Welisch

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Welisch (disambiguation) .

city Welisch Велиж coat of arms Federal district Central Russia Oblast Smolensk Rajon Welisch Founded 1536 City since 1776 surface 32  km² population 7620 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Population density 238 inhabitants / km² Height of the center 160  m Time zone UTC + 3 Telephone code (+7) 48132 Post Code 216290, 216291 License Plate 67 OKATO 66 203 501 Geographical location Coordinates 55 ° 36 ′  N , 31 ° 12 ′  E Coordinates: 55 ° 36 ′ 0 ″  N , 31 ° 12 ′ 0 ″  E

Location in the western part of Russia

Location in Smolensk Oblast

List of cities in Russia

Velisch ( Russian Велиж ) is a small town in the Smolensk Oblast ( Russia ) with 7620 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010).

geography

The city is located about 130 kilometers northwest of the Oblast capital Smolensk on the Daugava .

Welisch is the administrative center of the Rajons of the same name .

history

Welisch was first mentioned in a document at the end of the 14th century. Since the end of the 15th / beginning of the 16th century, the place belonged to the Grand Duchy of Moscow . The official founding year is 1536, when a new fortress was built in place of the old fortification remains. The name is probably derived from the former name of the upper reaches of the Daugava , Velja .

During the clashes between Poland-Lithuania and Tsarist Russia , ownership of the city changed several times. From 1580 to 1655, Welisch belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as part of Poland-Lithuania, then to Russia until 1678 and again to Poland-Lithuania until 1722, before it finally came into the possession of Russia.

The city charter was granted in 1776. The main industries at that time were the building of river barges and rafting .

An important Jewish community existed in Welisch until the 1920s , which became known in connection with the unjustified collective conviction for ritual murder in 1824. The judgment was not overturned until 1835.

During the Second World War , Welisch was occupied by the German Wehrmacht on July 14, 1941 and recaptured on September 20, 1943 by troops of the Kalinin Front of the Red Army as part of the Duchowschtschina-Demidow operation .

Population development

year	Residents
1897	12,193
1939	11,400
1959	7,948
1970	8,478
1979	8,909
1989	9,146
2002	8,343
2010	7,620
2014	7,060

Note: census data

Culture and sights

The city has a history and local museum .

economy

Welisch is a center of the timber industry and processing (furniture factory). In addition, companies in the textile, electrotechnical and food industries.

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 : Welisch  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• City's unofficial website (Russian)
• Welisch on mojgorod.ru (Russian)