Motal is an agro-town in the Ivanovsky district of the Brest region of Belarus. The administrative center of the Motolsky village council.
In the documents of the past, the name of the
village Motol is also found in the forms Motola, Motyl. The name is
associated with the lake, on the shore of which the village is
located, and is explained from the Fin. matala - "shallow, shallow,
low, shallow", "shallow, shallow water".
Folk etymology gives
three versions. The first is that there used to be a manor house on
this site, whose name was Motyl. According to the second, there were
many butterflies at this place. The third, that the settlement was
located to the south, was plundered and old grandfather Motlo was
left of the survivors, who advised to establish a new settlement
closer to the river.
BC
People appeared in the vicinity of
Motol in the Stone Age. Approximately 10,800-10,300 years ago, the
area was inhabited by the population of the Svider culture. Almost
all the tools of that time were made on blades, axes were oval, end
scrapers, different types of cutters, punctures, blades with beveled
retouched ends.
In the 1960s, V.F. Isaenko, a senior
researcher at the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, began the most
detailed work in Polesie. The researcher found in Polesie more than
300 monuments of different times, more than 20 of which are located
in the Ivanovo region, near the villages of Opol, Upirovo, Motol,
Tyshkovichi, Odryzhin. VF Isaenko found 12 ancient monuments in the
Yaselda basin only in the vicinity of Motol (28 are known in total).
Many of them were investigated by AG Kalechits in the 1980-1990s.
The found materials are in the museum "Our roots" (Belarusian. Nashy
karani) and the Brest regional museum of local lore. The finds
belonged to the Neman culture. At the beginning of the 2nd
millennium BC, the local population began to use the first metal
objects, first copper, then bronze. In the early Bronze Age, there
was a Corded Ware culture in the west of Polesie. In the early Iron
Age in the west of Polesie, the existence of the population of the
Pomor and Late Lusatian cultures is recorded. The Luzhitsk culture
existed at the end of the Bronze and early Iron Ages among the
tribes who lived on a vast territory from the Baltic to the Danube,
from the Spree River to Volyn.
Here, in the vicinity of
Motol, a settlement of the early Iron Age was discovered, objects of
the Milograd and Zarubinets culture were found.
To Motol at
this place
Initially, on the site of Motol there was the village
of Prokhov, which was probably burned down during the raids of the
Mongol Tatars. Then the restored settlement was part of the
Turovo-Pinsk principality. In the 1320s, together with the Pinsk
lands, it was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by the Grand
Duke Gedemin.
First written mention
The first written
mention of the village dates back to 1422 (there are 14 people
behind Pan Dark in Motol), which was found in the acts of the
Lithuanian metric.
XVI century
Until the beginning of the
16th century, Motol was part of the Pinsk principality, which was
part of the Troki voivodeship. Motol originally belonged to the
princes of Pinsk Yaroslavich, Ivan Yaroslavich, and then to his son
Fedor. In 1520 the Pinsk prince Fyodor Yaroslavich handed over the
village of the Assumption Leshchinsky Church. But after the death of
Fyodor Yaroslavich, the lands were inherited by King Sigismund I the
Old, who gave them for life to his second wife Bone Sforza. By 1554,
there were five streets in Motol and one Orthodox church with two
priests: Bogdan Polikarpovich and Bogdan Malischich. Stanislav
Shinvalsky was the city voyat. Before the Volochnaya Pomera, both
state and zemian peasants lived in Motol.
In 1554,
Khvalchevsky, by order of Queen Bona, evicted the Zemyansk peasants
to the island (on the other side of the Yaselda, Golodok River). In
the same year, the village of Motol was renamed into a town, which
was exempted from duties for two years, and its inhabitants received
the status of burghers. The queen was in the town several times and
in 1555 Motol received the right to self-government, and the
inhabitants received privileges, which had to be confirmed each time
by the new king. There is a legend that a palace for the queen was
built in the town. Together with Bona Sforza, many merchants and
artisans from Italy and Germany were resettled to Motol. In the
middle of the 16th century, Motol became one of the centers of
crafts and trade; kirmashi are regularly held in the town. By 1566
the Pinsk eldership included 105 villages, 2 townships (including
Motol) and one city - Pinsk. At this time, Motol was included in the
Druzhilovsky Voytovstvo. Motol developed rapidly and by the end of
the 16th century there were 8 streets (Staro-Beresteyskaya,
Glushetskaya, Spasskaya, Pinskaya, Minskaya, Osovnitskaya,
Novo-Beresteyskaya and Mlynovaya) and 178 estates.
During the
second revision in 1564, there were already four Orthodox churches
in Motol: Spasskaya, Prechistenskaya, Petrovskaya and
Voskresenskaya. There was a large market in Motol, 1 morgue and 2.5
rods of land were allocated for it. The boundaries of the market
were: on the south side, Staro-Beresteyskaya street, which was
continued by Pinskaya street; from the northern side of the Pilina
and Yaselda rivers; on the west - the Orthodox church and on the
east side of the market was the Vasilyeva apiary.
XVIII
century
In 1706 a detachment of Swedes entered the village, burned down
the town and killed most of the population.
On November 28,
1746, the Polish king August III confirms the privileges of the
town.
19th century
Since 1798 Motol has the status of a
farm, and since 1801 it has been a volost center and a state estate.
On November 26, 1802, the town of Motol was transferred into
permanent possession without payment to the treasury of a quart to
the French princess de Broglie-Revel. For the accounting of property
and the establishment of new taxation in 1803, inventory is
compiled. According to the inventory in 1803, the streets had the
following names:
Pinskaya
Brest
Spasskaya
Staromlynska
Novobrestskaya
Glushetskaya
In the center of
the market stood the Uniate Church of the Transfiguration of the
Lord, near it there was a bell tower. The church and the bell tower
were shingled and fenced in with a new wooden fence. Some of the
houses surrounding the market belonged to Jews. Their houses had
brick chimneys. There was an old Jewish school behind the houses,
and a Jewish cemetery not far from the school. Behind the cemetery
there was a distillery and shinok, which belonged to Jews. Not far
from the church there were two Jewish shops, as well as small houses
in which the gentry lived. All houses had wooden plank fences, and
only a few had poles. In some low places, canals were dug, ramparts
were poured and walkways were made. There were two mills on the
banks of the Yaselda River.
In 1803, 708 townspeople lived in
the town of Motol, of whom 299 were men and 327 were women. Jews
also lived here. In that year, 63 Jews lived in the town. The first
in the inventory of the town of Motol are the gentry. In 1803, 6
noblemen lived in Motol (4 men and 2 women):
Tomasz Bobrowski
- 50 years old
Marina Bobrovskaya - 30 years old
Lukeria
Ivashichenkova - 56 years old
Mateusz Ivasichenkov - 12 years old
Ivan Novitsky - 54 years old
In 1812 the town was devastated by
French troops. The French princess de Broglie-Revel owned the town
of Motol until the end of 1827, and on December 30, 1827, the
Department of State Property of the Ministry of Finance of the
Russian Empire sent to the Grodno Treasury Chamber a royal decree on
the acceptance of the town of Motol into the treasury department
from April 12, 1828. By his decree the Emperor Nicholas eliminated
the ownership of the town of Motol by the French princess de
Broglie-Revel.
On January 27, 1828, the emperor signed
another decree "On awarding the commander of the 1st brigade of the
25th infantry division, Major General Broiko in the Grodno province
of a town called Motol for 12 years." In 1864, Motol was badly
damaged by a fire that broke out during the suppression of the
1863-1864 uprising, it arose in the Jewish quarter, then almost all
buildings were destroyed. The authorities allocated money for the
restoration, but they went to the construction of the
Transfiguration Church, which was built in 1877.
According to
the church book of 1871, there were 274 courtyards in Motol and 2249
people lived. In 1886, there were 31 volosts in the Kobrin district,
including Odrizhinskaya, Osovnitskaya, Vorotsevichy, Druzhilovskaya,
Ivanovskaya, Motolskaya and Opolskaya.
Three sections of the
Commonwealth
Later, Motol, during the 3rd partition of the
Commonwealth, is part of the Russian Empire. During the uprising of
Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Mikhail Kleofas Oginsky was one of the most
active participants, and the Vilna voivode, great hetman of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania Mikhail Kazimir Oginsky, owned the Motol
possessions. Both of them were from the clan of the Oginsky princes,
whose possessions were confiscated and given to the loyal Russian
autocrats to new owners. In 1795 the town was a part of Slonim, then
Lithuanian, and since 1801 Grodno province of the Russian Empire.
XX century
1905 - unrest in the village, the property of the
landowners of the neighboring villages of Yurgenson and Kolodny was
damaged. In 1913, the production of tiles and concrete rings was
opened. September 1915 - part of the population was evacuated.
Soldiers of both sides who died in the fighting are buried near the
church. Motol is occupied by German troops. In February 1919, Polish
troops entered the village, but in July 1920 the Red Army occupied
it and established Soviet power, and the Motol Volost Soviet of
Peasant Deputies was formed. But already in March 1921, under the
terms of the Riga Treaty, Motol was again a part of Poland, included
in the Drogichin povet of the Polesie Voivodeship.
On
September 18, 1939, an uprising against the Polish authorities took
place in Motol, and on September 21, Red Army units entered the
village. Soviet power was established, the village council was
formed.
On June 26, 1941, German cavalry entered Motol, and Nazi rule was established. Local residents form partisan detachments. On August 1 of the same year, SS men appear in the village. They destroy the entire Jewish population, all communists and burn part of Motol. On June 20, 1943, SS men reappear in the village with the aim of transporting residents to work in Germany, but strong partisan detachments again clear the area. From March 28 to April 4, 1944, battles between German units and partisan detachments took place in the vicinity of Motol, which ended in the defeat of the partisans. On April 6, the Nazis occupy the village, they destroy almost the entire remaining population and burn Motol. On July 16, 1944, the village was liberated by the 55th Guards Rifle Division of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Turchinsky. The Motolsky village council was formed, on August 7, 1949, a collective farm was created in the village. In August 1950, on the basis of the collective farm and fishing artel named after September 17, the collective farm "40 years of October" was created.
Transfiguration Church. Brick church built in 1877 on the site of
a burned down Greek Catholic church. Includes the main building, a
three-tiered bell tower, a pentahedral apse and a refectory. An
architectural monument of regional significance. edit
Borisoglebskaya chapel 1986
house of the first president of
Israel H. Weizmann
Jewish cemetery, rebuilt in 2004
Monument
to the villagers who died during the Second World War.
Monument
to the Unknown Soldier (in the cemetery).
Archaeological sites of
the Bronze and Stone Age.
Motol Museum of Folk Art "Our
roots", Motal, pl. Lenin, 1. ☎ (01652) 5 87 53 ;. Open: daily 9:
00-18: 00, break 13: 00-14: 00. A fairly large museum, as for an
agro-town, telling about the life of local residents, folk art and
traditional folk crafts - agriculture, flax processing, weaving,
straw weaving, blacksmith's craft, etc. Ritual events and a concert
program "Long Live Guk" are demonstrated.