Petrovichi (russian: Петро́вичи) is a

rural locality In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

) in

Shumyachsky District Shumyachsky District (russian: Шумячский райо́н) is an administrativeResolution #261 and municipalLaw #138-z district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Smolensk Oblast, twenty-five in Smolensk Oblast, Russia. It is loca ...

Smolensk Oblast Smolensk Oblast (russian: Смоле́нская о́бласть, ''Smolenskaya oblast''; informal name — ''Smolenschina'' (russian: Смоле́нщина)) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative centre is the city of ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, located about ''

In Memory Yet Green Isaac Asimov (–1992) wrote three volumes of autobiography. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979) and ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980) were a two-volume work, covering his life up to 1978. The third volume, ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994), published after h ...

'' by

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

, 1979, p.4 southwest of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, south of

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, south of

Smolensk Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest c ...

, and east of the border between Belarus and Russia. Its population in 1998 was 215.''Encyclopedia of the Smolensk Region'' (translated from Russian by Google Translate)
/ref> The village is the birthplace of

. Asimov left it at the age of three, with his parents and sister, emigrating to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. There is a stone memorial at the site of his birth.

History

The earliest recorded mention of Petrovichi is from 1403. In the

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 Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, Petrovichi was a ''

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

'' in

Klimovichskiy Uyezd Klimovichskiy Uyezd (russian: Климовичский уезд) was an administrative unit of the Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire, which existed between the years of 1777 and 1927. Klimavichy was the uyezd town of the administrative unit. The ...

(an ''

uyezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd; rus, уе́зд, p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context ( uk, повіт), or Kreis in Baltic-German context, was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the ea ...

'' with the seat in Klimovichi) of

Mogilev Governorate The Mogilev Governorate () or Government of Mogilev was a governorate () of the Russian Empire in the territory of the present day Belarus. Its capital was in Mogilev, referred to as Mogilev-on-the-Dnieper, or Mogilev Gubernskiy. The area of the ...

. The governorate, historically

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 ...

ian land, was a part of the Empire's

Northwestern Krai Northwestern Krai (russian: links=no, Северо-Западный край) was a ''krai'' of the Russian Empire (unofficial subdivision) in the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present-day Belarus and Lithuania). The adminis ...

. Petrovichi's population was half

Jewish 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 ...

, half Belarusian. It had both a church and a

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

, each one with a school attached to it. According to Asimov's memoirs, the place had never known of

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

s. There were amicable business connections and even friendships between the two communities. Asimov even reports non-Jews paying friendly visits to the local synagogue.

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

Nicholas I (who ruled from 1825 to 1855) at one point ordered the expulsion of all Jewish people who resided in

Great Russia Great Russia, sometimes Great Rus' (russian: Великая Русь, , , , , ), is a name formerly applied to the territories of "Russia proper", the land that formed the core of Muscovy and later Russia. This was the land to which the eth ...

, or Russia proper, outside of the

Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...

. However, a rich and powerful Russian landlord, who owned much land on both sides of the border, saved the Jewish community of Petrovichi from "

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

" by illegally moving the border marker from the west to the east of the ''shtetl''. Thus he saved half of the people from much suffering, as well as saving himself from losing their talents and skills. Petrovichi was an important hub of the wheat trade, and Jewish traders in wheat were respected for their honesty and efficiency. Petrovichi was part of Belarus for several decades. During the Soviet times, restrictions were no longer imposed on the settlement of Jewish people. The village became a part of the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

and briefly belonged to

Gomel Governorate Gomel Governorate was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1919 to 1926. Its capital was Gomel.http://www.jewishgen.org/belarus/borders_timeline.htm It was formed from nine uyezds ...

before being transferred to

. The population dwindled significantly. In 1921, Asimov and 16 other children in Petrovichi developed

double pneumonia Pneumonia can be classified in several ways, most commonly by where it was acquired (hospital versus community), but may also by the area of lung affected or by the causative organism. There is also a combined clinical classification, which combi ...

. Only Asimov survived. In July 1941, Petrovichi was occupied by the German armies. 416 Jewish inhabitants who did not flee in time were massacred. It was liberated by the Red Army in September 1943.Asimov, I. (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp.308, 394

References

Notes

Sources

External links

Photo of monument to Asimov
at Asimovonline.com

*[https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://rg.ru/2015/07/09/reg-cfo/shkola.html&xid=17259,15700019,15700186,15700191,15700256,15700259,15700262,15700265,15700271,15700283&usg=ALkJrhj64PCU42AkAWoizYP5GbcF6LqdHQ Russian news article (2015) at Google Translate] {{Authority control Rural localities in Smolensk Oblast Isaac Asimov Holocaust locations in Russia ru:Петровичи (Смоленская область)