In 1870, a rural community called the Kedegei hamlets was established, named after the first peasant settler, a Zaporozhian Cossack named Kelegei.[3] The village mainly consisted of poor peasants as they were forced to move south for suitable farming land due to the Perekop steppes beginning near the village.[3] By the beginning of the twentieth century, a handicraft artell called Progress was located in the village, engaging in the manufacture of agricultural implements.[3] Soviet rule was established later in the fall of 1920, and in 1924 the village was renamed to Kelehei.[3] Two years later, a joint land cultivation society was established, and in 1929 collective farms began to be created, of which there were six of them.[3] During the Great Patriotic War, the village was occupied by German troops from 14 September 1941 to 3 November 1943, before the Soviets regained the village.[3] The village was again renamed to its current name, Hladkivka, after the scout Lieutenant Hladkov who, during World War II, saved the village from the Germans after a scorched earth tactic was going to be used against the village.[3]
The population suffered through the Second Holodomor in 1946-1947, with many dying of starvation.[4] In 1950, one of the collective farms, Frunze, was merged with the other collective farms located in the village.[3] By 1958, there were only two collective farms, Tavria and the XX Congress of the CPSU.[3] In 1994, the village was divided into two parts called Hladkivka and Tavriyske using the Kherson-Skadovsk highway as a border.[3]
In 2022, the village was captured by Russian forces during the southern campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,[5] and currently remains under occupation.
Ukraine