ASVIEJA

Asˈvieja

Urban settlement in Vierhniadzvinsk Rajon, Viciebsk Voblasc, on the shore of Asvieja Lake. 37 km north of Vierhniadzvinsk, 158 km from Viciebsk, 297 km from Minsk, 33 km from the Vierhniadzvinsk railway station (on the Polack — Daugavpils line); connected by highways with Polack and Vierhniadzvinsk.

Since 1938, urban settlement.

In 1924–1959, centre of Asvieja Rajon.

In 1939, 2,312 inhabitants lived in Asvieja.

During the Great Patriotic War

Asvieja was invaded on July 12, 1941. German Nazi invaders killed 4,791 people in Asvieja and its rajon, including in February — March 1942, more than 650 ghetto prisoners in Asvieja.

The Asvieja Party-Patriotic Underground and the Proshkava Komsomol Youth Underground, based on which the M. V. Frunze Partisan Detachment was formed at the end of April 1942, the Asvieja Underground Rajon Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus and Asvieja Underground Rajon Committee of the Leninist Young Communist League of Belarus operated in Asvieja and its rajon. The 1st Drysa Partisan Brigade, “Za Savietskuju Bielarus” (for Soviet Belarus) Partisan Brigade (Viciebsk Voblasc), K. K. Rokosovskij Partisan Brigade (Viciebsk and Viliejka voblascs), Rasony J. V. Stalin Partisan Brigade, Asvieja M. V. Frunze Partisan Brigade also operated there. The Lieninski Shliakh («Ленінскі шлях»; lit. ‘Lenin’s way’) underground newspaper, i.e. the body of the Asvieja Underground Rajon Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus, was published.

In May 1942, the Hitlerites were mopped up from almost the entire Asvieja and Rasony rajons’ territory by the partisans of the Siargiej, M. A. Shchors, M. V. Frunze detachments, and others, as a result, the Rasony-Asvieja Partisan Zone was formed. On September 1, the partisans defeated a large enemy garrison in the village of Kahanavichy and blocked the Hitlerites in Asvieja. On September 10, the invaders were forced to leave the urban settlement. The Operation Group of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Latvia which controlled the Soviet Partisan Movement in the invaded territory of the Latvian SSR was based near Asvieja.

In February — March 1943, during the Winter Magic punitive operation, German Nazi invaders killed more than 3,500 civilians in the rajon, more than 2,000 people were taken to hard labour to Germany; and burned 158 communities including Asvieja.

Asvieja was liberated on July 17, 1944, by units of the 325th Dzvinsk (now, Latvian city of Daugavpils) Rifle Division (colonel N. Z. Sukharabraw) of the 22nd Army (lieutenant general G. P. Korotkov) of the 2nd Baltic Front in cooperation with the partisans of the Asvieja M. V. Frunze Brigade (commander M. N. Kuzmin) during the Rezhica-Dzvinsk offensive of 1944.

In Asvieja, there are:

• mass graves of Soviet soldiers; ones of Soviet soldiers and partisans;

• grave of the fascism victims, i.e. ghetto prisoners;

• grave of the head of the Asvieja Underground, U. U. Simatski (with monuments raised on the tombs);

• the Immortality Kurgan (barrow) memorial complex;

• monument to fascism victims;

• monument to underground members;

• memorial plaques in honour of the liberation of Asvieja by Soviet soldiers and in memory of the first meeting of the underground members.

By Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated February 2, 2024 № 44, Asvieja urban settlement was awarded the ‘For Courage and Fortitude During the Great Patriotic War’ pennant.