Ukmergė

Infobox Settlement
name = Ukmergė
settlement_type=City
pushpin_

pushpin_label_position =
pushpin_map_caption =Location of Ukmergė
image_shield = Ukmerge COA.gif
latd=55|latm=15|lats=|latNS=N|longd=24|longm=45|longs=|longEW=E
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = LTU
subdivision_type1= Ethnographic region
subdivision_name1= Aukštaitija
subdivision_type2= County
subdivision_name2= Vilnius County
subdivision_type3= Municipality
subdivision_name3= Ukmergė district municipality
subdivision_type4= Eldership
subdivision_name4= Ukmergė town eldership
subdivision_type6= Capital of
subdivision_name6= Ukmergė district municipality
Ukmergė town eldership
Pivonija eldership
established_date = 1333
established_title=First mentioned
established_date2= 1486
established_title2=Granted city rights|
population_total = 28,759
population_as_of = 2001
population_footnotes=
timezone=EET
utc_offset=+2
timezone_DST=EEST
utc_offset_DST=+3

Ukmergė (pronunciation|Ukmerge.ogg, previously "Vilkmergė") is a city in Vilnius County, Lithuania, located 78 km (48 miles) northwest of Vilnius, with a population of about 28,000 (2005).

History

Early history

Ukmergė was first mentioned as a settlement in 1333. [http://www.voruta.lt/article.php?article=879 Voruta : Lietuvos miestų ir miestelių pirmųjų paminėjimų datos ] ] It was essentially a wooden fortress that stood on a hill, near the confluence of the Vilkmergė River and the Šventoji River. Ukmergė was attacked by the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order in 1333, 1365, 1378, 1386, and even in 1391, already after the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387. During the last attack, Ukmergė was burned to the ground and had to be completely rebuilt.

The region began to adopt Christianity, along with the rest of Lithuania, in 1386. In the following year, 1387, its first Catholic church, St. Peter and St. Paul, was built. It was one of the first Roman Catholic churches established in Lithuania. The town was granted municipal rights at some time after the Battle of Pabaiskas in 1435,Ukmergės miesto ir Ukmergės apskrities istorijos apybraiža, 2004] and written sources dating from 1486 referred to it as a city. King Sigismund the Old confirmed these rights. During the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city had been the center of powiat in the Vilnius Voivodeship.

In 1655, the Swedish and Russian armies plundered the city. Because of these incessant wars, the growth of Ukmergė suffered many setbacks. In the years 1711–1712, the bubonic plague swept through the town and wreaked havoc upon its population. In 1792, by the initiative of the city's representative in the Great Sejm, Józef Dominik Kossakowski, King Stanisław August Poniatowski renewed the town's municipal rights and gave it its current coat of arms.

18th and 19th centuries

In 1795, the town along, with most of Lithuania, was annexed by Russia, becoming a part of the Vilna Governorate. In 1812, the Battle of Deltuva, between the Russian and French armies, occurred not far from Ukmergė; Napoleon's army raided the town during the French invasion of Russia. During the November Uprising in 1831, the city remained in the hands of rebel elements for several months. In 1843, the town became a part of the newly established Kovno Governorate. In 1863, the city participated in the January Uprising against Russia. In 1876 a match factory was established in Ukmergė. In 1877 a fire again ravaged the town. The future president of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, was born in Užulėnis near Ukmergė, and was educated in the local school. In 1882 a printing-house was opened. In 1899 thirteen people were punished for distributing books written in the Lithuanian language, which was prohibited at that time.

20th century

In 1918, after Lithuania declared its independence, the city's name was changed from Vilkmergė to Ukmergė. In 1919 Bolshevik forces occupied the city during the Lithuanian–Soviet War, but it was soon liberated by the Lithuanian army led by Jonas Variakojis. Over five hundred Bolshevik prisoners were taken during the Battle of Ukmergė. An iron foundry was established in the same year. In 1920, the Lithuanian army stopped Polish incursions into the rest of the country, after a series of battles that were waged to establish borders between the two newly re-established countries. An electric plant, a printing house and 120 other small businesses were opened. The city had five newspapers until 1939. In 1930 a monument named "Lituania Restituta" was erected to commemorate the first decade of restored Lithuanian independence. A Polish high school also operated in Ukmergė during the interbellum.In 1940, after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, deportations of people from the town began. When the Germans attacked the Soviet Union and its occupied territories, on June 22, 1941, the retreating Soviets gave instructions to their operatives to kill some one hundred and twenty prisoners; however, most of them escaped - only eight of them were tortured to death. After the German invasion, the Nazis rounded up and killed about 10,000 members of the town's Jewish population. During World War II, the city center suffered from extensive bomb damage. For years after the return of the Soviets, the city's people organized and participated in resistance movements. The deportation of the city's population to Siberia continued. In 1950 the monument to Lithuania's Independence was destroyed. The city reconstructed it in 1990, even before the restoration of Lithuania's independence was declared. Around 1964, two coupled Soviet SS-4 or R-12 Dvina nuclear missile bases were built in the woods near Ukmergė under Nikita Khrushchev. Each had four surface launch pads, semi-underground hangars to store the missiles and several accessory buildings. The bases were mentioned in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. They both are in ruined state at present and freely accessible to public.

Etymology of the name

The city has taken its original name "Vilkmergė" from the Vilkmergėlė River which was initially called Vilkmergė and assumed a diminutive form after the growth of the settlement. It is commonly thought that the name may be translated as "she-wolf", from the combination of "Vilkas" (wolf) and "Merga" (maiden). More likely the second root of the dual-stemmed name is verbal "merg-/merk-" meaning "to submerge" or "to dip". According to local legend, Vilkmergė was a girl raised by wolves, who bridged the divide between animals and humans, in the same way as Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli. The folk etymology of "Ukmergė", by contrast, is "farm girl" (Lith. "ūkis" = farm). The original name has been adopted by the local soccer team, "Vilkmergė Ukmergė" as well as popular HBH Vilkmergė beer.

People

* Bruno Abakanowicz, Lithuanian mathematician, born in Ukmergė
* Alexander Braudo, author and publisher, born in Ukmergė
* Chaim Freinkel, philanthropist, lived, worked, and established schools in Ukmergė [ [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Shavli/shavli3.html ShtetLinks: Siauliai ] ]
* Antanas Smetona, president of Lithuania from 1919–1920 and from 1926–1940, was born nearby and educated in the local school system
* Leib Gurwicz, Rabbi and Talmudic scholar, studied at the yeshivah school here
* Yisroel Aharon Fracht, immigrated to the US in 1906 and to Canada in 1919 where he was one of the original founders of the Montreal North-End Vilkomir Society.
* Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, Rabbi and Lithuanian parliamentarian, built yeshivas, a school and an orphanage in Ukmergė
* Ben Shahn, American artist, muralist, social activist, photographer and teacher, lived in Ukmerge in the early 1900s
*Zigmas Zinkevičius, Lithuanian linguist, acquired his early schooling in Ukmergė.

References

External links

* [http://www.ukmerge.lt/ The official page of the Municipality of the Ukmerge Region]
* [http://www.archyvai.lt/exhibitions/herbai/herbas253.htm The original coat of arms from 1792]
* [http://www.litnet.lt/lithuania/cities/ukm.html History of Ukmergė]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/ukmerge.htm Nuclear missile sites near Ukmergė]