Stowbtsy

Stowbtsy
Стоўбцы (Belarusian)
Столбцы (Russian)
Town
Culture center
Culture center
Flag of Stowbtsy
Flag
Coat of arms of Stowbtsy
Coat of arms
Stowbtsy is located in Belarus
Stowbtsy
Stowbtsy
Location within Belarus
Coordinates: 53°29′N 26°44′E / 53.483°N 26.733°E / 53.483; 26.733
CountryBelarus
RegionMinsk Region
DistrictStowbtsy District
First mentioned1511
Population
 (2026)
 • Total
17,603
Time zoneGTM +3
Postal code
222666
Area code+375 1717
License plate5
Websitehttp://www.stolbtsy.minsk-region.by/

Stowbtsy or Stolbtsy is a town in Minsk Region, in west-central Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Stowbtsy District. It is located on the Neman River. As of 2026, it has a population of 17,603.

Etymology

"Stowbtsy" means "columns" or "posts" in Belarusian. A suggested version for the name origin: once the Neman River was very deep, and sailing boats had to be tied to wooden posts to secure the boats against a strong flow of the river.

History

Polish-Soviet borderpost in 1934

The town was founded in 1593. For a long time it was a shtetl with significant Jewish population. It was a private town of the Słuszka noble family of Ostoja coat of arms, administratively located in the Minsk County in the Minsk Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Aleksander Słuszka and his wife Zofia founded a church and Dominican monastery in the 17th century. Later, the town passed to the Radziwiłł and Czartoryski families.

In the late-18th-century Partitions of Poland, the town was annexed by Russia. The Orthodox Church of Saint Anne was built in 1825, funded by the Czartoryski family. After the unsuccessful Polish November Uprising, in 1833, the Dominican monastery was closed, and converted into a regular Catholic parish. As of 1867, the town had a population of 2,035. The town was a major regional trading center that declined after the railroad was built in 1871, bypassing the town. This was followed by a mass emigration of Jews to America.

In August 1924, while Stowbtsy was part of the Second Polish Republic, the town was the site of a Soviet-Polish border incident in which a company of Soviet raiders attacked its police station and government building in order to free two imprisoned communist activists (see Soviet raid on Stołpce).

Panorama in the interwar period

World War II

Following the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II in 1939, the town was occupied by the Soviet Union until 1941, then by Nazi Germany until 1944. 25 soldiers of the local Border Protection Corps, 17 Polish policemen, a local teacher and a local school inspector were murdered by the Russians in the Katyn massacre in 1940.

In June 1941, there were more than 3,000 Jews living in the town, including several hundred refugees from the German occupied parts of Poland. The city was under German occupation from 1941 to 1944. After a week of occupation, the Germans shot around 200 Jews together with several dozen non-Jews, allegedly as a reprisal for sniper fire directed at German soldiers. On September 23, 1942, some 450 Jews were sent to their workplaces, and 750 Jews, most of them women, were shot in a forest, while another 850 either managed to flee or remained in hiding in the ghetto. On October 2, another 488 Jews, composed mostly of women and children were shot. Another 350 Jews were killed on October 11. On January 31, 1943, the remaining 254 Jews, including those brought in from Novy Sverzhen, were shot. In the following days, the captured Jews were also shot and 293 Jews had been shot by February 4, 1943. Some of the Jews who fled the ghetto survived by joining the Bielski partisans in the nearby Naliboki Forest. In 1944, the town was re-occupied by the Soviet Union, which annexed it from Poland in 1945.

Climate

Climate data for Stowbtsy (1991–2020)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 4.3
(39.7)		 6.0
(42.8)		 13.5
(56.3)		 23.2
(73.8)		 28.0
(82.4)		 30.3
(86.5)		 31.8
(89.2)		 31.5
(88.7)		 26.5
(79.7)		 19.4
(66.9)		 11.6
(52.9)		 6.0
(42.8)		 31.8
(89.2)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) −1.7
(28.9)		 −0.4
(31.3)		 5.0
(41.0)		 13.3
(55.9)		 19.4
(66.9)		 22.9
(73.2)		 24.9
(76.8)		 24.2
(75.6)		 18.0
(64.4)		 10.8
(51.4)		 4.0
(39.2)		 −0.3
(31.5)		 11.7
(53.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) −4.1
(24.6)		 −3.3
(26.1)		 0.9
(33.6)		 7.9
(46.2)		 13.5
(56.3)		 17.1
(62.8)		 19.0
(66.2)		 18.2
(64.8)		 12.8
(55.0)		 6.8
(44.2)		 1.6
(34.9)		 −2.5
(27.5)		 7.3
(45.1)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −6.4
(20.5)		 −5.9
(21.4)		 −2.5
(27.5)		 3.0
(37.4)		 7.9
(46.2)		 11.6
(52.9)		 13.7
(56.7)		 12.7
(54.9)		 8.4
(47.1)		 3.6
(38.5)		 −0.4
(31.3)		 −4.6
(23.7)		 3.4
(38.1)
Record low °C (°F) −20.1
(−4.2)		 −17.4
(0.7)		 −11.2
(11.8)		 −4.1
(24.6)		 0.5
(32.9)		 5.0
(41.0)		 8.6
(47.5)		 6.4
(43.5)		 0.8
(33.4)		 −4.1
(24.6)		 −9.4
(15.1)		 −15.4
(4.3)		 −20.1
(−4.2)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 41.8
(1.65)		 36.1
(1.42)		 34.1
(1.34)		 35.6
(1.40)		 61.8
(2.43)		 71.9
(2.83)		 89.6
(3.53)		 62.7
(2.47)		 51.9
(2.04)		 49.9
(1.96)		 45.2
(1.78)		 43.1
(1.70)		 623.7
(24.56)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 9.7 9.0 8.9 7.1 9.2 9.3 10.8 8.1 7.8 9.0 9.5 10.7 109.1
Source: NOAA

Notable people

In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin arrived in the Soviet Union via Stowbtsy, where he was taken to a commissar. He later escaped an assassination attempt by an agent of the OGPU.

Notes

  1. ↑ Belarusian: Стоўбцы, romanized: Stoŭbcy, IPA: [ˈstowpt͡sɨ]; Russian: Столбцы, IPA: [stɐlˈptsɨ]; Polish: Stołpce; Yiddish: סטויבץ, romanized: Steibtz; Lithuanian: Stolpcai.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Численность населения на 1 января 2026 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2025 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа". belsat.gov.by. Archived from the original on 8 May 2026. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (in Polish). Vol. XI. Warszawa. 1890. p. 365.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ↑ "About the city". stolbtsy.by.(in Russian)
  4. ↑ Латушкін А. Заснаванне г. Стоўбцы (Свержна), Верхняе Панямонне. Вып. 1. Мінск 2012. С. 7-29
  5. 1 2 3 4 Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (in Polish). Vol. XI. Warszawa. 1890. p. 366.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ↑ David R. Stone, "The August 1924 Raid on Stolptsy, Poland, and the Evolution of Soviet Active Intelligence, Intelligence and National Security, vol. 21, no. 3 (June 2006), pp. 331-341
  7. ↑ Tucholski, Jędrzej, ed. (2003). Charków. Księga Cmentarna Polskiego Cmentarza Wojennego (PDF) (in Polish). Warszawa: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Miejsc Walk i Męczeństwa. pp. 58, 463, 540, 571, 603, 645. ISBN 83-916663-5-2.
  8. ↑ Tarczyński, Marek, ed. (2000). Katyń. Księga Cmentarna Polskiego Cmentarza Wojennego (PDF) (in Polish). Warszawa: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Miejsc Walk i Męczeństwa. pp. 71, 159, 263, 303, 311, 376, 461. ISBN 83-905590-7-2.
  9. ↑ Jakubowski, Grzegorz, ed. (2006). Miednoje. Księga Cmentarna Polskiego Cmentarza Wojennego (PDF) (in Polish). Vol. 1. Warszawa: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Miejsc Walk i Męczeństwa. pp. 97, 135, 178, 209, 232, 270, 281, 295, 323, 405, 425, 509, 593. ISBN 83-89474-06-9.
  10. ↑ Jakubowski, Grzegorz, ed. (2006). Miednoje. Księga Cmentarna Polskiego Cmentarza Wojennego (PDF) (in Polish). Vol. 2. Warszawa: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Miejsc Walk i Męczeństwa. p. 589, 621, 668, 718, 758, 831, 833, 858, 888, 909, 953, 958, 984. ISBN 83-89474-06-9.
  11. ↑ Gurianov, Aleksandr, ed. (2019). Убиты в Калинине, захоронены в Медном. Книга памяти польских военнопленных – узников Осташковского лагеря НКВД, расстрелянных по решению Политбюро ЦК ВКП(б) от 5 марта 1940 года (PDF) (in Russian). Vol. 1. Moscow: Общество «Мемориал». pp. 231, 317, 360, 382, 500, 550, 577, 675. ISBN 978-5-6041921-4-6.
  12. ↑ Gurianov, Aleksandr, ed. (2019). Убиты в Калинине, захоронены в Медном. Книга памяти польских военнопленных – узников Осташковского лагеря НКВД, расстрелянных по решению Политбюро ЦК ВКП(б) от 5 марта 1940 года (PDF) (in Russian). Vol. 2. Moscow: Общество «Мемориал». pp. 80, 129, 155, 216, 269, 355–356, 376, 440, 451, 456, 492, 504, 556, 580, 599, 614. ISBN 978-5-6041921-5-3.
  13. ↑ "YAHAD - IN UNUM". yahadmap.org.
  14. ↑ "World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1991-2020 — Stowbtsy". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  15. ↑ Yakub Kolas: personality and work
  16. ↑ Ivonka Survilla (Івонка Сурвіла)

Bibliography