Vitebsk

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Image:Coat of Arms of Viciebsk, Belarus.png

Vitebsk (Belarusian: Ві́цебск; Russian: Ви́тебск; Polish: Witebsk) is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia and Latvia. The capital of the Vitebsk voblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city.

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History

Vitebsk developed from a river harbour where the Vitba (Віцьба, from which it derives its name) flows into the larger Dvina. Its mention in historical records dates from 1021, but its official founding year is 974, when Princess Olga of Kiev ordered a city to be founded on the site of an old Krivichi settlement.

In the 12th and 13th centuries it was a well-established city on the crossroads of the river routes between the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean seas. In this period, it was governed by veche. In 1320 the city was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; in 1569 it became a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1597 Vitebsk was granted the Magdeburg Rights. In 1772 it was taken over by Russia in the First Partition of Poland.

Image:BFC Vitebsk Zamkovaya str.jpg Under Imperial Russia Vitebsk was a significant shtetl in the Pale of Settlement, with around half its population Orthodox Jewish at the turn of the 20th century.

In the years 1919-1991 it belonged to the Soviet Union; since 1991 it has been a part of independent Belarus. In 1941-1944 during World War II, the city was under German occupation, much of the old city being destroyed in ensuing battles with the Red Army.

In January 1991, Vitebsk celebrated the first Marc Chagall Festival. In June 1992, a monument to Chagall was erected on his native Pokrovskaja street and a memorial inscription placed on the wall of his house.

Since 1992, Vitebsk has been hosting the annual Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, an international art festival. Its main programme is devoted to Slavic music. The main participants are artists from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with guests from many other countries, both Slavic and non-Slavic.

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