Lublin is not a large city (350,000) but it is the largest city in Poland east of the Vistula River--which largely means that there aren't that many cities east of the Vistula, but it points to Lublin's importance from a defense standpoint.
The city has been in existence since th 6th century, and it is yet another Polish city with an impressive array of medieval architecture, and a very pretty central square within a fortified enclosure. In 1392, the city received an important trade privilege from king Władyslaw Jagiello, and with the coming of the peace between Poland and Lithuania it evolved into a great trade center, carrying a large portion of commerce between the two countries.
Those days are gone. As with other cities in Poland, WWII wasn't kind to it, and it's population was decimated. The Soviets arrived in 1944 and made Lublin the temporary capital of Poland, up until 1945, when it was moved to Warsaw (which was propably a very good thing in terms of rebuilding that demolished city. One thing I did not know about modern Lublin is that in July of 1980 the workers of Lublin and nearby Świdnik began the first in the wave of mass strikes aimed against the Communist regime, which eventually led to the emergence of the Solidarity movement. Ultimately, 150 factories employing 50,000 workers joined the strike. The strikers used a novel tactic of staying inside their factories and occupying them, instead of marching in the streets where the authorities would have found it easy to use force against them. The workers made demands for their economic situation to be improved. They also made political demands, such as: new elections for the leadership of the trade unions, liquidation of privileges for the Communist party governing class, and the reduction of the bureaucracy in the factories.
The July strikes lasted two weeks. The Communist authorities eventually managed to bring them to an end peacefully, mainly by granting economic concessions to the workers. However, the momentum generated by the Lublin strikes quickly gave rise to a new wave of strikes in the Gdańsk region in August 1980. The workers there used similar tactics as the Lublin workers used a month before, and this time the Communist authorities had to agree to the strikers' demand to set up an independent trade union, which soon became the Solidarity. This spirit is not, however, in evidence in Lublin today.
Lublin is not a large city (350,000) but it is the largest city in Poland east of the Vistula River--which largely means that there aren't that many cities east of the Vistula, but it points to Lublin's importance from a defense standpoint.
The city has been in existence since th 6th century, and it is yet another Polish city with an impressive array of medieval architecture, and a very pretty central square within a fortified enclosure. In 1392, the city received an important trade privilege from king Władyslaw Jagiello, and with the coming of the peace between Poland and Lithuania it evolved into a great trade center, carrying a large portion of commerce between the two countries.
Those days are gone. As with other cities in Poland, WWII wasn't kind to it, and it's population was decimated. The Soviets arrived in 1944 and made Lublin the temporary capital of Poland, up until 1945, when it was moved to Warsaw (which was propably a very good thing in terms of rebuilding that demolished city. One thing I did not know about modern Lublin is that in July of 1980 the workers of Lublin and nearby Świdnik began the first in the wave of mass strikes aimed against the Communist regime, which eventually led to the emergence of the Solidarity movement. Ultimately, 150 factories employing 50,000 workers joined the strike. The strikers used a novel tactic of staying inside their factories and occupying them, instead of marching in the streets where the authorities would have found it easy to use force against them. The workers made demands for their economic situation to be improved. They also made political demands, such as: new elections for the leadership of the trade unions, liquidation of privileges for the Communist party governing class, and the reduction of the bureaucracy in the factories.
The July strikes lasted two weeks. The Communist authorities eventually managed to bring them to an end peacefully, mainly by granting economic concessions to the workers. However, the momentum generated by the Lublin strikes quickly gave rise to a new wave of strikes in the Gdańsk region in August 1980. The workers there used similar tactics as the Lublin workers used a month before, and this time the Communist authorities had to agree to the strikers' demand to set up an independent trade union, which soon became the Solidarity. This spirit is not, however, in evidence in Lublin today.
No comments:
Post a Comment