Voyo Nova

Voyo-Nova ("New Way" in Esperanto) was established in 1928 as an agricultural commune by about 80 halutsim (Hebrew for "pioneers") of "Gdud Ha Avoda" (labor brigade) under the leadership of Menachem Elkind, who left Palestine to settle in the Crimea. The settlers received land from the Soviet government at the site of the former abandoned farm of Ozgul located east of Evpatoriya. Hebrew was the language spoken among its members. In 1930-1931 the Russian Jewish painter Meir Akselrod, who was sent by the Soviets, along with three other Jewish painters to the Crimea, documented with their art the life of the members of the Jewish agricultural settlements, including Voyo-Nova. In the early 1931 a Yiddish-language school was established where the children from Voyo-Nova and the nearby Molotov kolkhoz studied. In January 1932 there were about 100 families in Voyo-Nova. During its first years some of the founders left for Moscow, Leningrad, and other locations in the USSR. In 1935 the commune was transformed into a kolkhoz and renamed Druzhba narodov (Fraternity of Nations). During this time some non-Jewish members joined the kolkhoz. In 1940 about 30 of Voyo-Nova's founders were arrested, charged with being "Zionists," and sent to Soviet prison camps. Only 11 of them survived. At the end of September 1941 several members succeeded in fleeing to the Caucasus before the German occupation. The Germans captured Voyo- Nova in late October 1941. On March 19, 1942 about 10 Jewish children and women were murdered outside the village, together with Jews from the adjacent village. Voyo-Nova and the surrounding area were liberated by the Red Army in April 1944. In August 1945 "Voyo-Nova" was renamed Listovoye.