Pochep is a city (since 1925) in Russia, the administrative center of
the Pochepsky district of the Bryansk region. Forms the Pochepskoe urban
settlement.
Population - 14,991 people. (2021).
On the left bank of the Sudost River, opposite from the “old” Pochep,
there is a historical and archeological monument of local importance, a
bastion-type fortress, erected by order of Peter I in 1706-1707 to
defend the city from the Swedes. In the first half of the 18th century,
during the period of A.D. Menshikov’s rule over Pochep, the “new” left
bank part of the city bore the name Alexandropol in his honor. The
modern name of the attraction is the field fortress “Vali”.
People's
Fire Museum.
Pochepsky Museum of Local Lore.
Monument - tank
T-34-85.
House of the composer Blanter.
Walk of Glory of the RCBZ
troops.
Resurrection Cathedral. Built in 1771 at the expense of the
hetman of the Zaporozhye Army, Count K. G. Razumovsky, according to the
design of A. Rinaldi. Architecturally, this two-story brick temple
combines elements of Baroque and early classicism. The two-tier
iconostasis was made by the court artist K. G. Razumovsky G. Stetsenko
based on a drawing by V. V. Rastrelli; part of the iconostasis has been
lost.
Elias Church. Wikidata element Brick temple in the style of
late classicism. Built in 1823.
Church of Anthony the Roman. Wikidata
element Brick building built in 1801, restored in 1999.
By train
Railroad station. Pochep is the second station after
Bryansk. Evening trains coming from Moscow (departing from Kievsky
Station) stop at the station at inconvenient night times, at 01:20 and
04:18 at night.
The station is located south of the center. You
can either get to the center by bus or walk in half an hour: first along
the private buildings back along the tracks, then turn left onto the
first big street.
The city is located on the Sudost River, a tributary of the Desna, 84 km southwest of Bryansk.
The prevailing climate is moderate continental. July is the warmest
month of the year, with an average temperature of +18.7 °C, and the
coldest month is January, with an average temperature of −7.8 °C.
The average annual precipitation is 540 mm.
Pochep is one of the oldest cities in the Bryansk region, known since
1447. During the 16th - 17th centuries the city was a guard fortress.
Pochep has been mentioned in Russian written sources since 1488. Some
historians have an assumption that it existed under a different name
during Batu’s invasion, but was destroyed by the Tatar-Mongols and
disappeared from the chronicles for 263 years. Found in the chronicle of
1508, where it is mentioned in connection with the Glinsky uprising.
For a long time the city was located on the southwestern outskirts
of the Russian state and was subject to attacks by Lithuanian-Polish
forces, as, for example, in 1534 and 1535. In the summer of 1535, the
Polish-Lithuanian army under the command of hetmans Radziwill and
Tarnowski captured what was left of the city, which was burned by the
Russians themselves. In the summer of 1565, at the head of 1600
horsemen, F. S. Kmita-Chernobylsky entered the Seversk land and took
Pochep. In the diplomatic document on the Yam-Zapolsky peace treaty of
January 15, 1582, Pochep is mentioned among the Russian cities. During
the time of False Dmitry II, in 1610, Pochep put up fierce resistance to
Polish troops and was burned, killing about 4 thousand Pochep residents.
According to the Treaty of Deulin, from 1618 to 1632 it was part of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In November-December 1632, Russian
troops briefly returned Pochep, but according to the Polyanovsky Treaty
of 1634, it again came under the jurisdiction of Poland. According to
the Chronicle of the Samovidets, in 1652 he was freed from Polish
troops, and after the Pereyaslav Rada in 1654, as part of Left Bank
Ukraine, he was accepted under the jurisdiction of Russia and included
in the newly formed Starodub regiment.
Until 1708, he belonged to
the order of Hetman I. S. Mazepa. From 1709 to 1727 it was the center of
the vast possessions of A.D. Menshikov - Pochepsky volost. The procedure
for surveying its borders in the interests of Menshikov is connected
with a scandalous story that reached the Senate, the so-called “Pochep
case.” In 1750, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna granted the city to Hetman K.
G. Razumovsky, by whose order around 1770 a palace with a park and the
majestic Resurrection Cathedral, which is still an iconic symbol of the
city, was built. The architect of the palace was J.-B. Vallin-Delamote,
and the cathedral - Antonio Rinaldi. The decoration of the city were
merchant houses, churches and temples: Nikolsky, Vvedeniye,
Transfiguration of the Savior, Flora and Lavra, Antonievsky and
Sretensky.
In 1781, with the abolition of the centenary division,
Pochep (it then had about three thousand inhabitants) became a town
within the Mglinsky district of the Novgorod-Seversky governorship, from
1796 - in the Little Russian province, and from 1802 - in the Chernigov
province. For a long time it remained a small administrative and trading
town. For some time Pochep was owned by A.K. Razumovsky; after his death
in 1822 - his daughter V. A. Repnina-Volkonskaya. In 1837, the estate
was sold to Count P. A. Kleinmichel; its last owner was K. P.
Kleinmichel.
In 1887, the Polesie railway Gomel - Bryansk passed
through Pochep, which ensured its preferential development compared to
the district center - Mglin. This circumstance greatly influenced the
economic development of the city.
On May 10, 1903, Pochep and the village legally entered the Pale of
Settlement. In 1897, 3,172 Jews (32.6%) lived in Pochep, in 1923 -
3,995, in 1926 - 3,616, in 1939 - 2,314. At the beginning of the 20th
century, the Bund organization operated in Pochep. In 1910, Pochep had
four synagogues, a private Jewish men's school, and a Jewish cemetery.
In 1912, a Jewish savings and loan partnership operated. In 1914, Jews
owned two fishmongers and both ironmongery shops. During the First World
War, the number of the Jewish population of Pochep increased due to Jews
evicted from the border areas and areas of military operations. In 1915,
in Pochep, with the aim of provoking a pogrom, rumors were spread about
the poisoning of two recruits by Jews. After the Jews petitioned, the
police chief posted an advertisement refuting the rumors.
During
the Civil War, the Jewish self-defense detachment was led by D. Pines.
After 1917, at the invitation of his friend, the writer Shimon
Bykhovsky, N. Goren lived in Pochep for some time: he was a teacher at a
local school and participated in the publication of the newspaper
“Yediot Ha-Sovet Pochep.” In 1918-1921, a branch of the Poalei Zion
party operated in Pochep. In 1920, a Jewish workers' committee of trade
unions and workers' organizations was organized (soon dissolved by the
city council). That same year, a Jewish school opened. In 1926, a Jewish
school of the 1st level and a library operated in Pochep.
People
from Pochep organized a Jewish agricultural collective in the Yevpatoria
region of Crimea. In 1928, the Jewish agricultural collective “Voskhod”
was formed in the Pochep region; In 1936, the Jewish collective farm
“Emes” operated.
In the 1930s, the last synagogues in Pochep were
closed: in 1933 - Ashkenaz, and in 1934 - Beis Yisroel.
On August
22, 1941, Pochep was occupied by Wehrmacht units. From January to March
1942, more than 1,800 Jews were killed in the city. After 1945, a
monument with an inscription in Hebrew was erected on the mass grave.
According to the 2002 census, 13 Jews lived in Pochep.
There were several industrial establishments in Pochep. Since 1856, the hemp-scraping establishment of the merchant A.I. Antipenko has been operating with an annual production of three thousand pounds of hemp (1910), with an annual turnover of 10 thousand rubles, employing 14 workers, a similar enterprise of the merchant S.A. Grabar, with 20 employees, producing 5 wagons of hemp, with an annual turnover of 12 thousand rubles, the establishment of the merchant M. N. Ruditsky, founded in 1880, with an annual production of foam of 30 thousand pounds and a turnover of 100 thousand rubles. using 45 hired workers. In 1902, a cigar factory was founded in Pochep by the German citizen Otto Schnack, which was transferred to Pogar in 1910. In 1910, 618 pounds of cigars and cigarettes were produced for 27 thousand rubles. with 100 employees. In 1904, Count K. P. Kleinmichel founded an oil mill, which was rented from him in 1910 by I. S. Lifshits and I. A. Pevzner. In 1910, the plant produced butter worth 32 thousand rubles, having 12 workers, 1 janitor and 12 horses. Since 1904, the townspeople A.V. Rapoport and K.G. Frenkel set up a hemp processing establishment, which in 1910 produced 15 thousand pounds of oil and 45 thousand pounds. cake, which amounted to an annual turnover of 75 thousand rubles. with 7 hired workers and 20 horses. A plant similar to this was founded in 1907 by the tradesman A. N. Osherov, who, with 15 employees, produced 13 thousand pounds of hemp oil and 39 thousand pounds of cake in 1910, with an annual turnover of 75 thousand rubles.
Since 1881, a two-year rural public school operated by the Ministry
of Public Education. In 1906, a private gymnasium with rights was opened
in Pochep. Its founder was the daughter of the famous naval officer V.I.
Galanin, Maria Valerianovna Litvinenko. In 1907, by decision of the
Mglinsky Zemstvo Assembly, the Pochepsky Zemstvo Primary School was
opened. In 1910, in Pochep, with the permission of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, the “Pochep Society for Assistance to Needy Students
of Pochep” was registered.
In 1917-1918, Pochep was part of the
Ukrainian People's Republic (it was part of the land of Severshchina)
and the Ukrainian state of P. Skoropadsky. At the beginning of 1918,
Soviet power was established. On February 19, 1918, at the congress of
councils of Mglinsky, Surazhsky, Starodubsky and Novozybkovsky
districts, which was held in Unecha under the leadership of P. B.
Shimanovsky, it was decided to unite them due to the rejection of the
policy of the “German-Ukrainian Rada”.
On January 21, 1918,
Pochep became the center of the district as part of the Chernigov
province. The district was formed from part of the territory of Mglinsky
district. By decree of the NKVD of July 9, 1919, the northern districts
of the Chernigov province were transferred to the newly formed Gomel
province of the RSFSR.
From May 5, 1923 to 1929, Pochep and the
district were part of the Bryansk province of the RSFSR.
Since
1929, the city has become the center of the region in the Western region
of the RSFSR.
In 1937-1944, Pochep was part of the Oryol region.
On September 21, 1941, it was captured by German troops during the
Battle of Smolensk. On September 21, 1943, it was liberated by the
troops of the Bryansk Front.
Since July 5, 1944 - as part of the
Bryansk region.
The modern city has its own coat of arms:
“Crossed shield. In the upper scarlet field there is a golden mortar,
accompanied on the sides by pyramids of natural-colored cannonballs. The
lower field is dissected. On the right azure part is a stylized silver
flask, accompanied below by a segment of a golden gear. In the left
green part there is a stylized silver potato flower. In the green peak
the name of the city is in gold. The foot is crossed three times: the
colors of the ribbon are green, scarlet, green.” Architectural monuments
have been preserved in the buildings of the historical city.