Vitebsk

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Vitebsk | Vitebsk
Віцебск | Витебск
( Belarus. ) | ( Russian )
coat of arms
coat of arms
 flag
flag
State : BelarusBelarus Belarus
Woblasz : Flag of Vitsebsk Voblasts.svg Vitebsk
Coordinates : 55 ° 11 ′  N , 30 ° 10 ′  E Coordinates: 55 ° 11 ′  N , 30 ° 10 ′  E
Height : 162  m
Area : 96  km²
 
Residents : 364,800 (2020)
Population density : 3,800 inhabitants per km²
Time zone : Moscow time ( UTC + 3 )
Telephone code : (+375) 212
Postal code : BY - 210xxx
License plate : 2
 
Website :
Vitebsk (Belarus)
Vitebsk
Vitebsk

Vitebsk and Vitebsk ( Belarusian Віцебск / Vitsebsk , Russian Витебск / Vitebsk ; . Poln Vitebsk , lit. Vitebskas , lett. Vitebska ) is a city in the north of Belarus near the borders with Russia and Latvia with 347,500 inhabitants (1 January 2009) . It has a river port on the Daugava , is an industrial city (mechanical engineering, light, food, textile industry), railway and road junction and the cultural center of the area with university , colleges, theaters , museums , galleries and monuments. Vitebsk is the capital of Vitebskaya Woblasz and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Vitebsk, founded on October 13, 1999 .

history

The city was founded in 947 on the orders of Grand Duchess Olga of Kiev (881–969) and was first mentioned in 1021. Vitebsk was developed as a fortress of the Kievan Rus against pagan Lithuanian invaders. After feudal fragmentation processes began in the Kievan Rus, the city belonged to the Principality of Polotsk in the 12th and 13th centuries , was an important center of trade and handicrafts, later the seat of an independent principality with trade connections to the Hanseatic League . After the Mongol invasion of the Rus , Vitebsk was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1320 , according to other sources it was integrated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a dowry.

In the 16th century the place was destroyed several times during acts of war. When the aristocratic republic of Poland-Lithuania was founded with the Union of Lublin on August 12, 1569 , Vitebsk belonged to the newly founded state. From 1654 to 1667 the city was occupied by Russian troops. It was almost completely burned down in 1708 during the Great Northern War .

During the first partition of Poland in 1772, the city and its surroundings fell to Russia. In the Russian campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte , Vitebsk was conquered on July 28, 1812 and set on fire.

Vitebsk in the 19th century based on a painting by Napoleon Orda

In the 19th century it became an important industrial center in the region and was the capital of the Vitebsk governorate . The city formed a railway junction on the routes from Warsaw to Saint Petersburg (where one of the main stations is Vitebsk Railway Station ) and from Moscow to Riga .

population

Vitebsk, like many cities in Eastern Europe, was a mixed city. In 1900, 52% of the population were Jews , making the city one of the largest Jewish centers. In the 1920s, the city had around 100,000 inhabitants, 45% of whom were Jews, 30% Belarusians and 20% (Great) Russians.

Artistic center

In 1896, Jehuda Pen opened the first private art school in Belarus in Vitebsk at the suggestion of Ilya Repin . He made the city one of the most important centers of artistic modernism in Europe. “Between 1917 and 1922, Vitebsk was a laboratory of modernity in which important representatives of the European avant-garde, such as B. Marc Chagall , El Lissitzky , the artists' association UNOWIS , Kasimir Malewitsch , the theater directors Rudolf Ungern and Iwan Sollertinskij and many others experimented. "

Soviet Union

Vitebsk 1912 (montage of two single photos by Prokudin-Gorski )

After the dissolution of the Vitebsk Governorate in 1924, the city became part of the Belarusian SSR .

German occupation

Vitebsk was destroyed like hardly any other city during the Second World War , its large Jewish community - the city once had around 70 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses - wiped out. On July 10, 1941, the German Wehrmacht took Vitebsk. It was immediately followed by Einsatzkommando 9 (EK 9) of Einsatzgruppe B, whose commanders had between 6,800 and 15,000 Jews shot from July to October 1941 as part of the Holocaust . On June 26, 1944, the Red Army recaptured the city ​​in the Battle of Vitebsk . It was almost completely destroyed during the fight. Thereafter there was a prisoner of war camp 271 for German prisoners of war of the Second World War in the city . Seriously ill people were cared for in Prisoner of War Hospital 2813 , Letcy . Vitebsk has been part of the independent state of Belarus since 1991.

Culture and sights

Vitebsk, Lenin Street

The town hall from 1775, the Kazan Church from 1760 and the Church of the Annunciation from the 12th century are well worth seeing in the city . A few kilometers outside the city is the Repin- Datscha , the three-story summer house of the famous Russian painter Ilya Repin , where many of his paintings were created.

The home of the Russian-Jewish painter and graphic artist Marc Chagall was turned into a museum, and many of his lithographs are on display in the Marc Chagall Art Center .

In 1969 a museum was opened in honor of the partisan commander Minaj Schmyrjou .

An outstanding cultural event of the city is the international art festival "Slavic Bazaar", which has been held annually since 1992 and in which many music groups and artists from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and the Baltic States take part.

Other structures

In Vitebsk there is a 245 meter high transmission tower , which is designed as a free-standing steel lattice tower with a horizontal cross to which the antenna mast is guyed. There is an almost identical tower in Hrodna .

coat of arms

Description: In blue a man's head looking to the right with hair and beard in brown and white collar hovers over a gold-tipped silver sword with the tip pointing to the left and in the corners in gold the characters "IΣ", "XΣ" and below "C "," C "with a tilde " ~ "above the groups.

The shield rests on a larger red baroque shield and a natural-colored cherub head hovers over it. On each side a natural-colored angel sputte with a red ribbon covering the pubic area and holding the blue ribbon of the Order of Andrew the First Called .

A bouquet of green leaves and natural roses at the base of the coat of arms, as well as on the upper shield cartouche on the sides. Two green scrollwork with gold rims hang down on the sides.

sons and daughters of the town

Marc Chagall Art Center in Vitebsk

Twin cities

town hall

Vitebsk is twin city of

GermanyGermany Frankfurt (Oder) , Germany
GermanyGermany Nienburg / Weser , Germany
IsraelIsrael Rishon LeZion , Israel
PolandPoland Zielona Góra , Poland
LatviaLatvia Daugavpils , Latvia.
LatviaLatvia Rēzekne , Latvia.
RussiaRussia Gelendzhik , Russia
RussiaRussia Pskov , Russia
RussiaRussia Stupino , Russia
RussiaRussia Samara , Russia
RussiaRussia Smolensk , Russia
China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Harbin ( Manchuria ), China
BulgariaBulgaria Haskovo , Bulgaria
SwedenSweden Gotland , Sweden

In the Soviet period Vitebsk was a twin town of Frankfurt (Oder) and Grünberg in Silesia (Zielona Góra). In honor of the twin cities, two restaurants in Vitebsk bore the respective names of the twin cities, only one of which still exists today. In honor of the Polish city of Zielona Góra, the "Festival of Polish Song" was held in 1988, which was transformed into the "International Art Festival" "Славянский базар в Витебске" in 1992 and takes place annually.

education

The Vitebsk State Technological University (WSTU) was founded in the 1965th It has four faculties:

  • economic faculty
  • mechanical-technological faculty
  • Faculty of Construction and Technology
  • Faculty of Design and Technology.

The WSTU includes a sports complex, a sanatorium and a design and development department.

The Vitebsk State PM Mascherov University (WSU) was founded in 1910. It has eleven faculties:

  • Mathematical Faculty
  • Faculty of Physics
  • Faculty of History
  • Pedagogical Faculty
  • Biological faculty
  • Faculty of Belarusian Philology and Culture
  • Faculty of Social Education and Psychology
  • Philological Faculty
  • Faculty of Sports Science
  • Law Faculty
  • Faculty of Fine Arts and Graphics.

The Vitebsk State Medical University (WSMU) was founded in the 1934th It has seven faculties:

  • Faculty of Medicine
  • Pharmaceutical Faculty
  • Faculty of Dentistry
  • Faculty of Preparation of Foreign Citizens
  • Faculty of upgrading the qualifications of specialists and retraining of specialists
  • Faculty of upgrading qualifications on pedagogy and psychology
  • Faculty of Vocational Orientation and Preparation for High School Graduates

The Vitebsk State Academy of Veterinary Medicine (WSAT) was founded in 1933. It has five faculties:

  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
  • Biotechnology Faculty
  • Faculty of Vocational Orientation and Preparation for High School Graduates
  • Distance learning faculty
  • Faculty of upgrading the qualifications of specialists and retraining of specialists

Sports

The FK Vitebsk (formerly Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk , Belarusian ФК Віцебск , Russian ФК Витебск / FK Vitebsk) played until 2011 in the Vyshejaya Liha , the top division of Belarus. The women's football team from Universitet Vitebsk is more successful . In addition, the city is home to the HK Vitebsk ice hockey club.

bibliography

  • Karl Schlögel: The first city in the new world. How Vitebsk in Belarus became, for a historic moment, the metropolis of modernity ; in: Die Zeit 4/2006 of January 19, 2006
  • VA Schischanov: The Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art : istoriia sozdaniia i kollektsii. 1918-1941 ; Minsk: Medisont, 2007 ( PDF )

Web links

Commons : Vitebsk  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Population as of January 1, 2020. In: belstat.gov.by,
  2. ^ PR Magocsi: Historical Atlas of Central Europe ; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002; P. 109
  3. ^ Karl Schlögel : The first city of the new world
  4. ↑ Erich Maschke (ed.): On the history of the German prisoners of war of the Second World War. Verlag Ernst and Werner Gieseking, Bielefeld 1962–1977.
  5. ↑ Shmyrev Museum: to appreciate and remember you need to know!