Dorogobush

city Dorogobush Дорогобуж flag coat of arms Federal district Central Russia Oblast Smolensk Rajon Dorogobush mayor Viktor Vlasov (acting) Founded 1150 City since 1708 surface 9  km² population 10,720 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Population density 1191 inhabitants / km² Height of the center 210  m Time zone UTC + 3 Telephone code (+7) 48144 Post Code 215710, 215713 License Plate 67 OKATO 66 214 501 Website admin.smolensk.ru/~dorogob Geographical location Coordinates 54 ° 55 '  N , 33 ° 18'  E Coordinates: 54 ° 55 '0 "  N , 33 ° 18' 0"  E

Location in the western part of Russia

Location in Smolensk Oblast

List of cities in Russia

Dorogobusch ( Russian Дорогобу́ж ) is a small town in Russia in the Smolensk Oblast on the Upper Dnieper . It has 10,720 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010) and is located about 113 km northeast of the regional capital Smolensk . Dorogobush is also one of the oldest cities in the oblast.

history

The founding of the city of Dorogobush in the middle of the 12th century is attributed to the Grand Duke Rostislav , who wanted to create an outpost east of Smolensk to protect the city belonging to him from the conquest of the rival Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgoruki . There is no reliable information about the origin of the city name; According to some versions, the name is composed of Doroga - way, road - and bush - out of date for mountain; The latter could also mean the Bug River in Volhynia , where Prince Isjaslav II , an older brother of Rostislav, ruled at that time .

After building a fortress at the mouth of the Ordynka river in the Dnieper, Rostislav had the first church built in the village. In the next decades the population of the place grew continuously, as it proved to be favorable for trading activities with its location on the upper Dnieper. In the 15th century, Dorogobush, like the entire Smolensk region, became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , but it went to Moscow at the beginning of the 16th century . After a devastation by Lithuanian troops in 1508, Grand Duke Vasily III. rebuild the fortress by Italian architects working in Moscow . The city flourished again as a trading town for a few decades, but was devastated again at the beginning of the 17th century, this time by Polish troops. From then on until the Peace of Andrussowo in 1667, the city was owned by Poland, after which it was returned to Moscow.

From the end of the 17th century the town was rebuilt, with the old wooden fortifications being replaced by brick ones; Several new, also stone church buildings were built. In 1708 Dorogobusch was officially granted city rights. In the course of the 18th century, the city was gradually expanded, creating a rectangular, checkered road network modeled on European cities.

Dorogobusch before 1917

The city suffered renewed destruction in the war against Napoléon in 1812. When it was rebuilt a few years later, the architects were inspired by the classicist style that was in vogue at the time . A new church building, the Peter and Paul Church, was also built in 1835, and it has been preserved to this day. In the middle of the 19th century, Dorogobusch rose to become an important trading center for agricultural products. Around the turn of the century, the city's infrastructure developed quickly thanks to donations from some well-known, wealthy merchants in the region; a large hospital and other public facilities were built. This development continued until the October Revolution of 1917. After that, Dorogobusch lost its importance as a trading center. In the 1920s and 1930s, a power station and a railway connection were built here for the first time .

During the German attack in the war against the Soviet Union , Dorogobusch was devastated again after the city was occupied by the Wehrmacht and controlled for over a year despite bitter partisan resistance . After the retreat, the Germans blew up almost all of the city's churches; of the original 8,500 inhabitants, only a little over 800 remained. Although the city has been rebuilt since the 1950s, almost nothing of the historic old town could be reconstructed.

Since the middle of the 20th century, more and more industrial objects have been built in Dorogobusch. In the 1980s, the city was expanded to include a new, large residential area on the Dneprufer, which almost doubled the city's population. In the 1990s, a new Dnieper bridge was completed and a historic monastery was rebuilt in the vicinity of the city, which had also been destroyed in the Second World War .

Population development

year	Residents
1897	6,486
1926	7,850
1939	8,522
1959	5,823
1970	6,663
1979	7,488
1989	12,254
2002	12,250
2010	10,720

Note: census data

Attractions

War memorial in Dorogobusch

The most important buildings in the city and the surrounding area include the very few architectural monuments from before 1917, in particular the Peter and Paul Church from 1835 and the recently restored Gerassimo Boldinski monastery from the 16th century , which is located in the village of Boldino around 19 km east of Dorogobusch. Also worth seeing is the village of Alexino 18 km southeast of the city with a mansion from the early 19th century and a church from 1794.

economy

There are several factories in Dorogobusch, most of which were built after the Second World War. This includes a fertilizer and boiler factory, a furniture factory and a brick factory. In addition, agriculture plays an important role in the area around the city.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Itogi Vserossijskoj perepisi naselenija 2010 goda. Tom 1. Čislennostʹ i razmeščenie naselenija (Results of the All-Russian Census 2010. Volume 1. Number and distribution of the population). Tables 5 , pp. 12-209; 11 , pp. 312–979 (download from the website of the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation)

Web links

Commons : Dorogobusch  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Rajons (≈ County) Dorogobush (Russian)
• Unofficial website of the city ( Memento of September 21, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
• Dorogobusch on mojgorod.ru (Russian)