Vitebsk

Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk (Ві́цебск, ; Ви́тебск, ), is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city. It is served by Vitebsk Vostochny Airport and Vitebsk air base.

History


Vitebsk developed from a river harbor where the Vitba River (Віцьба, from which it derives its name) flows into the larger Dvina, which is spanned in the city by the Kirov Bridge.

Its official founding year is 947 (or perhaps 974, or 914), based on an anachronistic legend that it was founded by Olga of Kiev, but the first mention in historical record is in 1021, when Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev gave it to Bryachislav Ezyaslavovitch, Duke of Polotsk.

In the 12th and 13th centuries Vitebsk was the seat of a minor principality which thrived at the crossroads of the river routes among the Baltic, Black, and Mediterranean seas. In 1320 the city was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; in 1569 it became a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1597 Vitebsk was granted the Magdeburg Rights. In 1772 it was taken over by Russian Empire in the First Partition of Poland.

Under Imperial Russia the ancient center of Vitebsk was rebuilt in the Neoclassical style. The town was a significant shtot in the Pale of Settlement, with around half its population Orthodox Jewish at the turn of the 20th century. The most famous of its Jewish natives was the painter Marc Chagall. Up to the Second World War, like many other cities in Europe, Vitebsk had a significant Jewish population: according to Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 65,900, Jews constituted 34,400 (so around 52% percent).

During the Second World War, most of the local Jews perished in the Vitebsk Ghetto massacre.

In the years 1919–1991 Vitebsk was part of the Soviet Union. During World War II, the city was under German occupation (10 July 1941 - 26 June 1944). Much of the old city was destroyed in the ensuing battles between the Nazis and the Red Army.

In January 1991, Vitebsk celebrated the first Marc Chagall Festival. In June 1992, a monument to Chagall was erected on his native Pokrovskaja street and a memorial inscription placed on the wall of his house.

Since 1992, Vitebsk has been hosting the annual Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, an international art festival. Its main program is devoted to Slavic music. The main participants are artists from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with guests from many other countries, both Slavic and non-Slavic.

Main sights


The city long preserved one of the oldest buildings in the country: the Annunciation Church. This magnificent six-pillared building dates back to the period of Kievan Rus. It was constructed in the 1140s, rebuilt in the 14th and 17th centuries, repaired in 1883 and destroyed by the Communist administration in 1961. Scarce remains of the church were conserved until 1992, when it was restored to its presumed original appearance, although it's a moot point how the church looked like when it was first built.

Churches from the Polish-Lithuanian period were likewise destroyed, although the Resurrection Church (1772–77) has been rebuilt. The Orthodox cathedral, dedicated to the Intercession of the Theotokos, was erected in 1760. There are also the town hall (1775); the Russian governor's palace, where Napoleon celebrated his 43rd birthday in 1812; the Neo-Romanesque Roman Catholic cathedral (1884–85); and an obelisk commemorating the centenary of the Russian victory over Napoleon.

Vitebsk is also home to a lattice steel TV tower carrying a horizontal cross on which the antenna mast is guyed. This tower, which is nearly identical to that at Grodno, but a few metres shorter ( 245 metres in Vitebsk versus 254 metres at Grodno) was completed in 1983.

Education
Vitebsk is home to the Vitebsk State Technological University, Vitebsk State Medical University and Vitebsk State University of P.M. Masherova

Notable people

 * Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, physicist, 2000 Nobel Prize Winner for Physics
 * S. Ansky, playwright, author of The Dybbuk.
 * Marc Chagall, famous painter
 * Yehuda Pen, painter
 * Joseph Günzburg
 * Leon Kobrin, playwright
 * Marcelo Koc (1918–2006), composer
 * Immanuel Velikovsky, psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and controversial author
 * Kazimierz Siemienowicz, an engineer, pioneer of rocketry.
 * Simeon Strunsky (born 1879) author in New York City
 * Joseph Solman (born 1909), American painter
 * Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk (born 1730), Hasidic Rebbe
 * Isser Harel (born 1912) Israel intelligence chief
 * Tanya Dziahileva (born 1991), top model
 * Leonid Afremov, painter
 * Lazar Lagin, Writer
 * Sergei Kornilenko, footballer
 * Irina Sekratarova, artist