Did you know that...

(Some of the facts below have not been verified for absolute accuracy. Additional info will be appreciated.)

There are several ways of spelling the city's name? Gomel, Homel (Belarusian version), Homyel and Homiel (English transliterations) are some of them.

This is what Gomel's coat of arms looks like? (More on Belarusian Heraldry )

The following towns are part of the Gomel region?

In the late 19th century, as a result of territorial divisions, Gomel was considered part of Mogilevskaia Guberniia?

Gomel's State University is named after Francis Skaryna, a scholar from Polotsk, who, early in the 16th century translated the Bible to Belarusian and has frequently been cited as a forerunner of Belarusian literature and the founder of a distinct southwestern Russian literary language?

A notable mathematician, Lev Genrikhovich Shnirelman was born in Gomel?

World renowned psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was raised in the city of Gomel?

The length of the river Sozh, on which Gomel stands, is 647 km?

In the 19th century Jewish residents comprised more than 50% of the city's total population?

At one point Gomel had 24 synagogues, only one of which has survived to the present day?...

At the turn of the 20th century Gomel played a large role in the development of the Bund movement and Zionism in Belarus? "Self-defense organizations to protect the Jews during the wave of pogroms in this period were established by the Bund and the Labor Zionists at this time in every town in the region. In autumn of 1903 the first move toward organized Jewish self-defense was made to combat a gang of rioters in Gomel. As a result only a few communities in Belorussia were harmed."*

Soviet statesman and leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1988, Andrei Gromyko, was born in the village of Starye Gromyki, Gomel region?

One of Gomel's 'twin-cities' is the French city of Clermont-Ferrand?

The city of Aberdeen, Scotland is another of Gomel's sister-cities?

Dan Dorfman, one of the most known figures of modern RULINET (RUssian LIterary NET), was born in Gomel?

A Fire-Fighting Society was founded in Gomel in 1896?

Frederic Rand Mann (originally Maniyevich), the Philadelphia philantrophist and United States Ambassador to the Barbados (1967-69), for whom the Frederic R. Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv was named, was born in Gomel in 1903?



Gomel: Then and Now

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Alena Kachuro