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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Contour map of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at its greatest extent in 1619 superimposed on present-day national borders

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a confederation of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under a common monarch, which lasted from 1569 until 1795. It was an extension of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, a dynastic union that had existed between the two nations since 1386. The Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous states in Europe and for over two centuries successfully withstood conflicts with the Russians, the Ottomans and Sweden. It was notable for its political system, which was a precursor to modern democracy and federation; for its remarkable religious toleration; and for the second-oldest written national constitution in the world. Its economy was dominated by agriculture. While the Commonwealth's first century was a golden age for both Poland and Lithuania, the second century was marked by military defeats, a return to serfdom for the peasants, and growing anarchy in political life. (Full article...)

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Centennial Hall (Wrocław)

Credit: Jarosław Ciuruś

The Centennial Hall was built in Wrocław (then known as Breslau) in 1913, when the city was part of the German Empire, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. Designed by Max Berg, it is an early landmark of reinforced concrete architecture, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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... that Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein (logo pictured) was the largest manufacturing company in Poland before its factory was destroyed by the Germans during World War II?
... that World War II resistance fighter Jerzy Zakulski, who rescued a Jewish mother and child from the Kraków Ghetto, was executed by Poland after the war?
... that Father Józef Kowalski, an Auschwitz prisoner, was one of 108 Polish Martyrs beatified in front of 600,000 people by Pope John Paul II?
... that the village of Borzęcin was first mentioned in historical documents by the Polish chronicler Jan Długosz in his Liber beneficiorum?

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Maximilian Kolbe

Maximilian Kolbe (Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, 1894–1941) was a Conventual Franciscan friar best known for volunteering to die in place of a fellow inmate at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Born Raymund Kolbe of a Polish mother and an ethnic German father, he joined the Franciscans with his brother in 1907 and professed his final vows in 1914. He studied philosophy and theology in Rome, where he was ordained priest, before returning to Poland in 1919. He was active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate (Niepokalana) Virgin Mary. In 1927, he founded near Warsaw a monastery, known as Niepokalanów, along with a seminary, a radio station, and a publishing house, where he was the editor-in-chief of the monthly Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculate). During the 1930s, he undertook missions to China, Japan and India. Kolbe was accused of expressing anti-Semitic sentiments in his publications, but also known to have sheltered Jews during the Holocaust. He was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1941 and imprisoned at Auschwitz. At the end of July, he volunteered to be starved to death instead of one of ten inmates selected for punishment. He was killed by a lethal injection after spending two weeks in a starvation cell. Kolbe was declared a martyr and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982. (Full article...)

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Słupsk town hall

Słupsk is a city on the Słupia River, 18 km away from the Baltic Sea coast. It dates back to a medieval Slavic settlement on a ford along a trade route connecting eastern and western parts of Pomerania. Incorporated in 1265, the town gradually fell under Brandenburgian rule, becoming a German town known as Stolp. In Polish hands since the end of World War II, Słupsk is developing thanks to local footwear industry and a bus factory owned by Scania. With the election of Robert Biedroń in 2014, it became the first town in Poland with an openly gay mayor. (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.