Shchuchyn

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.

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, administratively located in the Lida County in the Vilnius Voivodeship. 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. A notable Piarist College was founded.

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 in 1795, the town became a part of the Russian Empire. In June 1812 Shchuchyn was occupied by French troops. During World War I, 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, the town was first occupied by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany 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, with the majority of them killed on 10 May 1942.

In 1962, Shchuchyn was granted town status.

Air base

Main article: Schuchin (air base)

Until the collapse of the Soviet Union 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 presence in the city goes back into 1941 with a wing of Polikarpov I-16. The air base hosted different types of the Soviet planes throughout the years, such as IL-28, MiG-15, MiG-19, An-14, MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25, and others. Most famously in the early 1990s it was a home of about 40 MiG-25BM defense-suppression aircraft, which represents the vast majority of this modification of MiG-25 ever produced. The base was controlled by the 95th air wing. The base's runway 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

Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2009 census:

Notable people

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

Climate

The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Dfb" (Warm Summer Continental Climate).

Notes

References

References

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2. . (1890). "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom XI".
3. . (1923). "Skorowidz miejscowości Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Tom VII. Część I". *Główny Urząd Statystyczny*.
4. "Yahad - in Unum".
5. Адамушко В. И., Бирюкова О. В., Крюк В. П., Кудрякова Г. А. «Справочник о местах принудительного содержания гражданского населения на оккупированной территории Беларуси 1941-1944». — Мн.: Национальный архив Республики Беларусь, Государственный комитет по архивам и делопроизводству Республики Беларусь, 2001. — 158 с. — 2000 экз. — {{ISBN. 985-6372-19-4
6. [http://garady.org/schuchin Шчучын] {{webarchive. link. (2010-07-19 // Літаратура/Нашы гарады). к
7. // Літаратура/Геаграфічны слоўнік Каралеўства Польскага. 11 S. 864.
8. [http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc3p/332374 Щучин] // Літаратура/Вялікі энцыкляпэдычны слоўнік
9. [http://belstat.gov.by/homep/ru/perepic/2009/vihod_tables/1.2-4.pdf Перепись населения — 2009. Гродненская область] {{webarchive. link. (2010-09-18 {{in lang). ru Нацыянальны статыстычны камітэт Рэспублікі Беларусь
10. "Численность населения на 1 января 2023 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2022 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа".
11. "Ethnic composition of Belarus 2009".
12. [http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=591990&cityname=Shchuchin%2C+Grodno+Region%2C+Belarus&units= Climate Summary for Shchuchyn]