Portal:Poland

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

A 20th-century mural commemorating the baptism of Mieszko I

The term "baptism of Poland" traditionally refers to the personal baptism of Duke Mieszko I of Poland. The ceremony took place on the Holy Saturday of 14 April 966; the exact location is disputed by historians, with the cities of Poznań and Gniezno being the most likely sites. It was followed by Mieszko's marriage to the Bohemian princess Doubravka. The event began the process of Poland's Christianization in the Latin rite, which took centuries to complete, but helped establish Poland as a state recognized by the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire within decades. Before Mieszko's baptism, the tribes living in what is now Poland professed Slavic paganism. Their first contact with Christian faith came in the 9th century from Great Moravia in the south, where Byzantine-Slavic rite Christianity had been spread by Cyril and Methodius, but Mieszko's choice about a century later put Poland firmly within the realm of Western Christianity. In 1966, the Catholic Church in Poland and the country's Communist authorities held rival millennial celebrations to commemorate the one thousand years of, respectively, Polish Christianity and Polish nationhood. (Full article...)

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Roman Dmowski in a colorized photograph

Roman Dmowski (1864–1939) was a Polish statesman. As the co-founder and chief ideologue of the right-wing National Democracy movement, he was one of interwar Poland's most influential politicians, known as the father of Polish nationalism. A prominent spokesman for Polish national aspirations during World War I and Poland's delegate to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, he was instrumental in the restoration of his homeland's independence, but, except a brief stint as foreign minister in 1923, he never wielded official political power. Before independence, Dmowski saw aggressive Germanization of ethnicaly Polish territories in the German Empire as the major threat to Polish culture and advocated a degree of accommodation with another partitioning power – the Russian Empire. He favored re-establishment of Polish independence by nonviolent means and supported policies favorable to the middle class. Convinced that only a Polish-speaking Roman Catholic could make a good Pole, he marginalized renascent Poland's ethnic minorities and he was vocally anti-Semitic. Dmowski was the chief political opponent of Józef Piłsudski, who sided with the Central Powers against Russia, and of his vision of Poland as a multinational federation. (Full article...)

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Szczecin as seen from the Oder River

Szczecin is one of Poland's largest seaports, located at the mouth of the Oder River where it empties into the Szczecin Lagoon. It is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, a region in the northwestern part of the country. Founded by the Slavs in the 8th century, it passed into German, Danish and Swedish hands during the course of history. In 1720, following the Great Northern War, Sweden ceded Stettin, as it was then known, to Prussia. Nine years later it became the birthplace of Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, better known as Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. After the city's destruction during World War II and subsequent expulsion of its German population, Szczecin was rebuilt and resettled with Poles and Ukrainians. Its major industries include shipbuilding, metallurgy, fishing and beer making. (Full article...)

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Did you know – show different entries

... that Theodore de Korwin Szymanowski (pictured), one of the earliest promoters of a Unified Europe, proposed a customs union, a central bank, and a single currency as far back as 1885?
... that 14-year-old Leon Śliwiński saved the life of 12-year-old David Friedman in the Kielce Ghetto during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland?
... that the light, crisp, smoky, and highly carbonated Grodziskie beer was once nicknamed "Polish Champagne"?
... that the German-Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius declared that one needed the eyes of a lynx to see Lynx?

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Poland now

Recent events

On 18 February, Marian Turski (pictured), a historian, journalist and Holocaust survivor, died at the age of 98.
On 6 December, Stanisław Tym, a prominent comedian and satirist, died at the age of 87.
On 27 October, the discovery of a previously unknown waltz in A minor attributed to Frédéric Chopin, found at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, was announced.

Ongoing