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21 unusual facts about Vitebsk


10 Kislev

On this date in 1826 (5587) the Mitteler Rebbe was released from his imprisonment in the City of Vitebsk.

Archon, Aisne

Wounded by a gunshot in the right nipple on 26 July 1812 at Koukoviaczi near Vitebsk in the Battle of Ostrovno, he left the army at the fall of the Empire.

Georg-Hans Reinhardt

From early 1942 until June 1944, Third Panzer Army held its ground around Vitebsk and Smolensk, defeating most Soviet attacks and withdrawing only a short distance in 1943.

Kanti Abdurakhmanov

During an offensive battle in December 1943 to the West of Vitebsk the infantry lay under intense fire from the fortified position of the enemy.

Karl Schnörrer

All along the front the Soviets were advancing and in October, they were in Vitebsk as the Germans unsuccessfully tried to hold the crucial railhead at Smolensk.

Latgale

As part of the Polotsk and Vitebsk guberniyas, the region was part of the Pale of Settlement and had a very large Jewish population – but most of the Jews perished in the Holocaust and much of the remainder has emigrated.

Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky

Upon the intercession of his high-placed relatives, Muravyov was appointed Vice-Governor of Vitebsk in 1826, and appointed Governor of Mogilyov in 1828.

Mikhail Natarevich

Mikhail Davidovich Natarevich was born September 29, 1907, in Vitebsk, a small Belarusian town, has gone down in the history of the 20th-century art world with Chagall and Malevich.

Moscow Choral Synagogue

The chief Moscow rabbi up to 1938 Shmarya Yehuda Leib Medalia, born in Lithuania in 1872, started his rabbinical service in Tula, then a small provincial town about 100 miles from Moscow, and later moved to serve a much larger and more vibrant Jewish community in the Belorussian city of Vitebsk.

Moshe Schneersohn

In 1801 his father took him for treatment with doctors in Vitebsk, St. Petersburg and Smolensk.

Nadine Wulffius

Wulffius' parents had left Latvia after its independence and returned to Russian territory in Vitebsk and lived hidden among the peasants until the rise of Stalin when they were killed by the Communists.

Panther–Wotan line

In the north, the line was to have been constructed roughly from Vitebsk to Pskov, where it then followed the west bank of Lake Peipus, and its river delta to the Baltic Sea at Narva.

Potulice concentration camp

In 1943 a transport of 543 children from the regions of Smolensk and Vitebsk arrived.

Sergey Muravyov-Apostol

He took part in the battle of Vitebsk, the battle of Borodino, the battle of Tarutino, the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, the battle at the crossing of the Berezina river (for which he was awarded the golden sword for bravery), the Battle of Nations at Leipzig, and the battle for Paris (for which he was awarded with the Order of St. Anna, second degree).

Troitsky Markov Monastery

Svyato-Troitsky Markov Monastery (Holy Trinity Markov Monastery) is one of two modern monasteries in Vitebsk (second one is female Svyato-Dukhov Monastery).

Vitebsk Governorate

Vitebsk Governorate (Витебская губерния, Vitebskaya guberniya) was an administrative unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk.

Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art

After World War II only one work from the former Vitebsk Museum of Modern Arts was left in Vitebsk: a small still life by David Sternberg.

Vitebsk TV Tower

The Vitebsk Television Tower is situated in the city of Vitebsk, which in turn serves as the capital of the Vitebsk Region and is the fourth-largest city of the whole of Belarus.

Vsevolod the Big Nest

She was a daughter of Vasilko Bryacheslavich, Prince of Vitebsk.

Władysław Godik

He acted in the dramatic section of Hazemir and in 1911 he began acting professionally at Gershanovitsh in Vitebsk, playing Baynushl in Pintele Yid.

Yehuda Pen

In 1891 he settled in Vitebsk and a year later opened first private school of drawing and painting in Russian Empire - the Jewish art school.


501st Heavy Panzer Battalion

Throughout 1944, the 501st engaged in several battles, including Vitebsk and Gorodok.

FC Lokomotiv Vitebsk

FC Vitebsk, an active Belarusian football club which was named KIM Vitebsk (until 1994), Dvina Vitebsk (1994-1995), Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk (1996-2002), Lokomotiv Vitebsk (2003-2007) and Vitebsk (since 2008).

Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin

Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin (4 October 1750, Vitebsk – 25 August 1807, Końskowola) is considered to be one of the most distinguished Polish poets of the Polish sentimentalism in the Enlightenment period.

Galyonki

18th Vitebsk Normandie-Niemen Attack Air Regiment of Guards (former 11th Air Army, now 3rd Air and Air Defence Forces Command) is stationed at a military airfield in the vicinity.

Lepiel

After Polatsk was captured by the Russian army in 1563, the Vitebsk government was no longer able to protect its property from the attacks of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Nikolai Malko

From 1921 to 1924 he shuttled between Vitebsk, Moscow, Kiev and Kharkiv, conducting in each of these cities.

Novosokolniki

In Nevel, south of Novosokolniki, it splits into two railway lines, both running southeast into Belarus: One line to Vitebsk, and another one to Grodno via Polotsk and Molodechno.

Sergey Shmolik

In July 2008, he was banned from refereeing after being found to have refereed a league game between Naftan and Vitebsk drunk.

Subačius Gate

Subačius Gate was arguably one of the most important gates in the city of Vilnius, leading strategic way to Vitebsk, Polock, Smolensk and Moscow.

Usvyacha River

The drainage basin of the Usvyacha includes the center and the southeast of Usvyachsky District, the southwest of Kunyinsky District, the northwest of Velizhsky District of Smolensk Oblast, as well as the northwest of Vitebsk Raion.

Velikiye Luki

One more railway connects Velikiye Luki to Nevel, where it splits into two railway lines, both running southeast into Belarus: One line to Vitebsk, and another one to Grodno via Polotsk and Molodechno.

Vitebsky railway station

In a departure from normal practice of the Soviet years, the Vitebsk station preserved its elevated train shed, five platforms and luggage elevators almost intact, making it an ideal location for filming Soviet adaptations of Anna Karenina, Sherlock Holmes stories, and other 19th-century classics.