Portal:Poland

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Welcome to the Poland Portal — Witaj w Portalu o Polsce

Cityscape of Kraków, Poland's former capital

Poland is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic to the southwest, Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, Lithuania to the northeast, and the Baltic Sea and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast to the north. It is an ancient nation whose history as a state began near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century when it united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements in the late 18th century, Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. It regained independence as the Second Polish Republic in the aftermath of World War I only to lose it again when it was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. The nation lost over six million citizens in the war, following which it emerged as the communist Polish People's Republic under strong Soviet influence within the Eastern Bloc. A westward border shift followed by forced population transfers after the war turned a once multiethnic country into a mostly homogeneous nation state. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union called Solidarity (Solidarność) that over time became a political force which by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. A shock therapy program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented country completed, Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, but has experienced a constitutional crisis and democratic backsliding since 2015.

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From Polish history – show another

The Great Sejm in session in 1791, as painted by Kazimierz Wojniakowski

The Great Sejm, or Four-Year Sejm, was a sejm (diet or parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in Warsaw between 1788 and 1792. Its principal aim became to reform and restore sovereignty to the Commonwealth. The Great Sejm's foremost achievement was the adoption of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, often described as Europe's first modern written national constitution. The constitution was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the nation and its system of Golden Liberties. It introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. It sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The reforms instituted by the Great Sejm were undone by an intervention of the Russian Empire at the invitation of the Targowica Confederation. (Full article...)

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Polish złoty

Credit: National Numismatic Collection, Smithsonian Institution

A 5-zloty note from 1794, part of the first issue of banknotes in Poland. The notes, denominated 5 zł, 10 zł, 25 zł, 50 zł, 100 zł, 500 zł, and 1,000 zł, were issued during the Kościuszko Uprising, just one year before the Third Partition of Poland. The slightly uneven cut into the top design demonstrates the use of a counterfoil.
See other denominations.

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... that Poland annually celebrates the defeat of Russia in the Battle of Warsaw (2008 celebration parade pictured)?
... that neither of the major combatants won the bloody Greater Poland Civil War which terminated after the accession of ten-year old Hedwig (Jadwiga) to the Polish throne?
... that according to Franciszek Ząbecki, the SS-Sturmbannführer Theodor van Eupen executed prisoners of the Treblinka Arbeitslager by "taking shots at them, as if they were partridges"?
... that while international rankings show corruption in Poland as steadily decreasing, over 80 percent of the Polish public still sees it as a significant problem for the country?

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Pope John Paul II

John Paul II (1920–2005) served as pope of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. Born Karol Wojtyła in the Polish town of Wadowice, he served as archbishop of Kraków before becoming one of the longest-serving popes and one of the most-travelled world leaders in history. Continuing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and professing the philosophy of Christian humanism, John Paul II taught about the importance of family and respect for human life and dignity. He criticised materialist ideologies and is widely seen as having been instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually in all of Eastern Europe. The pope also mended the Catholic Church's relations with other denominations and religions. As part of his emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he beatified or canonized a record number of people, and was himself canonized in 2014. (Full article...)

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Centennial Square in Sosnowiec

Sosnowiec is a city located in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, although, historically and culturally, it is part of the Dąbrowskie Basin (Zagłębie Dąbrowskie). Thanks to rich natural resources and a strategic location on the border of Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires, the village of Sosnowiec grew rapidly during the 19th century and was granted a town charter in 1902. Another period of vigorous development occurred in the 1970s, when Edward Gierek, a native of Sosnowiec, served as first secretary of the communist Polish United Workers' Party. On the city's centennial in 2002, the city center (pictured) was thoroughly rebuilt and modernized. Some coal mines and steel mills continue to operate in Sosnowiec as trade and service sectors are expanding. (Full article...)

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Poland now

Recent events

On 8 April, local elections (map of voivodeship-level results shown) were held throughout Poland, with run-off votes in some municipalities held on 21 April.
On 9 January, police entered the Presidential Palace in Warsaw to arrest former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński (Law and Justice party) and his former deputy, both of whom had been sentenced to two year's jail for abuse of power.
On 9 January, Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, an Armenian and Roman Catholic priest, and former anti-Communist dissident, died at the age of 67.
On 13 December, Donald Tusk of the Civic Coalition was sworn in for his third nonconsecutive term as Prime Minister of Poland.