Ratomka

Ratomka before 1917

History

XVI century	- Ratomka was founded as a private village in Minsk District of Minsk Province of the Great Lithuanian Princedom.
Since 1793	- Ratomka was in Russian Empire.
1801-1917	- Ratomka was a private village in Minsk District of Minsk Province.
1873	- the railway station of Libava-Romny Railroad was constructed in Ratomka. Resident Jewish population appeared.

Vital Statistics

Date	Number of Jews	Number of Non-Jews	Commentaries	Specific gravity in total population number
1873			Jewish population appeared
1888	about 80		Total population		No info
1905	242		Total population		No info
1917	38	2182	Both sexes		1,7 %

Jewish Life

In the beg. XX century in Ratomka there were no Jewish objects.

Economical Review.

Traditional activities of local population were agriculture and chopping of wood. Since early times Ratomka river was the main trade way for local habitants.

During Russian principality the authorities did a lot to develop the region because of military and fiscal reasons mostly. First of all, old communications were reconstructed there:

- trade road Minsk - Zaslavl - Rodoshkovichi.

In XIX, because of development of the AllRussian Market, new types of communications appeared in the region:

- Libava - Romny railroad (1873);

- telegraph road (1870s).

Since those events Ratomka became to develop rapidly and by the early XX century became a non-agricultural center of locality.

In the end XIX - early XX century wood was the main cargo of Ratomka rail station. The station annual turnover was about 2 720 tons.

Here is the table of development of Ratomka in the 2nd half of XIX - early XX century:

Date of record	Number of houses
1888	11
1905	60
1917	113

In the late XIX - early XX century there was a water mill in Ratomka, kept by Fogel.

General cultural information.

There were nothing special in Ratomka before 1917 but post office and telegraph station. Closest doctor and synagogue were in Zaslavl (8 km).