Lenino

Jews began living in Romanovo in the 19th century. In the 1920s most of the Jews in the village, then renamed Lenino, worked in agriculture. In 1930 a kolkhoz, "Chyrvony Udarnik," where many Jewish families begam to work, was established nearby. In the 1920s and 1930s Lenino had a Yiddish-language primary school. In 1923 Lenino's 498 Jews comprised 43.8 percent of the total population. Under the Soviets many Jews, especially younger people, left the town; on the eve of the German-Soviet war 200-300 Jews remained. Lenino was occupied by the Germans on July 12, 1941, before which time many Jews succeeded in escaping. Almost immediately after the occupation began, between 67 and 77 Jews were murdered by Germans and local policemen at anti-tank trenches near the Mereya River. The remaining 50-60 Jews were concentrated in two houses in the village and ordered to wear yellow badges on their clothes. In the fall of 1941 these Jews were transferred to the Gorki ghetto and murdered at the beginning of October 1941. In the summer of 1942, three Jewish artisans who had been allowed to remain in Lenino to serve the Germans were murdered. Lenino was liberated by the Red Army on October 12-13, 1943.