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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Władysław Gomułka addressing a crowd in 1956

The deaths of Joseph Stalin in 1953 and Poland's hardline communist President Bolesław Bierut in 1956, as well as Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech to the 20th Party Congress, paved the way to a period of de-Stalinization in the People's Republic of Poland, known as the Polish October or Gomułka Thaw. Workers' protests against poor standards of living that started in June 1956 in Poznań were violently suppressed by the army and secret police, but forced the government to increase wages and promise economic and political reforms. Władysław Gomułka, who had been expelled from the Polish United Workers' Party and imprisoned in 1951, was rehabilitated and elected the party's First Secretary in October 1956. With much popular support, he led the country along a "Polish road to socialism" and won a degree of autonomy from the Soviet Union. Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky was sacked from his post as Polish defense minister, farm collecitivization was halted, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was released from internment, and the following year's parliamentary election, though not entirely free, was freer than previous ones. These events inspired the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which – unlike the one in Poland – was crushed by the Soviet Army. (Full article...)

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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Credit: USHMM

Jews captured by SS and SD troops during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are forced to leave their shelter and march to the Umschlagplatz for deportation. The SD trooper pictured second from the right is Josef Blösche, who was identified by Polish authorities using this photograph. Blösche was tried for war crimes in Erfurt, East Germany, in 1969, sentenced to death and executed in July of that year.

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... that Polish shogi player Karolina Styczyńska (pictured) is the first non-Japanese person to be awarded professional status by the Japan Shogi Association?
... that the severed head of Andrew Báthory, prince of Transylvania and a Polish king's brother, was sewn back on?
... that Izydor Borowski was born in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but later rose to the rank of general in Qajar Iran?
... that the Gutenberg Bible held by the Diocesan Museum in Pelplin survived World War II in Canada, kept in a vault at the Bank of Montreal until 1959?

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Władysław Sikorski

Władysław Sikorski (1881–1943) was a Polish military and political leader. Before World War I, he became a founder and member of several underground organizations that promoted the aim of Polish independence. He fought with distinction during the Polish–Soviet War, in which he played a prominent role in the decisive Battle of Warsaw. During World War II he became prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile, commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces, and a staunch advocate of the Polish cause on the diplomatic scene. He supported the reëstablishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, which had been severed after the Soviet alliance with Germany in the 1939 invasion of Poland. In April 1943, however, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin broke off Polish–Soviet diplomatic relations following Sikorski's request that the International Red Cross investigate the Katyn massacre. In July 1943, Sikorski was killed in a plane crash into the sea immediately on takeoff from Gibraltar. The exact circumstances of his death remain in dispute, which has given rise to ongoing conspiracy theories. (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

Poland at the 2024 Summer Olympics:
- On 31 July, Poland won a bronze medal in men's quadruple sculls.
- On 30 July, Poland won a bronze medal in women's team épée fencing.
- 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.