Vileyka is a city in the Minsk region of Belarus, the administrative center of the Vileyka district. From December 4, 1939 to September 20, 1944 - the center of the Vileyka region of the BSSR.
It is believed that Vileyka appeared about five centuries ago,
but archaeological finds indicate that people founded a permanent
settlement near the current borders of Vileika much earlier than
this date. The first people on the territory of the modern Vileika
region appeared in about the 9th millennium BC. Not far from the
villages of Sosenka and Ostashkovo, sites of ancient people and
flint tools were found, according to which the age of the sites
found is dated to 7-5 millennia BC. Later archaeological sites
dating back to the Neolithic era (4-2 millennia BC) were found near
the villages of Kameno, Kastyki, Kurenets, Naroch, Rabun and some
others.
The oldest of these finds belong to the tribes of the
Kunda culture who lived in the northern part of the present-day
territory of the region until about 4 millennium BC, after which the
tribes of the Narva culture came to their place. However, already in
the 3rd millennium BC they were replaced by tribes of the culture of
comb-and-pit ceramics. Later, in the Bronze Age (3rd - 2nd
millennium BC - 7th century BC), our lands were inhabited by the
tribes of the Corded Ware culture, and in the early Iron Age - by
the Baltic tribes of the line pottery culture. A lot of
archaeological finds on the territory of the Vileika region related
to the Bronze and Iron Ages have been made, including near Vileika
itself.
From about the middle of the 1st millennium AD, the
time of Bantzer culture came. Numerous burial monuments have
survived since the time of the Krivichsko-Dregovichi Slavs: on the
territory of the Vileika region there are more than 20 burial mounds
of the 9th-12th centuries. n. e.
In the X-XIII centuries. the
territory of modern Vileyshchina was a border territory between the
Baltic tribes and the Polotsk principality.
Grand Duchy of
Lithuania
From the XIV to the XVII century. - as part of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. During this period, the settlement was
called Stary Kurenets.
According to the latest research, the
first written mention of Vileika dates back to 1460. However,
earlier the date of the first mention and, accordingly, the
foundation of the city was considered 1599. Thanks to this, Vileika
celebrates its 400th and 550th anniversary with a difference of only
11 years.
In 1599, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became the
center of the head office of Oshmyanskaya povet.
the Russian
Empire
Since 1793, after the 2nd partition of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Vileika became part of the Russian
Empire. On the available maps of the Vileika of the 18th century, it
can be seen that a small settlement was located for more than a
kilometer along the bank of the Viliya along the only street with a
small area at the place where its tributary flows into the Viliya.
On May 3 (old style), 1795, Vileyka became a district town - the
center of the Vileika district of Minsk, and later (since 1843) - of
the Vilna province. Since January 22 (according to the old style),
1796, the coat of arms of Vileika has existed, from the original
image of which to our time, only the lower part has been preserved
in a slightly altered form (in the upper one the Minsk coat of arms
was depicted, which in 1845 was replaced by Vileyka, and after the
October revolution it was canceled simultaneously with the
disappearance of the Vilna province).
The main occupations of the inhabitants of the city in the old
days were agriculture and river navigation. Along Viliya and further
along the Neman, timber and agricultural products were exported to
Europe. Every year, large trade fairs were held in the city; the
volume of trade began to decline only by the end of the 19th
century. Since the XVIII century. the largest glass manufactory in
the territory of modern Belarus started working in Ilya. In the XIX
century. not far from Dolginovo there was a cloth factory. By the
end of the 19th century, there were more than 3.5 thousand
inhabitants in Vileika (though 59% were mostly illiterate), and in
the province itself there were more than 200 thousand.
Since
the beginning of the XIX century. after the great fire of 1810 and
destruction during the war of 1812, a major reconstruction of the
city began.
Since 1845, Vileika became the center of the
Vilna province, its renewal continues.
The old buildings were
completely replaced during the century. Many buildings of today's
Vileika were laid down in the late 19th - early 20th centuries.
Water transportation on the river in the XX century. replaced by
significant flows of goods and passengers through the Vileika
railway station (existed since 1904).
In 1897, the population
of the city was 3560 people, the native language indicated:
Belarusian - 1871, Jewish - 1326, Russian - 217, Polish - 109.
XX century
In September 1915, Vileika was occupied by the
German army, but was soon liberated by the Russian army during a
heavy battle. In honor of the liberation of the city in 1917, a new
regiment of the Russian army was named - the 748th Infantry Vileika,
and in 2015 a monument in the form of a gate chapel was unveiled in
the city, on the walls of which the names of the dead officers and
soldiers are listed.
On November 8, 1917, Soviet power was
established in Vileika. It lasted a little over a year - from
December 1918 Vileika was occupied by German troops, in 1919 - by
Polish troops, from 1921 - it became part of Poland and remained a
provincial town on its outskirts until 1939. After the entry of
Western Belarus into the USSR, Vileika received the status of the
center of the Vileika region, in which it existed almost until the
end of the Second World War.
During the Great Patriotic War,
the region was under German occupation (from 06/25/1941 to
07/02/1944). During the war years, the invaders killed more than 15
thousand civilians in the area, including completely burned down
together with the population of 5 villages. Two villages (Lyubcha
and Borki) were never rebuilt after the war.
In September
1944, two months after the liberation of the region from the German
occupation, Vileika became the regional center of the Molodechno
region, and after its abolition in 1960 - the Minsk region.
Since 1964, the 43rd communications center of the Russian Navy has
been located 10 km west of the city, providing communication on
ultra-long waves of the General Staff of the Navy with nuclear
submarines carrying combat duty in the waters of the Atlantic,
Indian and partly Pacific oceans.
Cycling
In Slonim, cycling accounts for only 1%
of all transport journeys. In terms of population, Vileika is about
half the size of Slonim, and utilitarian cycling is noticeably more
common here - their share in the total labor movement in transport
is 3%.
Has a cycle route "A over the Vilija river". It starts
in the old city park Vileyka, runs along the floodplains of the
Lower Park along a bicycle path to the bridge over the river and
then runs through the arboretum along the gentle banks of the Viliya
to the Dubovka tract and Soldatskoye Lake. Then the route leads
along Lugovoy lane to Villanin khutor with an island in the middle
framed by water lilies and Canadian oaks, and then through the
Central Square of Vileika again leads to the city park. The length
of the route from the start to the finish line is 5.3 kilometers.
Car traffic is minimal. Vehicle speeds are also low here, there are
practically no dangerous areas. The main part of the route passes
through natural places along the banks of the Viliya, through
meadows and forests, where there is no traffic at all.
Tourist routes in the vicinity
Several tourist routes have
been developed and operate in the vicinity of Vileika. Every year,
starting from 2007, the water expedition "Shlyakham Tyshkevich" ("By
the way of Tyshkevich") starts from the Vileika region and passes
through Vileika. The first expedition took place in 2007. It was
timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Count Konstantin
Tyshkevich, a well-known trip to Viliya by local lore. The travelers
followed in the footsteps of Count Tyshkevich's expedition from the
sources of Viliya to the confluence with the Neman. The organizers
and participants of the first water expedition were Lithuanian and
Belarusian scientists, ethnographers and tourists. Today it acquires
a more popularizing and tourist character and ends on the territory
of Belarus.
Not far from Vileika is the Zabrodye estate,
where the only museum of the First World War in Belarus, created by
the local historian Boris Borisovich Tsitovich and his family, is
located, the largest museum of retro technology in Belarus and the
museum of rural life a century ago, as well as an exposition of the
USSR.