Lublin

Lublin , city (1994 est. pop. 352,100), capital of Lubelskie prov., SE Poland. It is a railway junction and industrial center. Manufactures include trucks, agricultural machinery, chemicals, and foodstuffs. One of the oldest Polish towns, Lublin became the capital of a province in 1474 and the seat of a tribunal in 1578. It was the meeting place of several diets (16th-18th cent.), one of which united (1569) Poland with Lithuania. Lublin passed to Austria in 1795 and to Russia in 1815. It was (1918) the seat of a temporary Polish Socialist government. In 1941, Majdanek concentration camp was established by the Nazis in Lublin. In 1944 it was the seat of a provisional government rivaling the Polish government-in-exile in London. At the Yalta Conference (Feb., 1945) it was agreed to broaden the Lublin government by including members of the London cabinet; the Lublin government was recognized as the sole Polish authority at the Potsdam Conference (Aug., 1945). The Catholic Univ. of Lublin (founded 1918) and Maria Curie-Skłodowska Univ. are there. Lublin's most notable buildings are a 14th-century city hall (rebuilt 1787), a 14th-century castle (rebuilt 1826), and a 16th-century cathedral.

Lublin City in se Poland. Founded in the late 9th century, Lublin developed as a trade centre along the se route to the Ukraine. The city twice produced national governments: Poland's first Council of Workers' Delegates (a temporary authority) formed in 1918; and in 1944, following the retreat of the German army, the provisional government convened in Lublin. Today, it is the focus for a fertile farming region and a transport and industrial centre, producing heavy machinery, textiles and electrical goods. Pop. (1996) 353,000.