Lost Places

Habne is a small town. There is such small town which is called Habne, and it has everything that should have small town: a post office, the government rabbi, the river, the synagogue rabbi, a telegraph, a cemetery, the police officer, a school, the Hasidim, two synagogues, plenty of poor men, just a few prosperous, as usually in our small towns.

"The Village of Habne"  

Sholem Aleichem (Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich, שלום־עליכם) 

1905  

Note: Habne (Khabnoye) - the name of a small town Poliske (Polesskoye) till 1934. 

For the first time the settlement with the name Habne on the Uzh River meets in written sources in 1415. Habne belonged, in due time, to The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then to Rzeczpospolita Korony Polskiej i Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego and in the end of XVIII century has passed to the Russian empire. By the one of versions the Kiev’s Jews have based settlement running from attacks of nomads. In XVI and XVII centuries Habne plays rather important defensive role in country. In a XIX century the small town is known for the weavers and the textile industry. According to population census of 1890 80 % of inhabitants of small town were Jews, but after all its suburbs have officially been attached to Habne, occupied in basic by Ukrainians, Poles and Lithuanians, this number has slightly decreased.

It looks like the name of Habne quite suited everyone always. But for the Bolsheviks who have come to power in 1920 the name for some reason was disliked. For this satiation very successfully appeared that one of outstanding figures of VKP(b) (All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)), Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, was just from these places (was born near the Habne in small village Kabany (now Dibrova)), and certainly "under requests of workers" Habne in 1934 has been suddenly renamed in "Kaganovichi Pervye (first)", and village Kabany - in "Kaganovichi Vtorye (second)". At the late fifties there were already other people in power, and the small town name unpleasantly reminded them the past... But here, as always, very aptly those "workers have asked" urgently again to rename all. The Soviet rule, certainly, has meet the wishes and in 1957 urban-type community "Kaganovichi Pervye" have renamed in neutral "Poliske", and "Kaganovichi Vtorye" - in not less neutral "Dibrova".

It is amusing that outside of the USSR hardly traced our infinite renamings and, probably, at one moment have simply given all up as a bad job, as a result on modern foreign maps very often it is possible to meet all three variants: "Habne", "Kaganovichi Pervye" and " Poliske".

After failure on ChNPP in April, 1986, Poliske became the main centre of evacuation of the city Pripyat. Here also have moved the authorities of Pripyat. Some Pripyaters even had time to receive here apartments.

Poliske has got in so-called "the Western Track" and though it was more than 50 km from it to ChNPP, by level of radioactive pollution it was not much safer then Pripyat city. In 1993 by the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Supreme Council of Ukraine) urban-type community Poliske is refer to so-called "III Zone" (a zone of guaranteed voluntary resettlement). Begins the exodus of woodlanders from their "capital". At that point in time in a town lived about 12 thousand inhabitants. In 1996 urban settlement Poliske is devoid the status of the regional centre of the area with the same name. All the regional authority move in village Krasiatychi. Year 1999 – it is crossed off the register as settlement, the territory of Poliske and nearby villages are transferred in conducting the Ministry of Emergency Measures and Administration of the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation.

The end of history of Habne - Poliske.

Entrance in Poliske. To the right of road petrol station.

To the left of road the rests of two German posts of times of the Second World War.

Street "1st travnja" (1st of May). The central bus terminal.

From left to right: Bath-and-laundry industrial complex. An entrance to the central stadium. A stadium field. 

From left to right: the Central post office. Public telephone office. In cinema foyer.

The official centre of urban settlement Poliske. Executive committee. Park and a monument to victims of the Second World War. The memorable sign devoted to failure on ChNPP in 1986.

The informal centre of urban-type community Poliske. Shop "Children's world". Restaurant. House of culture.

Having slept in plenty after a dinner, I have risen briskly, left on Spaziergang to examine Habne, inhabitants of Habne and women of Habne, guys of Habne and girls of Habne who dress and smarten themselves up "after the latest fashion".

(Sh. Aleichem "The Village of Habne") 

For a long time I did not hear such cantor as in Habne, for a long time I did not hear such services as in Habne, for a long time I did not eat such fish with pepper, such tasty noodles, such zrazes as in Habne, for a long time I did not sleep so sweet, as slept on that night of Saturday, and all the day of Saturday slept royally.

(Sh. Aleichem "The Village of Habne")