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 Renaissance courtyard of the Royal Wawel Castle in Kraków

The history of Poland during the Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Era. Beginning with Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania, the House of Jagiellon formed the Polish-Lithuanian dynastic union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and the Lithuanians, who coöperated in one of Europe's largest political entities for the next four centuries. In the Baltic Sea region, Poland's struggle with the Teutonic Knights included the Battle of Grunwald, and the milestone Peace of Thorn under King Casimir IV. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars, while in the east, it helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Poland was developing as a feudal state, with predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly dominant landed nobility component. The Nihil novi act adopted in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm (parliament), beginning a period of "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation resulted in policies of religious toleration that were unique in Europe at that time, while Renaissance currents evoked an immense cultural flowering under kings Sigismund I and Sigismund Augustus. (Full article...)

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Gniezno Doors

Credit: Krzysztof Mizera

Prayer of Saint Adalbert, one of 18 scenes in bas-relief, telling the story of Adalbert's life and martyrdom, that decorate the Romanesque bronze Gniezno Doors, the main entrance to the Gniezno Cathedral, which houses relics of the saint. Adalbert (Vojtěch) was a bishop of Prague and a missionary to Hungary, Poland, and Prussia where he was slain in AD 997.

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... that Agnieszka Popielewicz (pictured) hosts the behind-the-scenes episodes of Taniec z gwiazdami, the Polish version of Dancing with the Stars?
... that the image of Marianna Dolińska's hanged children has been falsely used to represent victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army?
... that Pilot Pirx, Stanisław Lem's sci-fi character, defeats a perfect android thanks to human imperfection?
... that the 1990 Earth-grazing meteoroid above Czechoslovakia and Poland was observed from two sites, which for the first time enabled geometrical calculations of the orbit of such a body?

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Mieczysław Jagielski as painted on a commemorative mural

Mieczysław Jagielski (1924–1997) was a Polish politician and economist. During the times of the People's Republic of Poland he was the last leading politician from the former eastern regions of pre-World War II Poland. Jagielski became a communist member of parliament in 1957 and he would continue to serve in that capacity for seven consecutive terms until 1985. In 1959, he was posted to be a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and appointed minister of agriculture. After he left the latter position in 1970, Jagielski became a deputy prime minister, and the next year, a member of the party's politburo. In August 1980, Jagielski represented the government during talks with striking workers in Gdańsk. He negotiated the agreement which recognized the Solidarity trade union as the first independent trade union within the Eastern Bloc. In late July 1981, Jagielski was fired from the deputy premiership, reportedly because he failed to produce a recovery program for the economic crisis Poland was experiencing at that time. The same year, he renounced his membership in the politburo and in the Central Committee. (Full article...)

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Aerial view of Nowa Huta

Nowa Huta is an industrial easternmost district of the city of Kraków. Its history began in 1949, when Poland's communist government started to build the Lenin Steelworks (now Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks owned by Mittal Steel Company) together with a town for the workers. Nowa Huta, whose name translates as "New Steelworks", was meant to be an ideal socialist and atheist proletarian town supposed to counterbalance Kraków's conservative bourgeoisie. It is Poland's foremost example of socialist realist urban planning and architecture. The workers eventually turned against the communist regime when they demanded – with the help of Archbishop Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II – the right to build a church in the 1960s; and when they supported the Solidarity movement in the 1980s. (Full article...)

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Poland now

Recent events

On 21 May, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (pictured), a composer best known for writing film scores, died at the age of 71.
On 10 May, an unusually spectacular aurora borealis was observed in large parts of Poland due to an intense solar storm.
On 8 April, local elections 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 23 January, they were both were pardoned by the President Andrzej Duda.