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Stolin - the very south of Belarus

First mentioned in the chronicles in 1555, Stolin is based on the Garyn River 245 km away from Brest. Its population today is about 12 500 people. Some researchers suggest that the city name originates from “one hundred tenches” caught by a local fisherman while others believe that Stolin comes from the word “stol” – assembly place for the local princes.

A part of the Turov and Pinsk principalities Stolin later on passed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1569 it became a part of Rech Pospolitaya – a union state between the Grand Duchy and Polish Kingdom. At this point the Jews started settling here searching for a better fate.

From the 16^th century on Stolin belongs to different magnate families: the Vishnevetskys, the Soltans, the Skirmunts. The wars of the 18^th century led Rech Pospolitaya to the brink of collapse: after devastating wars with Russians, Swedes and Tatars it went into decay from which it never recovered. As a result of three partitions of Rech Pospolitaya Stolin became a part of the Russian Empire in 1793. Somewhere around that time things started to go back to normal: Stolin hosted annual fairs that were mentioned in the pinkhas of the Lithuanian Vaad.

In 1765 there were 408 Jews in Stolin. In 1792 it became a site for local parliament sessions. In 1816 the first school of mutual education in Belarus (senior students passed on the knowledge to the younger ones) was open in Stolin. In 1863 a district public school was introduced, too.

The official sources of 1847 confirmed the existence of Stolin Jewish society that numbered 777 persons. As trade and crafts went on developing in Stolin more buildings were constructed, mainly by the Jewish community: White Stone Synagogue (cold) in 1792, three prayer houses (heated synagogues), Jewish schools, banks, mills, shops, pharmacies and multiple mikhves and dwelling houes. Many of these buildings survive to the date.

Stolin became a major center of hasidism. Stolin tsaddiks had great influence in Minsk and Volyn gubernia. Rebe Asher Perlov Stolinsky, the son of Rebe Aaron Perlov (the Great), was the founder of the Stolin tsaddik family. Asher Perlov Stolinsky was one of the mostprominent tsaddiks of his time. His son Aaron Perlov II held the post of tsaddik in Karlin – the suburb of Pinsk and enjoyed terrific influence across the territory of Belarus. He was forced to relocate to Stolin where the dynasty of tsaddiks was in place until its last successor Rebe Moishe Perlov was killed in the ghetto of Stolin along with his relatives.

In 1886 Stolin had 121 household with the total population of 815. There were a church and a chapel, a synagogue, 4 Jewish prayer houses, the office of district authorities, a local public school, a post station, a brewery and a tavern and a tea factory. There were 20 shops and the population was largely busy with agriculture and cattle breeding. According to 1897 census Stolin population amounted to 3342 persons, including 2489 Jews.

The Jews of Stolin who made the town’s ethnical majority were tightly connected. They mostly resided next to the market square.

The Soviet government was established in Stolin in November 1917. Shortly afterwards the area was occupied by the Kaiser Germans and their occupation was replaced by the Poles.

Between the two wars according to the Brest Treaty signed in 1921 Stolin was a part of Poland, a district center of Polesye region. It was a comparatively peaceful period for the Jews of Stolin when their culture and businesses flourished.

Between 1922 and 1939 the following establishments operated in Stolin: White Stone Synagogue, three heated synagogues, a kheder, Tarbut and Kibutz schools. The businesses included the mills of Mendel Gleiberman and Sokhar Visotsky, pharmacies of Chernik, Fialkov and Lieberman, warehouses of the Shklyar brothers, Krupnik, Eisenberg, the restaurants and cafes of Gonsky, Tukin, Vinnik, Rogozinsky, the cinema of Rukhotsky, the hotels of Gleiberman, Rodkevich, Goberman. Merchants Durchin, Furman and Zakharovich ran the timber and salt trade and loaned money to the Radziwills.

By 1941 the population of Stolin amounted to 12 500 people including about 8 500 Jews. On top of that 7 000 refugees from the Nazi-occupied Poland resided in the city.

Stolin was occupied by the Nazi on 12 June 1941. In spring 1942 after a number of execution operations by the Nazi and their collaborators the surviving Jews of Stolin, Davyd-Gorodok and surrounding areas were forced into a ghetto. They were executed 3 kilometers away from the city in the Stasino forest two months later. This ended the existence of a 300-year old Jewish community of Stolin.

The post-war restoration of Stolin saw its gradual conversion into a typical provincial Belarusian town.