Onufriivka

Native language of Onufriivka population according to 2001 census

The oldest traces of human existence in the Onufriivka Raion date back to the Neolithic era.

Onufriivka was founded at the beginning of the 17th century by the Zaporozhian retired Cossack Onufriyenko, on whose behalf the settlement name came. During the liberation war of the Ukrainian people in 1648-1654, there was a large settlement already here, the inhabitants of which took part in the Bohdan Khmelnytsky campaigns. The population of Onufriivka grew at the expense of peasants - refugees from Volhynia, Galicia, Bessarabia, who were attracted by large tracts of virgin steppe, forests, rivers and magnificent meadows. The locals were mainly engaged in animal husbandry, farming was less developed. Every autumn, large fairs were held here, which were attended by Kremenchuk and Kyiv merchants.

In 1752, with the establishment of military settlements, Onufriivka became part of New Serbia and became the property of Jovan Horvat-Otkurtich, and in the 1770s the descendants of Horvat-Otkurtych sold Onufriivka to Mikhail Kamburley, who was an adviser, senator, and civilian governor of Volhynia.

In the winter of 1805, the landowner Ivan Kamburley relocated part of the serf peasants from his estates in the Orel and Tambov governorates. He later won ten families in cards from a landowner from Kurtina, and exchanged other serfs with a prince for a purebred dog. He placed these settlers on his lands, founding the villages of Kamburliivka (in honor of his surname) and Zybkove. Until now, these villages, inhabited by Russian descendants, are mostly Russian-speaking. The village of Vyshnivtsi (formerly Ivanivka) was founded in 1777. Landlord M. Kamburley in the winter house of the Zaporozhian sergeant Kholodiy, bought captured Tatar Petro Sagaidysh for 30 silver rubles, baptized him, married with a Ukrainian woman and settled on the farm. In 1792, several families from Poland settled near the farm on the Kamburley orders. This is how the village arose, which the landowner named Ivanivka in honor of his father.

From 1821, after the Mikhail Kamburley's death, all his property passed into the possession of Count Mikhail Tolstoy, who was married to Kamburley's daughter Ekaterina. Count Tolstoy inherited the villages of Onufriivka, Kamburliivka, Lozuvatka, and Ivanivka, that is, 13,000 acres of land. The Count Tolstoy family is rich and ancient, as evidenced by the coat of arms of the family with the With Devotion and Diligence motto.

As of 1886, the town, the center of Onufrievka Volost of Aleksandriysky Uyezd of Kherson Governorate, had 1414 people, 254 farmsteads, an Orthodox church, a school, 5 shops, and 3 fairs a year: Seredopisny, Mykilsky on 9 May and Pokrovsky.[2]

Mikhail Tolstoy was a large landowner and introduced advanced methods of management on their lands, used a perfect machinery at that time, iron plows, horse threshers and fans. There was even a Fordzon tractor. Horses of the Orden breed were bred on farms, which were in demand in Russia and abroad. Rambouillet sheep (8,000 heads), gray-Ukrainian cows (600 heads), and sheep wool were sent to Białystok and Łódz cloth factories. Own brick factory was operating at full capacity, all the buildings on the estate were built of own bricks, which were of high quality, in particular in 1911 a school was built at the expense of Counts Tolstoy (M. Tolstoy and his mother O. Tolstaya), in which children still study, and the premises of which are marked by an attractive appearance and internal thoughtfulness and beauty. A hospital and a school were also built in the village of Pavlysh. Parish administration, veterinary hospital, priest's house, zemstvo administration were built in Onufriivka.

Well-known Ukrainian teacher Vasyl Sukhomlynsky after graduating from September 1939 to June 1941 worked as a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature at Onufriivka Secondary School.

In 1968, Onufriivka received an urban-type settlement status.

The names of Counts Tolstoy - Mikhail (1804 - 1891), his son Mikhail (1834 - 1898), and grandson Mikhail (junior) (1862 - 1927) are closely connected with the region. The counts owned 13,000 acres of land and surrounding villages. All of them were engaged in charitable activities and patronage, introduced advanced technologies in agriculture. The foundation of the Onufriivka Dendropark is associated with the name of Mykhail Tolstoy. Mikhail (senior) developed the estate. Mikhail Mykhailovych (junior) built a school in Onufriivka and Pavlysh, a hospital in Pavlysh, a veterinary hospital in Onufriivka, and other social facilities at his own expense; completed the construction of the Onufriivka Dendropark. Counts Tolstoy were prominent philanthropists and patrons of his time. An ambulance station was built in Odesa at the expense of Mykhailo Mykhailovych. Each of the counts was the schools for children from poor families trustees. The counts made a huge contribution to the development of agriculture and viticulture in southern Russia. After the October Revolution, the life of the last Count Tolstoy was tragic. Deprived of all his property, the seriously ill Mikhail Tolstoy and his mother, Elena, left for Geneva. That's where his life ended (30 August 1927). With his death, one of the branches of the glorious Tolstoy family broke off.

• Онуфріївка Online (in Ukrainian)
• The unofficial page of Onufriivskyi Raion (in Ukrainian)
• Different articles about Onufriivskyi Raion (in Ukrainian)
• The museum of history of Onufriivskyi Raion (in Ukrainian)
• Onufriivka Central Raion Library (in Ukrainian)
• An account card in the site of Ukrainian parliament (in Ukrainian)