The Rossony District is located in the northwest of Belarus. Forests, numerous lakes, rivers, amazing landscapes, diverse fauna and flora are found here at every step.
There is a version that the name of the district center originated from the word "dew" (rosy). Indeed, this is a land of clean, crystal dews. The decoration and wealth of Rossony land are 192 lakes with a total area of 8,009 hectares, the Drissa River with its tributaries Svolno, Nysha, Nyeshchyerda, and other rivers and streams. 133,818 hectares, or 69.4 percent of the district's territory, are occupied by forests. There are many game animals here, and the forests are rich in ecologically clean mushrooms and berries. There is nothing more beautiful than enjoying these natural riches, fishing on a lake or river, wandering through mushroom spots in an oxygen-rich forest, and drinking spring water.
The Rossony District was established on July 17, 1924. It comprises 128 settlements with the district center being the urban-type settlement of Rossony. The area of the district is 1.9 thousand square kilometers.
In November 1917, Soviet power was established in the district. From February 1919 to March 1924, it was part of the RSFSR.
The first mention of Rossony dates back to 1552. At that time, there were "7 hearths" (households, which were considered a tax unit in Ancient Rus).
The district has witnessed and been the arena of many historically significant events. During the Livonian War, at the confluence of the Nysha and Drissa rivers in 1566, the fortress "Sokol" was founded by Russian troops. It was one of the strongest castles of that time: it had eleven towers and was surrounded by a wooden wall, rampart, and moat. But wars take their toll... The Sokolinsky Castle existed for only 13 years, specifically until September 11, 1579. On this day, after stubborn resistance from the Russian garrison, it was captured by Lithuanian troops and burned. The Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles states that over 40,000 people died during the capture of "Sokol," however, this is unequivocally exaggerated data. It is refuted even by the obviously biased letter of Ludwik Baromski to the papal nuncio in Poland from Polotsk dated September 14, 1579, which states that up to 4,000 people were killed during the fire, and these were not ordinary soldiers, but the elite of the Muscovite army.
On July 18-19, 1812, near Klyastitsy, the vanguard of Wittgenstein's Russian corps, led by General Yakov Petrovich Kulnev, inflicted the first significant defeat on Marshal Oudinot's French corps, capturing nine hundred prisoners and a large enemy convoy. The victory at Klyastitsy boosted the morale of our army and prevented Napoleon's invasion of Petersburg.
The history of the Rossony region also includes the name of another renowned military figure, Vice-Admiral Illarion Afanasyevich Povalishin. For his distinguished service in the battle of July 6, 1790, I. A. Povalishin was promoted to vice-admiral and awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd class. On September 8, 1790, "for commendable service and for his brave and outstanding feats in battles," he was gifted a diamond-hilted sword and 600 peasant souls in the Polotsk province. The admiral's estate was located near the village of Yankovichi and was named Povalishino. He was remembered by the people as very kind and generous to his serfs. He built a church and was the first to establish a hospital for his peasants, staffed by a qualified doctor. The buildings have not survived, but a school stands on the foundation of the hospital. In November 2014, as part of a Russian-Belarusian event dedicated to the 275th anniversary of I. A. Povalishin's birth, the movement "Maritime Brotherhood is Indestructible!" established two commemorative signs in his honor. One is in the urban-type settlement of Rossony, near the Museum of Military Comradeship, and the other commemorative sign is located at a historic site – near the Povalishin oaks, which the vice-admiral planted in honor of his sons.
In the 17th-19th centuries, the area was characterized by the construction of architectural and park residences (Glazko estate and others), park development, and Orthodox religious construction. There were many churches in the villages, and in Gorbachevo and Dmitrov Most, there were Catholic churches. Currently, the Holy Ascension Church in Rossony (1879) has been revived and is in operation.
In the village of Troodovichi, in the Rossony region, the brothers Ivan and Francis Skorina owned a small estate and property. In 1936, the Belarusian poet Gennady Buravkin was born here. On the shore of Lake Neshchardo, in the village of Muragi, the childhood and youth of the renowned Belarusian writer, author of the prose collection "Shtikhtich Zavalnya..." and the poems "Gorelytsa" and "Two Birches," Yan Borshchevsky, took place. In 1997, a monument to the famous countryman was erected here.
Yanka Kupala visited Rossony, and Yanka Skrygan worked here. The playwright Nikolai Matukovsky was born in the village of Kalyutino.
Rossony District, the Land of Partisan Glory. From the very first days of the Great Patriotic War, widespread underground and soon partisan resistance against the German-fascist invaders unfolded here. One of the organizers and leaders of the underground and partisan movement was Pyotr Mironovich Masherov, a teacher at Rossony Secondary School. By the end of 1942, the district was liberated from the occupiers by the partisan brigades operating here.
Rossony suffered irreparable losses during the war. Nazi thugs killed, burned, tortured, and hanged thousands of civilians here. If the population before the war was 37,311 people, after the liberation of the district, only 17,031 remained.
The memorial square in the district center, where the remains of over 2,000 soldiers, partisans, and civilians who fell victim to fascist aggression are buried, has become a place of remembrance and sorrow. The Museum of Combat Brotherhood operates in Rossony.
There is an open-air museum near the village of Rovnoye Pole, at the site of the Rokossovsky Partisan Brigade's encampment, whose commissar was P.M. Masherov. The memorial complex in the village of Klyastitsy is dedicated to the events of 1812 and 1941-1945. The state educational institution "Klyastitsy Kindergarten-Secondary School named after V.A. Khomchanovsky" also houses a school museum of National Glory, which consists of two halls dedicated to the Great Patriotic War and the Patriotic War of 1812, as well as an ethnographic exhibition "Forward to the Past."
The district's agro-industrial complex is represented by the "Klyastitsy-Agro" branch of OJSC "Polotsk Dairy Plant." The total area of agricultural land is 20.36 thousand hectares. The farms in the district specialize in dairy and beef cattle breeding and grain production.
The main sector of industrial production in the district is timber processing. This is actively pursued by the State Forestry Institution "Rossony Forestry," private enterprise "Effekt," and private enterprise "LMF PLUS." As part of the implementation of energy-saving measures, the State Forestry Institution "Rossony Forestry" has organized the production of fuel chips, including for the new boiler house at the Unitary Enterprise of Housing and Communal Services, which uses local fuel types.
Hunting tourism is developing. Rossony has 36 thousand hectares of forest and 6 thousand hectares of wetlands. In recent years, the number of wild animals has significantly increased.
The forests of the district are home to 879 elk, 1491 wild boar, 774 roe deer, 1186 capercaillie, 1000 black grouse, bears are found, and populations of European hare and beaver are growing.
To preserve the natural state of the unique natural wealth in the district, two landscape reserves of republican significance have been established – "Sinsha" and "Krasny Bor". The "Sinsha" reserve features a cascade of lakes interconnected by the Drissa River. On the water surface of one of the reserve's lakes, the relict plant water chestnut, or chilim, grows. The area of the "Krasny Bor" reserve is 34,234 hectares. Rare natural landscapes for Belarus are common here. Their uniqueness is determined by their limited distribution, a high degree of natural vegetation, the presence of rare landforms, geological formations, picturesque lakes, and habitats of endangered flora and fauna.
The district also has other protected areas: the "Fomino" cranberry bog reserve, the "Vusti" peat reserve – a raw material base for medicinal mud, and the "Mezhno", "Dolgoe", and "Bolshoy Mokh" reserves.
Geomorphological natural monuments are preserved in Rossony region: "Gvozdikha Mountain" (absolute elevation above sea level 224.8 meters, formed 14-15 thousand years ago) and the boulder "Glazkovsky Stone" (volume 13.4 m³, weight of the visible part over 35 tons).