Homyel
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Homyel (Belarusian and Russian: Гомель, Russian BGN/PCGN: Gomel’), also known as Homel or Gomel, is the second-largest city of Belarus and the main city of Homiel Province. It has a population of 481,000 (2005 estimate). Gomel is situated in the southeastern part of the country, on the right bank of Sozh river, close to the border to Ukraine and to Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Although it has been heavily contaminated following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, people still continue to live in the city.
The exact date of the founding of Homyel is not known. It was first mentioned in chronicles from the first half of the 12th century; the officially accepted date is 1142. In 1854 Homyel merged with the neighbouring Bielica town situated on the left bank of Sozh River, which is now is a part of Homyel city and one of its four boroughs.
In the 19th century Jewish residents comprised more than 50% of the city's total population. Homyel contained about fifty thousand Jews (a third of total population) on the eve of WWII. Some Jewish residents escaped in the early months of the war but those who remained were later confined to ghettos and eventually executed by the Nazis, suffering the fate of millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Rabbi Avraham Elyashiv was the Rabbi of this city of 24 synagogues before the Holocaust. A notable mathematician, Lev Genrikhovich Shnirelman was born in Gomel.
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Subdivisions of Homyel (Gomel) Voblast, Belarus |  |
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| Raions: |
Aktsyabar Raion | Brahin Raion | Buda-Kashalyowa Raion | Chachersk Raion | Dobrush Raion | Homyel Raion | Jelsk Raion | Khoiniki Raion | Kalinkavichy Raion | Karma Raion | Lyel'chytsy Raion | Loew Raion | Mazyr Raion | Narowla Raion | Pyetrykaw Raion | Rahachow Raion | Rechytsa Raion | Svetlahorsk Raion | Vetka Raion | Zhytkavichy Raion | Zhlobin Raion |
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| Cities: |
Buda-Kashalyowa | Chachersk | Dobrush | Homyel | Jelsk | Kalinkavichy | Khoiniki | Mazyr | Narowla | Petrtkow | Rahachow | Rechytsia | Svetlahorsk | Turaw | Vassilyevichy | Vetka | Zhlobin | Zhytkavichy |
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