Dobrush

Dobrush - administrative center of the Dobrush district of the Gomel region in the south-east of the republic near the Belarusian-Russian border. The city is located on the Iput River, 30 km from Gomel and 325 km from Minsk. Motorway M1 (Selishche - Gomel - Kobrin) and motorway P124 (Vetka - Dobrush - Terehovka - Veselovka) are passing through the city. In Dobrush there is also a railway station of the same name on the Gomel-Unecha line.

Dobrush is known from the middle of the XVI century as a village in the Gomel eldership of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For a long time Dobrush was a place where sails and ropes were made. As a result the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772 Dobrush was incorporated into the Russian Empire. In 1775 Russian Empress Catherine II transferred Dobrush to the possession of Field Marshal P. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, who built a canvas manufacture, a flour-grinding factory, and a sugar factory here. From 1834 Paskevichi family took Dobrush into their possession. Their name is related to the creation of a paper mill in Dobrush. Regular passenger and freight traffic in the area began with the laying of the railway line Gomel - Bryansk. In 1887 the railway station of the same name was opened in Dobrush.

On January 1, 1919 Dobrush became part of the BSSR, but on January 16, together with other territories of eastern Belarus, it was transferred to the RSFSR. In 1926 it returned to the BSSR, where Dobrush received the official status of a working settlement and became the center of the district, and in 1927 it already received city status. During the Great Patriotic War from August 1941 to October 1943 Dobrush was under German occupation. In March 1963 Dobrush received the status of a city of regional subordination.

Dobrush is widely known throughout the country for its porcelain and paper factory products, but the city boasts other interesting sights that will not leave anyone indifferent. Due to the large number of bridges, Dobrush is often called the Little Venice and the city of 30 bridges. This is due to the fact that the Iput River, on which the city stands, is divided into many branches, as a result of which a number of islands are located in the city. Many bridges connect Dobrush neighborhoods.

The city has preserved historical buildings of the city of the end of the XIXth - beginning of the XXth centuries: hospital, a residential building for the workers of a paper factory, an ordinary building, a former school building for students of workers at the paper factory, which now houses District Local History Museum. 3 km from the city Early Iron Age fortification is located.

The main industrial production and symbol of the city is Dobrush paper mill. In 1849 count I.F. Paskevich decided to build a paper mill in Dobrush. However, only his successor, Tsarist Adjutant-General F.I.Paskevich, was able to realize his plans. In 1870 the young prince invited foreign and Russian specialists to Dobrush to create a factory. At the end of the XIX century the first in Belarus power plant for industry was built at the paper mill. In 1917 the factory was closed, and in 1919 the enterprise was nationalized with the advent of Soviet power. On October 17, 1922, the factory was given the title of «Hero of Labor». In 2004, a monument was established in the center of Dobrush to the founder of the paper factory F. I. Paskevich and in his honor central street of the city was renamed.