Dzisna | |
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 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Dzisna Location in Belarus | |
| Coordinates:55°34′N28°13′E / 55.567°N 28.217°E /55.567; 28.217 | |
| Country | Belarus |
| Region | Vitebsk Region |
| District | Miory District |
| First mentioned | 1462 |
| Population (2025)[1] | |
• Total | 1,368 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (MSK) |
| Postal code | 211950 |
| Area code | +375 2152 |
| License plate | 2 |
Dzisna (Belarusian:Дзісна;Russian:Дисна,romanized: Disna;Polish:Dzisna) is a town inMiory District,Vitebsk Region, in northernBelarus. It is located on the left bank of theDaugava River, near the confluence of theDysna. Dzisna is located 133 kilometres (83 mi) northwest ofVitebsk.[2] In 2017, its population was 1,500.[3] As of 2025, it has a population of 1,368,[1] which makes Dzisna the smallest settlement that is recognized astown in Belarus.[4]
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The town was founded as a fortress in the 10th to 11th centuries by the PolotskKrivichs.[5]
Within theGrand Duchy of Lithuania, Dzisna was part ofPołock Voivodeship. The town received its coat of arms in 1567, and in 1569, the king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania,Sigismund II Augustus, granted DzisnaMagdeburg city rights.[5][6][7] It was aroyal city of Lithuania. In 1793, Dzisna was acquired by theRussian Empire as a result of theSecond Partition of Poland.[5]
From 1921 until 1939, Dzisna was part of theSecond Polish Republic. In the 1921 census, 49.4% people declaredPolish nationality, 37.3% declared Jewish nationality, and 11.7% declared Belarusian nationality.[8] On the eve ofWorld War II, the town likely had a Jewish population of more than 4,500.[2]
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In September 1939, the town wasoccupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into theByelorussian SSR. In the days following theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, about half of the Jewish population fled to the east.[2] From 3 July 1941, Dzisna wasoccupied by Nazi Germany.[2] In the fall of 1941, the Germans established a civil administration and the town became the administrative center of one of the nineraions inGebiet Glebokie, which was headed byGebietskommissar Paul Hachmann.[2] The town was administered as part of theGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien ofReichskommissariat Ostland.[2]
A squad ofFeldgendarmerie arrived in Dzisna and took control of the local police, which then became known as theSchutzmannschaft.[2] The head of the police in Dzisna was a Pole by the name ofSwiniarski, and his deputy was Alfons Bielski.[2] The firstAktion took place on 28 March 1942, when 30 Jews were shot in what was reportedly a reprisal for the death of the son of theGebietskommissar.[9] On the night of 14–15 June, a smallSicherheitspolizei squad, with the help of reinforcements, surrounded the ghetto in Dzisna, which had 2,181 inhabitants according to German records.[9] As they entered the ghetto, some of the Jews resisted, with a few hundred able to flee to the forest, although many were later found by police or turned in.[9] Others who were taken alive were shot in two mass graves near the ghetto.[9] The ghetto was finally liquidated in the summer of 1943.[2] After 1944, Dzisna remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991.
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