Ryki

Infobox Settlement
name = Ryki
image_shield = POL Ryki COA.svg
pushpin_

pushpin_label_position = bottom
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = POL
subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship
subdivision_name1 = Lublin
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Ryki County
subdivision_type3 = Gmina
subdivision_name3 = Gmina Ryki
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name = Jerzy Gąska
area_total_km2 = 27.22
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 9716
population_density_km2 = auto
timezone = CET
utc_offset = +1
timezone_DST = CEST
utc_offset_DST = +2
latd = 51 | latm = 38 | lats = | latNS = N | longd = 21 | longm = 56 | longs = | longEW = E
postal_code_type = Postal code
postal_code = 08-500
blank_name = Car plates
blank_info = LRY
website = http://www.ryki.pl

Ryki [IPA-pl|'|r|y|k|i] is a town in south-eastern Poland on the main road between Warsaw and Lublin. It has 9,722 inhabitants (2004).

Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999). It is the capital of Ryki County.

History

Ryki was first mentioned as a village owned by the king of Poland in documents from 1439. It received its city charter in 1782 but lost it in 1810. During the German occupation in years 1939-1944 the Jewish community of Ryki, constituting about 70% of the town's population, perished in the Holocaust. Ryki again officially became a town in 1957.

One of the major investments of the Edward Gierek era was in Ryki. It was in an Italian-built cake and sweets factory. It was the largest such factory in the world, and was to produce 17 million cakes a week. However, it soon turned out that most of the ingredients had to be imported from abroad at high prices, and the factory was closed soon after its completion. It remained one of biggest fallacies of the Gierek era.

Famous namesakes

The surname of Hyman G. Rickover, a US Navy Admiral and considered the Father of the Nuclear Navy, is derived from Ryki. Born in 1900 in Maków Mazowiecki, the young Rickover emigrated with his Jewish family in 1905 to the United States. The Admiral served on active duty for 63 years, longer than any other U.S. military officer.