Molotovskoye

The Molotovskoye County was part of the Ordzhonikidze District, which had lain outside the Pale of Settlement prior to the Russian Revolution. Thus, no Jews lived in this area prior to the Soviet-German War.

However, in the wake of the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the Ordzhonikidze District came to house a large number of civilian evacuees, including many Jews from Ukraine, Bessarabia, and Belarus. With the beginning of the German summer offensive in late June 1942, the Wehrmacht launched its invasion of the North Caucasus.

German troops occupied Molotovskoye on August 2, 1942.

A mere ten days after the occupation of the village, the German military authorities began to hunt for Jews.

That same day, they executed seventy civilians, most of them Jews, at a pit near the old brick factory. This pit was later used for other executions, and a total of about 360 bodies were subsequently found there.

The Red Army liberated Molotovskoye on January 22, 1943.