Smolensk

Smolensk is a city and the administrative centre of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, on the Dnieper River 360 kilometres west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia and lay on the historic route from the Varangians to the Greeks. It was the capital of the Principality of Smolensk from the 11th to the 15th centuries, passed to Russia in 1514, to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1611 and back to Russia in 1654. It was the site of two major battles, in 1812 and 1941, as French and German forces advanced toward Moscow. The 2021 census counted 316,570 residents, and its climate is warm-summer humid continental, quite cold for its latitude of 54 degrees north.