A small Belarusian town in the Gomel region is a major industrial center of the country. When from Zlobin he became Zhlobin is not known for certain. However, despite the somewhat negative connotations of both names, this is quite a pleasant settlement.
General information
The city is located on the banks of the Dnieper. It is located on the Gomel Polesye plain, at a distance of 215 km from the capital of Belarus and 94 km from the regional center. It is a major railway junction in the direction of Minsk, Mogilev and Gomel. This settlement is the administrative center of the district of the same name. The population density of the city of Zhlobin is 2315 people per km².
The settlement has a developed industry, one of the largest metallurgical enterprises in Europe, the Belarusian Metallurgical Plant OJSC, operates here. Among other significant enterprises, Zhlobin Mechanical Plant Dnepr OJSC can be noted. Light and food industries, including a meat processing plant, a poultry farm, a dairy plant and a garment factory, are doing well.
First information
The first documented references date back to the Russian-Polish war (1654-1667). Cossack hetman Ivan Zolotarenko, in a letter dated July 15, 1654, reports to the command of the Russian army that the troops under his command burned the Zlobin castle along with other cities.
Like many Belarusian settlements, the settlement in those distant times was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. How many people lived in Zhlobin in that historical era is not known for certain. Later, the city went to the Commonwe alth, from which it was recaptured by the Russian Empire.
The first data on the population of Zhlobin date back to 1847, when it had 965 inhabitants. The city held 4 fairs a year, a pier was built, river boats were built, and the Ex altation of the Cross Church was functioning. The abolition of serfdom increased the mobility of peasants, many of them moved to the city in search of work. The construction of railways in the directions of Libavo-Romenskoye and St. Petersburg-Odessa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries served as a strong catalyst for the development of industry. The population of Zhlobin in 1897 reached 2.1 thousand people. The last pre-revolutionary data on the number of citizens were recorded in 1909. At that time, this provincial town had 4,270 inhabitants.
Between two wars
During the First World War in 1918 the city was occupied first by the Poles, then by the Germans. After the civil war, it became part of the Byelorussian SSR. After the upheavals of the revolutionary and war years, the populationZhlobin has more than doubled compared to imperial times. In 1924, there were 9.6 thousand inhabitants in the settlement. A year later, he received the status of a city. During the years of Soviet industrialization, it began to develop, new schools and industrial enterprises were built.
In the pre-war 1939, the city had 19.3 thousand inhabitants. The population grew due to the influx of peasants from the surrounding villages and the annexation of some villages. The years of German occupation (from August 14, 1941 to June 26, 1944) took a heavy toll on the local population. Many people died in the underground and partisan detachments, then in the Red Army. Only by 1959 was it possible to restore the pre-war population of Zhlobin. Until 1979, the number of townspeople was constantly increasing. Mainly due to natural growth and migration of the surrounding population.
Industrial Center
The construction of the "Belarusian Metallurgical Plant" (BMZ) by the Austrian and Italian companies caused a sharp influx of labor resources from various regions of the country. The plant produced the first steel in 1984. In 1989, the population of the city was 57,000 inhabitants. In subsequent years, the number of citizens regularly increased, even in the crisis of the nineties. Thanks to the demand for metallurgical products, the city-forming enterprise worked rhythmically, new production facilities were introduced.
In 2001, the population of Zhlobin for the first time exceeded 70,000 people. Between 2011 and 2015, a large-scalemodernization of the metallurgical enterprise, increased production volumes. The supply of jobs has also increased. In 2012, Zhlobin had 80,200 inhabitants, surpassing the 80,000 mark for the first time. The following year, there was a decrease in the number of citizens to 75,335 people. Which is largely due to the completion of the main scope of work at BMZ. In subsequent years, the population increased mainly due to natural increase. According to 2018 data, there are 76,220 residents in Zhlobin.
