Petrovskogo Imeni

Jewish residence in Gorodishche is first mentioned in regard to 1618. Only after Gorodishche became part of the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire and with the economic development of the area did the Jewish population of Gorodishche start to grow significantly, in 1897 reaching 3,124, or 21.4 percent of the total population. At the turn of the century Gorodische had a Jewish agriultural school, a tuition-free Jewish school for girls, and a library with Yiddish and Hebrew books. In the early 20th century Zionist activity took place in Gorodishche. In 1881 a local priest who opposed anti-Jewish violence prevented a pogrom in Gorodishche. Gorodishche's Jews suffered greatly from the violence accompanying the years of revolution and civil war in Russia. In a pogrom carried out in the second half of 1919 by Denikin's White Army troops about 20 Jews were murdered, Jewish property was looted or destroyed, and the local Jewish self-defense force, established early that year, was disarmed. During the early Soviet period Gorodishche had a four-year Yiddish school, a reading room, and a theater group. Until the mid-1920s, when Soviet authorities banned its activities, there was a local branch of the Zionist Hehalutz organization, which trained Jewish youth for agricultural work in the Land of Israel. In 1935 the town was renamed Petrovskogo (Petrovskogo Imeni) after the prominent Soviet Ukrainian Communist functionary Grigoriy Petrovskiy. In the 1920s and 1930s many Jews, especially the younger ones, left Petrovskogo Imeni for larger towns and cities in search of educational and vocational opportunities. In 1939 Petrovskogo's 570 Jews constituted 4.1 percent of the town's total population. Germans troops occupied Petrovskogo Imeni in August 1941. The abuse and murder of Jews started almost from the beginning of the occupation. In mid-September 1941 about 40 Jews were shot dead. Most of the Jews of Petrovskogo Imeni and of the county were murdered in the spring of 1942 in the vicinity of the town. The Red Army liberated Petrovskogo Imeni on February 9, 1944. Soon after the liberation the name of the town was changed back to Gorodishche.