Ashmyany (Belarusian: Ашмя́ны, Russian: Ошмяны, Polish: Oszmiana, Yiddish: אָשמענע, Lithuanian: Ašmena) is a town in Hrodna voblast, Belarus , capital of the Ašmiany raion located 25 km from Vilnius. It lies in the basin of the Oshmianka River. It is also known as "Aschemynne" in the Chronicles of the Teutonic Knights. It was birth place of Lucjan Żeligowski, who was a Polish general.
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Town and region surrounding modern Ashmyany was once ethnic Lithuanian land.[1] Between the 17th and 18th centuries a lot of local Lithuanians died out due to wars and famine, in their place were settled new Slavic colonists.[1] With time Lithuanians were outnumbered by Slavs. Presently, Lithuanian past is sealed in towns's name, which is of Lithuanian origin.[2] Town's name derivative from river name Ašmena (modern Oshmianka River), which is originated from appellative Lithuanian word akmuo (stone).[2] Link between consonants š and k is old and echoed in Lithuanian words, respectively ašmuo (sharp blade) and akmuo (stone).[2] Present name Ashmyany is using plural form of name and is a modern invention, as through ancient town's history, its name was recored in Lithuanian singular form.[2]
The first reliable mentioning of Ashmyany (in the Lithuanian Chronicles) tells that after the death of Gediminas in 1341 the town was inherited, among other places, by Jaunutis. In 1384, the Teutonic Knights attempted to attack Ašmiany as a beginning attempt to destroy the hereditary state of Jogaila. The Teutons managed to destroy the town, but it quickly recovered. In 1402 another Teutonic attack on the city occurred, but was bloodily repelled and the Teutons were forced to withdraw to Medininkai.
In 1413 the town became one of the most notable centres of trade and commerce within the Vilnius Voivodship. Because of that, in 1432 it became a battlefield of an important battle between the royal forces of Jogaila under Žygimantas Kęstutaitis and the forces of Švitrigaila allied with the Teutonic Order. After the town was taken by the royalists, it became a private property of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and started to develop rapidly. However, less than a century later the town was yet again destroyed and burnt to the ground, this time by the forces of Muscovy in 1519. The recovery did not occur as quickly as the previous time and in 1537 the town was granted with several royal privileges to facilitate the reconstruction. In 1566 the town finally received a city charter based on the Magdeburg Law, which was later confirmed (along with the privileges for the local merchants and burghers) by king Jan III Sobieski in 1683. In 16th century the town also became one of the most notable centres of Calvinism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, after Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł founded a collegiate and a church there.
In 1792 king Stanisław August Poniatowski confirmed all the previous privileges and the fact, that the town of Oszmiany, as it was called back then, was a free city, subordinate only to the king and the local city council. It was also then that the town received the first Coat of Arms in its history. Composed of three fields parted per pale, it featured a shield, a hand holding a weigh and the Ciołek Coat of Arms, a personal coat of arms of the monarch.
In the effect of the Partitions of Poland of 1795, the town was annexed by Imperial Russia. During the November Uprising it was liberated by a local priest Jasiński and Colonel Count Karol Przeździecki with help of town population. However, in April 1831 they were forced to withdraw to the Naliboki forest in face of Russian offensive. After a minor skirmish with Polish-Lithuanian rearguard under Stelnicki, the Russian punitive expeditionary force of some 1500 officers and soldiers entered the town and proceeded to burn the town and massacre the civilian population. Some 500 people, women,children and elderly seeking refuge in the Dominican Cathloic Church were massacred there, and even the local priest was murdered, nothing is known about the fate of the Jewish citizens. After this destruction the town was somewhat repopulated and received a new coat of arms in 1845 in recognition of its rather smallish growth. Gradually rebuilt, it never recovered from the losses and by the end of 19th century it was rather a provincial town, inhabited primarily by Jewish immigrants from other parts of Russia, from 'beyond the pale'. In 1912 the local Jewish community built a large synagogue.
After the end of World War I on the German-Russo front in 1917 and withdrawal of the German army in 1919, the Bolshevik activity threatened the town under Polish jurisdiction. Consequently Polish armed forces battled invading Bolsheviks, and there were graves of Polish soldiers who had died in that struggle. Finally after the Polish-Bolshevik War ending, was restored to Poland by the Treaty of Riga. Between the Polish Defensive War of 1939 and 1941 the town was seized by the USSR and then until 1944 by Nazi Germany. During the very end of the Soviet occupation NKVD - night of 22nd onto 23 June 1941, murdered and buried in one grave 57 Polish prisoners from the local population. During the Nazi occupation the Jews of Ashmyany were restricted to a ghetto; their spiritual leader was Rabbi Zew Wawa Morejno. In 1945 town was annexed by the USSR and included as a part of the Byelorussian SSR, since 1991 it is a part of Belarus.
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