Vitsebsk

Sister cities

• Vanadzor
• Harbin
• Bălți
• Nienburg/Weser
• Frankfurt (Oder)
• Guiyang
• Rēzekne
• Jinan
• Nakhodka
• Zielona Góra
• Daugavpils

History

Vitebsk developed from a river harbor where the (from which it derives its name) flows into the larger Western Dvina, which is spanned in the city by the Kirov Bridge. The name of the river is said to be derived from vit (). Archaeological research indicates that Baltic tribes had settlements at the mouth of Vitba. In the 9th century, Slavic settlements of the tribal union of the Krivichs replaced them. According to the Chronicle of Michael Brigandine (1760), Princess Olga of Kiev founded Vitebsk (also recorded as Dbesk, Vidbesk, Videbsk, Vitepesk, or Vicibesk) in 974. Other versions give 947 or 914. Academician Boris Rybakov and historian Leonid Alekseyev have come to the conclusion, based on the chronicles, that Princess Olga of Kiev could have established Vitebsk in 947. Leonid Alekseyev suggested that the chroniclers, when transferring the date from the account of the Byzantine era (since the creation of the world) to a new era, obtained the year 947, later mistakenly written in copying manuscripts as 974. It was an important place on the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. By the end of the 12th century, Vitebsk became a center of trade and commerce, and the center of an independent principality, following the Polotsk, and at times, the Smolensk and Kiev princes. The official year of the founding of Vitebsk is 974, based on an anachronistic legend of founding by Olga of Kiev, but the first mention in historical records dates from 1021, when Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev gave it to Bryachislav Izyaslavich, Prince of Polotsk. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Vitebsk functioned as the capital of the Principality of Vitebsk, an appanage principality which thrived at the crossroads of the river routes between the Baltic and Black seas. In 1320 the city was…

Geography

Vitebsk has warm summer humid continental climate, Köppen: Dfb, Trewartha: Dcbo. Summers are generally warm, while winters are relatively cold but still warmer than in Moscow due to a stronger influence of maritime air from the Baltic Sea. Approximately of precipitation falls here per annum.