Kievan Rus' Gomel was founded at the end of the 1st millennium AD on the lands of the
Eastern Slavic tribal union of
Radimichs. It lay on the banks of the
Sozh River and the
Homeyuk stream. Sozh's high right bank, with bluffs carving through, provided a natural fortification. For some time, Gomel was the capital of the Gomel Principality, before it became part of the
Principality of Chernigov. Gomel is first mentioned in the
Hypatian Codex under the year 1142 as a territory of the princes of Chernigov. For some time, Gomel was ruled by the prince of Smolensk
Rostislav Mstislavich before it was re-captured by
Iziaslav III Davidovich, after whose death it belonged to
Sviatoslav Olgovich and then to Sviatoslav's son Oleg. Under Oleg, Gomel went to the
Principality of Novgorod-Seversk. The next ruler was
Igor Svyatoslavich—the protagonist of ''
The Tale of Igor's Campaign''. During this period, the town was a fortified point and the centre of a
volost. In the 12th–13th centuries, the city's area was no less than 40 ha, and it had developed various crafts and was connected by trading routes with the cities of northern and southern Rus'. Archeological data have shown that the city was badly damaged during the Mongol-Tatar invasion in the first half of the 13th century.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth In 1335, the Gomel region was annexed to the
Great Duchy of Lithuania by
Algirdas. From 1335 to 1406, it was under the ownership of Prince Patricia Narymuntovich and his sons, from 1406 to 1419 the city was ruled by the grand duke's deputies, from 1419 to 1435 it belonged to Prince
Svitrigaila, from 1446 to 1452 to Prince Vasiliy Yaroslavich, from 1452 to 1483 to the
Mozhaysk prince Ivan Andreyevich, and from 1483 to 1505 to his son Semyon, who transferred it to the
Grand Principality of Moscow. During the
Second Muscovite–Lithuanian War of 1500–1503, Lithuania tried to regain Gomel and other lands transferred to Moscow, but had suffered defeat and lost one-third of its territory. In 1535, Lithuanian and Polish forces under
Jerzy Radvila,
Jan Tarnowski and Andrzej Niemirowicz re-captured the city after the surrender of Moscow's deputy, D. Shchepin-Obolensky. In the same year, the Great Duke of Lithuania
Sigismund Kęstutaitis founded Gomel
Starostwo. According to the peace agreement of 1537, Gomel together with its
volost remained a Lithuanian possession. In 1535–1565, Gomel was the centre of the
starostwo, and from 1565 onwards it was in
Rechytsa Powiat of
Minsk Voivodeship. In 1560, the city's first
coat of arms was introduced. In 1569, Gomel became part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From this moment on, the city became the arena of numerous attacks and battles between the
Cossacks, Russia, and the
Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth. In 1572, Gomel
Starostwo was given to B. Sapega. At the beginning of the 1570s, Gomel was captured by the forces of
Ivan the Terrible, but in 1576 it was re-captured by J. Radvila. In 1581, Gomel was again attacked by Russian troops, and in 1595–1596 it was in the hands of
Severyn Nalyvaiko's Cossacks. After the beginning of the struggle against
Orthodox Christianity in Lithuania,
Orthodox Nikolayevskiy Cathedral was closed, following the order of
Greek Catholic Eparch Josaphat Kuntsevych in 1621. In 1633, the city was besieged by Cossacks Bulgakov and Yermolin, in 1648 captured by Golovatskiy's Cossack detachment, and in 1649 by Martyn Nebaba's detachment. After that, Gomel got through several sieges in 1651, but in 1654 was
captured by
Ivan Zolotarenko's detachment. He and his sons held the city until 1667 and then began to serve under
Alexis of Russia, however, after the
Truce of Andrusovo Gomel at last returned to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where it first belonged to
M. K. Radvila and then—till the
annexation by the
Russian Empire—to the
Czartoryski family. During the
Great Northern War, Russian forces under
Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov stood in Gomel. In 1670, Gomel received
Magdeburg rights. Towards the middle of the 17th century, the city fell into crisis mainly due to the struggles mentioned above. It suffered significant damage, the population decreased severely, and many crafts disappeared.
Russian Empire Gomel became part of the
Russian Empire after the first partition of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772 and was confiscated by the imperial treasury. In 1775,
Empress Catherine II gave Gomel and Gomel eldership in the eternal hereditary possession of Russian military commander
Pyotr Rumyantsev. The period when Gomel was part of the Russian Empire was marked by rapid growth of the population, urban infrastructure, and industrial capacity, predominantly after the construction of railways in the late 19th century. Saints
Peter and Paul Cathedral, designed by architect John Clark, was built in 1809–1819.
Nikolay Rumyantsev opened the first
gymnasium, inn, glass, tile, weaving and spinning factories, and distilleries. Under his patronage a church, a synagogue, a pharmacy, a poorhouse, and a permanent wooden bridge across the
Sozh river were built. After the death of Nikolay Rumyantsev, the city came into the possession of his brother Sergei Petrovich Rumyantsev. However, due to lack of money, Sergei indebted Gomel with the state treasury of the Russian Empire. Subsequently, after not being able to pay off the debt, the treasury sold the city. The
Gomel Palace was acquired by Prince
Ivan Paskevich, and the rest of the city by
Nicholas I (1838). Paskevich had an English garden made around the palace, which is still in place today. In 1856, the estate passed on to his son Fyodor Ivanovich Paskevich. In 1842, the
Prince Józef Poniatowski Monument, one of the most iconic monuments of
Warsaw, was relocated from Warsaw to Gomel, before it was restored to Poland in 1922. in Gomel In 1852, Gomel became the county town of the former Belitsa County (renamed to Gomel County). This was preceded by the construction of the St. Petersburg–Kiev highway and St. Petersburg–Sebastopol telegraph line, both of which passed through Gomel, and the opening of a beet sugar factory. The construction of railways in the territory of Belarus in the late 19th century (
Libau–Romny Railway in 1873 and the Polesia railway in 1888) made Gomel a major railway junction and "drew many businessmen to the town, causing the establishment of banks, firms and factories, which in turn changed the pastoral and provincial character of a bygone Gomel into a trading and mercantile one" By 1913, Gomel had become a major industrial city with 104,500 inhabitants. Nearly 44% of its industrial output was metalworking, with large workshops servicing the rolling stock of the
Libau–Romny Railway and the Polesia railway. Other significant industries were woodworking, match manufacturing, breweries, and churning.
Civil war and early Soviet era Preceding the
treaty of Brest-Litovsk, on 1 March 1918, the city was occupied (the Executive Committee of the Gomel Council of Workers' Deputies had left already on 21 February) by German forces. After the overthrow of the Ukrainian State Gomel was administered by the
Ukrainian People's Republic for 25 days. In 1919, Gomel became the centre of
Gomel Governorate in the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. After the end of hostilities, the restoration of industry and transportation began. In the 1920s, a number of large businesses were created: shipyards, a factory named "Polespechat", a shoe factory named "Trud", a bakery, and the first phase of a municipal power plant. In 1926, the city was passed to the
Byelorussian SSR. By 1940, 264 industrial enterprises had been established.
World War II During
World War II, Gomel was under
German occupation from the
19th of August 1941 until the
26th of November 1943. The occupiers operated a prison, the Dulag 220 and Dulag 121 transit camps for prisoners of war, and
forced labour camps for prisoners of war and civilians, part of whom were Jews. The city was taken by
Rokossovsky's
Belorussian Front during the Gomel–Rechitsa Offensive. Eighty percent of the city had been destroyed, and the population of Gomel had dropped dramatically. According to the data of the registry, it numbered less than 15,000 inhabitants, compared to 144,000 in 1940.
Post-war period After the war, the restoration of Gomel began promptly. The majority of pre-revolutionary buildings had been lost. City streets were considerably expanded, and buildings in a
Stalinist style were erected. By 1950, almost all of the pre-war enterprises had resumed their work.
Chernobyl disaster As a result of the
disaster at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on 26 April 1986, Gomel suffered
radioactive contamination. At the beginning of the 21st century, a research centre for radiation medicine and human ecology was built in Gomel to overcome and study the consequences of the catastrophe at Chernobyl. The development of radiological dose values varies between individual villages in severely contaminated regions, depending on the surroundings and the economic orientation. In general, living is possible in these areas today, even in formerly closed-off zones, if appropriate dietary rules are observed.
Recent history On 27 July 1990, the
Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was drafted. Gomel became a city in the independent state of the Republic of Belarus the following year. During the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gomel became an important base for Russian forces. == Population ==