Maladzyechna is a city in the Minsk Volblast of Belarus. It is the administrative centre of the Maladzyechna District.
The city is first mentioned in the chronicles in 1388.
As of January 2023 the population of the city is 89 268 people.
The title of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the small river Maladzechanka, which disappeared as a result of agricultural activities.
Maladzyechna acquired its first coat of arms on March 17th 1988. The city acquired a new coat of arms in 2000, as well as an official flag in 2008.
In the Bronze Age Maladzyechna was settled by the tribes of the Corded Ware culture. The tribe people were raising livestock and were involved in agriculture, fishing and the traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
The settlers of the Bronze Age were gradually replaced by the Baltic settlers of the Brushed Pottery culture. During the 6th century AD this area began to be settled by the Slavic tribes. In the second half of the first millenium tribal unions began to be formed. Maladzyechna was the area of the settlement of the Krivyches Slavic tribe.
The first written mention of Maladzyechna in the historical chronicles dates back to December 16th, 1388, in the written pledge of allegience by Prince Dmitry Algerdavych to the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Jagaylo.
The Maladzechna castle was built by the bank of the river Usha in the 14th century. The castle suffered from fires several times, and was destroyed in the 18th century.
The growth of the city was supported by its location at the trade route from Minsk to Vilno.
During the Livonian War the Maladzyechna area was divided into several parts and had different owners. At the beginning of the 17th century Maladzyechna was owned by Lew Sapieha, a nobleman and statesman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. According to 1623 inventory records Maladzyechna had about 1,000 inhabitants and 8 streets. In 1651 it was mentioned that the centre of the settlement was a market.
In 1708 Maladzyechna was occupied by the Swedish army.
At the start of the 18th century Maladzyechna came into ownership of the Oginsky family, who had the Maladzyechna castle as their residence, where they had an impressive library and a painting collection. At the start of the 19th century Michal Kleofas Oginsky often visited his uncle at the Maladzyechna Castle, where his music would often be played.
In 1793, as a result of the second partition of Poland the town became a part of the Vileyka region of the Minsk Province of the Russian Empire. In 1811 a provincial Russian school was opened in Maladzyechna.
In June 1812 Napoleon’s army, on its way to Moscow, occupied Maladzyechna, and some of the local Polish elites pledged allegience to Napoleon. In November 1812 during the retreat of the French army Napoleon resided in the Maladzyechna castle, and the remnants of his army resided in a nearby village. While in the castle, Napoleon composed his 29th bulletin, in which he relinquished his role as commander in chief and tried to explain the failures of the French army in Russia. Napoleon subsequently departed to Vilno in secret. On 22-23 November 1812 a battle took place near Maladzyechna between the advancing Russian army and the retreating French army. The French army suffered a defeat with 2,500 French soldiers and officers captured. In 1977 a monument was erected in dedication to this battle on the outskirts of Maladzyechna. The Maladzyechna castle was destroyed during the battle, and has never been restored.
In the spring of 1814, after the death of his uncle Tadeush, Michal Oginsky became the owner of Maladzyechna. To commemorate Michal Oginsky a monument to him was erected in 2001 and the local music school was named after him.
In the summer of 1834 Mihail Bakunin, a Russian philosopher, revolutionary did military service in an artillery battery located not far from Maladzyechna.
In 1847 Maladzyechna became part of the Vilno Governorate of the Russian Empire.
In 1864 an educational seminary was opened in Maladzyechna, the first on the territory of modern Belarus and one of the first ones in the Russian Empire. It was sometimes called the centre of Western Russian education. It existed from 1864 to 1924. The seminary offered a two year education and was funded by the state. The education involved such subjects as: God’s law, Russian and Old Church Slavonic languages, pedagogy, arithmetic, geometry, history and georgraphy of the Russian Empire. In 1870 a third year of studies was added. The seminary had a meteorological station. In 1907 a fourth year of studies was added with such subjects as Russian literature, physics, psychology. The seminary accepted male students older than 17 years, preferrably of a peasant background, of the Russian Orthodox religion. The seminary had a library, a museum, a theatre and an orchestra. During its existance the seminary had more than 2,000 graduates.
In 1867-1871 the Saint Pokrov Church was built on the historic Maladzyechna square. The church survives to this day. It is built in the Retrospective Russian Orthodox style.
In 1873 the Libavo-Romensk railway line was built, which turned Maladzyechna into a major railway junction. The Libavo-Romensk railway line connected the Belarusian regions of the Russian Empire with the Baltic Sea ports and Ukraine.
According to the 1861 census Maladzyechna had a population of 746 people. The centre of the city was the market square with market counters, around which artisans and tradespeople lived. Four major roads branched off from the market square: to Minsk, Vileyka, Vilno and Haradok.
On January 14 1873 the first train departed from the little wooden railway station in Maladzyechna. Since then Maladzyechna started growing at a higher rate in population and economy than the neighbouring settlements.
On July 7 1882 the Belarusian writer Janka Kupala was born in the village Vyazinka, located at a distance of 40 kilometers from Maladzyechna.
According to the census of 1897 2,392 people resided in Maladzechna. The town had tailors, shoemakers, a distillery, a steam mill. A new residential area started to spring up to the north of the railway line.
At the start of the 20th century the railway line from Saint Petersburg to Warsaw passed through Maladzyechna. This contributed even more to the development of the town as an important railway junction.
In 1907 a new building for the railway station was built, which survives to this day in a renovated form.
During WWI Maladzyechna was a site for numerous military facilities, such as field hospitals, airfields, dugouts, stables. The building of the teachers seminary served as the base for 10th Western front army. Igor Sikorsky visited the airfields near Maladzyechna during the war.
On November 7 1917 Maladzyechna was occupied by the Bolsheviks. On November 11 1917 the military-revolutionary council of the 10th army was formed in the building of the former distillery.
On December 6 1917 the Soviet council of the deputies of the workers, peasants and soldiers was formed in Maladzyechna. It was located in one of the buildings on the old market square.
From Febuary to December 1918 Maladzyechna was under German occupation. After the retreat of the German army, the town was occupied by the Bolsheviks during the period of the Russian civil war. On July 4th 1919 Maladzyechna was occupied by the Polish army during their advance on Minsk. The town was subsequently recaptured by the Soviet army. However, according to the Treaty of Riga, Maladzyechna was handed over to the Polish Republic. The border between Poland and the Soviet Union passed 30 kilometres to the east of the town. The Polish authorities built two military stations in the western areas of Maladzyechna. Maladzyechna received the status of a Polish city on April 26 1929. New streets were created. The population of the city trippled from 1921 to 1929. The western area of Maladzyechna called Helenova served as the location of a garrison of the 86th infantry division of the Polish Army.
On September 17 1939 Maladzyechna was captured by the Red Army. After taking control of the city, the Soviet authorities conducted a series of repressions against the soldiers and officers of the Polish army and also civilians.
On November 14 1939 Maladzyechna became part of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The German Nazi army conducted its first aerial bombing of Maladzyechna on June 24 1941. The city was attacked by the 9th army of Adolf Strauss and the 3rd tank army of Hermann Hoth. Under enemy fire, a small group of Soviet soldiers blew up the bridge over the river Usha and retreated to Vileyka. The 24th army lead by General Galitsky moved West to combat the advancing German army, taking heavy casualties. The Soviet army started to evacuate from Maladzyechna to Vitebsk. On the morning of June 25 1941 50 German bombers conducted air raids on Maladzyechna. All Soviet planes were destroyed on the Hozhova airfield. Maladzyechna was captured by the German army on June 25th and was made part of the General District of White Russia under Nazi occupation.
On June 26 1941 pilot Nikolai Gastello performed an aerial fire ramming of a German military column travelling on the road from Maladzyechna to Minsk.
The German occupying army built a concentration camp behind the river Usha to the east of the city. The camp held Soviet prisoners of war and civilians, approximately 30,000 people. The prisoners of the camp lived in baracks without heating and many died from malnutrition and diseases. Prisoners were frequently executed. It is estimated that before June 1944, approximately 33,150 people met their deaths at the camp. A memorial was opened in 1996 to commemorate the victims of the genocide on the site of the camp.
A pro-Soviet sabotage group operated in Maladzyechna under German occupation. Members of the group distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, passed intelligence to the partisans. The sabotage group managed to acquire mines from the partisans and conduct dozens of successfull operations, blowing up military convoys, warehouses and other targets.
On July 5th 1944 Maladzyechna was liberated by the 3rd army of the Belarusian front. At the end of WWII only ten percent of pre-war housing remained in the city. The population was reduced by a half.
In 1948 Victory Park was founded in commemoration of WWII. A little later a monument with an eternal flame was opened.
In 1947 a machine building factory was opened and also a musical instrument factory. A little later a furniture plant and a plant producing reinforced concrete were created. On June 28 1958 Maladzyechna Music School was founded.
Maladzyechna was a centre of its own voblast from 1944 to 1960, after which the city was included into the Minsk Voblast.
In 1965 a metalworks went into operation in Maladzyechna. In 1970 an electrical equipment plant went into operation. Since 1986 the plant was called “Electromodule”.
In 1984 the following plants went into operation: a powder metal plant, a radio electronics plant and several consumer products and food production plants.
Maladzyechna Festival of Music and Poetry was held for the first time in 1993.
In 1994 the village Vyalikaye Sialo was included into the boundaries of the city. In 1996, on the location of the former POW camp for Soviet soldiers during WWII, Shtalag-342, a memorial complex was founded.
On March 18 1997 the new St Joseph Cathedral was opened.
On October 17 2002 the Palace of Culture was opened to the public. In 2006 the Maladzyechna Musical Instrument Factory went into bankrupcy and all production was ceased.
In 2011 the Belarusian festival of harvest celebration Dazhinki was held in Maladzyechna. On October 21 2011 a new sports centre was opened with an ice hockey rink and a water park.
In 2013 the village Rahazy was added to the boundaries of the city.
In 2016 Maladzyechna was elected Culture Capital of Belarus.
On March 15 2022 the Maladzyechna Central Library named after Maksim Bahdanovych was reopened after 8 years of repairs.
On July 15 2023 a new building for the centre of civic event registration was opened.
According to the population census of 1979, the population of the city included 56,040 Belarusians, 11,872 Russians, 2,130 Ukranians, 1,000 Poles, 411 Jews.
Several country-level auto routes pass through Maladzyechna: P28 (Minsk-Maladzyechna-Narach), P56 (Maladzyechna-Valozhin), P106 (Maladzyechna-Smarhon).
Maladzyechna is a railway junction with lines going to Minsk, Polatsk, Vilnius and Hrodna. From Maladzyechna you can get by train to Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Riga, Kaliningrad, Hrodna and other cities.
Maladzyechna has 14 high schools, one separate primary school, an art school, a wood instruments school, several public libraries. Maladzyechna also has 6 institutions of post-school and professional education such as: Maladzyechna State College, a polytechnical college, a medical college, a musical college, a trade and economics college and an arts college.
Minsk Local History Museum is located in Maladzyechna. It was founded in 1959 and opened to the public in 1964. In 2006 the museum was relocated to a brand new building. The museum houses exhibits that relate to the history of the Minsk region.
Maladzyechna is also the location of the Minsk regional puppet theatre called “Batleyka”.
The Maladzyechna Palace of Culture was opened on October 17 2002. The construction of the palace was started in 1989 but it had to be stalled for many years due to financials difficulties. The palace has a concert hall with seats for 837 people. It also has a conference hall that can seat 200 people.
Maladzyechna has an open-air summer amphitheatre which was built in 2011. The theatre has 2,606 seats. There is also a palace of culture for the railway workers. The cinema in Maladzyechna is called “Radzima” (in Russian “Rodzina”) which translates as “Motherland”.
The Saint Pokrov Orthodox Cathedral was built in 1867-1871. In 1970 the Pokrov Christian icon was discovered at the cathedral, which dates back to 1751. The icon depicts a crowned God Mother, apostles Peter and Paul, the prophets Moses and Elijah as well as archangels and angels.
Maladzyechna is located in an area that was settled by Ashkenazi Jews. The Jewish population of the town was reduced during WWI when many Jews migrated to the East as Maladzyechna was on the front lines of the war. According to the Polish census of 1921, there were 387 speakers of Yiddish in Maladzyechna out of the total population of 1997. According to the census of 1931 21 percent of Maladzyechna residents indicated Yiddish as their native language. Many Jews moved to Maladzyechna and other areas of Western Belarus (which at the time was a part of Poland) during the 1930s in efforts to avoid persecution by Nazis. After the Nazi occupation of 1941 local Jews were forced into a ghetto and many were executed.
