Ushachy

Ushachy lies among the lakes south-west of Polotsk, on a route towards Minsk. A court record of 1484 names people from the settlement and recalls lands granted to their ancestors by Grand Duke Vytautas. In 1552 it was recorded as a village in Polotsk Voivodeship, and by the seventeenth century it had a landing, a church, a monastery and two annual fairs.

In 1716 Władysław Żaba founded a Catholic church and Dominican monastery, with a school and hospital attached. Ushachy received Magdeburg rights and a coat of arms in 1758. After the first partition of the Commonwealth it served as the centre of the part of Polotsk Voivodeship that remained in Lithuania; the second partition brought Russian rule in 1793. The campaign of 1812 brought heavy losses and destruction, and Napoleon stayed here briefly that July.