BAGUSHEWSK

Baguˈshewsk

Urban settlement in Sianno Rajon, Viciebsk Voblasc. Name of the Bagushewsk railway station (on the Viciebsk — Orsha line). It was located 35 km east of Sianno, 60 km from Viciebsk, 254 km from Minsk; connected by roads with the cities of Viciebsk, Orsha and Sianno town.

Until 1935, Bagushewsk station, in 1935–1938, miastechka (small town) of Bagushewsk.

In 1924–1931 and 1935–1960, centre of Bagushewsk Rajon.

In 1939, there were 3,280 inhabitants in Bagushewsk.

During the Great Patriotic War

At the beginning of July 1941, the troops of the 20th Army launched counterthrusts from Bagushewsk Rajon in the direction of the towns of Liepiel and Sianno.

Bagushewsk was invaded on July 10, 1941. German Nazi invaders killed 1,076 people in the urban settlement and rajon, including in Bagushewsk on September 5, 1941, 51 Jews and 3 Russians, according to the German report. According to other sources, on that day, more than 60 or 70 Jews were executed (number ‘87’ is indicated on the monument). In the Bagushewsk forests, the Hitlerites formed a labour camp where about 12,000 people were kept (including prisoners evacuated at the end of May 1944 from the civilian population camp in the territory of the 5th Railway Regiment in Viciebsk) who were used in the building of defensive fortifications and as a human shield in the front lines. 8,000 people remained alive, the rest died of diseases and hunger, some were executed.

The Bagushewsk Underground Rajon Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus and Bagushewsk Underground Rajon Committee of the Leninist Young Communist League of Belarus operated in the territory of the rajon.

In September 1941, partisans attacked the Nazi garrison in the settlement (see Bagushewsk Battle of 1941). The 1st K. S. Zaslonov Partisan Brigade, 16th Smolensk Partisan Brigade, Bagushewsk Partisan Brigade (1st strength), Bagushewsk Partisan Brigade (2nd strength), A. F. Danukalov Partisan Brigade, Liozna Partisan Brigade, the “Miech” (sword) Partisan Detachment, Partisan Detachment under I. F. Bialiajew, Bagushewsk Partisan Detachment fought against the invaders. The Stalinsky Shliakh («Сталінскі шлях», lit. ‘Stalin’s way’) underground newspaper, i.e. the body of the Bagushewsk Underground Rajon Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus, was published.

By the end of 1943, the settlement, being a railway station and highway junction, had been transformed by the invaders into a strong defence point which was covered by several lines of entrenchments, wire and mine obstacle belt. Firing points were installed in almost every house and in the ruins.

Bagushewsk was liberated on June 25, 1944, in the course of the Viciebsk-Orsha offensive of 1944 by the units of the 144th (colonel A. A. Donets), 215th (major general A. A. Kazarian) Rifle divisions, and 2nd Guards Tank Brigade (colonel Ja. Ja. Dukhowny) of the 5th Army of the 3rd Belarusian Front which assaulted the urban settlement on the night of June 25, captured many prisoners and trophies, including 2 trains with food. The 5th K. E. Voroshilov Partisan Detachment of the Bagushewsk Brigade participated in the liberation of Bagushewsk.

In Bagushewsk, there are:

• mass graves of Soviet soldiers; graves of Soviet soldiers and partisans; ones of partisans; graves of fascism victims; monuments were raised on these graves;

• monument in honour of the troops of the 20th Army which conducted the Liepiel counterthrust of 1941;

• memorial sign at the place of the execution of civilians by the Hitlerites in 1941.

During field search operations (in May — October 2023), in the agricultural town of Kakowchyna, Sianno Rajon, the subunit of the 52nd Independent Specialised Search Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus found the remains of 21 victims of the Great Patriotic War who were reinterred at the civilian cemetery in Bagushewsk (2023).