Rudnya

Rudnya lies in the wooded country about forty kilometres east of Orsha. River routes, farmland and forest connected its settlements with the larger regional centre.

The nearby regional centre of Orsha belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1514 an allied Lithuanian and Polish army defeated Muscovite forces near the town. Orsha received Magdeburg rights in 1620, suffered damage during the war of 1654–1667, and passed to the Russian Empire in the first partition of Poland in 1772.