Zalavas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zalavas (Polish: Zułów) is a village in Lithuania, on the Mera river, close to Švenčionys. According to 2001 census, it had 170 residents. It is best known as the birthplace of Józef Piłsudski, Marshal of Poland and Chief of State.
The village, then known under its previous name of Mieciany, was first mentioned in late 17th century as the private property of Aleksander Wojna-Jasieniecki, a Castellan of Navahrudak. It then passed to the Giedraičiai princely family, and in the 18th century the village was bought by the Rurikid Ogiński family, one of the notable magnate clans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the early 19th century the village was inherited by the Michałowskis. As the dowery of Helena Billewicz, it passed to her husband, Antoni Michałowicz, who then gave it as a dowery to their daughter, Maria. In 1863, upon her marriage with Józef Wincenty Piłsudski, the village became the property of the Piłsudski family. It was there that both their sons were born, Bronisław Piłsudski (born November 2, 1866) and Józef Piłsudski (born December 5, 1867).
In July of 1874, the local manor burned to the ground and the family moved to Vilnius. Soon afterwards the family was forced to sell all their properties in Lithuania (including Zalavas and 19 other villages) in order to pay for legal expenses and fines, for Bronisław, who was involved in an assassination attempt on the life of tsar Alexander III of Russia (together with Aleksandr Ulyanov, brother of Lenin). In 1882 the village was bought by Michał Ogiński, an heir to the Ogiński family who had owned it in the 18th century. However, as the policies of Russification of former lands in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forbade Poles to purchase any real estate, he was forced to sell it to a Russian merchant from Riga named Klim. The latter sold the village to a certain imperial officer named Kuronosov, who divided the property, sold most of the forests and was forced to abandon the area in 1915, during World War I. The Germans occupied the area later that year, and most of the remaining forests were cut down.
After the war, the area became part of Second Polish Republic. Since the property had belonged to a Russian official who abandoned it in 1915, it was nationalized, and limited to the core of 65 hectares, and attached to a military base located nearby. In 1934 an association of veterans of the Polish-Bolshevik War purchased it from the army and a committee was created whose aim was to rebuild the manor of Piłsudski, who in the meantime had become the national hero and a de facto dictator of Poland. The manor was reconstructed and officially opened to the public as a museum on October 10, 1937. However, it was destroyed by the Soviets shortly after the Polish Defensive War of 1939. Currently an oak and a memorial stone marks the spot.
