Dorogobuzh

a city, the center of Dorogobuzh Raion, Smolensk Oblast, RSFSR.

It has a landing on the upper reaches of the Dnieper River, 125 km east of Smolensk. A railway branch connects it with the Safonovo station 22 km away on the Smolensk-Viaz’ma line. At the end of the 13th century and during the 14th, it was the center of one of the appanages of the Smolensk Land. Lithuania and then Poland conquered it in the 1400’s. In the 1500’s and 1600’s the city at times belonged to Poland, at times to the Russian state. By the terms of the Andrusovo Truce of 1667 it became a permanent possession of Russia. From 1708 it was a district city of Smolensk Province. It has a flax factory, a brickyard, and a dairy.