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

Katyn memorial

The Katyn massacre was a mass execution of Polish citizens by the order of Soviet authorities in 1940. About 8,000 of those killed were reserve officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, but the dead also included many civilians who had been arrested for being "intelligence agents and gendarmes, spies and saboteurs, former landowners, factory owners and officials". Since Poland's conscription system required every unexempted university graduate to become a reserve officer, the Soviets were thus able to round up much of the ethnic Polish, Jewish, Ukrainian, Georgian and Belarusian intelligentsia of Polish citizenship. The 1943 discovery of mass graves at Katyn Forest by Nazi German forces precipitated a rupture of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Polish government-in-exile in London. The Soviet Union continued to deny responsibility for the massacres until 1990. Although the Russian government acknowledged that the NKVD had in fact committed the massacres, it does not consider them a war crime or an act of genocide, as this would have necessitated the prosecution of surviving perpetrators. (Full article...)

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Kashubians

Credit: Rafał Konkolewski

Devil's Stone (Diabelski Kamień) lies on the shore of the Stone Lake (Jezioro Kamienne) near the village of Strzepcz in the Kashubian Lakeland. The multitude of lakes and erratics in this region has been left by an ice sheet which retreated from what is now northern Poland at the end of the last glacial period about 11,500 years ago. Devil's Stone, like other boulders in this area, has played a role in local folk legends and beliefs.

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... that legend has it that a Teutonic Knight erected the Leaning Tower of Toruń (pictured) so as to atone for falling in love with a woman, the tower's tilt signifying his deviant conduct?
... that the massacre of about 1,500 Jews in Józefów was committed by the men of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101, who were too old for the regular army?
... that the officially reported unemployment rate in Poland rose from near zero in 1989 to over 13 percent in 2012?
... that the protests of conservative Catholic groups in Poland against the play Golgota Picnic included attempted exorcisms?

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Stanisław Koniecpolski

Stanisław Koniecpolski (c.1590–1646) was a Polish magnate, senator and hetman – the second highest military commander of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Koniecpolski lived a life that involved almost constant warfare and won numerous battles during his military career. Before he reached the age of 20, he had fought in the Dimitriads and the Moldavian Magnate Wars, where he was taken captive by the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Ţuţora in 1620. Released in 1623, he soon defeated Ottoman vassals, the Tatars, in 1624. Outnumbered, he fought Swedish forces of Gustavus Adolphus to a stalemate in Prussia during a Polish–Swedish war. He defeated a major Turkish invasion at Kamieniec Podolski in the Ukraine in 1634, and during his life, led many other successful campaigns against rebellious Cossacks and invading Tatars. He is remembered as one of the most skilled military commanders in the history of Poland and Lithuania. (Full article...)

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Izrael Poznański's Palace in Łódź

Łódź, located in central Poland, is one of the country's largest cities. Although dating back as far as the 14th century, the city's growth began under Russian rule in the 1820s as immigrants were attracted by its booming textile industry. Nicknamed "promised land", its character was shaped by its Polish, Jewish, German and Russian population. During the Nazi German occupation, it was renamed Litzmannstadt and became the site of the second largest Jewish ghetto. After World War II, Łódź became the principal center of Polish filmmaking and home of the National Film School. As textile industry collapsed following the fall of communism, Łódź has attracted investment in the IT sector, from companies including Dell and Infosys. (Full article...)

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