Poland - national flag
The flag was officially adopted in 1919. Its colors are derived from Poland's
old coat of arms from the 1200's: a red shield with a white, crowned eagle. This
weapon has throughout the ages been used as a symbol of Poland's freedom
struggle; 1944-89 it was used without the crown. The state coat of arms is used
on the trade flag, the trunk flag.
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Poland - prehistory
Some finds of hand wedges from Silesia and southern Poland show the human
presence in the older Paleolithic perhaps more than 300,000 years ago. At Ojców
near Kraków, there are caves that in the Middle Paleolithic were inhabited by
Neanderthals during the last Middle Ages. The use of thin, leaf-shaped tips of
flint can be traced from the Middle Paleolithic into the Late Paleolithic (approximately
35,000-9300 BC), from which there are also traces of the eastern branches of the
cultures aurignacia, gravetti and magdalénia. In the Late Paleolithic and Early
Mesolithic, a hunter-gatherer culture appeared, Swiderien, whose settlements
have been found on sandy terraces. A Mesolithic tomb at Janisławice dates from
the same time as the Maglemose culture, when one subsisted by gathering and
hunting primeval forest animals.
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According to a2zgov, the Neolithic begins with the ribbon- ceramic culture,
approximately 5400-4900 BC, whose settlements with longhouses existed in areas where
the soil consisted of fertile lice. From this developed The Lengyel culture approximately 4700-4500 BC with trapezoidal longhouses and fenced cult sites. By the
middle of the 5th millennium, the use of copper was introduced. approximately 4000
BC the funnel-cup culture was widespread with tombs in trapezoidal long mounds,
especially known from Kujawien. The ball amphora culture and the subsequent
string ceramic culture were the dominant agricultural cultures at the beginning
of the 3rd millennium, but at the same time semi-agrarian communities existed in
forest and coastal areas. Throughout the Neolithic, tools were made from
different types of flint, extracted from the over 1000 mine shafts in
Krzemionki near Kielce.
The Bronze Age unfolded with the Aunjetitz culture from approximately 2100
BC Among other things, with rich princely burials at Łęki Małe in Silesia. In
the older Bronze Age, burial mounds were built under mounds, while the following
Lausitz culture approximately 1300-700 BC characterized by urn burial sites and large
fortified settlements. Such were also found in the early Iron Age (see Bishop)),
where fire pits dominated until the birth of Christ, eg within the Pomeranian
face urn culture. Celtic and Roman influences prevailed in the form of imports
of luxury goods, especially known from princely tombs in 1-2. AD At that time,
large quantities of amber were exported from the Baltic coasts. I
200-300-t. Extensive iron production took place in southern and eastern
Poland. Short-lived Hun incursions occurred 400-450. From approximately 550 until the
Middle Ages, numerous fortified squares are known, which grew into urban
communities with crafts and trade, Wolin at the Oder estuary
and Truso near the Wisła estuary in the 600-1000's, both with connections to
Scandinavia.

Poland - history
Poland - history, the Middle Ages
I 700-t. the West Slavic tribe polanie lived around the Oder
tributary Warta in Wielkopolska, the western part of present-day Poland. They
created in the 900-t. under the princely family Piast an empire bounded
by the Oder, the Carpathians, the Bug and the Baltic Sea and thus in general
resembling modern Poland.
The first documented Polish prince is Mieszko I, who in 966 accepted
Christianity to avoid German missionary work. In 968 he established a bishopric
in Poznań. He succeeded in conquering Silesia (Śląsk) and Małopolska from
the Czechs. In the year 1000, an archdiocese based in Gniezno was established,
and Poland became an independent church province directly under the pope's
protection. Interrupted by violent pagan reactions, Christianity in Poland was
consolidated in the following centuries with new dioceses, numerous monasteries
and churches. In 1025, Bolesław I Chrobry was the first to be crowned
King of Poland. Only some of the subsequent rulers were crowned, others merely
titled themselves as princes. After the Battle of Legnica1241 against the
Mongols, the central princely power ceased to function. It was not until 1320
that Władysław 1. Łokietek succeeded in reuniting most of the
kingdom and gaining the pope's approval of the royal dignity. However, Silesia
had been heavily Germanized, and in 1308 Pomerania had been conquered by the
German Order.
Polish society in the Middle Ages was distinctly feudal. The monarchy was
weak and the country was divided between a series of powerful vassals, wojewoda,
who was the prince's deputy in all military matters. The civilian administration
of the crown estates and jurisdiction lay with officials, each ruling a
district. Władysław Łokietek introduced a new layer of officials, starosta,
who were obsessed with loyal lava nobles as opposed to the old noble vassals. In
connection with a peace treaty with the German Order in 1343, Casimir III the
Great had to give up Bagpomer and thus access to the Baltic Sea. To the
east, on the other hand, the Poles conquered large areas of Ukraine.
Poland escaped the black death that ravaged the rest of Europe, and during
the reign of Kasimir III (1333-70) the country experienced significant economic
growth with the development of mining, agriculture and trade and numerous urban
foundations. Contributing to the recovery was a large Jewish immigration, where
the city of Kazimierz near Kraków became a center of Jewish culture. Even more
German peasants immigrated, and they were initially given a better legal and
economic position than the Polish ones. During that period, Poland became for
the first time an administrative unit with common laws, currency, etc.
After the death of Kasimir III in 1370, the Polish throne was taken over by
the Hungarian King Louis I the Great. In order to ensure that one of his
daughters could succeed him on the Polish throne, he had to give in 1374 in
Košice the Polish nobility (see magnateria) the privilege that any tax
levy in addition to a fixed land tax required the consent of the nobility as a
stand, and it gave the nobility great political power.
Poland under the Jagiełłons
After Ludwig's death, his daughter Jadwiga was elected queen, and the
Polish nobility elected the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jagiełło, as her
husband. This was the beginning of a close connection between Poland and
Lithuania, which included most of present-day Belarus and Ukraine. The common
enemy, the German Order, helped to promote co-operation between the two
countries. However, Jagiełło was a pagan, so he had to promise to let Lithuania
and himself become Christians. In 1386 he was elected king of Poland, baptized
under the name Władysław (2nd) Jagiełło and married the only 12-year-old
Jadwiga.
In 1410, an army of forces from Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia, and Ukraine
succeeded in inflicting a severe defeat on the German Order at Tannenberg in
East Prussia, and the expansion of the order was halted. In a war of 1454-66,
the leading cities of West Prussia, Gdańsk, Toruń and Elbląg, revolted against
the order, and after several Polish victories, Prussia was divided by the Peace
of Toruń in 1466, so that Poland gained West Prussia, while East Prussia
remained under German rule., but as a Polish len. Poland and Lithuania
continued the joint expansion to the east in Belarus and Ukraine with the
cultivation of the steppes, which took place in part by convened German
colonists and the creation of large estates.
In the 1400's. the Polish estate state developed with five separate estates:
the clergy, the nobility, the citizens, the Jews and the peasants, and with
barriers that were very difficult to overcome. Legally, all nobles were equal,
but in reality there was a significant difference between the rich magnates and
the poor lava nobility (see szlachta). The higher ecclesiastical offices
were occupied only by nobles. The Jews were not allowed to own property or
obtain ordinary civil rights in the cities.
To secure military support in the fight against the Germans, Kasimir 4.
Jagiełłończyk in 1454 had to give the nobility a new privilege (see the Nieszawa
Statute), which gave the local land councils, sejmiki,
the right to mobilize the army and levy new taxes. In 1493-96, Sejm was developed,
the parliament that had two chambers: the Senate, which consisted of the royally
appointed officials, and the Chamber of Deputies, where the deputies from the
Sejmiki had seats. In 1505 it was decided that the Sejm had the
legislative power. The deputies to the Sejm met with a bound mandate from the
sejmiki, and as a demand for unanimity developed in all decisions in the Chamber
of Deputies, it became especially in the 1600's and 1700's. very difficult to
enforce even the most necessary laws of the Sejm.
Poland's heyday in the 16th century
The peace of Toruń in 1466 meant that Poland gained control of the
whole of Wisła. As the population of Western Europe began to grow strongly
during that period, there was a growing demand for agricultural commodities,
especially grain, which Poland was able to supply in large quantities. It was
especially the large landowners who could take advantage of the favorable
economic conditions. This meant investments in even larger estates and the
closure of villages or the cultivation of new land with the main emphasis on
production on the main farm fields, which were cultivated by serf
farmers. During the same period, the Polish monarchy experienced a strengthening
with an efficient central administration, which, however, suffered from the lack
of a standing army and navy. By the Lublin UnionIn 1569, Poland and
Lithuania entered into a federation with a jointly elected head of state and a
joint parliament, the Sejm, but with separate legislation,
administration, economy and army.
With Sigismund on August 2, the family Jagiełło became extinct. In
1573, the nobility elected the French king's brother Henrik (3rd) as Polish
king. However, he had to sign a pledge in advance that ensured the electoral
monarchy, religious tolerance, regular meetings in the Sejm and the right to
depose the king. Corresponding contracts all subsequent kings had to enter into
before they could ascend the throne.
Vasatiden, 1587-1668
In 1587, the Polish nobility elected the son of the Swedish king Johan
III, Sigismund III of Vaasa, as king. The goal was a union with Sweden that
was to secure Poland's dominion over Estonia and Swedish support against Russia,
but since the Swedish nobility had opposite goals, a conflict was
inevitable. After Johan III's death, Sigismund sought to occupy Sweden, but in
the Battle of Stångebro in 1598, the Swedish army won, and Sigismund had to
return to Poland. This was followed by a long-running conflict between Poland
and Sweden. The war was initially fought in Livonia; in 1621 the Swedes
conquered Riga and by a truce in 1629 got the rest of Livonia, after Gustav
II Adolffrom 1626 had occupied the most important trading towns of Prussia
with the exception of Gdańsk. In parallel with the war against Sweden, Poland
also waged war against Russia, which in the years after the death of Ivan
the Terrible in 1584 was in disarray. In 1610, the Poles succeeded in
conquering Moscow and had Sigismund's son Władysław (4th) Vasa elected
tsar, but the Poles were soon expelled.
In 1655, the Swedish king Charles X. Gustav took advantage of a revolt
among the Cossacks in Ukraine, supported by Russia, to attack Poland. After
major Swedish victories in the first years, however, the country was badly
ravaged and starved, and after the Danish declaration of war of 1.6.1657 against
Sweden, the Swedish army was led out of Poland and to Denmark. A Polish army
then contributed to the liberation of Jutland and Funen.
At the Peace of Oliwa in 1660, the Polish king Johan II Kasimir had to
relinquish the claims of the Vasas family to Sweden and Livonia, just as in 1657
it had to be recognized that Elector Frederik Vilhelm of Brandenburg became
sovereign Duke of East Prussia, independent of Poland. At the Andrusovo
settlement with Russia in 1667, Poland had to cede the eastern part of
Ukraine. After a nobility revolt, Johan Kasimir abdicated in 1668.
Poland was heavily devastated after the wars of the mid-1600's. The population
had declined by at least 25% and it took a long time before the loss was
recovered. International grain trade declined sharply and Polish state finances
were spent on the inadequate military.
The Saxon kings, 1697-1763
In 1697, the Polish nobility elected Elector August 2. Mocny ("the
strong") of Saxony king of Poland, certainly in the hope of securing protection
from neighboring Prussia, Sweden, Russia and Austria, while expecting them to
would respect the "golden freedom" of the nobility. But Poland was drawn into a
series of Saxon wars, and political freedom developed into anarchy. In 1702,
Poland was attacked by Charles XII of Sweden. The wars and a very violent
plague epidemic devastated large areas of land, so it was a totally ruined
Poland, which after the Battle of Poltava in 1709 was given back to
August II by Tsar Peter I the Great, who was now the real ruler of the
country. In August 3.sreign (1735-63) there was some economic and
cultural development despite the ravages of the Prussian Seven Years' War (1756-63),
in which large Austrian, Prussian and Russian armies moved through the country.
Poland's three divisions, 1772, 1793 and 1795
Poland was around 1770 one of Europe's largest countries, but basically it
was weak. There was no central power, no common treasury, and the army numbered
only approximately 12,000 mand. Poland's last king, Stanisław 2. August Poniatowski,
who came to the throne in 1764 with the massive support of Russia's Empress Catherine
II, tried to make Poland a modern state, but neighboring powers
systematically helped keep the country weak by preventing any approach to
political, administrative and military reforms, supporting the opponents of the
monarchy financially and militarily. A noble revolt, the Bar Confederacy,
facing the king and against Russia, was supported by France and the Ottoman
Empire, and it developed into a comprehensive civil war. As Russia and Austria
were at war with each other, Prussia proposed a division of Poland between the
three countries. In the first division in 1772, Poland lost 1/3 of
its territory and about 1/3 of the population. Prussia
took West Prussia (without Gdańsk) and thus established connections between
Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia, and Poland was cut off from the Baltic
Sea. Russia took the eastern part of Belarus, and Austria got Galicia.
After 1772, Poland experienced remarkable economic and cultural progress, and
eventually succeeded in implementing a democratic constitution with a
constitutional monarchy by the Third May Constitution of 1791 and
organizing a standing army of 100,000 men. However, as neither Prussia nor
Russia would accept a strong Poland, Russian troops moved into the country,
where they defeated the Polish forces. The result was that in 1793 Poland was
again divided between Prussia and Russia. Inspired by the French Revolution, Tadeusz
Kościuszko ledthe year after an uprising against the dividing powers, in
which for the first time also the peasants and to some extent the citizens
participated. The rebels succeeded in taking both Warsaw and Vilnius, but they
eventually succumbed to the superiority, and the Russians carried out a bloody
massacre of the people of Warsaw. At the Third Partition in 1795, Prussia,
Austria and Russia divided the remaining Poland between them.
It divided Poland
After the third partition in 1795, the nationalist Poles aimed to rebuild
Poland, but the means were much disputed. Some believed that this could happen
through an armed uprising, while others were convinced that independence could
only be achieved in cooperation with one of the dividing powers and by
strengthening Polish national culture. One of the few institutions that had been
allowed to exist was the Catholic Church, which came to play a significant role
throughout the division period. Despite all attempts by the dividing powers to
destroy and ban everything that was Polish, they actually managed to keep Polish
culture and national feeling alive.
After the defeat in 1795, many Poles fled to France, where they joined the
revolutionary armies. Among them was General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, who
persuaded Napoleon to line up Polish legions for the liberation of Poland. With
Napoleon's help, a new Poland emerged, the Warsaw Duchy. It was
established in 1807 by the Prussian parts of Poland and from 1809 included parts
of the Austrian possessions.
Congress-Poland
After the fall of Napoleon, the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna
1814-15 decided to restore the "Kingdom of Poland" or Congress-Poland, which
consisted of the Duchy of Warsaw with the exception of Poznań, which came to
Prussia, and Kraków, which became a sanctuary. Emperor Alexander I of Russia
became king of Poland, and the eastern parts of ancient Poland-Lithuania were
directly incorporated into Russia.
The revolutions in Belgium and France in 1830 immediately inspired the November
Uprising in Poland the same year. It began at the officers' school in Warsaw
and quickly spread to the whole country, where Emperor Nikolai I was deposed as
King of Poland. The fighting lasted until September 1831, when the Russians
brutally crushed the uprising. The special constitution of the Kingdom, the
Sejm, the government and the army were dissolved and the universities of Warsaw
and Vilnius were closed.
Thousands of Poles fled to France, where the moderates rallied around Prince Adam
Jerzy Czartoryski, who sought British and French support to liberate
Poland. The more Western-oriented believed that only a national and social
revolution in cooperation with other peoples could solve the Polish problem.
In 1846, a national uprising in the Austrian part of Poland developed into a
regular peasant uprising, in which manors and castles were burned down, and the
most often Polish noble landowners were killed. Kraków was subsequently
incorporated into Austria. Inspired by the events of the rest of Europe in 1848,
there were also uprisings in the Poznań area against the Prussians and in
Galicia against the Austrians; in both places the uprisings were crushed during
bloodshed. After the abolition of peasantry in both the Prussian and Austrian
parts and the acquisition of self-ownership and civil rights, and the same had
happened in Russia in 1861, but not in Congress-Poland, a Polish National
Committee revolted in January 1863 and demanded freedom. for the peasants of
Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. Prussia supported Russia to gain Russian support
for the war against Denmark, and France, Britain and Austria contented
themselves with expressing their sympathy for the rebels, so that although the
fighting lasted until the autumn of 1864, the outcome was clear: a ruthless
repression of the rebels, thousands of whom were deported to Siberia. However,
the peasants were then given their freedom by the Russian government, which used
all means to incite them against the Polish landowners and the Catholic
Church. The result, however, was the opposite of what was intended, and the
peasants became seriously national-conscious and massively joined the Catholic
Church. Congress Poland experienced significant industrialization, especially
with the textile industry in Łódź and Warsaw, and in the Prussian parts the coal
mines and the Silesian iron industry expanded. the outcome was clear: a ruthless
repression of the rebels, thousands of whom were deported to Siberia. The
peasants, however, were then given their freedom by the Russian government,
which used all means to incite them against the Polish landowners and the
Catholic Church. The result, however, was the opposite of what was intended, and
the peasants became seriously national-conscious and massively joined the
Catholic Church. Congress Poland experienced significant industrialization,
especially with the textile industry in Łódź and Warsaw, and in the Prussian
parts the coal mines and the Silesian iron industry expanded. the outcome was
clear: a ruthless repression of the rebels, thousands of whom were deported to
Siberia. However, the peasants were then given their freedom by the Russian
government, which used all means to incite them against the Polish landowners
and the Catholic Church. The result, however, was the opposite of what was
intended, and the peasants became seriously national-conscious and massively
joined the Catholic Church. Congress Poland experienced significant
industrialization, especially with the textile industry in Łódź and Warsaw, and
in the Prussian parts the coal mines and the Silesian iron industry
expanded. The result, however, was the opposite of what was intended, and the
peasants became seriously national-conscious and massively joined the Catholic
Church. Congress Poland experienced significant industrialization, especially
with the textile industry in Łódź and Warsaw, and in the Prussian parts the coal
mines and the Silesian iron industry expanded. The result, however, was the
opposite of what was intended, and the peasants became seriously
national-conscious and massively joined the Catholic Church. Congress Poland
experienced significant industrialization, especially with the textile industry
in Łódź and Warsaw, and in the Prussian parts the coal mines and the Silesian
iron industry expanded.
With the creation of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (see Ausgleich),
Galicia also gained national autonomy in 1867, and Polish culture was finally
able to unfold freely again, not least at the universities of Kraków and Lviv
(Lemberg).
Like the Danish southern Jews, the Prussian Poles experienced a massive
national oppression under Bismarck's government in the last decades of the
1800's. In a certain collaboration with the Danes, the Poles developed an
extensive network of credit unions, cooperatives and social welfare institutions
that were to prevent the agricultural properties from passing to German owners.
The poor social and economic conditions, especially in the Russian and
Austrian parts of Poland, caused approximately 4 mio. persons, including many Jews,
who were often persecuted, emigrated to the United States in particular
1870-1914, just as many farm workers went on seasonal work to Germany and
Denmark.
In the 1890's, two very different political parties developed in Poland and
among Poles abroad. Very right-wing and nationalist were the National Democrats,
Narodowa Demokracja, ND, led by Roman Dmowski. The party, which
was extremely anti-Semitic and anti-German, hoped for Russian support in the
form of Slavic solidarity for the re-creation of a new Poland.
In stark contrast to the ND, the Polish Socialist Party, the Polska
Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS, was formed in Paris in 1892, with the aim of
forming a new democratic and independent Poland. Among the leaders was Józef
Piłsudski, who believed that the road to this was an armed national
uprising. Others in the party believed that Poland could only gain its
independence as part of a major international revolution. They later formed the
Communist Party of Poland, the CCP, in 1918.
During World War I, Piłsudski joined a Central Brigade with a Polish brigade
and fought on the Russian side against the Russians. On November 5, 1916, the
German and Austrian emperors proclaimed the restoration of the Kingdom of
Poland, especially to get Polish soldiers for the war against Russia. In March
1917, the Russian Provisional Government declared Poland independent. In August
of the same year, Roman Dmowski set up a Polish National Committee in Paris,
which served as a government in exile, forming a large army consisting mainly of
Poles from the United States. Finally, in his Fourteen Points of January
1918, the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, declared
the establishment of an independent Polish state in the areas indisputably
inhabited by Poles and with secure access to the Baltic Sea.
Poland - History (Modern Poland)
At the end of World War I, Poland's dividing powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia,
were marked by defeat, dissolution and civil war, giving Poland a chance to
re-emerge as a state. The borders of the new Poland were determined partly by
the great powers at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and partly by their own
wars against the neighboring states.
Head of State November 1918-November 1922 became Józef Piłsudski. He
wanted a Poland to a large extent to the east, preferably in federation with Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. To
him, Poland's main enemy was Russia, regardless of its form of
government. Politically, he supported the left wing in Poland, The Polish
Socialist Party (PPS). However, he wanted to stand above the parties with a
power base in the army newly formed by him. His relationship with the Jews was
good; his political opponent, Roman Dmowski, was openly
anti-Semitic. Dmowski certainly rejected a federal solution in the East, his
main enemy was Germany, and a bourgeois Russia was to form a counterweight to
this dangerous Germany; he wanted to share Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine with
Russia.
Piłsudski and Dmowski shaped Polish politics in the interwar period. The
borders with Germany and Czechoslovakia were determined by the Allies,
with Lithuania and the Soviet Union effectively at war. Germany had to cede
Danzig (Gdańsk), which became a refuge under the League of Nations, as
well as an area between East Prussia and Germany, later called the Polish
Corridor, the Poznań area and part of the cool Upper
Silesia. Czechoslovakia conquered 1919-20 and retained part of Teschen (Polish Cieszyn),
Poland conquered Vilnius in 1920 and later incorporated city and
hinterland into Poland, and after war with Ukrainians in Galicia, Poland
acquired Eastern Galicia with the city of Lviv. A war against the Russian
Bolsheviks 1919-20 ended with the implementation of Dmowski's solution: Poland
and Russia divided Belarus and Ukraine between them.
The Second Republic, 1919-39
The new state gained large national and religious minorities; with
approximately 65% of the population were Poles, approximately 10% were Jews. The largest
minority was the Ukrainians with 15%, but the most vociferous was the Germans'
2%, who had the big Germany behind them. Poland became a parliamentary republic
with a very democratic constitution from 1921. There were two chambers, the
Senate and the Sejm, which elected a president who had little power, for Dmowski
would prevent a strong man, such as Piłsudski, from gaining too much influence.
Poland was from 1918 a strongly divided society, which was also seen in the
parliament; there were 13 governments between 1919 and 1926. Dissatisfied with
this system, Piłsudski returned to power in a coup in May 1926, and he and his
successors shaped the political system in 1926-39. The coup in 1926 was directed
against the right wing, against Roman Dmowski and the leader of the Peasants'
Party, Wincenty Witos (1874-1945). Piłsudski did not abolish the Constitution,
but amended it so that the executive was strengthened at the expense of the
parties and the parliament. From 1930, the regime's treatment of the opposition
and parliament became rougher, and the 1935 constitution was a step in an
undemocratic direction. However, the opposition press and parties were allowed
to exist. Piłsudski's main interests were foreign policy and military
affairs, as he sought a balancing act between the great powers based on Poland's
own strength. The Soviet Union was for him the main enemy. In 1934 he entered
into an understanding withHitler without, however, harboring illusions
about Hitler's further plans.
After the Munich Agreement in October 1938, the good Polish-German
relationship was over. The Minister of Foreign Affairs 1932-39, Józef Beck
(1894-1944), rejected Hitler's demands for Danzig and better access to East
Prussia. Beck did not want to make Poland a German vassal state. He also wanted
no guarantee from the Soviet Union, fearing it would change the 1920-21
border. By the agreement between Hitler and Stalin in August 1939, Poland was
divided for the fourth time, and with Hitler's attack in September 1939 and a
Soviet attack a few weeks later, Poland disappeared again as a state.
Poland during World War II, 1939-45
During this phase, the existence of the Polish people was threatened, and its
dramatic history was unfolded on three levels. One was the events in the Polish
territory during the German and Soviet occupation, where the Germans, among
other things. sought to remove Poland from the map by calling the part occupied
by them the General Government, while the Russians with The
Katyn massacre sought to make the formation of a new Polish state
impossible. The second was the actions of the government in exile in London
under leaders such as Władysław Sikorski and Stanisław Mikołajczyk,
seeking to secure a large and independent Poland after an Allied victory, to
influence the great powers, and to rely on a large resistance movement in
Poland; the third level was the negotiations of British, American and Soviet
leaders on Poland's new borders and new government.
Both the Soviet (1939-41) and the German occupation of Poland led to
extensive migrations and assassinations. The Nazi race policy thus came to full
unfoldment in Poland; in 1940 the Jews were gathered in ghettos, and from 1942
they were murdered in extermination camps, while the Poles were subjected to
terror and arbitrariness, and many were led into slave labor in Germany. The
last few Jews in the Warsaw ghetto revolted in vain in April 1943. The large
bourgeois Polish resistance army, the AK, tried, also in vain, a revolt in
Warsaw August-October 1944, which was militarily directed against the Germans
but politically against the Russians, and then it was defeated, the Germans
destroyed Warsaw.
The Allies' deliberations on the future of Poland took place without much
regard for the horrific events in Poland. The three great powers agreed that
Poland should be moved to the west. The Curzon line from 1920, a British
idea, corresponded more to an ethnic border than the Polish eastern border from
1921. The new border in the west became the river Oder, while the free
city of Danzig (Gdańsk) and southern East Prussia were to Poland. Poland was
thereby moved 250 km to the west, and the country became approximately 20% less in
scope. Millions of Germans were moved from the new Poland with Allied permission
or fled themselves. Polish critics spoke of Poland's fifth division, while the
government in exile wanted the enlargements in the west, but not the
renunciations in the east.
People's Republic of Poland (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL, 1944-89)
The Polish state was not only relocated but also given a different
content. National and religious minorities were now very small; the country was
98% Catholic and Polish. It was soon to turn out that the country was not
liberated but subject to the Red Army, the secret Soviet police and a
small group of Polish Communists. In Moscow in July 1944, Stalin had created
a communist-dominated committee that became the core of the new Polish
government, which the three great powers recognized from July 1945. The largest
party was the Peasants' Party at Mikołajczyk. Before the election to the Sejm in
January 1947, the Communists (PPR) had intimidated the opposition and the
population so much that later in 1947 Mikołajczyk fled to the United States.
Both the election result in 1947 and a referendum the year before were
falsified. In 1948-49, a wing of the PPR carried out a Stalinization of the
party and of Poland. The party leader, Władysław Gomułka, was
removed. Stalinist communists like Bolesław Bierut, Hilary Minc (1905-74)
and Jakub Berman (1901-84) carried out Stalin's policy of state takeover of
industry, trade and agriculture, and censorship and the secret Polish police
monitored everything and everyone. The PPR had little support among the
population and therefore used terror and electoral pressure. Cultural life was
Sovietized, instruction in Russian was forced; the church was bothered and
deprived of its land holdings, and priests and bishops were arrested. The
unification of political life culminated with the merger of the PPR and PPS into
the PZPR in December 1948. Soviet dominance in Poland gained its external symbol
by the Soviet Marshal Rokossovsky's becoming Marshal of Poland in 1949 -
Piłsudski's old title.
There was great opposition in Poland to this Soviet model. As early as 1954,
the power of the Polish security police was curtailed after a defector's
revelations of its brutality. Workers' unrest in Poznańin 1956, October
of the same year led to a change of leadership. Gomułka again became the leader
of the Communist Party, now the PZPR, and claimed the possibility of a Polish
path to socialism. At a number of points, his regime led to a relaxation, and
the obvious Soviet interference diminished. The collective form of agriculture,
which the peasants had spontaneously dissolved in 1956, was not
reintroduced. Poland's agriculture at that time was for approximately 80% of them in
private ownership, a special sight for the Eastern Bloc, just as the church was
given greater leeway with a Catholic press and Catholic representatives in the
Sejm. In foreign policy, Gomułka closely followed the Soviet Union, which for
him was the best guarantor of the Oder-Neiße border in the west, and in August
1968, Poland participated in the incursion into Czechoslovakia.
A new conciliatory course towards West Germany began with Willy Brandt's visit
to Warsaw in December 1970, in the month in which Gomułka was deposed; West
Germany effectively recognized the Oder-Neiße border. However, Gomułka's
internal reforms had been few, so neither economic policy nor the party's
monopoly were changed. State and Church were in open controversy at the 1000th
anniversary of the introduction of Christianity in 1966, and widespread unrest
among students in March 1968 was brutally crushed by the police. Parts of the
party led an anti-Zionist campaign from 1967, causing many Jews to lose their
jobs and flee.
In the years 1945-70, the agricultural country of Poland changed into a
country with strongly growing cities and a large heavy industry, based on
raw materials from the new rural areas. The population, which had fallen by 6
million. during the war, increased from approximately 24 mio. in 1946 to 34
million. in 1975, after 1956, cultural freedom was greater than in the rest of
the Eastern bloc, and illiteracy, which had been great in the interwar
period, disappeared.
Riots in port cities such as Gdańsk in December 1970 led to a change of
leadership, with Edward Gierek stepping down. He tried with a new style
and a new policy to create a bridge between the party and the people. Without
giving up the party's exclusive power, he tried to make direct contact with the
people. Unlike Gomułka, he took out large loans in the West for the renewal of
Polish industry, just as he set out to build more homes and procure more
consumer goods. The hope of material change, however, was disappointed within a
few years; the loans were not used productively and the foreign debt grew
unchecked. Gierek improved relations with the church during a visit to the
Vatican in 1977; however, it came as a shock to the weak Polish regime that the
1978 newly elected pope, John Paul II., var polak. Between 1976 and 1980,
the regime lost much authority. The unrest among the workers in 1976 led to a
new collaboration between workers, intellectuals and the church, and the pope's
visit to Poland in 1979 strengthened the self - awareness of civil society
towards the party. The result was seen during the strikes in the summer of 1980,
when the weakened party had to make major concessions. Independent trade unions
were allowed, the right to strike was introduced, and Lech Wałęsa emerged
as the leader of the strikers and as the leader of the trade union Solidarity. In
1980-81, there was an unheard of free public debate in Poland for an eastern
country. Gierek was removed as party leader and succeeded by Stanisław Kania in
1980-81; by the growing polarization between the party and Solidarity, he was
replaced in 1981 by GeneralWojciech Jaruzelski. The many strikes
increased the economic hardship in Poland, and in December 1981 pressure from
the Soviet Union, the GDR, and Czechoslovakia led Jaruzelski to impose martial
law. All concessions to the workers were now taken back, Solidarity was
dissolved, its leaders imprisoned, and the military effectively took over the
leadership of the state.
Jaruzelski's regime in 1981-88 did not succeed in winning over the
population. Economically, the 1980's were a downturn, and societal morale reached
a low in 1988. The debt to a now hostile West weighed heavily. A new wave of
strikes in 1988 led the regime to once again recognize Solidarity as one of
several interlocutors, and agreements in April 1989 with the opposition led to a
partially free election to the Sejm and the Senate. Surprisingly for all, in
August 1989, Poland got Eastern Europe's first non-communist prime minister, Tadeusz
Mazowiecki, which was the beginning of a rapid dismantling of PZPR's
monopoly of power.
The Third Republic (Rzeczpospolita Polska, RP, 1989)
In December 1989, the new parliament passed a series of laws that made Poland
a parliamentary democracy and paved the way for the transition from a planned
economy to a market economy, and in January 1990, the PZPR dissolved
itself. The Russian troops were withdrawn from Poland, the last in 1993. Three
elections in 1990-91 completely changed Poland's political life. In the 1990
local elections, Solidarity won, and in the 1990 presidential election, Wałęsa
won and Jaruzelski resigned peacefully.
Poland's situation became better after 1989 than it had been at any other
time in the 1900's. The country's orientation to the West resulted in accession
to the Council of Europe in 1991, to the OECD in 1996, to NATO in
1999 and finally to the EU in May 2004. Poland played a more active role
in foreign policy. In the spring of 2003, Poland contributed thousands of troops
to the US war in Iraq. It aroused considerable anger in Russia when
Polish President Kwaśniewski and former President Lech Wałęsa in late
2004 helped the politicians of Ukraine with a peaceful outcome on their
transition to more democracy and thus less dependence on Russia.
2000's
The SLD government, which came to power in 2001, experienced its greatest
success with the negotiations on Poland's terms for accession to the EU, the
framework of which was formulated at the Copenhagen summit in 2002. Following
its accession in 2004, Leszek Miller resigned as Prime Minister. As had
happened with the AWS government in 1997-2001, the government slowly
disintegrated with the split and formation of new parties as a result; growing
allegations of elite corruption and links to Russian intelligence undermined
confidence in the SLD. The acclaimed Marek Belka was appointed new Prime
Minister, but he had the primary support of the President, whereas the support
of the Sejm or SLD was fluctuating.
The 2005 parliamentary elections meant that the two new parties, PiS and PO,
both rooted in Solidarity, won. Contrary to expectations, PiS and PO did not
form a government together, but a minority government with PiS emerged. The
party received many votes from southeastern, more backward Poland, where
Catholic and national values are also deeply rooted. This caused anxiety among
the former political elite. The politically unknown Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
became prime minister, while the real bearer of power was PiS chairman Jarosław
Kaczyński. The subsequent presidential election in two rounds ended in a
showdown between Lech Kaczyński(PiS), Lord Mayor of Warsaw - and
Kaczyński's twin brother - and rival Donald Tusk (PO, b. 1957). Lech Kaczyński
won and was installed as the new president in December. Prime Minister
Marcinkiewicz became a popular leader, but resigned the following year, after
which Jarosław Kaczyński took over as Prime Minister. The Kaczyński brothers
pursued a policy that required the state to ensure the security of its citizens,
even though economic policy has not been entirely clear. The Kaczyński brothers
soon came under criticism, both internally in Poland and from outside. Their
policies had strong nationalist undertones, were critical of the EU and stood
for traditional Catholic values, e.g. regarding issues concerning abortion and
homosexuals. In 2007 the government could not get a majority, and in an election
in 2007 Jarosław Kaczyński lost the post of Prime Minister,
Poland was hit by a shock in April 2010 when President Lech Kaczyński and his
wife were killed in a plane crash along with a number of other top figures from
Polish society, including the army's chief of staff, the Sejm's deputy chairman,
the national bank director and an intelligence chief. They were on their way to Smolensk for
a memorial service for the victims of the Katyn massacre.
Poland - history (historical overview)
Poland - history (historical overview),
Historical overview |
approx. 35000-9300 BC |
The Aurignaci -, the gravetti - and the magdalénien cultures |
5000 BC |
First arable crops |
approx. 2100-700 BC |
Bronze Age. Aunjetitz and Lausitz cultures. Rave exports to the
south |
approx. 700 BC-400 AD |
Iron Age. Pomeranian face culture. From approximately 120 BC trade with
the Roman Empire |
approx. 400-900 |
The area is inhabited by Slavic and Germanic tribes etc. From
approximately 550 are the first city-like communities |
966 |
The first Polish prince, Mieszko I, becomes a Christian |
1000 |
With the creation of the archbishopric of Gniezno, Poland becomes
an independent church province directly under the protection of the pope |
1241 |
After the Battle of Legnica against the Mongols, the central power
ceases to function |
1320 |
Władysław Łokietek regroups most of the country and gets the Pope's
approval of the royal dignity |
1333-70 |
Under Kasimir III, many Jews and German peasants immigrated,
contributing to an economic boom. Poland wins large tracts of land
in Ukraine |
1386 |
The Lithuanian prince Jagiełło marries the Polish queen Jadwiga,
whereby Poland enters into a personnel union with Lithuania |
1410 |
The German Order is defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg (Grunwald) |
1466 |
Peace in Torun; West Prussia falls to Poland |
1569 |
Lublin Union; the staff union is replaced by a real union with
Lithuania |
1572 |
Poland becomes an electoral kingdom |
1697-1763 |
Staff union with Saxony |
1772, 1793 and 1795 |
Poland's three divisions; Prussia, Russia and Austria divide the
country between them |
1807 |
France establishes the Warsaw Duchy |
1815 |
Congress Poland is established with the Russian emperor as king |
1830-31 |
November Uprising; national revolt, which is crushed by the
Russians |
1863-64 |
The January Uprising is crushed by the Russians, Congress-Poland is
incorporated into Russia |
1918 |
Poland resurrects at the end of World War I. |
1919-20 |
The Polish-Russian War; Poland conquers territories in Ukraine,
Belarus and Lithuania |
1926-35 |
Piłsudski's dictatorship |
1939 |
World War II begins with Germany's attack on Poland on 1
September. The Soviet Union attacks on 17 September. Poland is occupied
by Germany and the Soviet Union, which divide the country between
them. A Polish government in exile is established in London |
1943 |
Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto is crushed |
1944 |
Warsaw Uprising; the Polish resistance army tries in vain to drive
out the Germans |
1945 |
After World War II, Poland's borders were shifted; the western
border is drawn by the rivers Oder and Neiße, the eastern border
approximately by the Curzon line |
1944-89 |
People's Republic of Poland. The Communist Party rules under the
strong influence of the Soviet Union |
1956 |
Poznan revolts. Gomułka again becomes leader of the Communist
Party; the peasants dissolve the collective farms |
1970 |
West Germany effectively recognizes the Oder-Neiße border Gomułka
is sold and replaced by Gierek |
1980 |
The trade union Solidarity is formed |
1981 |
Jaruzelski becomes party and government chief, introducing martial
law status in December; Solidarity is forbidden |
1989 |
Poland gets Eastern Europe's first non-communist prime
minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki. The Third Republic is established |
1990 |
The Communist Party is dissolving itself. Lech Wałęsa is elected
president |
1991 |
First free parliamentary elections |
1999 |
Poland joins NATO |
2004 |
Poland joins the EU among the first of the former communist Eastern
bloc countries |
Heads of state and government |
princes and kings of the Piasts family |
approx. 960-992 |
Mieszko 1. |
992-1025 |
Bolesław 1. Chrobry |
1025-34 |
Mieszko 2. |
1038-58 |
Kasimir 1. Odnowiciel (Renew) |
1058-79 |
Bołeslaw 2. Śmiały (prince, king from 1076) |
1079-1102 |
Władysław 1. |
1102-07 |
Zbigniew |
1107-38 |
Bolesław 3. Krzywousty |
reigning princes 1 |
|
1138-46 |
Władysław 2. |
1146-73 |
Bolesław 4. |
1173-77 |
Mieszko 3. |
1177-94 |
Kasimir 2. |
1202-27 |
Leszek 1. Biały |
1210-11 |
Mieszko 2. Platonogi |
1228-31 |
Władysław 3. |
1232-38 |
Henry 1 |
1238-41 |
Henry 2. |
1241-43 |
Konrad 1. |
1243-79 |
Bolesław 5. |
1279-88 |
Leszek 2. Czarny |
1288/89-90 |
Henry 4. Probus |
1290-91 |
Example 2. |
1291-1300 |
Wacław 1. |
United Kingdom Poland |
|
1306-33 |
Władysław 1. Łokietek (King of 1320) |
1333-70 |
Kasimir 3. the Great |
Anjoudynastiet |
|
1370-82 |
Louis I the Great (Louis I of Hungary) |
384-86 |
Jadwiga |
Jagiellonian dynasty |
|
1386-1434 |
Władysław 2. Jagiełło (Grand Duke of Lithuania 1377-1401) |
1434-44 |
Władysław 3. Warneńczyk |
1446-92 |
Kasimir 4. Jagiełłończyk |
1492-1501 |
Johan 1. Albrecht |
1501-06 |
Alexander |
1506-48 |
Sigismund 1. Stary ('the old man') |
1548-72 |
Sigismund 2 August |
election kings |
|
1573-74 |
Henry III (of Valois) |
1576-86 |
Stefan Bathory |
1587-1632 |
Sigismund 3. Vasa |
1632-48 |
Władysław 4. Vasa |
1648-68 |
Johan 2. Kasimir Vasa |
1669-73 |
Mikael Korybut Wiśniowiecki |
1674-96 |
Johan 3. Sobieski |
1697-1704 |
August 2. Mocny |
1704-09 |
Stanisław 1. Leszczyński |
1709-33 |
August 2. Mocny |
1733-36 |
Stanisław 1. Leszczyński |
1733-63 |
August 3. |
1764-95 |
Stanisław 2. Poniatowski |
presidents |
|
1918-22 |
Józef Piłsudski (Head of State) |
1922 |
Gabriel Narutowicz |
1922-26 |
Stanisław Wojciechowski |
1926-39 |
Ignacy Mościcki |
1939-47 |
Władysław Raczkiewicz (in exile) |
1947-52 |
Bolesław Bierut 2 |
Presidents of the Council of State |
|
1952-64 |
Alexander Zawadzki |
1964-68 |
Edward Ochab |
1968-70 |
Marian Spychalski |
1970-72 |
Józef Cyrankiewicz |
1972-85 |
Henryk Jabłoński |
1985-89 |
Wojciech Jaruzelski |
presidents |
|
1989-90 |
Wojciech Jaruzelski |
1990-95 |
Lech Walesa |
1995-2005 |
Alexander Kwaśniewski |
2005- |
Lech Kaczyński |
party leaders (secretaries general) |
|
1943-48 |
Władysław Gomułka |
1948-56 |
Bolesław Bierut |
1956-70 |
Władysław Gomułka |
1970-80 |
Edward Gierek |
1980-81 |
Stanisław Kania |
1981-89 |
Wojciech Jaruzelski |
heads of government |
|
1989-90 |
Tadeusz Mazowiecki |
1990-91 |
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
1991-92 |
Jan Olszewski |
1992-93 |
Hanna Suchocka |
1993-95 |
Waldemar Pawlak |
1995-96 |
Józef Oleksy |
1996-97 |
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz |
1997-2001 |
Jerzy Buzek |
2001-04 |
Leszek Miller |
2004-05 |
Marek Belka |
2005-06 |
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz |
2006-07 |
Jarosław Kaczyński |
2007- |
Donald Tusk |
1 In 1138, Poland was divided into principalities among the
members of the royal family. The oldest member of the family, the
senior, was Duke of Kraków and also had supremacy over the other
princes. Those mentioned here were seniors. The senior principle was
eroded in the years between 1180 and 1227, after which Kraków became a
hereditary principality. 2 1944-47 Chairman of the National
Council. |
|
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