Uman [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.
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