In the Rossony district, local historians and residents have restored a monument to the heroes of the War of 1812
In early June, in the agro-town of Klyastitsy, Rossony district, near the Nishcha River, local historians from Polotsk, Andrei and Alexei Bukhovetsky, discovered a small old obelisk-monument to the heroes of the 1812 war. "In one of the Russian journals, in an article by Alexander Lunyakov titled 'Battles near Klyastitsy,' it was written: 'Klyastitsy old-timers recall that at the site of the bridge over the Nishcha River, which burned down in 1812, only wooden piles of the bridge remained in the water by that time. Small obelisks with some inscriptions stood on both banks of the river.' In Soviet times, the monuments were demolished, and only on June 7, 2018, was one of the obelisks found in dense thickets near the river. The monument was dismantled, its stone parts lay for decades – this is what the village old-timers testify," notes the local historian.
The brothers informed the chairman of the Klyastitsy rural council, Nikolai Khomenok, about the discovery. Together, they decided to restore historical justice. The Bukhovetskys restored the monument, placing it near the river, where it had once been located since 1912 (the year the 100th anniversary of the victory in the war was celebrated). The work took a little over a week. It was carried out at the brothers' own expense with the active help of local residents. A plaque with the inscription "To the Grenadiers who fought on July 19, 1812, near Klyastitsy" was installed on the monument.
As Andrei Bukhovetsky noted, in 1812, near Klyastitsy, in a three-day battle, Russian troops under the command of Lieutenant General Pyotr Wittgenstein defeated the superior French forces of Marshal Oudinot. It was then that the grenadiers of the 2nd battalion of the Pavlovsky Grenadier Regiment performed their heroic feat, rushing onto the burning bridge over the Nishcha River and being the first to enter the village of Klyastitsy. This stopped the enemy's advance towards the capital of the Russian Empire. Marshal Oudinot was forced to retreat beyond the Western Dvina. The French offensive on St. Petersburg failed.