Łódź Voivodeship (1919-1939)
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Łódź Voivodeship (Polish: Wojewodztwo Lodzkie) was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1919-1939. Back then, it covered a big chunk of mid-western part of the country, including such cities as Lodz, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Sieradz and Radomsko. The capital of the Łódź Voivodeship has always been Łódź, but the area of land which it comprises has changed several times.
[edit] Location and area
In early 1939, Voivodeship's area was 20,446 square kilometers. It was located in middle Poland, bordering Poznan Voivodeship to the west, Pomorze Voivodeship to the north, Warsaw Voivodeship to the east Kielce Voivodeship to the south and Germany to the southwest. Landscape was flat, forests covered only 14.7%, with the national average 22.2% (as for Jan 1., 1937).
In 1938 some western counties were ceded to Greater Poland Voivodeship (see: Territorial changes of Polish Voivodeships on April 1, 1938). After the change, it consisted of 15 powiats (counties):
- Brzeziny county (area 1 100 sq.km., pop. 150 900),
- Końskie county (area 1 619 sq.km., pop. 135 900),
- Kutno county (area 922 sq.km., pop. 108 000),
- Łask county (area 1 400 sq.km., pop. 171 900),
- Łęczyca county (area 1 317 sq.km., pop. 127 600),
- Łowicz county (area 1 258 sq.km., pop. 104 800),
- city of Łódź county (powiat lodzki grodzki), (area 59 sq.km., pop. 604 600). It was the most populous county of interbellum Poland,
- Łódź county (area 893 sq.km., pop. 161 700),
- Opoczno county (area 1 773 sq.km., pop. 129 900),
- Piotrków Trybunalski county (area 2 073 sq.km., pop. 222 200),
- Radomsko county (area 2 149 sq.km., pop. 186 400),
- Rawa Mazowiecka county (area 1 327 sq.km., pop. 93 500),
- Sieradz county (area 1 618 sq.km., pop. 167 400),
- Skierniewice county (area 831 sq.km., pop. 71 000),
- Wieluń county (area 2 107 sq.km., pop. 214 300).
The biggest cities of the Voivodeship were (population according to the 1931 census):
- Łódź (pop. 604,600),
- Piotrków Trybunalski (pop. 51,300),
- Pabianice (pop. 45,700),
- Tomaszów Mazowiecki (pop. 38,000),
- Zgierz (pop. 26,600),
- Kutno (pop. 23,400),
- Radomsko (pop. 23,000).
[edit] Population
According to the 1931 Polish census, the population was 2,650,100. Poles made 81% of population, Jews - 13.8% and Germans - 4.9%. The Jews and the Germans preferred to live in the cities and towns (especially Lodz itself). In 1931 these two ethnic groups made 37.6% of Voivodeship’s cities’ inhabitants. Illiterate (in 1931) was 22.7%, slightly lower than the national average of 23.1%.
[edit] Industry
The Voivodeship’s biggest industrial center was the city of Lodz with its suburbs. Apart from this, it lacked other industrial cities, the construction of a huge public works program, called Centralny Okreg Przemyslowy, which started in the second half of the 1930, missed this part of Poland. Railroad density was 4.8 per 100 sq. km., with the national average of 5.2. Biggest rail hubs - Koluszki, Kutno, Lowicz, Skierniewice, Zdunska Wola and Lodz.
(source: Maly rocznik statystyczny 1939, Nakladem Glownego Urzedu Statystycznego, Warszawa 1939 (Concise Statistical Year-Book of Poland, Warsaw 1939).
