Hajnówka (; ;
Podlachian: ''Hájnuvka''; ) is a
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
and a
seat in eastern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
(
Podlaskie Voivodeship
Podlaskie Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in northeastern Poland. The name of the voivodeship refers to the historical region of Podlachia (in Polish, ''Podlasie''), and significant part of its territory corresponds to th ...
) with 21,442 inhabitants (2014). It is the capital of
Hajnówka County
__NOTOC__
Hajnówka County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local g ...
. The town is also notable for its proximity to the
Białowieża Forest
Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more ...
, the biggest
primaeval forest in Europe. Through Hajnówka flows the river
Leśna Prawa
The Leśna Prawa or Pravaja Liasnaja () is a river in north-eastern Poland and western Belarus. At its confluence with the Lyevaya Lyasnaya near Kamyanyets, the Lyasnaya is formed. The Lyasnaya is a right tributary of the Bug River northwest o ...
. It is one of the centres of Orthodox faith and a notable centre of
Belarusian culture in Poland.
Belarusians comprised 26.4% of the town's population in 2002.
It is one of five Polish/
Belarusian bilingual gminas in Podlaskie Voivodeship regulated by the ''Act of 6 January 2005 on National and Ethnic Minorities and on the Regional Languages'', which permits certain gminas with significant linguistic minorities to introduce a second, auxiliary language to be used in official contexts alongside
Polish.
[Dz. U. z 2005 r. Nr 17, poz. 141]
History
''For a more detailed history of Białowieża and the area see:
Białowieża Forest
Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more ...
''
As a village, it was founded some time in the 16th century as a single house of a forest ward, by a certain Hajno, who was one of the royal officers protecting the
Białowieża Forest
Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more ...
. In 1589 whole forest became a private property of the royal court and the number of forest workers settled in the area started to grow. However, the
forest protection
Forest protection is a branch of forestry which is concerned with the preservation or improvement of a forest and prevention and control of damage to forest by natural or man made causes like forest fires, plant pests, and adverse climatic con ...
(it was most probably the first forest reserve in the world) prevented the area from economical growth and so the village was limited to a number of wooden huts at the western end of the forest. It mostly shared the history of other similar settlements in the area, including
Białowieża
Białowieża is a village in Poland's Podlaskie Voivodeship, in the middle of the Białowieża Forest, to which it gave its name. The village is some east of Hajnówka and southeast of the province capital, Białystok.
Location
Białowieża i ...
itself.
After the
Third Partition of Poland
The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...
the area was annexed by
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...
and
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
in 1795 (the border of the partitioning powers, Prussian and Russian, ran on the territory of today's town). In 1807, the
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...
was created, but the territory of Hajnówka (Białystok region) was handed over in full to Russia. After the fall of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1815, Hajnówka remained in the hands of tsarist Russia. The
tsar
Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...
ist authorities abolished the forest protection, but the development of the area did not start. As most of the foresters, who worked in the forest, took part in the
November Uprising
The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution,
was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...
of 1831 against Russia (500 out of 502 in total), their positions were abolished and the people were exiled to
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
. The protection of the forest was affected. The village, as a matter of fact, ceased its existence. Protection was reintroduced in 1860 and the village was repopulated with Russian officials. In 1888 it became property of the tsarist family.
Between 1894 and 1906 the village was connected with the world by a railroad linking
Bielsk Podlaski
Bielsk Podlaski (, , ) is a town in eastern Poland, within Bielsk County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 24,883.
Geography
Bielsk Podlaski is located in the geographical region of Europe known as ...
and
Siedlce
Siedlce () ( ) is a city in the Masovian Voivodeship in eastern Poland with 77,354 inhabitants ().
The city is situated between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, and lies along the European route E30, around east of Warsaw. It is ...
with
Wołkowysk. Hajnówka became a minor transport junction and in 1900 a road was built between Białowieża and Bielsk Podlaski. During
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, in 1915, the area was captured by the German Empire. Protection of the forest was ceased. The new authorities started large-scale industrial exploitation of the area's nature resources. Because of its nodal position, Hajnówka became a seat of two lumber-mills, wood spirit distillery and a major train station for of narrow gauge railways were built across the forest.
Interwar period and World War II
In 1919, during the early stages of the
Polish-Bolshevik War, the area was handed over to
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
by the local
Ober-Ost commander. The predatory exploitation of the forest was put to an end and all German-built factories in the area became nationalised. After the war, some of them were rented by the Polish government under a contract to the British company The Century European Timber Corporation. However, in the late 1920s the contract was canceled and the wood processing plants came back under state control, while the Terbenthen factory was sold to a private owner. Since then, the economic growth started and the village started to grow too. Hard work, but also decent salaries in wood processing plants attracted many settlers from various parts of Poland. The initial conglomerate of wooden huts, barracks, tents and narrow, wood-paved streets turned into a town.
A Catholic church was built for the local population and soon the factories and the state financed three schools, a boarding school of timber industry, a post office, two cinemas and a bank appeared here. Jewish inhabitants built a
synagogue
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...
and in 1925 the Orthodox Christians organised a chapel in a private flat. As of 1921, the population was 80.9%
Polish and 13.8% Belarusian.
[ Also, the soldiers of the Belarusian division of general Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz were interned there after the war and finally were allowed to settle in the area, which added Belarusians and Russians to the ethnic mixture.
By the end of the 1930s the four factories of Hajnówka had 1,947 workers altogether and were significantly expanded. The state financed construction of several hundred small houses for the workers and the town grew up rapidly. Also, the town attracted many notable Polish architects of the epoch to build new buildings in modernist style.
However, the progress was stopped by the German-Soviet ]invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
of 1939 and the outbreak of World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. In the effect of the Nazi-Soviet Alliance, the town was annexed by the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. The factories were dismantled and sent to Russia while a large part of the inhabitants were in 1940 arrested by the NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
and imprisoned in the Soviet Gulag
The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
system. On 25 June 1941 the town got under German occupation, which ended on 18 July 1944. During the fights the town was severely bombed, which added to the destruction of the town. All in all, until July 18, 1944, more than 700 inhabitants of Hajnówka lost their lives, the factories were robbed and then demolished, while the train station and parts of the town centre were levelled by aerial bombardment.
Recent period
Despite harsh conditions and infrastructural losses, life returned to Hajnówka quite soon. This attracted new settlers as well as pre-war inhabitants of the area, so the town quickly recovered. Also, the narrow streets were mostly rebuilt. In 1951, the town (until then formally a village) was granted with city rights
Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...
and between 1954 and 1975 it even served as a seat of a . Hajnówka has 8 schools as well as 5 churches (Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
), 2 hospitals, a sewer system, a swimming pool and a museum. Train and bus links were established. In 2005, the local timber factory expanded its production area to 17,500 sq.m, one of the largest in Europe. It is quite modern and used for manufacturing of furniture, mainly to be exported to Western Europe.
Demographics
Jews
Jews settled in Hajnówka at the end of the 19th century. It was one of the youngest Jewish communities in the Grodno Governorate
Grodno Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Grodno. It encompassed in area and consisted of a population of 1,603,409 inhabitants by 1897. Gro ...
. The influx of Jews was the result of the development of the timber industry and access to the railway line (from 1906). However, the Jewish community was not established until just before World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In 1921, there were 748 Jews in the city. In 1937, Hajnówka had about 12,000 inhabitants, including about 250 Jews. In the years 1939-1942, about 600 Jews lived in Hajnówka. The largest concentration of Jewish houses and squares was located near the main synagogue on Targowa Street (now Buczka), on Orzechowskich Square, in the so-called Zaułek Mlynarski and in the vicinity of the Jewish school on Polna Street (currently Grunwaldzka) in the Sokol house. Opposite the school there was a mikveh
A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ...
built shortly before the war and demolished in 1940. Hajnówka Jews also lived in the area of Batorego Street and Lipowa Streets. The local Jews were buried in the Jewish cemeteries in Narewka and Orla. The last rabbi was Jehuda Lejb. The main synagogue (there was still a small house of prayer) was built on a stone foundation around 1927/8 made of wooden logs. It was located on Targowa Street. The second entrance was from Północna Street for women. The synagogue was burned down by the Germans on June 25, 1941 by throwing hand grenade
A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...
s into the interior.
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
External links
Picture satellite cities
Satellite map of Białowieża Forest
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Podlaskie Voivodeship
Hajnówka County
Bilingual communes in Poland
Sites of World War II massacres of Poles
Holocaust locations in Poland