Verkhnedvinsk (Russian: Верхнедви́нск) or Verkhnyadzvinsk (Belarusian: Верхнядзвінск) is a city in Belarus in the northwest of Vitsebsk Voblast; it is the administrative center of the Verkhnedvinsk raion. Until 1962, it was named Drissa. It is located at the confluence of the Drissa River and the Daugava River.

Its population in 2009 was 7,600.

History

Drissa is first mentioned in a chronicle of the year 1386. During the medieval period it formed part of the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From 1801 it was the center of the Drissa uyezd of Vitebsk guberniya, and during the War of 1812 it was the site of a fortified camp described by Leo Tolstoy in Book Three of War and Peace.

It became a raion center in 1924. During the Second World War it was occupied by Germany and seriously damaged.

Coordinates: 55°47′N 27°57′E / 55.783°N 27.95°E / 55.783; 27.95