Dubno (Ukrainian: Дубно) is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubenskyi Raion (district), the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast. It was home to the Cold War facility Dubno air base.

The current estimated population is around 37,690 (as of 2005).

History

First mentioned in a chronicle of 1099, when it was in possession of Yaroslav the Wise's grandson David of Brest, Dubno was even a seat of local princes for a short period of time. In the early 14th century it was annexed by Poland with the rest of Halych-Volynia. Later, it became a notable royal stronghold guarding that country's eastern border.

Granted city rights in 1498, the town attracted many foreign settlers, most notably Jewish and Armenian. As such, it became the seat of one of the oldest and most vibrant Jewish communes in Central Europe. Since 14th century owned by the mighty Ostrogski family, who built the first castle there during the times of Vasili Ostrozhski. Between 1489 and 1506 the castle was significantly expanded by Konstanty Ostrogski, who made it a modern fortress, one of the strongest in the area.

With the death of Janusz Ostrogski in 1619, the last of his kin, the area was inherited by his brother-in-law Aleksander Zasławski of the cadet branch of the Ostrogski family. About that time it was again modernized to stand up to the standards of renaissance warfare and modernization of artillery. Finally, in 1753 it was sold to the Lubomirskis following the Treaty of Zdołbunów.

In the 1780s the castle underwent yet another modernization and was rebuilt as a residential manor, mostly losing its fortified character. By that time, the town was the largest settlement of the Volhynian Voivodship and arguably the most notable centre of the area. Annexed by Imperial Russia in 1795 during the Partitions of Poland, the town initially flourished as the szlachta register was moved there from Lwów. However, after the third partition it was moved to Kiev and the town lost its importance, gradually falling into neglect. In 1870 it was declared a Fortified Town, which imposed serious limitations on settlement and housing construction, further limiting the development. However, it remained a notable centre of commerce, most notably because of numerous Czech settlements around the town, that gave it the nick-name of the brewery of Volhynia.

The castle was ruined in 1915 during the World War I. Retaken by Poland in 1918 and finally granted to that state in the Peace of Riga, it was a seat of a powiat and a notable military garrison of the KOP. In 1935 a large prison was started to be built, the third biggest in Poland at that time. Between 1932 and 1939 the castle was being rebuilt in its original form, but the works were stopped by the outbreak of World War II. Occupied by the Soviet Union in the effect of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, it was subject to harsh policies of the NKVD. The uncompleted prison was taken over by the NKVD in December of 1939 and was used for political prisoners of all parts of Soviet-annexed Poland. Between 1500 and 3000 prisoners were being kept there in harsh conditions, with new inmates arriving after the previous ones were successively transported to Gulag and other Soviet prisons. In 1940 most of the local Poles were arrested and resettled to various Soviet Gulags and prisons throughout the USSR. In 1941, following the outbreak of Soviet-German War, on June 24 and June 25, 1941, approximately 550 prisoners of the Dubno prison were executed by the withdrawing NKVD while only 8 of them survived. About that time in the vicinity of the town (and around Lutsk and Brody) a large tank battle was fought. In the Battle of Brody (1941) the German 1st Panzer Group under Ewald von Kleist managed to break the counter-attack by Soviet 9th and 19th Mechanized Corps, and 8th Mechanized Corps. 8 th Corps Tank Group take Dubno and held him 5 days before is turn back by stronger German forces' (under Konstantin Rokossovski, Nikolay Feklenko and D.I Rybjasev, Commander of 8th Corps Tank group was brigade commisar N.K. Popel, respectively).

Soon afterwards the town was occupied by Germany. In 1942 a large ghetto was created there. Most of the local Jews (roughly 12,000, that is 59% of pre-war inhabitants of the town) were killed in The Holocaust. Most were shot at mass executions by the SS Einsatzgruppe outside town. A detailed description of the mass murder was given by Hermann Friedrich Graebe at the Nuremberg trials. A young German officer of the German Infanterieregiment 9, Axel von dem Bussche witnessed the executions and reacted by joining the resistance movement against Hitler. After the war the town was given to Soviet Ukraine.

Jewish history

Town in the government of Volhynia, Russia. According to the census of 1897 it had a population of 13,785, including 5,608 Jews. The chief sources of income for the latter are in trading and industrial occupations. There are 902 artisans, 147 day-laborers, 27 factory and workshop employees, and 6 families cultivate 90 deciatines of land. The town has a Jewish hospital, but no educational institutions except several ḥadarim. The earliest date given in connection with the Jews of Dubno is the beginning of the 17th century. In [1650] there were in Dubno 47 Jewish and 141 Christian taxable households.

Rabbis

The following list of Dubno rabbis extends from 1600 to 1903:

• Isaiah ha-Levi Hurwitz (1600-06), author of "Shene Luḥot ha-Berit."
• Samuel b. Aaron ha-Levi Hurwitz (1625-30), cousin of Isaiah Hurwitz.
• Ẓebi (Hirsch) b. Ozer, son-in-law of Abraham Ḥayyim Shor (See Schor), chief rabbi of Satanow; author of (?).
• Meïr b. Moses Ashkenazi, the father of Shabbethai Kohen (ShaK); died at Dubno Nov. 25, 1649.
• Judah ha-Ḥasid, martyred 1649.
• Abraham Heilprin (1660-62), son-in-law of the physician Jehiel Michael Epstein.
• Naḥman b. Meïr ha-Kohen Rapoport (also called Naḥman Lifsches); died in 1674;
  previously rabbi of Kremenetz (Volhynia) and Belz (Galicia); took part in the Council of Four Lands at the fair of Jaroslaw.
• Moses b. Joseph, died at Lemberg May 22, 1684.
• Israel b. Mordecai Yolis (also called Israel Swinhar).
• Simḥah b. Naḥman ha-Kohen Rapoport, died at Szebreczin July 15, 1717;
  son-in-law of Israel b. Mordecai; replaced the latter in the rabbinate of Dubno from 1682 to 1688; rabbi of Grodno to 1714, of Lublin to 1717; called to the rabbinate of Lemberg in the same year; he died on his way there.
• Joseph b. Judah Yüdel of Lublin, died April 13, 1706;
  wrote a work entitled "Ne'imah Ḳedoshah," containing moral precepts and a poem for the Sabbath.
• Samuel b. Shalom Shakna of Cracow, died at Brody June 22, 1729.
• Isaac b. Saul Ginzburg (1712-15).
• Eleazar b. Issachar Baer of Cracow (1715-1719), maternal grandfather of Ezekiel Landau.
• Heschel b. Eleazar (also called R. Heschel "der Kleiner"), died July 25, 1729.
• Zalman Ephraim b. Saul.
• Abraham b. Samuel Kahana, died 1741; previously rabbi of Brody and Ostrog (Volhynia).
• Isaac Moses b. Abraham Kahana (d. 1745).
• Saul b. Aryeh Löb, born at Reischo 1717; died at Amsterdam June 19, 1790; son-in-law of Abraham Kahana and author of "Binyan Ariel" (1745-55).
• Naphtali Herz b. Ẓebi Hirsch (d. May 17, 1777).
• Ze'eb Wolf b. Naphtali Herz, born at Brody 1745; died at Dubno 1800;
  previously rabbi of Radzivil, Volhynia; his responsa were published in the "Tif'eret Ẓebi" of Ẓebi Hirsch, rabbi of Brody (Lemberg, 1811).
• Nathan ha-Levi Hurwitz.
• Ḥayyim Mordecai Margaliot, brother-in-law of Nathan Hurwitz and author of "Sha'are Teshubah".
• Ḥayyim Jacob b. Ze'eb Wolf, previously rabbi of Rovno, Volhynia; died Sept. 25, 1849.
• David Ẓebi Auerbach, son-in-law of Ḥayyim Jacob and author of "Malbushe Ṭaharah" (unpublished).
• Menahem Mendel Auerbach, son of David Ẓebi, is the present (1903) incumbent.

People

• Dubnov, Dubner pedigree
• Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst
• Jacob ben Wolf Kranz, Dubner Maggid
• Rafał Leszczyński (1650–1703)
• Aleksander Dominik Lubomirski
• Józef Karol Lubomirski
• Katarzyna Ostrogska (1560-1579)
• Wiktor Poliszczuk
• Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik
• Vyacheslav Ivanovich Zof
• Theodosia Czernotowycz
• Mychajlo Czernotowycz
• Irina Czernotowycz
• Leonid Czernotowycz

See also

• Ostroh
• List of towns with German town law
• Battle of Warsaw (1920)
• Polish-Soviet War
• Battle of Uman
• Polish-Soviet War in 1920
• German XLVIII Panzer Corps
• Operation Spark (1940)

References

• (English)
• (Polish) "Dubno". PWN (web). (2002). 
• (Polish) Dubno; Zamek. Wyjazd turystyczno-charytatywny na Kresy. Retrieved on November 20, 2005.
• (Polish) Dubno - Ślad zbrodni - 60 lat później. Jedwabne - kilka słÃ³w krytycznych. Retrieved on November 20, 2005.
• (Polish) Dubno. Ilustrowany przewodnik po Wołyniu; 1929. Retrieved on November 20, 2005.
• (Polish) Łuck-Brody-Dubno i T-34. Historycy.pl. Retrieved on November 20, 2005.

Bibliography of Jewish Encyclopedia

• P. Pesis, 'Ir Dubno we-Rabbaneha, Cracow, 1902;
• Regesty i Nadpisi, i. 339, 432, St. Petersburg, 1899;
• K. H. Margolyesh, in Ned. Khronika Voskhoda, 1887, p. 45.H

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. ([1])

:By : Herman Rosenthal, S. Janovsky & M. Seligsohn

External links

• Official city webpage
• Сastles of Ukraine. (Ukrainian)
• Soviet topographic map 1:100,000
• The extermination of the Jews of Dubno - a testimony at the Nuremberg trials by Hermann Graebe
• Location map via Encarta Maps

	Administrative divisions of Rivne Oblast, Ukraine
	Raions: Bereznivskyi | Demydivskyi | Dubenskyi | Dubrovytskyi | Hoshchanskyi | Koretskyi | Kostopilskyi | Mlynivskyi | Ostrozkyi | Radyvylivskyi | Rivnenskyi | Rokytnivskyi | Sarnenskyi | Zarichnenskyi | Zdolbunivskyi
	Cities: Berezne | Dubno | Dubrovytsia | Korets | Kostopil | Kuznetsovsk | Ostroh | Radyvyliv | Rivne | Sarny | Zdolbuniv
	Urban-type settlements: Demydivka | Hoshcha | Mlyniv | Rokytne | Sosnove | Tuczyn | Zarichne | more...
	s: Mezhirichi | more...

Coordinates: