The Authorities Have So "transformed" Orsha That People Are Leaving The City
4- 29.01.2026, 12:20
- 4,532
Another failure of Lukashenko.
Lukashenka praised the results of the demonstration project of Orsha development, which will be modeled on other Belarusian regions. He called their results "more or less normal. In fact, at the end of the development program, the city was in last place in terms of population dynamics, writes "Belarusians and the Market".
Ten years ago, the Belarusian authorities thought about the problem of economic backwardness of Belarusian regions. In 2015, it was decided to invest in the development of non-regional large cities with a population of more than 80 thousand people: Baranovichi, Pinsk, Novopolotsk, Orsha, Polotsk, Mozyr, Lida, Borisov, Soligorsk, Molodechno, Bobruisk. They were to become new points of attraction of labor and capital in their regions.
In each of the 80+ cities the Comprehensive Plans of Accelerated Development for the period up to 2020 were elaborated and adopted.
Orsha was chosen as a pilot project, where it was decided to invest the first money and see what would come out of it. A set of measures to implement the Orsha district development program appeared only in 2019. It was planned to implement all measures until 2023, and some projects - until 2025. In mid-2021, then Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko reported that Br1.4 billion had already been spent to turn Orsha into a growth point.
And at the end of last year, at the All-Belarusian People's Assembly, Alexander Lukashenko summarized the success of the project: "Then I directly said: let's put Orsha in order (there are about 100 thousand people there) and follow this path in these major cities, 80 plus. Orsha was cleaned up. Today it does not work perfectly, but what we have invested there, gives its result on all issues ... I think Orsha is working more or less normally. We have shown how we will bring these 80+ cities to their senses. We won't go anywhere from this," said Lukashenko.
This report doesn't sound very victorious. However, in reality, even a modest "more or less" has not happened. If we judge by the main indicator - whether Orsha has become attractive for people - the situation has only worsened.
The city has been rapidly losing population for the last 10 years. And although it's not surprising for Belarus - the number of residents of the whole country is decreasing - but in Orsha it's decreasing faster than in all major Belarusian cities.
The figures of the National Statistical Committee show us that 112.7 thousand people lived in Orsha at the beginning of 2016, when the authorities had just planned to "raise" Orsha. And in 2025, according to the realization of the development project, 101.7 thousand people will be left here. That is, the city has lost 10% of its population. At the same time, the average depopulation in the country amounted to 4%.
And if we compare the dynamics of population in large cities, it turns out that Orsha is in the penultimate place. Only one city - Svetlogorsk - is experiencing greater rates of population reduction, where a new city-forming (or maybe city-destroying) enterprise - a pulp and cardboard mill - appeared seven years ago.
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