Rubezhevichi

Rubezhevichi before 1917

History

XII century	- first record about Rubezhevichi (fortress on boundary between Lithuania and Slutsk Princedom).
XIV century	- Rubezhevichi became a shtetle in Great Lithuanian Princedom (Magnum Ducatus Lithuanorum).
1550	- King of Poland and Great Lithuanian Prince Sighizmund-August gifted Rubezhevichi to Prince Nicole Radzivill Ginger as a part of Koydanov County.
2nd half of XVI century	- Jewish population appeared.
XVII - beg. XVIII century	- Rubezhevichi was the residence of eldest line of Radzivill family. Most prosperous time for Rubezhevichi.
End XVI century	- foundation of Catholic cathedral.
Beg. XVII century	- foundation of Uniatic church.
1740	- Uniatic church burned away.
1775	- Rubezhevichi became an owning of Ratynsky family.
Since 1793	- in Russian Empire.
Since 1801	- a shtetle in Minsk District of Minsk Province.
1866	- old Catholic cathedral was resanctified into Orthodox church; public school appeared.
1867	- Russian Emperor Alexander II gifted the Church an icon of Kazan God Mother.

Vital Statistics

Date	Number of Jews	Number of Non-Jews	Commentaries	Specific gravity in total population number
Mid. XVI century			Jewish population appeared
XVII century	2000		Total population	No info
1859	about 890		Total population	No info
1887	> 2000		Total population	No info
1897	912	570	Both sexes	61,5 %
1905	1102		Both sexes	No info

Jewish Life

In 1898 KANTOROVICH Vulf son of Itsko was the Jewish Deputy of Rubezhevichi Petty-Bourgeois Administration.

In 1905 there were:

- a synagogue;

- 2 praying houses.

Economical Review.

Traditional activities of local Jewish population were trade with timber, grain, and vodka. Since early time Sula and Perkla rivers were main roads for Rubezhevichi 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 Rubezhevichi to Nesvizh;

road Rubezhevichi - Ivenets;

road Rubezhevichi - Koydanov.

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

post office (1840s);

road Rubezhevichi - Negoreloye station [a station of Moscow - Brest railroad (1871)];

Each Sunday big market took place. From the 2nd half of XIX century big annual fairs were held on May 9, June 29, August 15, September 8, December 6.

Main goods:

a) timber and timber goods;

b) grain;

c) fish;

d) flax.

After the construction of the Moscow - Brest railroad the shtetle became to decay and lost its former significance.

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

Date of record	Number of houses
1859	99
1887	about 200
1905	144

However, some big enough businesses stayed there in the beg. XX century. Here is the list of major business and trade enterprises of Rubezhevichi and the Subdistrict for 1902.

Name of owner	Type of business	Nationality
Bakhrakh Aron Gdalyev	Timber and timber goods	Jewish
Gurvich Leyba Tophilev	Grocery store	Jewish
Kovarsky Iosel Tsalkov	Pharmacy	Jewish

General cultural information.

In beg. XX century in Rubezhevichi there were:

- a stone Orthodox church, rebaptized in 1866 from the Catholic one;

- a new stone Catholic church;

- an Orthodox public primary school;

- a post office;

- a pharmacy.

Closest doctor was in Koydanov (20 km).