Kolno is a town in northeastern Poland, located in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, about 150 km northeast of Warsaw. It is the seat of Kolno County, and the seat of the smaller administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Kolno, but it is not part of this district, as the town has gmina status in its own right. Kolno has 10,730 inhabitants (2007). History Lechitic (early Polish) settlement developed from the 8th century, and a stronghold was erected in the 8th or 9th century. In the 10th century it became part of the emerging Polish state. As a result of the fragmentation of Piast-ruled Poland, it formed part of the provincial Duchy of Masovia, before it was reincorporated directly to the Polish Crown. Kolno was first mentioned in 1222, and received town rights from Duke Janusz III of Masovia in 1425. Major economic expansion took place in the 16th century, with more trade and crafts. Kolno was a royal town of the Polish Crown, administratively located in the Masovian Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. Kolno was destroyed by fire during the Kościuszko Uprising (1794). After the Third Partition of Poland (1795) it became part of Prussia, till 1807, and subsequently, part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw. From 1815 it belonged to Congress Poland in the Russian Partition of Poland. In the 19th century, many Jews settled in the town, following Russian discriminatory policies and the expulsion of Jews from Russia to the Russian Partition of Poland (see Pale of Settlement). After the massacres of Polish protesters committed by the Russians in Warsaw in 1861, Polish demonstrations and clashes with Russian soldiers took place in Kolno. Kolno was destroyed again in the First World War, during battle between Russian and German empires. In 1918, it was eventually reintegrated with Poland, as the country regained independence after the First World War. On 25–26 August 1920, the Battle of Kolno was fought, in which the Polish 14th Infantry Division defeated the invading Soviets. It was the last battle of the large Battle of Warsaw, which definitely halted the Russian advance and the spread of communism westwards into Europe. The population of Kolno during the interwar period increased to 5,163 persons, 70% of them Jewish. Jan of Kolno Polish historian and cartographer Joachim Lelewel (1786–1861) was the first to gather all available mentions of Jan of Kolno known as Johannes