Mstislaw or Mstislavl is a town in Mogilev 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 Mstsislaw District. In 2009, its population was 10,804. As of 2024, it has a population of 10,019.

History

Mstislavl was first mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicle in 1156. It was initially a part of the Principality of Smolensk, but had become the capital of the Principality of Mstislavl by 1180. In the Middle Ages, it was the seat of the Mstislavsky princely family. Pyotr Mstislavets is believed to have been born in Mstislavl. In 1377, the town joined 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, ...

with the free will of its residents. The first Lithuanian duke of Mstislavl was Karigaila, brother of Jogaila. The town remained 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 ...

under the Mścisław Voivodship until the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

in 1772. Buildings of historic interest in the town include the

Carmelite The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

church (1637, renovated 1746–50) and the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

cathedral (1640, renovated 1730–38, turned into an Orthodox cathedral in 1842). Jews had a historic presence in the town. In 1939, there were 2,067 Jews living in Mstislavl, representing almost 20% of the local population. The German army occupied the town in July 1941. In early October, they killed 30 elderly Jews. On October 15, 1941, together with the local police, they murdered between 850 and 1,300 Jews. The town is the birthplace of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

historian and writer

Simon Dubnow Simon Dubnow (alternatively spelled Dubnov; ; rus, Семён Ма́ркович Ду́бнов, Semyon Markovich Dubnov, sʲɪˈmʲɵn ˈmarkəvʲɪdʑ ˈdubnəf; 10 September 1860 – 8 December 1941) was a Jewish-Russian Empire, Russian h ...

, Jewish statesman and Communist politician Yakov Chubin, and expressionist artist Abraham A. Manievich, among others.

Gallery

File:Mstislaw Jesuit Collegium building front.JPG, Jesuit Collegium building, from the 17th century File:Mstislaw Gimnasium building.JPG, Mstislaw Male Gymnasium, from the beginning of the 19th century File:Мсціслаў. Краявіды. 2015 07.jpg, Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral, built in the 19th century on the foundation of an earlier Catholic Cathedral File:Мсціслаў. Краявіды. 2015 18.jpg, Orthodox Church File:Мсціслаў. Краявіды (04).jpg, Ruins of the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel File:Касьцёл і брама (Амсьціслаў).jpg, Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Notes

References

External links

Photos on Radzima.org

The murder of the Jews of Mstsislaw
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 ...

, at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

website.
More information about Mscislaw in Belarusian
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