PONEVYEZH, a district town of Russia, in the government of Kovno, situated on the upper course of the Nevyeja river, and connected by rail with Libau on the north-west and with Dünaburg (80 miles distant) on the east. It is an old town which was almost totally destroyed by the pestilence of 1550, but was rebuilt and repeopled owing to its advantageous situation on the highway to the Baltic. After having suffered severely from wars in the 17 th and 18th centuries it was annexed to Russia on the third dismemberment of Poland, but had neither manufacturing nor commercial importance until it was brought into railway connection with Libau, with which seaport it now carries on some trade in agricultural produce. Its population (8070 in 1865) had in 1881 reached 15,030, of whom nearly one-half were Jews.