Dobraya

Dobraya was a Jewish agricultural colony established in the mid-19th century by migrants from the Polish and Lithuanian territories of the Russian Empire. Initially only Jews lived in Dobraya, but later the Russian government started to settle Germans there in order to teach the Jews how to farm. In 1897 2,277 Jews lived in Dobraya, comprising 88 percent of the total population. Apart from working in agriculture, many Jewish colonists engaged in crafts and trade. In 1899 there was an attempt to stage a pogrom in Dobraya but the Jewish colonists succeeded in defending themselves. In 1919-1920 at least 40 Dobraya Jews were killed in pogroms staged by White troops and various local bands and Jewish property was looted or destroyed. In 1926 2,425 Jews lived in Dobraya, where they comprised 79 percent of the total population. After the establishment of Soviet rule in Dobraya, several agricultural cooperatives were established there. In the late 1920s the kolkhozes Vperyod (Forward) and Kirov were established at Dobraya. In the wake of collectivization and the Great Famine of the 1930s many Jews, especially younger ones, left for large cities in search of employment and educational opportunities. From the 1920s until the late 1930s there were three schools in Dobraya, one - a six-year Yiddish one, and two Jewish orphanages. In 1938 the Jewish, as well as the German, schools in Dobraya were transformed into Ukrainian-Russian ones. German troops occupied Dobraya in mid-August 1941. Few Jews succeeded in leaving before the arrival of the Germans. On September 10 several hundred Jews were murdered Dobraya. Dobraya was liberated by the Red Army on March 9, 1944.