Dobrovelychkivka Jewish Cemetery

The earliest preserved tombstone on the site is dated 1900, from which it can be inferred the cemetery was established no later than the early 20th century. According to an employee of the Dobrovelichkovka Museum of Local Lore, D.D. Troskachenko, the cemetery was founded in the early 19th century.

Dobrovelychkivka (also known as Revutskoe) was established in 1774. From 1802, the region belonged to the Kherson Governorate (Khersonskaya gubernia) of the Russian Empire. In 1848 it was declared a town.

In 1897, the Jewish population of Dobrovelychkivka numbered 1718 people, which was more than half of the total population of 2847. It had two Jewish prayer houses as well as a school for 115 students. From the early 1920s a Yiddish school operated in the village. After 1922, Dobrovelychkivka became a part of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR. In 1923, the Jewish community numbered 1874 people, after this time the Jewish population fell drastically.

In 1939, the Jewish population was only 366 people. Dobrovelichkovka was occupied by German troops on August 1st 1941, and liberated on March 17th 1944, however no Jews had survived.
In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dobrovelychkivka became a part of the independent Ukraine.
All that remains of Dobrovelychkivka’s Jewish cemetery at the North-Western outskirts, are a few dozen neglected headstones.