The Polish writer-memoirist Efstafy Ivanovsky, who wrote under the name Hellenius, was born in the village on 17 January 1813; he lived in the village for almost all his life and was a devout Roman Catholic, making numerous pilgrimages. His mother Clara Ivanovsky died in 1859, and he inherited estates in Halaimgorodok, as well as the desire to build a church to honour St. Clare, the patron saint of his mother. He was, however, unable to obtain the necessary permission from the Russian authorities, who brutally repressed the Polish nobility in response to the armed uprisings of 1831 and of 1863.