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Berkovetskoe cemetery, Kyiv, Ukraine

A photo catalog of the burials of this cemetery is available at the LINK

The Berkovetskoe cemetery got its name from the Berkovets farm, which became part of Kyiv in the 1920s. The cemetery was established in 1957 and operated until 1986. The main entrance is located on Stetsenko Street.

After the official closure, related subburials are allowed. Berkovetskoe cemetery is located on an area of ​​more than 15 hectares and is one of the largest necropolises on the territory of Ukraine.

The Jewish sector at the Berkovetskoe cemetery appeared in the 1960s. After the closure of the Jewish Lukyanovskoye cemetery, a number of burials were moved to Berkovetskoe. Therefore, in the Jewish sector of the Berkovetskoe cemetery, there are matzevahs with inscriptions in Yiddish and pre-reform Russian.

The graves of the tzaddiks from the Tver dynasty, as well as the grave of Dr. Max Mandelstam, were transferred from Lukyanovskoe to Berkovetskoye.

The grave of the Kyiv rabbi Menachem Weinsblat, who died in 1925, is located at the Berkovetskoe cemetery. He was buried at the Lukyanovskoye Jewish cemetery. The remains were moved to Berkovetskoe in the late 1950s. In 2017, Weinsblat's great-grandson found the burial and put it in order. A modern ohel was built on it.

The Jewish sector of the Berkovetskoe cemetery has been cataloged. There are 218 burials in the electronic register. 22 of them with partially preserved chronological and anthroponymical data.

The latest burials in the catalog are dated 2015. For example, the grave of Pyotr Moiseevich Aizenband (1937-2015). Burial is family one. The tombstone bears the names of Miron Zakharovich (1903-1991) and Vera Naumovna (1914-1994).

There are references to relatives who died in the 1940s on the tombstones of later family burials. For example, on the tombstone of Weiman Sosia Zalmanovna (1894-1981) the names of Weiman A.A. (1944), Weiman A.Sh. (1941) and Weiman P.A. (1941) are inscribed. The tombstone of Yuriy Mikhailovich Vigonsky (1946-2005) bears the name Emiliy Mikhailovich Vigonsky (1934-1948).

In addition to the traditional gravestones characteristic of the Soviet period, the catalog includes graves on which the gravestones are made in the form of a chopped-off tree trunk. For example, the grave of Schneider Moisey Yehudovich (died in 1989).

There are gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions. In particular, at the grave of Sh.I Privman (1901-1981).

Also in the Jewish sector there is the grave of Demyana Ivanovna Storozhuk (1947-2011) with a tombstone with a cross and images of angels painted on the slab.