Hegumen

Hegumen was a small ecclesiastical town east of Minsk, first mentioned in 1387 in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1447 Jan Kieżgajło granted the estate, its surrounding villages and their dependent inhabitants to the bishopric of Vilnius. The bishops' possession made Hegumen a centre of church lands in the Minsk region.

In January 1649 Cossacks defeated a force of nobles and mercenaries under Jan Pac near the town. Hegumen suffered badly in the Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667 and again during the Great Northern War. After the second partition of the Commonwealth, it passed to Russia in 1793 and became the centre of a district in 1795. It was damaged once more during the campaign of 1812; by 1825 its market, shops, churches and inns served a town of about 900 inhabitants.