Shchuchyn is a town in Grodno Region, in western

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. It serves as the administrative center of Shchuchyn District. As of 2025, it has a population of 15,127.

History

The first known official written mention of Shchuchyn is recorded in 1436, but its foundation as a settlement dates back to 1537, when Shchuchyn was mentioned in the Book of Acts of the '' Lithuanian Metrica'' (the Book of Lithuanian vital records), kept in the Governmental archive in

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. Ownership of Shchuchyn passed from one noble family to another: the Radziwiłł family, the Scipions, the Drucki-Lubeckis, and others ruled Shchuchyn in turn. It was a

private town Private towns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were privately owned towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights and princes, among others. Amongst the most well-known former private magnate towns are Białystok, Zamość, R ...

, administratively located in the

Lida Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Ly ...

County in the

Vilnius Voivodeship The Vilnius Voivodeship (, , , ) was one of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's voivodeships, which existed from the voivodeship's creation in 1413 to the destruction of the Lithuanian state in 1795. This voivodeship was Lithuania's largest, most p ...

. In the first half of the 17th century, Shchuchyn was governed by the outsider marshal of the Lithuanian principality, ''Scipio de Campo''. Shchuchyn was an average-sized privately owned village in terms of population. A Catholic Monasterial Order was established 1726 in Shchuchyn by the resolution of the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

. A notable Piarist College was founded. In 1742, Teresa Scypionowa founded a monastery of the

Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy The Congregation of the Sisters of Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic), Our Lady of Mercy (''Congregatio Sororum Beatae Mariae Misericordiae'' (Latin, lat)), (''Zgromadzenie Sióstr Matki Bożej Miłosierdzia'' (Polish language, pol)) - was foun ...

and a hospital. ''Shchuchyn'' was subject to ruin and ravage more than once in its history. The biggest was in the time of the North War, after the town was seized by the Swedish king Karl XII. After the

Third Partition of Poland The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...

in 1795, the town became a part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. In June 1812 Shchuchyn was occupied by French troops. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, in 1915, it was occupied by Germany. In 1919 the Red Army attempted to seize the territory land by taking and fortifying the ''Martinkantsy - Shchuchyn - Shchara - lake Vygonovskoe'' line. However, the superior defence forces of the "Land of Grodnenskaya", together with Poland, forced the Red Army back. Afterwards it was administratively located in the Lida County in the Nowogródek Voivodeship of interwar Poland. According to the 1921 census, the population was 63.1% Jewish, 36.3% Polish and 0.6% Belarusian. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the town was first occupied by the Soviet Union, then by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

from 25 June 1941 until 13 July 1944, and re-occupied by the Soviet Union afterwards. German forces killed about 2,180 Jews from the Shchuchyn

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

, with the majority of them killed on 10 May 1942. In 1962, Shchuchyn was granted town status.

Air base

Until the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Shchuchyn was a home of one of the biggest Soviet air bases with over 5,000 personnel assigned to it in the 1990s. The history of the

Soviet air force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

presence in the city goes back into 1941 with a wing of

Polikarpov I-16 The Polikarpov I-16 () is a Soviet single-engine single-seat fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it is a low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear, and the first such aircraft to attain operational status. It "in ...

. The air base hosted different types of the Soviet planes throughout the years, such as IL-28,

MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate s ...

MiG-19 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. " Cen ...

, An-14,

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...

MiG-23 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generation jet fighter, alongside similar Soviet aircra ...

MiG-25 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (; NATO reporting name: Foxbat) is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that is among the fastest military aircraft to enter service. Designed by the Soviet Union's Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau, it is a ...

, and others. Most famously in the early 1990s it was a home of about 40

BM defense-suppression aircraft, which represents the vast majority of this modification of

ever produced. The base was controlled by the 95th air wing. The base's

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

is 2,500 meters long.

Industry

The economy of Shchuchyn is primarily based on industries such as agriculture, food processing, and timber production. The surrounding region is known for its fertile lands, which support agricultural activities. Major businesses are JSC “Shchuchyn plant “Avtoprovod” (found in 1958), JSC "Shchuchyn butter-cheese factory" and a bread factory.

Education

Primary and secondary education: three primary schools (grades one through twelve), a vocational technical school (VTS), a gymnasium. Also there are six government run daycare centres.

Demographics

ImageSize = width:auto height:200 barincrement:27 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:20 top:30 right:20 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = late Colors = id:linegrey2 value:gray(0.9) id:linegrey value:gray(0.7) id:cobar value:rgb(0.0,0.7,0.8) id:cobar2 value:rgb(0.6,0.9,0.6) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:21000 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5000 start:0 gridcolor:linegrey ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1000 start:0 gridcolor:linegrey2 PlotData = color:cobar width:15 align:left bar:1833 from:0 till:327 bar:1860 from:0 till:570 bar:1866 from:0 till:1088 bar:1897 from:0 till:1742 bar:1921 from:0 till:1539 bar:1940 from:0 till:3500 bar:1959 from:0 till:6500 bar:1970 from:0 till:10300 bar:1991 from:0 till:14400 bar:1991 from:0 till:20300 bar:2002 from:0 till:16300 bar:2009 from:0 till:15042 bar:2023 from:0 till:15653 TextData= fontsize:10px pos:(30,195) text: Population of Shchuchyn over the years

According to the 2009 census, the population was 44.0% Belarusian, 39,0% Polish, 13.1% Russian and 2.7% Ukrainian.

Notable people

* Onufry Pietraszkiewicz (1793–1863), poet * Fania Bergstein (1908–1950), poet

Climate

The

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

subtype for this climate is " Dfb" (Warm Summer Continental Climate).Climate Summary for Shchuchyn
/ref>

Notes

References

External links

Photos on Radzima.org

Diocese of Grodno
Site of the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus
«Scucin - the city of aviators»
Site about Scucin and its long avia history * {{Authority control Scucyn Populated places in Grodno region Shchuchyn district Holocaust locations in Belarus Populated places established in 1537