The story of the appearance of our town of Divin was given to us from the older generation and our grandfathers.

First, Divin was founded and located in the place where Staroe Selo is presently located, at Staroselskoye Street. On both shores of the small Divin River, which flows into the Divin lake, small houses stood in random arrangement. Their roofs were covered with straw and reed. This was the first settlement of Divin.

The settlement increased throughout the years. In time, Divin widened towards the South-West from the place of its founding. Why was our settlement named such? For this there is an answer in the archaeological assortment of documents. It is said there, that the town received the name from the fact that the lake and river are called Divin. Among the people there exist legends, which were passed down to us by our ancestors. One legend says: the name Divin occurred from the Ukrainian words De-Vin. This means: Where is he? Another legend has it in a different way. The name came from the Ukrainian word Divo, as if this had happened here. But this is not true. More rightful than anything else is that Divin received its name from the names of the lake and river.

Among the population there existed another heirloom of our Diviner ancestors. A long time ago, Divin was founded by poor people, who had arrived here from the Ukraine. This happened in a time when the oppressed peasantry of Ukraine left their native lands. They were hiding from Tatar assaults and from their oppressors in the thick, dense forests. When the refugees discovered, among the forest a place suitable for living, then they would stop there. Then they would bring their families here and started a new life. In this way, sometime ago, Ukrainians fleeing through the wetlands on boats accidently happened upon this place. This place looked to them suitable for living; there was a naturally clean river, which they called Divnoye [. Marvelous]. Farther, floating down the river on boats, they discovered that the river flows into a small, but beautiful lake. It was also named Divnoye for its beauty. This is how people chose to live in this place. The village became situated on both sides of the river “Divnoye”. In this way, from the lake being called Divnoye and the river Divnoye, the first settlement was also called – Divnoye. With the passing years, and the flow of time, the name turned into the name Divin.

This old passed-down story is the truest. The first resident-founders of Divin, were probably not expecting to find themselves {14} a comfortable place to live, since surrounding it were backwoods and marsh. This is why their introduction to the place with a clean, clear river and lake seemed a marvelous, astounding discovery.

In that time, our ancestors were Christians. In the year 988, under the Kiev King Vladimir, the Orthodox Christian faith was accepted from the Greeks.

Reading these lines, many of us will wonder and ask: what happened those times in Russia? Why is all of Western Belarus, and in its ranks our Divin, turned out under the rule of Lithuania? For a long time – during the course of 249 years we were under the Lithuanian leadership. Then, another 226 years under the rule of Poland. In total, for 475 years – our people were captive.

And actually it is interesting, how our people were able to live through this captivity, under the rule of the enslavers for such a long time – almost 5 centuries? Through this they were able to preserve, in their wake, and in themselves, their faith, nationality, language and customs.

Can it really be that this all came easily, without any lifelong hardships, tests and temptations? History will tell us about all of this.

This distant history tells us of those difficult and trouble-filled times of our long-suffering people.