Mogilev

Mogilev (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}US: /məɡɪlˈjɔːf/),[3] also transliterated as Mahilyow[a] (Belarusian: Магілёў, romanized: Mahilioŭ,[b] IPA: [maɣʲiˈlʲou̯];[4] Russian: Могилёв, romanized: Mogilyov, IPA: [məɡʲɪˈlʲɵf]; Yiddish: מאָגילעוו, romanized: Mogilev, IPA: [mɔˈgilɛv]), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper River, about 76 kilometres (47 miles) from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km (65 miles) from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, it has a population of 353,110.[2] In 2011, its population was 360,918,[5] up from an estimated 106,000 in 1956. It serves as the administrative centre of Mogilev Region,[2] and is the third-largest city in Belarus.The city was first mentioned in historical records in 1267. From the 14th century, it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and since the Union of Lublin (1569), part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where it became known as Mohylew. In the 16th-17th centuries, the city flourished as one of the main nodes of the east–west and north–south trading routes. In 1577, Polish King Stefan Batory granted it city rights under Magdeburg law. In 1654, during the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667), the townsmen negotiated a treaty of surrender to the Russians peacefully, if the Jews were to be expelled and their property divided up among Mogilev's inhabitants. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovitch agreed. However, instead of expelling the Jews, the Russian troops massacred them after they had led them to the outskirts of the town.[8] During this war, the city was besieged twice by the Lithuanian army: in 1655 and in 1660. In 1661, local residents started an uprising against the Russian imperial rule [ru]. The city was set afire by Peter the Great's forces in 1708, during the Great Northern War.[9] After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Mogilev became part of the Russian Empire and became the centre of the Mogilev Governorate. In 1938 it was decided Mogilev was to become the capital of Belarus because Minsk was too close to the then-Polish-Soviet border.