Bolimów is a town in

Skierniewice County __NOTOC__ Skierniewice County ( pl, powiat skierniewicki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local governmen ...

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province- voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź Voivodeship (1975–1999) and the Sier ...

, in central Poland. It is the seat of the Gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Bolimów. It lies approximately north of

Skierniewice Skierniewice is a city in central Poland with 47,031 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously capital of Skierniewice Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Skierniewice County. The town is situat ...

and north-east of the regional capital

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

. The town has a population of 930. It gives its name to the protected area known as Bolimów Landscape Park.

History

Its history dates back to at least 1370, when it was already considered a town. It was a royal town of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

until the Partitions of Poland. Since 1815, it was located in the

Russian Partition The Russian Partition ( pl, zabór rosyjski), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Po ...

. Around 1870, it was one of many towns deprived of its

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

by the Russians as a punishment for the Polish January Uprising. It was the place where gas weapons were used for the first time, during

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when on 31 January 1915, during the

Battle of Bolimów A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

, the German Army shelled

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Force ...

positions with

xylyl bromide Xylyl bromide, also known as methylbenzyl bromide or T-stoff ('substance-T'), is any member or a mixture of organic chemical compounds with the molecular formula C6 H4(CH3)(CH2 Br). The mixture was formerly used as a tear gas and has an odor r ...

, a tear gas; the attack was relatively unsuccessful due to low temperature which prevented the gas from vaporising and spreading.Nick Cornish, ''The Russian Army 1914-18'', Osprey Publishing, 2001,
Google Print, p.6
/ref> A much larger attack with poison gas occurred in the nearby area on 31 May 1915, and Russian army suffered much higher casualties (over several thousand dead). After the war, in 1918, Poland regained independence and control of the settlement. Following the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, which started

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in September 1939, it was occupied by Germany until 1945. In 1944, during and after the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

, the Germans deported several hundreds of

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...

(mainly old people and women with children) from the Dulag 121 camp in

Pruszków Pruszków ( yi, ‏פּרושקאָוו) is a city in east-central Poland, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in Warszawa Voivodeship (1975–1998). Pruszków is the capital of Pruszków County, located along t ...

, where they were initially imprisoned, to Bolimów and surrounding villages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolimow Cities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship Skierniewice County Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939)