Mstizh

The agro-town is located near the border with the Vitebsk region , 28 km north-east of the village of Pleschenitsy and 42 km north-west of the district center, the city of Borisov . Mstizh stands on the small river Mray (a tributary of the Berezina ), in the agro-town on the river a dam and a dam. The highway P3 passes through Mstizh on the Zembin - Begoml section , other local roads lead to the surrounding villages.

The first mention of Mstizh belongs to the XIV century and is associated with the Mstizh Gospel , a manuscript monument in which there is a record that the Minsk burmister Vasil Lyakh donated a book to the church of St. Yuri in the village of Mstizh ^[2] .

More numerous written written sources about Mstizh are found only from the 16th century. At this time, the estate was owned by the Radziwills . In 1536, Mstizh was mentioned in connection with the division of estates between the governor of Vilnius and his sons. In the first half of the same century, the settlement was acquired by Vasily Tyshkevich ^[3] . At the beginning of the XVII century the estate belonged to Nikolai Sapege .

For some time Mstizh was divided into two estates, the owners of which often changed. In the second half of the 18th century, one part was owned by the Khreptovichi , the other - by Slime . Joachim Khreptovich in 1760 founded a Catholic church. In 1776, he sold his part of the estate to Slimes, which from that moment became the sole owners of Mstizh. In 1786, Nikolai Slizen built the Holy Cross Exaltation Church, and at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries Slimes erected a noble estate with a two-story stone palace on the estate. In the 19th century, the estate had a library of 7 thousand volumes, a menagerie and aviaries with birds. The palace burned down in 1890 ^[4] .

After the second division of the Commonwealth in 1793, Mstizh became part of the Russian Empire. In 1897 the town had 139 inhabitants, in 1908 - 166 inhabitants ^[3]

During the Great Patriotic War, Mstizh was under German occupation from July 1941 to July 1944. The Nazis created a ghetto in the town, and by the winter of 1941 they shot all Jews ^[5] . Holy Cross Church was burned during the fighting. From the former estate there were only partially destroyed gates and ruins of outbuildings ^[6] .

• Mstizh Gospel
• Ghetto in Mstizh

• Enceclapedia gistory Belarus . At 6 tons of Kadety - Lyashchen / Belarus. Encekl .; Redkal: G.P. Pashkoў (red halons) і іnsh .; Mast. E.E. Zhakevich. - Мn .: BelEn. ISBN 985-11-0041-2

• Mstizh on the website globus.tut.by
• Mstizh on the website radzima.org