 In the census of 1897, the village of Makhnivka had 2,435 Jews out of a total population of 5,343 (about 45%).On an 1845 Russian map, "Machnowka" was the chief city of the Machnowka uyezd in Kiev guberniya, while Berdychiv was just a small town in Zhytomyr county (uyezd) of Volhynian Governorate (gubernia).When the railroads were developed (some time after 1860), the railroad went through Berdychiv and Koziatyn ( east of Makhnivka), but bypassed Makhnivka.