Pinsk

Pinsk (Belarusian: Пінск), a town in Belarus, in the province of Palesse, travesed by the river Pripet, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region is known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. Population 128,300. The city is a small industrial center producing ships sailing the local rivers.

History

Pinsk (Pinesk) is first mentioned in 1097 as a town belonging to Sviatopolk, prince of Kiev. In 1132 it formed part of the Minsk principality. After the Mongol invasion of 1239 it became the chief town of a separate principality, and continued to be so until the end of the 13th century. In 1320 it was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; and in 1569, after the union of Lithuania with the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, it was chief town of the province of Brest. During the rebellion of chieftain Bohdan Chmielnicki (1640), it was captured by Cossacks who carried out a pogrom against the city's Jewish population; the Poles retook it by assault, killing 24,000 persons and burning 5,000 houses. Eight years later the town was burned by the Russians. Charles XII took it in 1706, and burned the town with its suburbs. Pinsk was annexed to Russia in 1795 in the Second Partition of Poland, retaken in 1920 in the course of the Polish-Soviet War and once again captured by the Soviet Union in 1939. Since 1991 Pinsk is in the republic of Belarus.

External links

• Coat of Arms\n*Photos on Radzima.org

Category: Towns in Belarus