Lyepyel

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Town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus

title: "Lyepyel" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["holocaust-locations-in-belarus", "lyepyel"] description: "Town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus" topic_path: "general/holocaust-locations-in-belarus" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyepyel" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Lyepyel
native_name	Лепель
settlement_type	Town
image_skyline	Lepiel.Лепель(13.08.2008).jpg
image_flag	Flag of Lepiel, Belarus.svg
image_shield	Coat of Arms of Lepiel, Belarus.svg
flag_size	150
shield_size	75
pushpin_map	Belarus
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Belarus
subdivision_type1	Region
subdivision_name1	Vitebsk Region
subdivision_type2	District
subdivision_name2	Lyepyel District
established_title	First mentioned
established_date	1439
population_as_of	2025
population_footnotes
population_total	16,895
timezone	MSK
utc_offset	+3
coordinates
postal_code	211174
area_code	+375 2132
blank_name	License plate
blank_info	2
website	http://lepel.vitebsk-region.gov.by/
::

Lyepyel or Lepel is a town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus, located near Lyepyel Lake on the Vula River. It serves as the administrative center of Lyepyel District. Its population in the 1998 census was 19,400. As of 2025, it has a population of 16,895.

Name

There are three theories about the origin of the name Lepel. The first is that the name 'Lepel' come from the word "lepene" which means "lake between the lime-groves". The second is that the name comes from the Belarusian word "лепей" meaning "the best place to live in". The third theory for the name Lepel is that it derives from the Belarusian word "ляпiць" meaning "well-developed pottery".

History

The first known mention of Lepel dates back to 1439. In the 15th century, the town belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1439, thanks to efforts of a Roman Catholic priest, Kucharski, Grand Lithuanian Duke Sigismund Kestutaitis' son Michael gave Lepel to the Vitebsk Roman Catholic church. In 1503, it the donation was confirmed by King Alexander Jagiellon. In 1541 King Sigismund I the Old included the possessions of the Vitebsk Catholic parish, including Lepel, into the Diocese of Wilno with the approval of the Pope.

After Polatsk was captured by the Muscovite army in 1563, the Diocese of Wilno was no longer able to protect its property from Muscovite attacks. The decision was made to donate Lepel to King Sigismund II Augustus on the erroneous assumption that the king would return the gift by awarding the diocese with other property of the same value. Instead, the king gave the property by way of life tenure to Yury Zenovich, the castellan of Smolensk. After Yury Zenovich died, Sigismund gave the town to voivode of Połock Mikołaj Dorohostajski. After the liberation of Polatsk from Russian occupation, Lepel returned to Polish King Stephen Báthory, who restored it to the Diocese of Wilno. Within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth it was administratively located in the Połock Voivodeship.

It remained difficult for the diocese to protect Lepel from foreign invasions and thus the decision was made in 1586 to sell it to Lew Sapieha, a leading politician.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Lepiel,_Poŭśviskaja-Rynak._Лепель,Поўсьвіская-Рынак(1901-17).jpg" caption="Lepel in the early 20th century"] ::

The town was annexed by Russia in the Second Partition of Poland in 1793. In 1802 Lepel became a county seat of the Vitebsk Governorate. The town suffered greatly in the 1812 French invasion of Russia due to the passing troops razing many buildings to the ground. On 9 September 1852 Lepel was awarded its own coat of arms. Poet Jan Czeczot, friend of Adam Mickiewicz, worked as an engineer on the Berezina Canal in Lepel between 1833 and 1839. In 1880, the population of Lepel consisted of 5,284 people, including 2,458 Jews, 2,281 Orthodox, and 536 Roman Catholics.

By 1913 Lepel had lost its strategic and economic importance and was a quiet regional town center.

On November 10, 1919 in the neighbourhood of Lepel there was a clash between the company of the 13th Infantry Regiment of the Polish Army sitting in an ambush and the Soviet troops advancing into the region. The fighting was successful for the Poles though their commanding officer, lieutenant Stanisław Jacheć, was the only Polish victim of the clash. Heavy fighting between the Bolshevik troops and the Polish Army's 30th regiment of the Rifles of Kaniów of the XX brigade continued through November 1919 and the Polish-Soviet frontline was established there until spring 1920.

World War II

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Lepiel,_Prudovaja-Esa._Лепель,Прудовая-Эса(15.08.1941).jpg" caption="Lepel in 1941"] ::

The headquarters of the Soviet 11th Army was based in Lepel shortly before the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of World War II in September 1939. The 11th Army attacked towards the southern Wilno Region and Grodno.

On 22 June 1941, Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began. Lepiel was captured by the rapidly advancing German troops on 3 July. While the Lepel's Jewish population had once been as high as 3,379 (53.7%) in 1897, by 1941 this had dwindled to only 1,919, or 13.6 percent of the townspeople. The German occupation authorities created a ghetto and appointed a Jewish elder. On February 28, 1942, almost all of the 1,000 residents remaining in the ghetto were shot by an Einsatzgruppe. The Germans also operated a Nazi prison and briefly the AGSSt 8 assembly center for Soviet prisoners of war in the town. During Operation Bagration, the summer 1944 Soviet strategic offensive in Belarus, Lepiel was liberated on 3 July. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Lepiel,kaścioł(13.08.2008).jpg" caption="St. Casimir's Catholic Church"] ::

Education

Lepel has:

4 secondary schools
An agrotechnical college
A professional college

Transportation

Lepel is situated on a highway connecting Minsk and Vitebsk, and is 115 km from Vitebsk and 155 km from Minsk. The town is connected by road to Polatsk and by rail to Orsha.

Notable people

Yawhen Kalinin (born 1993), footballer
Todar Klaštorny (1903 - 1937), Belarusian romantic poet, translator and a victim of Stalin’s purges
Ivan Matskevich (born 1991), handballer
Anastasiya Mazgo (born 1995), handballer
Vladimir Motyl (1927-2010), director
Yauheni Zharnasek (born 1987), weightlifter

Notes

References

"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".
"Этимология названия «Лепель»". Lepel District Executive Committee.
. (1884). "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom V".
. "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom V".
Grzelak, Czesław. (1992). "Zbrodnia Katyńska. Droga do prawdy". Niezależny Komitet Historyczny Badania Zbrodni Katyńskiej, Departament Prokuratury Ministerstwa Sprawiedliwości, Towarzystwo Naukowe Kryminalistyczne, Wojskowy Instytut Historyczny.
"Lepel".
"Gefängnis Lepel'".
(2022). "The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV". Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
"The Untold Stories: The Murder Sites of Jews in Occupied Territories of the former USSR: Lepel". Yad Vashem.

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