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The Dokshitsy region is located in the South West of Vitebsk oblast. It occupies an area of 2,239 square kilometers. It stretches for 55 km from North to South and for 75 km from East to West. Some 46% of the region’s territory is covered with forests. There are the following rivers in the region: Berezina, Vilia, Ponya and Servech. There are also 11 lakes, namely, Servech, Plavno, Olshitsa, Mezhuzhol, Domashkovskoye, Stanislavskoye, Chernoye, Moskovitsa, Veshnevskoye, Medzozol, Manets. The Bereza biosphere reserve occupies 40,204 hectares or 18% of the region’s territory. Forests occupy 109,460 hectares.
The farmland occupies 64,600 hectares, of them 36,500 are plough lands, 27,700 hectares are meadows. 77% of the region’s land is sandy soils, 18% - peat bogs, 4% - loam soils. Peat, clay and gravel are the main mineral resources of the region.
There is one town, one settlement (Begoml), 274 villages, one town and 10 rural councils in the region. The regional center is the town of Dokshitsy located some 190km away from Vitebsk and 130km away from Minsk.
As of January 1, 2007 the region’s population was 29,841 people with 6,937 people living in Dokshitsy, 2,840 people living in Begoml and 20,064 people living in villages. Women account for 53.6% of the population. Nation-wise, there are 32,100 Belarusians (92.7%), 1,300 Russians (3.8%) and 1,200 other nationals (3.5%) in the region. There are 8,700 pensioners and 16,200 able-bodied people.
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