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Poland

Poland Destinations Travel Guide

Language: Polish
Currency: Zloty (PLN)
Calling Code: 48

Poland (Polish. Polska), the official name is the Republic of Poland (Polish. Rzeczpospolita Polska) - a state in Central Europe. According to the results of 2015, the population is 38 623 221 people, the territory - 312 679 km². It takes forty-third place in the world in terms of population and sixty-ninth in territory.

The capital is Warsaw. The official language is Polish.

Unitary state, parliamentary republic. It is subdivided into 16 voivodships.

Located in the center of Europe. It is washed in the north by the Baltic Sea. It has a land border with Russia (Kaliningrad region), Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany.

The majority of believers (about 87% of the population) profess Catholicism, which makes Poland the country with the largest Catholic population in Central Europe.

Travel Destinations in Poland

Central Poland

Łódzkie

Mazowieckie

Southern Poland

Małopolskie

Śląskie

Pilica

Ogrodzieniec

Southwestern Poland

Dolnośląskie

Opolskie

Northwestern Poland

Lubuskie

Wielkopolskie

Zachodniopomorskie (Poland)

Northern Poland

Kujawsko-Pomorskie

Pomorskie

Warmińsko-Mazurskie

Eastern Poland

Lubelskie

Podkarpackie

Świętokrzyskie

Podlaskie

General information

Poland covers an area of ​​312,679 km², according to this indicator, the country is in 69th place in the world and tenth in Europe. The population is 38 million people (33rd in the world). The country is divided into 16 voivodships, which in turn are divided into powiats (counties) and gminas (volosts).

The date of creation of the first Polish state is considered to be 966, when Mieszko I converted to Christianity. Poland became a kingdom in 1025, and in 1569 united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (I Rzeczpospolita). In 1795, as a result of three partitions, when the territory was divided between Prussia, Austria and Russia, the Polish state ceased to exist. During the Napoleonic wars in the period 1807-1813. there was the Duchy of Warsaw, most of which in 1815 became part of Russia as the so-called Kingdom of Poland. Poland regained its independence in 1918 after the First World War (II Rzeczpospolita), but in 1939 was divided between Germany and the USSR. After the war, Poland within the new borders (without Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, but with significant territorial acquisitions at the expense of Germany) became a "country of people's democracy" dependent on the USSR (People's Republic of Poland). In 1989 there were changes in the political system, the transition to a market economy (III Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth).

It has been a member of NATO since March 12, 1999, and a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004. December 21, 2007 entered the Schengen area. Member of the UN (1945), OSCE (1973), Council of Europe (1991), World Trade Organization (1995), OECD (1996), Visegrad Group.

Etymology

After the introduction of the official name - "Rzeczpospolita Polska" - for some time it was translated into Russian as the Polish Republic, because the word Polska simultaneously means both "Poland" and "Polish". This was followed by an explanation from the Polish Foreign Ministry that the adequate translation was "Republic of Poland". The official name of the country does not use the modern Polish word "republika" (republic), but the outdated one - "rzeczpospolita" (Rzeczpospolita), which is a literal translation into Polish of the Latin term "rēs rublica" (public cause). The Russian name "Poland" goes back to the local case of the singular w Polszcze (modern Polish w Polsce) from Polish. Polska is a substantiated adjective "Polish" from ziemia polska - "Polish land", that is, "land of glades" (the name of the tribe, in turn, comes from the word "field").

Geography

The total area of ​​Poland is 312,658 (312,683) km² (in terms of area, it ranks 69th in the world, and 10th in Europe). Land - 304,459 km², water - 8220 km². About 2/3 of the territory in the north and in the center of the country is occupied by the Polish lowland. In the north - the Baltic Ridge, in the south and southeast - the Lesser Poland and Lublin Uplands, along the southern border - the Carpathians (the highest point 2499 m, Mount Rysy in the Tatras) and the Sudetes. Large rivers - Vistula, Odra; dense river network. Lakes are predominantly in the north. Under forest 28% of the territory.

The status of UNESCO biosphere reserves has 10 protected areas, including nat. parks Słowiński (protection of the unique massif of the Lebski dunes), Babegurski (high-altitude range of Beskid landscapes), landscape park Tucholsky pine forest (the second largest forest after Belovezhskaya Pushcha), etc.

Borders
In the north it is washed by the Baltic Sea; borders:
In the west with Germany - 467 km,
In the southwest with the Czech Republic - 796 km,
In the south with Slovakia - 541 km,
In the southeast with Ukraine - 535 km,
In the east with Belarus - 418 km,
In the northeast with Lithuania - 104 km and Russia (Kaliningrad region) - 210 km.

In addition, Poland, through the economic zone in the Baltic Sea, borders on the zones of Denmark and Sweden.

The total length of the borders is 3511 km, of which 3071 km are land and 440 sea.

Climate

The climate is temperate, transitional from maritime to continental with mild (cold in the mountains) winters and warm (cool in the mountains) summers. The continentality of the climate is lower than in Belarus and Ukraine, which is expressed primarily in milder winters. Average January temperatures are from -1 to -5 °C (up to -8 °C in the mountains), July from +17 to +19 °C (up to +10 °C in the mountains); precipitation 500-800 mm on the plains; in the mountains in some places more than 1000 mm per year.

History

At the beginning of our era in Poland, the fact of the residence of the Germanic tribes of Skirs and Lugievs is known. Then they were replaced by the Goths of the Velbar culture. In the middle of the 1st millennium south of Poland, the Alans and Turkic tribal associations controlled. The Crimean Goths are unprovenly associated with the Baltic Velbar culture. At the end of the 1st millennium, such tribes were known on the territory of Poland as Western glades (from them the name of the country), Lendzyans (from them the name of the Poles from their neighbors: “Poles”), Kuyavians, Pomeranians, Mazovans, Wieslans, Slzes (in Silesia), etc. D. Gradually, on the basis of large tribal principalities, proto-state associations arise; Of these principalities, the principalities were the Principality of Wislans in present-day Lesser Poland (the Krakow region) and glades in Greater Poland (the Poznan region).

Gniezno Poland (877–1320)
In 877, after the conquest of Lesser Poland by Great Moravia, the center of the formation of the Polish state remained Great Poland, whose capital was the city of Gniezno. The first known ruler of Poland was the Great Poland Prince Meshko I of the Piast clan (960–992); in 966 he adopted Christianity in the Western rite. Under his son - Boleslaw the Brave - the Polish Principality reached the peak of power.

In 877, after the conquest of Lesser Poland by Great Moravia, the center of the formation of the Polish state remained Great Poland, whose capital was the city of Gniezno. The first known ruler of Poland was the Great Poland Prince Meshko I of the Piast clan (960–992); in 966 he adopted Christianity in the Western rite. Under his son - Boleslaw the Brave - the Polish Principality reached the peak of power.

In 1320, Kuyavsky Prince Vladislav Loketek (1305–1333), having annexed Great Poland to his possessions, was crowned in Krakow by the Polish king. From now on, Krakow becomes the new capital of Poland. Under his successor Casimir III the Great (1333–1370), Poland experienced its heyday. In 1349, Galicia was annexed to Poland. In 1370, the king of Poland was the nephew of Casimir - the king of Hungary, Louis (Lajos) I, from the Anjou dynasty (1370–1382) - the first foreign king on the Polish throne. Having no solid support in the country, he published the Kosice Privilege in 1374, according to which magnates and gentry were exempted from all duties, except military service and a small tax of 2 pennies from the land.

In 1384, Jadwiga became the Queen of Poland (according to Polish law - the king). The tycoons began to look for Jadwig her husband, who could be a full-fledged Polish monarch, and found such a person in the person of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello (in the Polish pronunciation of Jagiello). In 1385, the Polish-Lithuanian Union was concluded in Kreva, according to which Jagiello was baptized according to the Catholic rite, introduced Catholicism as the state religion in Lithuania, married Jadwig and entered the Polish throne under the name of Vladislav II. Thus, in the East of Europe, a Polish-Lithuanian state arose. Under Jagail, the infringement of the Orthodox population of the Russian lands captured by the Poles began. Jagiello handed over to the Catholics the Orthodox Cathedral in Przemysl which was built under the Russian prince Volodar Rostislavovich, laying the foundation for the catholicization and polonization of this city. The Orthodox Metropolitan of Galitsky was taken away in favor of the Catholic Archbishop of all his land holdings.

In 1410, the Battle of Grunwald took place - the defeat of the Teutonic Order.

The son of Jagiello Vladislav III (tsar. 1434-1444) became simultaneously the king of Hungary and Poland, but died in the battle with the Turks near Varna. After this, the Polish-Hungarian union ceased, but the Polish-Lithuanian union was restored (which was stopped), thanks to the election of the brother of Vladislav, the Lithuanian prince Casimir Jagiellonchik, to the Polish throne (Casimir IV, 1447-1492).

In 1454, according to the Neszaw statutes, Poland turned into a republic, where the supreme power belonged to the Sejm (Parliament).

Wars with the Teutonic Order resumed. In 1466, in the Second Torun Peace, Poland annexed Pomerania with Gdansk and gained access to the Baltic Sea. The son of King Vladislav in 1471 became the king of the Czech Republic, and since 1490 - and the king of Hungary.

In 1505, the Nihil novi law was passed, limiting the king’s power in favor of the nobility. Since that time, the term Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth has become common with the Polish system of government.

After the Mohach battle with the Turks, when the Czech-Hungarian king Louis (Lajos) Jagiellon died, the geopolitical situation changed dramatically in 1526: there was no trace of the predominance of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the territories south of Poland were divided between Turkey and Austria. During the reign of the last Jagiellon, Sigismund II Augustus, the Polish-Lithuanian union again had to face the strengthening of the Moscow state, where Ivan IV the Terrible reigned. Since 1562, Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Union were drawn into a fierce, long and devastating Livonian war for both sides.

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795)
Sigismund Augustus was childless, and as he grew older, the question arose of the further fate of the Polish-Lithuanian state, kept only by the unity of the dynasty. The need to build it on new principles led to the conclusion of the Union of Lublin (1569), according to which Poland formed a united confederate state with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, headed by a diet and a king chosen by him. The state went down in history as the “Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth” (Polish Rzeczpospolita, copy from the Latin res publica (“republic”), “common cause”; with respect to the Polish state, it was first used in the 13th century by Vincent Kadlubek).

After the death of Sigismund, the era of elected kings began, in accordance with the new constitution. The Frenchman Heinrich Valois (1572-1574) appeared on the throne and soon fled back to France, while Ivan the Terrible again went on the offensive in Livonia. The election of the Transylvanian prince Stephen Batory in 1576 turned the situation in favor of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: he returned the lost Polotsk (1579), then, in turn, invaded Russia itself and besieged Pskov. Peace in the Pit-Zapolsky (1582) restored the old border.

After the death of Batory in 1586, the Poles elected the Swedish king Sigismund III Waza; however, he soon lost the Swedish throne because of his Catholic fanaticism. Three important events are connected with his rule: the transfer in 1596 of the capital from Krakow to Warsaw (coronations were still held in Krakow); The Brest Union of the Orthodox and Catholic churches (1596), ending traditional Polish tolerance and creating the prerequisites for the Khmelnitsky uprising and Polish intervention in Russia during the Time of Troubles.

Polish intervention in Russia
The Polish magnates Mnisheki supported the impostor False Dmitry and equipped him with an army of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks and Polish volunteers. In 1604, the army of the impostor invaded Russia, the cities and the armies sent to meet him swore allegiance to the new tsar. In 1605, the impostor entered Moscow and was crowned, but was soon killed.

The impostor promised the Polish king Sigismund III, in return for help, to return Smolensk. Under the pretext of these promises, Sigismund in 1610 begins a siege of Smolensk. The army, sent to the rescue by the new tsar Vasily Shuisky, was defeated by the hetman Zholkevsky at the Battle of Klushin, after which the Poles approached Moscow, while the troops of the new impostor False Dmitry II besieged her from the other side. Shuisky was overthrown and subsequently extradited to Zholkevsky. The Moscow boyars swore allegiance to the young son of Sigismund, Vladislav, and then let the Polish garrison enter Moscow. Sigismund did not want to let his son go to Moscow and baptize him in Orthodoxy (as was assumed under the terms of the agreement), but tried to rule Moscow personally through Alexander Gonsevsky, who led the Polish garrison in Moscow after the departure of Zholkevsky. The result was the unification of the former "Tushino thieves" - Cossacks with the nobles of Shuisky against the Poles (early 1611) and their joint campaign against Moscow, supported by the uprising in Moscow itself, which the Poles were able to suppress only by setting fire to the city.

The siege of Moscow by the first militia was unsuccessful due to contradictions in its ranks. The campaign of the second militia led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky put the Poles in a critical position. Sigismund, who took Smolensk, dismissed his army, unable to contain it. On November 1, 1612 (according to the new style), the militia took Kitay Gorod, the Poles took refuge in the Kremlin. On November 5, the Poles signed a surrender, releasing Moscow boyars and other noblemen from the Kremlin, and surrendered the next day.

In 1617, Vladislav, who continued to bear the title of Grand Duke of Moscow, invaded Russia, trying to take possession of the “legitimate” throne, reached Moscow, but could not take it. According to the Deuli Armistice, the Commonwealth received Smolensk and Seversky land. Vladislav retained the title of Grand Duke of Moscow. At the end of the ceasefire, Russia unsuccessfully tried to return Smolensk, but after the defeat under its walls in 1633 according to the Polyanovsky peace, it recognized Smolensk for Poland, and Vladislav refused the Moscow title.

The beginning of state disasters
Vladislav IV as king did not allow the Commonwealth to take part in the Thirty Years' War, adhered to religious tolerance and carried out military reform. Unsuccessfully sought to strengthen royal power, opposing the magnates. The reign of Vladislav IV was the last stable era in the history of royal Poland.

At the same time, in the sixteenth century, rapid polonization took place, followed by the transition to Catholicism of the Western Russian gentry, for a long time the transition was spontaneous and voluntary, caused by status superiority. By the end of the 16th century, the Ukrainian-Belarusian Orthodox peasantry was ruled by the Catholic polonized nobility. This situation, along with the strengthening of the counter-reformation and the influence of the Jesuits, gave rise to the desire to translate "slaves" into Catholicism. The result of the oppression of the Orthodox is an increase in tension and, ultimately, a catastrophic uprising for the Commonwealth of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, which began in 1648. In 1654, Russian troops invaded Poland; the following year - the Swedes who occupied Warsaw, King Jan II Casimir fled to Silesia - anarchy began, known in Poland as the "Flood".

In 1657, Poland renounced sovereign rights to East Prussia. The Swedes could not stay in Poland due to the outbreak of guerrilla warfare. On the other hand, part of the Cossack foremen, frightened by the influence of the Moscow governors, recoiled from Moscow and tried again to establish relations with the Commonwealth, thanks to which the Poles returned Belarus and the Right-Bank Ukraine. According to the Andrusovsky truce (1667), Poland lost Kiev and all areas east of the Dnieper.

Decline
The short reign of the young Vishnevetsky was not very successful; Poland lost the war against the Ottoman Empire, which occupied Podolia and forced the surrender of the Kamenets fortress. Jan III Sobieski carried out a radical reform in the armament and organization of the army. Under his command, a coalition of Christian powers inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turks in the battle of Vienna on September 12, 1683 and halted the advance of the Ottoman Empire to Europe.

The reign of Jan Sobieski was the last brilliant episode in the history of the Commonwealth, then the steady decline begins. In 1697, the King of Poland was elected Saxon Elector Augustus II the Strong, who opened the era of Saxon kings. His plans for the return of Livonia ended in the Northern War, during which Charles XII of Sweden swept into Poland, defeated August II, occupied Warsaw and established his creed Stanislav Leshchinsky on the Polish throne. In 1709, Peter I expelled the Swedes and their protege from Poland and restored Augustus the Strong to the throne. A country deprived of internal resources, having no tax service, no customs, no regular army, or any capable central government - was henceforth doomed to serve as a toy for strong neighbors. After the death of Augustus the Strong in 1733, a “war for the Polish inheritance” broke out, during which the Saxons and Russians expelled Stanislav Leschinsky, supported by the French, from the country and seated the new Saxon Elector, Augustus III (1734-1763), on the Polish throne.

At the end of the reign of Augustus III came the era of the Seven Years War, when Poland turned into a battlefield between Prussia and its opponents. Frederick II of Prussia was already the bearer of the idea of ​​the partition of Poland, but his defeat in the war postponed this project. In 1764, under the Russian pressure, the little-known and less powerful Stanislav Augustus Ponyatovsky was elected king of Poland. In fact, a Russian protectorate was established over Poland. Poniatowski was an educated and intelligent man, but he lacked the political will sufficient to act in such a difficult environment.

The actual protectorate of Russia was expressed, in particular, in the fact that Russia, with the support of Prussia, forced Stanislav to solve the "dissident question" - to equalize the rights of Orthodox and Protestants with Catholics. The king was also forced to cancel the reforms he had begun; Catherine proclaimed herself the guarantor of the Libero Veto. The nobility's response was the “Bars Confederation” (1768), which launched a guerrilla war against the Russian troops. Soon the uprising was crushed and the rebels were exiled to Siberia; for their part, Austria and Prussia, jealously watching the approval of Russia in Poland and taking advantage of its difficulties in the war with Turkey, demanded their share.

Sections
In 1772, the first division of the Commonwealth took place between Prussia, Austria and Russia, according to which Galicia went to Austria, West Prussia to Prussia, and the eastern part of Belarus (Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Dvinsk) to Russia.

The gloomy years following the first section gave way to a new social upsurge in the late 1780s. In 1787, a new Russo-Turkish war began, the Russian occupation forces were withdrawn from Poland. In 1788, the Four-Year Diet began work, setting itself the task of implementing fundamental reforms that could renew the country. A constitution was developed that was supposed to eliminate the pernicious principle of “liberum veto”, curb gentry anarchy, mitigate serf social inequality, introduce the foundations of civil society and establish a strong and capable centralized power. The Constitution of May 3 (1791) became one of the first constitutions in the world.

Dissatisfied with the abolition of the "golden liberties" the magnates in search of support went to St. Petersburg and agreed on Russian intervention. To justify the intervention, they compiled an act of confederation, actually in St. Petersburg, but falsely labeled Targovitsa - the estate of one of the confederates, as a result of which the confederation was called Targovitskaya.

Empress Catherine II sent troops to Poland. A fierce struggle began among the adherents of the new constitution against the Confederates and the Russian army. After the victory of the Russian troops, the constitution was repealed, the dictatorship of the Targovitsa Confederates was established; at the same time, Prussian troops entered Poland, and the Second Partition between Prussia and Russia (1793) of the lands of the Commonwealth was made. A diet was convened in Grodno at which the restoration of the previous constitution was proclaimed; Warsaw and several other cities were occupied by Russian garrisons; the Polish army was sharply reduced.

In March 1794, the national liberation uprising of Kosciuszko began. Kociuszko, proclaimed “leader of the uprising” in Krakow, defeated the Russian detachment at Racławice and moved to Warsaw, where the rebel population destroyed the Russian garrison; Vilna was busy. In summer, the rebels withstood the siege of Warsaw by Russian-Prussian troops. However, in the fall, the rebels suffered a series of crushing defeats. The lack of support for the uprising by the Belarusian and Ukrainian populations was revealed. Kociuszko was defeated at Matsejovice and captured, the suburb of Warsaw Prague was stormed by Suvorov; Warsaw surrendered. After this, the third section occurred (under an agreement concluded between Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795) and Poland as a state ceased to exist.

The period of lack of statehood (1795-1918)
For more than a century, Poland did not have its own statehood, Polish lands were part of other states: Russia, Prussia (and later the German Empire) and Austria (subsequently Austria-Hungary).

Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1813)
Napoleon, having defeated Prussia, from the part of the Polish lands belonging to it created the Duchy of Warsaw, vassal to France. Russia recognized this principality, headed by the Saxon king Friedrich Augustus, devoted to Napoleon, and received the Bialystok region. In 1809, after the victorious war with Austria (in which the Poles also participated), Little Poland and Krakow were annexed to the Duchy of Warsaw.

The 5th corps of the Great Army consisted of 3 Polish divisions and light cavalry: the 16th division (Zayonchek), the 17th division (Dombrowski), the 18th division (Knyazhevich).

The next partition of Poland took place in the years 1814-1815 at the Vienna Congress between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Most of the former Duchy of Warsaw was transferred to Russia, Poznan was transferred to Prussia, Krakow was declared a “free city”. The Vienna Congress declared granting autonomy to the Polish lands in all three parts, but in fact this was done only in Russia, where, to a large extent, on the initiative of Emperor Alexander I, known for his liberal aspirations, the constitutional Kingdom of Poland was formed.

Kingdom of Poland (1815-1915)
November 27, 1815, Poland, as part of Russia, received its own constitution, linking Poland and Russia with a personal union and allowing Poland to choose a diet, its own government and have its own army. First, the old comrade-in-arms of Kosciuszko, General Joseph Zayonchek, was appointed viceroy of Poland, then the brother of the Russian emperor, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. The constitution, relatively liberal at first, was later limited. Legal opposition appeared in the Polish Sejm, secret political societies arose.

In November 1830, the “November” uprising broke out in Warsaw, after the suppression of which in 1831, Nicholas I repealed the constitution granted to Poland in 1815. National liberation uprisings took place in 1846 in Poznan (were crushed by Prussia). In the same year there was an uprising in Krakow, as a result of which (with the consent of Nicholas I) the city went to Austria.

After the death of Nicholas I, the liberation movement rose with renewed vigor, which was now divided into two hostile camps: the "red" (democrats and socialists) and the "white" (aristocrats). The general requirement was the restoration of the constitution of 1815. In the fall of 1861, martial law was introduced to end riots in Poland. The liberal grand duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, appointed governor, could not cope with the situation. It was decided to declare a recruitment and send to the soldiers the previously designated "unreliable" young people on special lists. The set, in turn, served as a signal for the massive "January Uprising" of 1863. The uprising was crushed, and a military regime was established in the Kingdom of Poland. The January uprising led Alexander II to deprive the rebellious gentry of social support and to carry out peasant reform - in 1864, a Decree was passed on the device of the peasants of the Kingdom of Poland, which eliminated the remnants of serfdom, and the peasants were endowed with land. The suppression of the January uprising gave an impetus to the development of a policy of liquidating the autonomy of the kingdom of Poland and closer integration of Poland into the Russian Empire.

The accession to the Russian throne of Nicholas II revived hopes for liberalization of Russia's policy towards Poland. In 1897, the emperor visited Warsaw, where he agreed to the establishment of the Polytechnic University and the installation of a monument to Mickiewicz.

In 1897, on the basis of the National League, the National Democratic Party of Poland was created, which, although its strategic goal was to restore Poland’s independence, fought primarily against Russification laws and the restoration of Poland’s autonomy. The National Democratic Party soon became the leading political force in the Kingdom of Poland and took part in the activities of the Russian State Duma (Polish Colo faction).

During the Revolution of 1905-1907, revolutionary actions also took place in the Kingdom of Poland in Russia. The Polish Socialist Party of Jozef Pilsudski, who organized a series of strikes and strikes at the industrial enterprises of the Kingdom of Poland, gained great influence. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Pilsudski visited Japan, where he tried to finance the uprising in Poland and organize Polish legions to participate in the war against Russia. The National Democrats Roman Dmowski opposed this. Nevertheless, Pilsudsky managed to secure the support of Japan in the purchase of weapons: back in 1904 he created the Polish Socialist Party's Battle Organization, which over the next years carried out several dozen terrorist attacks and attacks on Russian institutions and organizations, of which the Bezdan robbery of 1908 is most famous of the year. Only in 1906, 336 Russian officials and military personnel were killed by Pilsudski militants.

Polish lands as part of Prussia and Austria
Intensive Germanization was carried out on the Polish lands as part of Prussia, Polish schools were closed. In 1848, Russia helped Prussia crush the Poznan uprising. In 1863, both powers concluded the Alvensleben Convention on helping each other in the fight against the Polish national movement.

The position of the Poles on the lands within Austria was somewhat better. In 1861, the provincial Sejm of Galicia was created to solve the problems of the local life of the province, in which the Poles dominated; schools, institutions and courts have used the Polish language; and Jagiellonian (in Krakow) and Lviv universities became all-Polish cultural centers.

World War I
After the outbreak of World War I, on August 14, 1914, after victory in the war, Nicholas II promised to unite the Kingdom of Poland with the Polish lands, which will be taken from Germany and Austria-Hungary, into an autonomous state within the Russian Empire.

The war created a situation in which the Poles, Russian subjects, fought against the Poles who served in the Austro-Hungarian and German armies. The pro-Russian National Democratic Party of Poland, led by Roman Dmowski, considered Germany the main enemy of Poland, its supporters considered it necessary to unite all Polish lands under Russian control with the status of autonomy within the Russian Empire. Anti-Russian supporters of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) believed that the path to Poland’s independence was through Russia's defeat in the war. A few years before the outbreak of World War I, PPS leader Jozef Pilsudski began military training for Polish youth in Austro-Hungarian Galicia. After the outbreak of war, he formed the Polish legions as part of the Austro-Hungarian army.

In 1915, the territory of Russian Poland was occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary. On November 5, 1916, the German and Austro-Hungarian emperors published a manifesto on the creation of an independent Kingdom of Poland in the Russian part of Poland. Due to the absence of the king, his authority was exercised by the Regency Council.

After the February revolution in Russia, the Provisional Government of Russia on March 16 (29), 1917 announced that it would contribute to the creation of the Polish state on all lands inhabited by most Poles, subject to the conclusion of a “free military alliance” with Russia.

In France in August 1917, the Polish National Committee (PNK) was created, headed by Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski; there was formed the Polish "blue army" led by Jozef Haller.

On October 6, 1918, the Polish Regency Council announced the creation of an independent Polish state, the Provisional People’s Government of the Republic of Poland (Tymczasowy Rząd Ludowy Republiki Polskiej) was created, and on November 14, after the surrender of Germany and the collapse of Austria-Hungary, he transferred all power to Jozef Pilsudski country.

At this time, an armed conflict arose between the Polish formations and the forces of another newly formed state - the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR) in the territory of Galicia, resulting in large-scale military operations that lasted from November 1, 1918 to July 17, 1919 and ended with the defeat of ZUNR.

On December 27, 1918, the Poles of the German province of Posen raised a Greater Poland uprising, after which until mid-1919 the province became an independent state with its own currency and army.

Polish Republic (1918-1939)
On January 26, 1919, legislative elections were held, which were approved by Jozef Pilsudski as head of state.

The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 transferred to Poland most of the German province of Posen, as well as part of Pomerania, which gave the country access to the Baltic Sea (Polish Corridor); Danzig (Gdansk) received the status of a “free city”.

In Silesia in 1919-1921 there were three uprisings of the Poles against the German authorities. In 1922, after a referendum held in Upper Silesia, in which part of the inhabitants (Poles) favored joining Poland, and some (Germans) chose to live in Germany, the League of Nations considered it reasonable to divide this region into parts, in accordance with the preferences of the inhabitants . The eastern part formed the Silesian Voivodeship autonomous in Poland.

January 1, 1918 declared war on the Ukrainian People’s Republic, due to the Ukrainian side’s refusal to transfer to Poland the Ukrainian-controlled territories claimed by Poland. The Polish-Ukrainian war ended in the complete defeat of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. In 1919, the Soviet-Polish war began, which was with varying success. In the beginning, the Poles advanced deep into Belarus and Ukraine and captured Minsk and Kiev. Then the Red Army launched a counterattack and reached the Vistula, but they were not able to take the well-fortified Lviv and Warsaw. A “miracle on the Vistula” happened - the Red Army was defeated. In total, up to 200 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured during Polish war, of which, according to various estimates, up to 80 thousand died from hunger and disease. The war was actually lost by Soviet Russia, and according to the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, the western part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands went to Poland.

At the conference of ambassadors on July 28, 1920, the southern border of Poland was agreed. The Cieszyn region was divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia.

In October 1920, Polish troops under the command of General Zheligovsky captured part of Lithuania with the city of Vilnius (Vilnius). The accession of this city to Poland was approved on February 10, 1922 by the Vilnius Sejm.

In 1921, the Legislative Diet adopted the constitution, according to which the Diet became the legislative body, consisting of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, by citizens over 21 years of age, without distinction of sex, religion and nationality, the head of state - The President, elected by the Seimas and performing representative functions, the executive body - the Council of Ministers, appointed by the President and responsible for the Seimas.

November 5, 1922 elections were held in the Sejm.

In 1926, after a coup in Poland, an authoritarian sanitation regime was established, led by Jozef Pilsudski. In 1934, a camp was created for opponents of the ruling regime in Beryoz Kartuzy, Brest trial was held against the opposition, the Great Poland Camp (Polish: Obóz Wielkiej Polski), as well as the National Radical Camp were outlawed, restrictions on freedom of the press and assembly were introduced.

On June 15, 1931, the USSR and Poland concluded the Treaty of Friendship and Trade Cooperation. On January 25, 1932, the USSR and Poland signed the Nonaggression Treaty.

January 26, 1934 Poland and Germany signed the Nonaggression Pact for a period of 10 years. November 4, 1935 Poland and Germany signed the Agreement on Economic Cooperation.

In April 1935, shortly before the death of Pilsudski, a new Constitution was adopted in Poland, which included the basic principles of Reorganization: a strong centralized state with a presidential system of government.

In 1938 (after the Munich Agreement), Poland annexed the Cieszyn region of Czechoslovakia.

On March 21, 1939, Germany demanded that Poland hand over the free city of Danzig to it, join the Anti-Comintern Pact and open the “Polish corridor” for it (created after World War I to ensure Poland’s access to the Baltic Sea). Poland rejected all the demands of Germany.

On March 28, 1939, Hitler tore the Nonaggression Pact with Poland. This happened after taking Memel without a fight. After that, Poland wanted to secure allied guarantees. Poland hoped for help from England. However, Poland refused to enter into an alliance with her, France and the USSR. England gave an oral guarantee for protection from Germany. Upon learning of the English guarantees, Hitler became furious and ordered the development of Operation Weiss.

On August 23, 1939, Hitlerite Germany and the Soviet Union concluded a non-aggression pact. According to the secret supplementary protocol to the treaty, on the delimitation of the areas of mutual interests in Eastern Europe in the event of a "territorial and political reorganization", it was envisaged to include East Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Bessarabia in the sphere of interests of the USSR, Lithuania and Western Poland - in the sphere of interests of Germany .

The Second World War
On September 1, 1939, troops of the Third Reich invaded Poland. By September 16, the Germans reached the Osovets-Bialystok-Belsk-Kamenetz-Litovsk-Wlodawa-Vladimir-Volynsky-Zamost-Lvov-Sambir line and approached a distance of 150-200 km to the Soviet-Polish border. Warsaw was surrounded.

On September 17, Soviet troops entered Poland and occupied Western Belarus and Ukraine. September 27, Warsaw fell and the Polish army actually stopped resistance. On October 5, the last major Polish unit of General Kleeberg capitulated.

The territorial division of Poland between the USSR and Germany was completed on September 28, 1939 by the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and the Border between the USSR and Germany. As a result of the division of Polish territory between Germany and the USSR, Soviet borders moved far to the west, and the USSR began to border Germany and Lithuania. Initially, Germany intended to turn Lithuania into its protectorate, but on September 25, during the Soviet-German contacts on the settlement of the Polish problem, the USSR proposed to begin negotiations on Germany's refusal of claims on Lithuania in exchange for the territory of the Warsaw and Lublin voivodeships of Poland. On this day, the German ambassador to the USSR, Count Schulenburg, sent a telegram to the German Foreign Ministry, informing him that he had been summoned to the Kremlin, where Stalin indicated this proposal as a subject of future negotiations and added that if Germany agreed, “the Soviet Union immediately "he will take up the solution of the problem of the Baltic states in accordance with the protocol of August 23 and expects full support from the German government in this matter."

During the next partition of Poland, the ethnically predominantly non-Polish territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR. In the spring of 1940, employees of the NKVD of the USSR carried out the Katyn execution - a mass execution of Polish citizens (mainly captured officers of the Polish army).

Germany received ethnically Polish territories, and those that were part of Prussia before the First World War (Poznanschina, Pomerania) were directly included in Germany, a significant part of the Polish population was expelled from there. Until the end of 1944, about 450 thousand citizens of pre-war Poland were called up to the German army, including some members of the Polish underground, situations when someone escaped from mobilization were extremely rare, in general it can be considered that through the German army during the war About half a million citizens of pre-war Poland passed. In the remaining territories, called “Governor-General,” an occupation administration was organized. In the former territories of Poland, completely occupied by Germans, the Polish language was banned, the Polish press was closed, almost the entire clergy was arrested, all Polish universities and secondary schools were closed, Polish cultural institutions were liquidated, and Polish intelligentsia and civil servants were methodically destroyed. Poles lost about 2 million people who were not military personnel, as well as 45% of doctors, 57% of lawyers, 40% of the faculty of universities, 30% of engineers, 18% of priests, almost all journalists. It is believed that during the Second World War, Poland lost more than 20% of its population - about 6 million people.

During World War II, a resistance movement was operating in Poland, consisting of heterogeneous groups, often having opposite goals and reporting to different leadership centers: the Craiova Army, which was led by the Polish government in exile, which organized the Warsaw Uprising of 1944; Ludov Guard - military organization of the Polish Communist Party; the Khlopsky Battalions created by the peasant party, etc .; Jewish militant organizations also organized the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943.

July 30, 1941, after the German attack, the USSR recognized the "London" government in exile; on Soviet territory, military units subordinate to him were formed from Polish citizens, withdrawn from the USSR in 1942 and subsequently distinguished themselves in battles in Italy. On April 25, 1943, the USSR broke off relations with the "London" government because of its anti-Soviet position. After this, Stalin created from the remaining Polish citizens in the USSR the 1st Infantry Division of the Polish Army named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko under the command of Colonel Zygmunt Berling, who had deserted Anders from the Polish army.

The instruction of the “London government” for the Home Army developed on October 1, 1943 contained the following instructions in case of the unauthorized “Polish government” of the entry of Soviet troops into Poland: “The Polish government sends a protest to the United Nations against violation of Polish sovereignty - as a result of the Soviets entering the territory Poland without agreement with the Polish government - while simultaneously declaring that the country will not interact with the Soviets. The government at the same time warns that in the event of the arrest of representatives of the underground movement and any reprisals against Polish citizens, the underground organizations will go over to self-defense. ” The fallacy of the geopolitical concept of the London government of Poland, built on anti-Sovietism, has created a belief in the possibility, if not military, then geopolitical defeat of the USSR. The Allies decided the cause of the eastern border of Poland at the Tehran Conference. The commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces subordinate to the Polish émigré government, armor general Kazimierz Sosnkowski believed in the prospect of a third world war and the complete defeat of the USSR in this war.

Together with parts of the Soviet army, the Berling army advanced to the borders of Poland. On July 20, 1944, the Red Army crossed the Curzon Line, and the very next day the Polish Committee for National Liberation (Lublin Committee), led by the Communists, was created, taking over the functions of the interim government with Soviet support. A decree was adopted by the Regional People’s Rada on the unification of the partisan Army of Ludova with the 1st Polish Army into a single Polish Army, as well as a decree on the appointment of the High Command of the Polish Army (General Michal имimerski was appointed commander of the Polish Army). On July 26, 1944, the USSR government and the Polish National Liberation Committee signed an agreement recognizing the power of the PKNO in the liberated Polish territory, the Soviet government recognized the PKNO as the only legal authority in the country.

At the end of July, the question was allegedly outlined whose power - London or Lublin will be established in Poland. Parts of the Red Army approached Warsaw; On August 1, in Warsaw, on the orders of the "London government", an uprising began, led by the Border Army and led by General Bur-Komorowski, with the goal of liberating Warsaw before the arrival of Soviet troops and to prevent the Polish National Liberation Committee from coming to power. Neither the Soviet government, nor the command of the Red Army, nor the High Command of the Polish Army received any official information about the preparation of the uprising in Warsaw, and even more so requests for help to the rebels, coordination with the advancing Soviet units was not organized. Meanwhile, the Germans launched a counterattack near Warsaw, and Rokossovsky (a few hours before the uprising in Warsaw) was forced to order the advancing 2nd Panzer Division to go on the defensive. Stalin ignored the Zhukov-Rokossovsky plan, which suggested a resumption of the offensive after the regrouping, and after the appeal of Winston Churchill, who supported the London government, he did not allow the use of Soviet airfields to help the rebels. As a rule, supporters of the position on the deliberate cessation of the Soviet offensive do not rely on documentary evidence, referring to false documents distributed by the Nazis during the uprising. The Germans brutally crushed the rebellion. The Polish government in exile clearly showed society its powerlessness, for the Poles the terrible collapse of the uprising was a big shock.

The offensive of the Red Army resumed on January 12, 1945; On January 17, Warsaw was liberated by the 1st Army of the Polish Army, and by the beginning of February almost all of Poland was liberated from fascist troops. The Polish Workers' Party finally established itself in power, although for this it was necessary to break the strong resistance of the rebel groups of the Polish nationalist underground, consisting mainly of former soldiers and officers of the Craiova Army, reaching the degree of guerrilla warfare.

During the war in Poland, mass killings of the Jewish population by Germans and participants in the Polish nationalist underground took place. The last major Jewish pogrom occurred in 1946 in Kielce and was attended by Polish police and military. The Holocaust and the anti-Semitic atmosphere of the postwar years caused a new round of emigration of Jews from Poland.

By the decision of the Berlin Conference of 1945, the western border of Poland was established along the rivers Oder (Oder) and Nysa-Luzhicka (Neisse), two-thirds of the territory of East Prussia went to Poland. As a result of the conclusion of the Soviet-Polish border treaty, the Bialystok region (from the BSSR) and the city of Przemysl (from the Ukrainian SSR) departed to Poland. Poland returned Czechoslovakia to the Tieszyn region, captured in 1938.

The extermination of Jews, the post-war eviction of Germans from German lands annexed to Poland, as well as the establishment of new borders with the USSR and the exchange of population with it, made Poland an almost mono-ethnic state.

People's Republic of Poland (1944-1989)
Even before the end of the war in Europe, on April 21, 1945, the Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Post-War Cooperation between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish Republic was concluded in Moscow. The idea of ​​a boycott of the results of World War II failed. This meant the political bankruptcy of the Polish government in exile and its underground structures in Poland.

The Allies, realizing that they would not succeed in insisting on the transfer of power in Poland to the "London" government, at the Yalta Conference agreed to a compromise option, according to which a coalition government was formed on the basis of the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic with the inclusion of some Polish emigrants who were no longer part of the Polish exile government, which was supposed to hold free elections. In the "Provisional Government of National Unity", formed in June 1945 with the participation of representatives of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in accordance with the decisions of the heads of these states, adopted at a conference in Yalta and recognized by the allies, most of the portfolios (including all power) were in the hands of left parties (PPR and PPS), therefore, already in the elections held by him in January 1947, according to official data, the pre-election bloc PPR and PPS received 80% (these parties merged in 1948 into the ruling Polish United Workers' Party under the leadership of Bolesław Bierut). At the same time, the Polish “government in exile” continued to exist in London until 1990.

Some of the fighters of the Home Army in 1945 entered into an armed struggle against the regime established in Poland by the communists, which was conducted by the underground organization of the Residency of the Armed Forces in the country, created on May 7, 1945, and from September 1945 to 1948 - the underground organization "Freedom and Independence" . By the early 1950s, anti-communist armed resistance was largely suppressed by the state security forces.

In 1947, the State National Council adopted the Small Constitution, according to which the unicameral Seimas, elected by a proportional system in multi-member constituencies, was declared the legislative body, the head of state - the President, was elected by the Seimas, the executive body - the Council of Ministers, appointed by the Seimas, local governments - national councils elected by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies.

In March 1956, after the XX Congress of the CPSU, Boleslav Bierut died, his place was taken by Edward Ochab. These events were accompanied by demonstrations by workers in Poznań. In October, Vladislav Gomulka, recently released from prison, became the first secretary of the PUWP Central Committee. Gomułka managed to resolve the situation. The new Soviet leadership, headed by Khrushchev, made serious concessions, revised its economic agreements with Poland and agreed to the return of advisers to the USSR, including the Minister of Defense of the PPR, Rokossovsky. Gomułka also managed to defend his policy towards the countryside, which was to reject collectivization.

The liberalization trend associated with the first decade of Gomułka's rule ended in 1968, after the suppression of student demonstrations and the announcement of an "anti-Zionist" campaign, which forced most of the Jews who remained in Poland to leave the country. In December 1970, rising prices for consumer goods caused strikes and riots in Gdańsk, Gdynia and Szczecin. The protests were crushed by the army, police and ZOMO. However, there was a change in the party and state leadership: Gomułka was dismissed and replaced by Edward Gierek.

The Gierek government actively took out loans both in the West and in the USSR, which initially contributed to economic growth, but by the end of the 1970s, having made the debt burden unsustainable (by 1980, the debt reached $ 20 billion), plunged the country into a socio-economic crisis . The beginning of the crisis coincided with the election of the Krakow Cardinal Wojtyla as Pope (under the name of John Paul II) in October 1978, which extremely electrified the country, since in Poland the Catholic Church was a force and bulwark of resistance to the authorities.

On July 1, 1980, the government, due to the need to pay off debts, introduced an all-round austerity regime and raised the price of meat. The swept wave of strikes actually paralyzed the Baltic coast by the end of August, the coal mines of Silesia were closed for the first time. The government was forced to make concessions to the strikers. In August-September 1980, interfactory strike committees signed the August Agreements with the government, after which the strike was terminated; similar agreements were signed in Szczecin and Silesia. The key conditions of these agreements were the guarantee of the rights of workers to form independent trade unions and to strike. a new nationwide Solidarity movement, led by Lech Walesa, gained enormous influence, after which Gierek was replaced as first secretary by Stanislav Kanya.

Discontent grew, fueled by revelations of corruption and government incompetence. In the spring of 1981, the Bydgoszcz provocation led to a multi-million warning strike. The government was losing control of the situation. In February 1981, the Minister of Defense, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, was appointed prime minister, and in October, the first secretary of the PUWP Central Committee, concentrating in his hands three posts of the highest state importance.

On December 12-13, 1981, Jaruzelski introduced martial law (which was in effect until July 1983). Power passed to the Military Council of National Salvation and the informal Directory. Almost all the leading Solidarity activists were interned by the state security forces and ZOMO, the strike resistance was crushed.

Modern Poland (since 1989)
The perestroika policy pursued by Gorbachev weakened the influence of the USSR on Poland, which led to changes in the country. A new wave of mass strikes in the spring and autumn of 1988 forced the leadership of the PZPR to negotiate in Magdalenka with Lech Walesa and his supporters. An agreement was reached to convene a "round table" between the government and the opposition, which began on February 6, 1989. On April 4, it ended with the signing of an agreement, the main points of which were the holding of free elections, the introduction of the post of president and the upper house of the Seimas (Senate).

Poland became the first country in the socialist bloc to begin the peaceful dismantling of the socialist system. In the elections held on June 4, 1989, the Solidarity bloc (created around the Solidarity movement and uniting a wide variety of political movements, from left-wing socialists to conservative, Catholic, nationalist groups) received 99% of the seats in the Senate and 35% of the seats in The Sejm, after which he formed a government, which, under the leadership of Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Leszek Balcerowicz, began market reforms: price liberalization and privatization of state property. The consequence of this was a radical transformation of political institutions and local governments. The centrally planned economy, which at that time was dominated by chaos and hyperinflation, was replaced by a market economy that arose in the context of an intensifying economic crisis, political chaos, and the disintegration of central and regional institutions.

Wojciech Jaruzelski became the President of the country. The 1990 direct presidential election was won by Solidarity candidate Lech Walesa. However, in the context of a sharp drop in real incomes of the population, a rapid rise in unemployment, the emergence of new social inequalities and a growing sense of threat and danger, the political consensus that initially united the victorious Solidarity with the forces of the former socialist regime on the issue of reforms was destroyed. Within Solidarity itself, there was also a demarcation between left-liberal and right-wing (mainly conservative Catholic and nationalist) forces.

After the parliamentary elections of 1991, President Lech Walesa offered Jan Olszewski, a member of the conservative party "Agreement of the Center" (Polish: Porozumienie Centrum) (4th place in the elections, 9 seats), to head the government. At the same time, Olszewski insisted that Leszek Balcerowicz, the architect of “shock therapy” in Poland, not enter his government. Olszewski's premiership was, however, overshadowed by a confrontation with the president, which led to the early resignation of the cabinet. Olszewski's main action as prime minister was to pass the lustration law (which, however, was soon declared unconstitutional). On June 5, 1992, a vote of no confidence was passed in his government. Deprived of public support, Olshevsky's cabinet was forced to give way to the centrists - the new government was headed by Hanna Sukhotskaya.

Parliamentary elections in 1993 led to the formation of a coalition government of the Union of Democratic Left Forces (SDLS), which brought together people from the former PZPR, with the Polish Peasants' Party and other political forces, under the premiership of PKP member Waldemar Pawlak, after whose resignation in March 1995, the government was headed by representatives of the SDLS . Beginning in 1992, the GNP began to grow rapidly, and the main market institutions were created.

Aleksander Kwaśniewski, a candidate from the Union of Democratic Left, won the presidential election in 1995, but Solidarity won again in the 1997 parliamentary elections, and Jerzy Buzek, a member of Solidarity, headed the government. In 1997, a constitution was adopted, finally establishing a mixed republic. In 1999, Poland joined the NATO bloc and supported the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999), the bloc's intervention in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003).

Kwaśniewski was re-elected president in the 2000 presidential election, the SDLS also won the 2001 parliamentary elections, and SDLS member Leszek Miller became the head of government, who was replaced by Marek Belka in 2004. On May 1, 2004 Poland joined the European Union.

In autumn 2005, right-wing forces returned to power in Poland. At this time, two parties vying for influence on the political scene, originating from the anti-communist opposition and Solidarity: Law and Justice (Polish: Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) of the Kaczynski brothers, a conservative party with strong elements of populism and nationalism, and a liberal -conservative "Civil Platform" (Polish Platforma Obywatelska), which was headed by Donald Tusk and Jan Rokita. On September 25, 2005, the Law and Justice party won the parliamentary elections with a score of 26.99% (155 seats out of 460), followed by the Civic Platform - 24.14% (133 seats), then the populist Self-Defense ( Polish Samoobrona Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) Andrzej Lepper - 11.41%. The Kaczynski brothers' party, along with two other smaller parties, Self-Defense and the right-wing nationalist Catholic League of Polish Families, constituted the ruling coalition. First, Kazimierz Martsinkevich became prime minister, and since July 2006, Yaroslav Kaczynski.

On October 9, 2005, Lech Kaczynski and Donald Tusk went to the second round of the presidential elections. On October 23, Lech Kaczynski won and became President of Poland. 54.04% of voters voted for him. His opponent received 45.96% of the vote.

Early parliamentary elections in October 2007 brought victory to the Civic Platform, while the Law and Justice Party and its allies were defeated. Donald Tusk, leader of the Civic Platform, became prime minister.

On April 10, 2010, the president's plane, en route to Smolensk to participate in events dedicated to the anniversary of the Katyn tragedy, crashed. All passengers and crew members were killed, including the president and his wife. Marshal of the Seimas Bronisław Komorowski became acting head of state. On July 4, 2010, the 2nd round of the presidential elections in Poland took place, in which Bronislaw Komorowski scored the most votes, while the gap with Yaroslav Kaczynski was 6%. On August 6, 2010, Bronisław Komorowski took office as President of the Republic of Poland.

On October 9, 2011, regular parliamentary elections were held, in which the ruling coalition of the Civic Platform and the Polish Peasants' Party retained a majority in the Sejm and the Senate. The third largest party in the Seimas was the new liberal anti-clerical party Palikota Movement (since 2013 - Your Movement). In 2014, many deputies moved from it to the Union of Democratic Left Forces and the Security and Economy deputy group.

Administrative division

Poland is divided into 16 voivodships, voivodeships are further divided into powiats, and powiats are divided into gminas.

Political structure
Poland is a member of the European Union and NATO bloc. On May 1, 2004, the country joined the European Union, and on December 21, 2007, it joined the Schengen area.

The legislative body is the Senate and the Sejm.

Political parties
Parliamentary
Law and justice
Civic Platform
Cookies'15
Nowoczesna
Polish Peasants' Party

non-parliamentary
KORWiN
Union of Democratic Left
your move
union of labor
Razem ("Together")

Legal system
The body of constitutional supervision is the Constitutional Tribunal (Trybunał Konstytucyjny),
the highest court is the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy),
courts of appeal – courts of appeal (Sąd apelacyjny),
courts of first instance - district courts (Sąd okręgowy),
the lowest level of the judicial system is the district courts (Sąd rejonowy),
the highest court of administrative justice is the Supreme Administrative Court (Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny),
courts of appeal of administrative justice - voivodship administrative courts (Wojewódzki sąd administracyjny),
body for the trial of senior officials - the State Tribunal (Trybunał Stanu),
courts of appeal of military justice - district military courts (Wojskowe sądy okręgowe),
courts of first instance of military justice - garrison military courts (Wojskowe sądy garnizonowe),
prosecution bodies - the Prosecutor General's Office (Prokuratura Generalna),
prosecutor's offices of appeal (Prokuratury apelacyjne),
district prosecutor's offices (Prokuratury okręgowe),
district prosecutor's offices (Prokuratury rejonowe),
Chief Military Prosecutor's Office (Naczelna Prokuratura Wojskowa),
district military prosecutor's offices (Wojskowe prokuratury okręgowe),
garrison military prosecutor's offices (Wojskowe prokuratury garnizonowe).

The judicial system of Poland has caused claims from the European Commission. In 2022, the European Commission demanded that Poland "restore the independence of the judiciary", linking this to receiving money from the fund for economic recovery after the Covid-19 epidemic. On June 28, 2022, the Commission's lawyers told the EU Court of Justice that the reforms undertaken by Warsaw are not enough to allay Brussels' concerns about the rule of law.

Economy

Poland is a former socialist country, so its economy was seriously affected by the political changes that took place in the early 90s. So, at this time, a wave of privatization began, during which the bulk of state property passed into private hands. The wide unfilled niches of the developing economic system are of great interest to many Western investors, which makes the Polish economy significant and important for the entire European market. A developed market economy promotes competition.

The Polish economy also has its weaknesses. Agriculture suffers from a lack of investment, an abundance of small farms and excess staff. The amount of compensation for expropriations during communist rule has not been determined.

The Polish economy is a socially oriented market economy. The sixth largest economy in the European Union and the largest among the former members of the Eastern Bloc and the new members of the European Union. Since 1990, Poland has pursued a policy of economic liberalization, and its economy was the only one in the EU that avoided recession during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. As of 2019, the Polish economy has grown steadily over the past 28 years, a record high in the EU. This growth has been exponential: GDP per capita in purchasing power parity has grown at an average of 6% per year over the past 20 years, the most impressive performance in Central Europe, causing the country to double its GDP since 1990.

On September 29, 2017, the financial company FTSE Group, which calculates stock indices, announced the results of the annual market classification, according to which it raised the Polish economy from an emerging market to a developed market; Poland is the first post-communist country to achieve this status. Other financial companies (particularly MSCI and S&P) classify Poland as an emerging market.

Standard of living
From January 1, 2019, the minimum wage (gross) per month is PLN 2,250 (EUR 523.54). As of January 1, 2019, the average wage in Poland is PLN 5,071.25 (EUR 1,180.16 gross) and PLN 3,600 (EUR 837.78 net). The Keitz index (the ratio of the minimum wage to the average wage) as of January 1, 2019 is about 44.4%. From August 1, 2019, income tax for employees under 26 years of age has been abolished in Poland, if the employee’s earnings are less than PLN 85,528 (about 20 thousand euros) per year, this will affect about 2 million young workers in Poland.. From October 1, 2019, in Poland reduced income tax from 18% to 17%. From July 1, 2019, the monthly allowance for the first child and each subsequent child is PLN 500 (€116.33, net). From January 1, 2020, the minimum wage (gross) in Poland is PLN 2,600 (EUR 600) per month and PLN 17 (EUR 3.92) per hour. The Keitz index in 2020 will be 49.7%, according to the projected average wage in Poland. From January 1, 2021, the minimum wage (gross) in Poland is PLN 2,800 (EUR 630.55) per month and PLN 18.30 (EUR 4.12) per hour. The Keitz index in 2021 will be 53.2%, according to the projected average wage in Poland. From January 1, 2022, the gross minimum wage is PLN 3,010 (€653.20) and net is PLN 2,363.56 (€512.92).

Industry
In 2016, the share of industrial production in the structure of GDP was 38.5%. At the same time, the number of people employed in industry is 30.4% of the able-bodied population. The growth rate is higher than in the economy as a whole - about 4.2% in 2016.

Poland produces: hard and brown coal, natural gas, sulfur and saltpeter, table, rock and potash salts, asbestos, iron, silver, nickel ores, gold, zinc, shale gas.

Leading manufacturing industries
mechanical engineering (Poland occupies one of the leading places in the world in the production of fishing vessels, electric trains, freight and passenger cars, road and construction machines, machine tools, engines, electronics, industrial equipment, etc.),
ferrous and non-ferrous (large zinc production) metallurgy,
chemical (sulfuric acid, fertilizers, pharmaceutical, perfumery and cosmetic products, photographic products),
textile (cotton, linen, wool),
sewing,
cement,
production of porcelain and faience,
production of sports goods (kayaks, yachts, tents, etc.).
furniture manufacture

Agriculture
Poland has a highly developed agriculture. Agriculture is dominated by crop production. The main grain crops are rye, wheat, barley, and oats.

Poland is a major producer of sugar beet (over 14 million tons per year), potatoes, and cabbage. The export of apples, strawberries, raspberries, currants, garlic, and onions is of great importance.

The leading branch of animal husbandry is pig breeding; dairy and meat cattle breeding, poultry farming (Poland is one of the largest suppliers of eggs in Europe); beekeeping. Sea fishing and reindeer husbandry (marals and red deer in the Lublin Voivodeship).

Tourism
Poland has a number of resorts:
Augustow
Busko-Zdrój
Goldup
Dombruvno
Jedlina-Zdrój
Gizycko
Iwonicz-Zdrój
Kolobrzeg
Kudowa-Zdrój
Löndek-Zdrój
Mushina
Nałęczów
Piwniczna-Zdrój
Polchin-Zdrój
Polanica-Zdrój
Rabka-Zdrój
Swieradow-Zdrój
Sopot
Ustron
Ciechocinek
Szczawno-Zdrój
Zakopane

Export
machinery and equipment (about 40% of the cost),
cars,
aircraft engineering,
chemical products (over 10%),
metals, trams, tractors,
fuel,
Food,
textile,
clothes,
building materials,
electronics

The main seaports of the country are Gdansk and Szczecin.

Population

The population of Poland in 2008 was 38,116,000. Thus, it is the eighth most populous country in Europe, and the sixth in the European Union. The average population density is 122 people per km².

Modern Poland is one of the most mono-ethnic states in the world. According to the 2002 census, 96.74% of Poland's population identified themselves as ethnic Poles. 97.8% at the census stated that they speak Polish at home. 1.23% of the country's population identified themselves as other nationalities, of which the largest ethnic groups are Silesians (0.45%), Germans (0.4%), Belarusians (0.1%), Ukrainians (0.1% ), gypsies, Jews, Polish-Lithuanian Tatars. More than 2% of the population refused to answer the question about nationality.

The exceptionally high mono-ethnicity of Poland is a consequence of the historical events of the middle of the 20th century that radically changed the national structure of the country, namely, the Second World War (Holocaust) and the post-war changes in European borders and the associated mass movements of the German, Polish and Ukrainian population, as well as ethnic politics states. As official statistics show, over the past two decades there has been no noticeable influx of immigrants to Poland, with the exception of the acceptance of several thousand refugees from Chechnya. According to Polish law, refugee status gives the right to stay in the country, but does not allow either to work for the purpose of earning money or receive social benefits from the state; international and local humanitarian and charitable organizations are responsible for providing refugees. For this reason, Poland is usually a transit country for refugees.

In recent years, the population of Poland has been gradually decreasing due to an increase in emigration and a drop in the birth rate. After the country joined the European Union, a large number of Poles emigrated to Western European countries in search of work.

Polish diasporas are represented in neighboring states: Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, as well as in other states. The total number of Poles living abroad is estimated at 20 million people. The largest Polish diaspora lives in the USA. The centers of Polish immigration are the USA and Germany. According to the All-Russian census conducted in 2010, 47,125 (0.03%) residents of the Russian Federation considered themselves Poles.

Religion

Religion in Poland occupies a fairly significant place in public life. The most influential religion in the country is Christianity (first of all, Roman Catholicism), whose adherents, according to various estimates, are from 86.7 to 95.5 percent of the population.

Representatives of several other faiths are also present: Orthodox, Lutherans, Calvinists and Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses.

One of the most important places of pilgrimage in Poland is the Catholic monastery of Jasna Gora in Częstochowa, which belongs to the Pauline Order and houses the Częstochowa Icon of the Mother of God, which is said to have been painted by the Apostle Luke.

The 264th Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) was a Pole.

Armed forces

Poland is a country with a professional army
Minimum military recruitment age: 18 years old
Available military resources: 9,681,703
Full military personnel: 120,000
Annual military spending: $9.65 billion
Total workforce: 17,100,000
Poland is a nuclear-free country.

Armament
Planes and helicopters: 318
Naval forces (warships): 87
Naval forces (transport ships): 11

Humanitarian organizations

The Polish Red Cross (Polish: Polski Czerwony Krzyż) was founded on April 27, 1919. Paweł Sapieha became chairman, after his resignation - Helena Paderewska. On July 24, 1919, the Polish Red Cross Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Czerwonego Krzyża) was registered - the only Red Cross organization operating throughout Poland. In 1927, the Polish Red Cross Society changed its name to the Polish Red Cross.

Mass media
There are many media outlets in Poland. The largest TV channels are state TVP, private Polsat, TVN.

Print media - Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita.

After the wave of migration from the East, which began in 2014-2015, media for foreigners appeared in Poland. In 2016, the first information portal for Ukrainians began operating in Wroclaw. Later, the coverage of the portal expanded to the entire territory of the country.

Culture

Literature

The Slavic peoples who inhabited the wooded and swampy plain between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathians, the Oder, the Western Bug and the San, initially did not have one common name that unites all of them - the Poles. These were Pomeranians, Polans, Vislyans, Mazury, etc. In Russia, they were all called Poles. These peoples did not have a written language, which appeared in this region along with the adoption of Christianity in 966. Whereas in Christianity, which came from Byzantium, both worship and writing were in the Slavic language, in Christianity, which came from Rome, both worship and writing were exclusively in Latin. In Poland, which adopted Christianity from Rome, the clergy, especially the higher ones, until the 12th century consisted of people of foreign origin, mainly German and Czech. It was only later that Poles gradually began to appear among the higher clergy. However, they also wrote in Latin.

The emergence of Latin literature in Poland dates back to the end of the 10th century. These are the so-called "chronicles" (chronicles) - records of historical events produced by priests. The oldest yearbooks have been lost. The first Polish chronicler, whose work has survived to our time, was a foreigner, most likely a Hungarian. In Poland, he was considered a Frenchman, hence his nickname Gallus. His chronicle (lat. Cronica et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum) has been brought to 1113. The first Polish author was Vikentiy Kadlubek, Bishop of Krakow, a native of Sandomierz. On behalf of King Casimir the Just, Kadlubek wrote a history of Poland (lat. Historia Polonica). The work of Kadlubek is a chronicle brought to the beginning of the 13th century. Jan Długosz (1415-1480), the most famous writer of the 15th century, canon of Krakow, came out of the Krakow Academy. His main work is the History of Poland (lat. Annales seu cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae) - a chronicle starting from ancient times and brought almost to the death of its author.

In the first half of the 16th century, Latin undoubtedly prevailed in Polish literature. Serious scientific writings and poems, which were imitations of Roman poets, were written in Latin. Only popular books were written in Polish. In Latin in 1519, the first printed manual on the history of Poland, “lat. Chronica Polonorum" ("Polish Chronicle"), written by Matvey Miechovsky. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus’ work “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” (“Circulation of Celestial Bodies”) was written in Latin, as well as his other, at one time well-known work “Optima monetae cudendae ratio” (“On the best foundations of coinage”, "1526"). The first Polish book appeared in Krakow no later than 1514 and no earlier than 1511.

The father of Polish literature is Nikolai Rey from Naglowice (1505-1569), a typical representative of Polish gentry journalism. All of Ray's works, both verse and prose, exclusively serve the purposes of the political struggle. An ardent defender of the interests of the gentry, Rey in his writings gave the gentry moral and political instructions and ridiculed its opponents. Being a Calvinist, he devoted a significant part of his satires to ridicule the Catholic clergy he hated. His manner of writing is sometimes rude, but his language is juicy and well understood by readers. Among the nobility, Ray enjoyed tremendous popularity as a writer who came out of her environment, spoke in her style, expressed her worldview and her political aspirations.

All these Polish writers brilliantly developed the Polish literary language, but genuine great poetry as a special kind of literary creativity did not yet exist. It was created by Jan Kokhanovsky (1550-1584), a wealthy gentry from the vicinity of Radom. Kokhanovsky was educated in Italy, then lived in Paris. He wrote poetry in beautiful classical Latin, but he became famous primarily as a great Polish poet, who, before the appearance of Mickiewicz, was not surpassed in Polish literature by anyone. The first place among the works of Kochanowski is occupied by "Trens" - a lyric poem written by him under the influence of the death of his beloved daughter Ursula. Kokhanovsky follows the same principled political line in Reply to the Greek Ambassadors, a play written in verse, where the poet introduces extremely topical political trends aimed at strengthening royal power into the plot drawn from the Iliad. Kokhanovsky's "Songs" were also widely known, among which a large place is occupied by love poems elegant for that time, which are an imitation of Roman writers (Horace, Catullus, Ovid, Tibullus, and also Petrarch).

The most brilliant poet of Poland and at the same time one of the world's great poets is Adam Mickiewicz, the recognized leader of Polish romanticism. The culminating point in the development of Mickiewicz's work is his poem "Pan Tadeusz", his most mature work and at the same time the "swan song" of the poet. Not inferior in artistic skill to world masterpieces of literature, "Pan Tadeusz", like all the works of Mickiewicz and, in general, all of Polish romanticism, is distinguished at the same time by features of narrowness, insufficient depth in resolving the problems posed.

Juliusz Słowacki (1809-1849) is one of the most outstanding and versatile poets. Słowacki's first writings, which appeared in 1833, heavily influenced by Byron and Shakespeare, show the versatility of his poetic genius. The lyrical genius of Slovacki manifests itself here in all its brilliance. In this respect, Słowacki surpasses Mickiewicz and has few equals in world literature. With flexibility, melodiousness of language, richness of images, flight of creative imagination, Slovak resembles Shelley and Byron. Slovak also shows a first-class dramatic talent. Slovak is a poet, more comprehensive, more receptive to Western influences, more daring and revolutionary than Mickiewicz. Among the Polish romantics, Slovacki stood on the extreme left due to his negative attitude towards the aristocracy and the feudal gentry past.

An important author and probably one of the most famous Polish writers was Joseph Konrad, who wrote in English. After settling in England, Conrad never renounced his Polish nationality. He is the author of the novel Heart of Darkness.

World famous representatives of Polish literature are:
Joseph Conrad,
Isaac Bashevis-Singer,
Stanislav Lem,
Andrzej Sapkowski,
Joanna Khmelevskaya,
Boleslav Prus,
Vladislav Reymont,
Henryk Sienkiewicz,
Janusz Leon Wisniewski,
Maria Konopnitskaya,
Cheslav Milos,
Adam Miscavige,
Eliza Ozheshko,
Tadeusz Ruzewicz,
Wislava Szymborska,
Stanislav Jerzy Lec,
Olga Tokarchuk.

Music

The earliest Polish musical compositions (for example, polyphonic music manuscripts found in Stary Sącz) date back to the 13th century. Around this time, "The Mother of God", the oldest known Polish song, was written. But the first famous Polish composer, Nikolay Radomsky, lived in the 15th century.

In the 16th century, composers such as the Italian Diomedes Kato, who lived in Krakow from the age of five, introduced elements of European music into national Polish melodies. At that time, other later famous composers also lived and worked, for example, Vaclav from Shamotul. At the end of the 16th-beginning of the 17th centuries (the Baroque era), a group of Italian composers worked at the court of Sigismund III, and then Vladislav IV, including Luca Marenzio, Giovanni Francesco Anerio and Marco Scacci. Among the Poles, such composers as Marcin Mielczewski were known. In the late 30s of the 17th century, opera began to develop in Poland. For example, Francesca Caccini wrote the opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina for King Vladislav, which premiered in Warsaw in 1628. At the end of the 17th century, Poland fell into decline, which also affected its culture. Nevertheless, it was in the XVII-XVIII centuries that the polonaise arose and became famous. Piano polonaises have been written by many composers, such as Fryderyk Chopin, Mikhail Kleofas Ogiński, Karol Kurpiński, Juliusz Zarembski, Henryk Wieniawski, Mieczysław Janowicz Karlowicz and Józef Elsner. Poland also became famous for pianists such as Arthur Rubinstein.

Polish opera developed thanks to Stanislav Moniuszko, the author of a number of operas, and, in addition, songs, cantatas and ballets. In the middle of the 18th century, the first Polish symphonies appeared (J. Szczurowski, A. Milvid, J. Wanski, V. Dankovsky).

Polish folk dances, in particular the mazurka and the polonaise, spread widely throughout Europe.

Sport

At the beginning of the 20th century, the first football clubs were created, for example, in 1906 Wisla (Krakow), LKS (Lodz) and Cracovia. The Polish Football Federation was founded in 1919. Nat. The Polish Olympic Committee was founded in 1919. The Polish national football team won the silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics (1992).

In 1924, Polish athletes made their debut at the Olympic Games in Paris and at the Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix. The first Olympic champion was H. Konopatskaya (1900-89), who won the discus throw in Amsterdam (1928).

Polish athletes performed most successfully at the Olympic Games in athletics (23 gold, 18 silver, 13 bronze medals), boxing (8, 9, 26), freestyle wrestling (5, 9, 11) and modern. pentathlon (5, 6, 21).

The country's men's and women's national volleyball teams have achieved significant international success. The men's volleyball team became the world champion (2014), Europe (2009), World League (2012). In 2014, the men's volleyball world championship was held in 6 cities of the country. Women's volleyball team - 2-time European champion (2003, 2005).

The country hosted the 2012 European Football Championship.

Holidays

Holiday weekends
January 1 - New Year - Nowy Rock
January 6 - Epiphany - Trzech Króli - closed until 1960 and again since 2011
Easter (2 days: Sunday and Monday) - Wielkanoc
May 1 - Labor Day - Święto Pracy
May 3 - Constitution Day May 3 - Święto Konstytucji 3 Maja
Green holidays or the Descent of the Holy Spirit (49 days after Easter is always on Sunday) - Zielone Świątki / Zesłanie Ducha Świętego
Body of God (60 days after Easter always on Thursday) – Boże Ciało
August 15 - Ascension of Our Lady - Wniebowzięcie NMP
November 1 - All Saints - Wszystkich Świętych
November 11 - National Independence Day of Poland - Święto Niepodległości
December 25 and 26 - Christmas - Boże Narodzenie

Holidays on non-holiday days
January 21 - Grandmother's Day - Dzień Babci
January 22 - Grandfather's Day - Dzień Dziadka
March 1 - Day of the "cursed soldiers" - Narodowy Dzień Pamięci "Żołnierzy Wyklętych"
March 8 - Women's Day - Dzień Kobiet
May 2 - Day of the Flag of the Polish Republic - Dzień Flagi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
May 8 - Victory Day - Dzień Zwycięstwa
May 26 - Mother's Day - Dzień Matki
June 1 - Children's Day - Dzień Dziecka
June 23 - Father's Day - Dzień Ojca
August 1 - Memorial Day of the victims of the Warsaw Uprising - Narodowy Dzień Pamięci Powstania Warszawskiego
August 31 - Day of Solidarity and Freedom - Dzień Solidarności i Wolności
October 14 - National Education Day - Dzień Edukacji Narodowej, until 1982 - Teacher's Day
October 16 - Day of Pope John Paul II - Dzień Papieża Jana Pawła II, established by the Sejm after the death of the pope in memory of his choice (October 16, 1978)
November 2 - Day of the Dead - Dzień Zaduszny
December 6 - St. Nicholas Day - Dzień Świętego Mikołaja