Medieval origin

The modern city of Grodno originated as a small fortress and a fortified trading outpost maintained by the Rurikid princes on the border with the lands of the Baltic tribal union Yotvingians. Its name derives from the Old East Slavic verb gorodit', i.e., to enclose, to fence (see "grad" for details).

Mentioned for the first time in the Primary Chronicle under 1127 as Goroden' and located at a crossing of numerous trading routes, this Slavic settlement, possibly originating as far as the late 10th century, became the capital of a poorly attested but separate principality, ruled by Yaroslav the Wise's grandson and his descendants.


Along with Navahradak, Hrodna was regarded as the main city on the far west of Black Rus, a border region that was neighbouring the original Duchy of Lithuania. It was often attacked by various invaders, especially the Teutonic Knights. In the 1250s the Hrodna area was overrun by the pagan Lithuanians, who later formed the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on these territories. The famous Lithuanian grand duke Vytautas was the prince of Hrodna from 1376 to 1392, and he stayed there during his preparations for the Battle of Grunwald (1410). Since 1413, Hrodna had been the administrative center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship.


Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The New Castle in Hrodno used to be a summer residence of Polish monarchs.

To aid the reconstruction of trade and commerce, the grand dukes allowed the creation of a Jewish commune in 1389. It was one of the first Jewish communities in the grand duchy. In 1441 the city received its charter, based on the Magdeburg Law. After the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Hrodna became the capital of the short-lived Hrodna Voivodship in 1793.

An important centre of trade, commerce, and culture, Hrodna remained one of the places where the Sejms were held. Also, the Old and New Castles were often visited by the Commonwealth monarchs. In 1793 the last Sejm in the history of the Commonwealth occurred at Hrodna. Two years afterwards, in 1795, Russia obtained the city in the Third Partition of Poland. It was in the New Castle on November 25 of that year that the last Polish king and Lithuanian grand duke Stanisław August Poniatowski abdicated. In the Russian Empire, the city continued to serve its role as a seat of Grodno Governorate since 1801. The industrial activities, started in the late 18th century by Antoni Tyzenhauz, continued to develop.


Recent history

After the outbreak of World War I, Hrodna was occupied by Germany (1915) and ceded by Bolshevist Russia under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. After the war the German government permitted a short-lived state to be set up there, the first one with a Belarusian name - the Belarusian National Republic. This declared its independence from Russia in March of 1918 in Minsk (Mensk), but then the BNR's Rada (Council) had to leave Minsk and fled to Hrodna. All this time the military authority in the city remained in German hands.

After the outbreak of the Polish-Bolshevik War, the German commanders of the Ober Ost feared that the city might fall to Soviet Russia, so on April 27, 1919 they passed authority to Poland. The city was seized by the Polish Army the following day and Polish administration was established in the city. The city was lost to the Red Army on July 19, 1920 because of the Kiev Offensive. The city was also claimed by Lithuanian government, who were promised during the July 12, 1920 talks in Moscow that it would be transferred to Lithuania. However, Soviet defeat in the Battle of Warsaw made these plans obsolete, and Lithuanian authority was never established in the city. Instead, the Red Army organised its last stand in the city and the Battle of Neman took place there. On September 23 the Polish Army recaptured the city. After the Peace Treaty of Riga, Hrodna remained in Poland.

Initially, prosperity was reduced due to the fact that the city remained only the capital of a powiat, while the capital of the voivodship was moved to Białystok. However, in the late 1920s the city became one of the biggest Polish Army garrisons. This brought the local economy back on track.

Also, the city was a notable centre of Jewish culture, with roughly 37% of the city's population being Jewish. The Belarusian language was forbidden by the Polish authorities and Belarusian schools were closed down. Belarusians were only 3% of the population and Polish were 60%.
During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 the garrison of Hrodna was mostly used for the creation of numerous military units fighting against the invading Wehrmacht. In the course of the Soviet invasion of Poland initiated on September 17, there was heavy fighting in the city between Soviet and improvised Polish forces, composed mostly of march battalions and volunteers. In the course of the Battle of Grodno (September 20–September 22), the Red Army lost some hundred men (by the Polish sources; by the Soviet sources - 57 killed and 159 wounded) and also 19 tanks and 4 APCs destroyed or damaged. The Polish side suffered at least 100 killed in action, military and civil, but losses still remain uncertain in detail (Soviet sources claim 644 killed and 1543 captives with many guns and machine guns etc. captured). Many more were shot in mass executions after being imprisoned. After the engaged Polish units were surrounded, the remaining units withdrew to Lithuania.

In accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact the city was transferred to the Belarusian SSR of the Soviet Union, and several thousand of the city's Polish inhabitants were deported to remote areas of the Soviet Union. In 1941, the city came under German occupation, which lasted until July 1944. In the course of the World War II, the majority of Hrodna's remaining Jews were exterminated in German concentration camps.

Since 1945 the city has been a centre of one of provinces of the Belarusian SSR, now of the independent Republic of Belarus.