Poland 1892

Synopsis

The city of Lodz in modern Poland came to prominence in the mid-nineteenth century as a textile production center. Part of the Kingdom of Poland, the city was the most important manufacturing center in the Russian Empire and the first truly industrial city in the region. Developed under the managerial expertise of capitalists from Prussia, Lodz also served as a cultural and economic crossroads of central Europe. It was in Lodz that organizers had their first successes outside of Warsaw in creating a socialist movement in Poland in the 1880s. On May Day in 1892, Lodz also witnessed a general strike and insurrection, one of the first in the Russian Empire. The protest, which was brutally suppressed in an action that ended in 46 deaths, involved at least 20,000 workers. In 1905 Lodz was once again the site of a general uprising against Russian authorities. Although this uprising...