Smarhonʹ

Within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Smarhonʹ was part of Vilnius Voivodeship. In 1795, the town was acquired by the Russian Empire in the course of the Third Partition of Poland. Until the mid 19th century, Smarhonʹ was a private property of the Radziwiłł family with most of its population being Jewish.

From 1921 until 1939, Smarhonʹ (Smorgonie) was part of the Second Polish Republic. 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, Smarhonʹ was occupied by Nazi Germany and administered as a part of the Generalbezirk Litauen of Reichskommissariat Ostland.

Smorgonʹ is known as the place where a school of bear training, the so-called "Bear Academy", was founded.

Up until World War II, Smarhonʹ was widely known for its baranki,[2] traditional Eastern European ring-shaped bread rolls, similar to bagels and bubliki. Russian food historian William Pokhlyobkin considered Smarhonʹ to be the brithplace of baranki.[3] Baranki were supposedly used to feed bears in the Bear Academy. Written accounts of Smarhonʹ baranki appeared in the 19th century. Polish-Lithuanian journalist Adam Kirkor wrote in the encyclopedia Picturesque Russia: "In Smorgonʹ, Oshmyany district, Vilna province, almost all the petty bourgeois population is busy baking small bubliki, or kringles, which are widely known as Smorgonʹ obvaranki. Each traveller would definitely buy several bundles of these bubliki; besides, they are transported to Vilna and other cities."[4] Władysław Syrokomla mentioned Smarhonʹ as "the capital of obwarzanki famous in all Lithuania".[5] Smarhonʹ obwarzanki were a traditional treat at Saint Casimir's Fair in Vilnius.[6][7]

Smarhonʹ is twinned with:

• Visaginas, Lithuania
• Alytus, Lithuania
• Krasnoznamensk, Russia

• Peter Blume (1906–1992) US painter, in magic realism style
• Louis Hurwich (1886-1967) US Jewish Educator, founded the Boston Bureau of Jewish Education and Hebrew College
• Isaac Itkind (1871-1969) - distinguished Russian and Soviet sculptor
• Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) rabbi, Jewish theologist, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, learned in Smarhonʹ Yeshiva
• Moyshe Kulbak (1896–1937) Belarusian Yiddish poet, writer, executed by the NKVD
• Moshe Kussevitzki (1899–1966) Polish-US Jewish cantor
• Ida Lazarovich Gilman or Ida Mett (1901–1973) Russian anarchist militant and author, exiled in France
• Shalom Levin (1916-1995) Secretary Gen. and President of Israel Teachers Union, Knesset (Parliament) Member, educator and author.
• 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
• Abraham Sutzkever (1913–2010) a Yiddish and Polish poet and Second World War partisan
• The Gordin brothers, Abba (1887–1964) and Wolf, anarchist educators, militants, and theorists
• Ida Mett (1901-1973), anarchist writer[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Smarhoń.

• Smorgon memory book
• Photos on Radzima.org
• Smarhon, Belarus at JewishGen