MOGILEV ON THE

See also:

• DNIEPER

DNIEPER  , a town of Russia, capital of the government of Mogilev . Pop . (1900), 47,591, two-thirds Jews . It is situated on a hilly site on both banks of the Dnieper, 120 M. by rail S.W. of Smolensk . It is the see of an archbishop of the Orthodox Greek Church . The public buildings include the cathedral of the Orthodox Greek Church (founded by Catherine II. of Russia and Joseph II. of Austria in 178o), a Roman Catholic cathedral (built in 1692), an old castle, a museum, a church dating from 162o, and an old Tatar tower . The principal industries are tanneries . The commerce is mostly in the hands of Jews . Corn, salt, sugar and fish are brought from the south, whilst skins and manufactured wares, imported from Germany, are sent to the southern governments . Mogilev is mentioned for the first time in the 14th century as a dependency of, the Vitebsk, or of the Mstislavl principality . At the beginning of the 15th century it became the personal property of the Polish kings . But it was continually plundered—either by Russians, who attacked it six times during the 16th century, or by Cossacks, who plundered it three times .

In the 17th century its inhabitants, who belonged to the Orthodox Greek Church, suffered much from the persecutions of the

United Greek Church . In 1654 it surrendered to Russia, but in 1661 the Russian garrison was massacred by the inhabitants . In the 18th century the town was taken several times by Russians and by Swedes, and in 1708 Peter the Great ordered it to be destroyed by fire . It was annexed to Russia in 1772 . Near here the French under Davoitt defeated the Russians under Bagration on the 23rd of July 1812 .