Ashmyany: Difference between revisions

|population_as_of = 20232024

|population_footnotes = <ref name="pop">{{cite web|url=https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/publicationssolialnaya-sfera/izdanianaselenie-i-migratsiya/public_bulletinnaselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_67469index_89355/|title=Численность населения на 1 января 20232024 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 20222023 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2023041714410720240402055418/https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/publicationssolialnaya-sfera/izdanianaselenie-i-migratsiya/public_bulletinnaselenie/index_67469statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_89355/|archive-date=172 April 20232024|website=belsat.gov.by|access-date=511 AugustMay 20232024}}</ref>

|population_total = 16,870787

'''Ashmyany'''<!--See WP:BELARUSIANNAMES--> or '''Oshmyany''' ({{efn|{{lang-be|Ашмяны|Ašmiany}}; {{lang-ru|Ошмяны}}; {{lang-lt|Ašmena}}; {{lang-pl|Oszmiana}}; {{lang-yi|אָשמענע|Oshmene}}).}} is a [[town]]city in [[Grodno Region]], [[Belarus]].<ref name="enc">{{cite book |last1=Gaponenko |first1=Irina Olegovna |title=Назвы населеных пунктаў Рэспублікі Беларусь: Гродзенская вобласць |date=2004 |location=Minsk |publisher=Тэхналогія |page=86 |isbn=985-458-098-9}}</ref> It is located {{convert|50|km}} from [[Vilnius]] in Lithuania. The, townand serves as the administrative center of [[Ashmyany District]].<ref name="pop"/><ref Itname="enc"/> liesThe river in [[Ashmyanka]]'s [[Drainagepasses basin|riverthrough basin]]the city. As of 2024, it has a population of 16,787.<ref name="pop"/>

Since time immemorial, Ašmena and its surroundings were ethnic Lithuanian territory.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} However, many of the indigenous inhabitants died out during the wars, famine and plague in the late 17th and the early 18th centuries, and the number of [[Slavic peoplesBelarusians|SlavicBelarusian]] [[colonist]]spopulation replaced grewthem.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} Lithuanians were [[slavicized]] along the [[Minsk]]-Ašmena-Vilnius axis, and by the mid-19th century, the numbers of Lithuanian-speakers had severely decreased.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}}

Ašmena is mentioned first as a town in the [[Duchy of Vilnius]] in the 1350s.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} The first reliable mention of Ašmena is in the [[Lithuanian Chronicles]], which tells that after [[Gediminas]]' death in 1341, [[Jaunutis]] inherited the town.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} In 1384, the [[Teutonic Order]] attacked and destroyed the town with the goal of destroying Jogaila's hereditary state.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} The Teutons recorded the town as "Aschemynne".{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} The Teutons managed to destroy the town, but it quickly recovered.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} By 1384, there is a manor of the [[Grand Duke of Lithuania]] in Ašmena.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} The [[Roman Catholic]] {{Interlanguage link|Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, Ašmena|lt=Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven|be-tarask|Касьцёл Найсьвяцейшай Панны Марыі і кляштар францішканаў (Ашмяны)|be|Касцёл Найсвяцейшай Дзевы Марыі і кляштар францысканцаў (Ашмяны)|ru|Костёл Пресвятой Девы Марии и монастырь францисканцев (Ошмяны)}} was built after 1387.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} This church was one of the first in the whole of the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]].{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} The church was administrated by the [[Franciscans]].{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}}

In 1402, the Teutons attacked once more, but were bloodily repelled, so the Teutons withdrew to [[Medininkai]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} In 1413, the town became one of the most notable [[trade]] and [[commerce]] centres within the [[Vilnius Voivodship]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} Hence, in 1432 Ashmyany became the site of an important battle between the royal forces of [[Jogaila]] under [[Žygimantas Kęstutaitis]] and the forces of [[Švitrigaila]], who was allied with the [[Teutonic Order]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} After the town was taken by the royalists, it became the private property of the [[Grand Dukes of Lithuania]] and started to develop rapidly.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

[[Hanseatic League|Hanseatic]] trade routes passed through the town in the 15th century.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} On 1 September 1432, Švitrigaila was deposed from the throne in Ašmena.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} On 8 December 1432, Ašmena was the site of the [[Battle of Ašmena]] between [[Švitrigaila]] and [[Sigismund Kęstutaitis]].{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} There was a residential palace in Ašmena from the early 15th century to the end of the 18th century.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}}

During the [[November Uprising]], it was liberated by the town's citizens, led by a local priest, Jasiński, and Colonel Count [[Karol Dominik Przezdziecki|Karol Dominik Przeździecki]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} However, in April 1831, in the face of a Russian offensive, the fighters were forced to withdraw to the [[Naliboki forest]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} After a minor skirmish with Stelnicki's rearguard, the Russian punitive expeditionary force of some 1,500 officers and soldiers proceeded to burn the town and [[massacre]] the civilian population, including some 500 women, children and elderly, who sought refuge in the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] Catholic Church.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} Even the local priest was murdered.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} Nothing is known of the fate of Ashmyany's Jews.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} In the [[Uprising of 1831]], the [[Imperial Russian Army]] razed the town and [[Massacre|massacredmassacre]]d 150 locals in one of the town's churches.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}}

The Church of Saint Michael the Archangel was closed down in 1850, but rebuilt in 1900–10.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} In the late 19th century, a tavern was built and the Russian authorities built a [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodox]] church.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}}

Following the Soviet-German [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, the [[Soviet Union]] occupied the area until 1941.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} Ashmyany was given to the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]].{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} Ashmyany was a [[raion]] center in [[Vileyka VoblastRegion]] between 1939 and 1941.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}} At the very end of the Soviet occupation, on the night of June 22 and morning of June 23, 1941, the [[NKVD]] murdered and buried in one mass grave 57 Polish prisoners from Ashmyany.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

During the Nazi occupation, which began June 25, 1941, the Jews of Ashmyany and their spiritual leader Rabbi [[Zew Wawa Morejno]] were [[Ghetto|ghettoizedghetto]]ized.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}} After the Wehrmacht drove out the Soviet occupiers, Ašmena was part of the ''[[Generalbezirk Litauen]]'' in ''[[Reichskommissariat Ostland]]'' in 1941-19441941–1944.{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}}

On July 7, 1944, it was reoccupied by the [[Red Army]] during the [[Vilnius offensive]]. In 1945, the town was annexed by the USSR to the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian SSR]]. After 1944, the town was once more part of Vileyka VoblastRegion, and between 1944 and 1960 it was incorporated into [[Molodechno Region|Molodechno Voblast]] until that Voblastregion was disestablished. At that point Ashmyany became part of the [[Grodno Region|Hrodna Voblast]], where it remains today.

Since 1991, it has been a part of [[Belarus]].

* 1859 – 3,066 inhabitants <ref>[http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_VII/751]</ref>

* 1871 – 4,546 inhabitants <ref>[http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_VII/751]</ref>

* 1880 – 5,050 inhabitants (2501 Jews, 2175 Roman Catholics, 352 Orthodoxs) <ref>[http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_VII/751]</ref>

* 1897 – 6,400 <ref>[http://www.populstat.info/Europe/belarust.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021190847/http://www.populstat.info/Europe/belarust.htm |date=2007-10-21 }}</ref> or 7124{{Sfn|Gaučas|2002|p=113}} inhabitants

* 1991 – 15,200 inhabitants <ref>[http://education.kulichki.net/dic/16e.html]</ref>

* 2006 – 14,600 inhabitants <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160313120052/http://www.oshmiany.grodno.by/]</ref>

* 2007 – 14,269 inhabitants <ref>[http://www.gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=&men=gpro&lng=fr&dat=32&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=519968593] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205063200/http://www.gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=&men=gpro&lng=fr&dat=32&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=519968593 |date=2012-02-05 }}</ref>

==ClimateNotable people==

*{{Cite book|last=Zinkevičius|first=Zigmas|title=Senosios Lietuvos valstybės vardynas|publisher=[[Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute]]|year=2007|isbn=978-5-420-01606-0|location=Vilnius}}

{{Commons category|Ašmiany|Ashmyany}}

{{HrodnaGrodno VoblastRegion}}