Hajnówka (; , Hajnaŭka; , Hajnivka; , Hachnovka; ) is a town and a powiat seat in eastern Poland (Podlaskie Voivodeship) with 21,442 inhabitants (2014). It is the capital of Hajnówka County. The town is also notable for its proximity to the Białowieża Forest, the biggest primaeval forest in Europe. Through Hajnówka flows the river Leśna Prawa (). 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.
History
For a more detailed history of Białowieża and the area see: Białowieża Forest
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. 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 (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 itself.
After the Partitions of Poland of late 18th century the area was annexed by Kingdom of Prussia and Russian Empire 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 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 tsarist 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 of 1831 against Russia (500 out of 502 in total), their positions were abolished and the people were exiled to Siberia. 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 and Siedlce with Wołkowysk. Hajnówka became a minor transport junction and in 1900 a road was built between Białowieża and Bielsk Podlaski. During World War I, 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.
In 1919, during the early stages of the Polish-Bolshevik War, the area was handed over to Poland 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.