BIELEFF, a town of Russia, in the government of Tula, and 82 miles from that city, on the left bank of the Oka, in 53° 48' N. ]at. and 35° 9' E. long. It is first mentioned in 1147 ; it belonged to Lithuania in the end of the 14th century ; and in 1468 it was raised to the rank of a principality, dependent on that country, by Basil Romanovitch, who had come thither from Odoeff. In the end of the 15th century this principality began to separate from Lithuania and attach itself to the Grand Duchy of Moscow ; and by the peaceful treaty of Ivan III. with Alexander the Lithuanian Bieleff was ultimately united to Russia. in the 16th century it suffered greatly from the Tatars, especially in the years 1507, 1512, 1530, 1536, and 1544. In 1538 Ivan the Terrible exiled Prince John of Bieleff to Vologda, and in 1565 declared the lordship his own property. In 1607 Nikivitch Romanoff, general of the Emperor Basil Ivanovitch, gained a complete victory in the neighbourhood against the rebellious Prince .Mosalsk-y. Transferred in 1708 from the Smolensk to the Kievan government, Bieleff passed in 1719 to the Bielgorod district of Orloff, and in 1777 was made a departmental town of the government of Tula. In 1826 the Empress Elizabeth Alexievna died in Bieleff on her way from Taganrog to St Petersburg. The buildings of the town include nineteen churches and two monasteries, a hospital, a widow's asylum, a foundling institution, an almshouse, a prison, and a theatre. A public library was founded in 1858 in memory of Basil Zhukovsky, who was born in a neighbouring village. The industrial establishments comprise tallow-boiling premises, oil manufactories, a tannery, a sugar-refinery, a distillery, ctc. In extent of trade Bieleff ranks next in the government to Tula - the most important articles being grain, hemp, oil, and tallow. A great fair is held from the 28th of August to the 10th of September. The population in 1860 was 8063, by far the greater proportion belonging to the Greek Church.