History

Inaugurated in October 2003, the War and History Museum displays numerous exhibits and thematic expositions telling about the heroic past and the periods which proved important for the region’s development.

The history of the region goes back to the distant past. The most ancient settlements refer to the 5th-4th centuries B.C.

The settlements which make part to the modern-day Liozno region were first mentioned in chronicles in the early 16th century. The town of Liozno was founded in 1650.

The trade route which earned a place in history as “the way from the Variangians to the Greek” was of strategic importance for the region’s development. The cargo was floated down along the Dnepr and the Western Dvina to Orsha, then via Lakes Orekhovskoye and Babinovichskoye to Babinovichi, through the river Luchesa to the Western Dvina and to Riga as the final destination.

In different periods the Liozno lands, which were owned by the Dukes of Aginskiye, were part of the Vitebsk, Smolensk Principalities and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the first partition of the Rzecz Pospolita in 1772, Liozno made part of the Russian Empire as the centre of the volost of the Orsha powiat of the Mogilev province. a stone church was built in the region in 1786. During the war of 1812 French Marshal Ney was deployed in the region for two weeks.

First fairs were organized in Liozno in 1831. A new Riga-Orel railway line built in 1866-1867 gave a boost to the development of the town.

Major occupations were trade, agriculture and craft. The industry of the region was represented by a flax-scutching mill, brickworks, mills and small enterprises. The first Belarusian match factory operated in the Liozno region from 1863 to 1885.

In the 19th-20th century Liozno was an agrarian region. The settlement of Babinovichi had the status of a town. The history of the region was closely intertwined with the history of Belarus: WWI, the Civil War, the collectivization, Stalin repressions.

One of the unforgettable and grievous pages of the Liozno history is connected with the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis burnt 196 villages, ruined industrial companies, kolkhozes and sovkhozes, destroyed the town. Every second resident of the region was killed, burnt or tortured.

Thousands of Liozno residents joined partisan teams to fight agaisnt the enemy.

The Bagration operation that brought Belarus the long-awaited liberation started in the Liozno region in 1943.

The nine-month battles to liberate the Liozno region claimed 27 thousand lives of the Red Army soldiers and partisans. There are 83 military burial places, 600 monuments and obelisks in the region.

For heroism and valour five residents of Liozno were awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1954 the region surpassed the pre-war industrial and agricultural production level. The region developed the industrial and agricultural companies, the socio-cultural sphere, road and housing construction.