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

Life cycle of the Polish cochineal in Johann Philipp Breyne's Historia naturalis Cocci Radicum... (1731)

Ancient Slavs developed a method of obtaining crimson dye from Polish cochineal, a scale insect, whose larvae are dark red sessile parasites living on the roots of various herbs growing on the sandy soils of Central Europe. Despite the labor-intensive process of harvesting the larvae and a relatively modest yield, the dye continued to be a highly sought-after commodity and a popular alternative to kermes throughout the Middle Ages until it was superseded by Mexican cochineal in the 16th century. The insects were killed with boiling water or vinegar and dried in the sun or in an oven, ground, and dissolved in sourdough or in light rye beer called kvass in order to remove fat. The extract could then be used for dyeing silk, wool, cotton or linen. In the 15th–16th centuries, along with grain, timber and salt, it was one of Poland's and Lithuania's chief exports, mainly to southern Germany and northern Italy as well as to France, England, the Ottoman Empire and Armenia. Its historical importance is still reflected in most modern Slavic languages where the words for the color red and for June – the month of Polish cochineal harvest – both derive from the Proto-Slavic *čьrvь, meaning "a worm" or "larva". (Full article...)

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Zamość

Credit: Marcin Szala

Mannerist-Baroque houses standing along the northern edge of the main square of the Renaissance town of Zamość originally belonged to ethnic Armenian merchants and are hence known as Armenian Houses. The town was founded by and named after Jan Zamoyski, a powerful 16th-century stateman, who allowed Jews and Armenians to settle here. The colorful houses are now home to the Museum of Zamość.

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...that one-fourth of the world's white storks make their home in Poland, where they are believed to bring good fortune?
...that the first extra-solar planetary system was discovered by a Polish astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan?
... that Poland's National Council of the Judiciary has been criticized for including only 6 women among its 25 members?
... that the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki co-wrote the German libretto of Ubu Rex, his only opera buffa, based on the French play Ubu Roi?

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Elizabeth of Bosnia as imagined by Sándor Liezen-Mayer

Elizabeth of Bosnia (Elżbieta Bośniaczka; ca. 1339–1387) was a queen consort of Hungary and Poland. A daughter of the ban of Bosnia, Stephen II of the House of Kotromanić, she married King Louis the Great of Hungary in 1353. As queen consort, she was overshadowed by her domineering mother-in-law, Elizabeth of Poland, daughter of King Vladislaus the Elbow-high of Poland. She gave birth to their first child, Catherine, 17 years after the marriage, shortly after Louis acquired the crown of Poland, where she was sent to govern as a regent. When Louis died in 1382, their elder surviving daughter, Mary, ascended the throne of Hungary, with Elizabeth as a regent. Unable to retain control over Poland, Elizabeth secured the Polish throne for her youngest daughter, Hedwig. During her regency in Hungary, the queen mother was faced with several rebellions led by Croatian noblemen who wished to take advantage of Mary's insecure reign, before being murdered in the turmoil. (Full article...)

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Aerial view of Nowa Huta

Nowa Huta is an industrial easternmost district of the city of Kraków. Its history began in 1949, when Poland's communist government started to build the Lenin Steelworks (now Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks owned by Mittal Steel Company) together with a town for the workers. Nowa Huta, whose name translates as "New Steelworks", was meant to be an ideal socialist and atheist proletarian town supposed to counterbalance Kraków's conservative bourgeoisie. It is Poland's foremost example of socialist realist urban planning and architecture. The workers eventually turned against the communist regime when they demanded – with the help of Archbishop Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II – the right to build a church in the 1960s; and when they supported the Solidarity movement in the 1980s. (Full article...)

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Poland now

Recent events

On 8 April, local elections (map of voivodeship-level results shown) were held throughout Poland, with run-off votes in some municipalities held on 21 April.
On 9 January, police entered the Presidential Palace in Warsaw to arrest former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński (Law and Justice party) and his former deputy, both of whom had been sentenced to two year's jail for abuse of power.
On 9 January, Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, an Armenian and Roman Catholic priest, and former anti-Communist dissident, died at the age of 67.
On 13 December, Donald Tusk of the Civic Coalition was sworn in for his third nonconsecutive term as Prime Minister of Poland.