History

Khoiniki is first mentioned in 1512 as a settlement of the Bragin County of the Great Principality of Lithuania.

From the mid 16th century it is mentioned as a settlement of the Rechitsa powiat (district), which belonged to the Princes Wisieweskis, Szujskis and Prozars.

In the first half of the 17th century the Princes Wisieweskis built a castle with walls and a tower on a small sand-hill in a high-water bed of the River Kvesya. The caste existed till the 18th century.

From the end of the 17th century Khoiniki was the volost center. In 1793, after the second partition of the Rzecz Pospolita, the settlement, as the volost center of the Rechitsa powiat of the Minsk province, was integrated into the Russian Empire.

At the end of the 19th century the population of Khoiniki was about 2,700 people. There were two distilleries, a saw-mill and an iron-working plant, 2 water-mills, 2 schools, 26 shops, 2 hotels, a mail office, the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin and a Roman-Catholic Church.

As part of the Gomel province, Khoiniki was integrated into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1919.

December 18, 1926 is seen as the date of the region’s founding, as since that time Khoiniki has been the center of the region, at first the Rechitsa region and in 1927-1930 – Gomel okrug of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic.

On September 29, 1938 Khoiniki was awarded the status of a township of the Polessye oblast. The population made up 3,400 people in 1939.

On August 25, 1941 Khoiniki was occupied by the Nazis. More than 200 civilians were killed; over 5000 people died on the fronts; 26 villages were burnt down.

On November 23, 1943 Khoiniki was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belarusian front.

In 1954 Khoiniki made part of Gomel oblast. On October 10, 1967 it was awarded the status of a town. The population made up 9,5 thousand people in 1970.

The town was growing by means of incorporating the nearby villages. Three districts of the town feature Staryie Khoiniki, Novyie Khoiniki and a north-western district. At the end of 1986 the population of the region grew to make 45,9 thousand people.

The Khoiniki region is one of the most Chernobyl affected areas. Twenty years since the catastrophe the population of the region has halved as more than 20 thousand people were resettled from the areas most contaminated with radionuclides. Forty-nine villages out of 99 ceased to exist as well several educational establishments and 6 rural councils.

About 88 thousand hectares of lands were removed from agricultural use, including 34 thousand hectares of arable lands.