Abstract
The aim of this presentation is to describe course, some of the causes and consequences and first of all ways of reflections of massacres of Jews in 1648-49 during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, a Cossack rebellion that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This historical event is still a subject of scholars' discussions to a large extent due to discrepancies caused by diverse points of view of four different concerned parties - the Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, and the Jewish one.
The paper will summarize contemporary historiographical perspectives on the events and mainly their illustration in historical proses of Kiddush ha-shem (1919) by Sholom Ash and Satan in Goray (1933) and The Slave (1962) by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The novels not only pay tribute to the events of the 17th century but also reflect the horrendous situation of European Jews in the 20th century.