STORY
History of the area
The Stolin district was formed on January 15, 1940 and is located in the southeast of the Brest region. The region is one of the southernmost regions of the Brest region. In the north, the district borders with Luninets, in the west - with Pinsk districts of the Brest region, in the east - with the Zhitkovichi district of Gomel region. In the south, our neighbors are Zarechnensky, Dubrovitsky and Rokitnovsky districts of the Rivne region of Ukraine. The southern border of the district coincides with the state border of the Republic of Belarus.
The city of Stolin is the center of the region. Located on an elevated terrace along the small Kopanets River before its confluence with the Goryn River (a tributary of the Pripyat). Stolin is located 245 km east of the regional center of Brest.
Archaeological scientists have data according to which the territory of the region was inhabited already in the 5th – 3rd millennium BC. The first written mentions of the city of Stolin date back to 1555 (“Scribe Book of the Pinsk and Kletsk Principalities”, where the city as the village of Stolno is mentioned in connection with the carrying out of drag measurements).
There are several legends about the origin of the city's name. Here are some of them:
1. Once upon a time, at the location of the city there was a large lake, in which 100 tench were once caught. This is where the name of the city came from - Stolin.
2. There were 7 towns along the Goryn River, in which 12 brothers reigned. Their place of meeting (meeting, meeting), that is, the table at which the brothers, the princes, gathered, was located on the site of modern Stolin, hence the name of the city.
3. The site of the ancient city was on the left bank of the river. Kopanets, in the area of the modern bakery. Translated from the ancient Indian language, this word means an elevation, an earthen embankment. And since the ancient city was located on a high, steep bank of the river, this could determine the origin of the name of the city.
In the 12th-13th centuries, the territory of the modern region was part of the Pinsk, Turov and Dubrovitsky principalities, which in the mid-14th century became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the region was part of the Berestey Voivodeship and was state property.
1100 – the first documentary mention of the city of D-Gorodok.
1448 – the first documentary mention of the village of Gorodnaya.
1452 – the first documentary mention of the village of Remel.
1503 – the first documentary mention of the villages of Osovaya, Duboy, Stakhovo, Plotnitsa, Vidibor.
1508 – the first documentary mention of the village of Berezhnoe.
In 1527, the Crimean Tatars burned the village of Gorodnaya, and some of its inhabitants were taken into captivity.
In 1551, the Polish King Zhigimont II gave Nicholas Radziwill the city of David-Haradok along with several villages for eternal possession. The almost 400-year-long management of the magnate family of the Radziwills begins in a significant part of the territory of the modern Stolin region.
In 1648 – 1649 The area became the scene of a fierce struggle between the Ukrainian Cossacks, who joined them with rebels from among local peasants, townspeople and small gentry, and the troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
During the Russian-Polish War of 1654 - 1667. (September 1655) a detachment of Russian troops led by Prince Volkonsky defeated Polish-Lithuanian troops in the vicinity of Stolin, and held the town for some period. Since 1792, Stolin has been the center of Zapinsky Povet, Brest Voivodeship. After the 2nd partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1793, the region became part of Russia. Since 1795, Stolin has been the center of the volost of the Pinsk district of the Minsk province. In April 1883, construction of a section of the Luninets – Rivne railway began in the region.
In 1816, the first mutual education school in Belarus was opened in Stolin, where the basics of agronomy were taught, and in 1863, a zemstvo public school was opened.
In 1885, near Stolin, on the estate of the Radziwill princes, the Mankovichi landscape park with an area of 50 hectares was founded. (24 hectares have been preserved). Since December 27, 1963, the park has been declared a natural monument of republican significance.
In 1886, there were 121 households in Stolin, 815 people lived, there was a church, a synagogue, 4 Jewish houses of worship, a chapel, a volost administration, a zemstvo public school, a horse-drawn postal station, a distillery and a tea factory, a tavern, and 20 shops. The population was engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, fishing, and timber rafting. According to the census in 1897, there were 250 households and 3.3 thousand inhabitants in Stolin. At the beginning of the 20th century. – 471 yards, about 4.7 thousand inhabitants. There was a zemstvo public school, a church, a synagogue, a volost administration, a postal and telegraph office, a distillery and tar factory, many shops, and 2 houses of worship.
In November 1917, Soviet power was established in the region. From February 1918 to January 1919, the area was occupied by German troops, against whom the partisan movement unfolded.
As a result of historical circumstances in 1921 - 1939. The area was part of Poland. At first, the district for a short time became part of the commune of Luninets Povet, Polesie Voivodeship, and on December 6, 1922, the Stolin Povet of Polesie Voivodeship was formed. According to the Polish census, which was carried out on September 30, 1921, Stolin is a large and populous town, with about 500 houses and 4,763 inhabitants.
In September 1939, the Stolin region became part of the BSSR. At that time, there were 4 timber mills, 2 brick factories, and a furniture factory in the area. 10 collective farms and 2 MTS were formed. In 1939, 8 thousand inhabitants lived in Stolin. On January 15, 1940, the Stolin district of the Pinsk region was formed.
Peaceful life was interrupted in 1941. The Nazi occupation lasted from July 6, 1941 to July 9, 1944. The Nazis killed 13,767 civilians. The underground fighters, the “Soviet Belarus” partisan brigades and the special forces brigade under the command of S.P. Kaplun, and the partisans of the Ukrainian formations of S.A. Kolpak and A.M. Saburov acted against the invaders in Stolin and the region. The area was liberated by soldiers of the 397th, 415th, 212th rifle divisions of the 61st Army of the 1st Belorussian Front.
On January 8, 1954, the Stolin and David-Gorodok districts, after the abolition of the Pinsk region, became part of the Brest region. On January 19, 1961, the David-Gorodoksky district was abolished, its territory was annexed to the Stolinsky district.
The second largest settlement in the Stolin region is the city of David-Haradok. It is located in its northern part on the Goryn River, 36 km from the city of Stolin, where 7 thousand people live.
From January 15, 1940 to January 8, 1954, the city of David-Gorodok was the regional center of Pinsk, and from January 8, 1954 - of Brest region.
David-Haradok has a very ancient history. It arose at the beginning of the 12th century. as a city of Kievan Rus and celebrated its 900th anniversary in 2000. Mentioned in historical documents of the late 14th century. as a city of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the possession of the grand dukes. Since 1523, its owner was Queen Bona, and since 1551 it was part of the ordination of the Radziwill magnates. According to some information, the city at one time used the Magdeburg Law and had its own coat of arms.
The Great Patriotic War in the Stolin region
The fight against the Nazi invaders on the land of the Stolin region during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. manifested itself in three main forms: the actions of regular units of the Red Army during the defense and liberation of the territory of the Stolin and David-Gorodok regions, the partisan movement and the anti-fascist underground.
The sudden attack of Nazi Germany, the environment of chaos and confusion in the first months of the war, and the lack of combat experience became the reason that defensive battles on the territory of the Stolin region by units of the Red Army and partisan detachments failed.
The first battles with the Nazi invaders took place in July 1941, fought by Red Army and Red Navy soldiers who were surrounded in the area of the village of Olshany. A combined detachment of Red Army soldiers, NKVD employees of the Pinsk region and sailors of the 6th separate marine corps of the Pinsk military flotilla, the Stolin and David-Gorodok fighter battalions tried to attack the enemy, but had no success. In those difficult July battles, sailors, marines, border guards and policemen showed examples of perseverance and heroism, some of them remained in our land forever.
The first partisan detachments (Stolinsky and David-Gorodoksky), organized from among the party-Soviet and economic activists of both regions at the beginning of July 1941, failed, and their commanders V. E. Klyuchenkov and N. A. Skorobogatko died in an unequal struggle with enemy. The chairman of the Stolin district executive committee, Ivan Leontyevich Maslennikov, who headed the Stolin partisan detachment after the death of V. E. Klyuchenkov, also did not escape the enemy encirclement.
The Stolin underground district committees of the CP(b)B (01.09.1943-16.02.1944) and the LKSMB (09.08.1943-01.03.1944), the David-Gorodok underground district committees of the CP(b)B (July 1941-13.09.1941) operated in the region ; 07/16/1943-02/12/1944) and LKSMB (08/11/1943-02/12/1944), partisan brigades named after Molotov, “Soviet Belarus”, separate partisan detachments David-Gorodoksky and Stolinsky.
According to documentary information, the regional centers - the cities of Stolin and David-Gorodok - were occupied by Nazi troops on July 6 and 12, 1941, virtually without defensive battles on the part of the Red Army.
From the very first days of the occupation, an anti-fascist underground movement arose in the Stolin region. In the regional center and surrounding settlements it began to form in the autumn of 1941. The underground members of the Stolin region can be divided into two groups – adults and youth. The organization of adults was headed by I.M. Boreyko, N.A. Obodovsky and his friend A.A. Sologub. The recognized leader of the youth wing of the underground workers was the son of I.M. Boreyko, Alexander. It was around him that the core of young wrestlers formed: Joseph Dezhurko, Nikolai Pilipchuk, Mikhail Kovalets, Nikolai Kryzh, Nikolai Yakimov, Ivan Derkach and many other young people from Stolin and nearby villages.
In the village of Rukhcha, the underground was led by brothers Nikolai and Andrei Dikovitsky, whose actions were directed by their father Sergei Ivanovich.
In November 1941, all three were arrested and placed in Stolin prison. In addition to them, at that time in prison were Alexander Efremov, former employees of the Stolin police Mikhail and Ivan Nozdriny, Pyotr Kozlyakovsky from the village. Carpenter, former literary employee of the regional newspaper “Syalyanskaya Pravda”, Komsomol member Nikolai Kryzh, deputies of the Rechitsa village council Daniil Liborets, chairman of the Radchitsa village council Dmitry Letsko.
On April 5, 1942, underground workers, together with other prisoners, escaped from prison. Hiding in the forests, they created a partisan detachment, which later merged with the special detachment M.S. Korczak's formation of A.P. Brinsky and was named the detachment named after A. Nevsky, whose commander was Sergei Ivanovich Dikovitsky. One of the detachment’s major operations was the defeat of the German garrison in the village in January 1943. City.
When the threat of discovery and physical violence loomed over the members of the anti-fascist underground, many of them went into the forest to join the partisans and led the partisan detachments they created.
Thus, Alexander Boreyko led the partisan detachment named after Kirov, which consisted entirely of capital residents. The detachment was part of the special forces brigade No. 2, commanded by a career Red Army officer Stepan Pavlovich Kaplun. The location of the brigade is the southwestern part of the Stolin region. The brigade included two more partisan detachments, created on the basis of underground cells: the partisan detachment named after. M.V. Frunze under the command of Mikhail Yakovlevich Dezhurko (village Bukhlichi), partisan detachment named after. M.I. Kutuzov under the command of Pyotr Ivanovich Shumko (village of Voroni). The partisans of Kaplun's brigade, with their persistent, targeted subversive actions, paralyzed the movement of enemy trains on the railway for a long time. Residents of Bukhlich, Voronei, Struga, and Rechitsa provided direct assistance in dismantling the railroad tracks.
At the end of 1942, on the basis of the anti-fascist underground group in the village. Olmany created a partisan detachment named after. I.V. Stalin under the command of Kupriyan Vasilyevich Shubich. In November 1943, the detachment especially distinguished itself during a military operation against German and Magyar troops in the area of the villages of Bolshie Vikorovichi - Struga, as a result of which the enemy suffered heavy losses. Later, the detachment came under the command of the commander of the Rivne partisan association, Major General V.A. Begma, who appointed Nikolai Ivanovich Kunitsky as commander of the detachment, and K.V. Shubich as his deputy.
In January 1943, Stolin underground fighters took an active part in the preparation and implementation of the operation of A. Saburov’s unit from the Zhitomir region to defeat the German garrison in Stolin. As a result of the operation, 112 police officers were captured, 17 German officers were killed, a distillery was blown up, the residence of the Gebiets Commissioner was burned, and 20 vehicles were disabled.
In August 1943, by order of the headquarters of the Pinsk partisan unit, on the basis of the detachments “Soviet Belarus” and named after M.I. Kutuzov, the brigade named after V.M. Molotov, the partisan brigade “Soviet Belarus” was created under the command of Pavel Petrovich Tomilov. The brigade operated in the David-Gorodok and Stolin regions.
When the brigade was created, the partisan detachment “Soviet Belarus” received a new name - named after V.P. Chkalov under the command of Ivan Ilyich Andreev.
In November 1943 On the basis of the company of Oleg Ivanovich Taranov, a partisan detachment named after K.K. Rokossovsky under the command of Taranov.
The third detachment in the brigade was the detachment named after. M.I. Kutuzov under the command of Vladimir Nikolaevich Golybin.
In 1944, the brigade consisted of 1027 people, of which 842 were natives of the Stolin region. Partisans, together with underground fighters, carried out 16 major acts of sabotage in Stolin and other populated areas in 1943.
Partisans of the detachments named after. K.K. Rokossovsky and V.P. Chkalov successfully carried out military operations to defeat enemy garrisons in Ozdamichi, Bolshoi Maleshevo, Olshany, Remlya, Lyadets, Khorsk, Khoromsk and other villages of the region.
In July and October 1943, partisans of the brigade of the “Soviet Belarus” detachment, together with Ukrainian partisans of A.M. Saburov’s unit, twice took part in the defeat of German garrisons in David-Gorodok, and also in January 1944, together with partisans S.A. Kovpak defeated the Stolin garrison.
In January 1944, the partisan brigade “Soviet Belarus” established contact with the command of the 61st Army of the 1st Belorussian Front and carried out its tasks. Together with units of the Red Army, the partisans fought near the villages of Kolbiki, Starina David-Gorodoksky and Ivanova Sloboda in the Turovsky district.
On February 16, 1944, the partisan brigade “Soviet Belarus” united with units of the Red Army. From its special composition, three fighter squads were created: Stolinsky named after. M.I. Kutuzov under the command of V.N. Golybin, David-Gorodoksky named after. K.K. Rokossovsky under the command of O.I. Taranov and named after V.P. Chkalov under the command of I.I. Andreev. Destruction squads carried out sabotage and reconnaissance work for the Red Army.
The liberation of the Stolin region (then Stolin and David-Gorodok districts) was carried out during the Pinsk operation, which in turn was an integral part of the Belarusian offensive operation called “Bagration”.
The city of Stolin was occupied by units of the 397th Infantry Division of the 89th Corps of the 61st Army of the 1st Belorussian Front on the morning of July 7, 1944 after several days of fierce fighting. Dozens of division soldiers laid down their lives on the battlefield, including captain A.I. Ulyanov. More than 60 soldiers and commanders of another unit of the 61st Army, the 415th Infantry Division, gave their lives for the liberation of Stolin a little earlier in June 1944.
Already on July 7, 1944, units of the 397th Infantry Division, pursuing the enemy in the northern and northeastern directions, liberated a number of settlements from the enemy: Mankovichi, Belousha, Dubenetsky Bor, Dubenets, Berezhnoe, Bolshie and Malye Orly, Khoromsk, David-Gorodok.
In the southwestern part of the Stolin region, units of the 212th Krichev Rifle Division operated successfully. Having broken the stubborn resistance of the enemy, by the end of July 8 they liberated the villages of Nechatovo, Kolodnoye, Fedory, developing the offensive further in the Pinsk direction.
During July 7-12, 1944, almost the entire territory of the Stolin and former David-Gorodok districts was liberated from the Nazi occupiers.
The war brought untold disasters, human and material losses to our fellow countrymen. There is still no final figure of how many civilians were killed, how much of the population was taken to hard labor, died from backbreaking labor, hunger, cold and wartime diseases.
During the war years, 13,767 civilians died in the region, 2,432 soldiers did not return from the front, 1,075 Soviet soldiers and partisans were buried, including 131 partisans and underground fighters.
Symbols of human grief and suffering on the land of the Stolin region became such places as the Stasino and Khinovsk tracts, the village of Voroni, which was burned on the night of February 14-15, 1942 by the Nazis along with part of the inhabitants. The Nazi occupiers completely or partially burned 44 villages and hamlets in the region. We must always keep grateful memory of these sacrifices sacrificed on the altar of the Freedom of our Fatherland.
TRACT STASINO
Place of memory and sorrow
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Stolin and David-Gorodok districts (until 1961 there were 2 districts) were occupied by German troops. From July 1941 to July 1944, the Stolin region was under the yoke of the Nazi invaders. The occupation lasted 3 years.
From the first days of the occupation in Stolin and David-Gorodok, the fascist authorities created garrisons of German soldiers and police, established the gendarmerie and local police. The tasks of these authorities included: to subjugate the local population and force them to provide the Germans and Germany with food and timber.
In the early spring of 1942, the Germans, implementing Hitler's program of extermination of Jews, created a ghetto and drove all the Jews of Stolin and nearby villages into it. More than 12,500 people were prisoners of the Stolin ghetto.
Living conditions in the ghetto were extremely difficult. The prisoners were kept in unbearable cramped conditions. Every day up to 12 prisoners died only from hunger, cold, abuse and disease.
The complete destruction of the Stolin ghetto occurred on September 11, 1942, on the eve of the Jewish New Year and the great Orthodox holiday of the Beheading of the Prophet. Early in the morning, all Jews were herded to Market Square, surrounded by more than 200 policemen. People were lined up in groups of a thousand people and taken away in a column to be shot in the Stasino tract. The exhausted policemen were dragged aside and finished off. The bodies of the dead were collected on carts and taken to the site of the mass execution.
A huge pit measuring 300 by 100 meters and up to 10 meters deep, which was dug at the beginning of the war only for the construction of a secret airfield, became a mass grave for civilians.
In front of the pit, half-dead people were ordered to completely undress and fold their clothes and shoes separately. Then they were lowered into a pit, forced to lie in rows with their heads down, and SS soldiers walked over the bodies and killed them with machine guns. In this brutal way, in three or four days, all the prisoners of the Stolin ghetto were killed - about 8,000 people. Hundreds of people were buried alive in this pit. Those who managed to escape or get out of the pit wounded at night were found and killed. They say that the earth here was still breathing for several days...
Archival sources (copy of Act No. 1 dated October 28, 1944 of the Extraordinary District Commission on the damage caused by the Nazi invaders and a copy of Act no. dated April 14, 1945 of the Stolin District Commission on the accounting of damage caused by the Nazi invaders) indicate that In total, 12,500 residents of the Stolin ghetto and the city of Stolin were shot, including 8,000 Jews, 4,500 Russians and Belarusians. Of these: 5332 men, 3620 women and 3548 children.
Executions and burials of civilians in the area, Soviet activists, local underground fighters, and supporters of Soviet power were carried out until 1944, until the liberation of the area from the occupiers.
In 1969, an obelisk was erected at the site of the common burial of Russians and Belarusians, and in 1992 a monument was erected - the sculptural composition “Mourning Women”.
In October 1993, the Kyiv Jewish community additionally erected a monument in the form of an open book at the site of the execution of the Jewish population.
In 2021, the sculptural composition was updated and a new composition and an information group of stands were added at the site of the mass shooting, which linked the entire complex together.
The idea of the project for this complex belongs to the architect of the district, Leonid Nikolaevich Kuzmich.
We are greeted by a concrete slab on which are immortalized the words of Robert Rozhdestvensky “THROUGH THE YEARS, THROUGH THE CENTURIES - REMEMBER...”.
The second part is taken from an archival document from 1945:
At this place, from September 1942 to July 1944, 12,500 civilians were shot by the Nazi invaders and their accomplices. Of these: 5,332 are men, 3,620 are women and 3,548 are children...
And the third is an appeal to us, living and future generations: Remember! Immortality for victims
To punishers and those who betrayed memory - contempt...
The entire complex, consisting of two monuments, is united by men's, women's and children's hands, entwined with barbed wire and stretching to the sky. This is very symbolic, it’s like a request, like a prayer to us who are living today: Don’t forget so that it doesn’t happen again...
Currently, this burial is included in the Automated Data Bank “Book of Memory” of the Republic of Belarus as burial of war victims No. 4625. The number of buried people is 12,500.
In the post-war period, the restoration of destroyed settlements began. New industrial enterprises were opened, and after land reclamation, agricultural areas increased significantly. Important changes associated with the abolition of the Pinsk region occurred in 1954. At the same time, the Stolin and David-Gorodok districts became part of the Brest region. Seven years later they were merged into one administrative unit.
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