Byaroza

En el siglo XVII, el pueblo pertenecía a la familia Sapieha , que fundó un monasterio fortificado y un palacio. En 1648, el monasterio fue cedido a los monjes cartujos , procedentes de la ciudad italiana de Treviso , quienes se establecieron allí. En agradecimiento por este gesto, el papa Alejandro VII otorgó el título de príncipe a Lew Sapieha . El monasterio se amplió y se convirtió en uno de los monasterios cartujos más grandes de la Mancomunidad Polaco-Lituana . La orden cartuja dio nombre a la segunda parte del nombre del pueblo, nombre que se utilizó hasta finales de la década de 1940: Biaroza-Kartuzskaya (en polaco: Bereza Kartuska).

During the Great Northern War, in 1706, the monastery housed a conference held by King Augustus II of Poland and Tsar Peter I of Russia.^[4] In 1706, the fortified monastery was put under siege and then taken by assault and looted by the forces of Charles XII of Sweden. Two years later, the Swedish forces looted the area again, which resulted in almost total depopulation of the town. It was also damaged by the armies of Alexander Suvorov in 1772, during the Partitions of Poland.

As a result of the Third Partition of Poland, in 1795, the town and the monastery were incorporated into the Russian Empire, which administered it as part of the Pruzhansky Uyezd of Grodno Governorate. After the November Uprising of 1831 the town was captured by the Russian armies and then looted. The monastery was closed by tsarist authorities and in 1866, after the January Uprising, the whole complex was partially demolished, and the bricks were used for construction of a Russian prison and barracks nearby. The baroque church was destroyed in 1868. After the uprising, the town became a part of the so-called Pale of Settlement and was repopulated with Jews expelled from other areas of the Russian Empire. As of 1878, the town had a population of 2,507, of which Jews constituted 44.4%.^[5]

In 1842, a new road was opened between Moscow and Warsaw and passed through the town, which started a period of economic prosperity. In 1871, a Warsaw-Moscow railroad was laid only 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the town, connecting the town with the nearby major cities of Brest and Minsk. In 1878, the town had a marketplace, 7 streets and approximately 200 houses. Apart from the Catholic and Uniate Churches, there was also a synagogue, Jewish baths and a market just outside the city limits.

En 1915, durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, la ciudad fue ocupada por la Alemania Imperial y en 1918 reclamada por la efímera República Popular de Bielorrusia . La ciudad fue capturada por el Ejército Rojo el 19 de enero de 1919, durante la ofensiva soviética hacia el oeste de 1918-19 (Objetivo-Vístula). En el plazo de un mes, el Ejército Polaco avanzó hacia la zona y capturó la ciudad el 14 de febrero de 1919. Durante la guerra polaco-soviética, la ciudad se convirtió en un lugar destacado de dos importantes batallas, incluyendo la primera de la guerra y la segunda batalla de Bereza Kartuska (1920) . Al final de la guerra polaco-soviética, la ciudad fue cedida a Polonia en la Paz de Riga, firmada por la Rusia soviética (actuando también en nombre de la Bielorrusia soviética) el 18 de marzo de 1921. El tratado de paz se mantuvo vigente hasta la invasión soviética de Polonia en 1939. ^{[ 6 ]}

Durante la Segunda República Polaca, la ciudad se ubicaba administrativamente en el condado de Prużana, en el voivodato de Polesie . En 1939, los límites de la ciudad se ampliaron al incluir la aldea de Nowosiółki. ^{[ 7 ]}

Segunda Guerra Mundial

During the German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was captured by the Red Army and incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War, the town was captured by the German Army on 23 June 1941. The German occupation lasted until 15 July 1944. During this time, Byaroza was administered as a part of Generalbezirk Wolhynien und Podolien of Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

Under German occupation, a ghetto was created in the town for Jews who fled there from the surrounding areas. Under the Nazi German occupying administration — which had merged Byaroza, along with most of western Polesia, into the Reichskommissariat Ukraine — more than 8,000 people were killed in mass executions or were starved to death.

Polish and Soviet partisans were active in the area around Byaroza. The Polish resistance organized sabotage actions, disrupting German military transports.^[9] Red Army troops recaptured the town on 15 July 1944. It was eventually annexed from Poland in 1945.

• Yury Narkevich (2005–2016)
• Leanid Martyniuk (since 2016)