Mohileff,

Mohileff, or MOGILEFF, the capital of a government in European Russia, is situated on the right bank of the Dnieper, 95 miles SW. of Smolensk. It is the seat of a Greek and a Roman Catholic archbishop, their respective cathedrals dating from 1780 and 1692, and has an old castle, and a town-house built in 1679. Tanning is the principal industry. There is an active trade in cereals, leather, brandy, salt, sugar, fish, timber, &c. Pop. 45,311, fully two-thirds being Jews. The town was burned down by Peter the Great for strategic reasons in 1708. Here on 23d July 1812 the French under Davoït defeated the Russians under Bagration.—The government has an area of 18,551 sq. m. and a pop. (1891) of 1,417,169.