A Few weeks ago during construction work in Brest (Brest-Litovsk) on Minskiy Lane almost 150 whole tombstones and pieces of tombstone from pre-war Jewish cemetery were discovered. Minsky Lane is located not far from the territory of former Jewish cemetery, which in 1970s was replaced by a stadium. Tombstones were collected by representatives of local Jewish community, and now are…
According to the 1850 Census of the Russian Empire, the Jewish population had grown more than half since the previous census in 1834 to 2,350,00 people. Within the Pale of Settlement, 25 percent of the population was Jewish. Therefore, the Russian government began receiving many more inquiries for the construction of synagogues. In 1853, the Russian government conducted an inventory…
By 1914, the Minsk Jewish population was 45,103, a little less than half of the total population of Minsk (106,673). At that time in Minsk, sales and services were controlled by Jewish people. 78% were store owners, 72% were truckers, 94 % were tailors and 86% were shoemakers. With the Russian Empire’s growing economy, new hotels opened in Minsk. By…
In November of 1812, the Russian army surrounded French troops at the Berezino River in shtetl Borisov, Minsk guberniya. French General Ebel decided that that the only possible escape for the French was to cross the Berezino, so he created a plan. He gathered 10 local Jews and asked them to indicate where this river was most shallow, so that…