Slonim (Belarusian: Слонім; Russian: Слоним; Lithuanian: Slanimas; Latvian: Sloņima; Polish: Słonim; Yiddish: סלאָנים) is a town in Grodno Region, in western Belarus.

Another version, proposed by Jazep Stabroŭski, states that "Slonim" derives from 'Užslenimas',[citation needed] which in Lithuanian means "beyond the valley".

The earliest record is of a wooden fort on the left bank of the Shchara river in the 11th century, although there may have been earlier settlement.

The area was disputed between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kievan Rus' in early history and it changed hands several times.

The Ruthenians retook the area early in the 13th century but were expelled by a Tatar invasion in 1241 and the town was pillaged.

[3] In 1558, King Sigismund II Augustus, in a privilege issued in Wilno (now Vilnius), established two two-week fairs.

In 1569, the Polish–Lithuanian union was transformed into a single state and Słonim became an important regional centre within the newly established Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Thanks to the efforts of nobleman, statesman and Słonim starost Lew Sapieha, King Sigismund III Vasa renewed the town rights of Słonim and granted the city coat of arms,[4] which included the Lis coat of arms of Sapieha.

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was dismantled in a series of three "partitions" in the second half of the 18th century and divided among its neighbours, Prussia, Habsburg Austria and Russian Empire which took the largest portion of the territory.

After the First World War, the Slonim area was disputed between the Soviet Union and the newly recreated state of Poland.

The imposing Great Synagogue, built in 1642, survived the destruction and brutal Nazi liquidation of the Słonim Ghetto with 10,000 Jews massacred in 1942 alone.

In 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union resulted in the invasion of Poland by the two powers and its division between them.

In 1944, on the insistence of Joseph Stalin in Yalta the Soviet Union retained possession of the eastern parts of pre-war Poland including Słonim, as agreed between the Allies.

Slonim's importance derives from the river, which is navigable and joins the Oginski canal, connecting the Niemen with the Dnieper.

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