Uman

Uman (OOmän') [key], city (1989 pop. 91,000), central Ukraine, at the confluence of the Kamenka and Umanka rivers. It is a rail junction and has plants producing scientific instruments. Mentioned in 1659 as a strongpoint, Uman was the seat of the wealthy Potocki nobility until 1834. In the late 17th cent. it was an important fortress for protection against Crimean Tatar attacks on right-bank Ukraine. In 1768 the city was the scene of a Ukrainian peasant and Cossack uprising that resulted in a general massacre and that Taras Shevchenko later depicted in his poem “Haydamaki.” Uman passed to Russia in 1793 during the second partition of Poland.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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