Saint Petersburg and Polotsk with Lida and Siedlce. This made the town a major railway junction and attracted many new settlers, in large part Jewish. By the outbreak of World War I the town had already over 2,000 inhabitants. During the war, the town was the headquarters of the Russian 10th Army of the Western Front. Between February and December 1918 it was under German occupation, but was then seized by the Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War. On July 4, 1919, the town was captured by the Polish Army units led by Gen. Stanisław Szeptycki, during their advance towards Minsk. However, the town was again held by the Russian forces in the course of the Polish-Bolshevik War between 12 July 1920 and 12 October 1920. Following the Riga Peace Treaty it was transferred to the Second Polish Republic, but the border between Poland and the Soviet Union was only 30 kilometres to the east, which cut Mołodeczno, as the town was known in Polish, from much of its economical background. To counter the threat of economic decline, became a capital of separate powiat within the Wilno Voivodship on January 1, 1926, and on April 26, 1929, the town was granted with city rights. On September 17, 1939, Maladziečna was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. On 4 December 1939, Maladziečna became a part of the newly formed Vileyka Voblast of the Byelorussian SSR. The NKVD expropriated the local school for teachers and set up one of its concentration camps there. From 25 June 1941 until 5 July 1944, Maladziečna was occupied by Nazi Germany and administered as a part of the Generalbezirk Weißruthenien of Reichskommissariat Ostland. The new German authorities sent most of the local Jewish inhabitants to the German concentration camps throughout occupied Europe. In addition, the German Wehrmacht has set up the infamous Stalag 342 for the Soviet prisoners of war there, in which at least 30,000 people were killed. On 5 July 1944, the advancing Red Army liberated Maladziečna in the course of the Vilnius Offensive. The town resumed its status as a part of the Byelorussian SSR. The heavy damage that Vileyka suffered during the war made it unsuitable to perform the role of the administrative centre, thus Maladzyechna, which was located only 20 kilometres away from Vileyka, became the new administrative centre when the