לבובו – Lvovo

Lvovo

Prior to 1941 belonged to the Jewish Autonomous District Kalinindorf, Nikolaev Province.

Year	Jews	%
1841	789
1859	1060
1879	1367
1897	1338	95,4
1926	1356	96,7
1931	908	58%

Lvovo was founded in 1841 on the right bank of the Dnepr by Jews from the provinces of Vitebsk and Mogilev in Belarus. At the time of the establishment they received from the government 4,759 desyatins and set up 119 agricultural farms each of an average of 40 desyatins. The number of Jews increased gradually, and after the agrarian reform, reached 1,367 souls in 1879. In 1887 the number of farms in the colony was 181. Because of the severe lack of agricultural equipment and horses and oxen, many families had to rent areas to strangers. So were rented 500 desyatins of the colony’s land. Many tried to leave the place, and the number of farms fell in 1894 to 136 households.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the number of farms rose to 272 (in 1906). In agriculture were engaged then 176 families on an area of 2,760 desyatins, slightly less than half (2402 desyatin) of the area of land which they received at the time of the establishment of the colony. The size of the allotments per farm was not equal. So 175 farms had at their disposal about 10 desyatins, for 51 there were 25 desyatins and only 45 had larger allotments. Amongst them were those who had more than 40 desyatins. Those with less land made a living from hired work on the large farms. Others worked in industry and trade, such as the production of butter, cheese, timber storage, a workshop for blacksmithery and 8 shops. Also there was on the colony a medical attendant and a pharmacy. In 1911 the planting of a vineyard was began by JCA and this improved the income of tens of families. Until the end of the nineteenth century a port was built on the Dnepr River, and from it much agricultural produce was sent, mainly grain. In Lvovo there was a market day on Wednesdays and two fairs per year. Paramedic Moshe Izranson, who lived there in the middle of nineteenth century saved a lot of lifes at the time of cholera and scurvy plagues. A pharmacy was built in Lvovo before the First World War and it was owned by a jew.

In 1869 a biannual government school was established in the Russian language. There were 107 students and two teachers. Ten years later there were only 76 students of 229 school age children on the colony. In 1880 another school was established with 90 students, but it was closed 15 years later. In 1907 124 students learned in the institution out of 230 school age children. During the second half of the nineteenth century officiated in Lvovo the Rabbis Menakhem Nakhum Sverdlov in the years 1845-1885, and after him in 1886 his son Eliyahu Yehudah. He was still rabbi in 1908. In 1912 there were 2 synagogues.

The Civil War caused a great deal of suffering to the inhabitants of the colony. As a result of the pogroms 65 orphans were left. In the winter of 1920/21 169 people died of starvation and Typhus. In 1922 were died of starvation about 200 jews. The number of inhabitants and farms decreased, but in the main the livestock was affected. The number of horses decreased from 670 to 100, the number of cows from 330 to 100, and in the colony remained 90 wagons out of a previous 334.

In the middle of the twenties was founded an agricultural cooperative with 566 members. Its purpose was to assist in the restoration of the farms. Likewise there was in the colony a cooperative organization of vintners and bee keepers. At the end of the twenties was established a Kolkhoz called Pobeda Ilicha, into which entered 160 farms (the majority). In 1930 was the regional tractor and the heavy farm equipment station was transferred to Lvovo and it served 18 kolkhozes in the region.

Several tens of families made a living from three flour mills, two dairies, a factory producing bricks and from loading and unloading at the port on the Dnepr River.

In the first half of the twenties Ozet and Joint opened a clinic and small hospital of 10 beds. From the health services benefited also villagers of the region. From february 1920 operated in Lvovo a Jewish village council.

During the twenties many young people left the place and went to the large cities for work and studies. So the population of Lvovo was decreased by one third. In 1931 about 71% of Lvovo jews were members of the Kolkhoz.

In the study year 1922/1923 a school with Yidish as teaching language was opened and 120 children learned in it with three teachers. In 1926 113 children learned there. Over a year the number of students increased to 149. During the first half of the thirties the school was enlarged and in 1941 studied in it 158 children with 9 teachers. During the twenties a school for uneducated adults operated. In 1926 the agricultural school from Kalinindorf was transferred to Lvovo. Assistance in setting it up in the early years was given by Agrojoint and Ozet. The institution had the use of several tens of desyatins, ten horses and agricultural equipment. In 1927 studied there about 70 students aged 16 to 21. In 1932/33 studied in the Agrotichnikum about 200 students, some of them not from Lvovo. In the same year graduated 80 agronoms. The institution had a dormitory and living there in 1939 were ten students. The school existed until June 1941. From 1923 there was there an orphanage with 39 children, of them 27 with no parents. This institution was manged by two teachers. During the second half of the thirties, many left the settlement and many houses stood empty. In 1927 the school was closed by authorities.

After the outbreak of war between the Soviet Union and Germany, and with the advance of the front, 300 people managed to evacuate. The Germans captured Lvovo on the 24^th of August 1941. On the 16^th of September 1941 Germans murdered 404 jews, on the 11^th of October were murdered 70 more Jews and on the 2^nd of November were murdered 70, in total 564 people from Lvovo and nearby places, mainly women, children and elderly. Lvovo was liberated on the 12^th of March 1944. A monument was erected in memory of the murdered. About 138 of the people of Lvovo served as soldiers in the Red Army, most of them Jews. 55 of them fell in the war. 123 were decorated with medals. At the end of 1990s lived in Lvovo a number of jewish families

Albert Kaganovich