My Homeland (english version)

From the History of Beloozersk

The town of Beloozersk is situated between three lakes –the Beloye, the Chernoye and the Sporovskoye, 27 km away to the South-East of the city of Bereza.

Railway and Bus Station

April, 1956. The Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted the decision on the construction of a new power station in Bereza district near Lake Beloye on the sand hills to the South of the village of Nivki.

February, 1958. The construction was declared to be a Komsomol site. Young Komsomol professionals and specialists began to arrive here from all over the Soviet Union.

May, 1959. The installation of the temporary village of a car type was completed. 150 trailers were installed: 120 – for housing and 30 – for cultural-household purposes (dining, shopping, medical, library, etc.). At that time the inhabitants called this village "Green town".

On January 12, 1960 the village received its official name - the working settlement Berezovsky. But the name was not caught on.

On June 25,1960 the working settlement got its new name – Beloozersk. In 1962 – 1963 the project of the village building was redesigned in the direction of a significant expansion of its borders in connection with the increase of the power station capacity. In 1970 3591 people lived there.

On September 16, 1970 Beloozersk became a town of regional subordination.

Why did the town get such a beautiful name?

The legend of Lake Beloye

Our town got its name from Lake Beloye. There is an original legend of pure love related to the lake.

In old times, when these lands started to adopt the Christian faith, there was a big and rich village on the lake site. Hardworking and wealthy owners lived there. But among them there was the richest one – Vasil. And he had a beautiful daughter Nastya. The girl was kind-hearted, not like her father. But over some time Nastya began to talk and think the way her parents did and to dream of rich grooms only. In the village there lived a poor young man, Demian by name. He loved Nastya with all his heart. He worked day and night, but he could not raise money to become rich. Being in love with Anastasia, Demian wanted her to become his wife. But the girl did not want to think about marrying the poor and told him about it. And suddenly after that Damian disappeared from the village. He walked aimlessly trying to find the possible way to solve his trouble. But nothing occurred to him. Finally, he figured out how to do it.

On a dark night Demian picked up an ax and went to the road that passed nearby. He hid himself and began to wait. And soon he heard the bells ringing. He listened again and, indeed, he saw a carriage drawn by two horses. Demian popped out on the road and ran to the owner of the carriage. But the man was dozing perhaps, because he did not even exclaim while he received a hit over the head with the sharp ax. In a hurry Demian robbed the rich merchant, and quickly ran away not even having hided the body of the killed merchant. He returned to his native village. The next day he made a proposal to Anastasia. He poured out all the gold coins on the table. The girl’s parents were almost faint – they were so surprised. Three days later they decided to let their daughter marry Demian who had a lot of money at last. But Nastya began to insist on Demian’s telling her where he had got so much money. The stunned groom decided to tell his beloved the truth. Having listened to him, Nastya said, "Well, Demyanka, go to the grave of the murdered merchant, lie down on it and wait until the dead man will tell you what to do next".

There was nothing to do. By night Damian went to the cemetery, found the grave of the merchant and lay upon it, waiting. As soon as roosters crowed for the second time, he heard a voice: "Why did you kill me, evil man? I never did anything wrong in my life, and you've deprived me of life. The punishment will come to you, not now, in a century-time it will come true! Remember!" Hardly moving his feet, Damian went to Nastya and told her everything. The girl listened and remarked: "There is nothing to fear.It will happen in a hundred-year time only, and no one knows. We won’t be alive to see that day. Everything will be according to the God’s will. Don't worry, Damian, everything will be fine".

She calmed down the young man, and they got married. They lived happily ever after. Their house was always prosperious. Hardship and sorrow passed them by. Two sons and a daughter grew up. Quickly the time passed. Grandchildren, great-grandchildren appeared, and they all lived with Damian and Nastya, rejoicing in their long-lasting happiness. The heirs didn’t separate. And they all built new houses and the village sprang up around.

The owners forgot the prophesy of the deceased merchant, and they were about to reach the age of one hundred years. And then one day a stranger came to their village and asked for a night shelter. Nastya and Damian never refused to help. The table was laid. But the old woman decided to bring some raw eggs from the chicken coop. She went there, calculated the eggs and found out that one egg lacked. "But what is it? We have never lost something, and here– eggs are missing!" Nastya got angry and began screaming, ignoring the stranger, who tried to calm the old woman down:

- Thank you, nice lady,for all the food on the table. As for raw eggs I don’t like drinking them. Don't worry, please. I’d like to go to bed as quickly as possible. Early in the morning I will set off to continue my way.

- No, it's not because of my greed, it is because we have never been robbed of something until this day.

- Maybe it's not robbery, but a sign of a punishment that has come to you for your prior committed crime?

But the old man and the old woman denied it. And the guest insisted that perhaps in their youth they had done something that they had forgotten in the course of time. It became quiet in the house. The old man thought for a while and tried to remember. And then Nastya and Damian looked at each other and remembered what had happened to them before their wedding, and they told everything to the stranger. The stranger listened to the story of the hosts carefully, but he could give them no advice.

So, all the family and the stranger went to bed and fell into a deep sleep. It was a short summer night. In the morning the stranger heard that someone was walking across the yard. He looked out the window, but saw nobody and went back to sleep. But when starting to doze off, he heard a knock on the window and the words: “Don't lie, man, get up quickly and get out of the house". The stranger thought he was dreaming, but the knocking and the warning repeated again. And the third time the same words could be heard louder and even more distinct. The stranger got up quickly, got dressed and ran out of the house. He stopped, not knowing which way to run. And again the same voice said: "Run to the right along the path near the house". And there the stranger rushed. He was running as if flying on the wings.In two or three miles he stopped to catch his breath, but he felt heavy at heart. The picture of the old couple did not leave his mind. And he hadn’t even thanked them. He turned back and ran to the hut, where he had slept. While he was running, he thought: "I wish I could be in time enough to prevent something bad to happen!" He rushed upon a hill and stood still – there was no village any more. On its place the waves of a large lake were lapping and white birds were flying above it. And because many innocent and pure souls were killed on this place during the flood, later, this lake was called the Beloye (i.e. white). And “white” means “pure” or “innocent”.

And later the town which found its location close to this lake was called Beloozersk.

In Belarus emblems as a symbol of the state, land, city, family or personality appeared in XIY – XY centuries. Though Beloozersk is a relatively young town, it also has its own emblem. On the basis of the decision of the Council of Ministers No.89 from 22.02.1994, the emblem of Beloozersk was registered on 11.11.1998 by the State heraldic service of the Republic of Belarus.

The main source for the creation of a new civic emblem is often the history of the city. And if the city is young, then it is also the history of its surroundings where it originated. This principle formed the basis for the creation of the emblem of the town of Beloozersk. On the blue field of the Varangian shield a silver bow with three arrows tipped up is placed and the central of which is directly located and the other two, with breaks, are put across the bowstring. At the bottom of the shield there is a silver horned up Crescent. But as the story of the birth of our town is closely linked to energy, electricity, it is reflected in the emblem of the town. The international heraldic symbol of electricity is crossed lightning. Sometimes it is depicted in the form of arrows with feathers on the ends. So crossed silver arrows lie on a stretched bowstring of the same metal in the emblem of Beloozersk.

A bow with a pointed up arrow on a blue field is the historic emblem of our regional center city of Brest. This heraldic sign is common with other territorial emblems of the region – Brest region, Drogichin, Pinsk (the emblem of the XVI century).

As for the silver Crescent in the lower part of the emblem, it can be associated with a privately owned Armory. Near Beloozersk  there is Lake Chernoye with the village of Pesky on its banks. In the past it was a family nest of the well-known magnates Puslovskys. Among them there were entrepreneurs, philanthropists, humanitarians. The most famous Puslovskys are Voitsekh (1762), Adam Titus (1803), Franz Xavier (1806) who were born in Pesky. So, Voitsekh started businesses, built roads, mills, distilleries, enterprises for the production of paper, iron, cloth, turpentine, resin, etc. He used steam engines for the first time in Belarus. From 1831 Voitsekh became the Chairman of the Vilnius charity society. He built churches in Olshevo, Telekhany and other places, the Palace in Oktyabrina and Pesky. The Puslovskys owned the emblem "Sheliga", the origin of which dates back to the XV century. In the Polish and Russian heraldic editions it is described in the following way: "In a red field there is a gold Crescent moon, horns upward, and from the middle of it comes out a golden cross. The crest is made up of peacock feathers".

In the emblem of Beloozersk the silver Crescent is a tribute to the former owners of the nearby places who did much for the prosperity of their native land. 

The town has two secondary schools, a gymnasia, a vocational and technical college of electrical engineering, a children's art school, five kindergartens, a palace of culture, a children and youth’s center of additional education, an environmental center, a children and youth’s sports school, a hotel, a sanatorium and a hospital.

The leading industrial enterprises of the town are: the Bereza steam central power station, the Beloozersk electromechanical plant, the footwear factory “Verdimar”.

The main enterprise of Beloozersk is the Bereza steam central power station which  was the first power block type in the Republic of  Belarus. The construction of the power station began in the spring of 1958. On April 5, 1960 the first cubic meter of concrete was laid in the foundation of the main building of the station. In December,1961 the first power unit was commissioned. On December 13, 1961 at 15.15 the first gas burner was lit on boiler No.1.

The city has a combined train and bus station and a modern petrol station.

St. Seraphim’s Church is a picturesque decoration of Beloozersk. It is built in a classical Byzantine style .

In the center of the town there is a square with the monument to the heroes who were killed during the Great Patriotic War fighting for Bereza. Their remains were reburied there in 1973.  The obelisk was erected and the Eternal flame was lit in the square in 1976. Because the names of many soldiers were unknown, the search operation started which involved the students of the secondary school No. 2 under the leadership of the headmaster L. D. Belinshchikov. As a  result the names of the 19 heroes were found out. And in 1988 the Museum of military and labor glory was opened at school No. 2. One of the exhibits of the Museum is dedicated to the history and fighting of the 130th speed bomber aviation regiment. Its pilots fought against the Nazi invaders during the first days of the war in the sky of Bereza.

The pride of Beloozersk is Nina Iosifovna Matyash (1943-2008). She is a well-known Belarusian poetess, a laureate of the Prize named after A. Kuleshov and the International Prize named after G. Skovoroda, a laureate of the Festival "Berastseiskaya Zorka-98", an honorary citizen of the town of Beloozersk, an honoured art worker of the Republic of Belarus and an author of 30 collections of poems.

Our town is nice at any season, but it’s especially beautiful in summer when everything around is immersed in greenery and blossom. And the main wealth of the town is its people - kind-hearted and hardworking, who love their town and dedicate their poems to it.