Agricultural Colonies in Russia - Harry Boonin (Part 1)

Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Russia - part one

by Harry D. Boonin

reprinted with his permission from ROOTS-KEY,

Newsletter of Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles.

Spring 1991

As early as 1806 1,500 families living in the northern parts of the Pale of Settlement, numbering some 7,000 souls, applied to emigrate within the Russian Empire to engage in agricultural pursuits. Many of these applicants eventually settled in Kherson and Ekaterinoslav Guberniyas. During the balance of the 19th century, Jewish agricultural colonies did develop so that by 1900 some one hundred thousand Russians Jews lived on the land.¹ Surveys of this part of our history have been produced.² Recently while looking through an historical book on the Russian pogroms of 1881, I found the list reproduced below:

Appendix E: A Register of the number of Jewish Colonies and their population in 1881
Colony	census:male	census:female	actual:male	actual:female
Kherson Guberniya
A. Kherson District
Big Seudeminycha (Siedeminukha¹)	372	507	706	771
Little Seudeminycha (¹)	135	168	215	246
Bobrovii Ku (Bobrovy Kut;¹ Bobrov Kut¹)	306	333	611	596
Big Nagartav (Bolshoi Nigertal¹)	291	254	426	414
Little Nagartav (Maly Nargatal¹)	66	78	94	95
Efiger (Yefingartz¹)	335	328	562	575
Inguletz (¹)	545	549	982	930
Kamenka (¹)	162	203	250	308
Izluchistaya (Stalindorf)	201	210	334	337
New Berislav	143	129	269	242
Lvova	414	381	638	628
Novopoltavka	304	384	643	705
Romanovka	269	382	523	567
New Vitebsk	169	184	349	313
New Podolsk	162	136	229	186
New-Kovno	181	212	307	302
New-Zhitomir	136	139	203	208
Dobraya	445	403	761	683
B. Elizabetgrad District
Gromoklaya	85	63	140	123
Israelevka	368	344	599	551
Sagaidak	178	169	297	286
C. Tiraspolskii District
Volnaya	134	125	201	185
Ekaterinaslaw Guberniya
A. Alexandrovskii District
# 1 New Zlatopol	155	298	306	424
# 2 Veselaya	63	81	150	150
# 3 Krasnoselka	122	183	243	290
# 4 Mezheretz	104	160	205	322
# 5 Trudolyubovka	93	147	189	194
# 6 Nechevka	77	105	150	136
# 8 Priyutnaya	56	143	136	200
# 9 Roshkoshnaya	49	96	118	169
#10 Bogadarevka	90	159	195	260
#11 Gorkaya	69	107	168	198
B. Mariupolskii District
# 7 Grafskaya	71	96	121	121
#12 Zelyenoe Polye	133	160	262	272
#13 Nadezhnaya	144	152	250	248
#14 Sladkovodnaya	62	96	123	121
#15 Zatishe	111	221	214	266
#16 Ravnopol	109	136	148	174
#17 Khlebodarevka	56	163	83	191

1. The Jews in Poland and Russia: Bibliographical Essays, by Gershon David Hundert and Gershon C. Bacon. Indiana University Press, 1984, P. 157.

2. Evrei Zemledeltsv (Jewish Farmers; historical, administrative, legal, and day-to-day conditions in the colonies from the time of their origin to our day, 1807-1887) by Viktor N. Nikitin (1887). In Russian.

3. Materialy Dlia Anti-Evresiskikh Porgromov v Russii. (Materials for the History of anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia, Vol. II,) St. Petersburg (Petrograd), 1923, pp. 541, 542. In Russian.

Editor's Note: ¹ Mentioned in Avotaynu/XII/3 Soshnikov, Vlad. Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Russia. pp 33-34.

part two