Svit is one of the youngest Slovak towns. It was established in 1934 by business industrialist
Jan Antonín Baťa of
Zlín,
Czechoslovakia (now
Czech Republic) through his organization Baťa a.s., Zlin in accordance with his policy of setting up villages around the country for his workers. As a boy, Jan Baťa saw the poverty and sickness of his fellow countrymen. He wanted to change this by creating cities full of the most modern factories and filled with the best (and happiest) workers in Europe. The Baťa System under Jan's administration brought prosperity first to
Moravia, and later
Slovakia and
Bohemia. It was Jan's policy for full employment that drove him to create each Baťa town for a different purpose: Shoes, Rubber and Tires, Textiles, Airplanes, Chemicals, Plastics, Media, Stockings, Leather, and Machinery. When the
World War II came, Jan Baťa's policy was to secretly fund the
Czechoslovak government-in-exile, to supply the Czech Army with shoes and clothing and to secretly fund the
Slovak National Uprising that started at Baťovany (now
Partizánske) on 29 August 1944. Jan Baťa represented Czech/Slovak freedom and prosperity. Svit is short for "
Slovenské
vizkózové
továrne" (in English
Slovak Viscose Works). Also, the word
svit means 'shine' in Ukrainian. Svit is the smallest town in Slovakia (4.5 km²), with a population of 7,790. == Population ==