Disna is by no means an ancient city. It was founded as a city four hundred years ago. In Disna no monumental remains remain to testify to its past. Zi was never a center of great historical import, on whose account historians would describe it, or important authors mention it in their words. Not even a community register remains to her. There is much doubt as to whether there ever was any register in the Disner community. Only a few buildings, which though in our time they were already empty and half ruined, nonetheless bore witness, by virtue of their appearance, of Disna's "important" past. When Disna was an administrative center, there were important imperial bureaus in the houses, such as the "Kaznacheistve" (Treasury) and the "uprava" (Ministry), the "Tower" and others.
Once Disna was transferred to Poland after the First World War, the Polish government rebuilt some ruined houses and opened up educational establishments there, in order to promulgate Polish culture among the Jewish and Byelorussian population, which did not manifest an unbridled sympathy for Polish rule. But the houses were not returned to their former "splendor".
Although the "povit" (district, uyezd) bore the name of Disna even under Polish rule, still all governmental offices were not in Disna, but in Glubok. which is located about 70 km. off. The city was ripped out from its natural environment in the demographic, linguistic, cultural, and economic areas. From a central city in its region it became, after the year 1921 when the peace treaty between Poland and Russia was signed, a small, valueless town, far from its natural hub. The means of communication with Russia were torn away and no new alternatives routes to the new centers were consturcted by the new regime.
In the suburbs of Disna lay the old cemetery. The stone monuments, black with age, were covered with green mold. One could scarcely read an inscription on the old stones. I do not think that the historical memorials have ever been investigated by scholars, although that could yield important information in connection with the history of the Jewish population in Disna. Who can reach the old precious monuments today? Has the Soviet hand not executed its plans for development over the last signs of Jews in Disna?
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Another place which in our time made an impression as a historical monument and which especially interested us was the island, located at the juncture of the two rivers, the Disna and the Dvina. The Poles called it "Batory' Island". It was said that the island was artificial, dug out in accordance with an order of the Polish king Stefan Baroy, who reigned in the years 1576-1586, for use in war, against the Russian Tsar Ivan "the Terrible". But those were just tales without any scholarly foundation.
Lacking any authoritative sources regarding the abovementioned places, and in the absence of any possibility to get access to the historical documents, which are located in Polish historical archives, where one could doubtless find historical data concerning Disna, we must make do with information from the sources which we have. In various encyclopedias we found the term "the city Disna", which informa us about various periods in its past. The Polish encyclopedias extend their domain and furnish more historical details connected with celebrated events in Polish history, as e.g., -- Encyklopedja powszechna (General Encyclopedia)-- which was published in Warsaw in 1861, and the Slownik geograficny (geographical dictionary), and are very similar as far as the details related to the earliest times after the founding of the town: such as the year it was founded and the historical events which occurred in the first few years of its existence.
Other sources have given just a few lines to Disna. In the "Yevreiskaya Entsiklopedies" (Yiddish Encyclopedia) we find important statistical data concerning Jews in Disne and the surrounding region. In Soviet, as well as American and English sources, the details are quite limited and contribute little to our theme. It is interesting that we have no sources for Disna in Yiddish.
Disna was a central city for its district, which was called the Disna district (povit), first in the Minsk region and later the Vilna region. The city is situated on the west bank of the Dvina, where the river Disna flows into it, in Byelorussia. The distance from DIsna to Minsk is about 54 km., and about 500 km. to Vilna.
At first Disna was a village, or an agricultural colony. The status of city was granted in 1563 by Sigmund III August of Poland, the last king of the Jagiellonians. This took place after Sigmund August, in war against Ivan the Terrible, lost substantial territories on the northeastern border between Poland and Russia, and among others the city Polotsk, which is not far from Disna. The Polish king decided then to fortify the town and it remained a fortified border city for some years.
Disna, like other towns on the northeastern border of Poland with Russia, was altered so as to defend it against the Russian enemy, in a period when the political situation of Poland was gravely threatened. It is quite possible that the "Batory Island" was indeed dug out by King Batory as the first defensive line in the fortifications of the town.
King Stefan Batory once visited Disna. In his campaign to take Polotsk from its Russian proprietors, in 1579, he reviewed the government's militia in Disna under the leadership of Miletski, the Voevod of Podolia.
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In the same year he set up his artillery in Disne before he attacked the Russian army of Ivan "the Terrible". On the fourth of August 1579 there took place in Disna the solemn nomination ceremony for Gotthard Kettler, the Courland prince and vassal, who swore felaty to Batory. The ceremony took place in the presence of senators and all the military. From Disna the military went out to take Polotsk. In his march on Pskov, in 1581, Batory again visited Disna and again reviewed his troops and gave battle orders.
The transfer of the region from under Polish control, whose kings Sigmund August and Stefan Batory proved tolerant toward the Jews, to Tsarist control, at whose head stood Vian "the Terrible", brought great sorrow and suffering to the Jews of the region.
In the sixteenth century Poland attained the greatest territorial expansion in its history thanks to its "union" with Lithuania. (The union of the two peoples was again confirmed in the "union" in Lublin.) The northern lands, on the Baltic Sea, such as East Prussia, Livonia, and Courland (Latvai) recognized Polish hegemony. Ivan, after having succeded in taking over the small states and uniting them with Russia, began a struggle against Poland in order to break through to a route to the Baltic Sea. Stefan Batory managed to put to nought all of Ivan's plans.
Ivan the fourth, the "Terrible", who had convinced himself he was "elect of God", was a cruel man, mentally unbalanced, a dark blot, and was distinguished by his shinat Yisrael (hatred of the tribe of Israel). It is known that in his treaty with Poland he inserted an explicit condition, that the Jews should not be allowed to reside in Russian territory. Historians have seen in his fanatical enmity toward Jews a result of the known movement of "Kfirah" (heresy) which spread at the end of the fifteenth century in Moscow, making inroads into the imperial court and even among the priests. The Russians saw it as a kind of movement toward adoption of the Jewish religion.
Other scholars, again, saw in his negative relationship to Jews a simple expresson of Christian fanaticism, which he needed in order to cleanse his bloody hands.
Fate willed that Disna should be recognizned as a city in the self same year that Ivan's troops took Polotsk. In his hatred and cruelty he ordered drowned in the Dvina those Jews from the Polotsk community who did not agree to adopt the Orthodox faith. This was in winter time, 1563, and the river was solidly frozen.In accordance with the Tsar's command the ice was broken and the Polotsk Jews were drowned. After Stefan Batory, who was entirely well disposed toward the Jews, regained Polotsk and reunited it with Poland, the Polotsk community was renewed (1579).
In 1583 Batory established a Roman Catholic parafia (parish?) in 1583, which he gave into the control of Jesuits from Polotsk. Under his regime the Jesuits began to develop in Poland and the king, hoping with their help to fulfill his efforts to unite Poland with Transylvania and Moscow, gave them his support. He hoped that the Jesuits would help him make peace between the extremists groups of Catholics and Protestants, like the "Lutherans" and the "Moravian Brothers". The king was indeed disapponted by them right away, but their legal establishment in Disna remained a fact. Their influence spread and greatly injured the Jews. In 1605 the Jesuits
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received the permission of the Polish king Sigmund the Third Wasa to extend the territory of their parish in the district. And if that is not enough, the Voivod Kristof Cholchavski brought the Franciscans into Disna. They built the stone Catholic church by the Dvina in 1773, in place of the wooden one that had stood there.
It is interesting to note that Disna and the surrounding region received property from Felix Pats, the duke of Lithuania. He gave his possessions to Benedictines from Vilna and the Polish constitution confirmed it in 1775.
The fact that Disna is situated on two large and broad rivers has sometimes been a blessing and sometimes a source of sorrow and distress. Until 1793, the year of the second partition of Poland, Disna was a semifortified city. The armed struggle between Poland and Russia for the region was felt by the residents of Disne on their persons. As a fortified city Disna was constantly threatened with ruin and was not able to develop economically and demographically.
From 1793, when all of Byelorussia together with other huge territories in Poland were forcibly united with Russia, Disna began to develop and even was a center for its district. In 1795 Disna belonged to the Minsk region (gubernia) and in 1842 wsa transferred to the Vilna region. The railway served as a means of communication between Disna and Vilna. In a document which was written in 1861 we read that there was a city administration in Disna and an orphanage, a police station and a central tax office for the district, a post office, a customs office, a court, 6 midrashes, 2 regional churches and a Catholic church. The population in Disne in that year amounted to 6646 souls, 883 of them Orthodox, 2273 Catholic, 16 Lutherans, 2062 Jews and 6 Moslems.
In the city there were about 500 houses, 8 of them build from tile. The city covered 559 desyatin (ca. 1440 acres), besides the 40 desyatin on which the houses were built.
In that year the merchandise going through Disna consisted primarily of grain and linseed, which was sent to Riga. In the city there were 63 businesses worth over seven hundred thousand rubles, and about 100 workshops.
From a geographical point of view, Disna lies in a fertile plain, which is well suited for the cultivation of grain, flax, fruit and vegetables. Half of the Disna "povit", around 257,496 square versts (113,146 sq. miles). is covered with forests. The forests also have been a source of income for the residents of Disna during the high water season: in spring and harvest, hundreds of logs swim through the Disna rivers as an export to Riga.
There we see quite clearly, that when Disna ceased to be a border state and returned to its natural district, it changed in a way favorable for its economic development, which also resulted ina demographic shift.
When and whence did the Jews come to Disna and the environs?
As stated, there are no historical documents remaining concerning the Disna community. The first statistical figures concerning the community come from the year 1797. The figures and the history of the Jews in Byelorussia, allow us to contribute some thoughts about the question above.
The expulsions of the Jews at the end of the 15th century which emptied Europe of its Jews, produced a stream of Jewish emigration from Germany toward Poland-Lithuania, in the regions between the Elbe and the Dniepr. According to Christian tradition, there are accounts of Jews at that time
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in the Kiev region. There are in particular historians who believe that the Jews of Poland and Lithuania were joined by the upper classes of Khazar-Mongolian peoples, who called themselves Magyars.
In the sixteenth century the expansion of the Polish-Lithuanian state augmented the export of agricultural products and wood to Western Europe. The Polish government split up the huge agricultural territories which had been taken over among the country's ruling class, and the latter sought all possible ways to exploit it to the maximal possible extent for the benefit of their pockets. Lacking personal expertise in agriculture, trade, and economic administration, the shlyachtas (local Polish nobility) rented out their farms to Jews, who were knowledgeable in agricultural subjects. The Jews began to enter into farming also in Byelorussia in such a way that it is hard to imagine the occupation and development of the regions of Byelorussia, like the Ukrainian steppes, without the important contribution and industry of the Jewish renters, both in financial or export matters. We have already mentioned above that before Disna became a city, it was an agricultural colony, which belonged to one of the Polish magnates. It is possible that it was one of those belonging to the Pats family, the duke of Lithuania, and he gave it in rental to Jews, like the farms in other regions.
The Jewish question was raised for the first time in Russia after the first partition of Poland, when in Catherine II's time Russia took over from Poland the Polotsk and Mogilev regions with their hundred thousand Jews. It was difficult for Russia to settle its relationship with the Jews. On this matter its relationship was never stable. On the one hand the government could not take a positive stance toward the Jews, as that was in contradiction with the fanatical Christian hue of the Russian queen Elizabeth, who had not wished to "Derive a profit from those who hate Jesus". On the other side, Russia's situation was difficult from an economic point of view and she could not avoid forming a relationship with Jewish circles, who were the only ones who could help. So therefore the governor Count Chernyshev [Zachar Grigorevich Chernyshev, 1722-1784] did not formally allow Jews to be involved in trade and to organize communities n the cities and villages. There was accorded to the Jews the possibility of enjoying the rights they had possessed under the Polish regime.
The city regulations which were introduced in Russia, accordig=ng to which the distinction between city residents and merchants was determined according to the capital in the possession of each, hit the Jews hard, as both categories were limited to residence in the cities. The regulation did indeed peremit Jews to be elected to municipal office in the cities, but that provoked the hatred of the Christian citizens. At the same time the government ordered the expulsion of all Jews from the villages and farms and robbed them of their sources of income.
And so, recounts a Polotsk Jew of the period (1782): "They took from the Jews the workshops to produce spirits, the kreshmas (taverns), and other sources of income. Thousands of families were imporverished. At the same time they introduced restrictions for Jews in trade and in crafts." The Jews were forcibly brought into the bourgeoisie.
A Jewish delegation brought before queen Catherine a request to mitigate the various decrees in view of the suffering they had caused among the Jews. The queen, in a spirit of good will, issued a command which, although never put fully into execution, nonetheless still lightened the difficulties of earning a living for Jews. One can almost establish that this was the beginning of the
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"Pale of Settlement" decree, which limited the residence of Jews in Russia to those regions in which Jews had been heavily concentrated. Such a decree was first put forth in Byelorussia.
At the end of the eighteenth century a famine broke out in Byelorussia. The porez (Polish squires) had exportet a part of the grain, and from another part they made strong drink, which they also exported to foreign parts, not leaving any bread for the masses. The commmission which was apppointed by the government to investigate the cause of the famine, determined that the Jews were responsible, and all dispositions in their favor were nullified. The Jews were once more obliged to move off to the city, but the city Christians stole away their rights as city citizens and the right to trade.
In the table below we have presented the movement of popultaion over the period of 100 years, 1797-1897, and the proportion of the Jews in city trade in the 8 years 1797-1805. As may be seen, this does not list merchants but traders in a broad sense, such as traders in wood, flax, etc. The table has been extracted from a governmental tax document published in Disna.
| |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Disne | 1797 | 1799 | 1802 | 1805 | 1847 | 1861 | 1897 |
| |
|||||||
| Di tsal fun ale aynvoyner | 1576 | 2089 | 2456 | 2411 | 6645 | 6756 | |
| Non Jewish residents | 1164 | 1404 | 1746 | 1719 | 3646 | 2139 | |
| Jewish residentsK | 42 | 685 | 710 | 692 | 1880 | 3000 | 4617 |
| Non Jewish traders | 39 | 40 | 110 | 160 | -- | -- | |
| Jewish traders | 46 | 24 | 17 | 11 | -- | -- | |
| |
|||||||
- In the course of 100 years the Disner population grew fourfold.
- The non-Jewish part of the Disner popultations doubled.
- The Jewish population in Disna grew over the period more than 11-fold.
- In the years 1797-1805, 8 years, the Jewish population in Disna increased from 25% to 28.5%.
- In 1897 the Jewish population had risen to 2/3 of the general census among citizens of Disna.
- In contrast to the growth of Jewish residents in Disne, the number of Jewish traders grows less from year to year. In 1797 every ninth Jew in Disna was a trader, and among the Christians every thirtieth. In the course of 8 years Jewish commerce fell to 63 Jews for 1 Jewish trader, as against the Christian trade, where every fourteenth Christian resident in Disna was a trader.
The relative and absolute growth of the Jewish poplulation in Disna and their position in city trade are just an
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example of the situation of the Jews in Russia. The decrees and prohibitions were the fate also of Disna Jews. They were not able to live in villlages and on farms or buy land. The liberation of the peasants took away their income as renters and intermediaries and they were obliged to limit themselves to peddling, small trade and crafts. Their only refuge was the city. Concentration in the cities was also a consequence of the constant fear of pogroms and attacks, which governmental circles supported and stimulated the hatred in the lower classes of the Russian people. Dense Jewish centers in the towns were a means of self-defense.
And again in 1897, the year in which Disna Jews were 2/3 of the general population, a Jew recounts with regard to the abandonment of the villages:
"Who had not left willingly was driven out by force. Many were driven out with no mercy, accompanied by uprisen peasants or troos. They were beaten like beasts and brought into the cities and towns. There they were left on a street wihtout a roof over their heads. Greatest of all was the cruelty of the expulsion from the villages of the Vitebsk region."
The fate of Russian Jewry and of the Disna Jews among them was hard Every year brought its decrees.
It is told of the year 1897, that the residents of Disna amounted to 6739 souls, among them about 4500 Jews, for the most part shopkeepers. There were also in Disna about 265 day laborers. Eight families were occupied with the production of vegetabls on an area of 5 desyatins of fertilzed land. Another 437 desyatins of land were worked by the Disna Jews in the near environs. In the city there was a Jewish school with 170 students, boys and girls.
And finally, the number of Jewish residents in the surrounding communities in the Disna district in the year 1847:
| Disna | 1880 | Globoke | 2183 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Druya | 2366 | Galobitsh | 175 | ||||
| Germanovich | 166 | Sharkayshtshene | 472 | ||||
| Luzshki | 458 | Postav | 554 | ||||
| Lianpol | 280 |
In that year there were about 205,000 souls in the Disna district, and among them 20,732 Jews, i.e., more than 10%.
A typical border city, a city, which was torn artificially from its natural panorama, which had its economic roots for the sake of the political situation, this is what Disna was in 1921. The situation continued thus till the outbreak of the Second World War. Disna lay far from the new railway station in Borkovich, and the Dvina ceased to serve as a means of communication for export to Riga on the Baltic Sea.
Over the years the proportions of the population of Disna varies. More than 80% of its residents were Jews. The process appeared alerady in the nineteens of the previous century. The Christians were for the most part governmental oficials and only a small part of them were craftsmen or shopkeepers. Very few Christians worked as day laborers for the Jewish residents.
The Jews have for the most part opened shops or became involved with the trade in flax, pelts, eggs etc. After 1921, when the northern part was torn off and passed over to Soviet Russia, the clients became fewer. Shops closed and opened and the Jewish shopkeepers struggled to earn their bread. There were indeed some Jews who were involved in a manner of speaking in export, but they could be more properly described as just agents for
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exporters, who were found in Vilna and other Polish cities. Besides wood, concerning which an agreement was reached between Poland and Russia making it possible to export it via the Dvina, all other trade was carried out by horse-drawn wagons, over unpaved roads, which lost their surface in the rainy season.
Besides the craftsmen who served the local population and also the Christians in the district, a large number of Disna Jews earned their bread by hard labor, in cleaning flax, peddling in the surrounding villages, and even contraband.
The Disner Jews had a hard life, but life in the Jewish town was lively, full of joy, like the chasidim can celebrate (formally, there were no mitnagdim [anti-Chasidic orthodox] in Disna) The young were lusty, maschilim [enlightened], bound to tradition body and soul and in spite of modernization, which arrived belatedly to the town, the residents were conneced with the external general and Jewish world. Youth movements, immigration to Israel, political "quarrels", doctors, lawyers, teachers -- the fruit of work and organization over 400 years. All of this was in Disna. Was and is no more.
