Moshchena

Moshchena (, ) is a village in Volyn Oblast of eastern Ukraine. 

 History 
In 1542, Prince Vasyl Mykhailovych Sanghusko from Kovel gave a 'privilege charter' to Demyd Voytkevych for a home in the village of Moshchena, on the condition that he serves in the military.

On March 4, 1543, Polish King Sigismund I issued a royal charter that noted a land swap between Prince Vasyl Sanghusko and Queen Bona. The Sanghusko family got lands in the Mstsislaw area (now in Belarus), and Bona obtained the Kovel estate, which included:

“…the Kovel castle, with the town and manors serving and adjacent to it, namely: Moshchena, Dubne, Klevetsk, Tulychiv…”

In the mid-1500s, a special economic system appeared in the Kovel area. Craftsmen from different villages formed groups called voitivstvos. There were five of these groups: Moshchenske, Mylyanovytske, Zarytske, Vyzhivske, and Polishke. 
After Queen Bona died, the village returned to the royal treasury. In 1564, Prince Andriy Kurbsky gained ownership of the Kovel estate, including Moshchena. After he died in 1583, it went to his wife, Oleksandra Semashko. In 1590, the whole Kovel estate was given for life to Andriy Firlej, the son-in-law of former Princess Maria of Holshany. Later, it became royal property again. In the 1600s, Count Wacław Leszczyński, the Starosta of Kovel, received the village as a life estate and built a church there in 1671. 

The village was also affected by the volok reform of 1557. When the reform happened, there were 50 voloks (land units) in the village, which provided a yearly rent of 13 florins and 10 groschen. However, by the 1663 land audit, only 8 remained. The reason is clear: high land taxes forced many owners to give up their land.

After the third partition of Poland in 1795, these lands became part of Russia. The village became part of the newly formed Kovel County of the Volyn Oblast.

On November 7, 1894, the first school in the village was opened. Teaching there, as everywhere in the empire, was conducted in Russian. 

In 1921, according to the Treaty of Riga, the village, as part of Volhynia, was transferred to the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In September 1939, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet soldiers took over the village.
On June 27, 1941, German soldiers took over the village. Partisans from nearby forests did several sabotage attacks during the war, including on the Berestia-Kovel railroad. In March 1944, the village was completely burned after martyrs killed a German soldier, and some villagers were sent to Germany. Only the church was left standing.

On June 7, 1944, Soviet soldiers re-entered the village. About 130 villagers died during the war. In the post-war years, 148 residential buildings were built. By 1970, a medical and obstetrics station, a shop, a school, a library, a community center, and a kindergarten were already operating.том 3 — Волинська обл., розділ Ковельський р-н, стаття Мощена. Історія міст і сіл Української РСР. — К. : Головна редакція УРЕ АН УРСР. — 15 000 прим.. 1970.

 Population 
According to the 1989 census of the Ukrainian SSR, the village's population was 545 people, of whom 256 were men and 289 were women.

According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, the village had a population of 540 people.

 Notes 

Category:Villages in Ukraine
Category:Volyn Oblast
Category:Establishments in Ukraine
Category:1540s establishments in Europe