forbid), or the Latin 'oppressor' (in the sense of violator, disturber, destroyer of the rich, primarily the shliakhta or szlachta, i.e. the Polish nobles). This term appears in historical documents as early as 1529 (Hrabovets'kyi 1994, 42; Myshanych 2003, 113f.).
The Carpathian Mountains are a borderline area; they marked the southernmost border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rich Pospolyta), and after it was partitioned in 1772 they became the southern border of the Habsburg province of Galicia (Halychyna in Ukrainian). The section of the Galician Carpathians between the Prut and Cheremosh (Czeremosz) rivers, which flow into the Dnister (Dniestr), is known as Pokuttia (Pokucie). This is a region where the opryshoks became especially active. Two other regions of western Ukraine, namely Bukovyna and Podillia (Podole), where opryshoks were seen and supported by the masses of impoverished Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Poles and Moldavians, were also parts of different countries (the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires, Romania, the Ukrainian SSR) in different historical periods. Today eastern Galicia, Bukovyna and Podillia are the western regions of independent Ukraine. The position of the Carpathians between Poland, Moldova and Hungary enabled the opryshoks to escape to another country when the highland caves at home were not safe enough (Dabrowski 2005, 380-383; Hrabovets'kyi 1994, 47). This is a tactic also used by the Serbian haiduks (Myshanych 2003, 128).
At the time of Dovbush's activities western Ukraine was under Polish rule. Among the opryshoks were many low-ranking Orthodox priests, who instigated attacks against Roman and Greek Catholics (Myshanych 2003, 135). In this light, the conflict with the Jews cannot be perceived as a united attack on Jewry by the Christians,...