If you, like me, grew up without speaking or understanding Polish, Russian, Belarussian, or Yiddish, this page may be useful in understanding some of the words found throughout Belarus Jewish genealogy sites and original documents. Please note that there may be a number of transliterated spellings of foreign words into English - the spellings of Shchedrin is a good example of this. I've tried to use the spelling most commonly encountered, or the one I encountered, in this glossary.

There are some online translation resources that can be used in translating words, phrases or complete documents. They are listed after the glossary.

 

desyatin	also dziestiatun, dz. 1.09 hectares (10,900 sq. meters = 2.9 acres)
dolne	lower Pol; as in Ustrzyki Dolne (Lower Ustrzyki)
gmina	town Pol
gorne	upper Pol; as in Ustrzyki Gorne (Upper Ustrzyki)
gubernia	province; pl. gubernii, guberne. Shchedrin is presently in the Minsk Gubernia.
kolkhoz	collective farm
miasto powiat	country town Pol
miasteczko	towns Pol
mila	seven versts
morg	same as wloka: 0.5599 hectares (1.38 acres)
pood	16.38 kilograms (36.12 pounds)
shtetl	small village or town; pl. shtetlach
uezd	district
verst	also viost, wiorst: 1.06 kilometers (3500 feet, 0.663 miles)
volost	hamlet Pol
vysokoye	upper (same as wisoko), as in Vysokoye-Litovsk (Upper Litovsk)
wies	village Pol
wisoko	upper
wloka	0.5599 hectares (1.38 acres)

Online Translation Resources

Russian-English Dictionary - available for download for Windows.

English-Russian/Russian-English Word Translator

Freedict English-Russian/Russian English Dictionary

Foreignword.com - Belarusian, Russian, Czech, Polish, Slovenian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Chechen, Estonian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Romanian, Serbian...and more!

Voycabulary - Russian and Polish, webpages or text; rather than translating, it provides links to the appropriate dictionary entries.

Cyrillic Alphabet - while not providing translations, this will help you do letter-by-letter translations from Cyrillic to English.

Intertran Produces several software packages that can translate Russian, Polish, Slovenen, Romanian, Serbian, German, Czech, Croatian and Bulgarian, languages most other online translators do not; can translate websites and typed text.