Designed by Nikolai Zaputriaev in the Moorish Revival style, the synagogue was completed in 1914.

[3] Jews traded in wood, flax and grain and were engaged in financial activities.

In the beginning of the 20th century in Smolensk there were two synagogues and five chadarim and a Jewish initial school created on the basis of the Talmud.

During World War I a large number of Jews arrived in Smolensk, who had fled or were evicted from the front line, in particular from Latvia.

[4]: 43  The Jewish pedagogical school working under the aegis of Yevsektsiya was moved from Gomel to Smolensk in 1929.

After Smolensk was occupied, the Nazis created a Jewish ghetto in the suburb of Sadki and drove there about two thousand the Jews remaining in the city and its vicinity.