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Coordinates: 53°55′N 30°21′E / 53.917°N 30.350°E / 53.917; 30.350

Mahilyow/Mogilev Магілёў (Belarusian) Могилёв (Russian)
Flag Coat of arms
Mahilyow/Mogilev Location of Mogilev, shown within the Mogilev Region
Coordinates: 53°55′N 30°21′E / 53.917°N 30.350°E / 53.917; 30.350
Country Subdivision	Belarus Mogilev Region
Founded	1267
Government
• Chairman	Vladimir Tsumarev
Area
• Total	118.50 km2 (45.75 sq mi)
Elevation	192 m (630 ft)
Population (2009)
• Total	374,644
• Density	3,200/km2 (8,200/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+3
Postal code	212 001
Area code(s)	+375 222
License plate	6
Website	Official website

Mogilev (official transliteration: Mahilioŭ; also Mahilyow; Belarusian: Магілёў, pronounced [maɣʲiˈlʲou̯]; Polish Mohylew; Łacinka: Mahiloŭ; Russian: Могилёв, pronounced [məɡʲɪˈlʲof]; Yiddish: מאָליעוו‎, Molyev) is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 kilometres (47 miles) from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km (65 miles) from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. As of 2011^[update], its population was 360,918,^[1] up from an estimated 106,000 in 1956. It is the administrative centre of Mogilev Region and the third largest city in Belarus.

History

Illustration from Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia (1906—1913); Russian Imperial Governorate of Mogilev

Mogilev in July 1941

The city is mentioned in historical sources since 1267. From the 14th century it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, since the Union of Lublin (1569), part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where it became known as Mohylew. In 16th-17th century the city flourished as one of the main nodes of the east-west and north-south trading routes.

In 1577 Polish-Lithuanian King Stefan Batory granted it city rights under Magdeburg law. In 1654, the townsmen negotiated a treaty of surrender to the Russians peacefully, if the Jews were to be expelled and their property divided up among Mogilev's inhabitants. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovitch agreed. However, instead of expelling the Jews, the Russian troops massacred them after they had led them to the outskirts of the town.^[2] The city was set on fire by Charles XII's forces in 1708, during the Great Northern War.^[3] After the First Partition of Poland (1772) Mogilev became part of the Russian Empire and became the centre of the Mogilev Governorate.

In the years 1915–1917, during World War I, the Stavka, the headquarters of the Russian Imperial Army was based in the city and the Tsar, Nicholas II, spent long periods there as Commander-in-Chief.

Following the Russian Revolution, in 1918, the city was briefly occupied by Germany and placed under their short-lived Belarusian People's Republic. Then, in 1919 it was captured by the forces of Soviet Russia and incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. Up to World War II and the Holocaust, like many other cities in Europe, Mogilev had a significant Jewish population: according to the Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 41,100, 21,500 were Jews (i.e. around 50 percent).^[4]

During the Operation Barbarossa, the city was conquered by Wehrmacht forces on 26 July 1941 and remained under German occupation until 28 June 1944.^[5] Mogilev became the official residence of High SS and police leader (HSSPF) Erich von dem Bach. During that period, the Jews of Mogilev were ghettoized and systematically murdered by Ordnungspolizei and SS personnel.^[6]Heinrich Himmler personally witnessed the executions of 279 Jews on 23 October 1941. Later that month a number of mentally disabled patients were poisoned with car exhaust fumes as an experiment; the method of killing was thereafter applied in several Nazi extermination camps. Initial plans for establishing a death camp in Mogilev were abandoned in favour of Maly Trostenets.

In 1944, the utterly devastated city was reconquered by the Red Army and returned to Soviet domination. Mogilev then was the site of a labour camp for German POW soldiers.

Since Belarus gained its independence in 1991 Mogilev has remained one of its principal cities.

Religion

Mohilev was the episcopal see of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Mohilev until its 1991 merger into the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev.

It remains the see of the Eparchy (Eastern diocese) of Mogilev and Mstsislaw in the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Economy

After World War II a huge metallurgy centre with several major steel mills was built. Also, several major factories of cranes, cars, tractors and a chemical plant were established. By the 1950s, tanning was its principal industry, and it was a major trading centre for cereal, leather, salt, sugar, fish, timber and flint: the city has been home to a major inland port on the Dnieper river since (year/period) and a airport since. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the establishment of Belarus as an independent country, Mogilev has become one of that country's main economic and industrial centres.

Cityscape

The town's most notable landmark is the late 17th-century town hall, named the Ratuša, that was built during the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The grand tower of the town hall sustained serious damage during the Great Northern War and the Great Patriotic War. It was eventually demolished in 1957 and rebuilt in its pre-war form in 2008.

Another important landmark of Mogilev is the six-pillared St. Stanisław's Cathedral, built in the Baroque style between 1738 and 1752 and distinguished by its frescoes.

The convent of St. Nicholas preserves its magnificent cathedral of 1668, as well as the original iconostasis, bell tower, walls, and gates. It is currently under consideration to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.^[7]

Minor landmarks include the archiepiscopal palace and memorial arch, both dating from the 1780s, and the enormous theater in a blend of the Neo-Renaissance and Russian Revival styles.

At Polykovichi, an urban part of Mogilev, there is a 350 metre tall guyed TV mast, one of the tallest structures in Belarus.

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  The Convent of St. Nicholas
  

  
  


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  The Russian Orthodox church
  

  
  


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  St. Stanisław's Cathedral
  

  
  


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  The city center
  

  
  


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  The Town Hall XVII-XX, 2008. Stamp of Belarus, 2012
  

  
  

Geography

Climate

Mogilev has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb).

Notable citizens

David Pinski around 1900

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  Matest M. Agrest, ethnologist and mathematician


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  Modest Altschuler, orchestra conductor


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  Abe Anellis, microbiologist


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  Irving Berlin, American composer


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  Petr Elfimov, musician


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  Alyona Lanskaya, singer


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  Joseph Lookstein, Rabbi


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  Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam, physicist


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  Andrey Melnikov, soldier and recipient of Hero of the Soviet Union award


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  Stanisław Julian Ostroróg, Polish count, Crimean War veteran, noted Victorian Photographic portraitist, naturalised British subject
  


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  David Pinski, Yiddish playwright


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  Lev Polugaevsky, International Grandmaster of chess


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  Leo Rogin, Economist and Writer


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  Otto Schmidt, scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, academician


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  Issai Schur, mathematician


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  Spiridon Sobol, Belarusian enlightener and printer, in 1631 he published the first ABC-book in Belarus
  


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  Mikałaj Sudziłoŭski, revolutionary and scientist


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  Lidiya Zablotskaya, singer


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  Simeon Piščević, major-general and governor of Mogilev (1777)


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  Ihar Hershankou, serial killer

Sports

City sports teams:

• Football: FC Torpedo Mogilev,^[9]FC Dnepr Mogilev, Nadezhda Mogilev


• Hockey: HK Mogilev
  


• Volleyball: Mogilev Lions, Kommunalnik


• Handball: Masheka


• Basketball: Borisfen

Twin towns – sister cities

Mogilev is twinned with:

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mahilioŭ.

Look up mogilev in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Mogilev city executive committee


• Photos on Radzima.org


• Historic images of Mogilev


• Mogilev Jewish Center


• Jewish Encyclopedia on Moghilef (Mohilev)


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   "Mogilev on the Dnieper" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
  


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  The murder of the Jews of Mogilev during World War II, at Yad Vashem website


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  Mahilyow, Belarus at JewishGen
  

City and regional maps of Mogilev

• Best zoomable map of Mogilev and Belarus available, possible to see Voblasts, Rajons, cities and streets -> In page click KAPTbI up in the middle


• Zoomable map of Mogilev and in general from Belarus


• zoomable map of Belarus with low resolution


• Good overview map of roads and railways


• General overview of Baltics, Belarus and east-europe


• Belarus, topographic map


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  "Baltic countries full detail railway map. Belarus and Baltics in C1 sector". Archived from the original on 23 May 2012.
  


• General detail, downloadable PDF map of Belarus