Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Minsk, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the border with Poland, and 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the border with Lithuania. Grodno serves as the administrative center of Grodno Region and Grodno District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, the city has a population of 363,718.
The modern city of Grodno, founded in 1127, originated as a small fortress and trading outpost, on the extreme northern end of the deeply penetrated Slavic peninsula into the lands of the Baltic tribal union of the Yotvingians. It was also a home to the Dregoviches Slavic tribe. It was a significant city in Black Ruthenia and later part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which joined the Polish-Lithuanian Union in 1385. Grodno faced numerous invasions, most notably by the Teutonic Knights. The city was an important trade, commerce, and cultural center in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and one of its royal residences. The Kings of Poland and Grand Dukes of Lithuania allowed the creation of a Jewish commune in 1389, and the city received its charter in 1441. Grodno was the site of two battles during the Great Northern War.
Grodno has a rich history with various rulers and influences. In 1793, Grodno became the capital of the Grodno Voivodeship, but was annexed by Russia in 1795 after Third Partition of Poland. The city had a significant Jewish population before the Holocaust. After World War I, it was briefly part of the Belarusian People's Republic and the Republic of Lithuania before being taken over by Poland. During World War II, it was occupied by the Soviet Union and later by Nazi Germany. Since 1945, Grodno has been part of Belarus. Today, it has a diverse population, including Belarusians, Poles, and a small Jewish community. The city is known for its historical architecture, including the Old Grodno Castle, and is a center for Roman Catholicism and Polish culture in Belarus.
Other names
In Belarusian Classical Orthography (Taraškievica), the city is named as Горадня (Horadnia). In Latin, it was known as Grodna (-ae), in Polish as Grodno, in Lithuanian as Gardinas, in Latvian as Grodņa, in German as Garten, and in Yiddish as גראָדנע (Grodne).
History
Early history
Before arrival of the East Slavs to the Grodno Region in the 10th–11th centuries, the area was inhabited by Baltic tribe Yotvingians, who were heavily Lithuanized in the 5th-7th centuries already and especially during the formation of the State of Lithuania in the 13th century, and subsequently for a long time Grodno and its area was a part of the Ethnographic Lithuania (e.g. even in the 19th century the Lithuanian-inhabited areas were still nearby the present-day suburbs of Grodno city). Linguistic findings refute the theses of Lithuanian scholars—the name of Grodno, claims Leszek Bednarczuk, 'cannot be Baltic;' the city was located beyond the Lithuanian linguistic border. The etymology of the city's name is considered to be Slavic, derived from the Ruthenian horod 'fortress'.
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 of the Yotvingians. The first reference to Grodno dates to 1005.
The official foundation year is 1128. In this year Grodno was mentioned in the Kievan Chronicle as Goroden, and located at a crossing of numerous trading routes. The same chronicle also reports in the year 1183: 'That same year all of Goroden burned, including all the stone churches, from a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder in a thunderstorm.'
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grodno became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century, and the local stronghold was rebuilt by Lithuanians. Prince Daniel of Galicia briefly captured the city in 1253 and once again attacked it in 1259. In 1276, Duke Traidenis gave shelter in Grodno to Yotvingians fleeing the Teutonic Knights' massacre. The city was unsuccessfully attacked by the Rus' princes and Tatars in 1277, then repeatedly attacked, with varying success, by the Teutonic Knights in 1283, 1296, 1306, 1311, 1312, 1328, 1361, 1363, 1373, 1375, 1377. In 1358 a convention took place in Grodno on border disputes between Lithuania and the Polish Duchy of Masovia.
Since 1385 Grodno formed part of the Polish–Lithuanian union. The famous Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas was the prince of Grodno from 1376 to 1392, and he stayed there during his preparations for the Battle of Grunwald (1410). During the Lithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392, the city was captured by Władysław II Jagiełło in 1390, and then by Vytautas in 1391, with Vytautas-allied Konrad von Wallenrode committing a massacre of 15 Polish prisoners-of-war. After the Ostrów Agreement of 1392, Vytautas expelled the Teutonic Knights, who in revenge captured the city, burned the castle and took 3,000 prisoners. The city was attacked one more time by the Teutonic Knights in 1402. Since 1413, Grodno had been the administrative center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship. Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło often stopped in Grodno, including in 1414, 1416, 1418 and 1425. In 1425, Polish-Teutonic talks concerning the borders took place there.
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 of Lithuania. In 1441 the city received its charter, based on the Magdeburg Law. In 1445, Casimir IV Jagiellon received a delegation from Kraków in Grodno announcing his election as king of Poland.
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
As an important centre of trade, commerce, and culture, Grodno was a notable royal city and was also one of the royal residences and political centers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 1580s, Grodno was the de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, when King Stephen Báthory of Poland moved his main residence and military headquarters there. Stephen Báthory rebuilt the Old Grodno Castle into an important royal residence and built the Renaissance Batorówka Palace. The Old and New Castles were often visited by the Commonwealth monarchs. Kings Casimir IV Jagiellon and Stephen Báthory died there, and the latter was initially buried at the local Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Grodno was one of the places where the Sejms of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were held, incl. the last Sejm in the history of the Commonwealth in 1793.
The city was the site of two battles, Battle of Grodno (1706) and Battle of Grodno (1708) during the Great Northern War.
After the Second Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and a subsequent administrative reform of the remainder of the Commonwealth, Grodno became the capital of the short-lived Grodno Voivodeship in 1793.
Late modern period
In 1795, Russia annexed the city in the Third Partition of Poland. It was in the New Castle on 25 November 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 Tyzenhaus, continued to develop.
During the Napoleonic Wars and fights for Polish liberation, in 1812, Polish uhlans of Prince Józef Poniatowski entered Grodno, followed by the French led by Jérôme Bonaparte. The entry of the allied Polish and French troops was met with enthusiasm by the population, the Accession to the Confederation of the inhabitants of the Grodno district was announced, Napoleon's name day was officially celebrated and an obelisk was erected in honour of the French.
In 1833, following the unsuccessful November Uprising, notable local Polish independence activist and insurgent Michał Wołłowicz was hanged by the Russians, and the local Dominican gymnasium was seized by the Tsarist authorities.
Local Poles took part in Polish national mourning after the Russian massacre of Polish protesters in Warsaw in 1861. The dean of Grodno, Józef Majewski, was deported to Tobolsk in Siberia for attempting to organise a procession to Różanystok, a regional Catholic pilgrimage destination. Count Aleksander Bisping was arrested and imprisoned here during the January Uprising (1863-1864) before his exile to Ufa. After the fall of the uprising, a ban on the use of Polish in public places was introduced in 1865, and martial law was in force in Grodno until 1871.
As a result of Russian discriminatory policies (see Pale of Settlement) the city experienced an influx of Jewish immigrants in the 19th century, and thus had a significant Jewish population before the Holocaust: according to the Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 46,900, Jews constituted 22,700 (around 48%, or almost half of the total population).
World War I and interwar period
After the outbreak of World War I, Grodno was occupied by Germany (3 September 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 People's Republic. This declared its independence from Russia in March 1918 in Minsk (known at that time as Mensk), but then the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic had to leave Minsk and fled to Grodno and later to the temporary Lithuanian capital Kaunas. All this time the military authority in the city remained in German hands until April 1919. Nevertheless, military units of the Lithuanian Armed Forces were formed in the German-controlled part of the Grodno Region in 1918–1919. For example, a Belarusian unit named 1st Belarusian Regiment, commanded by Alaksandar Ružancoŭ, was formed mainly from Grodno's inhabitants in 1919 as a part of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and participated in Lithuania's side during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, thus large amount of its members were awarded with the highest state award of Lithuania – Order of the Cross of Vytis. In accordance with an agreement between Lithuania and Belarus (Rada BNR), the Grodno Region was joined to Lithuania. According to Lithuanian president Antanas Smetona, the Lithuanians considered granting an autonomy to the Belarusian territories within Lithuania (as requested by Belarusian side; there were Belarusian members in the Council of Lithuania and representation in the Government of Lithuania by Lithuanian Ministry for Belarusian Affairs).
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 according to the 1919 Treaty of Białystok on 27 April 1919 they passed authority to Poland, which just regained independence several months earlier. The city was taken over by the Polish Army the following day and Polish administration was established in the city. The Poles disbanded the Lithuania's 1st Belarusian Regiment (which refused to carry out Polish orders) in Grodno and publicly humiliated, looted and repressed soldiers of this unit, including officers, as well as Lithuanian and Belarusian symbols and flags in the city were torn down and publicly ridiculed, and were replaced with Polish equivalents. The city was lost by Poles to the Red Army on 20 July 1920 in what became known as the First Battle of Grodno. The city was also claimed by Lithuanian government, after it was agreed by the Soviet–Lithuanian Treaty of 1920 signed on 12 July 1920 in Moscow that the city 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 23 September the Polish Army recaptured the city. After the Peace Treaty of Riga, Grodno 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 voivodeship 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. According to the 1921 Polish census, the population of the city was 49.9% Polish, 43.4% Jewish, 4.3% Belarusian, 2.0% Russian, 0.26% German and 0.05% Lithuanian.
World War II
During the Polish Defensive War of September to October 1939 the garrison of Grodno was mostly used for the formation of numerous military units fighting against the invading Wehrmacht. In the course of the Soviet invasion of Poland (initiated on 17 September 1939) heavy fighting took place in the city between Soviet and improvised Polish forces, composed mostly of march battalions and volunteers. In the course of the Battle of Grodno (20-22 September) the Red Army lost some hundred men (according to Polish sources; according to 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). Over 300 captured Polish defenders of the city, including Polish Army officers and youth, were massacred afterwards by the Soviets. After the Soviet forces surrounded the engaged Polish units, the escaping Polish units withdrew to Lithuania.