Bielsk County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (

powiat A ''powiat'' (; ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture (Local administrative unit, LAU-1 ormerly Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS-4 ...

) in

Podlaskie Voivodeship Podlaskie Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in northeastern Poland. The name of the voivodeship refers to the historical region of Podlachia (in Polish, ''Podlasie''), and significant part of its territory corresponds to th ...

, north-eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It came into being on 1 January 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Bielsk Podlaski, which lies south of the regional capital

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

. The only other town in the county is

Brańsk Brańsk (Podlachian language: ''Бранськ, Branśk'', , ) is a town in eastern Poland. It is situated within Podlaskie Voivodeship (province). Etymology The name of the town comes from the river Bronka, a nearby tributary of the Nurzec River ...

, lying west of Bielsk Podlaski. The county covers an area of . As of 2019 its total population is 54,590, out of which the population of Bielsk Podlaski is 25,290, that of Brańsk is 3,767, and the rural population is 25,533.

Neighbouring counties

Bielsk County is bordered by Białystok County to the north, Hajnówka County to the east,

Siemiatycze County __NOTOC__ Siemiatycze County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish loca ...

to the south and Wysokie Mazowieckie County to the west.

Administrative division

The county is subdivided into eight

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

s (two urban and six rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.

History

15th century

On 18 January 1493, Brańsk received a city charter based on Magdeburg rights from the Grand Duke of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, Alexander Jagiellon. It was the first city in Podlaskie to receive such a charter. On 18 November 1495, Bielsk Podlaski received a city charter based on Magdeburg rights from the Grand Duke of

, Alexander Jagiellon.

16th century

On 1 July 1569, the Union of Lublin was signed between the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

and the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

forming the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. One of the terms of the treaty transferred the

from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Polish Crown.

18th century

On 24 October 1795, the Third Partition of Poland assigned Bielsk County and most of Podlaskie to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

19th century

On 7–9 July 1807, the Treaties of Tilsit were signed between

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

, the

First French Empire The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

and

. The treaties repartitioned former Polish territory and assigned Bielsk County and most of eastern Podlaskie from

. It was, from 1796 to 1915, subdivided into 8 Volost. * włość oleksińska – Oleksin * włość dubiażyńska – Dubiażyn * włość klejnicka – Klejniki * włość łosińska – Łosinka * włość maleszewska – Malesze * włość nowoberezowska – Nowe Berezowo * włość orleńska – Orla * włość pasynkowska – Pasynki

20th century

On 15 August 1915, the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive by the German forces on the Eastern Front of World War I caused Bielsk County to come under the control of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

. On 5 November 1916, a declaration by the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, promised the creation of the

in the areas of Poland controlled by the

, including Bielsk County. On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

and the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...

. Bielsk County was assigned to the

On 28 June 1919, the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

and the Little Treaty of Versailles were signed establishing the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

. Bielsk County was assigned to

. From 15 September 1939 to 23 September 1939 Bielsk County was occupied by German troops From 23 September 1939 to 22 June 1941 occupation by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. Following the start of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

, 22 June 1941 to 30 July 1944, Bielsk County was occupied by the German Army. On 30 July 1944 Bielsk County was re-occupied by the

. On 5 February 1946, the Border Agreement between Poland and the USSR of 16 August 1945 was ratified by

and the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. The agreement assigned Bielsk County to

References

{{Podlaskie Voivodeship Bielsk