Baranavichy

Belarus, Belarus

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Baranavichy is a major city in the Brest region of western Belarus, often described as the second-largest city of the region and a key transport, industrial and educational centre between Minsk and Brest. Founded in 1871 as a railway station on the newly built line from Smolensk to Brest, the town grew rapidly from a small settlement into an important railway junction that served as the headquarters of the Russian General Staff during the First World War and later became a frontline town and German-occupied city in the First and Second World Wars, including the establishment of a Jewish ghetto with more than 12,000 people. After the war it was fully incorporated into the Soviet Union and the Belarusian SSR, where it underwent intensive industrialisation in textiles, machine-building and other sectors, and since 1991 it has been part of independent Belarus, today with a population of around 170,000 and a role as an administrative centre of its district while remaining linked to the M1 highway and the main railway line between Minsk and Brest.