Stolbtsy

Stolbtsy before 1917

History

1st half of XVI century	- Stolbtsy founded as a private estate of noble family of Slushka, a shtetle in Minsk District of Minsk Province of the Great Lithuanian Princedom (Magnum Ducatus Lithuanorum).
1582	- Stolbtsy became a part of Radzivill land owning.
End XVI - mid. XVII century	- Jewish population appeared.
1623	- a wooden Catholic church and a monastery of St. Dominica were founded by Alexander & Sofia Slushka - Zenkovich.
1640	- the Catholic church was rebuilt of stone.
1st half of XVIII century	- Stolbtsy became an estate of noble Chartoryzhsky family.
Since 1793	- in Russian Empire.
Since 1801	- a shtetle in Minsk District of Minsk Province.
1825	- the stone Orthodox church of St. Anna was built in Stolbtsy after Chartoryzhsky initiative.
1831	- Stolbtsy became an estate of State Treasury of Russian Empire.
1833	- the monastery of St. Dominic was liquidated, the catholic church became a parochial one.

Vital Statistics

Date	Number of Jews	Number of Non-Jews			Commentaries		Specific gravity in total population number
End XVI century					Jewish population appeared
1847	1315		No info	Both sexes		No info
1859	2035			Total population		> 50 %
1890	about 3000				Total population		> 50 %
1897	2409	1345			Both sexes		64,2 %
1905	4454				Total population		No info

Jewish Life

In 1867 there were:

- a synagogue;

- 3 praying houses.

In 1898 ROZOVSKY Solomon son of Nokhim was a Jewish Deputy of the Shtetle Petty-Bourgeois Administration.

In 1890 there were:

- a synagogue;

- 4 praying houses.

Economical Review.

Traditional activities of local Jewish population were trade with grain, flax, timber and vodka. Since early time Neman river was the main road for Stolbtsy habitants.

During Russian principality, vodka trade was under state hard control and became less popular among Jewish businessmen. But Russian authorities did a lot to develop the region because of military and fiscal reasons mostly. First of all, old communications were reconstructed there:

road from Koydanov to Stolbtsy;

road Stolbtsy - Rubezhevichi - Ivenets;

old Stolbtsy harbour.

In XIX, because of development of the AllRussian Market, new types of communications appeared there:

a ferry on Neman river (1840s);

telegraph station (1870s);

railway station [a station of Moscow - Brest railroad (1871)].

Before construction of the railroad in 1871 Stolbtsy harbour was the most important among Neman ones in that area. Its annual export to Prussia was about 3.000.000 roubles.

Main cargo:

export (to Baltic Sea)	import (from Baltic ports)
timber	salt	herring
grain (rye)	furniture	drinks
flax	sugar	oil
pitch	colonial goods	agricultural machines
turpentine	iron goods	coloured metals
lime-tree bark	yarn	chemicals

Here is the table of Stolbtsy harbour turnover for 1855-60.

EXPORT
#	Cargo	Quantity	Value (roubles)
1.	Rye	26 346,192 tons	563 892
2.	Wheat	3 469,440 tons	140 472
3.	Oats	3 220,704 tons	68 276
4.	Barley	1 412,064 tons	35 460
5.	Pears	1 020,032 tons	21 245
6.	Buckwheat	13,312 tons	371
7.	Flax seed	13 685,664 tons	526 809
8.	Hemp seed	31,584 tons	986
9.	Flax	1 905,856 tons	197 225
10.	Hemp	4 516,480 tons	461 668
11.	Oakum	4 633,440 tons	218 764
12.	Vegetable oil	565,360 tons	59 470
13.	Animal fat	20,560 tons	3 275
14.	Flour (rye)	12,800 tons	960
15.	Groats	20,512 tons	1 008
16.	Bones and rags	426,320 tons	11 298
17.	Wood (logs)	88 887 pieces	122 079
18.	Wood (bars)	20 688 pieces	50 633
19.	Oak board	82 440 pieces	14 573
20.	Other goods (leather, resin, glass, iron, etc.)	no info	30 574
IMPORT
#	Cargo	Quantity	Value (roubles)
1.	Salt	20 978,848 tons	355 263
2.	Herrings	6 356,608 tons	258 478
3.	Wine & cognac	90,864 tons	25 646
4.	Glass and glass pottery	85,664 tons	17 177
5.	Sugar	47,904 tons	15 286
6.	Spices	224,960 tons	44 708
7.	Steel, cast-iron and iron goods	380,320 tons	16 680
8.	Tin-plate, tin, lead	67,072 tons	6 532
9.	Cotton fabric, cotton and wool yarn	118,944 tons	31 938
10.	Mahogany and similar.	228,144 tons	11 069
11.	Other goods	no info	29 786

The export-import balance was + 1 716 475 roubles.

After 1871 its significance became to diminish seriously: in 1890 its annual export was about 750.000 roubles, import was about 130.000 roubles. That decrease became the reason of migration of big number of local Jews to the USA.

In 1905 the harbour export total turnover was about 3200 tons, rail station turnover was 960 tons of grain and 640 tons of wood.

Every Sunday there was a big market in Stolbtsy. Since the 2nd half of XIX on two big fairs were held also there: on March 16 and on July 12.

Main goods:

a) horses;

b) flax;

c) grain;

d) cattle.

Here is the list of major business and trade enterprises of Stolbtsy and the Subdistrict for 1902.

Name of owner	Type of business	Nationality
Levtas Iosel Leybov	Iron store	Jewish
Malbin Ghirsh & Mordukh Leyzerov	Timber	Jewish
Rozenberg Yellya Vulfov	Pharmacy	Jewish

Here is the table of development of Stolbtsy in the 2nd half of XIX - early XX century:

Date of record	Number of houses
1859	301
1867	301
1890	over 300
1905	209

General cultural information.

In beg. XX century in Stolbtsy there were:

- a stone Orthodox church, built in 1825;

- an old stone Catholic church;

- post office & telegraph station;

- a small public hospital under Synod supervision;

- 2 primary public schools (for men and for women).

Closest doctor was in Nesvizh (30 km).