Editing Białystok (section)

===Industrial growth===
[[File:Galeria Alfa Białystok Mariag36.jpg|thumb|[[Factory of Białystok Association of Manufacture|One of the former textile factories]], now a shopping mall]]
Białystok received city rights the latest from all of Podlasie's cities, but at the end of the 19th century it outgrown all the surrounding cities. The rapid development in the 19th century is related to two historical events: the creation of a customs border between the Russian Empire and the Congress Kingdom of Poland, and the opening in 1862 of the [[Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway|Warsaw Saint Petersburg railway line]], connecting Białystok with [[Warsaw]], [[Grodno]], [[Vilnius]] and [[Saint Petersburg]]. Very convenient communication conditions influenced the development and concentration of Białystok's production plants at that time. Along with the administrative function, Białystok received many economic institutions. In the second half of the 19th century, Białystok grew into a significant center of the [[textile industry]], the largest after [[Łódź]] in then-partitioned Poland. Białystok was the largest industrial center between Warsaw and Łódź in the west, Saint Petersburg in the north and [[Moscow]] in the east, and was nicknamed "[[Manchester]] of the North".<ref name=ad>{{cite magazine|last=Dobroński|first=Adam|year=2011|title=Białystok na Syberii|magazine=Medyk Białostocki|volume=11 |language=pl|issue=103|page=31}}</ref> After the failed [[November Uprising|November]] and [[January Uprising|January]] uprisings, [[Russification of Poles during the Partitions|Russification]] policies and [[Anti-Polish sentiment|anti-Polish]] repressions intensified, and after 1870 a ban on the use of Polish in public places was introduced.<ref name=BST/> In 1912, a Tsarist prison was built, which also served as a transit prison for Poles [[Sybirak|deported to Siberia]].<ref name=gr>{{cite web|url=https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/bialystok-zespol-wiezienia-carskiego-ob-areszt-sledczy|title=Zespół więzienia carskiego, ob. areszt śledczy|website=Zabytek.pl|author=Grażyna Rogala|access-date=6 September 2021|language=pl|archive-date=6 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210906182233/https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/bialystok-zespol-wiezienia-carskiego-ob-areszt-sledczy|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the end of the nineteenth century, as a result of the influx due to [[Pale of Settlement|Russian discriminatory regulations]], the majority of the city's population was Jewish. According to [[Russian census of 1897]], out of the total population of 66,000, Jews constituted 41,900 (so around 63% percent).<ref name=zimmerman>{{Cite book|last=Zimmerman|first=Joshua D.|title=Poles, Jews, and the politics of nationality|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sbr9cZyw_4C&q=population+Brest+Poles+Jews&pg=PA16 |page=16|isbn=0-299-19464-7}}</ref> This heritage can be seen on the [[Jewish Heritage Trail in Białystok]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://szlak.uwb.edu.pl/indexen.html |title=UWB Official website |access-date=2011-06-07 |archive-date=2011-08-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830102113/http://szlak.uwb.edu.pl/indexen.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Białystok pogrom]] occurred between 14 and 16 June 1906 with some 81 to 88 [[Jews]] killed by the Russians, and about 80 wounded.<ref>{{cite book|author=Samuel Joseph|title=Jewish Immigration to the United States, from 1881 to 1910|publisher=Columbia University|date=1914|pages=65–66|url=https://archive.org/details/jewishimmigrati00josegoog/page/n68 }}</ref><ref name=Dubnow>{{cite book|author1=Simon Dubnow|author2=Israel Friedlaender|title=History of the Jews in Russia and Poland|publisher=Avotaynu Inc|date=2000|page=484|isbn=9781886223110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vL60sEf7OPoC&dq=Bialystok+pogrom&pg=PA484}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Sarah Abrevaya Stein|title=Making Jews Modern|publisher=Indiana University Press|date=2004|page=113|isbn=0253110793 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39V_eGLSuJcC&dq=Bialystok+pogrom&pg=PA113}}</ref>
[[File:Bialystok pomnik Chwala Bohaterom 03.jpg|thumb|left|Monument to soldiers of the [[1st Legions Infantry Regiment]] who died in the [[Battle of Białystok]] in 1920, [[Osiedle Antoniuk, Białystok|Antoniuk]] district]]

The first [[anarchism in Russia|anarchist groups]] to attract a significant following of Russian workers or peasants were the [[anarcho-communist]] [[Chernoe-Znamia]] groups, founded in Białystok in 1903.<ref name=Geifman>{{cite book |last=Geifman |first=Anna |title=Thou Shalt Kill |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |year=1993 |isbn=0-691-02549-5 |page=127}}</ref><ref name=av44>{{cite book |author-link=Paul Avrich |last=Avrich |first=Paul |title=The Russian Anarchists |publisher=[[AK Press]] |location=Stirling |year=2006 |isbn=1-904859-48-8 |page=44}}</ref>

During [[World War I]] the [[Bialystok-Grodno District]] was the administrative division of [[Germany|German]]-controlled territory of [[Ober-Ost]]. It comprised the city, as the capital, and the surrounding Podlaskie region, roughly corresponding to the territory of the earlier Belostok Oblast.<ref name="gatrell">{{cite book |title=War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I |author=Gatrell, Peter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brest-litowsk.libau-kurland-baltikum.de/Ober-Ost/ober-ost.html |title=Das Land Ober Ost |access-date=2011-06-15|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110719054646/http://www.brest-litowsk.libau-kurland-baltikum.de/Ober-Ost/ober-ost.html|archive-date=19 July 2011 |url-status=live|language=de}}</ref> At the end of World War I the city became part of the [[National Independence Day (Poland)|newly independent]] [[Second Polish Republic]], as the capital of the [[Białystok Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Białystok Voivodeship]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Maly rocznik statystyczny (Concise Statistical Year-Book of Poland) |publisher=Central Statistical Office |year=1939 |location=Warsaw|language=pl}}</ref> Białystok and the surroundings areas regained independence only on 19 February 1919, three months after the rest of Poland, due to delay in the departure of the German Army from the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://plus.poranny.pl/stracone-nadzieje-bialystok-w-listopadzie-1918-roku/ar/11415635|title=Stracone nadzieje. Białystok w listopadzie 1918 roku|last1=Lechowski|first1=Andrzej|language=pl|publisher=Kurier Poranny|date=2016-11-10|accessdate=2024-08-12}}</ref> During the 1919–1920 [[Polish–Soviet War]], possession of the city by the [[Red Army]] and the [[Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee]] occurred during the lead up to the [[Battle of Warsaw (1920)|Battle of Warsaw]]. During the resultant counteroffensive, the city returned to Polish control after the [[Battle of Białystok]].

[[File:Wizyta Naczelnika Państwa w Białymstoku (22-323-7).jpg|thumb|[[Józef Piłsudski]]'s visit to Białystok in 1921]]

After the wars and the [[National Independence Day (Poland)|reestablishment of independent]] Poland, Polish education in Białystok was restored and the textile industry was revived.<ref name=BST/> A municipal public library was established, sports clubs were founded, including [[Jagiellonia Białystok]], and in the 1930s a [[Aleksandr Węgierki Drama Theatre in Białystok|drama theater]] was built.<ref name=BST/>