Tarashcha

a city (since 1957) and administrative center of Tarashcha Raion, Kiev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Situated 20 km from the Ol’shanitsa railroad station on the Fastov-Tsvetkovo line and 126 km south of Kiev. Population, 13,200 (1975).

Tarashcha has a cheese plant, a fruit cannery, a food-products combine, and other enterprises of the food industry, as well as a furniture factory. It also has a sovkhoz-technicum and a museum of history and local lore.

Tarashcha has been known since 1611. In 1722 it became a village and in 1740 the center of a region under the control of a starosta (provincial administrator) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The poor of Tarashcha participated in the peasant and cossack Koliivshchina uprising in 1768. The village became part of the Russian Empire in 1793, and in 1800 it became a district capital of Kiev Province. In 1904 a Social Democratic circle was organized in Tarashcha under the guidance of V. S. Dovgalevskii. Soviet power was established in January 1918, and in March the city was occupied by German troops.

A partisan detachment was formed in Tarashcha District in May 1918, and in June the city was liberated during an armed uprising. The detachment formed the nucleus of the Tarashcha Regiment, which was commanded by V. N. Bozhenko. At the end of 1918, Tarashcha was seized by Petliura’s forces, then by Denikin’s; in May 1920 it was taken by the White Poles. It was liberated on May 28, 1920, by G. I. Kotovskii’s brigade. In 1925, Tarashcha was made a raion center of Belaia Tserkov’ Okrug, and since 1932 it has been a raion center of Kiev Oblast. From July 23, 1941, through Jan. 5, 1944, it was occupied by fascist German troops.