Portal:Poland

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

An ethnic Polish military band in Karviná welcoming Poland's annexation of Zaolzie in 1938. The banner reads, "We have awaited you for 600 years."

Zaolzie (Czech: Zaolší) is a historical region on the left bank of the Olza River on the Czech–Polish border. Historically part of the Duchy of Teschen (Cieszyn, Těšín), it belonged to Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918. Afterwards, it became a bone of contention between the nascent republics of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The region, inhabited by ethnic Poles, Czechs and Jews, was rich in coal and crossed by a strategic railway linking Czech Silesia with Slovakia. Agreements between local authorities, armed fighting and an ettempted plebiscite proved inconclusive and in 1920 the Council of Ambassadors settled the matter at the Spa Conference by awarding Zaolzie to Czechoslovakia. In 1938, Poland issued an ultimatum to its southern neighbor to withdraw from Zaolzie within 24 hours, and the following day Czechoslovakia complied. Poland annexed the region and became seen as an accomplice in the partition of Czechoslovakia resulting from the Munich Agreement. Zaolzie was annexed by Nazi Germany after the German invasion of Poland a year later and returned to Czechoslovak hands with the end of World War II. Today the area is part of the Czech Republic and home to about 37,000 ethnic Poles. After 2001, several villages in the region have erected bilingual signs in Czech and Polish. (Full article...)

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Florian Znaniecki

Florian Znaniecki (1882–1958) was a Polish philosopher and sociologist who worked in Poland and the United States. Over the course of his career, he moved his focus from philosophy to sociology and is considered a major figure in the history of the latter field of study in both countries. He established the first Polish department of sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he worked from 1920 to 1939. His career in America begun in 1917 at the University of Chicago and continued at Columbia University and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Znaniecki won international renown as co-author, with William I. Thomas, of the study, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, which is considered the foundation of modern empirical sociology. He also made major contributions to sociological theory, introducing such terms as "humanistic coefficient" and "culturalism". (Full article...)

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Bydgoszcz granaries

Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland, straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its left-bank tributary, the Brda. It is the eighth-largest city in Poland and the co-capital, with Toruń, of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. Bydgoszcz is an architecturally rich city, with gothic, neo-gothic, neo-baroque, neoclassicist, modernist and Art Nouveau styles present, for which it has earned the nickname "Little Berlin". The notable granaries on Mill Island and along the riverside belong to one of the most recognized timber-framed landmarks in Poland. (Full article...)

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Did you know – show different entries

... that the PL-01 (pictured) is a new tank design developed in Poland?
... that the Głos magazine was closed during the revolution of 1905 in the Congress Kingdom of Poland?
... that the Treaty of Bytom and Będzin ended the fourteen-month long imprisonment of Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?
... that Irena Jurgielewiczowa, a writer best known for the children's novel Ten obcy ("That Stranger"), was also an underground teacher and a resistance fighter in World War II?

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Poland now

Recent events

On 27 March, Poland suspended the right to claim asylum by people who cross the border from Belarus (border fence pictured).
On 18 February, Marian Turski, a historian, journalist and Holocaust survivor, died at the age of 98.
On 6 December, Stanisław Tym, a prominent comedian and satirist, died at the age of 87.
On 27 October, the discovery of a previously unknown waltz in A minor attributed to Frédéric Chopin, found at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, was announced.

Ongoing

Constitutional crisis • Belarus–EU border crisis • Ukrainian refugee crisis • Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Upcoming

Presidential election on 18 May 2025

Holidays and observances in April 2025
(statutory public holidays in bold)

April Fool's Day, 1 April
Easter (Easter eggs pictured), 20 April
Easter Monday, 21 April

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God the Father – Become! by Stanisław Wyspiański

Credit: Stanisław Wyspiański (stained glass), Jan Mehlich (photograph)

God the Father – Become! is the title of a stained glass window, designed by Stanisław Wyspiański, in St. Francis's Church in Kraków. The medieval Franciscan church was consumed by the great fire of 1850 and then rebuilt in Neo-Gothic style. Decoration of the interior was commissioned to Wyspiański, an Art Nouveau playwright, painter and designer, and a leading artist of the Young Poland movement, who defined the church's character with his floral frescoes and impressive stained glass windows.