The ancient small city was a part of three states, until the fourth became Belarusian. For more than a thousand years of history, Volkovysk has been captured and destroyed more than once by foreign troops. Currently, it is a green and cozy provincial town.
general information
The city of regional subordination is located on the banks of the Ross River, in the southeast of the Grodno region. Volkovysk (in Belorussian - Vaskavysk) is the center of the district of the same name. The area is 23 square meters. km The population density of Volkovysk is 1916.5 people / sq. km
The first written mention dates back to 1005 and is found in the manuscript book "The Turov bishop’s testament of Blessed Vladimir", which is now taken as the date of the founding of the city. For a long time, the record of 1252 in the Ipatiev Chronicle, about the military campaign of the Galician-Volyn princes of the brothers Daniil and Vasilka Romanovich to the lands of the Lithuanian king Mindovg, was considered a documented mention.
origin of name
There are many urban legends about the origin of the name. According to one of the most famous - that’s the name of the famous leaders of the two robber gangs Volok and Visek, who wielded in this area in the ancient eighth century. In 738, a certain Watislav Zaveiko managed to kill the robbers, by whose names they gave the name to the city. Not far from the place of their burial, a settlement of 10 houses was built, which later became Volkovysk.
According to another version, the name of the city comes from the hydronym Volkovyy. A river with the same name flows through the territory of the city and flows into Russia, the left tributary of the Neman. The river was named so, due to the fact that in those days it flowed through impenetrable forest thickets, in which many wolves hid. The population of Volkovysk also knows many other other stories related to the name of the city.
Story
In the Middle Ages in the region lived tribes of the Baltic and Slavs. The townspeople were engaged in crafts that were usual for those times - blacksmithing and pottery, worked fur, wove linen.
From the 12th to the 15th century, the city was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in 1410 it was attacked and burned by the knights of the Teutonic Order. From the 16th century to the first half of the 18th century belonged to the Commonwealth. During this time, Russian troops stormed and destroyed the city twice. Until the end of the 18th century Volkovysk was finally captured, and it was included in the Russian Empire. In 1885, the railway came to the city, which stimulated the development of industry, 10 factories and plants were built.
From 1919 to 1939 was part of Poland, several industrial facilities were built, including two brick, a cement and foundry, two sawmills. Since 1939, as part of the Byelorussian SSR. During the war years was under German rule, which built a concentration camp here and the Jewish ghetto. In subsequent years, the city successfully developed first in the Soviet Union, then in independent Belarus.
Population
It is not known for certain how many people lived in Volkovysk in the first few hundred years. In 1860, 492 houses and 2 schools were counted in the city, a Catholic church, an Orthodox church, a synagogue, and prayer houses worked. The city had a hospital, 58 shops, 2 mills, a brick factory. The population of Volkovysk was 3472 inhabitants.
The first official data in Russian sources date back to 1860, when a census was conducted in the Russian Empire. Then the population of Volkovysk was 10 323 people, of which 5528 were Jews, 2716 were Orthodox and 1943 Catholics.
During the war, the Germans organized a ghetto in the occupied city, in which about 10,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis. 1101 Volkovysets died at the front. According to the first post-war census of 1959, 18,280 people lived in the city. From 1959 to 1979 the average annual population growth was approximately 2.22%. In 1970, the population reached 23,270. Population growth occurred for natural reasons. In subsequent years, the city was landscaped, engineering infrastructure was built, new residential buildings.
The growth rate of citizens in the 80-90s increased to 3.34% per year. According to the latest post-Soviet data of 1989, the population of Volkovysk was 40,370 people. In the post-Soviet years, the number of inhabitants continued to grow, although the growth rate decreased. The maximum number of 46,600 inhabitants was reached in 1999. In the future, the population decreased slightly, mainly due to the excess of mortality over fertility. In 2017, there were a little more than 44,000 residents in the city.