Vierchniadzvinsk ( be, Верхнядзві́нск, lt, Drisa, pl, Dryssa) or Verkhnedvinsk (russian: Верхнедви́нск) is a city in
Belarus in the northwest of
Vitebsk Region; it is the administrative center of the
Verkhnyadzvinsk Raion
Verkhnyadzvinsk District (Belarusian: Верхнядзьвінскі раён, Russian: Верхнедвинский район) is a second-level administrative subdivision (raion) of Belarus in the Vitebsk Region. In this district is the norther ...
. Until 1962, it was named Drysa (russian: Дрисса, Drissa). It is located at the confluence of the
Drysa River
Vierchniadzvinsk ( be, Верхнядзві́нск, lt, Drisa, pl, Dryssa) or Verkhnedvinsk (russian: Верхнедви́нск) is a city in Belarus in the northwest of Vitebsk Region; it is the administrative center of the Verkhnyadzvinsk Ra ...
and the
Daugava River.
Its population in 2009 was 7,600.
History
Drissa is first mentioned in a chronicle of the year 1386. During the medieval period it formed part of the
Principality of Polotsk, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From 1801 it was the center of the Drissa
uyezd of the
Vitebsk Governorate, and during the
War of 1812 it was the site of a fortified camp described by
Leo Tolstoy in Book Three of ''
War and Peace''.
It became a ''raion'' center in 1924. During the
Second World War it was occupied by Germany and most of the local population was massacred.
Footnotes
External links
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Cities in Belarus
Populated places in Vitebsk Region
Polotsk Voivodeship
Drissensky Uyezd
Holocaust locations in Belarus
Verkhnyadzvinsk District
{{Belarus-geo-stub