[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9032]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  RECOGNIZING THE CITY OF ZNIN, POLAND

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 9, 2015

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a milestone in the 
long life of the City of Znin, Poland, of which I am proud to be an 
honorary citizen. June 3, 2015 marks 25 years of local self-government 
for the nearly 15,000 people of Znin.
  Znin, originating from the Polish word for harvest, is nestled on the 
river Gasawka in Poland. Though the region has been settled for far 
longer, the city itself is nearly 900 years old and was once a major 
town on the trade route known as the Amber Road. King Casimir the Great 
of Poland visited many times and it was also a favorite of bishops 
through the latter half of the 14th Century. Fires destroyed much of 
Znin in the later 15th Century, but the town was rebuilt and boasted 
the first windmill, orchards, breweries and businesses. The 17th and 
18th centuries brought disease and more fires from which the town did 
not recover well. During the First Partition of Poland in the 1770's, 
Znin was annexed by Prussia. The town was liberated in 1794 through the 
Kosciuszko Uprising. It became part of the Duchy of Warsaw a few years 
later, but was returned to Prussia in 1815. The town's economy 
developed through the 19th Century, with modern infrastructure and its 
population growing to 4,500 citizens.
  Znin's residents successfully participated in the 1919 Greater Poland 
Uprising. A new town council was elected and Polish was reestablished 
as the official language of the town's nearly 5,000 residents. Between 
the two World Wars, the economy perked up once again and Znin boasted 
two colleges and both daily and weekly newspapers.
  On September 1, 1939, the Nazi Luftwaffe bombed Znin to start World 
War II. Nine days later, German troops overtook the town and once again 
Znin was wiped from the map of Europe. The Germans renamed the town and 
its streets, the children could not go to school and hundreds of people 
were deported or shot.
  After the war, with Poland under the brutal thumb of the Soviet Union 
as a result of the Yalta Conference, the people of Znin again faced 
repression and fear. Soviet industrialization brought development to 
Znin, but its citizens were forced to live under the Soviet regime 
while Poland was under the sphere of Soviet Communism. The people of 
Poland never gave up, though, and the ensuing decades saw uprisings as 
the people tried to liberate themselves. Finally, a group of shipyard 
workers in Gdansk brought light to the people of Poland. Over the 
course of a decade between 1980 and 1989, Solidarity moved forward 
culminating in the election of its leader Lech Walesa in 1990 and a 
free Poland.
  Thus, on its 25th anniversary of return to self-governance, the 
citizens of Znin look forward. The fires of the past drive them forth, 
but the light of the future carries them to new possibilities. I am so 
pleased to stand with my compatriots in Znin as together we celebrate 
25 years of freedom. Naprzod!

                          ____________________