Raduń

This entry refers to a town formerly in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but now in Belarus (some very near the border with Lithuania). Poland proper has several Radun's, so it's important not to confuse them with this place.

Radun [now Radun, ..., in Belarus], a small government-owned town on the Radunka River, Lida powiat, in the 4th political district, center of a gmina and a rural district; it is an estate belonging to the treasury, 30 km. northwest of Lida, 37 km. from Wasiliszki, and 82 km. from Wilno, on a side road which in the 16th century was the shortest highway between Wilno and Kraków. In the year 1881 there were 1,526 inhabitants (757 male and 769 female); in the year 1866 there were 91 houses and 869 inhabitants (361 Catholics and 508 Jews); it has a wooden Catholic church and chapel, a synagogue, gmina administrative office, and a public school, which in the year 1885-6 was attended by 56 boys and 2 girls. It is the property of the treasury, which gave the lands back to the peasants for purchase. About 2 km. from the town, on a vast plain near the village of Horodyszcze, is a large trench, and even though the inhabitants call it the "Swedish" trench, its shape and the name of the adjoining the village shows that it was a fortified citadel of long ago. According to Balinski (Star. Polska, III:259), Radun was called Radomi by 16th century travelers and writers.

This small town was once a royal estate, from which the income went to pay for the king's court and table. According to a 1538 inspection, it had 7 streets there, in addition to the market square, and 210 houses of Christians - Jews were forbidden to settle there. It had 35 saloons for selling beer, 7 for mead and one only for liquor. Later Radun became the site of a starostwo not affiliated with a gród, and in 1770 that office included the town with appurtenances. In the year 1766 Józef Tyszkiewicz, the castellan of Mscislaw [now Mstsislav, ..., in Belarus] bought it, and on it he paid a kwarta of 2,616 z1oty's, 5 groszy, and a hyberna of 2,690 Polish z1oty's. At the Sejm of 1773-75 the Commonwealth government addressed recurring disputes over the borders of this starostwo by passing a separate law designating six officials as ad hoc commissioners to settle the matter once and for all.

In the Metryka Litewska the series of Radun starosta's begins toward the end of the 15th century with Janusz Kostewicz (1498-1527), followed by: Jan Hlebowicz (1527), Szymko Mackiewicz (1532-1541), Stanislaw Kiezgajlo (1546-1549), Augustyn Fursowicz (1551), Jurij Wolczkowicz (1556), Jan Hercyk (1569), and Mikolaj Talwosz (1581).

The Catholic parish church of Our Lady of the Rosary dates from 1838, transferred from the village of Kolesniki [now Kalesninkai, Lithuania], due to the closing of the Carmelite monastery there. Previously there had existed a church from the year 1752, which burned down; rebuilt in 1801, it suffered the same fate again. There is a small chapel in the cemetery. The Catholic parish, of the Radun deanery, has 7,522 souls. At one time there was a branch of the church in the village of Dubicze. The Radun deanery consists of 11 parishes: Radun, Ejszyszki [now Eisiskis, Lithuania], Wasiliszki [now Vasiliski, Belarus], Nacza [Nac], Bieniakonie [Benyakoni], Zablocie [Zabalac'], Wawiorka, Iszczolna, Woronów [Voranawa], Ossów and Soleczniki [now Salcinikai, Lithuania], for a total of 58,768 souls.

In this parish the terrain is level and treeless, overgrown in some places with bushes and covered with marshes. The soil is sandy, with a lot of gravel. It is watered by the following rivers: Dzitwa, Pielasa, Radunka, Naczka, Sopunka, Jodub. The rural district includes the town of Radun and the villages of Juciuny, Straczuny, Horodyszcze, Jatowty, Popiszki, Skladance, Wojkunce, and the nobles' farm settlement of Poradun, for a total as of the year 1864, according to the treasury rewizja of peasants, of 565 serfs, 3 men of jednodworzec status, and 32 free men. The gmina of Radun belongs to the 3rd district chamber of peasant affairs in the town of Ejszyszki as well as to the 3rd conscription center for the same place in Lida district, and consists of four rural districts: Radun, Mozejki, Kiwance, and Pielasa, including 67 villages with 536 houses, inhabited by 6,969 peasants. According to the 1864 census, there were in the gmina 1,740 serfs, according to the treasury rewizja of peasants 346 enfranchised farmers, 85 of jednodworzec status, 56 Jewish farmers, and 32 free men, for a total of 2,259 souls.

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1888, vol. 9, p. 450-451]