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Klyetsk or Kletsk is a town in Minsk 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 ...
. It serves as the administrative center of Klyetsk District. Klyetsk is located on the
Lan River The Lan () is a river in Belarus, approximately long. It is a left tributary of the Pripyat Pripyat, also known as Prypiat, is an abandoned industrial city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearb ...
. As of 2025, it has a population of 11,169.


History

The town was founded in the 11th century by the
Dregoviches The Dregoviches, also called the ''Dregovichi'', were an East Slavic tribal union. They inhabited the territories along the lower Pripyat River and the northern parts of the right bank of the Dnieper River The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), a ...
, who erected a large fort and a tribal centre there. In the 14th century the town became part of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...
and then part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
in the wake of the
Polish–Lithuanian Union Polish–Lithuanian can refer to: * Polish–Lithuanian union (1385–1569) * Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) * Polish-Lithuanian identity as used to describe groups, families, or individuals with histories in the Polish–Lithuania ...
s. In the 1506
Battle of Kleck The Battle of Kletsk (, ) was fought on 5 August 1506 near Kletsk (now in Belarus), between the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, Grand Ducal Lithuanian army, led by Court Marshal of Lithuania Michael Glinski, and the army of the Crimean Khanate, led ...
, the Polish-Lithuanian forces under
Michał Gliński Michael Lvovich Glinsky (; ; ; 1460s – 24 September 1534) was a noble from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of distant Tatar extraction, who was also a tutor of his grand-nephew, Ivan the Terrible. Glinsky was born in Turov. He was a son of prince ...
defeated the Tartar armies and saved the town from being pillaged. Soon afterwards, the town became a property of the Radziwiłł
magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...
family, who started to attract Jewish settlers to the area. The earliest known mention of the local Jewish community is a document dated 5 September 1522, issued by King
Sigismund I the Old Sigismund I the Old (, ; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV of P ...
of Poland. In it, the monarch awarded for three years to Isaac Jesofovitch, a Jew of Brest, for the sum of ''300 times sixty grosz'' a lease of the inns and other sources of revenue in Klyetsk. The next mention of the Kletzk community, as it was known in
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
, is found in a document dated 21 January 1529, which imposes military duties on its inhabitants, as well as on those of other towns. On 15 June 1542 the boyar Grishko Kochevich brought suit against Zachariah Markovich, a Jew of Kletzk, the latter's oxen having broken into Grishko's field and injured the growing grain; the court awarded to Grishko twelve "ruble groschen" damages. A census taken in 1552-55 shows that the Jewish householders lived chiefly on Wilna street, on the Sloboda, and owned gardens in the suburbs. Kletzk is mentioned in the assessment on the Lithuanian communities in 1566, and from its small proportionate assessment it appears that the community was not important at that time. In 1586 the town became the capital of Radziwiłł's ''
ordynacja In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust, established by deed or settlement, that restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents that property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alie ...
'', which sparked the gradual development of the town into a regional centre of commerce. By the end of the following century the number of Jews grew significantly; the town was also one of the notable centre of
Calvinism Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteri ...
, sponsored by the Radziwiłł family. The first rabbi of Kletzk was Judah ben Löb, who also had under his jurisdiction the community of Mechit. He was succeeded by Michael ben Meïr Eisenstadt, who in turn was followed, about 1762, by his son Moses Eisenstadt (died 25 October 1795). According to a local legend, the philosopher
Salomon Maimon Salomon Maimon (; ; ; ‎ ''Shlomo ben Yehoshua Maimon''; 1753 – 22 November 1800) was a philosopher born of Lithuanian Jewish parentage in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, present-day Belarus. His work was written in German and in Hebrew. Bi ...
had lived there for several years, and was intimate with Moses Eisenstadt. Until 1623 the town was a part of the
powiat A ''powiat'' (; ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture (Local administrative unit, LAU-1 ormerly Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS-4 ...
of
Brześć Brest, formerly Brest-Litovsk and Brest-on-the-Bug, is a city in south-western Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the Polish town of Terespol, where the Bug and Mukhavets rivers meet, making it a border town. It serves as the adminis ...
; after that date it was transferred, together with the neighbouring towns, to the district of
Pinsk Pinsk (; , ; ; ; ) is a city in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pinsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is located in the historical region of Polesia, at the confluence of t ...
. According to tradition, the town originally was located on the opposite bank of the river, on the road leading to Lyakhovichy; but after the destructive fire of 1705 it was rebuilt, at the instance of the governor, on its present site. In 1793, Klyetsk was acquired by the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
as a result of the
Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of partitions of Poland, three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition (politics), partition occurred i ...
. The town was repeatedly destroyed by fire in the 19th century, including in 1817, 1845, 1865, and 1886. In 1903 Klyetsk had a total population of about 8,000, of which about 6,000 were Jews. From 1921 until 1939, Klyetsk (''Kleck'') was part of the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...
. The town was a parish (gmina) centre in
Nieśwież Nyasvizh or Nesvizh is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Nyasvizh District. Nyasvizh is the site of Nesvizh Castle, a World Heritage Site. In 2009, its population was 14,300. As of 2025, it has a populat ...
county (powiat) of Nowogródek Voivodeship. On 17 September 1939, Klyetsk was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the
Byelorussian SSR 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 ...
. From 26 June 1941 until 4 July 1944, Klyetsk was occupied by Nazi Germany and administered as a part of the ''
Generalbezirk Weißruthenien ''Generalbezirk Weißruthenien'' (; ) was an administrative subdivision of the ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' of Nazi Germany that covered western Belarus from 1941 to 1944. It served as the Nazi civilian administration for the German occupati ...
'' of ''
Reichskommissariat Ostland The (RKO; ) was an Administrative division, administrative entity of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. It served as the German Civil authority, civilian occupation regime in Lithuania, La ...
''. During the German occupation, a large massacre of local Jews took place in the town on 6 October 1941, with about 4,000 people murdered. The remaining Jews of the area (approximately 2,000 people) were massed in a local
ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...
and then sent to various
extermination camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...
by 21 August 1942. The
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
brought an end to a vibrant Jewish life. Among the monuments of the Jewish past destroyed during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
were the
Jewish cemetery A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Halakha, Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of s ...
, a large synagogue founded by Prince Radziwiłł in 1796; the
Slutsk-Kletsk Yeshiva Mesivta Rabsa Eitz Chaim DiSlutsk (), colloquially known as the Slutsk-Kletsk Yeshivah was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Europe, founded in Slutsk, then part of the Russian Empire, and later moved to Kletsk in the Second Polish Republic, in 1897. ...
, a
bet ha-midrash A ''beth midrash'' (, "house of learning"; : ''batei midrash''), also ''beis medrash'' or ''beit midrash'', is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall". It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth knesseth''), although ...
built in the early 18th century; and fifteen smaller houses of prayer. After the liberation of Klyetsk by the Red Army on 4 July 1944, the town resumed its status as a part of the
Byelorussian SSR 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 ...
. Since 1991, it has been a part of the independent
Republic of Belarus A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a state in which political power rests with the public (people), typically through their representatives—in contrast to a monarchy. Although a ...
.


Coat of arms

The
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
of the town of Klyetsk in Minsk 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 ...
, was officially adopted in its current version in 1999.


Symbolism

The
ducal Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ...
crown symbolizes the special status Klieck had as the centre of the Duchy of Klieck which was in direct ownership of the
Grand Dukes of Lithuania The article is a list of heads of state of Lithuania over historical Lithuanian state. The timeline includes all heads of state of Lithuania as a sovereign entity, legitimately part of a greater sovereign entity, a client state, or a Republics o ...
in the 14th and 15th century.Александр Степуленок. Герб города Клецк
- Гербы и флаги Минской области, Символика oat of arms of Klieck - Coats of arms and flags of Minsk Region- 09.08.2013
The hunting horn symbolizes the Radzivil magnate family which owned Klieck since 1588. The horn is an element of the Radzivils'
Traby coat of arms Traby is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Bielawy, within Łowicz County, Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province is named after its capital and la ...
.


Architecture

Before the last war, the town's oldest building was the mid-16th-century Trinity cathedral. It was seriously damaged during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and eventually blown up by the Soviets in the 1950s. Its ruins are still visible, however. Currently, the town's main architectural landmark is the Church of the Resurrection, which was built in the provincial Baroque style in 1683.


Сulture

In Klyetsk, there is the Museum of the History of Kletchina with 10.7 thousand museum items of the main fund. In 2016 it was visited by 12.3 thousand people.


Notable people

*
Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł Prince Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł (; 1744–1831) was a Polish nobleman, politician, diplomat and member of the Polish–Lithuanian Radziwiłł family. He was an '' ordynat'' of Kleck, Olyka and Niasvizh, Great Sword-bearer of Lithuania f ...
*
Dominik Mikołaj Radziwiłł Prince Dominik Mikołaj Radziwiłł (; 1643–1697) was a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish–Lithuanian nobleman (szlachcic) and politician. He was son of Court and Grand Marshal Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł and Princess Lucrezia ...
*
Józef Mikołaj Radziwiłł Prince Józef Mikołaj Radziwiłł () (13 November 1736–1813) was a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish–Lithuanian noble (szlachcic). The 8th Ordynat of Kleck, Grand Clerk of Lithuania since 1764, voivode of Minsk Voivodeship since 1773 ...


See also

* Kletsk Castle


Notes


References


Sources

*
Kletsk in Jewish Encyclopedia
by
Herman Rosenthal Herman Rosenthal (October 6, 1843 – 1917) was an American author, editor, and librarian. Biography Rosenthal was born in Friedrichstadt (Jaunjelgava), Courland. He was educated at Bauske (Bauska) and Jakobstadt (Jēkabpils), graduating in 1 ...
, J. G. Lipman, Benzion Eisenstadt


Further reading

* ''Russko-Yevreiski Arkhiv'', i., Nos. 72 and 341; ** ii., Nos. 10, 34, 249; * ''Regesty i Nadpisi'', i., Nos. 256, 473, 493, 726, and 1101; * '' Pamyatnaya Knizhka Minskoi Gubernii'',
Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...
, 1876; * Levik, ''Talpiyot'', Berdychev, 1895


External links

*
Klyetsk
at
JewishGen JewishGen is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 as an international electronic resource for Jewish genealogy. In 2003, JewishGen became an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York ...
ShtetLinks * {{Authority control Klieck Klieck Dregovichs Holocaust locations in Belarus Populated places established in the 11th century