Vidzy

The name Vidzy is of Finno-Ugric origin and is associated with the word vidze, which refers to a "meadow, hayfield".{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}} The Finno-Ugric peoples named their settlements after the landscape or after vegetation, animals or fish if it was predominant in that location.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}}

Vidzy is known in historical records since the 15th-century, when Grand Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis transferred the estates of Vidzy to three families at once.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}} Part of Vidzy was also in the permanent possession of the bishops.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}}

In the early 16th-century, the prince Albertas Goštautas, owner of the Hieraniony Castle, ruled in Vidzy after the estate was sold to him and his wife in 1524.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}} The estate then passed to the Pac family, and in 1685, Michał Kazimierz Pac transferred the estate to the Canons regular.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}} Stanisław Naruszewicz, procurator of Vilnius, maintained a Calvinist prayer house in Vidzy.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}} The Wawrzecki family in the 18th-century became owners of much of the land around Vidzy.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}}

During the late-18th-century Partitions of Poland, the town was annexed by Russia. During the French invasion of Russia, a skirmish took place in the center of Vidzy on 28 November 1812 between the retreating French and the Cossacks, leading to 116 houses to be destroyed by fire.{{sfn|Tatarinov|2006|loc=ВИДЗЫ}}

File:Vidzy, Tatarskaja-Rynak. Відзы, Татарская-Рынак (1915).jpg

In 1875, The Jewish World reported that the city was badly burned in a fire: many buildings were destroyed, and up to 3,000 people were made homeless.{{Cite news |title=RUSSIA.; DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN RUSSIAN POLAND SEVERAL LIVES LOST AND 3,000 PERSONS MADE HOMELESS. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1875/10/21/79255716.html |access-date=2024-09-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}{{better source|date=September 2024|reason=A newspaper from across the globe is hardly a reliable ref, especially from these auld times}}

In the interbellum, Widze, as it was known in Polish, was the seat of a gmina within the Brasław County, initially part of the Nowogródek Voivodeship, and from 1926 part of the Wilno Voivodeship. According to the 1921 Polish census, the population of the town was 71.6% Polish and 21.3% Jewish.{{cite book|author=|title=Skorowidz miejscowości Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Tom VII. Część II|year=1923|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=Główny Urząd Statystyczny|page=19}}

During World War II, Widze was occupied by the Soviet Union, and then by Nazi Germany from 27 June 1941 until 8 July 1944, and administered as part of Generalbezirk Litauen of Reichskommissariat Ostland.{{sfn|Megargee|Dean|2012|page=1146}} A ghetto was established in early 1942 and by the summer, most Jews were transferred to the Swieciany ghetto, while others were able to form or join partisan units.{{sfn|Megargee|Dean|2012|page=1147}}

According to the 2009 census, the population was 40.8% Belarusian, 30.6% Polish, 21.7% Russian, 3.5% Romani and 1.3% Tatar.{{cite web|url=http://pop-stat.mashke.org/belarus-ethnic-comm2009.htm|title=Ethnic composition of Belarus 2009|access-date=30 March 2025}} In 2024, it had a population of 1,563.{{cite web|url=https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_89355/|title=Численность населения на 1 января 2024 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2023 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240402055418/https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_89355/|archive-date=2 April 2024|website=belsat.gov.by|access-date=13 September 2024}}

• Iosif Bleikhman (1868–1921), revolutionary
• Cecilia Berdichevsky (1925–2010), computer scientist

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{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Megargee |first1=Geoffrey P. |last2=Dean |first2=Martin |title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933 –1945: Volume II: Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe |date=4 May 2012 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00202-0 |pages=1146–1148 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9f_YAgAAQBAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Tatarinov |first1=Yury |title=Города Беларуси в некоторых интересных исторических сведениях. Витебщина |date=2006 |location=Minsk |isbn=9856742366 |publisher=Энциклопедикс |language=ru}}

{{commons category|Vidzy}}

• {{JewishGen-LocalityPage|1951282|Vidzy, Belarus}}

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Category:Braslaw district

Category:Urban-type settlements in Belarus

Category:Populated places in Vitebsk region