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

Polish general diet in session in 1622

The General Diet or Sejm (sejm walny) was the parliament of Poland from the 15th until the late 18th century. It was one of the primary elements of the democratic government of the Kingdom of Poland and, later, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From the early 16th century, Polish kings could not pass laws without the Sejm's approval. Duration and frequency of Sejm sessions changed over time, with six-week sessions convened every two years being most common. Locations changed too, but eventually Warsaw emerged as the primary venue. The number of senators and deputies (members) grew over time, from about 70 senators and 50 deputies in the 15th century to about 150 senators and 200 deputies in the 18th. Early diets used majority voting, but beginning in the 17th century, unanimous voting became more common, with the liberum veto procedure significantly paralyzing the country's governance. It is estimated that between 1493 and 1793, 240 general diets were held. (Full article...)

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Silesian Parliament

Credit: Jan Mehlich

The Marble Hall of the Silesian Voivodeship office building in Katowice. Before World War II, the building housed the Silesian Sejm, a local legislature of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship. The interior, designed by Albert Speer under German occupation, is one of few surviving examples of Nazi architecture in Poland.

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... that the Equality Parade (pictured) held annually in Warsaw since 2001, is the oldest pride parade in any former Eastern bloc country?
... that about 3,500 Jews from the Pińsk Ghetto and from nearby Kobryń were murdered at Bronna Góra in June 1942?
... that Florian Znaniecki, a Polish American philosopher and sociologist, coined the terms "culturalism" and "humanistic coefficient"?
... that the Polish Armed Forces in the West contributed one division to Operation Overlord, the largest seaborne invasion in history?

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Maximilian Kolbe

Maximilian Kolbe (Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, 1894–1941) was a Conventual Franciscan friar best known for volunteering to die in place of a fellow inmate at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Born Raymund Kolbe of a Polish mother and an ethnic German father, he joined the Franciscans with his brother in 1907 and professed his final vows in 1914. He studied philosophy and theology in Rome, where he was ordained priest, before returning to Poland in 1919. He was active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate (Niepokalana) Virgin Mary. In 1927, he founded near Warsaw a monastery, known as Niepokalanów, along with a seminary, a radio station, and a publishing house, where he was the editor-in-chief of the monthly Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculate). During the 1930s, he undertook missions to China, Japan and India. Kolbe was accused of expressing anti-Semitic sentiments in his publications, but also known to have sheltered Jews during the Holocaust. He was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1941 and imprisoned at Auschwitz. At the end of July, he volunteered to be starved to death instead of one of ten inmates selected for punishment. He was killed by a lethal injection after spending two weeks in a starvation cell. Kolbe was declared a martyr and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982. (Full article...)

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Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia in Płock

Płock is a town on the Vistula River in the western part of the Masovian Voivodeship. During the reigns of Vladislaus Herman and Boleslaus the Wrymouth in the 10th–11th centuries, Płock was briefly Poland's capital city, and later served as one of the seats of the dukes of Masovia. The town has two cathedrals: the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia (pictured) where Vladislaus and Boleslaus are buried, and the Temple of Mercy and Charity, the principal seat of the Mariavite Church, a native Polish branch of Christianity. Płock is home to Poland's largest oil refinery, owned by PKN Orlen and served by the Druzhba ("Friendship") pipeline linking Russia with Germany. (Full article...)

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Poland now

Recent events

Poland at the 2024 Summer Olympics:
- On 31 July, Poland won a bronze medal in men's quadruple sculls.
- On 30 July, Poland won a bronze medal in women's team épée fencing.
- On 28 July, Klaudia Zwolińska (pictured) won a silver medal in kayak slalom.
On 9 July, Jerzy Stuhr, a prominent theatre and film actor and director, died at the age of 77.
On 9 June, the ruling Civic Coalition won the European Parliament election in Poland.