Tarashcha or Tarascha (, ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Bila Tserkva Raion Bila Tserkva Raion () 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 Ukraine, the number of raions of Kyiv Oblast was ...

Kyiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast (, ), also called Kyivshchyna (, ), is an Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, which is administered as a city with special sta ...

(

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

) in central

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It hosts the administration of Tarashcha urban hromada, one of the

hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...

s of Ukraine. Population:

History

Tarashcha is an historic

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

town (in the 17th century through 17th century - rather a

). It was founded when the area was under the ultimate control of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. Until the mid-20th century, the town had a significant

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

community, being a

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

. 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, a Ukrainian

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

kidnapped and murdered in 2000. Also, the Tarashcha Raion is closely associated with the prominent Ukrainian politician

Oleksandr Moroz Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Moroz (born 29 February 1944) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician. He was the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada twice, from 1994 to 1998 and again from 2006 to 2007. Moroz is one of the founders and the leader of the Soci ...

: 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: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

from the local

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. 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 ( ; ), also known as Tapegate or Kuchmagate, was a Ukrainian political scandal in November 2000 in which Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma was caught on tape ordering the months-earlier kidnapping of journalist Georgiy Gong ...

. Until 18 July 2020, Tarashcha was the administrative center of Tarashcha Raion. 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.

Population

Language

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:

Notable people

* Agapius Honcharenko, Ukrainian Orthodox priest and dissident * Boris Thomashefsky, American Jewish singer and actor * Moïse Haissinsky, French Jewish physicist and radiochemist, worked in the Institut du Radium with

Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...

* Anatoly Aleksandrov, President of Soviet Academy of Sciences * Volodymyr Sikevych, General Khorunzhy of the Ukrainian People's Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic

References

External links

mrt5.com
- Some photographs of the city

- Info on Jewish cemeteries at Tarashcha {{Authority control Cities in Kyiv Oblast Tarashchansky Uyezd Historic Jewish communities in Ukraine Populated places established in 1709 Cities of district significance in Ukraine 1709 establishments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Holocaust locations in Ukraine