Bialystok

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Białystok

(byälĭs`tôk), city (1994 est. pop. 274,700), capital of Podlaskie prov., NE Poland. It is a leading regional manufacturing center and a railway transportation point. Noted especially for its linens, the city also has factories producing a variety of manufactured goods. Founded in 1310, Białystok was taken by Prussia in 1795 and by Russia in 1807; it was returned to Poland in 1921. The city was devastated during World War II; about half of the city's population, mainly Jews, were killed by German occupation forces. Białystok has an academy of medicine and a technical college. Historical landmarks include a 16th-century church and an 18th-century palace.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Białystok

a city in northeastern Poland, located on the Biała River. Administrative center of Białystok Province. Population, 159,000 (1968). Railroad junction.

Białystok is well-known for its textile industry, primarily wool (cloth has been manufactured there since the 1830’s) and cotton (a new combine). Other industries include food processing, woodworking, ceramics, and machine building. There is a medical institute and an engineering night school in Białystok. During the Nazi occupation a considerable part of the population was exterminated. After the occupation forces were driven out, a great deal of work was done to rebuild Białystok.

IU. V. ILINICH

Białystok

a city in E Poland: belonged to Prussia (1795--1807) and to Russia (1807--1919). Pop.: 315 000 (2005 est.)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

References in periodicals archive ?

Kobrin traces the growth of Bialystok Jewish life over the course of the nineteenth century: she establishes the character of the local Jewish community with attention to important communally organized self-help projects and acquaints readers with the diverse cultural and political movements that sprouted within the community.

Jewish Bialystok and its Diaspora

"The last tank derailed and collided with a locomotive moving in the opposite direction towards Bialystok. This caused the explosion and the fire.

Train collision in Poland causes huge explosion

More broadly, Kobrin's book elaborates on the implications (in some ways surprising and in other ways entirely unsurprising, once one has worked through Kobrin's patient and careful account) for the reconceptualization of Jewish and other diasporas represented by the existence of a "Bialystoker Center" across the ocean and thousands of miles from the earthly Bialystok. Her volume either represents or, more likely, helps point the way to a welcome sea change in our approach to the study of groups of Jews as they move, disperse and reassemble.