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Smalyany
Smalyany (; ) is an agrotown in Orsha District, Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Smalyany selsoviet. It is situated west-northwest of Orsha. History During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, Russian troops led by Peter Wittgenstein defeated French forces at the Battle of Smoliani. In 1926, 950 Jews lived in the settlement, just over half of the total population. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the settlement was captured by German forces of Army Group Centre on 9 July 1941. The Germans established a , possibly during the fall of 1941; the ghetto was liquidated on 5 April 1942 as a mass shooting of Jews took place. The Soviet Extraordinary State Commission The Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders and Their Accomplices and the Damage They Caused to Citizens, Collective Farms, Public Organizations, State Enterprises and ... (ChGK) estimated t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agrotown (Belarus)
An agrotown (; ) is an official type of rural settlement in Belarus introduced by a law passed in 1998. The law defines agrotowns as well-developed rural settlements with industrial and social infrastructure to ensure social standards for population living there and in the surrounding areas. The law further says that if a ''selsoviet'' (rural council) has agrotowns, its administrative center must be in an agrotown. If there is more than one agrotown, the selsoviet center is assigned by the Districts of Belarus, District Council of Deputies. The Belarusian government launched the program "State program for the revival and development of rural areas, for years 2005-2010" (), which provided for the establishment of agrotowns. By the end of the time allotted for the program, i.e., by January 2011, 1,512 agrotowns were established in Belarus, with about 8,000 new houses built. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Smoliani
At the Battle of Smoliani (November 13–14, 1812), the Russians under General Peter Wittgenstein defeated the French forces of Marshal Claude Victor and Marshal Nicholas Oudinot. This battle was the last effort of the French to reestablish their northern flank in Russia, known as the "Dwina Line". Previously, the French had been defeated in this sector at the Second battle of Polotsk (October 18–20, 1812) and at the Battle of Czasniki (October 31, 1812) Background Upon learning of Victor's defeat at the Battle of Czasniki, Napoleon – who was already distressed about the situation in the north due to the earlier French defeat at Polotsk – ordered Victor to assume the offensive at once and drive Wittgenstein back. At the time of the Smoliani encounter, Napoleon was planning to lead his rapidly disintegrating to a safe haven in the west such as Minsk. In order to execute this plan, the ''Grande Armée's'' planned route of retreat had to be secured. Wittgenstein's posit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Wittgenstein
Louis Adolf Peter, 1st Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg-Berleburg (; ; ''Pyotr Christianovitch Wittgenstein''; – 11 June 1843), better known as Peter Wittgenstein in English, was a prince of the German dynasty of Sayn-Wittgenstein and field marshal in the Imperial Russian Army during the Napoleonic Wars. He was nicknamed the ''Saviour of Saint-Petersburg''. Early life Born Ludwig Adolf Peter Graf zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg-Berleburg, he was descended from a family of ruling German Counts whose seat was in Berleburg (present day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). His parents were Count Christian Louis Casimir of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg and his first wife, Countess Amalie Ludowika Finck von Finckenstein (1740–1771). Military career Enrolled as a sergeant in the Semyonovsky Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army at the age of 12 in 1781, Wittgenstein began actual military service as a Wachtmeister in the Life Guard Horse Regiment in 1789. In 1793 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Populated Places In Vitebsk Region
Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and plants, and has specific uses within such fields as ecology and genetics. Etymology The word ''population'' is derived from the Late Latin ''populatio'' (a people, a multitude), which itself is derived from the Latin word ''populus'' (a people). Use of the term Social sciences In sociology and population geography, population refers to a group of human beings with some predefined feature in common, such as location, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. Ecology In ecology, a population is a group of organisms of the same species which inhabit the same geographical area and are capable of interbreeding. The area of a sexual population is the area where interbreeding is possible between any opposite-sex pair within the are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extraordinary State Commission
The Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders and Their Accomplices and the Damage They Caused to Citizens, Collective Farms, Public Organizations, State Enterprises and Institutions of the USSR (ChGK) was the state commission of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War (also known as the Eastern Front of World War II). The commission was formed by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on November 2, 1942. The decree stipulated that the task of the ChGK was to "take full account of the villainous crimes of the Nazis and the damage they caused to Soviet citizens and the socialist state, to establish the identity of the German fascist criminals with the aim of bringing them to trial and severe punishment; unification and coordination of the work already carried out by the Soviet state bodies in this area." History The Commission's full ceremonial name was Extraordinary State Comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre () was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created during the planning of Operation Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, as one of the three German Army formations assigned to the invasion. After Army Group North was trapped in the Courland Pocket in mid-1944, it was renamed to Army Group Courland and the first Army Group Centre was renamed "Army Group North". The second iteration of Army Group Centre was formed by the redesignation of Army Group A as the replacement for the first Army Group Centre. Formation and Command The army group was officially created by Adolf Hitler when he issued Führer Directive 21 on 18 December 1940, ordering German forces to prepare for an attack on Soviet Russia in 1941. The first commanding officer of Army Group Centre was Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, who would lead it until he was relieved on 18 December 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Invasion Of The Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a front, with the main goal of capturing territory up to a line between Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan, known as the A-A line. The attack became the largest and costliest military offensive in history, with around 10 million combatants taking part in the opening phase and over 8 million casualties by the end of the operation on 5 December 1941. It marked a major escalation of World War II, opened the Eastern Front—the largest and deadliest land war in history—and brought the Soviet Union into the Allied powers. The operation, code-named after the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa ("red beard"), put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goals of eradicating communism and conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it with G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Invasion Of Russia
The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the Continental System, continental blockade of the United Kingdom. Widely studied, Napoleon's incursion into Russia stands as a focal point in military history, recognized as among the list of battles by casualties, most devastating military endeavors globally. In a span of fewer than six months, the campaign exacted a staggering toll, claiming the lives of nearly a million soldiers and civilians. On 24 June 1812 and subsequent days, the initial wave of the multinational Grande Armée crossed the Neman River, marking the entry from the Duchy of Warsaw into Russia. Employing extensive forced marches, Napoleon rapidly advanced his army of nearly half a million individuals through European Russia, Western Russia, encompassing present-day Belarus, in a b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 area of with a population of . The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into Regions of Belarus, six regions. Minsk is the capital and List of cities and largest towns in Belarus, largest city; it is administered separately as a city with special status. For most of the medieval period, the lands of modern-day Belarus was ruled by independent city-states such as the Principality of Polotsk. Around 1300 these lands came fully under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and subsequently by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; this period lasted for 500 years until the Partitions of Poland, 1792-1795 partitions of Poland-Lithuania placed Belarus within the Belarusian history in the Russian Empire, Russian Empire for the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orsha
Orsha (; , ; ) is a city in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It is situated on the fork of the Dnieper, Dnieper River and Arshytsa River, and it serves as the administrative center of Orsha District. As of 2025, it has a population of 101,662. History Orsha was first mentioned in 1067 as Rsha, making it one of the oldest towns in Belarus. The town was named after the river, which was originally also named Rsha, probably from a Baltic languages, Baltic root *''rus'' 'slowly flowing.' In 1320, Orsha became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Between 1398–1407, the Orsha castle was built. On 8 September 1514 the famous Battle of Orsha occurred, between allied Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569), Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Moscow, Muscovite army. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selsoviet
A selsoviet (; , ; ) is the shortened name for Selsky soviet, i.e., rural council (; ; ). It has three closely related meanings: *The administration (''soviet (council), soviet'') of a certain rural area. *The territorial subdivision administered by such a council. *The building of the selsoviet administration. Selsoviets were the lowest level of administrative division in rural areas in the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, they were preserved as a third tier of administrative-territorial division throughout Ukraine, Belarus, and many of the federal subjects of Russia. A selsoviet is a rural administrative division of a raion (district) that includes one or several smaller rural localities and is in a subordination to its respective raion administration. The name refers to the local rural self-administration, the rural soviet (council), a part of the Soviet system of administration. The head of a selsoviet is called chairman, who had to be appointed by hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
