Swidnik
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Template:Titlelacksdiacritics Świdnik is a town in eastern Poland with 40,113 inhabitants (2002), situated in the Lublin Voivodship, very near the city of Lublin.
History
The village of Świdnik is first mentioned in historical records from 1392. It remained a village until the end of the 19th century when it began to develop into as a spa, due to its good location and climate.
Before World War II an airfield was built, which probably influenced the postwar decision of Poland's Communist government to locate a factory there. This factory, created in 1951 under the name Wytw�rnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego (WSK for short, Communications Equipment Factory in English), became one of the main centres for the production of helicopters in the Soviet block. The workers arriving to work in the factory created the modern town, which formally received its charter in 1954.
The first helicopter produced in Świdnik, the Soviet-designed Mil Mi-1, flew in 1956. In 1965 production switched to the Mil Mi-2, of which 7,200 were produced over the next three decades.
On July 8, 1980 a strike started in the WSK factory, which quickly spread to other factories in the Lublin region and essentially brought its economy to a standstill. The Communist government eventually managed to quell these mass strikes by granting the workers many of their demands. However, the pressure for change generated by these strikes in turn led to the August strikes in Gdansk and elsewhere on Poland's Baltic Coast, which shortly after led to the emergence of the Solidarity movement.
External links
- Ofical Webside of the town (http://www.swidnik.pl/rekraacja.php) (Polish, English)
- Świdnik on the map, via www.pilot.pl (http://www.pilot.pl/index.php3?z_city_id=8395&lang=pl)