- Zalavas
Zalavas ( _pl. Zułów) is a village in
Lithuania , on theMera river, close toŠvenčionys . According to the 2001 census, it had approximately one hundred and seventy residents. It is the birthplace ofJózef Piłsudski , Polish Chief of State and Marshal.History
The village, earlier known under the name of Mieciany, was first mentioned in the late 17th century as the private property of Aleksander Wojna-Jasieniecki, a
Castellan ofNavahrudak . It then passed to the Giedraičiai princely family, and in the 18th century the village was bought by theRurikid Ogiński family, one of the notablemagnate clans of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania . In the early 19th century the village was inherited by the Michałowskis. As part of thedowry of Helena Michałowska, it passed to her husband, Antoni Billewicz, who then bequeathed it to their daughter, Maria Billewiczowna. In 1863, after marrying Józef Wincenty Piłsudski, the village became the property of the Piłsudski family. It was there that both their sons were born,Bronisław Piłsudski , onNovember 2 ,1866 , andJózef Piłsudski , onDecember 5 ,1867 .In July 1874, the local manor burned down and the family moved to
Vilnius . Soon afterwards the family was forced to sell most of their property in Lithuania including Zalavas and nineteen other villages, in order to pay for legal expenses and fines for Bronisław, who was involved in anassassination attempt on the life of tsarAlexander III of Russia .Aleksandr Ulyanov , an older brother of Lenin, was also impilcated in this plot and executed as a result. In 1882 the village was bought by Michał Ogiński, an heir to theOgiński family who had owned it in the 18th century. However, as the policies ofRussification of former lands in thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forbadePoles to purchase any real estate, he was forced to sell it to a Russian merchant fromRiga named Klim. The latter sold the village to a certain imperial officer named Kuronosov, who divided the property, sold most of the forests and was forced to abandon the area in 1915, duringWorld War I . The Germans occupied the area later that year, and most of the remaining forests were cut down.After the war, the area became part of
Second Polish Republic . Since the property had belonged to a Russian official who abandoned it, it was nationalized, and limited to the core of 65hectare s, and attached to a military base located nearby. In 1934 an association of veterans of thePolish-Bolshevik War purchased it from the army and a committee was created whose aim was to rebuild the manor of Piłsudski, who in the meantime had become the national hero and "de facto "dictator of Poland. The manor was reconstructed, and officially opened to the public as a museum onOctober 10 ,1937 . However, it was destroyed by the Soviets shortly after the Invasion of Poland in 1939.After the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 and of Lithuania in 1940 it became part of the
Lithuanian SSR . Since 1991 it is part ofLithuania . Currently anoak and a memorial stone mark the spot.References
*pl icon [http://rzecz-pospolita.com/zulow.php3 ZUŁÓW]
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