Luninets ( be, Лунінец, russian: Лунине́ц, pl, Łuniniec, lt, Luninecas, yi, לונינייץ, Luninitz

BGN/PCGN romanization BGN/PCGN romanization are the systems for romanization and Roman-script spelling conventions adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN). The syst ...

: ''Luninyets'') is a town and administrative centre for the Luninets district in

Brest Region Brest Region or Brest Oblast or Brest Voblasts ( be, Брэ́сцкая во́бласць ''(Bresckaja vobłasć)''; russian: Бре́стская о́бласть (''Brestskaya Oblast)'') is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative cen ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. It has a population of some 24,000, and is immediately east of the Pinsk district within Brest. It is home to

Luninets air base Luninets is a reserve air base of the Air Force and Air Defence Forces of the Republic of Belarus located in Luninets, Brest Region. The airfield was a fighter-bomber training area during the Cold War. It was home to the 1169th BRAT (1169th Avi ...

History

Luninets is said to be mentioned in print sources dating to 1540. Within the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...

, it was part of Nowogródek Voivodeship. In 1793, the town was acquired by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

in the course of the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian ...

. In 1888, while under Russian sovereignty, a railway junction was built in Luninets, linking it by rail to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

Rivne Rivne (; uk, Рівне ),) also known as Rovno (Russian: Ровно; Polish: Równe; Yiddish: ראָוונע), is a city in western Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Rivne Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the surrounding Ri ...

Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional ur ...

and Homel, and a proper railroad station was added in 1905. Luninets became 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 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

in 1921 following the Polish-Soviet War. In September 1939, Luninets was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the

Byelorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

. Luninets was occupied by Nazi Germany from 10 July 1941 until 10 July 1944 and administered as a part of the Generalbezirk Wolhynien und Podolien of

Reichskommissariat Ukraine During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Mi ...

. After 1944, Luninets remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991, at which time it became part of the newly independent Republic of

. The Jewish population was important in the town. From 1941 to 1943, 4 000 Jews were murdered in mass executions perpetrated by an

Einsatzgruppe (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the impl ...

Education

In Luninets there are 2 vocational colleges - polytechnic and agricultural production.

Transport

In the beginning of 20th century, Luninets became an important railway junction. In 1884-1886, train traffic was opened to

Gomel Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census). Etymology There are at least six narratives of the or ...

, Rovno,

and Brest, a large railway junction with a depot, workshops and other buildings was built near the village, a railway station was built.

References

External links

Site of Belarus city Luninets

https://web.archive.org/web/20040217183603/http://hometown.aol.com/hghoover/genealgy/LunYB.htm]
Photos on Radzima.org

Photo and video Luninets
* {{Authority control Luninets, Luniniec Towns in Belarus Nowogródek Voivodeship (1507–1795) Pinsky Uyezd Polesie Voivodeship Jewish Belarusian history Jewish communities Holocaust locations in Belarus Luninets District