Cycling into the Past

Saint Petersburg (population in 2024: 5,645,943, of which 4,732,198 live in the city proper) is a metropolis in northeastern Russia. It is the country’s second-largest city after Moscow. The city was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great at the mouth of the Neva River in the Baltic Sea. From 1712 to 1918, it was the capital of Russia. Alongside Moscow, St. Petersburg is Russia’s most important site for industry, education, culture, and trade, as well as one of its most important ports. From 1914 to 1924, the city was known as Petrograd, and from 1924 to 1991, as Leningrad.
During World War II, the city was besieged by the German Wehrmacht from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944—a total of 871 days. Over one million civilians died in the city, which had been systematically cut off from all supplies.

Moscow (population 2024: 13,146,907) is the capital of the Russian Federation and the most populous city located entirely in Europe. It is situated in the west of the country. Moscow is also the capital of the Central Russian Federal District. The administrative unit “City of Federal Significance Moscow” includes several other towns and has a population of 13,258,262. The city is by far the most important political, economic, scientific, and cultural center of the country.

Moscow was founded around the 11th/12th century. The construction of the fortification (Kremlin) is dated to the beginning of the second half of the 12th century. In the 13th century, Moscow became the capital of a sub-principality of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. In the 14th century, the princes of Moscow established themselves as rulers of the entire Rus. However, from 1247 to 1480, it was required to pay tribute to the Golden Horde, which devastated Moscow in 1238. In 1571, the city, which was almost entirely built of wood, was burned down by Tatar troops. By this time, however, Moscow was already the undisputed center of power in Russia. In 1687, the city's first college was opened, followed by its first university in 1775. Peter the Great moved the capital to Saint Petersburg in 1712. Weakened by unrest and plague, Moscow's development lagged behind that of the new capital. The invasion of Napoleon's troops in 1812 brought a deep cut in Moscow's development, with the city's population setting their houses on fire to repel them. The rapid reconstruction gave Moscow a modern cityscape.

After the October Revolution and the relocation of the capital back to Moscow in 1918, the city experienced an enormous expansion of its public infrastructure, and numerous prestigious buildings were erected until World War II. However, the expansion of residential space was never able to keep pace with population growth. This growth could not be slowed down, even by various restrictions on in-migration, some of which are still in force today. However, the city also grew through incorporations, particularly in 1960 and 2012.

In 1980, Moscow hosted the Summer Olympics. In the years that followed, however, the growing crisis in the Soviet Union also affected the city, which, following decentralization movements in the republics and unrest in Russia itself, was ultimately directly affected by the attempted coup in 1991. After the final collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Moscow remained the capital of Russia. Since then, the city center in particular has been increasingly characterized by modern, prestigious buildings. Other features of the city's development in the post-Soviet era include the reconstruction of churches destroyed or repurposed during the Soviet era, the renovation of pre-Soviet buildings in the city center, and the expansion of transport infrastructure on the outskirts.

Medzhybish (population 2021: 1,237) is located in the western Ukrainian oblast of Khmelnytskyi. Shortly after being granted city rights in 1593, Medzhybish established itself as one of the most important trading towns in the eastern part of Poland-Lithuania, benefiting from its location close to the borders with Russia and the Ottoman Empire. However, its geographical location also led to numerous conflicts, which culminated in a period of Ottoman rule. In 1772, Medzhybish was annexed by Russia in the first partition of Poland.
Of its multicultural and multiethnic population (Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians, Greeks, Germans, Tatars), it was above all the Hasids who left a deep mark on the town. The founder of this mystical movement in Judaism, Israel ben Eliezer, and some of his students and later also Rabbi Nachman of Brazlaw worked here.
The decline that was already becoming apparent towards the end of the 19th century finally led to the town being downgraded to an urban-type settlement after 1924.

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. Kiev is the capital and largest city of the country, which has been independent since 1991. Since 2022, the country has been defending itself against a comprehensive Russian invasion, which is directed in particular against the civilian population and the country's critical infrastructure and is part of a war against Ukraine that has been ongoing since 2014 and originated from the Russian Federation with the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea in 2014.

Belarus (population 2024: 9,109,280, area 207,595 km²) is a country in Eastern Europe that belonged to the Soviet Union until 1991. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Belarus borders Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Russia.
In Belarusian historiography, the country is viewed in the context of the development of East Slavic principalities, especially Polotsk. From the 13th/14th century onwards, the territories of present-day Belarus belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The official language at that time (Ruthenian) emphasizes the importance of the East Slavic upper class in the Grand Duchy. From the 16th/17th century onwards, the former territory of the Principality of Polotsk became known as White Rus'. At the end of the 18th century, the Belarusian territories were annexed by Russia. It was not until 1918 that Belarusian statehood began to emerge, when the Belarusian People's Republic was briefly proclaimed on the territory occupied by Germany during the First World War. In 1919, it was replaced by the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. After several restructurings, it became a founding member of the USSR in 1922. Belarus has been independent since the end of 1991. However, the democracy initially introduced was replaced in 1994 by an autcracy which is increasingly dependent on Russia.

The Jewish settlement area, which existed until the revolutionary year of 1917, was established at the end of the 18th century in the course of the three partitions of Poland-Lithuania (1772-1795). It was later expanded to include further Russian conquests with a high proportion of Jews in the southwest. It encompassed the territories of the present-day states of Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and a large part of Ukraine and Poland, as well as smaller parts of Latvia and the Russian Federation at times. As before the capture of these territories, Jews were prohibited from settling in the (old) Russian Empire, with a few exceptions. The formal basis for the settlement district was created in 1791-1804, but the name itself was not introduced until 1835.

Vitebsk (population in 2025: 357,899) is a city in northern Belarus, not far from the Russian border. It is one of the oldest cities in the country. Vitebsk was founded in the 10th century on the Daugava River. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the city was the seat of the same-named principality which was subsequently annexed by Lithuania. With the First Partition of Poland, Vitebsk became part of Russia. In the 19th century, the city developed into an important industrial and cultural center. Jews made up more than half of its population. During the German occupation in World War II, the city’s Jewish population and its culture were destroyed. The city was largely destroyed during the battles to retake it. Since 1991, Vitebsk has been one of the most important cities in independent Belarus.

Romania (population in 2024: 19,043,151) is a country in Southeast Europe with an area of 238,397 km². The capital of the country is Bucharest. The state is situated directly on the Black Sea, the Carpathian Mountains and borders Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova. Romania was established in 1859 from the merger of Moldova and Wallachia. Romania is home to Transylvania, the central region for the German minority there.

The Soviet Union (SU or USSR) was a state in Eastern Europe, Central and Northern Asia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It emerged from the so-called Soviet Russia, the successor state of the Russian Empire. The Russian Soviet Republic formed the core of the union and at the same time its largest part, with further constituent republics added. Their number varied over time and was related to the occupation of other countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Soviet republics that existed only for a short time (Karelo-Finlandia) or the division or merger of Soviet republics. In addition, there were numerous autonomous republics or other territorial units with an autonomy status that was essentially limited to linguistic autonomy for minorities.

Before its formal dissolution, the USSR consisted of 15 Soviet republics with a population of approximately 290 million people. At around 22.4 million km², it was the largest territorial state in the world at the time. The Soviet Union was a socialist soviet republic with a one-party system and an absence of separation of powers.

Valošyn (population in 2025: 10,064) is a small town in the Minsk Region of Belarus. In the 15th century, the town was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Third Partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1795, Valošyn became part of Russia, where it developed into a shtetl. In 1919, it was recaptured by Polish troops, in 1939 annexed by the Soviet Union. Since then, the town has been part of Belarus (independent since 1991). During the German occupation from 1941 to 1944, the Jewish population of Valoshyn was almost entirely exterminated in three separate operations.