Kirovograd

The earliest reference to Jewish settlement in Kirovograd relates to the end of the 18th century. As the result of massive migration of the Jews from other areas of the Pale of Settlement the Jewish population of Kirovograd (then Yelisavetgrad) increased rapidly. In 1897 the town's 23,967 Jew comprised 39 percent of the total population. Jews were mostly engaged in commerce and industry.In April 1881 the Jews of Kirovograd suffered a pogrom that was only the first of the decade. In 1905 and in 1919 pogroms also took place in the town. 1,300 Jews were murdered during the one in May 1919. By 1939 the Jewish population had declined to 14,641 people, or about 15 percent of the total population. Kirovograd was occupied by the Germans on August 14, 1941. The majority of the city's Jewish population was liquidated in a mass murder operation in late September 1941. The rest were murdered in two subsequent operations. According to Soviet sources the total number of Jews murdered in Kirovograd exceeded 5,000. Kirovograd was liberated by the Red Army on January 8, 1944.