Władysław Pieńkowski (23 April 1846 – 5 July 1919) was a Polish official who served as Mayor of Radomsko (1874–1878), Zgierz (1878–1882), and Łódź (1882–1914).
Biography Władysław Pieńkowski was born on 23 April 1846 in Piotrków Trybunalski, then part of Congress Poland, to a peasant family, Józefat and Anna née Bledzewska, who owned a farm in Witów, Piotrków Governorate. On 21 May 1846, he was baptized in the Catholic Church at the Church of St. James in Piotrków, receiving the names Władysław Wojciech. Later in life, he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. His godparents were Seweryn Grabiński, a former Polish army officer, and Antonina Jasińska, assisted by Tomasz Jasiński and Franciszka Grabińska.
He completed four years at a Russian-German primary school and attended a commercial school. He then apprenticed in Warsaw at a colonial goods store owned by Leon Krupecki before moving to Łódź during the January Uprising of 1863. According to the Pamiatnaja kniżka Pietrokowskoj gubiernii na 1904 god, he graduated from the Higher Craft School in Łódź.
Early career On 24 July 1863, Pieńkowski began working as a clerk in the Łódź Magistrate with an annual salary of 100 rubles. On 8 February 1864, he was assigned to the office of the city's military commander, Colonel Baron , a German hostile to Poles. He served there until the uprising's suppression, earning the Medal for the Suppression of the Polish Rebellion on 18 December 1864. From 28 September 1866, he was an assistant police inspector, and on 3 June 1867, he became Łódź's quartermaster, earning 180 rubles annually.
He later worked in Zgierz's city office, quickly advancing to secretary of the Quartering Department. In November 1874, he became Mayor of Radomsko, and in 1878, Mayor of Zgierz, with a salary of 750 rubles. In August 1878, while still mayor of Radomsko, he received the Order of Saint Stanislaus, 3rd Class.
Mayor of Łódź On 9 November 1882, Pieńkowski substituted for the ailing , assuming the presidency of Łódź on 22 November after Makowiecki's death. He inherited a financially robust city: in 1882, revenues were 113,725 rubles and 31.5 kopecks, expenditures were 80,818 rubles and 1.5 kopecks, with a reserve fund of 232,120 rubles and 87.5 kopecks in the Bank of Poland.
Developments during presidency During Władysław Pieńkowski's presidency, Łódź did experience rapid development; however, this was primarily the result of a global civilizational leap and the significant involvement of private capital and the activity of local entrepreneurs, rather than the initiative or dedication of the mayor.
In December 1883, the first telephone connection was launched in the city. Starting in September 1885, an address reform was carried out, introducing a new numbering system for properties on each street and dividing street buildings into sides with even and odd numbers. In October 1886, the first state-run Russian-language boys' and girls' gymnasiums were opened (they are the predecessors of today's Tadeusz Kościuszko High School No. III and Emilia Sczaniecka High School No. IV), and in 1906, the Polish Boys' Gymnasium of the Uczelnia Society was established (now Nicolaus Copernicus High School No. I). On 6 January 1884, the first issue of Dziennik Łódzki appeared – the first Polish newspaper in Łódź published entirely in the Polish language.
In the last three decades of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, industry developed rapidly. Among others, the following factories were established: the Schwartz, Birnbaum et Co. wool products factory at 2/6 Tylna Street (1884), the worsted wool products factory of Paul Desurmont at 219/221 , and the cotton spinning mill of Henryk Grohman at Emilia Street – now 22/24 (1889).
Starting in 1884, electric lighting began to be introduced – initially in factories, and later also on city streets: in the private Meyer Passage – now Stanisław Moniuszko Street (1887), and at the New Market – now Liberty Square (1908). In December 1898, the first electric tram service in Congress Poland was launched. At the end of 1902, the Łódź Kaliska railway station was opened for use, and in July 1903, a new post office building was inaugurated at 38 Przejazd Street (now ).
Hospitals were opened: in 1884, at the Karl Wilhelm Scheibler factories (currently the Karol Jonscher Municipal Hospital at 14 Milionowa Street); in 1897, the factory hospital of the Russian Red Cross at Pańska Street (now University Clinical Hospital No. 2 of the Medical University of Łódź at 113 ); in 1902, the Hospital for the Mentally and Nervously Ill "Kochanówka" (now the Józef Babiński Specialist Psychiatric Healthcare Facility at 159 Aleksandrowska Street); and in 1905, the Anna Maria Children's Hospital at Rokicińska Street (now the Janusz Korczak Pediatric Center at 71 ). In 1899, the city ambulance service was established.
Bank buildings were constructed on Spacerowa Street (now ): the Russian State Bank (1905–1908) at number 14 and the Commercial Bank at number 15. Hotels were also established: in 1887, the "Grand" at 72 Piotrkowska Street (following the reconstruction of factory building); between 1909 and 1911, the "Savoy" at Krótka Street (now at 6 ); and between 1910 and 1912, the "Palast" at Dzielna Street (now Hotel Polonia Palast at 38 ).
In 1887, the Great Synagogue was opened at the intersection of Spacerowa and Dzielna streets (now 2 /8 ). Churches were also built, including the Church of the Assumption (1888–1897) and the current Łódź Cathedral (1901–1912); additionally, construction of the Evangelical-Augsburg St. Matthew's Church began in 1909.
In 1896, a new cemetery complex was established in the Doły district. Public parks were also arranged: in 1899, the Mikołajewski Municipal Garden (now Henryk Sienkiewicz Park), in 1902, the Municipal Garden (now ), and in 1910, the garden on Pańska Street (now Józef Poniatowski Park). Mayor Pieńkowski also commissioned the engineering of the river and the drafting of a municipal water supply and sewage system project.
The two largest sports clubs in Łódź were established – ŁKS Łódź in 1908, and Widzew Łódź two years later, in 1910.
Pieńkowski received the Order of Saint Stanislaus, 2nd Class, in July 1886, and became chairman of the Łódź Russian Red Cross Society committee in 1889, replacing the outgoing president A. Tumski. On 5 August 1889, he was recognized as a chinovnik, and in November, he was appointed court councillor (equivalent to the rank of lieutenant colonel in military service). He received the Order of Saint Anna, 2nd Class, on 7 July 1890.
In 1895, responding to the Tsarist authorities' intention to restore municipal coats of arms in Congress Poland, Pieńkowski prepared and submitted a report in which he stated that Łódź had never had a coat of arms and that there was no evidence of its existence in the city's records. He attached to the report a proposed coat of arms for Łódź, created according to his own guidelines (with the participation of honorary members of the magistrate) by city architect . Since the proposed coat of arms was entirely unlike those typically found in Polish municipal heraldry, the attempt to officially introduce it met with strong resistance. Particularly vocal was , who in 1903 announced a competition for a new design in his newspaper . It was then that historian discovered impressions of the city seal from 1577 – bearing the Old Polish coat of arms of Łódź – in the Citizenship Land Registers of Łódź from 1775 to 1818. Czajewski immediately sent copies of the seal to Piotrków Governor , which offended Pieńkowski. In response, Pieńkowski submitted a report to the same governor accusing Czajewski and his newspaper of undermining the policies of the Tsarist authorities, the authority of municipal officials, and even that of the Emperor of Russia. Following this denunciation, Miller sent a letter titled On the unlawful actions of the Łódź newspaper "Rozwój" to Namiestnik Mikhail Chertkov, and the tone of this letter led to a decision to suspend the competition for a new coat of arms for Łódź.
At the end of September 1896, the Piotrków-based Tydzień reported on a decision by Pieńkowski regarding the foundlings left on the streets of Łódź – they were placed with poor families who received compensation of 5 rubles per month for their care. It was emphasized that the infants were regularly visited by the city physician, who, along with the mayor, oversaw their needs.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, dissatisfaction among Łódź workers was growing due to poor working conditions and low wages. Schoolchildren were demanding an end to Russification. In May 1892, a six-day general strike broke out in Łódź, later known as the Łódź rebellion, which ended with a bloody intervention by the Tsarist army and police. In 1905, following a series of strikes, an insurrection erupted in June, which was similarly suppressed with violence by the Tsarist authorities within three days. These events, however, did not undermine Władysław Pieńkowski's presidency. It was only the outbreak of World War I that brought it to an end.
Assessment of presidency
Pieńkowski, Łódź's longest-serving mayor, governed for nearly 32 years. When he began, Łódź had 96,863 residents (49,592 permanent); by 1914, it neared 477,862 (213,564 permanent). His salary rose from 1,000 rubles in 1882 to 4,700 in 1904. He lived in a nine-room apartment in Trianon Villa, built in 1877 by Ludwik Meyer at the then-private 514aa Meyer Passage (after the address reform, number 5, now 5 Stanisław Moniuszko Street), which the city council rented from the owner for 1,600 rubles per year. He attained the rank of Active State Councillor (equivalent to the rank of major general in military service) and was a class VI official.
The rapid development of Łódź – the years from 1870 to 1900 marked the most intensive period of industrial expansion in the city's history – occurred primarily thanks to the initiative of the entrepreneurs operating there, and only to a small extent was it the merit of the city mayor, whose rule was even described as a dictatorship. Władysław Pieńkowski was highly reluctant to approve expenditures from the city treasury for purposes related to urban development, despite the fact that the available funds sometimes amounted to as much as 1.5 million rubles. These resources were therefore used only to meet the most essential municipal needs, while Pieńkowski treated most of the money as a reserve, mainly for military needs. He made use of it, for example, during the 1905 revolution, when the acting military commander of Łódź – Governor General – began suppressing the revolutionary movement. In 1909, however, Pieńkowski did not grant approval (justifying his decision with a lack of funds) for the city budget to finance the purchase of land near the former Milsch forester's lodge, which blocked the possibility of extending the tram line along Milsch Street (now Mikołaj Kopernik Street) from the center of Łódź to the Łódź Kaliska railway station, opened six years earlier. Despite the tram network having existed for over 10 years, the station remained cut off from the rest of the city (the line was extended only in October 1913).