Червёнка-Лещин: История и развитие города в Силезии.

Czerwionka Leszczyny (Czerwionka Leschczin) is a town in Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the only town in Rybnik county (which is separate from Rybnik city) and the seat of the larger Czerwionka Leszczyny municipality which also includes 6 villages. Czerwionka Leszczyny was created by a merger of two towns (Czerwionka and Leszczyny) and two villages (Czuchów and Dębieńsko), which to this day maintain their separate identities. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 27,683. The first written sources mentioning Leszczyny, Liber Fundationis Episcopus Wratislaviensis (book proclaiming the foundation of the Wrocław diocese), dates back to 1305. In 1420, a parish was founded in Dębieńsko, and in 1447 Leszczyny parish is mentioned for the first time. In the middle ages, the area of modern Czerwionka Leszczyny belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, next Polish Duchy of Racibórz as a result of the division of Poland into districts in the Middle Ages, and since 1327 was under Czech patronage and became a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Since 1526, the area of Czerwionka Leszczyny belonged to the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the Silesian Wars, Prussia conquered these territories in 1742. In 1818, a new administrative division placed the area of modern Czerwionka Leszczyny in Rybnik county.

The exploration of natural resources in Czerwionka Leszczyny area started in the 17th century. In 1788 the first test shaft were created to confirm hard coal reserves, and in 1792 the owner of Czerwionka and Dębieńsko, baron von Wilczek, secured a permit for the first mine, Neues Glück (New luck). In 1806, coal mine Ciossek and in 1807 coal mine Marianne were opened by count Węgierski. In 1813 Neues Glück was merged with nearby Anton shaft to create Antons Glück (Anthony's luck) coal mine, which since 1823 produced 14,000 tonnes of coal annually. By 1850, around 25 other small shafts and mines were opened in the area. These establishments were selling coals locally, to nearby small scale zinc smelters and ironworks.

In 1856, Czerwionka and Leszczyny gained railway connection to Rybnik and Katowice, which opened the area to cheaper iron, zinc and steel, undercutting the local industry. However, rapidly growing demand for coal in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region led to establishment of the Dubensko (later Dębieńsko) coal mine. In 1896, Vereinigte Königs und Laurahütte corporation (owner of steelworks in Chorzów) bought rights to coal fields in Czerwionka area and opened the mine in on November 2, 1898. Three shafts were built and later deepened in 1899 1900, which allowed the mine to increase coal production from 4,010 tonnes in 1899 to 492,478 tonnes in 1912. In 1910, a dam with electricity generators has been built on the nearby Bierawka river to create a reservoir for the mine's use, and in 1913 a cocking facility has been built next to the mine.

Czerwionka Leszczyny area has been liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. In the months immediately after the liberation, the Soviet military command and new Polish communist leadership deported many men to Donetsk Coal Area, Kazakhstan and Siberia to work as slave labor for the USSR, while others were incarcerated and often killed in camps such as Zgoda because the new government considered Silesians to be German. In September 1945 the new communist government made coal the most strategic natural resource to the country, which heavily influenced development of the Upper Silesian region, including Czerwionka Leszczyny, in the subsequent decades through massive investment into coal mining industry and scaling up productions and employment. In the 1970s and 1980s, many native Silesians emigrated to Germany through the family reunification scheme organized by both countries. Growing population was reflected by changes in administrative status: in 1962 Czerwionka, Leszczyny and Czuchów were merged into a town under the name Czerwionka Leszczyny. In 1975, the name of the town was changed to only Leszczyny for political reasons (Leszczyny was majority Polish, while Czerwionka was majority Silesian and had a history of voting for Germany in the plebiscite), and in 1977 Dębieńsko was annexed by the town, creating the modern day Czerwionka Leszczyny. Following the collapse of communism, in 1992 the name was changed back to Czerwionka Leszczyny.

After the collapse of communism and return to the market economy, coal mining suffered from insufficient demand and rising costs against a government regulated coal price, causing losses. Various restructuring programs in the 1990s alleviated the issue only partially, and by the end of 1990s it was clear the industry needs downsizing. The government of Jerzy Buzek adopted a plan which aimed at reducing employment in the industry through buy outs and ultimately closing mines. In 1999, a list of mines to be closed was published, including Dębieńsko, and production ended on October 25, 2000. At the time of the closure, 2,400 people were employed at the mine, or which 1,300 were granted various forms of social welfare such as early retirement or buy outs. Since then, the town has re oriented itself as a commuter town for nearby larger cities of Rybnik, Gliwice, Katowice and Żory.

is a town in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Bierawka River (tributary of the Oder), located on Silesian Highlands, about 50 km (31 mi) north of the Silesian Beskids. It is an outer suburb of Metropolis GZM, with a population of over 3 million, and a suburb of Rybnik, both making Upper Silesian Moravian metropolitan area with a population of 4,676,983 people.

Since 1898, the town's main employer was the Dębieńsko coal mine, which was closed up in 2000, causing substantial job loss and unemployment. Employment in Czerwionka Leszczyny municipality (the town and the surrounding villages) decreases from 8,434 in 1995 to 5,082 in 2000, achieving a low of just 3,784 in 2003. In Czerwionka Leszczyny proper, it was 7,592, 3,971 and 3,111, respectively. Since then, the municipality succeeded in attracting outside investment and employment increased to 5,037 in 2019. As most of new investments are green fields, most of that growth happened in the rural part of the municipality, and the town itself had only 3,257 jobs as of 2019. Commuting has also helped ease the pressure on the job market. In 2006, 3,655 people from the town commuted to other localities for work (while 681 commuted to work in Czerwionka Leszczyny). In 2016, these numbers have increased to 4,664 and 1,048, respectively. Both new investments and increase in commuting resulted in dramatic decline in unemployment. In 2003 (earliest available data), there were 2,384 registered unemployed people in the municipality of Czerwionka Leszczyny. In 2019, only 546 remained in that status.

See twin towns of Gmina Czerwionka Leszczyny.