The White Russian area of Byelorussia, now Belarus, was the westernmost part of the former USSR near its boundary with Poland and Lithuania. The area passed to Russia after the Second Partition of Poland in 1795. One of the larger and perhaps somewhat more prosperous cities in this area was called Bobruisk, located about 85 miles southeast of Minsk, and about 135 miles northwest of Chernobyl in the neighboring republic of Ukraine. Since these rivers flow ultimately into the Dniepr and thence to Kiev and on to the Black Sea, Bobruisk was for a long time a fairly important shipping city, with timber as one of its major exports. By the middle of the 19th century, the town had became an important lumbering center where timber from the adjacent forests or timber camps to the south of the city was rafted or entrained to southern Russia or the Baltic ports. Vessels traveling to northern and southern Russia were frequent visitors to the port. Bobruisk is the second city according to the number of the population in Mogilev region and the sixth in Belarus: about 227 thousand people live in the city. There are 475 streets and crossroads in the city, the total extension of which is 430 kilometers. There about 50 industrial enterprises in Bobruisk among which there is a giant of the petrochemical industry – "Belshina". One of the major highways, connecting Russia with the neighboring states, runs across Bobruisk.