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

Street Demonstration by Władysław Skoczylas (1905)

The Łódź Insurrection was an uprising by Polish workers in Łódź against the Russian Empire which took place between 21 and 25 June 1905. The Russian-controlled Congress Poland was one of the major centers of the Russian Revolution of 1905, and the Łódź Insurrection was a key incident in those events. For months prior to the uprising, workers in Łódź had been in a state of unrest, with several major strikes brutally quelled by the Russian police and military. Around 21–22 June, angry workers began building barricades and assaulting police and military patrols. The riots began spontaneously, without backing from any organized group; Polish revolutionary groups were taken by surprise and did not play a major role in the subsequent events. Authorities declared martial law and called in additional troops. No businesses operated in the city on 23 June as the police and military stormed dozens of workers' barricades. Eventually, by 25 June, the uprising was crushed, with estimates of several hundred dead and wounded. The events were reported in international press and recognized by socialist and communist activists worldwide. (Full article...)

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Józef Światło

Józef Światło, born Izaak Fleischfarb (1915–1994), was a high-ranking Stalinist secret police agent and then defector to the United States. A Zionist, and then Communist activist in his early life, he was taken prisoner by the Germans during the 1939 Invasion of Poland and soon escaped only to be captured and deported by the Soviets. He returned to Poland as a political officer of the Polish First Army and, in 1945, started to work for the Ministry of Public Security, where he was nicknamed "Butcher" for his interrogation techniques. His arrestees included Władysław Gomułka, Marian Spychalski, Michał Rola-Żymierski, and Stefan Wyszyński. After Stalin's death, Światło was sent to East Berlin for consultations with the Stasi where he defected to the U.S. military mission in West Berlin. Included in the U.S. witness protection program, he began working for the CIA and the Radio Free Europe. Światło's written and broadcast incriminations shook the Polish United Workers' Party and contributed to the reform of the Polish security apparatus as one of the factors leading to the Polish October revolution. (Full article...)

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St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Białystok

Białystok is the largest city in north-eastern Poland, located close to the Belarusian border. Originally part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, it was annexed by Prussia in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 only to pass into Russian hands with the Treaty of Tilsit of 1807. Under Russian rule, it enjoyed an economic boom fueled by development of textile industry. The city was predominantly Jewish, but most of Białystok's Jewish population was exterminated by the Nazis during the city's German occupation in 1941–1944, despite its resistance in the Białystok Ghetto Uprising. In addition to textiles, Białystok is a large producer of alcoholic beverages and home of the Żubrówka vodka. (Full article...)

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Did you know – show different entries

... that the PWS-6 (pictured) was the first Polish aircraft fitted with slats – but the prototype is the only model ever produced?
... that although Princess Louise of Prussia was noble-born, her German-Polish daughter Elisabeth Radziwiłł was considered an unsuitable marriage prospect for future emperor Wilhelm I?
... that Polish lawyer Henryk Cederbaum was expelled from the bar after defending a Polish shopkeeper who accused the Russian governor-general's wife of shoplifting?
... that the anti-Nazi resistance group "Olimp", organized in 1941 by members of the Polish minority in Breslau, was named after Mount Olympus because of their remote main meeting place?

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Poland now

Recent events

On 14 September, southwest Poland was hit by severe floods (flooded Kłodzko pictured) caused by heavy rains brought by Storm Boris.
Poland won 23 medals, including eight gold, at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, ranking 16th in the medal table.
On 18 August, Polish cyclist Katarzyna Niewiadoma won the 2024 Tour de France Femmes.
Poland won 10 medals, including one gold, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, ranking 42nd in the medal table.

Ongoing
Constitutional crisis • Belarus–EU border crisis • Ukrainian refugee crisis

Holidays and observances in September 2024
(statutory public holidays in bold)

Harvest festivals (wreath pictured)
Polish Underground State Day, 27 September

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Zbigniew Oleśnicki (cardinal)

Credit: Jan Mehlich

A relief depicting Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki as the founder of a dormitory for Jagiellonian University students, offering the building to Baby Jesus. Oleśnicki, bishop of Kraków and Poland's first cardinal, was an influential statesman, acting as a regent during King Vladislaus III's reign. The plaque is now in the Collegium Maius, the oldest building of Kraków's Jagiellonian University, itself the second oldest in Central Europe.