Tsyurupinsk

Jews began to settle in Aleshki in the early 19th Century. By the middle of that century, there was a synagogue in the town. In 1897, Aleshki was home to 744 Jews, who made up 8.3 percent of the total population. Most of the local Jews were either artisans or petty traders. Under Soviet rule, the occupational structure of the Jews of Aleshki began to change. The high taxes imposed by the Soviet authorities on private trade and small-scale crafts compelled the local Jews to seek out other occupations, or leave the town for larger cities. In 1928, Aleshki was renamed Tsyurupinsk, after the Bolshevik functionary Aleksandr Tsyurupa, a native of Aleshki who had died earlier that year. In the late 1920s, a Jewish collective farm was established near Tsyurupinsk. It had workshops for repairing agricultural machinery and manufacturing furniture and shoes, as well as a kindergarten. In 1939, the Jewish population of Tsyurupinsk stood at 472, comprising 4.15 percent of the total population. Tsyurupinsk was occupied by German troops on September 10, 1941. In late September or early October 1941, some 800 Jews from Tsyurupinsk and its vicinity were murdered at a site east of the town. In 1943, the children of mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews were murdered in Tsyurupinsk. Tsyurupinsk was liberated by the Red Army on November 4, 1943.