{{Short description|Town in Grodno Region, Belarus}} {{Infobox settlement | name = Smarhon | native_name = {{native name|be|Смаргонь}} | settlement_type = Town | image_skyline = {{multiple image | border = infobox | total_width = 270 | image_style = border:1; | perrow = 1/2/2 | image1 = Smarhoń panorama.jpg | caption1 = Central square of the town with churches in the background and the statue of Vladimir Lenin | image2 = Kasciol sv. Michaila Archaniola (Smarhon).jpg | caption2 = Church of Saint Michael the Archangel | image3 = Smarhoń. Царква Перамянення Гасподняга.jpg | caption3 = Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ | image4 = Smarhoń District Executive Committee.jpg | caption4 = Administration building | image5 = Train station in Smargon (1).jpg | caption5 = Train station }} | image_flag = Flag_of_Smarhoń%2C_Belarus.svg | image_shield = Coat of Arms of Smarhoń, Belarus.svg | flag_size = 150 | shield_size = 75 | pushpin_map = Belarus | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = Belarus | subdivision_type1 = Region | subdivision_name1 = Grodno Region | subdivision_type2 = District | subdivision_name2 = Smarhon District | leader_title = | leader_name = | established_title = Founded | established_date = October 2, 1503 | area_magnitude = | area_total_km2 = 19.15 | area_land_km2 = | area_water_km2 = |population_as_of = 2025 |population_footnotes = <ref name="pop">{{cite web|url=https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_148168/|title=Численность населения на 1 января 2025 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2024 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250329210112/https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_148168/|archive-date=29 March 2025|website=belsat.gov.by|access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref> | population_total = 35,072 | population_metro = | population_density_km2 = | timezone = MSK | utc_offset = +3 | timezone_DST = | utc_offset_DST = | coordinates = {{coord|54|29|1|N|26|24|0|E|region:BY|display=inline}} | elevation_m = 150 | postal_code_type = Postal code | postal_code = 231000, 231041-231045 | area_code = +375 1592 | blank_name = License plate | blank_info = 4 | website = [http://smorgon.grodno-region.by/en Official website] | footnotes = }}
'''Smarhon''',{{efn|{{langx|be|Смаргонь}} {{IPA|be|smɐrˈɣonʲ|}}.}} or '''Smorgon''',{{efn|{{langx|ru|Сморгонь}}; {{langx|lt|Smurgainys}}; {{langx|pl|Smorgonie}}; {{langx|yi|סמאָרגאָן}}.}} is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus.<ref name="SmurgainysVle"/> It serves as the administrative center of Smarhon District.<ref name="pop"/><ref name="enc">{{cite book |last1=Gaponenko |first1=Irina Olegovna |title=Назвы населеных пунктаў Рэспублікі Беларусь: Гродзенская вобласць |date=2004 |location=Minsk |publisher=Тэхналогія |page=334 |isbn=985-458-098-9}}</ref> It was the site of Smarhon air base, now mostly abandoned. Smarhon is located {{convert|107|km}} from the capital, Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 35,072.<ref name="pop"/>
==History== Within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Smarhon was part of Vilnius Voivodeship.<ref name="SmurgainysVle">{{cite web |last1=Garšva |first1=Kazimieras |title=Smurgainys |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/smurgainys/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=25 November 2024 |language=lt}}</ref> Forty percent of the names of Smarhon District's settlements have remained of Lithuanian origin, while residents of Smarhon once spoke in the Eastern Aukštaitian-Vilnian dialect of Lithuanian language.<ref name="SmurgainysVle"/> It was a private town of the Zenowicz, Radziwiłł and Przezdziecki noble families until 1830.<ref name=sgk>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich|volume=X|year=1889|language=pl|location=Warszawa|page=915}}</ref> During the Great Northern War, Kings Charles XII of Sweden and Stanisław Leszczyński of Poland met in the town in 1708, before Stanisław departed for Malbork.<ref name=sgk/>
[[File:Smarhoń. Смаргонь (C. Faber du Faur, 3.12.1812).jpg|left|thumb|Remnant of the ''Grande Armée'' passing through the town]] In 1795, the town was acquired by the Russian Empire in the course of the Third Partition of Poland.<ref name="SmurgainysVle"/> Amid the disastrous retreat from Russia in 1812, Napoleon left the remnants of the Grande Armée at Smorgon on December 5 to return to Paris.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/timelines/napoleons-russian-campaign-the-retreat/ | title=Napoleon's Russian Campaign: The Retreat }}</ref> The town suffered a fire in 1880.<ref name=sgk/> From 1921 until 1939, Smarhon (''Smorgonie'') was part of the Second Polish Republic.
During World War II, in September 1939, the town was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. From 25 June 1941 until 4 July 1944, Smarhon was occupied by Nazi Germany and administered as a part of the ''Generalbezirk Litauen'' of ''Reichskommissariat Ostland''.
Smorgon is known as the place where a school of bear training, the so-called "Bear Academy", was founded.
==Culture== Up until World War II, Smarhon was widely known for its baranki,<ref>{{langx|ru|баранки}}, {{langx|be|обваранки|obvaranki}}, {{langx|pl|obwarzanki}}</ref> traditional Eastern European ring-shaped bread rolls, similar to bagels and bubliki. Russian food historian William Pokhlyobkin considered Smarhon to be the birthplace of baranki.<ref name=Pokhlyobkin_Dict>''[http://www.rus-food-recipes.ru/P_00/2/11.htm Баранки]''. In: В. В. Похлёбкин, ''Кулинарный словарь от А до Я''. Москва, Центрполиграф, 2000, {{ISBN|5-227-00460-9}} (William Pokhlyobkin, ''Culinary Dictionary''. Moscow, Centrpoligraf publishing house, 2000; Russian)</ref> Baranki were supposedly used to feed bears in the Bear Academy. Written accounts of Smarhon baranki appeared in the 19th century. Polish-Lithuanian journalist Adam Kirkor wrote in the encyclopedia ''Picturesque Russia'': "In Smorgon, Oshmyany district, Vilna province, almost all the petty bourgeois population is busy baking small {{lang|be|bubliki}}, or kringles, which are widely known as ''Smorgon obvaranki''. Each traveller would definitely buy several bundles of these {{lang|be|bubliki}}; besides, they are transported to Vilna and other cities."<ref>{{cite book | author1 = Адам Киркор | title = Живописная Россия | volume = 1 | page = 217 | date = 1881 }} ({{cite book | author1 = Adam Kirkor | title = Picturesque Russia | volume = 1 | page = 217 | date = 1881 | language = Russian }})</ref> Władysław Syrokomla mentioned Smarhon as "the capital of obwarzanki famous in all Lithuania".<ref>{{cite book | author = Уладзіслаў Сыракомля | title = Добрыя весці: паэзія, проза, крытыка | chapter = З дарожнага дзённіка 1856 года | publisher = Маст. літ. | year = 1993 | pages = 425–433 | language = Belarusian}}</ref> Smarhon obwarzanki were a traditional treat at Saint Casimir's Fair in Vilnius.<ref>{{cite book | author = Францішак Багушэвіч | title = Творы | chapter = Публіцыстыка, 1885 | location = Мінск | date = 1998 | url = http://pdf.kamunikat.org/download.php?item=13655-1.pdf }} ({{cite book | author = Francišak Bahuševič | author-link = Francišak Bahuševič | title = Writings | chapter = Journal publications, 1885 | location = Minsk | date = 1998 | language = Belarusian }})</ref><ref>{{cite journal | journal = AS, Tygodnik Ilustrowany | author = Alfons Wysocki | title = Na Kaziuku | language = Polish | date = 1937-02-28 | url = https://jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/Content/340235/PDF/NDIGCZAS015353_1937_009.pdf}}</ref>
==International relations== Smarhon is twinned with:
* {{flagicon|LTU}} Visaginas, Lithuania * {{flagicon|LTU}} Alytus, Lithuania * {{flagicon|RUS}} Krasnoznamensk, Russia
==Notable people== * Peter Blume (1906–1992), US painter, in magic realism style * Isaac Itkind (1871–1969), distinguished Russian and Soviet sculptor * Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935), rabbi, Jewish theologist, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, learned in Smarhon Yeshiva * Moyshe Kulbak (1896–1937), Belarusian Yiddish poet, writer, executed by the NKVD * Moshe Koussevitzky (1899–1966), Polish-US Jewish cantor * Ida Lazarovich Gilman or Ida Mett (1901–1973), Russian anarchist militant and author,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://libcom.org/history/mett-ida-1901-1973|title=Mett, Ida, 1901-1973|last=Heath|first=Nick|date=2006|website=Libcom}}</ref> exiled in France * Shalom Levin (1916–1995), Secretary Gen. and President of Israel Teachers Union, Knesset (Parliament) Member, educator and author * Shmuel Rodensky (1902–1989), Israeli actor * Karol Dominik Przezdziecki (1782–1832), Polish count, fighter for the liberation of Poland in the revolt of 1830–1831 * David Raziel (1910–1941), fighter for the emancipation of Jews in Palestine, commander of the Irgun Tzvai Leumi nationalist resistance organization, killed in Iraq on an anti-Nazi mission * Esther Raziel Naor (1911–2002), Israeli politician, militant in the Irgun Jewish nationalist resistance during the British mandate in Palestine * William Schwartz (1896–1977), US painter * Nahum Slouschz (1872–1966), Israeli writer, translator and archaeologist * Abraham Sutzkever (1913–2010), Yiddish and Polish poet and Second World War partisan * The Gordin brothers, Abba (1887–1964) and Wolf (1885–1974), anarchist educators, militants, and theorists
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Smarhoń|Smarhon}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20010424122017/http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2750/smorgon/smorgon.html Smorgon memory book] * [http://radzima.org/pub/miesta.php?lang=en&miesta_id1=hrsmsmar Photos on Radzima.org] * {{JewishGen-LocalityPage|1949759|Smarhon, Belarus}}
{{Grodno Region}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smarhon}} Category:Smarhon Category:Populated places in Grodno region Category:Historic Jewish communities in Belarus Category:Smarhon district Category:Populated places in Belarus