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

Swiderian tanged points

The Stone Age in what is now Poland lasted about 500,000 years and involved three different human species: Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. Stone Age cultures ranged from early human groups with primitive tools to advanced agricultural societies, which used sophisticated stone tools, built fortified settlements and developed copper metallurgy. As elsewhere in Europe, the Stone Age human cultures went through the stages known as the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, each bringing new refinements of the stone tool making techniques. The Paleolithic human activities were intermittent because of the recurring periods of glaciation. A general climate warming and the resulting increase in ecologic diversity was characteristic of the Mesolithic (9,000-8,000 BCE). The Neolithic brought the first settled agricultural communities whose founders migrated from the Danube River area starting ca. 5,500 BCE. Later the native post-Mesolithic populations also adopted and further developed the agricultural way of life (4,400–2,000 BCE). (Full article...)

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Jan Dekert

Jan Dekert (1738–1790) was one of the most prominent merchants in Warsaw and a political activist advocating more rights for the burghers in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, while opposing Jewish competitors. As the representative of Warsaw, he was elected member of the Sejms of 1784 and 1786, and the Great Sejm of 1788–1892. He was a mayor of Warsaw from 1789 to 1790, in which capacity he organized the Black Procession, a demonstration of burghers who delivered a petition to the king on 2 December 1789. This was a major step towards the adoption of the Free Royal Cities Act enfranchising burghers, one of the reforms of the Great Sejm, which was eventually incorporated into the Constitution of May 3, 1791. (Full article...)

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Medieval port crane in Gdańsk

Gdańsk is Poland's principal seaport located in the Kashubian region on the Baltic Sea. Together with the spa town of Sopot and the industrial city of Gdynia, it forms a conurbation known as Trójmiasto ("Tricity"). It has a complex political history with long spells of Polish rule interspersed with periods of German control and two spells as a free city. As an important port and shipbuilding center, the picturesque city was a member of the Hanseatic League. For much of its history the majority of its inhabitants were German speakers who referred to their city as Danzig, but after World War II it became firmly Polish. Gdańsk is the birthplace of the Solidarity movement which, led by Lech Wałęsa, played a role in bringing down the communist rule across Central Europe. (Full article...)

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Did you know – show different entries

... that the Gorce Mountains (pictured) are home to the brown bear, black stork and fire salamander?
... that many of King Stephen Báthory's captains in the Livonian War had served in Obrona Potoczna ("Current Defense"), a military formation which defended Polish-Lithuanian borders from Tatar raids in the sixteenth century?
... that during the Siege of Zbarazh, the Polish-Lithuanian army withstood assaults of the Cossack and Tatar armies about twenty times its own size?
... that the Krkonoše / Karkonosze Biosphere Reserve (MaB) is one of only two successful UNESCO transboundary management structures in existence?

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Poland now

Recent events

On 18 February, Marian Turski (pictured), 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 EU

Upcoming

Presidential election on 18 May 2025

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

Women's Day (bouquet of roses and carnations pictured), 8 March

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Reconstruction of the polychrome wooden vault of the Gwoździec Synagogue

Credit: Pudelek

The polychrome wooden vault and bimah of the Gwoździec Synagogue, painstakingly reconstructred in 2014, is the centrepiece of the permanent exhibition at the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. The original synagogue, built in ca. 1640 in what is now the Ukrainian town of Hvizdets, was burnt down in 1941 by Nazi German forces.