Surazh (; ) is an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

in Vitebsk District, Vitebsk Region,

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 is located approximately northeast from the city of

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

. It is situated at the crossing of the

Daugava The Daugava ( ), also known as the Western Dvina or the Väina River, is a large river rising in the Valdai Hills of Russia that flows through Belarus and Latvia into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea. The Daugava rises close to the source of ...

(or Western Dvina) and

Kasplya The Kasplya (Belarusian language, Belarusian and ) is a river in Smolensky District, Smolensk Oblast, Smolensky, Demidovsky District, Demidovsky, and Rudnyansky District, Smolensk Oblast, Rudnyansky Districts of Smolensk Oblast of Russia and in Vit ...

rivers. As of 2025, it has a population of 647.

History

The town was founded in 1564 by voivode of Witebsk Stefan Zbaraski on the order of King

Sigismund II Augustus Sigismund II Augustus (, ; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and t ...

as a defensive stronghold against possible Muscovite attacks. In 1570 he granted various privileges, including two annual

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

s to attract settlers. In 1580, Polish forces under hetman

Jan Zamoyski Jan Sariusz Zamoyski (; 19 March 1542 – 3 June 1605) was a Polish nobleman, magnate, statesman and the 1st '' ordynat'' of Zamość. He served as the Royal Secretary from 1565, Deputy Chancellor from 1576, Grand Chancellor of the Crown f ...

stayed in the town before recapturing

Velizh Velizh () is a town and the administrative center of Velizhsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the bank of the Western Dvina, from Smolensk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: History In the late 14th cen ...

. In 1616, the town was burned down by Russian troops. Following the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

(1772), it was annexed by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and from 1802 it was administratively located in the

Vitebsk Governorate Vitebsk Governorate (, ) was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk. It was established in 1802 by splitting Belarusian Governorate and existed until 1924. Today most ...

. It hosted the main quarters of Napoleonic Viceroy of Italy

Eugène de Beauharnais Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (; 3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824) was a French statesman and military officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, ...

during the

French invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the Continenta ...

of 1812. In 1870 there were 70 craftsmen in the town, and in 1891 there were 67 industrial plants in the town, which employed 1,279 people. Two annual

s were held in the town in the late 19th century. In 1897, the ethnic make-up, by mother tongue, was 51.5% Belarusian, 45.7% Jewish, and 2.1% Russian.

Jewish community

Surazh was a

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

, with a Jewish population of 1,246 in 1900. In 1917, there were 6 synagogues. All of them were wooden, except one made out of stone. There were 461 Jews in Surazh in 1939 (15.4 % of the total population). The village was under German occupation from 1941 to 1943.

Einsatzkommando During World War II, the Nazi German ' were a sub-group of the ' (mobile killing squads) – up to 3,000 men total – usually composed of 500–1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to exterminate Jews, Polish intellect ...

9 carried out the murder of the Jews of Surazh in conjunction with an antipartisan operation. On August 12, 1941, between 600 and 750 Jews were gathered by the Germans on the location of the former printing office in Surazh. Then, they were taken and shot behind the linen factory, 2 km away from the village, in pits of the ravine, known as Loubtchyno. The bodies of the victims were exhumed and reburied after the war in the Jewish cemetery.

References

External links

{{commons category, Suraž (Belarus), Surazh
Surazh administration website
Populated places in Vitebsk region Urban-type settlements in Belarus Vitebsk district 1564 establishments in Europe Populated places established in 1564 Holocaust locations in Belarus