Ruda Śląska (formerly ) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is a district in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of two million. It is in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica River (tributary of the Oder). It has been part of the Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1999. Previously, it was in Katowice Voivodeship, and before then, part of the Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship. Ruda Śląska is one of the cities in the Katowice urban area (population 2.7 million) and within the greater Silesian metropolitan area (population 5,294,000). The population of the city is 135,008 (December 2021). History A large village is known to have existed at the location of the present day city center in 1243. The city name appears to indicate the awareness and perhaps exploitation of ores from early times. The area underwent rapid industrialization (coal, steel, zinc) in the 19th and the beginning of 20th century. However, it remained a cluster of industrial settlements and villages until the 1950s, when it was administratively united. However, it never developed into a truly unified city. Before the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II, in 1939, German saboteurs carried out an attack in Ruda. Following the invasion, the area was under German occupation from 1939 to 1945. Several Polish teachers from present-day Ruda Śląska were murdered by the Germans in concentration camps as part of the Intelligenzaktion. The Germans also established and operated a Polenlager forced labour camp for Poles in the present-day district of Kochłowice, and the E83 forced labour subcamp of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp in the present-day district of Chebzie. The Polish resistance movement was active in the area. In 1945, the German occupation ended, and the area was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the fall of communism in the 1980s. After the fall of communism in 1989, the significant heavy industry was largely scaled down or restructured. The area has been transforming to a service-based economy. The well-known still operating coal mine is "Halemba". Since 2007, Ruda Śląska has been a member of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, the largest legally recognized urban area in Poland. Transport and infrastructure Significant roadways are Highway A4 and the Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa. There are several small railway stations, mainly on the line