Velizh

a city, administrative center of Velizh Raion, Smolensk Oblast, RSFSR. A landing stage on the Zapadnaia Dvina, 70 km north of Rudnia railroad station on the Vitebsk-Smolensk line. Population, 9,000 (1968). The city’s industry includes a furniture factory, a logging and timber distribution establishment, and flax-processing and cheese-making plants. It arose in 1536 as a fortified point.