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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A gathering of Holocaust survivors and their Polish rescuers in Łódź, Poland

Polish citizens have the world's highest count of individuals awarded medals of "Righteous among the Nations", given by the State of Israel to Gentiles who saved Jews from extermination during the Holocaust. There are 7,232 (as of 1 January 2022) Polish men and women recognized as "Righteous", amounting to over 25 per cent of the total number of 28,217 honorary titles awarded already. It is estimated that in fact hundreds of thousands of Poles concealed and aided hundreds of thousands of their Polish-Jewish neighbors. Many of these initiatives were carried out by individuals, but there also existed organized networks dedicated to aiding Jews—most notably, the Żegota organization. In German-occupied Poland the task of rescuing Jews was especially difficult and dangerous. All household members were punished by death if a Jew was found concealed in their home or on their property. Estimates of the number of Poles who were killed by the Nazis for aiding Jews, among them 704 posthumously honored with medals, go as high as tens of thousands. Notable individuals among the Polish Righteous include Władysław Bartoszewski, Tadeusz Pankiewicz, Irena Sendlerowa and Maria Kotarba. (Full article...)

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Coffin portrait

Credit: anonymous (painting), National Museum in Warsaw (photograph)

Coffin portrait of an unidentified Polish noblewoman wearing a black lace-trimmed dress and a white bonnet adorned with strings of pearls and tufts of black ribbons, dated to the reign of King John Casimir (r. 1648–1668). Realistic portraits of the deceased painted on distinctively hexagonal or octagonal metal sheets, were an important part of the Polish nobility's funerary tradition during the period of Sarmatian Baroque. They were attached to coffins for the duration of the funeral, but removed before the burial and hanged on a wall inside a church.

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... that when confronted with an ethical dilemma, Celestyn Czaplic's (pictured) contemporaries asked themselves, "what would Czaplic think of that?"
... that the Zielony Balonik ("Green Balloon") literary cabaret of Kraków was rumoured to be a place of "orgies, nude dancing and all manner of dissipation"?
... that during a decade of the interbellum, Germany and Poland fought a customs war?
... that the poem "Murzynek Bambo" ("Bambo the Little Negro") by Julian Tuwim has been criticised for its portrayal of black people?
... that before his death in 2011, Tadeusz Sawicz was believed to have been the last surviving Polish pilot to have fought in the Battle of Britain?

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Stefan Czarniecki

Stefan Czarniecki (1599–1665) was a Polish military commander who rose from a petty nobleman to a magnate holding one of the highest offices in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, something that was unprecedented in Polish-Lithuanian history. In 1664 he attained the office of the voivode of Kijów (now Kiev, Ukraine) and in 1665, a few weeks before his death, he became field hetman of the Crown. Czarniecki's major successes came during the Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine, the Russo-Polish War of 1654–67, and the Second Northern War. His use of guerrilla warfare against the Swedes is considered one of the main reasons for the eventual Polish victory in the latter conflict. Czarniecki is regarded as a national hero, his status in Polish history best illustrated by a mention in the national anthem. (Full article...)

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Courtyard of the Lublin Castle

Lublin is the largest city in eastern Poland. Dating back to early Middle Ages, the city played an important role in the nation's history. It was the site of the Lublin Union which established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, and of the Lublin Committee which introduced the communist regime in Poland in 1944; seat of a major yeshiva and the Jewish Council of Four Lands in the 16th–18th centuries, but also of the Majdanek extermination camp during the Holocaust. Its colleges include the Marie Curie University, as well as the Catholic University of Lublin where Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, gave lectures in ethics. Since Lublin's biggest employer, the state-owned truck manufacturer FSC, was acquired by the South Korean Daewoo and then entered bankruptcy in 2001, the city has been struggling to improve its economic performance and standards of living, making it one of the main beneficiaries of EU development funds. (Full article...)

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Poland now

Recent events

Poland at the 2024 Summer Olympics:
- 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.
On 8 June, Polish tennis player Iga Świątek won the 2024 French Open, her fifth Grand Slam singles title.