The Old Name of western Jakubowizna

Many thanks to @J_MZed for reminding me of the excellent website igrek.amzp.pl - a digital repository of historical maps of central and eastern Europe. I used this resource extensively while researching the Wałbrzych Gold Train seven years ago (Gosh! Time flies!) Since then, I bought my działka in Jakubowizna, but I hadn't thought of looking at the area around Chynów on old maps - until now.

The big revelation for me is that my acre is situated in what was called... Michałowizna. Yes, Jakubowizna (which for a village of its size is long, nearly a kilometre and half from east to west) was once two villages. Michałowizna, nearer the railway line, and Jakubowizna, further away. Let's take a look at a pre-war map of the area. This is a Polish military map, scale 1:100,000, from 1937 (below). The railway, built just three years earlier, bisects the territory; we see Chynów on one side, and Michałowizna on the other, Jakubowizna further to the east (today it borders with the railway). Węszelówka was spelt 'Wenszelówka'; Stanisławów is now Machcin II. The number by each settlement indicates the number of households (gospodarstwo) therein. (Click to enlarge images.)

The map below is chilling. Printed in April 1941, when this part of Poland was occupied by Stalin's erstwhile ally, Nazi Germany. It clearly suggests that the Red Army was preparing to attack Hitler around this time (but Hitler attacked first). This is a tactical map, scale 1:50,000. Again, we can see Chynów (XbIHYB), with Michałowizna on the other side of the tracks. Number of households per settlement has been copy-pasted from the Polish 1937 map.

Post-war, Michałowizna was still there - the map below is from 1951. We can see the number of households has changed from pre-war days; Chynów has lost three, Wola Chynowska (now a part of Chynów) has gained seven; Michałowizna has more than doubled from four to nine.

Further north, at the top edge of this map, we can see work in progress on Stalin's strategic east-west railway line - Skierniewice-Łuków - which crosses under the Warsaw-Radom line at Czachówek. The east-west line was opened in May 1954. Interesting to see that the 'diamond' at Czachówek was only built out to the east, not yet allowing any connections to or from the west.

A bit more googling and I come across the only mention of Michałowizna in the neighbourhood of Chynów - from a 1933 document amending mistakes made in an earlier document that listed the compulsory purchase of land for the building of the Warsaw-Radom railway. This names landowners all the way down from Dawidy and Jeziorki to the northern fringes of Radom. And of course Chynów gets a namecheck, as does Sułkowice, Widok, Krężel and other settlements along the railway's route. Highlighted is Kolonia Michałowizna, divided into Część I (which I take to be the part nearer the station) and Część II, and the names of the landowners (Jan Pielaszek and Józef Zdziarski respectively). I wonder if they survived the war? Or if their descendants still own land around here? I noticed that Jakubowizna isn't mentioned at all - it's too far to the east of Michałowizna to have been affected by the building of the railway line.

So! A fascinating historical coincidence. Western Jakubowizna was once Michałowizna! Linguistic note: the suffix -izna or -szczyzna is used to turn adjectives into nouns; 'Jakubowski' is not only a surname, it also reflects that which belongs to Jakub. So ziemie Jakubowskie, or the lands owned by Jakub, become Jakubowizna. And with that, I shall revert the name of my działka to its original: Michałowizna.

This time last year:
Dealing with the Hammer of Darkness
(Go to bed one hour earlier - ignore the time change)

This time five years ago:
Poland's dream of a superconnector hub
(Looks like it's died)

This time six years ago:
The magic of superzoom

This time ten years ago:
Welcome to Lemmingrad

This time 12 years ago:
Dream highway

This time 13 years ago:
The Days are Marching

This time 15 years ago:
First snow, 2007