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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Silesian Parliament

Credit: Jan Mehlich

The Marble Hall of the Silesian Voivodeship office building in Katowice. Before World War II, the building housed the Silesian Sejm, a local legislature of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship. The interior, designed by Albert Speer under German occupation, is one of few surviving examples of Nazi architecture in Poland.

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... that the Equality Parade (pictured) held annually in Warsaw since 2001, is the oldest pride parade in any former Eastern bloc country?
... that about 3,500 Jews from the Pińsk Ghetto and from nearby Kobryń were murdered at Bronna Góra in June 1942?
... that Florian Znaniecki, a Polish American philosopher and sociologist, coined the terms "culturalism" and "humanistic coefficient"?
... that the Polish Armed Forces in the West contributed one division to Operation Overlord, the largest seaborne invasion in history?

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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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Silesian Planetarium in Chorzów

Chorzów is a city on the Rawa River in Upper Silesia and part of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, Poland's largest conurbation. Originally called Königshütte in German and Królewska Huta in Polish (both meaning "Royal Iron Works"), it was renamed Chorzów after a merger with a village of that name in 1934. Chorzów used to be one of the most important cities of the Upper Silesian Industrial Region with extensive industry in coal mining, steel, chemistry, manufacturing, and energy sectors. As heavy-industry establishments were either closed or scaled down, or restructured and modernized, the city has been evolving towards service economy. Chorzów is nationally famous for its Silesian Central Park, complete with amusement grounds, a cable line railway, a zoo, a sports stadium, and the largest and oldest planetarium in Poland (pictured). (Full article...)

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Poland now

Recent events

Poland at the 2024 Summer Olympics:
- On 28 July, Klaudia Zwolińska (pictured) won a silver medal in kayak slalom.
On 9 July, Jerzy Stuhr, a prominent theatre and film actor and director, died at the age of 77.
On 9 June, the ruling Civic Coalition won the European Parliament election in Poland.
On 8 June, Polish tennis player Iga Świątek won the 2024 French Open, her fifth Grand Slam singles title.