Khoiniki ( be, Хойнікі, , russian: Хойники, pl, Chojniki) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Gomel Region Gomel Region or Gomel Oblast or Homiel Voblasts ( be, Го́мельская во́бласць, Homielskaja vobłasć, russian: Гомельская область, Gomelskaya oblast) is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center i ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. In 1986, the area around Khoiniki experienced heavy

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...

fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

from the

Chernobyl accident The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nu ...

; however, the city itself was not significantly affected. Today, the town hosts the headquarters of

Polesie State Radioecological Reserve The Polesie State Radioecological Reserve ( be, Палескі дзяржаўны радыяцыйна-экалагічны запаведнік, russian: Полесский государственный радиационно-экологич� ...

and employs over 700 people. The reserve itself is located south of the town in a heavily contaminated area.

History

According to historical records, Khoyniki was first mentioned in 1504 as a dependency in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1793, on the occasion of the Second Partition of Poland. In 1897, the city, located in the Zone of Mandatory Residence of Jewish Subjects of the Russian Empire, had a strong community of 1,668 people (62% of the total population).Jewish population of the city
/ref> In 1919, Khoïniki was attached to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, then transferred in 1927 to the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. Khoïniki was occupied by Nazi Germany from August 25, 1941, at November 23, 1943. City status was granted to it on November 10, 1967. It was seriously affected in 1986 by the Chernobyl disaster.

References

Towns in Belarus Populated places in Gomel Region Populated places established in 1512 Kiev Voivodeship Rechitsky Uyezd Khoiniki District {{Belarus-geo-stub