TRUKHANIV ISLAND 55 years ago the Nazis erased a small wharf town off the face of the earth

This "green gem" on the Dnipro is a favorite resting place for all Kyivites, but few know that Trukhaniv Island existed as a town until September 27, 1943, with its own church, school, drugstore, shopping center, movie theater, and even a yacht club.

55 years ago Trukhaniv Island was razed to the ground by the Nazis...

There are several versions, rather legends about how people settled here and gave the place its name. Most likely, the name comes from Tugorkhan, who married Prince Sviatopolk Iziaslavych's daughter. Later, Princess Olha took a liking to the island and ordered that her summer retreat be built there, naming it Olzhychi.

In the 1880s, Margolin, a wealthy Jewish merchant, started construction in the area (he had enough ships to carry timber and equipment). His son, studying technology and law in Germany, had seen enough of German shipping to talk his father into buying two vessels, a self-propelled boat and a passenger steamship. People called the former Parubok (Ukrainian for "a young handsome fellow"). It happened after Margolin Sr. watched the boat as he stood on the bank, taking a break after celebrating the bargain with German shipowners. Seeing the boat maneuver smartly, the old Jew stood akimbo and exclaimed in Ukrainian, "Just look at that parubok!" (in Ukrainian, a boat and ship are of the masculine gender). The small steamship was called Lytvynka, because she had been transported to Kyiv via Lithuania (Lytva), Belarus (White Russia) and then down the Dniester to the Dnipro...

Kyiv Governor Bibikov had to allow his daughter to marry Margolin Jr., for the girl had fallen head over heels for him and threatened to jump in the Dnipro if he did not bless their marriage. He gave in but not before the young man converted to Christianity. He was baptized at St. Sophia's Cathedral and the bride received Trukhaniv Island as part of her dowry (although, strictly speaking, the place belonged to the Chernihiv province).

Margolin Jr. kept up the steamshipping business and his father skillfully managed the wharf town. He hired seasonal workers (local peasants free after the harvest), and he had four piled barracks built for them (piled because the grounds were submerged during the flood). People wishing to settle down were allocated plots and construction timber. The merchant had a well-set cottage for himself with a boat-yard nearby. Modern-equipped workshops were built after the German standard. They would serve as the cradle of the future Kyiv shipyard. A spacious two-story grade school was among the earliest structures on the island, for Margolin Sr. said, "I need literate workers."

By the XX century the island boasted a church, school, out-clinic, shopping center, dwelling establishments and elements of wharf industry, and wonderful vacation spots began to appear. It's no wonder that the island became inhabited by people of different nationalities: a lot of Germans and Poles, mostly well-educated people, and each such family would bring their own culture to the island. The workers' town began to attract local aristocracy. There was a park called Hermitage with dance floors, a brass band and the Bosphorus Restaurant where Kyiv bons vivants could enjoy themselves with local chorus girls. Those on the athletic side frequented the tennis court. And of course the yacht club, the most prestigious attraction, foreign-built and kept in the European style. In fact, the club was favored by the royal family. In commemoration of the Romanov dynasty's 300th jubilee, the island was renamed Oleksiyivsky. Finally, the Russian revolution returned the island its original name.

Among the founding river workers' families were the Krasnokutskys, Novhorodskys, Shcherbakovs, Osmolovskys, Vediornikovs, Nizhynskys and Tamarovs. They manned the first Dnipro riverboats, barges, timber rafts and repaired boats. Most of them worked at the Kyiv Shipyard and the boatyard.

Trukhaniv Island was a self-contained town with all the basic facilities. There was no footbridge linking it to the city and transportation was provided by the Parubok on shuttle runs from the Naberezhna Embankment to the island, and of course by private boats present in every family, bigger and smaller ones, "coastal" and "outgoing." The whole island was one friendly community. At times of floods with the water often rising level with the roofs, people paddling past in their boats would often ask, "Have you sent the kids to school? We could give them a lift." Incidentally, floods never touched the church or school, located on the highest elevated points. There were 14 streets, two lanes and a square. A 1939 census registered 1,096 permanent Trukhaniv residents.

The above story was related to The Day by one of the oldest former residents, 86-year-old Oleksandr Trokhymov (also the oldest Dynamo soccer team player, recipient of combat awards - "Red Star" and "Great Patriotic War Order" 1st and 2nd Class, countless  medals, and the once prestigious title "Merited Coach of the USSR, Aquatic Sports").

Many Trukhaniv residents never returned from the war and those who did found smoking ruins in place of their town, which the Nazis had erased from the face of the earth September 27, 1943.

Some 40 years ago, the surviving residents formed the unique Trukhaniv Island Community. They have met on the island ever since, every last Sunday in September. All well advanced in years and became haunted by diseases, but none will miss the traditional gathering, regarded as an almost sacred rite. "If I can't walk, I'll crawl there," they say. On each such occasion they seem younger, remembering themselves as barefooted boys and girls with all the time in the world, united by so many memories...

There is a bronze statue in the deep in the heart of the island. A soldier by a scorched boat. A reminder of how they returned and what they found in place of their hometown. A short distance from the statue is a pink granite slab carved with 82 names. People who died in the war. Friends and relatives. A reminder of bitter-sweet, inimitable youth spent on Trukhaniv Island.

If you happen to visit this place, go stand by that statue. And think...