| Stowbtsy | |
| Native Name: | |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Flag Size: | 150 |
| Pushpin Map: | Belarus |
| Coordinates: | 53.4833°N 70°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Belarus |
| Subdivision Type1: | Region |
| Subdivision Name1: | Minsk Region |
| Subdivision Type2: | District |
| Subdivision Name2: | Stowbtsy District |
| Established Title: | First mentioned |
| Established Date: | 1511 |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population Total: | 17737 |
| Population As Of: | 2024 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone1: | GTM +3 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 222666 |
| Area Code: | +375 1717 |
| Blank Name: | License plate |
| Blank Info: | 5 |
| Website: | http://www.stolbtsy.minsk-region.by/ |
Stowbtsy (Belarusian: Стоўбцы|Stoŭbcy, in Belarusian pronounced as /ˈstowpt͡sɨ/) or Stolbtsy (Russian: Столбцы, pronounced as /ru/; Polish: Stołpce; Yiddish: סטויבץ|Steibtz; Lithuanian: Stolpcai) is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Stowbtsy District.[1] It is located on the Neman River. As of 2024, it has a population of 17,737.[1]
"Stowbtsy" means "columns" or "posts" in Belarusian. A suggested version for the name origin: once the Neman River was very deep, and sailing boats had to be tied to wooden posts to secure the boats against a strong flow of the river.[2]
The town was founded in 1593.[3] For a long time it was a shtetl with significant Jewish population.
In August 1924, while Stowbtsy was part of the Second Polish Republic, the town was the site of a Soviet-Polish border incident in which a company of Soviet raiders attacked its police station and government building in order to free two imprisoned communist activists (see Soviet raid on Stołpce).[4]
Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the municipality was occupied by the Soviet Union until 1941, then by Germany until 1944. In June 1941, there were more than 3,000 Jews living in the town, including several hundred refugees from the German occupied parts of Poland. The city was under German occupation from 1941 to 1944. After a week of occupation, the Germans shot around 200 Jews together with several dozen non- Jews, allegedly as a reprisal for sniper fire directed at German soldiers. On September 23, 1942, some 450 Jews were sent to their workplaces, and 750 Jews, most of them women, were shot in a forest, while another 850 either managed to flee or remained in hiding in the ghetto. On October 2, another 488 Jews, composed mostly of women and children were shot. Another 350 Jews were killed on October 11. On January 31, 1943, the remaining 254 Jews, including those brought in from Novy Sverzhen, were shot. In the following days, the captured Jews were also shot and 293 Jews had been shot by February 4, 1943. Some of the Jews who fled the ghetto survived by joining the Bielski partisans in the nearby Naliboki Forest.[5] In 1944, the town was re-occupied by the Soviet Union, which annexed it from Poland in 1945.
In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin arrived in the Soviet Union via Stowbtsy, where he was taken to a commissar. He later escaped an assassination attempt by an agent of the OGPU.