Bobravichy (; ; ) is a village in Iwye District, Grodno Region,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

History

In the interwar period, the village was situated in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, in the Nowogródek Voivodeship, in the Wołożyn County, in the Ługomowicze Commune. According to the 1921 census, the village had a population of 265, 99.2%

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

. After the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

in 1939, the village became part of the

BSSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and ...

. In the years 1941–1944 it was under German occupation. Then the village was again in the BSSR. From 1991 in the Republic of Belarus.

Home Army grave

In a forest clearing near the non-existent Bobrowicze settlement, on the site of a farm burnt down by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

, there is a mass grave of Home Army soldiers from the group of Lieutenant Kopaczek "Jodła" and a cadet. Eryk Barcz "Eryk", part of the 1st Active Self-Defense Division of the Vilnius Region. They died on September 14, 1944, in the fight against the operational group of the 32nd motorized rifle regiment of the NKVD Internal Forces. Earlier, this unit burned down the selsoviet in Lazduny and broke the Soviet manhunt, inflicting heavy losses on it. However, he was again located and encircled by the overwhelming enemy forces. During the several-hour-long fight a dozen or even 24 soldiers of the Home Army died. The grave was set up in September 1996 thanks to the efforts of Stanisław Paszul "Węgiel", partisan of the 6th Battalion of the 77th Polish Home Army, who was included in this fight and sentenced to 25 years in labor camps (after being released in 1956 and returning to

, and then emigrating in 1963 to the United States, he initiated the erection of the Katyn Memorial in

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

). In June 2022, the grave was destroyed by the Belarusian authorities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bobravicy Villages in Belarus Populated places in Grodno region Iwye district