Timeline of Białystok

1901–1939

• 1901 – Population: 65,781.^[1]
• 1905 – Chernoe Znamia political group formed.
• 1906 – 14–16 June: Białystok pogrom of Jews by the Russians.^[12]
• 1910 – Białystok Power Station commissioned.
• 1912
  • Tsarist prison built.^[13]
  • Population: 98,170.^[14]
• 1913
  • City's first Polish scout troop founded.^[15]
  • Great Synagogue built.
• 1915
  • City becomes capital of the Bialystok-Grodno District of the German-controlled territory of Ober-Ost during World War I.
  • 29 November: Polish Real Gymnasium founded.^[15]
• 1918
  • 11–13 November: Poles disarmed the Germans following the restoration of Polish independence.^[16]
  • 14 November: City re-occupied by Germany.^[16]
• 1919
  • Białystok part of the re-established Polish state, capital of the Białystok Voivodeship
  • Białostoczek becomes part of city.^{[citation needed]}
• 1920
  • 22 September: Battle of Białystok – Polish victory over the invading Russian forces.
  • Jagiellonia Białystok football club formed.

• 1921 – Białystok confirmed as part of Poland.^[17]
• 1928 – Polmos Białystok founded.
• 1934 – Seweryn Nowakowski, considered one of the greatest mayors of Białystok, becomes mayor.^[18]
• 1937
  • Podlaska Cavalry Brigade of the Polish Army formed and stationed in Białystok.
  • Population: 100,101.^[17]
• 1938 – Białystok Municipal Theatre built.

World War II (1939–1945)

• 1939
  • September: German occupation after the invasion of Poland, which started World War II
  • 20–21 September: The German Einsatzgruppe IV entered the city to commit crimes against the population.^[19]
  • 22 September: City handed over by the Germans to the Soviet Union in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Soviet occupation begins.
  • October: Pre-war mayor Seweryn Nowakowski arrested by the NKVD and probably deported to the USSR; his fate remains unknown.^[18]
  • November: City annexed to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic;^[2] and capital of the Belastok Region.

• 1940 – 17 July: Ryszard Kaczorowski, member of the local Polish resistance movement and future President of Poland in exile, arrested by the NKVD.^[20]
• 1940–1941 – Mass deportations of some 20,000 Polish citizens by the Russians from the Białystok Fabryczny railway station to the USSR, incl. Siberia (see Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)).^[21]
• 1941
  • 27 June: City occupation by German forces begins. On that day, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 of Białystok's Jews were massacred by the Ordnungspolizei.
  • City becomes capital of Bezirk Białystok.
  • July: Jewish ghetto established by occupying Nazi Germans.^[12]
  • Autumn: Oflag 57 prisoner-of-war camp moved from Ostrołęka to Białystok.^[22]
  • 14 October: The German 13th Reserve Police Battalion carried out a massacre of 134 POWs, mostly Jews.^[22]
  • 30 October: The German 13th Reserve Police Battalion carried out a massacre of 166 POWs.^[22]
• 1942
  • 25 May: Oflag 57 POW camp dissolved.^[22]
  • July: Stalag 316 POW camp moved from Wołkowysk to Białystok.^[23]
  • 2 November: The Germans established a forced labour camp for Jewish men.^[24]
• 1943
  • February: The German Sicherheitspolizei begins deportations of Poles including teenage boys from the local Nazi prison to the Stutthof concentration camp.^[25]
  • 20 February: Stalag 316 POW camp dissolved.^[26]
  • 16 August: Białystok Ghetto Uprising.^[2]
  • 21 August: Transport of Białystok children. Jewish children deported by the occupiers from Białystok to Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia.

• 1944
  • July: occupied by the Soviets
  • mass arrests of Polish resistance members by the Soviets, around 1,200 Poles placed in the local prison by 7 November.^[27]
  • September: the city returned to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, capital of the part of the Białystok Voivodeship
  • 8 November: deportation of 1,030 arrested Poles by the Russians from the local prison to Ostashkov.^[27]
  • 12 November: deportation of 1,014 arrested Poles by the Russians from the local prison to Ostashkov.^[28]
  • 24 November: deportation of 900 arrested Poles by the Russians from the local prison to Ostashkov.^[28]
  • 27 December: deportation of 790 arrested Poles by the Russians from the local prison to Novomoskovsk (then Stalinogorsk).^[28]
• 1945 – 30 January: deportation of 1,242 arrested Poles by the Russians from the local prison to Skopin.^[28]

1945–2000

• 1946 – Population: 56,759.^[17]
• 1948 – Hetman Białystok football club formed.
• 1949 – Podlaskie Museum in Białystok founded.
• 1950 – Medical University of Białystok established.
• 1951 – Gazeta Współczesna newspaper begins publication.^[29]
• 1953 – Białystok Puppet Theatre established.^[30]
• 1956 – Manifestation of support for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Mass raising of funds, food, medical supplies and blood donation for Hungarian insurgents (see also Hungary–Poland relations).^[31]
• 1960 – Islamic Religious Community in Białystok [pl] established.
• 1972 – Białystok City Stadium opens.

• 1974
  • Białystok University of Technology active.
  • Population: 187,100.^[32]
• 1975 – City becomes capital of the Białystok Voivodeship (1975–98).
• 1990
  • Białystok History Museum [pl] founded.
  • Lech Rutkowski becomes mayor.
  • Piłsudski monument, Białystok [pl] installed at Kościuszko Square.
• 1991 – Roman Catholic Diocese of Białystok established.^[33]
• 1992 – Roman Catholic Diocese of Białystok elevated to Archdiocese.
• 1998 – Population: 283,937 (estimate).^[29]
• 1999 – City becomes capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship.