Tarashcha or Tarascha ( uk, Тараща, yi, טאַראַשטשע) is a city in
Bila Tserkva Raion
Bila Tserkva Raion ( uk, Білоцерківський район) is a raion (district) in Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Bila Tserkva. Population: .
On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of U ...
,
Kyiv Oblast
Kyiv Oblast ( uk, Ки́ївська о́бласть, translit=Kyïvska oblast), also called Kyivshchyna ( uk, Ки́ївщина), is an oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, w ...
(
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
) in central
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. It hosts the administration of
Tarashcha urban hromada
Tarashcha or Tarascha ( uk, Тараща, yi, טאַראַשטשע) is a city in Bila Tserkva Raion, Kyiv Oblast (region) in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Tarashcha urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: .
...
, one of the
hromadas of Ukraine.
Population: .
History
Tarashcha is an historic
Cossack town (in the 17th century through 17th century - rather a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
). It was founded when the area was under the ultimate control of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...
.
Until the mid-20th century, the town had a significant
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community, being a
shtetl
A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
. The town was occupied by the German army on July 23, 1941.
Jews were forced to wear armbands with the Star of David, were not allowed to buy food and were relegated to forced labour. Afterward, a ghetto was established on Tarasha Street. Executions of the Jewish population were carried out by German security forces, S.S. Viking Division, detachment of Einsatzgruppe, in cooperation with Einsatzkommando 5 and local police. The execution of Jews started from the very first days of German occupation. Several executions were conducted. The main actions took place in August 1941, with 400 Jewish victims; on September 10, 1941, during which several hundred Jews were killed; while on November 9, 1941, the ghetto was liquidated. Altogether, up to 1,000 Jews were exterminated in Tarashcha between August and November 1941.
Modern developments
Recently, the town has become known as the place of the clandestine burial and later recovery of
Georgiy Gongadze
Georgiy Ruslanovych Gongadze ka, გიორგი რუსლანის ძე ღონღაძე, Giorgi Ruslanis dze Ghonghadze (21 May 1969 – 17 September 2000) was a Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and film director who was kid ...
, a Ukrainian
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
kidnapped and murdered in 2000.
Also, the Tarashcha Raion is closely associated with the prominent Ukrainian politician
Oleksandr Moroz
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Morozrussian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Моро́з, translit=Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Moroz (born 29 February 1944) is a Ukrainian politician. He was the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada twice, ...
: he was born and started his career here, later became elected to the
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
from the local
constituency. Moroz is the most notable and influential person in the neighborhood. There were even speculations between these two facts and Moroz's significant role in Gongadze case and
Cassette Scandal
The Cassette Scandal ( uk, Касетний скандал, Russian: Кассетный скандал, also known as Tapegate or Kuchmagate) was a Ukrainian political scandal in November 2000 in which Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma was caugh ...
.
Until 18 July 2020, Tarashcha was the administrative center of
Tarashcha Raion
Tarashcha Raion ( uk, Таращанський район) was a raion (district) in Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center was the city of Tarashcha. The raion was abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukrai ...
. The raion was abolished that day as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kyiv Oblast to seven. The area of Tarashcha Raion was merged into Bila Tserkva Raion.
Famous people from Tarashcha
*
Agapius Honcharenko
Reverend Agapius Honcharenko ( uk, Агапій Гончаренко; August 31, 1832 – May 5, 1916; real name Andrii Humnytsky (Андрій Гумницький), aka Ahapii or Ahapius), was a Ukrainian patriot and exiled Orthodox Christi ...
*
Boris Thomashefsky
Boris Thomashefsky (russian: Борис Пинхасович Томашевский, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.; yi, באָריס טאָמאשעבסקי) (1868–1939), born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-b ...
, American Jewish singer and actor
*
Moïse Haissinsky, French Jewish physicist and radiochemist, worked in the
Institut du Radium with
Marie Curie
Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
*
Anatoly Aleksandrov, President of Soviet Academy of Sciences
*
Volodymyr Sikevych
Volodymyr Vasylovych Sikevych ( uk, Сікевич Володимир Васильович), September 5, 1870 – July 27, 1952, was a General Khorunzhy of the Ukrainian People's Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) during the Ukr ...
, General Khorunzhy of the Ukrainian People's Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic
See also
*
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
References
External links
mrt5.com- Some photographs of the city
- Info on Jewish cemeteries at Tarashcha
{{Authority control
Cities in Kyiv Oblast
Tarashchansky Uyezd
Shtetls
Populated places established in 1709
Cities of district significance in Ukraine
1709 establishments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Holocaust locations in Ukraine