page_title: Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939)
section_title: Industry and infrastructure
hierarchical_section_title: Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939) / Industry and infrastructure
caption_attribution_description: Polski: SŁAWUTA. Fabryka wyrobów żelaznych. Widok od strony drogi zespołu budynków fabrycznych. Napis: Sławuta - Zakład mechaniczny wyrobów Żelaznych Angl. Ward.; napis na podkładzie: Sławuta, - fabr. wyr. żelaznych Wołyń. 1874. Rys. ołówkiem podmalowany sepią. 20,5 x 29,5 cm. Muzem Narodowe, Kraków. III-r.a. 4256 (Teka Wołyń).
context_page_description: Wołyń Voivodeship or Volhynian Voivodeship was an administrative region of interwar Poland with an area of 35,754 km², 22 cities, and provincial capital in Łuck. The voivodeship was divided into 11 districts. The area comprised part of the historical region of Volhynia. At the end of World War II, at the insistence of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union during the Tehran Conference of 1943, Poland's borders were redrawn by the Allies. The Polish population was forcibly resettled westward; and the Voivodeship territory was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. Since 1991 it has been divided between the Rivne and Volyn Oblasts of sovereign Ukraine.
context_section_description: The Wołyń Voivodeship was located in the so-called Poland “B”. The bulk of its population, especially the rural areas, was poor. Forest covered 23.7% of the province (as of 1937). Decades of Russian imperial rule had left Volhynia in a state of economic catalepsy, but the agricultural output following the rebirth of Poland quickly grew. 
  The introduction of modern farming practices brought about a dozen-fold increase in wheat production between 1922/23 and 1936/37. By 1937, the voivodeship was home to 760 factories, employing 16,555 workers. Mining, forestry, and food production provided employment for 14,206 persons. Workers laid-off from industrial plants were also the most likely to start new businesses. In terms of ethnic composition among new business owners, 72,6% were Jewish, 24% Ukrainian, and 23% Polish. The province went through a recession in 1938/39. The tensions between Jewish and Ukrainian shopkeepers increased greatly after the introduction of cooperative stores, which undermined Jewish-run private enterprises. The Jewish business owners were chased out of some 3,000 Ukrainian villages by 1929, with the emerging Ukrainian drive toward economic self-sustainability via cooperatives accompanying their new political aspirations. The situation was much better among the ethnic Czechs and Germans, whose farms were highly efficient.
  The railway network was thin, with only a few hubs, the most important at Kowel, with lesser ones at Zdołbunów, Równe and Włodzimierz. The total length of railways within the voivodeship  was 1,211 km –  just 3.4 km per 100 square kilometres. This was the result of decades of Russian exploitative economics.
  In 1938, Polish government began a program of electrification of Volhynia. By spring of 1939, a 30,000 volt power plant was built in Krzemieniec, which provided light and electricity for towns and villages five counties. Other power plants were not completed, due to the Invasion of Poland. The annual Volhynian Trade Fair (1929–1938), which took place in Równe, was regarded as one of the most important regional fairs of Poland. In 1939, the fair was planned to take place on September 15–25.
caption: Ironworks in Sławuta (est. 1840), run and owned by the LRL firm of Warsaw before the Polish–Soviet War.[23]
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