Biyuk Onlar

Jews settled illegally in Biyuk Onlar in the early 20th century. Among them were well-to-do grain merchants who exported grain via the port of Feodosiya. In the 1920s Jews were sent by the Soviet authorities to the Crimean region to establish cooperative agricultural settlements. In 1938 98 Jews lived in the village. Most of the Jewish residents of Biyuk Onlar managed to leave the village before the arrival of the German forces. The village was occupied on October 31, 1941. At the beginning of the Nazi occupation the local police handed the remaining Jews over to the Germans. During the German occupation, between the fall of 1941 and April 1944, about 15 Biyuk Onlar Jews were shot to death. On April 12, 1944 the village was liberated by the Red Army. In that year the village was renamed Oktyabrskoye.