Talnoye

Jews seem to have first settled in Talnoye in the 18th Century. In the 1760s, the Jews of Talnoye suffered greatly from attacks by the Haidamaks, who killed some Jews and looted Jewish property. The local Jewish community saw significant growth in the 19th Century, as a result of the economic development of the region. In 1897, Talnoye was home to 5,452 Jews, who made up 56.7 percent of the total population. Most of the local Jews were either merchants or craftsmen. In the early 20th Century, a Russian school for Jewish boys was opened in Talnoye.

The Jews of Talnoye suffered greatly from the violence that swept over Russia in the years of Russian Revolution and Civil War. Some 100 local Jews were murdered in pogroms perpetrated by the various warring factions between 1917 and 1919. Much Jewish property was looted or destroyed in these pogroms.

The Jewish community of Talnoye underwent great socioeconomic changes in the Soviet period. The restrictions on private economic activity imposed by the Soviet authorities forced many of Talnoye's Jews to seek out new occupations. Many of them found employment in industry, government service, or agriculture. A number of local Jewish families joined the collective farms established around Talnoye, while about 100 other families migrated to the Crimean Peninsula or to Birobidzhan in the Soviet Far East. In this period, the Talnoye district court conducted deliberations in Yiddish twice a week. In the 1930s, a Jewish secondary school operated in Talnoye, with Yiddish as the language of instruction. This school was later closed down, probably in the late 1930s.

In the interwar period, many Jews, especially younger ones, left Talnoye for larger towns and cities, in search of educational and vocational opportunities. In 1939, the town's 1,866 Jews made up 15.6 percent of the total population.

Relatively few Jews had managed to flee from Talnoye before it was occupied by German troops on July 29, 1941. A number of Jewish refugees from regions west of Talnoye seem to have arrived in the town following the outbreak of the Soviet-German War. Most of the Jews living in the town at the time of the German occupation were murdered in August or September 1941, at a site several kilometers from Talnoye, near the village of Belashki.

The Red Army liberated Talnoye on March 9, 1944.