Haradzeya ( be, Гарадзея, russian: Городея, pl, Horodziej, lt, Gorodėja) is an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

, located in the

Nyasvizh District Nyasvizh District is a district (rayon) of Minsk Region, Belarus. Notable residents * Alexander Nadson (1926, Haradzeja – 2015), the Apostolic Visitor for Belarusian Greek-Catholic faithful abroad, scholar, translator and a notable Belarusi ...

Minsk Region Minsk Region or Minsk Oblast or Minsk Voblasts ( be, Мі́нская во́бласць, ''Minskaja voblasć'' ; russian: Минская о́бласть, ''Minskaya oblast'') is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center is Minsk, ...

History

The first known documental record of the village dates back to 1530. Horodziej was a privately owned village located in the Nowogródek County of the Nowogródek Voivodeship of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

until the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War ...

(1793) when it was annexed by

Tsarist Russia Tsarist Russia may refer to: * Grand Duchy of Moscow (1480–1547) *Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721) *Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of ...

. Initially, the village often changed owners, before it became the property of the powerful

Radziwiłł family The House of Radziwiłł (; lt, Radvila; be, Радзівіл, Radzivił; german: link=no, Radziwill) is a powerful magnate family originating from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later also prominent in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. ...

in 1575. A Roman Catholic church was built in the 17th century. The village was briefly occupied by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

in 1918 and after

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

regained independence (1918) it came under Polish administration in 1919 and was finally reintegrated with Polish territory after the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921). Administratively Horodziej was part of the Nowogródek Voivodeship. After the destruction of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, a new Catholic church and a new railway station were built. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the precise number of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

living in Horodziej is not known, but it was probably somewhere between 700 and 1,000, the third of the total population. After the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

the village was under

Soviet occupation During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into two different ...

from 1939 to 1941, German occupation from 1941 to 1944 and again Soviet occupation from 1944 to 1945, when in accordance to the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

it was taken from Poland and annexed to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In 1941, an enclosed

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

of a few houses was established. On July 16, 1942, the ghetto was liquidated. Some Jews were transported in trucks, but most were marched on foot, to a small hill near the Christian cemetery, where a pit had been dug. On the way to the killing site, the guards shot several Jews who were unable to keep up. Approximately 1,000 Jews were shot that day by an

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...

. Earlier, in June 1942, local Polish parish priest Józef Gogoliński was arrested and imprisoned in nearby

Nieśwież Nesvizh, Niasviž ( be, Нясві́ж ; lt, Nesvyžius; pl, Nieśwież; russian: Не́свиж; yi, ניעסוויז; la, Nesvisium) is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative centre of the Nyasvizh District (''rajon'') of Minsk Region ...

. He was later murdered along with 3 other priests as part of the continuation of the anti-Polish ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...

''. In 1946 the Roman Catholic St. Joseph church was closed down by the Soviets. It was reopened and renovated in the 1990s after the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

Sights

The historic sights include a chapel built in 1874, a pre-war Polish Roman Catholic Church of St. Joseph, a 19th-century Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration and old houses. There is also a

Battle of Grunwald The Battle of Grunwald, Battle of Žalgiris or First Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respec ...

memorial stone and a memorial complex dedicated to the local Jews murdered during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

Transport

A railway station is located in the settlement.

Sports

FC Gorodeya FC Gorodeya (, ''FK Haradzeya'') was a Belarusian football club based in Gorodeya, Nesvizh Raion, Minsk Oblast. History The team was founded in 2004 as a futsal club. They played in the Minsk Oblast championship and later in the Belarusian futs ...

football club is based in the settlement.

Notable residents

* Kastus Moskalik (1918–2010), Belarusian Greek Catholic priest *

Alexander Nadson Alexander Nadson ( be, Аляксандар Надсан, Aliaksandar Nadsan, 8 August 1926 – 15 April 2015) was the Apostolic Visitor for Belarusian Greek-Catholic faithful abroad, scholar, translator and a notable Belarusian émigré social ...

(1926–2015), the Apostolic Visitor for Belarusian Greek-Catholic faithful abroad, scholar, translator and a notable Belarusian émigré social and religious leader.

References

External links

*
Selected places at Haradzeya
{{Authority control Urban-type settlements in Belarus Populated places in Minsk Region Nyasvizh District Novogrudsky Uyezd Nowogródek Voivodeship (1919–1939) Jewish Belarusian history Holocaust locations in Belarus