Vitebsk Region
Administrative division of Belarus
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Historical digression, interesting facts
This northern region of Belarus is widely known far beyond its borders due to its numerous picturesque lakes, forest farmsteads, the art festival "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk" and numerous talented natives.
The first woman of Belarus, recognized as a saint, was born on the Vitebsk lands - Euphrosyne of Polotsk, the founder of the East Slavic book printing and educator Francysk Skorina, the Grand Hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Lev Sapieha, the world-famous artist Marc Chagall.
In 1954, the first President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, was born in the town of Kopys, Orsha District, Vitebsk Region.
Vitebsk region is the cradle of Belarusian statehood. It was here that the first state formation on the Belarusian lands appeared in the 9th century - the Principality of Polotsk.
Founded in 862 on the banks of the Western Dvina, the city of Polotsk is the most ancient city in Belarus. During its long history, it survived the attack of the Vikings, the Crusaders, and was occupied more than once by various conquerors.
Vitebsk, as the legend says, was founded in 974 by the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga.
The Vitebsk region has a curious feature: huge stones - boulders, which were the subject of special worship in pagan lands. The largest of them is located in the Shumilinsky district near the village of Gorki. Its length is 11 m, width - 5.6 m, visible height - 3 m. It is known that the underground part of the boulder is at least three meters. The most revered is the Borisov stone in Polotsk. In 1981, it was found 5 km from the city and installed next to St. Sophia Cathedral.
It is in the Vitebsk region that the smallest city in the country is located - Disna with a population of 1,492 people.
Geographical position
Vitebsk region is the northernmost region of the country. In the northwest it borders with Latvia, in the west - with Lithuania, in the north and east - with the Russian Federation.
Area - 40.1 thousand sq. km. The extreme northern point of Belarus is in the Verkhnedvinsk region north of Lake Osveyskoye. Its coordinates are 56°10' north latitude and 28°07' east longitude.
Residents of the Vitebsk region are justifiably proud of the fact that in their region there is not one center of Europe, but two at once. The first, according to scientists' calculations made in 2000, fell in the middle of Lake Sho. And in 2008, a memorial sign was erected in the center of Polotsk, indicating that the center of the continent is located in this city.
The ancient glacier left more than 10 types of relief in the Braslav Poozerie, which have become one of the main features of the region. There are picturesque hills and moraine ridges, numerous swamps, rivers and lakes in the Vitebsk region.
Administrative-territorial division
The Vitebsk region includes:
21 districts (Beshenkovichi, Braslavsky, Verkhnedvinsky, Vitebsky, Gluboksky, Gorodoksky, Dokshitsky, Dubrovensky, Lepelsky, Lioznensky, Miorsky, Orshansky, Polotsk, Postavsky, Rossonsky, Sennensky, Tolochinsky, Ushachsky, Chashniksky, Sharkovshchinsky, Shumilinsky) and 3 districts in the city Vitebsk;
2 cities of regional subordination (Vitebsk, Novopolotsk);
17 cities of regional subordination;
22 urban-type settlements;
6202 rural settlements, of which 254 have the status of an agro-town.
On the territory of the Vitebsk region there are 196 Councils of the primary level.
The regional center is Vitebsk.
Population
The population of the Vitebsk region as of January 1, 2021 was 1,120,364 thousand people, including urban - 870,383 people, rural - 249,981 people.
The inhabitants of the regional center are 362,949 people, and Vitebsk is the second oldest among the most ancient cities in the country.
Other major cities in the region are Orsha with 106,505 people, Novopolotsk with 98,122 people, and Polotsk with 80,795 people.
Economic development
Vitebsk region is a highly developed industrial region. A quarter of the employed population works in the industrial sector, and 36% of the gross value added is produced.
The basis of the industry is oil refining and chemical production, electricity production (Lukoml State District Power Plant and Novopolotsk Thermal Power Plant), food and beverages, textile, clothing, and footwear production.
There are 1389 industrial enterprises in the Vitebsk region. The visiting card of the region is JSC "Naftan", JSC "Polotsk-Steklovolokno", JLLC "Belwest", LLC "Managing Company of the Holding" Belarusian Leather and Footwear Company "Marko", JSC "Dolomit", Vitebsk Concern "Meat and Dairy Products", OJSC "Vitebsk Carpets", LLC PO "Energokomplekt", OJSC "Orsha Plant of Building Materials", OJSC "Vitebsk Instrument-Making Plant", OJSC "Postavymebel".
There are 223 agricultural organizations in the Vitebsk region. Among the leaders are SPK Mayak Braslavsky, OJSC Shaterovo, OJSC Vitebsk Broiler Poultry Farm, SPK Larinovka, OJSC Agrokombinat Yubileyny, OJSC Mayak Vysokoye, OJSC Khotily-Agro, Unitary Enterprise Polymir- Agro", UE "P-S Karpeki", IP "Detskoselsky-Gorodok" branch "Virovlyansky".
The real pride of the Vitebsk region is flax, which
in Belarus is called the "golden fleece". It is here that the largest flax mill in the CIS is located - Orsha, well known for its products in many parts of the world.
Belarus is one of the leading flax fiber producing countries. Delicate blue flowers, which have a special meaning for Belarusians, can even be seen on the State Emblem of the Republic of Belarus.
The Vitebsk region specializes in the cultivation of grain and fodder crops, rapeseed, potatoes, and a well-developed lake and fishery.
The region maintains foreign trade cooperation with more than 115 countries of the world. The main exports are insulated wires, cables, oil products, fiberglass, ethylene polymers, longitudinally sawn timber, footwear, meat and dairy products.
Several transport corridors pass through the region: highways Berlin-Warsaw-Orsha-Moscow, Helsinki-Vitebsk-Kiev-Odessa. The region is connected by road and rail with Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Vilnius.
In August 1999, the free economic zone "Vitebsk" was formed on the territory of the region.
Since 1998, the Vitebsk region has been part of the Euroregion "Lakeland", which unites the districts and municipalities of the Vitebsk region, Lithuania and Latvia. Within its framework, priority projects of cross-border cooperation are being implemented under the program "Lithuania-Latvia-Belarus" in the field of supporting entrepreneurship, tourism, environmental protection, and educational programs.
Natural wealth and mineral resources
By the number and area of lakes, Vitebsk region ranks first in Belarus. There are over 2800 lakes (the largest are Osveiskoye, Lukomskoye, Drivyaty, Nescherdo, Snudy) and more than 500 rivers (Western Dvina, Dnieper, Drysa, Obol, Disna and others).
A third of the region's territory is occupied by forests, about 60% of which are centuries-old conifers. There are 1 nature reserve, 2 national parks, 25 reserves of republican and 66 local significance, 227 natural monuments in the region.
The Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve has the status of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and has been awarded a European diploma for specially protected natural areas.
The Republican landscape reserve "Yelnya" is one of the largest massifs of ancient raised bogs and glacial lakes in Europe. The natural monument with unique flora and fauna has an international conservation status. A special pride is the Yelnya swamp, which has exis
ted for more than 9 thousand years, the area of which is about 20 thousand hectares.
In 1995, the Braslav Lakes National Park was founded.
Vitebsk region is rich in mineral deposits. Dolomite, clay, peat, sand, mineral waters are industrially mined.
Sports and tourism
47 sports are cultivated in the Vitebsk region.
Representatives of the Vitebsk region Romuald Klim (athletics, 1964), Viktor Kurentsov (weightlifting, 1968), Larisa Petrik (gymnastics, 1968), Tamara Lazakovich (gymnastics, 1972), Sergey Koplyakov (swimming, 1980) became Olympic champions of different years ), Tatyana Beloshapko (Ivinskaya) (basketball, 1980), Vyacheslav Yanovsky (boxing, 1988), Vladislav Goncharov (trampolining, 2016), Irina Krivko (biathlon, 2018).
Various types of tourism are represented in the Vitebsk region: cultural, educational, sports, religious, hunting, industrial, recreational, festival, gastronomic.
Vitebsk region is the only one in Belarus included in the European Culinary Heritage Network, which promotes local culinary specialties, traditional dishes and recipes. In the European Network, which unites more than 1,500 participants from 44 European regions, Belarus is represented by five districts of the Vitebsk region: Miory, Verkhnedvinsk, Gluboksky, Polotsk and Lepelsky.
The tourist infrastructure of the Vitebsk region is actively developing. There are 105 hotels and similar accommodation facilities, 670 agroecotourism entities, 36 hunting complexes and hunter's (fisherman's) houses.
There are 9 sanatoriums in the Vitebsk region: the Lepel military sanatorium, the sanatorium-resort complex Plissa, the sanatoriums Lettsy, Zheleznodorozhnik, Lesnoye, Borovoye, Rosinka, Forest Lakes, Naftan.
Culture and main attractions
Vitebsk region has a rich cultural heritage - more than 3 thousand monuments of archeology, history, culture and architecture. There are 28 museums, 2 theaters, a philharmonic society in the region.
In the Vitebsk region, the ruins of one castle have been preserved ("Bely Kovel" ag. Smolyany, Orsha district), earthen castle fortifications in the ag. Drutsk (Tolochinskiy district), Disna (Miory district).
On the territory of the Vitebsk region there are two sites that are included in the preliminary UNESCO list: the Church of the Transfiguration in the city of Polotsk and the Church of St. John the Baptist in the village of Kamai, Postavy district.
Holy Annunciation Church of the 12th century in Vitebs
k, St. Sophia Cathedral of the 11th-18th centuries and the Savior Euphrosyne Monastery of the 12th-18th centuries in Polotsk, Kuteinsky Assumption Monastery of the 17th century in Orsha, Holy Nativity of the Mother of God Cathedral and Trinity Church of the 17th-18th centuries in Glubokoe - only a small part of the extensive list of cultural objects of the region.
Guests of the region should definitely visit the house-museum of Marc Chagall in Vitebsk, the museum-estate of Ilya Repin "Zdravnevo", the memorial complex "Breakthrough" (one of the most significant creations of the monumental art of the BSSR).
About 50 different festivals are held annually in the region with the participation of teams from near and far abroad. The visiting card of the region is the famous International Festival of Arts "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk".
Religion
In the Republic of Belarus, freedom of conscience and religion is an inalienable right of every citizen; therefore, the country's population is characterized by a variety of religious movements. The most widespread religion is Christianity. The most massive Christian communities in the Vitebsk region are Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Evangelism. Other religions include Adventism and Luthera
nism. In total, there are 17 religious denominations in the Vitebsk region with a total of 562 religious communities.
Historical digression, interesting facts
This northern region of Belarus is widely known far beyond its borders due to its numerous picturesque lakes, forest farmsteads, the art festival "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk" and numerous talented natives.
The first woman of Belarus, recognized as a saint, was born on the Vitebsk lands - Euphrosyne of Polotsk, the founder of the East Slavic book printing and educator Francysk Skorina, the Grand Hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Lev Sapieha, the world-famous artist Marc Chagall.
In 1954, the first President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, was born in the town of Kopys, Orsha District, Vitebsk Region.
Vitebsk region is the cradle of Belarusian statehood. It was here that the first state formation on the Belarusian lands appeared in the 9th century - the Principality of Polotsk.
Founded in 862 on the banks of the Western Dvina, the city of Polotsk is the most ancient city in Belarus. During its long history, it survived the attack of the Vikings, the Crusaders, and was occupied more than once by various conquerors.
Vitebsk, as the legend says, was founded in 974 by the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga.
The Vitebsk region has a curious feature: huge stones - boulders, which were the subject of special worship in pagan lands. The largest of them is located in the Shumilinsky district near the village of Gorki. Its length is 11 m, width - 5.6 m, visible height - 3 m. It is known that the underground part of the boulder is at least three meters. The most revered is the Borisov stone in Polotsk. In 1981, it was found 5 km from the city and installed next to St. Sophia Cathedral.
It is in the Vitebsk region that the smallest city in the country is located - Disna with a population of 1,492 people.
Geographical position
Vitebsk region is the northernmost region of the country. In the northwest it borders with Latvia, in the west - with Lithuania, in the north and east - with the Russian Federation.
Area - 40.1 thousand sq. km. The extreme northern point of Belarus is in the Verkhnedvinsk region north of Lake Osveyskoye. Its coordinates are 56°10' north latitude and 28°07' east longitude.
Residents of the Vitebsk region are justifiably proud of the fact that in their region there is not one center of Europe, but two at once. The first, according to scientists' calculations made in 2000, fell in the middle of Lake Sho. And in 2008, a memorial sign was erected in the center of Polotsk, indicating that the center of the continent is located in this city.
The ancient glacier left more than 10 types of relief in the Braslav Poozerie, which have become one of the main features of the region. There are picturesque hills and moraine ridges, numerous swamps, rivers and lakes in the Vitebsk region.
Administrative-territorial division
The Vitebsk region includes:
21 districts (Beshenkovichi, Braslavsky, Verkhnedvinsky, Vitebsky, Gluboksky, Gorodoksky, Dokshitsky, Dubrovensky, Lepelsky, Lioznensky, Miorsky, Orshansky, Polotsk, Postavsky, Rossonsky, Sennensky, Tolochinsky, Ushachsky, Chashniksky, Sharkovshchinsky, Shumilinsky) and 3 districts in the city Vitebsk;
2 cities of regional subordination (Vitebsk, Novopolotsk);
17 cities of regional subordination;
22 urban-type settlements;
6202 rural settlements, of which 254 have the status of an agro-town.
On the territory of the Vitebsk region there are 196 Councils of the primary level.
The regional center is Vitebsk.
Population
The population of the Vitebsk region as of January 1, 2021 was 1,120,364 thousand people, including urban - 870,383 people, rural - 249,981 people.
The inhabitants of the regional center are 362,949 people, and Vitebsk is the second oldest among the most ancient cities in the country.
Other major cities in the region are Orsha with 106,505 people, Novopolotsk with 98,122 people, and Polotsk with 80,795 people.
Economic development
Vitebsk region is a highly developed industrial region. A quarter of the employed population works in the industrial sector, and 36% of the gross value added is produced.
The basis of the industry is oil refining and chemical production, electricity production (Lukoml State District Power Plant and Novopolotsk Thermal Power Plant), food and beverages, textile, clothing, and footwear production.
There are 1389 industrial enterprises in the Vitebsk region. The visiting card of the region is JSC "Naftan", JSC "Polotsk-Steklovolokno", JLLC "Belwest", LLC "Managing Company of the Holding" Belarusian Leather and Footwear Company "Marko", JSC "Dolomit", Vitebsk Concern "Meat and Dairy Products", OJSC "Vitebsk Carpets", LLC PO "Energokomplekt", OJSC "Orsha Plant of Building Materials", OJSC "Vitebsk Instrument-Making Plant", OJSC "Postavymebel".
There are 223 agricultural organizations in the Vitebsk region. Among the leaders are SPK Mayak Braslavsky, OJSC Shaterovo, OJSC Vitebsk Broiler Poultry Farm, SPK Larinovka, OJSC Agrokombinat Yubileyny, OJSC Mayak Vysokoye, OJSC Khotily-Agro, Unitary Enterprise Polymir- Agro", UE "P-S Karpeki", IP "Detskoselsky-Gorodok" branch "Virovlyansky".
The real pride of the Vitebsk region is flax, which
in Belarus is called the "golden fleece". It is here that the largest flax mill in the CIS is located - Orsha, well known for its products in many parts of the world.
Belarus is one of the leading flax fiber producing countries. Delicate blue flowers, which have a special meaning for Belarusians, can even be seen on the State Emblem of the Republic of Belarus.
The Vitebsk region specializes in the cultivation of grain and fodder crops, rapeseed, potatoes, and a well-developed lake and fishery.
The region maintains foreign trade cooperation with more than 115 countries of the world. The main exports are insulated wires, cables, oil products, fiberglass, ethylene polymers, longitudinally sawn timber, footwear, meat and dairy products.
Several transport corridors pass through the region: highways Berlin-Warsaw-Orsha-Moscow, Helsinki-Vitebsk-Kiev-Odessa. The region is connected by road and rail with Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Vilnius.
In August 1999, the free economic zone "Vitebsk" was formed on the territory of the region.
Since 1998, the Vitebsk region has been part of the Euroregion "Lakeland", which unites the districts and municipalities of the Vitebsk region, Lithuania and Latvia. Within its framework, priority projects of cross-border cooperation are being implemented under the program "Lithuania-Latvia-Belarus" in the field of supporting entrepreneurship, tourism, environmental protection, and educational programs.
Natural wealth and mineral resources
By the number and area of lakes, Vitebsk region ranks first in Belarus. There are over 2800 lakes (the largest are Osveiskoye, Lukomskoye, Drivyaty, Nescherdo, Snudy) and more than 500 rivers (Western Dvina, Dnieper, Drysa, Obol, Disna and others).
A third of the region's territory is occupied by forests, about 60% of which are centuries-old conifers. There are 1 nature reserve, 2 national parks, 25 reserves of republican and 66 local significance, 227 natural monuments in the region.
The Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve has the status of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and has been awarded a European diploma for specially protected natural areas.
The Republican landscape reserve "Yelnya" is one of the largest massifs of ancient raised bogs and glacial lakes in Europe. The natural monument with unique flora and fauna has an international conservation status. A special pride is the Yelnya swamp, which has exis
ted for more than 9 thousand years, the area of which is about 20 thousand hectares.
In 1995, the Braslav Lakes National Park was founded.
Vitebsk region is rich in mineral deposits. Dolomite, clay, peat, sand, mineral waters are industrially mined.
Sports and tourism
47 sports are cultivated in the Vitebsk region.
Representatives of the Vitebsk region Romuald Klim (athletics, 1964), Viktor Kurentsov (weightlifting, 1968), Larisa Petrik (gymnastics, 1968), Tamara Lazakovich (gymnastics, 1972), Sergey Koplyakov (swimming, 1980) became Olympic champions of different years ), Tatyana Beloshapko (Ivinskaya) (basketball, 1980), Vyacheslav Yanovsky (boxing, 1988), Vladislav Goncharov (trampolining, 2016), Irina Krivko (biathlon, 2018).
Various types of tourism are represented in the Vitebsk region: cultural, educational, sports, religious, hunting, industrial, recreational, festival, gastronomic.
Vitebsk region is the only one in Belarus included in the European Culinary Heritage Network, which promotes local culinary specialties, traditional dishes and recipes. In the European Network, which unites more than 1,500 participants from 44 European regions, Belarus is represented by five districts of the Vitebsk region: Miory, Verkhnedvinsk, Gluboksky, Polotsk and Lepelsky.
The tourist infrastructure of the Vitebsk region is actively developing. There are 105 hotels and similar accommodation facilities, 670 agroecotourism entities, 36 hunting complexes and hunter's (fisherman's) houses.
There are 9 sanatoriums in the Vitebsk region: the Lepel military sanatorium, the sanatorium-resort complex Plissa, the sanatoriums Lettsy, Zheleznodorozhnik, Lesnoye, Borovoye, Rosinka, Forest Lakes, Naftan.
Culture and main attractions
Vitebsk region has a rich cultural heritage - more than 3 thousand monuments of archeology, history, culture and architecture. There are 28 museums, 2 theaters, a philharmonic society in the region.
In the Vitebsk region, the ruins of one castle have been preserved ("Bely Kovel" ag. Smolyany, Orsha district), earthen castle fortifications in the ag. Drutsk (Tolochinskiy district), Disna (Miory district).
On the territory of the Vitebsk region there are two sites that are included in the preliminary UNESCO list: the Church of the Transfiguration in the city of Polotsk and the Church of St. John the Baptist in the village of Kamai, Postavy district.
Holy Annunciation Church of the 12th century in Vitebs
k, St. Sophia Cathedral of the 11th-18th centuries and the Savior Euphrosyne Monastery of the 12th-18th centuries in Polotsk, Kuteinsky Assumption Monastery of the 17th century in Orsha, Holy Nativity of the Mother of God Cathedral and Trinity Church of the 17th-18th centuries in Glubokoe - only a small part of the extensive list of cultural objects of the region.
Guests of the region should definitely visit the house-museum of Marc Chagall in Vitebsk, the museum-estate of Ilya Repin "Zdravnevo", the memorial complex "Breakthrough" (one of the most significant creations of the monumental art of the BSSR).
About 50 different festivals are held annually in the region with the participation of teams from near and far abroad. The visiting card of the region is the famous International Festival of Arts "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk".
Religion
In the Republic of Belarus, freedom of conscience and religion is an inalienable right of every citizen; therefore, the country's population is characterized by a variety of religious movements. The most widespread religion is Christianity. The most massive Christian communities in the Vitebsk region are Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Evangelism. Other religions include Adventism and Luthera
nism. In total, there are 17 religious denominations in the Vitebsk region with a total of 562 religious communities.
Vitebsk Region
Administrative division of belarusBelarus
Vitebsk Region
Administrative division of belarus
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