The city is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest air show in the country, held during the last weekend of August. "Radom" is also the popular unofficial name for a semiautomatic FB Vis pistol, which was produced from 1935 to 1944 by Radom's Łucznik Arms Factory. The city continues to produce military firearms for the Polish Armed Forces.
The international Radom Jazz Festival and the International Gombrowicz Theater Festival are held in the city.
Radom's original settlement dates back to the 8th–9th century. It was an early medieval town in the valley of the Mleczna River (on the approximate site of present-day Old Town). In the second half of the 10th century, it became a gord, called Piotrówka, which was protected by a rampart and a moat. Due to convenient location on the edge of a large wilderness, and its proximity to the border of Lesser Poland and Mazovia, Radom quickly emerged as an important administrative center of the early Kingdom of Poland. Piotrówka was probably named after St. Peter church, which in 1222 was placed under the authority of a BenedictineAbbey in nearby Sieciechów. The church no longer exists; the oldest still-extant church in Radom is St. Wacław, founded in the 13th century by Prince of Sandomierz Leszek I the White. The first documented mention of Radom comes from the year 1155, in a bull of Pope Adrian IV (villam iuxta Rado, que vocatur Zlauno, or a village near Radom, called Sławno). By 1233, Radom was the seat of a castellan. The name of the city comes from the ancient Slavic given name Radomir, and Radom means a gord, which belongs to Radomir.[4]
Saint John the Baptist church, founded by King Casimir III the Great in the 14th century
In the second half of the 13th century, Radom was granted a Środa Śląska town charter by Prince Bolesław V the Chaste, although no documents exist to confirm the exact date of this event. The town prospered in the 14th century, when in 1350 King Kazimierz Wielki established the so-called New Town, with a royal castle, a defensive wall, and a town hall. There was also a market square and a grid plan of the streets, patterned after Gothic German towns. The area of New Town was 9 hectares, and the length of the defensive wall was 1,100 meters. Radom had three gates, named after main merchant roads: Iłża Gate, Piotrków Trybunalski Gate, and Lublin Gate. The defensive wall was further protected by 25 fortified towers. New Town had the Church of John the Baptist, and the Royal Castle was built between the church and the moat.
In 1364, Radom's obsolete Środa Śląska rights were replaced with more modern Magdeburg rights, and residents gained several privileges as a result.[6] At that time, Radom was located along the so-called Oxen Trail, from Ruthenian lands to Silesia. In 1376, the city became the seat of a starosta, and entered the period of its greatest prosperity.[7]
The period of prosperity ended during the Swedish invasion of Poland. The Swedish army captured the city without a fight in November 1655. At first the invaders behaved correctly, as King Charles X Gustav still sought alliances within the Polish-Lithuanian nobility; the situation changed, however, in early 1656, when anti-Swedish uprisings broke out in southern Lesser Poland and quickly spread across the country. Radom was looted and almost completely destroyed in August 1656. Its population shrank from some 2,000 before the war, to 395 in 1660, with only 37 houses still standing. Swedish soldiers burned the royal castle and the monastery. With the Polish population in decline, the number of Jewish settlers grew by the early 18th century. In 1682 the first Piarists arrived, and in 1737–1756, opened a college.[11] The 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Polish Crown Army was stationed in Radom at various times.[12]
Piarist College in the 19th century
Late modern era
Radom remained within the Sandomierz Voivodeship of the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until the Third Partition of Poland (1795). For a few years (1795–1809) it was part of the Austrian province of West Galicia. After the Polish victory in the Austro-Polish War of 1809, it was part of the Polish Duchy of Warsaw, which named it capital of the Radom Department. From 1815 the city belonged to Russian-controlledCongress Poland, remaining a regional administrative center. In 1816–1837 it was the capital of the Sandomierz Voivodeship, whose capital, despite the name, was at Radom. In 1837–1844 it was the capital of the Sandomierz Governorate, and from 1844 until the outbreak of World War I, the capital of the Radom Governorate. The Polish 5th Line Infantry Regiment, which later fought against Russia in the November Uprising, was stationed in Radom.[13] The city was an important center of the November Uprising. Its obsolete and ruined fortifications were destroyed upon order of Mayor Józef Królikowski. In the early days of the January Uprising, Marian Langiewicz visited Radom, preparing the rebellion. In the 19th century, Radom was one of the leading centers of the new art of photography in partitioned Poland, alongside major cities of Warsaw, Gdańsk, Kraków and Wilno.[14] In 1867 a sewage system was built. Russians closed down the Benedictine monastery and established a Tsarist prison in its place.[15] Streets were gradually paved, and in 1885, a rail line from Dąbrowa Górnicza to Dęblin was completed, via Radom. In the early 20th century a power plant was built. In 1906, notable Polish independence fighter Kazimierz Sosnkowski, future politician and general, escaped from Warsaw to Radom, pursued by the Russian Okhrana.[16] In Radom, he continued his secret activities, and became the commander of the local Combat Organization, before he eventually had to escape again, this time to the Dąbrowa Basin.[16]
During World War I, the city was captured by the Austro-Hungarian Army in July 1915. An Austrian garrison remained until November 1918.
City map from 1919
In the Second Polish Republic Radom became part of Kielce Voivodeship. In 1932 the City County of Radom was created, and the following year, its rail connection with Warsaw was completed. In the late 1930s, due to the government project known as the Central Industrial Area, several new factories were built; by 1938, the population had grown to 80,000. The city was also a military garrison, serving as headquarters of the 72nd Infantry Regiment.
World War II
On September 1, 1939, the first day of the German invasion of Poland and World War II, the Germans air raided the city.[17] On September 8, 1939, Radom was captured by the Wehrmacht, and was afterwards occupied by Germany. On September 21, 1939, the German Einsatzgruppe II entered the city to commit various crimes against the population, and afterwards its members co-formed the local German police and security forces.[18] The Germans immediately confiscated the food stored in warehouses in Radom and nearby settlements, and carried out requisitions in the city council.[19] The occupiers established a special court in Radom,[20] and two temporary prisoner-of-war camps for captured Polish soldiers, one in the pre-war military barracks and one in the Tadeusz Kościuszko Park.[21] There were poor conditions in the camp in the barracks, and hunger and diseases were common.[22] The local civilian population helped many POWs escape from the camp.[23]
Former seat of the Gestapo and NKVD during the occupation
From October 1939 to January 1940, the Germans carried out several public executions of Polish civilians in various locations in Radom, killing 111 people.[24] The Germans also operated a heavy prison in the city,[25] and carried mass arrests of hundreds of Poles, who were then held in the prison.[26] Many Poles expelled from Gdynia in 1939 were placed in a temporary transit camp in a local church, before they were sent to nearby settlements.[27]
The occupiers liquidated local cultural and social life.[28] All sports clubs and high schools were closed, and teaching of literature, geography and history in the remaining schools was prohibited.[29]
In March and May 1940, the Germans carried out massacres of 210 Poles, including teenagers, from Radom and nearby settlements in the city's Firlej district.[30] Around 100 Poles from Radom were murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940.[31] In July, August and November 1940, the Germans carried out deportations of Poles from the local prison to the Auschwitz concentration camp.[32] Deportations to concentration camps continued throughout the war, and 18,000 people passed through the local prison, mostly Polish political activists, resistance members and innocent people, plus ordinary criminals.[33] At the large massacre sites in the present-day districts of Firlej and Kosów, the Germans murdered around 15,000 and 1,500 people, respectively.[34]
Monument and cemetery in Firlej where the Germans murdered around 15,000 Poles and Jews
Radom was a center of Polish resistance, with various organizations, such as Service for Poland's Victory, Independent Poland [pl], Union of Armed Struggle, Bataliony Chłopskie, Grey Ranks and numerous Home Army units operating in the area.[28] The resistance carried out various actions, which included sabotage, stealing weapons, secret education, etc.[28] Poles were even able to produce weapons for Polish partisans in the local arms factory, even though it was seized by the Germans. In 1942, the Germans discovered the activity, and then publicly hanged 50 Poles, including 26 employees of the arms factory, and a pregnant woman.[38] Scouts from the Gray Ranks who worked at the local post office stole and destroyed anonymous letters to the Gestapo, thus possibly saving many lives.[33] Two German doctors from a local hospital helped the Polish resistance, for which one was even arrested and sent to a concentration camp.[33] In April 1943, the resistance successfully assassinated the chief of the local German police.[39]
In 1944, following the Polish Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported thousands of Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Radom.[40] Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children.[40] 3,500 Poles expelled from Warsaw stayed in the city, as of November 1, 1944.[40]
In January 1945, the occupiers sent the last transport of prisoners from Radom to Auschwitz, but it only reached Częstochowa, while the remaining prisoners were massacred in Firlej.[33]
On January 16, 1945, the city was captured by the Red Army, and then restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. Fallen Red Army soldiers rest at the local cemetery at Warszawska Street. The communists held Polish resistance members in the former German prison.[33] In September 1945, the resistance movement attacked the communist prison and liberated nearly 500 prisoners.[33]
From 1975 to 1998, it was the seat of the Radom Voivodeship. In 1954 and 1984, city limits were greatly expanded by including several settlements as new districts,[43] including Długojów Górny, Huta Józefowska, Janiszpol, Józefów, Kierzków, Kończyce, Krychnowice, Krzewień, Malczew, Mleczna, Nowa Wola Gołębiowska, Nowiny Malczewskie, Stara Wola Gołębiowska, Wincentów, Wólka Klwatecka.[44]
In 2007, two pilots died in an accident at the air show, resulting in the cancellation of the rest of the event. On 30 August 2009, also during the air show, another two pilots who represented Belarus were killed when their plane crashed.
Radom was one of the main centres of the strike action taken by Polish health care workers in 2007.
Jadar Radom - defunct men's volleyball team, which played in the PlusLiga in 2006–10.
Transport
Transport in Radom
Radom is an important railroad junction, where two lines meet: east–west connection from Lublin to Łódź, and north–south from Warsaw to Kielce, and Kraków. The city is also located close
to European route E77, here the European route E371 begins, which runs southwards, to Slovakia. The famous Radom Air Show takes place at Radom Airport, an airport located 3.5 km (2 mi) from the center of Radom.
Transport in Radom - Gallery
Radom Airport
Bus Solaris Urbino 12
Main railway station
Biking in Radom
Education
University of Radom
Radom is home to about 20 schools of higher education:
The book, Outcry - Holocaust Memoirs, by Manny Steinberg, chronicles a young Jewish man's life and trials during the Nazi occupation of Radom and beyond. Published by Amsterdam Publishers, The Netherlands in 2014.
The Kurc family lives in Radom at the opening of the narrative non-fiction novel We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter.
Politics
Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Radom constituency
On 28 February 2022, Radom ended its partnership with the Russian city of Ozyory and the Belarusian city of Homyel as a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[73]
Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584), Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language, considered the greatest Slavic poet prior to the 19th century
Oskar Kolberg (1814– 1890), ethnographer, folklorist and composer
Eva Mekler (born 1945), American novelist and author of the prolific "Actors' Scenebook" series, novels Sunrise Shows Late and The Polish Woman, was born in Radom in the aftermath of World War II
Kazimierz Ołdakowski (1878–1940), prewar director of Fabryka Broni
^Gembarzewski, Bronisław (1925). Rodowody pułków polskich i oddziałów równorzędnych od r. 1717 do r. 1831 (in Polish). Warszawa: Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej. pp. 26–27.
^Kuropatwa, Justyna (2017). "Moda na fotografię w Gdańsku na tle ziem polskich (do lat sześćdziesiątych XIX wieku)". In Kita, Jarosław; Korybut-Marciniak, Maria (eds.). Życie prywatne Polaków w XIX wieku (in Polish). Vol. VI. Łódź-Olsztyn: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. p. 101. ISBN978-83-8088-801-2.
^Radomskie miejsca pamięci II wojny światowej (in Polish). Radom. 2010. pp. 12–13.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ abKirszak, Jerzy (2008). "Wspołtworca niepodległości. Kazimierz Sosnkowski do 1918 roku". Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). No. 11–12 (94–95). IPN. p. 109. ISSN1641-9561.
^Grabowski, Waldemar (2009). "Polacy na ziemiach II RP włączonych do III Rzeszy". Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). No. 8–9 (103–104). IPN. p. 62. ISSN1641-9561.
^Radomskie miejsca pamięci II wojny światowej, p. 14, 28
^Radomskie miejsca pamięci II wojny światowej, p. 15
^Radomskie miejsca pamięci II wojny światowej, p. 17
^Tomkiewicz, Monika (2003). "Wysiedlenia z Gdyni w 1939 roku". Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). No. 12–1 (35–36). IPN. p. 36. ISSN1641-9561.
^ abcRadomskie miejsca pamięci II wojny światowej, p. 2
^Radomskie miejsca pamięci II wojny światowej, p. 2, 9
^See also: Alfred Lipson, ed. and comp., The Book of Radom: The Story of a Jewish Community in Poland Destroyed by the Nazis (New York, 1963), based on Sefer Radom, ed. Yitsḥak Perlov (Tel Aviv, 1961); Sebastian Piątkowski, Dni życia, dni śmierci: Ludność żydowska w Radomiu w latach 1918–1950 (Warsaw, 2006).
^Zachert, Uwe; Annica Kunz. "Twin cities". Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg [City of Magdeburg]. Archived from the original on 2012-09-01. Retrieved 2013-08-07.
The list includes the 107 urban municipalities governed by a city mayor (prezydent miasta) instead of a town mayor (burmistrz) · Cities with powiat rights are in italics · Voivodeship cities are in bold
Poland
Masovian
(15th)[1]
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