Imeni Molotova Kolkhoz

In 1939, Imeni Molotova Kolkhoz [the Molotov collective farm] and the Soldatsko-Aleksandrovsky County were part of the Ordzhonikidze District, which had lain outside the Pale of Settlement prior to the Russian Revolution. Thus, there were no Jews living 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 Soviet Ukraine 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 the Molotov collective farm on August 24, 1942. The 269 local Jews were robbed of their possessions, forced to do hard labor, and tortured in a barn of the collective farm. They were then shot dead in a pit by the side of the road to Soldatstkoye sometime between September 12-15, 1942. The Red Army liberated the Molotov collective farm in the first days of January 1943.