The site of the modern village has been inhabited at least since early Middle Ages. Local dense forests were a hunting resort of the Grand Dukes. Jan Długosz mentions, that the local hunting manor was visited by the Grand Duke of LithuaniaJogaila. In 1516 a hunting manor and surrounding land was granted by Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund I the Old to Ulrich Hosius, better known as father of Stanislaus Hosius.[4] The area donated to the Hosius family consisted of roughly 7000 hectares of forests, with a single mill and three villages.[5]
On 9 July 1943, 350 local Jews are murdered in a forest nearby Bezdonys. The massacre was perpetrated by an einsatzgruppen of Germans and local collaborationists led by Bruno Kittel.[6]
Following World War II the village was returned to Lithuania. Roughly half[citation needed] of pre-war inhabitants were evicted and expelled[dubious – discuss]to within post-war Poland.[7] In the late 1930s as a means of Polonisation of local peasant population, a hundred Polish schools, named after Józef Piłsudski were built in Vilnius region[8] – one such wooden school was built in Bezdonys too. In 1946 a Russian language class was added to the Polish language school and in 1957 also Lithuanian language class was opened. In 1968 a new school building was opened and in 1992 a new Lithuanian language only school was built.
Demographics
According to the 2021 census, out of 2790 inhabitants of Bezdonys Eldership:
^Specifically Łopaciński and his heirs were to pay 4,5% of the value of the village, estimated at 72222 złoty 62⁄3 grosz
^Roughly 100,000 contemporary US Dollars, or almost 10,000,000 in 2007 dollars (using the unskilled wage indicator of relative worth). See: measuringworth.com
References
^(in Polish)Bohdan Urbankowski, Józef Piłsudski: marzyciel i strateg (Józef Piłsudski: Dreamer and Strategist), Wydawnictwo ALFA, Warsaw, 1997, ISBN83-7001-914-5, p. 133-141
^ abcdeMirosław Gajewski. "Z historii Bezdan". Nasza Gazeta (in Polish). 10 (446). Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2008.
^Czesława Paczkowska (February–March 2008). "Gminy z dorobkiem w tle – Bezdany". Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny (in Polish). 9 (390). Retrieved 28 August 2008.