Ašmiany
Encyclopedia
Hrodna Voblast
Hrodna Voblast or Grodno Oblast is a voblast in northwestern Belarus.The capital - Grodno is the biggest city of the province. It lies on the Neman River. Grodno's existence is attested to from 1127. Two castles dating from the 14th - 18th centuries are located here on the steep right bank of...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, capital of the Ašmiany raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
located 25 km from Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
. It lies in the basin of the Oshmianka River. It is also known as "Aschemynne" in the Chronicles of the Teutonic Knights. It was birth place of Lucjan Żeligowski
Lucjan Zeligowski
Lucjan Żeligowski , was a Polish general, and veteran of World War I, the Polish-Soviet War and World War II. He is mostly remembered for his role in Żeligowski's Mutiny and as head of a short-lived Republic of Central Lithuania.-Biography:...
, who was a Polish general.
Name
Town and region surrounding modern Ashmyany was once ethnic Lithuanian landLithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
. Between the 17th and 18th centuries a lot of local Lithuanians died out due to wars and famine, in their place were settled new Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
colonists. With time Lithuanians were outnumbered by Slavs. Presently, Lithuanian past is sealed in towns's name, which is of Lithuanian origin. Town's name derivative from river name Ašmena (modern Oshmianka River), which is originated from appellative Lithuanian word akmuo (stone). Link between consonants š and k is old and echoed in Lithuanian words, respectively ašmuo (sharp blade) and akmuo (stone). Present name Ashmyany is using plural form of name and is a modern invention, as through ancient town's history, its name was recored in Lithuanian singular form.
History
The first reliable mentioning of Ashmyany (in the Lithuanian ChroniclesLithuanian Chronicles
The Lithuanian Chronicles are three redactions of chronicles compiled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. All redactions were written in the Old Church Slavonic language and served the needs of Lithuanian patriotism. The first redaction, compiled in 1420s, glorified Vytautas the Great and supported...
) tells that after the death of Gediminas in 1341 the town was inherited, among other places, by Jaunutis
Jaunutis
Jaunutis was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from his father Gediminas' death in 1341 until he was deposed by his elder brothers Algirdas and Kęstutis in 1345....
. In 1384, the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
attempted to attack Ašmiany as a beginning attempt to destroy the hereditary state of Jogaila
Jogaila
Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...
. The Teutons managed to destroy the town, but it quickly recovered. In 1402 another Teutonic attack on the city occurred, but was bloodily repelled and the Teutons were forced to withdraw to Medininkai.
In 1413 the town became one of the most notable centres of trade and commerce within the Vilnius Voivodship. Because of that, in 1432 it became a battlefield of an important battle between the royal forces of Jogaila
Jogaila
Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...
under Žygimantas Kęstutaitis and the forces of Švitrigaila
Švitrigaila
Švitrigaila Švitrigaila Švitrigaila (ca 1370 – 10 February 1452; was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432. He spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund Kęstutaitis.-Struggle against Vytautas:...
allied with the Teutonic Order. After the town was taken by the royalists, it became a private property of the Grand Duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
s of Lithuania and started to develop rapidly. However, less than a century later the town was yet again destroyed and burnt to the ground, this time by the forces of Muscovy in 1519. The recovery did not occur as quickly as the previous time and in 1537 the town was granted with several royal privileges to facilitate the reconstruction. In 1566 the town finally received a city charter based on the Magdeburg Law, which was later confirmed (along with the privileges for the local merchants and burghers) by king Jan III Sobieski in 1683. In 16th century the town also became one of the most notable centres of Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, after Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł founded a collegiate and a church there.
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
in its history. Composed of three fields parted per pale, it featured a shield, a hand holding a weigh and the Ciołek Coat of Arms, a personal coat of arms of the monarch.
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
of 1795, the town was annexed by Imperial Russia. During the November Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
it was liberated by a local priest Jasiński and Colonel Count Karol Przeździecki with help of town population. However, in April 1831 they were forced to withdraw to the Naliboki forest
Naliboki forest
Naliboki Forest, the Naliboki Pushcha , is a large forest complex in the northwestern Belarus, on the right bank of the Neman River, on the Belarusian Ridge.Naliboki Pushcha is famous for its nature and rich, although tragic, history...
in face of Russian offensive. After a minor skirmish with Polish-Lithuanian rearguard under Stelnicki, the Russian punitive expeditionary force of some 1500 officers and soldiers entered the town and proceeded to burn the town and massacre the civilian population. Some 500 people, women,children and elderly seeking refuge in the Dominican Cathloic Church were massacred there, and even the local priest was murdered, nothing is known about the fate of the Jewish citizens. After this destruction the town was somewhat repopulated and received a new coat of arms in 1845 in recognition of its rather smallish growth. Gradually rebuilt, it never recovered from the losses and by the end of 19th century it was rather a provincial town, inhabited primarily by Jewish immigrants from other parts of Russia, from 'beyond the pale'. In 1912 the local Jewish community built a large synagogue.
After the end of World War I on the German-Russo front in 1917 and withdrawal of the German army in 1919, the Bolshevik activity threatened the town under Polish jurisdiction. Consequently Polish armed forces battled invading Bolsheviks, and there were graves of Polish soldiers who had died in that struggle. Finally after the Polish-Bolshevik War ending, was restored to Poland by the Treaty of Riga. Between the Polish Defensive War
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
of 1939 and 1941 the town was seized by the USSR and then until 1944 by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. During the very end of the Soviet occupation NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
- night of 22nd onto 23 June 1941, murdered and buried in one grave 57 Polish prisoners from the local population. During the Nazi occupation the Jews of Ashmyany were restricted to a ghetto; their spiritual leader was Rabbi Zew Wawa Morejno
Zew Wawa Morejno
Zew Wawa Morejno was a Polish and American rabbi.Morejno was born into a hasidic family in Warsaw. He studied at rabbinical schools in Baranovichi, Mir, Belarus and in Kamieniec Litewski. In 1939 he became a rabbi in Zuprany...
. In 1945 town was annexed by the USSR and included as a part of the Byelorussian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, since 1991 it is a part of Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
.
Demography
- 1859 - 3066 citizens http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_VII/751
- 1871 - 4546 citizens http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_VII/751
- 1880 - 5050 citizens (2501 Jews, 2175 Roman Catholics, 352 Orthodoxs) http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_VII/751
- 1897 — 6400 citizens http://www.populstat.info/Europe/belarust.htm
- 1907/08 — 8300 citizens
- 1921 — 6000 citizens
- 1939 — 8500 citizens
- 1974 — 10000 citizens (Great Soviet Encyclopedia)
- 1991 — 15200 citizens http://education.kulichki.net/dic/16e.html
- 2004 — 14900 citizens
- 2006 — 14600 citizens http://www.oshmiany.grodno.by
- 2007 — 14269 citizens http://www.gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=&men=gpro&lng=fr&dat=32&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=519968593
Landmarks
- Catholic church of St. Michael the Archangel
- Catholic church of FranciscanFranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
, built in 1822 - SynagogueSynagogueA synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, built in 1912 - Orthodox church of ResurrectionResurrectionResurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
, built in 1875 - WatermillWatermillA watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
Miscellaneous
- Alternate Names: Oshmyany, Oszmiana, Aschemynne, Oshmyany, Ašmena, Oshmana, Oshmene, Oshmina, Osmiany, Oszmiana, Ozmiana, Osmiana, Oßmiana (Middle Ages maps)
- Mentioned in: Memoirs of Baron LejeuneLouis-François, Baron LejeuneLouis-François, Baron Lejeune was a French general, painter, and lithographer. His memoirs have frequently been republished and his name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe.-Life:...
, Volume II, Chapter VII.
