Lomza

The city is located in northeastern Poland along the Narew River in the Masovian-Podlasie Lowland at 125 m above sea level. It is located 80 km from the center of the province of Białystok and 150 km from Warsaw .

IX - XVIII centuries

Lomza was founded as a fortified settlement by the Mazovans at the end of the 9th century and was then located 5 km east of the current city center. After the formation of the Principality of Mazovia in 1138, it was part of it; at the end of the XIII century it was practically destroyed by a strong fire ^{[2] [3]} .

At the end of the XIV century, Lomza was moved to the place occupied by the city now ^[3] . In 1392, under Prince Janusz I of Mazowiecki, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Apostles (destroyed by fire in the 16th century) was founded on ^[4] . On June 15, 1418, Janusz I Mazowiecki granted Lomza city status on the basis of Kulm law ^{[3] [5]} . In the XV-XVI centuries, Lomza was flourishing, being a major craft center and conducting lively trade; the whole city was paved, had running water ^[6] .

In 1526, the family of the Masovian princes ceased, and Lomza became part of the Kingdom of Poland , and since 1569 it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ^[6] . On September 5, 1614, the Jesuits opened the - the first secondary school in the city ^[7] . From the middle of the XVII century, the city began to decline, caused by wars, as well as numerous fires and natural disasters ^[5] . In 1794, Prussian troops entered the city, and on October 24, 1795, according to the III section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , Lomza went to Prussia ; at that time there were only a few dozen completely ruined houses in the city ^{[3] [6]} .

XIX century

Prussian power over the city did not last long: on the Tilsit Peace on July 7, 1807, Lomza became part of the newly formed Warsaw Duchy - a protectorate of Napoleonic France ^{[3] [6]} .

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars on May 3, 1815, by the decision of the Vienna Congress, the Duchy of Warsaw was abolished, and most of it, under the name of the Kingdom of Poland, went to Russia ; at the same time, Lomza became the center of the Augustow Voivodeship in 1816, but soon the center was moved to Suwalki , and Lomza turned into a county town of this province (since 1837 - the Augustow province ). Lomza begins to revive: new buildings are being built, the number of city dwellers is growing, and more and more of them are starting to make up Jews . In 1867 - with the division of the Augustow province - Lomza became the provincial city (the center of the newly formed Lomzhinsky province ). According to the data for 1895, 20 578 inhabitants lived in the city (including religion: 9822 Jews, 8932 Catholics, 1386 Orthodox, 407 Protestants). In the city there were several factories and factories (all small), there were 2 markets, a theater, a public library, male and female gymnasiums. There were 3 churches, an Orthodox cathedral, an evangelical church and synagogue ^{[3] [6]} .

XX century

During World War I, Lomza during the Great Retreat of 1915 was left on August 10 without fighting by the troops of the 12th Russian Army , after which German troops entered the city ^[8] . With the restoration of Polish independence in November 1918, Lomza became part of the Polish Republic ; On November 12, the last German soldiers left the city ^[3] .

During the Soviet-Polish war , the 3rd Cavalry Corps of the Red Army under the command of G. D. Gai on July 29, 1920 attacked Lomza, defended by the forces , and by August 3 captured the city ^{[9] [10]} . However, already on August 15, Lomzhu was occupied by units of the 1st Polish Army, Lieutenant General F. Latinic , who, however, soon left the city (during, as Y. Pilsudsky wrote, “a strange and incomprehensible maneuver” ). On August 21, retreating units of the 15th Army of A.I. Kork enter Lomza, but on the evening of August 22, the city is occupied by the Major General , which was part Lieutenant General L. Skersky ^[11] .

On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops invaded Poland. During the Polish Wehrmacht campaign, German planes bombed the city on September 3, and from September 7 to 10 there was a battle near Lomza , as a result of which parts of the 21st Wehrmacht infantry division , overcoming the resistance of the Polish , captured Lomza ^[12] . However, in accordance with the agreements reached by Germany and the USSR, German troops withdrew from Lomza to the west by the end of September, and the Soviet 4th Cavalry Division , which was part of the 11th Army of the Belarusian Front , entered the city on September 29. On November 2, the extraordinary V session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted (on the basis of the Declaration “On the Entry of Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic”, approved on October 29 by the People’s Assembly of Western Belarus held in Bialystok) the law “On the incorporation of Western Belarus into the USSR with its reunification with the Byelorussian SSR ”(under the name“ Western Belarus ”was meant - with some exceptions - the territory of the former Novogrudok , Vilnius , Białystok and Polessk voivodships) ^[13] . December 4, 1939 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the territory of Western Belarus, regional division was introduced, and Lomza became the center of the Lomzhinsky district of the Belostok region of the Belorussian SSR ^[14] ; since January 15, 1940, Lomza has been the center of the Lomzhinsky district ^[15] .

From autumn 1939 to June 1941, part of the townspeople (primarily intellectuals) were deported in four receptions by the NKVD bodies into the interior of the Soviet Union ^[3] . As of May 30, 1941, large military formations were located in Lomza, in particular: the 130th Corps Artillery Regiment of the 1st Rifle Corps of the Western Special Military District ^[16] , the 6th Cavalry Division (full name: 6th Cossack cavalry Kuban-Terskaya, Chongar division named after S. M. Budyonny) ^[17] .

June 22-23, 1941, in the first two days of World War II , Lomzh was defended by the 13th Rifle Division of Major General A. Z. Naumov and the 6th Cavalry Division of General M. P. Konstantinov ; however, under the onslaught of the enemy (the 87th Infantry Division and the ) they were forced to retreat ^[18] .

On June 24, units of the Wehrmacht entered the city. Arrests of local residents suspected of "collaboration with the Communists" and repression of Jews began. On August 12, the was created, where all the Jews of the city and surrounding villages were forcibly resettled. In September, more than two thousand Jews - over 20% of the ghetto population - were shot in the Gelchinsky forest. On November 1, 1942, the ghetto was liquidated, and its inhabitants were sent to Auschwitz and other death camps ^[19] .

On September 13, 1944, during the Lomza-Ruzhany offensive operation, the city ​​was cleared of the Nazis by the forces of the 380th Infantry Division, Major General A. F. Kustov , who was part of the 3rd Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front ^[20] .

On August 16, 1945, the Treaty between the USSR and the Polish Republic on the Soviet-Polish state border was signed in Moscow, according to which the Bialystok region was transferred to the Polish Republic (in 1952-1989 - the Polish People’s Republic , since 1989 - the Third Commonwealth ) composing the Białystok Voivodeship ^[21] . Омomжаa became the center of the инскогоomжy county in this province. In the post-war years, the city recovered from the destruction, its economy developed successfully. In 1975, the voivodship was disaggregated, and Lomza became the administrative center of the Lomza Voivodeship . In 1998, during the administrative reform, the voivodship was abolished, and Lomza became a city ​​as a powiat as part of the Podlaskie voivodship , at the same time being the center of the Lomzinsky powiat ^[3] .

• Anatoly Dmitrievich Alekseev - Hero of the Soviet Union , test pilot .
• Yitzhak Herzog is the chief rabbi of the mandate of Palestine and Israel (1936-1959).
• Vladimir Vatslavovich Rachinsky - Soviet physicist-chemist, radiologist, doctor of chemical sciences.

• Belitskaya, Hanka
• Vyshinsky, Stefan
• Dashinsky, Ignacy
• John Paul II
• Peshkovsky, Zdzislaw
• Yalbzhikovsky, Romuald

•    Kazan since 1989
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•   Sigtuna ^[22]

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  Russian fortifications in Pyentnitsa-Podukhovna , part of the , erected in the late XIX - early XX centuries

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  Memorial sign near the place where the Great Synagogue was located

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  Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel

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  The Benedictinek monastery complex on ul. Dvorna 32

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  Monument to

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  Monument to the Polish actress Hanka Belitskaya on Farna St.

• In Kazan there is a street named by the decision of the city executive committee No. 1237 of 11/11/1987 ^[23] , in honor of the city of Lomza.
• The city has Sovetskaya Street ( Polish: Radziecka ), which in 2016, as part of the decommunization program for street names of Polish cities, they wanted to rename. However, the renaming did not happen, since the name of the street is not related to the Soviet Union , but appeared in the XVI century. The name comes from the “House of Soviets” ( Polish: Dom radziecki ), located on this street, in which the gentry and city councilors gathered to discuss various city issues ^[24] .
• As part of the program for the de-communization of street names of Polish cities, on August 30, 2017, Bronislaw Weselowski Street was renamed and is now called ul. Kashmirova (from Polish. Kaszmirowa - cashmere) ^[25] .

• Official page of the city (Polish)
• Lomza // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.