Smolensk

Smolensk, or SMOLENSKO, a government of Central Russia, lying W. of Moscow, and having an area of about 22,000 square miles. Watered by the Dnieper, Dvina, Gshat Oka, and other rivers, its soil is very fertile, and yields heavy crops of cereals, hemp, flax, hops, and tobacco. The capital, a fortified town on the Dnieper, 250 miles S.W. of Moscow, possesses the usual administrative institutions, three cathedrals, many churches and monasteries, and is the seat of an archbishopric.