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 ...

. It serves as the administrative center of

Khoiniki District Khoiniki District or Chojnicki Rajon ( be, Хойніцкі раён, russian: Хойникский район) is a district of Gomel Region, in Belarus. Its administrative seat is the town of Hoiniki. Geography The district includes the town ...

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

History

According to historical records, Khoiniki was first mentioned in 1504 as a dependency in the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

. It was incorporated into the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

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, Khoiniki was attached to the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, then transferred in 1927 to the

Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

. Khoiniki was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

from August 25, 1941, to November 23, 1943. City status was granted to it on November 10, 1967. It was seriously affected in 1986 by the

Chernobyl disaster 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 nuc ...

References

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