I | INTRODUCTION |
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland (Polish
Rzeczpospolita Polska), country in Central Europe. Communists ruled
Poland from 1945 until 1989, when political and economic unrest among Poles
resulted in the collapse of the regime and its replacement by a non-Communist
coalition. Poland’s capital and largest city is Warsaw.
The name Polska (Poland), applied in the
early 11th century, comes from an ancient Slavic tribe known as the
Polanie (field or plains dwellers), who settled in the lowlands between
the Odra (Oder) and Wisła (Vistula) rivers sometime after the fall of the Roman
Empire in the 5th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Poland, then united
with Lithuania, was one of the major European powers under the Jagiellonian
dynasty. When the dynasty came to an end in 1572, Poland entered a long period
of decline, culminating in the partition of the country between Russia, Austria,
and Prussia in 1772, 1793, and 1795.
Poland was again established as a sovereign
state after World War I (1914-1918). It was partitioned a fourth time in 1939 by
Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). After World War II
(1939-1945), Polish territory suffered a substantial net loss, as the land ceded
to the USSR in the east was nearly double that acquired from Germany in the
west.
Since the fall of Communism in Poland in
1989, democratic elections have brought a succession of unstable governments to
power. Poland formally joined the European Union (EU) in 2004.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
Poland has a total land area of 312,684 sq km
(120,728 sq mi). It is bordered on the north by the Baltic Sea and Russia; on
the east by Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine; on the south by the Czech Republic
and Slovakia; and on the west by Germany. The maximum distance from east to west
is about 680 km (about 420 mi) and the maximum distance from north to south is
about 790 km (about 490 mi). Poland’s borders are marked by the Sudety mountains
(Sudetes) in the southwest, the Carpathian Mountains (Karpaty) in the southeast,
the Odra and Neisse (Nysa) rivers in the west, and the Bug River in the east. On
the northeast, the country is bounded by a section of the Baltic Sea.
A | Natural Regions |
Although Poland appears as an unbroken plain
on a relief map, it has considerable diversity and complexity. The average
elevation is only about 175 m (about 575 ft) above sea level, as compared with
the overall European average of about 290 m (about 950 ft), but elevations reach
as high as 2,499 m (8,199 ft) atop Mount Rysy in the High Tatry Mountains in the
south, and as low as about 2 m (about 6 ft) below sea level in the Wisła delta
in the north. Poland is divided into a number of distinct parallel regions that
run from east to west. A marked contrast exists between the northern two-thirds
of the country and the southern one-third.
The northern zone is a vast region of plains
and low hills, divided into the Central Polish Lowlands, the Baltic Heights, and
the Coastal Plain. The Central Lowlands are traversed from east to west by a
series of large, shallow valleys. To the north of the Central Lowlands is the
Baltic Heights region, dotted with hills and lakes. The Coastal Plain consists
of a narrow lowland, about 40 to 100 km (about 25 to 60 mi) wide, that runs
nearly the entire length of the Baltic Sea. The coastline, 491 km (305 mi) long,
is remarkably smooth and regular, the major exceptions being the Pomeranian Bay
in the west and the Gulf of Gdańsk in the east. A few good natural harbors are
located along the Baltic.
The southern one-third of Poland consists of
upland areas of various kinds and adjacent or intervening lowlands. A narrow
belt of mountains occupies the extreme south and southwest. The Carpathian
Mountains, located on Poland’s southeastern border, include the Tatry and Beskid
ranges. The Sudety, another major mountain range, are located on Poland’s
southwestern border. North of the mountains are a zone of foothills, the
Silesian Plain, and the Lesser Polish Uplands.
B | Rivers and Lakes |
Nearly all of Poland is drained into the
Baltic Sea by the Wisła and Odra rivers and their tributaries, which include the
Bug and the Warta. Other rivers include the Neisse, the Nida, and the Bobr.
Poland’s lakes, which number about 9,300, are concentrated in the Baltic Heights
and Coastal Plain regions. Śniardwy and Mamry are the two largest. Poland has
about 120 artificial reservoirs, situated mainly in the Baltic Heights and the
southern mountains.
C | Plant and Animal Life |
Forests cover more than one-fourth of
Poland and are comprised principally of spruce and pine. A few forests in the
northeast contain old and scarce species, such as the dwarf birch and Lapp
willow, which are unique to Poland in Europe. Because Poland’s forests are
dominated by conifers, which are particularly vulnerable to acid rain and other
forms of air pollution, many of them are now extensively damaged. The spruce
forests of the Sudety have been particularly affected by ecological damage. A
large portion of Poland’s forest growth has also been destroyed to create
farmland, and reforestation levels are currently very low. This combination of
factors has made Poland’s forests among the most vulnerable in Europe.
Poland’s wildlife is of limited variety.
Although most species are found in other parts of Europe, Poland is home to a
number of species that are absent or rare elsewhere. Those animals include
chamois, lynx, wildcat, boar, and red deer. Bison, as well as a rare breed of
pony, are preserved in the world-famous Białowieza National Park, which
straddles Poland’s border with Belarus. Wolves and brown bears survive in the
higher mountains, and moose, deer, and mouflon (wild sheep) are fairly numerous
in the lake districts. Grouse, heathcock, and black stork inhabit Poland’s
grain-producing areas, lakes, marshes, and forests. The country’s inland lakes
and streams support sizable numbers of fish, which include salmon, trout, and
carp. More than 100 wildlife species have become extinct or are severely
endangered in Poland. Largely in response to this problem, two new national
parks were established in 1993. Altogether Poland has 23 national parks. The
country also has a number of nature preserves and protected areas.
D | Natural Resources |
Poland’s varied mineral deposits are
concentrated mainly in the southern upland regions and adjacent areas. The most
important mineral resource is hard coal, most of which is located in Upper
Silesia. Poland also has significant deposits of lignite (another variety of
coal), located mainly in the basins surrounding the cities of Turoszów, Konin,
and Bełchatów. Sulfur and copper are the most important of the country’s nonfuel
mineral resources. Some of the world’s largest sulfur deposits are found near
the city of Tarnobrzeg in the southeast, and large reserves of copper are
located in Lower Silesia. Important reserves of zinc and lead are found in Upper
Silesia. Other minerals of economic importance are rock salt, potash, iron ore,
and gypsum. The country has only small reserves of petroleum and natural
gas.
E | Climate |
Poland’s climate has features of both the
moderate climate of western Europe and the more severe climate of eastern
Europe. The climate of the western part may be classified as marine west coast,
and the eastern part as humid continental with cool summers. Weather conditions
are highly variable, particularly in the winter.
In January, average temperatures range from
about -1°C (about 30°F) in the west to about -5°C (about 23°F) in the southern
mountains. In summer, average temperatures decrease in a northwestern direction,
from about 20°C (about 68°F) in the southeast to about 17°C (about 63°F) near
the Baltic. During the year, the warmest temperatures may enter the upper 30°s C
(lower 100°s F), and the lowest may drop into the lower -40°s C (lower -40°s
F).
Annual precipitation in Poland as a whole
averages about 610 mm (about 24 in), ranging from about 1,200 to 1,500 mm (about
47 to 59 in) in the mountains to between 450 and 600 mm (18 to 24 in) in the
lowlands. Summer precipitation is often twice the level of winter
precipitation.
F | Environmental Issues |
Poland, like many other Eastern European
countries, suffered significant environmental damage as a result of the economic
policies of the Communist period (1945-1989), which emphasized the rapid
development of heavy industry. Much of this damage did not become evident until
the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although environmental problems affect most of
the country, the worst damage has been inflicted on the industrial region of
Silesia, in southern Poland.
The country produces most of its energy by
burning imported fossil fuels, particularly coal. Severe air pollution resulting
from the emissions of coal-fired power plants has measurably affected human
health. Up to three-quarters of Poland’s trees show damage from acid rain.
Water pollution is a serious problem
throughout Poland and is caused mainly by industrial and municipal waste and
acid rain. About one-third of the total length of Poland’s rivers and
one-quarter of the country’s lakes are severely polluted. Rivers that are
particularly affected include the Wisła, the Bobr, the Nida, the Wisłoka, and
the Bug. In the early 1990s the overwhelming majority of the country’s river
water was considered undrinkable. The Baltic Sea is also heavily polluted,
mainly by industrial discharges, which severely inhibits the development of its
beaches for tourism.
Serious efforts are being made to purify
sewage and industrial discharges in Poland, but in 1993 more than one-quarter of
the country’s wastewater was still being released untreated into rivers.
Although more than 300 wastewater treatment plants have been built in Poland,
many of the country’s factories and towns still do not have waste purification
facilities.
Other environmental problems in Poland
include deforestation and defoliation resulting from acid rain and other forms
of air pollution, wildlife endangerment and extinction, and soil contamination.
In recent years, preventive measures have been introduced in Poland’s mining and
energy sectors in an effort to decrease pollution levels. These measures include
the adoption of new regulations, heavy fines, and the installation of filtering
and purification equipment. In addition, a number of political parties and
citizen groups have formed around environmental issues. However, public
attitudes toward the environment remain divided in Poland, owing largely to
concerns about job losses and other potential economic consequences of
environmental protection.
III | THE PEOPLE OF POLAND |
A | Population and Settlement |
At the time of the 1988 census Poland had
a population of 37,878,641. The 2008 estimate was 38,500,696, yielding an
average population density of 127 persons per sq km (328 per sq mi). Poland’s
highest population densities are in the southern upland areas; the lowest
densities are in the northwest and northeast. The average annual rate of
population growth was very high in the period following World War II, but after
the 1960s it declined to less than 1 percent, and in 1997 the population was
estimated to be decreasing. Reasons for the decline include high unemployment
and increases in the cost of child rearing. The rate of urbanization in Poland
has accelerated since the end of World War II. In 2005, 62 percent of the
population lived in urban areas.
B | Principal Cities |
At the beginning of the 21st century
there were 42 Polish cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants; of these, 6 had
a population of more than 500,000. The major cities are Warsaw, Poland’s capital
and largest city; Łódź, the center of Poland’s textile industry; Kraków
(Cracow), a cultural and industrial center; Wrocław, a commercial and
transportation hub; Poznań, an industrial center and the site of an annual
international trade fair; Gdańsk, a seaport and shipbuilding center; Szczecin, a
port and industrial city; Bydgoszcz, an inland port and railway junction;
Katowice, a center of mining and industry; and Lublin, a manufacturing hub.
C | Ethnic Groups |
During most of its history, Poland was a
multiethnic society that included substantial numbers of Belarusians,
Ukrainians, Jews, and Germans. However, the territorial changes that resulted
from World War II led to profound changes in the country’s ethnic composition.
As a result of the 1945 Yalta Conference, Poland’s eastern borderlands, which
contained large Ukrainian and Belarusian populations, were ceded to the USSR.
Most of Poland’s German population left East Prussia and the German territories
that were awarded to Poland in the peace settlement and fled westward. The areas
evacuated by these minority groups were resettled by Poles who had been
displaced from the eastern borderlands and others returning from emigration or
combat in the West. Population exchanges and the resettlement of ethnic groups
continued for some time after the war.
Poland now contains relatively little
ethnic diversity. About 98 percent of the country’s inhabitants are ethnic
Poles, and the remainder is comprised mainly of Ukrainians, Belarusians, and
Germans. Much of the Ukrainian population lives in northern Poland, while the
Belarusian minority is concentrated in Białystok Province adjoining the
Belarusian border. Germans are concentrated mainly in the southern region of
Silesia and, to a lesser extent, the northeastern region that was formerly East
Prussia. Smaller communities of Slovaks, Czechs, Lithuanians, and Russians are
also present. Poland’s small Roma (Gypsy) population declined considerably in
the late 1980s, when large numbers of Roma emigrated to Germany.
There are currently more than 10 million
people of Polish origin living in Polish communities abroad. The United States
contains the largest number of ethnic Poles living outside of Poland. Other
countries with sizable Polish communities include Russia and the countries of
the former Soviet Union, Germany, France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and the
United Kingdom.
D | Language |
Polish is the official language of Poland
and is used by nearly all of the population. The language contains a number of
dialects, some of which are intermediate between Polish and German or Ukrainian.
The Polish language is written using the Latin alphabet and includes some
letters that are additional to those used in the English language (see
Polish Language). Some members of ethnic groups speak their own native
languages in addition to Polish.
E | Religion |
Roman Catholicism has played a very
important role in Polish history and serves as a cornerstone of Polish identity.
During the early part of the Communist period, the Polish government tried to
limit the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Religious practices were
restricted, and a number of priests were imprisoned. However, a large number of
Polish Catholics resisted such policies and fought for freedom of religion.
Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński, who served as the primate of Poland from 1948 to
1981, helped to improve relations between the Catholic Church and the Communist
government, and after the 1950s the government discontinued most of its
church-related policies. In 1978 Karol Cardinal Wojtyła, the archbishop of
Kraków, became Pope John Paul II, the first Polish pope. After the collapse of
Communism in 1989, the new government introduced various pro-Catholic policies,
including the right to teach religion in schools and the criminalization of
abortion. In 1993 the church and the Polish government negotiated, but did not
ratify, a new concordat regulating mutual relations.
About 92 percent of Poles are Roman
Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church exerts an important influence on many
aspects of Polish life, and church attendance levels are high, especially in
rural areas. Poland also has nearly 50 non-Catholic churches and other religious
groupings. Of these, eight churches are members of the Polish Ecumenical
Council, which was founded in 1946 to promote cooperation between churches. The
largest churches represented in the council are the Polish Autocephalous
Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Augsburg Church. The number of Jehovah’s
Witnesses in Poland has grown in recent years.
Before World War II there were more than
3 million Jews living in Poland. However, more than 90 percent of them were
killed by the Nazis during the wartime occupation of Poland. Many of those Jews
who survived the Holocaust left Poland and emigrated to Israel or the West. In
the early 1990s there were less than 10,000 Jews remaining in Poland.
F | Education |
When Poland was partitioned and
controlled by foreign powers, which lasted from the late 18th century through
the early part of the 20th century, education was limited to a privileged elite.
After Poland’s independence was restored following World War I, a centralized
educational system was established. This education system went through major
reforms in the 1990s. Today, education occupies an important position in Polish
society, and virtually the entire population aged 15 years or older is able to
read and write.
Education in Poland is free and
compulsory for all children between the ages of 7 and 15, although growing
financial and space constraints sometimes require large classes and double
shifts for students within the school day. On completion of the six-year
elementary school program, children enter middle school, or gymnasium, for three
years. After gymnasium students have the choice of entering a general lyceum,
specialized lyceum, technical secondary school, or basic vocational school.
These secondary schools last from two to four years. All students except those
attending basic vocational school can pursue higher education after graduation.
Graduates of basic vocational school have a choice of entering the workforce or
continuing their education at a complementary lyceum or complementary technical
secondary school.
Poland has a long history of higher
education. Jagiellonian University, established in Kraków in 1364, is the second
oldest university in central Europe after Charles University in the Czech
Republic. In the early 2000s there were more than 100 institutions of higher
education in Poland. Of these, 8 were schools of agriculture, 17 were
universities, 10 were medical schools, 18 were technical universities, 17 were
schools of art and music, and most of the remainder were specialized vocational
colleges. Besides Jagiellonian University, other universities in Poland include
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (founded in 1919), Cardinal Stefan
Wyszyński University (2000) in Warsaw; Catholic University of Lublin (1918);
Marie Curie-Skłodowska University (1944) in Lublin; Nicholas Copernicus
University of Toruń (1945); Opole University (1994); Szczecin University (1985);
University of Białystok (1997); University of Gdańsk (1970); University of Łódź
(1945), University of Rzeszów (2001); University of Silesia (1968) in Katowice;
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (1999); University of Warsaw (1818);
University of Wrocław (founded in 1702, rebuilt in 1945); and University of
Zielona Góra (2001).
G | Way of Life |
Before World War II Poland was largely
agricultural and much of the population lived in rural areas. However, when the
Communists took control of the government in 1945, Poland was transformed into
an industrial nation, and many Poles left their farms and took jobs in the
cities. In rural areas, Polish families often live in small cottages made of
bricks or wood; city dwellers usually live in apartments. Most Poles prefer
Western-style clothing to traditional forms of dress. However, traditional
Polish clothing is sometimes worn in rural areas where the country’s folk
heritage remains strong, and on holidays and other special occasions.
Traditional Polish foods include pierogi (stuffed dumplings);
bigos (sauerkraut and meat); and jellied herring, trout, and carp. Hearty
soups, including beet soup, potato soup, and cabbage soup, are also popular, as
are pork, mushrooms, bread, and dairy products. Beer, vodka, and currant juice
are typical beverages. Many Poles enjoy attending cultural events and visiting
with friends. Soccer is a favorite national sport. Catholicism plays an
important role in the lives of many Poles. Religious holidays and traditions,
including Christmas and Easter, are often observed through family gatherings and
festivals.
H | Social Problems |
With the fall of Communism and its
social-welfare network and system of subsidized food and housing, large sections
of Polish society, especially the elderly, fell into poverty. Beggars and
homeless people became common sights after being virtually nonexistent during
Communist rule. At the same time, the emergence of a market economy produced a
new class of wealthy business people along with a growing amount of consumer
activity. In recent years, a gap has developed between those who have managed to
take advantage of the new economic system and those who have not, creating
social tension in Poland. In general, young people have adjusted better than
older generations. The use of firearms and explosives has soared since 1989.
Violent robberies have registered a fourfold increase since the mid-1980s.
Despite this, the national police force has cut more than 20,000 officers from
its ranks as part of the economic reform process. Although there have been
reported incidents of ethnic violence against Roma and Germans, there are no
ethnic conflicts comparable to those in other former Communist republics.
IV | CULTURE |
The great periods of Western cultural and
intellectual expression are paralleled by the history of Polish creativity. The
Italian Renaissance inspired a great burst of culture in Poland. The Reformation
sped the development of a Polish vernacular literature, and in the 18th and 19th
centuries Poles were greatly influenced by French culture. During the Stalinist
period, which lasted in Poland from 1949 to 1955, artistic freedom was severely
circumscribed by the government. After 1956 Poland’s cultural policies became
generally more liberal.
A | Literature |
Poland has attained its highest artistic
recognition in the field of literature. The greatest literary period is
generally regarded as the romantic period of the 19th century, the chief figures
being Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Zygmunt Krasiński, and Cyprian Kamil
Norwid. Romanticism in drama and poetry was followed by realism, most notably in
the novels of Bolesław Prus, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and Władysław Stanisław
Reymont. Stanisław Wyspiański is regarded as the founder of modern Polish drama.
Among the many prominent figures after 1945 were Jerzy Andrzejewski, Tadeusz
Różewicz, Stanisław Lem, Leon Kruczkowski, and Zbigniew Załuski. The émigré
Polish poet Czesław Miłosz received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1980. The
1996 Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to poet Wisława Szymborska, the fifth
Polish-born writer to receive the prize. See Polish Literature.
B | Music and Dance |
Poland has a long tradition of folk music
and dance. Although the country was heavily affected by the large-scale
migration to urban areas that took place following World War II, Poland’s folk
traditions still exist today, and are displayed for audiences by the well-known
Mazowsze and Ślsk ensembles.
The best-known Polish composer is
Frédéric Chopin (Polish Fryderyk Chopin), a pianist of the romantic school of
music who lived during the first half of the 19th century. Chopin, who died at a
young age, spent much of his life in France. However, he remained deeply loyal
to Poland and many of his compositions were based on traditional Polish folk
music and dances, such as the mazurka and the polonaise. The early 20th century
composer Karol Szymanowski is regarded as the most important figure in Polish
music after Chopin. Szymanowski is known for bringing together elements of
Poland’s folk tradition and European musical styles. After World War II ended in
1945, a school of music emphasizing avant-garde elements developed in Poland.
Krzysztof Penderecki was a well-known composer of this school. Important Polish
musicians include the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska and the pianist Ignace Jan
Paderewski.
C | Art and Cinema |
In painting, Polish artists have been
mainly influenced by various Western movements and trends, although in the 20th
century traditional peasant art has exerted some influence. Important works
include Jan Matejko’s portrayals of scenes of Polish history. Poland’s folk arts
and crafts range from pottery, fabrics, and embroidery, to sculpture, graphics,
and painting.
Since 1950 a number of Polish filmmakers
have achieved international renown. Krzysztof Kieślowski, a leading filmmaker in
Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, achieved fame for his social
documentaries and for his fictional films dealing with morality. Andrzej Wajda
has chronicled political and social developments in Poland since World War II.
In 2000 he received an honorary Academy Award for his many contributions to
cinema. The filmmaker Roman Polanski, who headed to Hollywood in the late 1960s,
returned to Poland to film The Pianist (2002). The film, which tells the
story of a young musician who lived through the Nazi occupation of Warsaw,
earned Polanski his first Academy Award for best director.
D | Libraries and Museums |
Poland has many museums, some of the most
notable of which are the National Museum (founded in 1862), the Museum of
Technology (1875), and the State Archaeological Museum (1923), all in Warsaw;
the National Museum (1879) and the Wawel Royal Castle, both in Kraków; the
Archaeological and Ethnographical Museum (1956), in Łódź; the Polish Maritime
Museum (1960), in Gdańsk; and the Upper Silesian Museum (1927), in Katowice.
Major libraries include the National Library (1928) and the main branch of the
Public Library (1907), both located in Warsaw, as well as several university
libraries.
V | ECONOMY |
Before World War II, Poland’s economy
depended largely on agriculture. However, the Communists, who had achieved a
monopoly on power by 1947, adopted a Soviet-style planned economy in which heavy
industry and engineering were emphasized. Nearly all branches of large industry,
trade, transportation, and finance came under the control of the Communist
government. Private ownership was limited to agriculture, handicrafts, and
certain services. During the first several decades of the Communist period,
Poland’s economy grew. However, in the late 1970s the country began to
experience severe economic difficulties, caused by a series of poor harvests,
unrest among industrial workers, shortages of consumer goods, lagging
technology, rising inflation, and a massive foreign debt. These economic
problems, which worsened during the 1980s, were responsible in large part for
the collapse of the Communist regime and its replacement by a non-Communist
coalition in 1989.
In December 1989 the new government, led by
members of the labor union Solidarity (Solidarność), launched a reform
program designed to transform Poland’s economy into one based on a free-market
system. Price controls were lifted, while wage controls were imposed. State
enterprises were transformed into joint-stock companies, and many were scheduled
for eventual privatization or purchased by foreign investors. The restructuring
of the Polish economy led to massive layoffs of workers and a rapid rise in
unemployment. Poland’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined sharply in 1990 and
1991.
After its initial decline, Poland’s economy
began to improve. Annual GDP increased between 1992 and 2006, when it reached
$339 billion. Industrial production increased by about 12 percent in 1994,
which, accompanied by a 2 percent drop in unemployment, represented a major
increase in labor productivity. Inflation remained above government goals but
steadily declined, with an annual rate of 30 percent in 1994 dropping to 18.5
percent in 1996. Although hundreds of enterprises were transferred to private
ownership during 1994 and 1995, the pace of privatization was generally slow;
the private sector’s share of GDP remained at about 60 percent in 1995 and 1996.
However, a new constitution adopted in May 1997 committed the country to
pursuing a market economy and further privatization. In the early and mid-1990s
Poland’s foreign debt was significantly alleviated by concessions from
creditors, which helped to attract increasing levels of foreign investment.
Poland is a member of a number of
international economic organizations, including the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank),
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD). The country also belongs to the Central European Initiative,
a group promoting regional economic and political cooperation. Poland became an
associate member of the European Union (EU) in 1994, and in 1997 it was invited
to become a full member. Polish voters approved a referendum to join the EU in
June 2003, and Poland formally joined the organization in May 2004.
A | Labor |
The total active labor force in Poland
numbers 17.2 million people. Approximately 29 percent of workers are employed in
industry, including manufacturing, mining, and construction; 17 percent are
employed in agriculture and forestry; and the rest are employed mainly in
services, including transportation and trade. Unemployment increased very
rapidly during the early 1990s, peaking at about 18 percent; by 2005 the
unemployment rate had dropped to 17.7 percent.
Before 1980 all labor unions in Poland
belonged to the state-sponsored Central Council of Trade Unions. In 1980 about
85 percent of Polish workers joined free trade unions affiliated with the
Solidarity movement. In May 1981 private farmers were authorized to organize an
independent labor organization called Rural Solidarity. Both organizations were
dissolved when Poland was placed under martial law in December 1981 and did not
become legal again until April 1989. During the 1980s the regime of General
Wojciech Jaruzelski organized the All-Poland Trade Unions Alliance (OPZZ). This
organization now supports the Social Democratic Party and is stronger in
membership than Solidarity, which gained 5 percent of the vote in the 1991
elections but failed to qualify in the 1993 elections. In the early 1990s
Solidarity’s leaders were torn between their political responsibilities and the
need to support workers in order to compete with the OPZZ.
B | Agriculture |
Although Poland ranks as one of Europe’s
leading agricultural nations, it is continually unable to meet its needs for
food and feed grains. The attempt by the Communist government to collectivize
Poland’s agricultural sector was abandoned in 1956. Small privately owned family
farms now account for more than 70 percent of farmland in Poland.
The largest area of cultivated land is
found in the Central Lowlands, but much of the best farmland is located in the
low plateaus and foothills of southern Poland. Climate limits the range of crops
that can be grown, and periodic drought causes considerable fluctuations in
annual output. Polish farmers generally achieve low yields compared with farmers
in other Eastern European countries because of their small and often irregularly
shaped plots and low earnings, which limit investment in equipment and
fertilizer. The principal Polish crops are grains (including rye, wheat, barley,
and oats), sugar beets, potatoes and other vegetables, apples, strawberries,
currants, rapeseed, and tobacco. Large numbers of cattle, pigs, sheep, and
poultry are raised on Poland’s farms, and livestock products include meat, eggs,
milk, butter, cheese, and wool.
C | Forestry |
Forests covered 29 percent of Poland’s land
area in 2005, slightly below the European average. State forests account for
more than three-fourths of the forest area, and some sections are slated for
privatization along with the wood-processing industry. Principal forest products
include timber, fiber mass, paper, and cellulose. Poland exports significant
quantities of wood products, mainly pulpwood, to the countries of Scandinavia,
Austria, Germany, and other countries.
D | Fishing |
After 1960 the bulk of Poland’s maritime
fishing activities moved from the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and then to
the Sea of Okhotsk, which now supplies almost three-quarters of the country’s
fish. Freshwater fishing is concentrated in the numerous lakes of northern
Poland. In 2005 Poland’s catch totaled 192,900 metric tons. Annual landings
usually consist principally of Alaska pollock, herring, European sprat, squid,
cod, and carp. The major fishing ports are Świnoujście, Kołobrzeg, Darłowo,
Ustka, Władysławowo, Puck, and Hel. Most of Poland’s fish is processed by
private enterprises, though a small number of state and cooperative enterprises
are also in operation. About 12 percent of the country’s fish catch is
exported.
Between 1980 and 1993 the annual catch
declined substantially, due largely to the pollution of Poland’s lakes, which
has caused freshwater fish populations to diminish rapidly. Another problem
facing Poland’s fishing industry is the need to secure access to new fishing
areas as old ones become depleted or protected by quotas.
E | Mining |
Poland’s mining sector has declined
considerably since Communism ended in 1989, due in large part to a decrease in
domestic demand and the reduction of government subsidies. This has resulted in
large numbers of layoffs among miners. Coal (including hard coal and lignite) is
Poland’s principal mineral product. The country ranks among the world’s leading
producers of hard coal, although production has decreased significantly in the
1990s. With assistance from the World Bank, Poland has made efforts to
restructure and modernize its coal-mining sector in accordance with strict
environmental regulations. The country’s underground coal mines, most of which
are located in Upper Silesia, have been grouped into a number of companies with
the goal of eventual privatization. Poland is also a leading producer of sulfur.
Other important mineral products include copper, lead, zinc, magnesite, and rock
salt.
F | Manufacturing |
After the Communists came to power,
Poland’s manufacturing base was expanded and placed largely under governmental
control. Heavy industries, including machinery and iron and steel, were
particularly emphasized. When the Solidarity-led government took over in 1989,
it adopted a program to return many of Poland’s industries to private ownership.
Under the Communists, economic investment was concentrated largely in Upper
Silesia, Warsaw, Łódź, and Kraków; however, recent policies have encouraged a
broader regional distribution of industry to include smaller cities and rural
areas. In the mid-1990s Poland’s chief manufactures included machines, iron and
steel, cement, chemicals, ships, food products, textiles, and automobiles.
G | Energy |
The bulk of Poland’s electricity is derived
from coal, with 1 percent generated by hydroelectric facilities. After 1990
Poland’s energy sector was restructured into more than 100 companies in which
the state held a controlling interest and was subjected to strict environmental
regulations, especially ones concerning sulfur dioxide emissions. Wholesale
privatization of the energy sector is being considered, as are proposals to
lessen Poland’s dependence on coal, which is particularly harmful to the
environment, by encouraging the use of other energy sources, such as oil and
gas. Due to its limited reserves, nearly all of Poland’s oil has to be imported.
Most is imported by sea from the Persian Gulf, North Africa, Norway, and the
United Kingdom. The rest comes from the former Soviet Union through the
Friendship Pipeline, which originates in Russia and runs through Belarus to the
Płock petrochemical refinery, in central Poland.
H | Tourism |
The annual number of visitors to Poland has
increased rapidly since 1990. In 2006 there were 16 million visitors in Poland.
This doesn’t include the many Germans, Czechs, and Slovaks who make day trips to
Poland for shopping, business, or family visits. The countries of the former
Soviet Union also accounted for a large percentage of Poland’s foreign
tourists.
The major tourist attractions in Poland
are the resorts along the Baltic Sea, the lake district south of the coast, the
Karpaty and Sudety mountains, and the country’s numerous historic sites and
cultural institutions.
I | Foreign Trade |
During the Communist period Poland’s
foreign trade was conducted mainly with other Communist states, notably the
Soviet Union, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Trade with Western countries
such as West Germany, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy
grew to substantial proportions but remained much less than the former. After
the fall of Communism, Poland began to expand its contacts with Western
nations.
In the mid-1990s Poland’s imports included
machinery, fuels and electrical power, chemicals, and food products. Exports
included machinery, metals, chemicals, fuels and electrical power, and food
products. Poland’s main suppliers of imports were Germany, Italy, Russia, the
United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and France. The leading purchasers of exports
were Germany, Russia, France, Italy, the United States, and The
Netherlands.
J | Currency and Banking |
The złoty, divided into 100
groszy, is the basic unit of currency in Poland. As a result of Poland’s
extremely high inflation rate in the early 1990s, the exchange rate for the
złoty peaked at about 24,000 to the U.S.$1 in 1994. In January 1995 a sweeping
currency reform replaced 10,000 old złoties with one new złoty. The exchange
rate in 2006 averaged 3.10 złoties to the U.S.$1.
The National Bank of Poland (founded in
1945) serves as the country’s central bank. Other important banks include the
Bank of Food Economy and the Export Development Bank. A large number of private
banks were also established after Communism collapsed, some of which have since
failed or been involved in corruption scandals. Many foreign banks have
established branches in Poland as well. Of the more than 1,700 banks operating
in Poland in the mid-1990s, about 100 had several branches throughout the
country while the bulk were small regional or specialized cooperative banks. A
stock exchange was established in Warsaw in 1991.
K | Transportation |
After the collapse of Communism in 1989,
Polish authorities began making plans to modernize the country’s transportation
network. Though a number of such projects are underway, others have been limited
by lack of funding.
Poland has a relatively dense rail network
that links most cities and towns; the network consists of 19,599 km (12,178 mi)
of track. In the 1980s the government began to modernize portions of railroad
track located along key routes. In the mid-1990s a major upgrading of two
international and two domestic rail lines began, as did the construction of a
new rail line linking Warsaw with Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Many of Poland’s hard-surfaced public
roads are in poor condition due to maintenance reductions. The number of motor
vehicles in Poland has increased considerably since the late 1980s. A massive
increase in the number of gas, garage, and refreshment facilities is likely to
occur in the coming years, as fuel and other transportation-related industries
are transferred to private ownership.
Poland has nearly 4,000 km (2,485 mi) of
navigable inland waterway. The country’s main rivers are connected by 1,215 km
(755 mi) of canals to the inland ports of Gliwice, Wrocław, and Warsaw. The
principal seaports are located at Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Szczecin. Poland’s main
airport is in Warsaw; additional airports are located in a number of other
cities.
L | Communications |
In 1946 Poland’s mass media were
nationalized and made subject to supervision by the Communist government. This
lasted until 1989, when the country’s new democratic government abolished
censorship and eliminated subsidies to the Communist press. In 2004 Poland had
42 daily newspapers with a total circulation of 3.9 million. Gazeta
Wyborcza (Electoral News), which was founded in Warsaw in 1989, is Poland’s
largest and most respected daily newspaper. There are about 3,100 periodicals
published in Poland. Many of the dominant publications of the Communist period
have either collapsed or become less important.
In 1992 legislation was passed by
parliament ending the Polish government’s monopoly over television and radio
broadcasting. Poland now has 16 regional radio stations and 10 regional
television stations; however, most radio and television programming still
originates in Warsaw. In 1997 there were 522 radios and 401 television sets for
every 1,000 Poles. Videocassettes and cable television have both gained in
popularity. Although new telephone exchanges have increased the number of
telephone lines in Poland, there is still a chronic shortage, especially in
rural areas.
VI | GOVERNMENT |
Communist Poland was governed under a
constitution adopted in 1952 and subsequently amended. In December 1989 major
constitutional revisions ended the monopoly of the Communist Party, established
an upper chamber in the legislature, and reintroduced democratic rules and
principles in Poland. In 1992 a transitional constitution known as the “Little
Constitution” was adopted. However, this constitution established imprecise
limits on the power of Poland’s president, prime minister, and legislature,
which led to some confrontation between those officeholders, particularly
regarding foreign policy and defense. A full revision of the constitution was
initiated in November 1992. The final draft was completed in April 1997 and
approved by voters in a nationwide referendum the following month. Among its
numerous provisions, the new constitution clarifies the division of powers
within the branches of government, while shifting some power away from the
president. The president’s veto, for example, may be overridden by a
three-fifths majority in the legislature, rather than the two-thirds previously
required.
A | Executive |
Under the Communist regime, a unicameral
legislature elected the head of state. In 1989 general elections were held for a
new bicameral legislature, and the two houses elected Wojciech Jaruzelski as
president of the republic. In December 1990 Poland held its first direct
presidential elections since the interwar period (1918-1939), electing
labor-activist Lech Wałęsa.
The Polish president is directly elected
for a maximum of two five-year terms. As head of state, he or she is the highest
representative of the country in domestic and international affairs and the head
of the armed forces. Under certain circumstances the president also has the
power to dissolve the legislature and call for new elections.
The prime minister of Poland serves as
head of government. The prime minister is appointed by the president with the
approval of the lower house of the legislature and is typically a leader of the
majority party or coalition. The prime minister heads the Council of Ministers,
which is responsible for carrying out the decisions of the legislature. Other
ministers within the council head various government departments. Council
members other than the prime minister are appointed by the legislature and are
responsible to that body.
B | Legislature |
The national legislature of Poland is
comprised of two chambers, the Sejm, or lower house, and the
Senat, or upper house. The Sejm consists of 460 members who are elected
for four-year terms according to a system of proportional representation. The
Senat was reestablished in 1989 after having been abolished by the Communists in
1947. Its 100 members are also elected for four-year terms.
In the general elections of June 1989, 65
percent of the seats in the Sejm were reserved for the Communist Party and its
allies, the United Peasant Party and the Democratic Party, and 35 percent were
reserved for the opposition, led by Solidarity. In September 1991 free
legislative elections were held in Poland, in which all seats in parliament were
contested and none were reserved for members of any specific party. Since the
general elections held in 1993, minimum requirements are placed on parties
seeking representation in parliament. To gain seats, single parties need at
least 5 percent of the vote, and coalitions need at least 8 percent. All Polish
citizens aged 18 and older are eligible to vote.
C | Judiciary |
The Supreme Court is Poland’s highest
court of appeal and is responsible for supervising all lower courts. The court
is organized into four chambers: criminal, civil, labor and social insurance,
and administration. Its more than 100 members are appointed for life terms by
the president from a list prepared by the independent National Council of the
Judiciary. The presiding officer of the Supreme Court, called the first
president, is appointed from among the court justices by the Sejm upon the
recommendation of the country’s president. Poland’s judicial system also
includes the Supreme Administrative Court, and a number of provincial, district,
and special courts.
The State Tribunal and the Constitutional
Tribunal were both established by the Jaruzelski regime in 1982. The
Constitutional Tribunal pronounces judgment on the constitutionality of laws and
regulations, while the State Tribunal pronounces judgment on the guilt or
innocence of high government officials charged with violating the constitution
and laws. Selected by the Sejm for four-year terms, the members of both
tribunals are independent and bound only by the law.
D | Political Parties |
The Polish United Workers’ Party, also
known as the Communist Party, was the leading political force in Poland from
1948 until 1989, when it yielded power to a Solidarity-led government. In early
1990 the Communist Party reestablished itself as the new Social-Democracy of the
Polish Republic (SdRP). Around that time, conflicts developed among the leaders
of Solidarity, and by mid-1990 the movement had splintered into factions. Dozens
of small parties and groups also emerged in Poland after 1989 and many achieved
representation in the government. In an effort to simplify the party system, in
1993 the Polish government established a minimum electoral threshold for
representation in parliament.
Several parties and political coalitions
became important after 1993. These included the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD),
a leftist coalition that included the SdRP; and Solidarity Electoral Action
(AWS), an alliance of Roman Catholic, centrist, populist, and right-wing
parties. Also important were the centrist agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL;
also known as the Polish Peasants’ Party) and the pro-business Freedom Union
(UW).
In the 2001 general election the
Solidarity-led AWS collapsed after it failed to win any seats. Several new
parties on the right emerged to supplant the AWS. They included Civic Platform
(PO; also known as the Citizens’ Platform), a pro-business party formed by
Solidarity defectors; the right-wing, anticorruption Law and Justice Party; the
Self-Defense Party, a populist agrarian party; and the nationalist League of
Polish Families.
Following the 2005 general election, the
Law and Justice Party formed a ruling coalition with the League of Polish
Families, the Polish People’s Party, and the Self-Defense Party. Civic Platform
and the Democratic Left Alliance formed the opposition. Following early
legislative elections in 2007, power shifted to a Civic Platform-led coalition
with the Polish People’s Party. No government had been reelected in Poland since
the fall of Communism in 1989.
E | Local Government |
Poland’s first democratic local elections
since the interwar period were held in 1990; subsequent elections were held in
1994 and 1998. Poland is administered locally through a system of provinces
(województwa). The provinces are divided into counties (powiaty),
which are subdivided into towns and communes (gminy). Local governors and
provincial assemblies administer the local districts. Members of the provincial
assemblies are chosen by popularly elected councils that represent the towns and
communes. Both the provincial and community levels of government enjoy far
greater autonomy than they did under the highly centralized Communist
system.
F | Social Services |
Communist Poland had an extensive system
of social welfare funded from the national budget. Both health care and social
security benefits were free and comprehensive. After 1989 this sector underwent
substantial restructuring and decentralization. Poles now have to pay much more
directly for health care and other welfare provisions.
Private general medicine has increased in
recent years, as has the practice of charging fees for medical care in
hospitals. Most Polish pharmacies are now privately owned. Social security
benefits are funded in part by a payroll tax and in part from the state budget.
Benefits provided to Polish citizens include pensions, disability payments,
child allowances, survivor benefits, maternity benefits, funeral subsidies,
sickness compensation, and alimony payments. Unemployment benefits were expanded
in the first years after Communism ended in response to the large increase in
the unemployment rate, but laws passed in the early 1990s drastically reduced
the scope of the unemployment program.
G | Defense |
The Polish armed forces were cut
drastically after the fall of Communism in the late 1980s. In 2004 Polish
military forces included an army of about 89,000 troops, a navy of 14,300, and
an air force of 30,000. Military service is compulsory for all men for a period
of 18 months, but deferments are granted on various grounds. The last contingent
of Russian combat troops—remnants of a Soviet force that had been stationed on
Polish soil for decades—withdrew from the country in 1993. In 2003 Poland
participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, sending about 200 Polish soldiers
as part of the invasion force. See also U.S.-Iraq War.
H | International Organizations |
Poland is a member of the United Nations
(UN), the Council of Europe (CE), the Central European Initiative, and the
European Union. In March 1999 Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) as one of three formerly Communist nations chosen to become
part of the Western military alliance.
VII | HISTORY |
Little is known regarding the early
activities of the Slavic tribes that laid the foundations of the Polish nation.
According to some experts, a number of these tribes united, about ad 840, under a legendary king known as
Piast, but Poland does not begin to figure in European history until the reign
of Mieszko, reputedly a descendant of Piast, which lasted from 962 to 992.
A | The Piast Dynasty |
Mieszko converted the Poles to
Christianity in order to compete better with the crusading and marauding
Germans. During the reign (992-1025) of his son, Bolesław I, the Christian
church was firmly established in Poland. Bolesław also conducted successful wars
against Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and considerably expanded the Polish domain.
He was crowned king by the pope in 1025. At his death, Poland extended beyond
the Karpaty Mountains (Carpathian Mountains) and the Odra and Dniester
rivers.
During the next three centuries Poland
met with repeated misfortunes from internal disorder and foreign invasions. In
1079 Bolesław II had the bishop of Kraków murdered and Poland was placed under a
papal interdict. Bolesław III, who reigned from 1102 to 1138, conquered the
region of Pomerania, defeated the pagan Prussians, and defended Silesia against
Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. On the death of Bolesław III Poland was divided
among his sons, and the kingdom subsequently disintegrated into a number of
independent warring principalities.
In 1240 and 1241 the Mongols invaded and
ravaged Poland. Meanwhile, the neighboring Baltic dominions of the Prussians had
been subjugated by the Teutonic Knights, and German colonists, encouraged by the
Polish princes, began to settle in the country. During the period of German
colonization, large numbers of Jews, in flight from persecution in western
Europe, took refuge in Polish territory.
Władysław I of the Piast dynasty was
crowned king of Poland in 1320. From 1305 to 1333, defeats were inflicted on the
Teutonic Knights, and the kingdom was reunited. The power and prosperity of
Poland increased tremendously during the reign of Władysław’s son Kazimierz III,
also called The Great, which lasted from 1333 to 1370. Kazimierz was one of the
most enlightened rulers in Polish history and the last of the Piast dynasty. He
initiated important administrative, judicial, and legislative reforms, founded
the Jagiellonian University in 1364, extended aid to the Jewish refugees from
western Europe, and added Galicia to the Polish domains.
B | The Jagiellonian Dynasty |
The second dynasty of Polish kings, the
Jagiellonians, was founded by Jagiełło, grand duke of Lithuania. In 1386
Jagiełło married Jadwiga, queen of Poland, a grand niece of Kazimierz III, and
ascended the throne as Władysław II Jagiełło. Roman Catholicism was introduced
into Lithuania, a predominantly pagan country, by Władysław, who was converted
on his accession. In 1410 Polish and Lithuanian armies under Władysław won a
decisive victory at Grünwald over the Teutonic Knights, thereby raising Poland
to a leading position among European nations. Thereafter, until 1569, a single
sovereign usually ruled both states.
Under the Jagiellonian dynasty, which
lasted until 1572, Poland attained great heights of power, prosperity, and
cultural magnificence. Kazimierz IV, who ruled from 1447 to 1492, conducted a
protracted and successful war (1454-1466) against the Teutonic Knights. In 1466,
by terms of the Peace of Toruń, which terminated the conflict, he secured West
Prussia, Pomerania, and other territories. The landed gentry and lesser nobility
acquired extensive privileges during Kazimierz’s reign, mainly at the expense of
the peasantry. The Sejm, a parliamentary body that evolved out of earlier
assemblies of nobles and other social groups, began to assume greater
importance. The succeeding Jagiellonian kings, notably Zygmunt I, were generally
victorious in the military and diplomatic struggles of the period, despite some
setbacks in the east. In 1569 Zygmunt II Augustus united the two realms of
Poland and Lithuania. The country was officially termed the Commonwealth
(Rzeczpospolita). Protestantism, which made many converts among the
nobility in the middle years of the 16th century, ceased to be significant after
1600.
With the death of Zygmunt II Augustus,
last of the Jagiellonians, in 1572, the Polish nobility and gentry
(Szlachta) successfully concluded a prolonged campaign for complete
control of the country. A regime of elected kings was instituted with the power
of election vested in the Sejm, then a bicameral body consisting of the lesser
and greater nobility. One important aspect of this system was to be the
liberum veto, which made it possible for any member of the Sejm to
prevent the passage of legislation. The constitution also sanctioned the
formation of military confederations of nobles.
C | Wars and Polish Decline |
For two centuries after these
developments, the political, economic, and military position of Poland
deteriorated. Successive and generally disastrous wars with Sweden, Russia, the
Ukrainian Cossacks, Brandenburg, and the Ottomans led to the loss of important
Polish territories and the devastation of much of Poland. In 1683 Polish and
German armies under the command of Jan III Sobieski defeated a vast Ottoman army
at the gates of Vienna, halting a serious threat to Christendom in central
Europe, but his victory was unable to halt Poland’s decline.
Early in the 18th century the Russian
Empire opened a systematic offensive against declining Poland. Supplementing
military force with bribery and intrigue, the Russian rulers gradually reduced
neighboring Poland to impotence. Widespread political corruption among the
Polish nobility accelerated the drift toward national catastrophe. Through
shameless bribery of a faction of the Sejm and armed Russian intervention,
Frederick Augustus II, elector of Saxony, was placed on the throne of Poland in
1733 as Augustus III. These events brought on the conflict known in history as
the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1735). Although sections of the Polish
nobility subsequently united around a program of national salvation, Poland was
unable to withstand the next Russian onslaught. In 1764 Russian troops entered
Poland and forced the enthronement of Stanisław II Augustus, a paramour of
Catherine the Great, empress of Russia.
D | Partitions of Poland |
Russian expansionism, as exemplified by
these events, caused profound alarm among the European powers. The Ottomans
immediately declared war on Russia. Prussia and Austria, fearful of a general
European conflict and coveting Polish territory, submitted a proposal to the
Russian government for the partition of Poland.
D1 | The First Partition and the Polish Commonwealth |
The Russian government agreed, and in
1772 the treaty of partition was concluded in Saint Petersburg, Russia. By the
terms of this document, Russia, Austria, and Prussia acquired large portions of
Polish territory, amounting to about one-quarter of the total area of the
country. A constitution, which established safeguards against Polish resurgence,
was also imposed on the nation by the partitioning powers. Consent of the Sejm
to the treaty was obtained largely by bribery.
Despite the political restrictions
surrounding the Commonwealth, Poland progressed in several domestic fields in
the decade following the first partition. The national education system was
secularized and completely modernized. A movement for constitutional reform also
developed during this period, but the Polish nobility frustrated effective
action. Relations between Russia and Prussia deteriorated rapidly after 1786.
With encouragement from Prussia, Polish patriots in the Sejm instituted sweeping
governmental reforms in 1788 and began the draft of a new constitution. A
document proclaiming Poland a hereditary monarchy and strengthening and
liberalizing the government was adopted, in the face of violent opposition from
a section of the gentry, on May 3, 1791.
D2 | The Second and Third Partitions |
Shortly afterward the leaders of the
disgruntled nobility and Catherine the Great reached a secret agreement
providing for the restoration of the old order. The Polish conspirators
organized the Confederacy of Targowica in May 1792. Supported by Russian troops,
this organization immediately began military operations against Poland. The
Polish army, led by Prince Józef Poniatowski, resisted for more than three
months, but the government, abandoned by Prussia and confronted by overwhelming
odds, soon capitulated. Russian armies occupied all of eastern Poland, and early
the following year the Prussians occupied the western portion of the country.
These territorial seizures, which further reduced the area of Poland by
two-thirds, were formally sanctioned in a second territorial partition, ratified
in September 1793.
In 1794 the Poles embarked on a
revolutionary war for the recovery of their lost territories. Under the
leadership of Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had fought in the American Revolution
(1775-1783) and who assumed dictatorial powers, the hastily formed Polish armies
won a series of victories over the Russians, notably at Racławice. By the summer
of 1794 large sections of Russian-occupied Poland had been liberated and the
Russians had suffered a humiliating defeat at Warsaw. A variety of factors,
however, including dissension among the Polish high command, the overwhelming
numerical superiority of the Russians, and Prussian and Austrian intervention,
rendered the Polish cause hopeless.
In October 1794 the Russians won a
decisive victory at Maciejowice. Russian forces under Field Marshal Aleksandr
Suvorov entered Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, in November and massacred much of the
population. Warsaw then surrendered, and the remnants of the revolutionary
armies surrendered within a few weeks. After settling sharp differences on
division of the spoils, the victorious powers concluded treaties between 1795
and 1797 on the third partition of Poland. By the terms of the treaties, the
Russian Empire received about half of the remaining Polish territory, and
Prussia and Austria each received about a quarter. With these events, the Polish
state disappeared from the map of Europe.
E | Poland Under Foreign Rule |
The Polish people remained under the yoke
of foreign masters for nearly 125 years after the third partition. During the
Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), the French Emperor Napoleon I, who had promised to
reestablish Poland, obtained substantial help from the Poles, thousands of whom
served in his armies. In 1807, by the provisions of the Treaty of Tilsit, he
created the duchy of Warsaw, consisting originally of the territory taken by
Prussia in 1793 and 1795. Two years later Napoleon forced Austria to cede
Western Galicia to the duchy. Aside from granting the state a liberal
constitution, Napoleon did little else for the Poles who enthusiastically
supported his campaign against Russia in 1812.
In 1815 the Congress of Vienna, which
drafted the general European peace settlement after Napoleon’s downfall, created
the Kingdom of Poland (also called the Congress Kingdom of Poland), consisting
of about three-quarters of the territory of the former duchy of Warsaw, with the
Russian emperor as king; established Kraków as a city republic; and distributed
the remainder of Poland between Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Alexander I,
emperor of Russia, granted the new kingdom a liberal constitution in 1815, but
Polish nationalists soon initiated a powerful movement for independence. On
November 29, 1830, this movement culminated in the outbreak of armed
insurrection. The Poles expelled the imperial authorities and in January 1831
proclaimed their independence. In the ensuing war, the Poles kept the Russians
at bay for several months. However, the Russians won an important victory at
Ostrołka in May 1831 and took Warsaw in September.
The constitution, the Sejm, and the
Polish army were abolished in the aftermath of the rebellion. The Poles were
deprived of civil liberties, their country was robbed of literary and art
treasures, and severe measures were taken to Russianize public institutions and
administration. Other abortive insurrections and nationalist demonstrations
occurred in various parts of Poland in 1846, 1848, 1861, and most notably in
1863. After the insurrection of 1863 the Russian Empire, intensifying its
program for the Russification of the Polish lands under its rule, introduced the
Russian language in the schools, restricted the use of the Polish language, and
interfered with the activities of the Roman Catholic Church. Culturally,
politically, and economically, the parts of Poland under Russian rule were
transformed into mere provinces of the Russian Empire, losing almost all
vestiges of their former autonomy. The Poles in Prussian Poland were subjected
to a policy of Germanization (although not as severe as in the Russian zone);
Poles in Austrian Poland were treated more liberally, and they developed their
own leaders and political life.
F | Independence |
Conscripted into the armies of Russia and
the Central Powers, Poles fought against Poles in World War I (1914-1918). After
the downfall of the Russian Empire in March 1917, the provisional government of
Russia recognized Poland’s right to self-determination. A provisional Polish
government was subsequently formed in Paris, France. In September 1917 the
Germans, then in complete control of the country, created a regency council as
the supreme governmental authority of the so-called Polish kingdom. With the
collapse of the Central Powers in the fall of 1918, the Poles moved swiftly
toward statehood. In November Poland was proclaimed an independent republic, and
Józef Piłsudski became the temporary head of state.
G | The Post-World War I Period |
The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June
1919, granted Poland a narrow belt of territory (the so-called Polish corridor)
extending along the Wisła River to the Baltic Sea, and large sections of Poznań
and West Prussia. The treaty also awarded Poland important economic rights in
the free city of Danzig (now Gdańsk). After a war with Soviet Russia in 1920,
Poland regained historically Polish territory from Belarus and Ukraine. In the
west, the Poles acquired sections of Upper Silesia in 1921 and 1922, following a
direct vote by the electorate.
In the two decades following the war, the
foreign policy of Poland was largely determined by fear of Germany and the USSR.
A defensive alliance with France was arranged in February 1921, and alliances
were subsequently signed with Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Latvia,
Estonia, and Finland. In 1932 Poland concluded a nonaggression pact with the
USSR. A similar agreement, effective for ten years, was concluded with Germany
in 1934. Both these treaties guaranteed Poland’s borders. Under the guidance of
Foreign Minister Joźef Beck, Poland pursued a policy of balance in its relations
with Germany and the USSR.
Following the adoption of a permanent
constitution in March 1921, domestic developments were marked by incessant
strife between Poland’s conservative and leftist political factions. Failure of
the new state to protect the economic and political rights of the Jews,
Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans, and other minorities included in its
population also caused constant friction and turmoil. Some concessions to the
demands of certain of the minorities were legislated in 1924. In December 1925 a
measure was enacted providing for distribution to the peasantry of 20,234
hectares (50,000 acres) of land each year.
H | The German Threat |
Meanwhile, Poland had been in the throes
of an almost continuous financial crisis. General instability and confusion led
to frequent changes of cabinet. Following a coup led by Józef Piłsudski in 1926,
Ignacy Mościcki was installed as president; Piłsudski, as minister of war,
gradually acquired complete control over the government in the late 1920s and
early 1930s. In 1935 a new constitution was adopted formalizing his
authoritarian regime. Piłsudski survived the inauguration of the new system by
less than a month, and was succeeded by General Edward Smigły-Rydz.
The triumph of National Socialism
(Nazism) in Germany and the expansionist policy of German dictator Adolf Hitler
in the late 1930s posed grave dangers to Polish security. After the Munich Pact
and the ensuing destruction of the Czechoslovak state in March 1939, Poland,
which had received about 1,036 sq km (about 400 sq mi) of Czech territory in the
Munich settlement, became the next major target of German diplomacy. This
development took the form of German demands, delivered late in March, that
Poland consent to the cession of Danzig to Germany and yield important rights in
the Polish corridor. Polish rejection of these demands was followed, on March
31, by an Anglo-French pledge of aid to Poland in the event of German
aggression. On April 28, Hitler renounced the German-Polish nonaggression
treaty. On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland after signing a pact with
the USSR, an act that marked the outbreak of World War II.
I | World War II |
The Polish army received no effective
assistance from the West, and by mid-September German armies had overrun most of
western and central Poland. On September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland from
the east, and the two invading powers divided the country between them. Enormous
reprisals were exacted against the Poles throughout the German-occupied region.
In the Soviet-occupied area, many thousands of Poles were forcibly deported to
Siberia. In 1940 thousands of captured Polish army officers were murdered by
Soviet security services. A mass grave containing many of the bodies was
discovered later in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Russia.
Numerous members of the Polish government
and the military forces succeeded in escaping from Poland during the final
phases of German and Soviet military operation against the country. Most of the
refugee Polish troops, numbering about 100,000, succeeded in reaching France,
where they were regrouped into combat units. These units and others that were
later organized in the USSR rendered valiant service to the Allied war effort in
North Africa and Europe. In the meantime a government-in-exile, led by General
Władystaw Sikorski, had been organized in France. Following the collapse of
France in 1940, the Polish government established headquarters in London.
The German armed forces occupied all of
Soviet-held Poland during the initial phase of their attack on the USSR in 1941.
During their occupation of the country, the German armies pursued a policy of
systematic extermination of Polish citizens, particularly Jews, most of whom
perished at Auschwitz (Oświęcim), Treblinka, Majdanek, Sobibór, and other
concentration camps scattered throughout the country. In April 1943 the Jews of
the Warsaw Ghetto, rather than wait for destruction in the camps, rose in
rebellion against hopeless odds. The Germans quelled the rising after three
weeks of fighting. At the end of the war estimated civilian casualties numbered
more than 5 million, most of which were inflicted by the Germans. Polish
military casualties in the war totaled about 600,000. The material losses
suffered were similarly enormous.
I1 | The Liberation |
The liberation of Poland from German
domination began shortly after the Anglo-American invasion of France in June
1944. During June, July, and August the Soviet armies, taking advantage of the
situation, inflicted a series of devastating defeats on the Germans in the east.
Before the beginning of September the Soviet army, aided by contingents of
Polish troops, had begun operations on Polish territory. In August 1944 Polish
resistance forces, known as the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), took control of
Warsaw, but the Soviets did not support them. The Germans recaptured the city by
October and burned it to the ground after evacuating the population. The remains
of Warsaw were occupied by the Soviet army in January 1945, and the last of the
German invaders were driven from the country in March.
In July 1944 the Soviet government had
sponsored the formation of a Polish Committee of National Liberation, an
organization largely dominated by Communists. The committee, which established
headquarters at Lublin after the liberation of that city, proclaimed itself the
provisional government of Poland in December 1944. After several attempts, a
reconciliation between the Polish governments in London and Lublin was
accomplished. In June 1945, after the Germans had been expelled, a coalition
established a Polish Government of National Unity. This government was
officially recognized by the British and U.S. governments in the following
month, having gained Soviet promises of free elections at the Yalta Conference
in early 1945.
J | Postwar Boundary Changes |
At the Potsdam Conference, held after
Germany’s surrender in 1945, the Allied powers placed Upper and Lower Silesia,
Danzig, and parts of Brandenburg, Pomerania, and East Prussia under Polish
administration pending the conclusion of a final peace settlement. Of a
population totaling about 8.9 million in the German areas assigned to Poland,
more than 7 million were Germans. Most of the Germans fled the Soviet Army or
were subsequently expelled to Germany. The eastern frontier of Poland was
determined by the terms of a treaty concluded by the Polish and Soviet
governments on August 16, 1945. On the basis of this document, which established
the Polish-Soviet frontier considerably to the west of the prewar boundary, the
USSR acquired a large amount of former Polish territory. The inhabitants of this
territory totaled approximately 12.5 million. Of this number, nearly 4 million
were Poles, most of whom were repatriated to Poland and resettled in the areas
obtained from Germany.
K | The Emergence of the Communist State |
Communist-Socialist strength in the
government grew steadily during 1946 and 1947. In the 1947 parliamentary
elections—denounced by the United States as undemocratic—the two-party coalition
won more than 85 percent of the vote.
K1 | Stalinist Takeover |
Beginning in September 1948 the Polish
Communist Party purged itself of many thousands of so-called national Communists
who were accused of approving Yugoslavia’s defiance of the USSR. Among those
jailed in the purge was Władysław Gomułka, secretary general of the party and
first deputy premier. In December the Socialists and Communists merged to form
the Polish United Workers’ Party, in which pro-Stalin Communists were dominant.
Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky was installed as head of the Polish armed
forces in 1949. Thereafter Poland appeared to be one of the most faithful
satellites of the USSR.
Pro-Soviet Communist leaders then
sought to implement industrial and economic goals for Poland in conformity with
the economic and social system of the USSR. The major problem was the effort to
collectivize agriculture, which was unsuccessful and later abandoned.
K2 | Church-State Conflict |
After the Vatican excommunicated all
Communists in 1949, the Polish government confiscated many church properties,
ordered the closing of church schools, and established a youth organization to
counteract the influence of the church.
In the 1950s the government assumed
supervision over the appointment of clergymen, requiring a loyalty oath of each
candidate. Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński, archbishop of Warsaw and Gniezno and
primate of Poland, resisted the measure and was suspended from office.
L | Gomułka’s Return |
During the postwar period, Poland became
an active member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw
Pact, both Soviet-dominated organs. In 1952 Poland adopted a constitution
modeled after that of the USSR but explicitly recognizing certain property
rights.
During the liberalization that followed
the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, Polish artists, intellectuals,
students, and workers raised demands for government reforms and a greater
measure of freedom from Soviet control. In June 1956 workers staged
demonstrations in Poznań; the quelling of the uprising left 53 people dead and
several hundred wounded. Leaders of the demonstrations received relatively light
sentences. In October Gomułka, who had been readmitted to the party, was named
first secretary with great popular support. Rokossovsky and other Stalinist
officials in high Polish posts were dismissed, and Cardinal Wyszyński was freed
from detention.
Gomułka became the dominant figure in
Poland, steering a careful course between pro-Soviet and nationalist sentiments
and introducing limited political reforms. In the 1957 elections, slates
included some non-Communists and independents; moreover, there were nearly twice
as many candidates as posts to be filled. By the early 1960s, however, Gomułka
had tightened the party’s hold on Poland and halted most of the reforms.
Popular discontent erupted once again in
Poland in the spring of 1968, as demands by students and artists for greater
freedom of expression were met by severe government repression. Student
demonstrations began in Warsaw in March, at the university and at the
polytechnic, and soon spread to the universities in Poznań, Lublin, and Kraków.
The students demanded liberal reforms similar to those instituted in
Czechoslovakia at the time. Seeking to stifle dissent, the government launched a
campaign against Jews. Hundreds of Jews and reformers were dismissed from
government, party, university, and newspaper positions, and many left Poland for
the West or Israel. During the conferences in Warsaw in June and Bratislava,
Czechoslovakia, in August 1968, the Warsaw Pact powers condemned the political
and cultural reforms taking place in Czechoslovakia. On August 20 Poland
participated in the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, sending a
contingent estimated at 45,000 troops.
M | Reconciliation with West Germany |
Early in 1970 economic problems prompted
the government to make a major adjustment in its foreign policy. Hopeful of
obtaining economic and technological aid from prosperous West Germany (now part
of the Federal Republic of Germany), the Poles opened political talks with West
Germany in January, and the Polish and German foreign ministers reached
agreement in November. In December Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany went
to Warsaw to sign the resulting treaty, in which West Germany formally accepted
the postwar loss of 103,600 sq km (40,000 sq mi) to Poland and the establishment
of the Oder-Neisse line as Poland’s western frontier. In return, West Germany
received informal Polish assurances that Polish residents who claimed German
nationality (believed to number several tens of thousands) would be permitted to
emigrate from Poland. Both sides agreed to settle disputes exclusively by
peaceful means and to move toward full normalization of relations. Full
relations were restored after the West German parliament ratified the treaty in
May 1972.
N | The Gierek Regime |
An economic crisis assumed major
proportions late in 1970. Polish industry had fallen short of planning goals.
Bad weather again contributed to a poor harvest and resulted in the costly
import of grain. In addition, the prices of coal, food, and clothing were
drastically increased. Outraged at the increases, Polish workers, mainly from
the Baltic seaports of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Szczecin, staged demonstrations that
led to riots, arson, and looting. A week-long state of emergency was declared,
and the protests were forcibly suppressed with considerable loss of life.
In the aftermath of the rioting, party
secretary Gomułka and other party leaders were removed from the Politburo (the
executive committee of the Communist Party). Edward Gierek, a prominent
Politburo member from Silesia, became party secretary. Prices were frozen at
their previous levels, and in the early 1970s Poland enjoyed a period of
political liberalization and economic prosperity based on foreign loans.
Improving relations with the West were
symbolized by visits to Poland by U.S. presidents Richard M. Nixon in 1972,
Gerald R. Ford in 1975, and Jimmy Carter in 1977. Also in the 1970s Poland began
the repatriation of some 125,000 ethnic Germans to West Germany.
After a proposed price increase was
prevented by strikes and demonstrations in 1976, political life stagnated and
worker opposition developed. Karol Cardinal Wojtyła of Kraków was elected pope
as John Paul II in 1978. Living standards deteriorated, and hundreds of
thousands of Polish workers responded to a large food price hike by going on
strike in the summer of 1980. In August the country was paralyzed when workers
in Gdańsk and other Baltic ports conducted sit-in strikes in their shipyards for
three weeks and started making political demands. At the end of the month the
Communist authorities were forced into making unprecedented concessions to the
workers. These included the right to strike, wage increases, the release of
political prisoners, and the elimination of censorship. The recognition of the
right to organize independent trade unions led to the formation of the
Solidarity federation in mid-September. The ill and discredited Communist Party
leader Gierek stepped down in favor of Stanisław Kania shortly afterward.
O | Solidarity Triumphant |
The standoff between Solidarity and the
Communist Party took place during a period of increased economic decline, and
social discontent caused a growing number of dangerous confrontations. Partly
because of Soviet pressure, the government was unable or unwilling to carry out
the necessary reforms. In February 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski was made
premier, and in October he became the head of the Communist Party. To control
the situation Jaruzelski used the demands of the Solidarity movement for
economic improvements and greater political freedom as a pretext for imposing
martial law. In mid-December the Solidarity organization was suspended, and its
leader, Lech Wałęsa, was interned. Thousands of other Solidarity activists were
either arrested or interned, and nine activists were killed.
All industrial and political opposition
was banned and suppressed, and Communist Party reformers were also disciplined.
Polish authorities retained many of the expanded emergency powers even after the
lifting of martial law in 1983. Solidarity lost its mass base but survived as an
underground opposition force with sufficient popular support to force gradual
concessions from the regime. It was backed by the increasingly powerful Roman
Catholic Church, which had been strengthened by papal visits in 1983 and 1987.
The Jaruzelski government gradually loosened its grip on power and attempted to
introduce economic reforms. These failed to gain sufficient social support,
however, and were never completed.
The political and economic stalemate in
Poland during the 1980s was broken by the appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev as
Soviet leader in 1985 and the resulting liberalization of Soviet policy. Reform
became possible in Poland. Spurred on by industrial unrest in 1988, Jaruzelski’s
reformist Communists and Wałęsa’s Civic Committee negotiated an agreement in
early 1989. Political and civic freedoms were conceded, Solidarity was
relegalized, and a freely elected Senat (upper legislative house) was
established. Jaruzelski was elected to the presidency with Solidarity’s
approval.
In the 1989 legislative elections,
Solidarity won 99 of the 100 Senat seats as well as the 35 percent of the Sejm
(lower house) seats that it was allowed to contest. Although the political
balance in the Sejm was now held by the Communists’ minor party allies (the
peasant and democratic parties), these parties refused to endorse the Communist
police chief, General Czesław Kiszczak, as prime minister. In August, Tadeusz
Mazowiecki, a close aide to Wałęsa, formed a coalition government in which
Communists controlled the defense and interior ministries. Mazowiecki, Poland’s
first non-Communist premier in more than 40 years, dismantled the Communist
system and consolidated the transition to democracy. His influential finance
minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, curbed the swelling hyperinflation and initiated
Poland’s rapid transition to a free-market economy.
P | Democratic Poland |
In 1990 Solidarity split into two
opposing groups, with one group supporting Wałęsa and the other supporting
Mazowiecki. In November Wałęsa, Mazowiecki, and a maverick émigré millionaire,
Stanisław Tymiński, ran in a presidential election. Mazowiecki was eliminated on
the first ballot while Wałęsa won the runoff against Tymiński. Wałęsa was
unclear about how to define his office, however. This led to an ambiguous
distribution of presidential, prime ministerial, and parliamentary powers in
Poland’s transitional “Little Constitution,” adopted in 1992. Post-Communist
Poland thus suffered from a confused, unstable, and conflict-ridden political
process. Proportional representation adopted for the 1991 legislative elections
produced a Sejm composed of a dozen significant political parties. Between 1991
and 1993 Poland was governed by a succession of short-lived parliamentary
coalitions.
Poland established or renewed diplomatic
relations with the European Community (now the European Union), the republics of
the former USSR, the Vatican, and Israel, and signed cooperation treaties with
the newly unified Germany and a number of other European states. The country
joined the Council of Europe and negotiated associate membership of the European
Union. Full national sovereignty was regained in 1992 with the evacuation of
most of the Soviet troops stationed in Poland. The withdrawal was completed in
August 1993.
The September 1993 legislative elections
simplified the party system by excluding all but the six parties who succeeded
in gaining the minimum electoral threshold of 5 percent of the vote (8 percent
for coalitions). The Communists’ successor parties, including the Social
Democracy of the Polish Republic (SdRP) and the Polish People’s Party (PSL),
benefited from popular dissatisfaction with the socioeconomic costs of the
transformation and gained a large majority. Waldemar Pawlak, the PSL leader,
became prime minister, but his government was harassed by Wałęsa and accused of
trying to slow economic reform. In early 1995 Wałęsa threatened to dissolve
parliament if the Pawlak government was not replaced. Betraying his intention to
position himself for the 1995 presidential election, Wałęsa nominated a likely
election opponent, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, for the position of prime minister.
He was overruled by parliament, and Józef Oleksy, a member of the Democratic
Left Alliance (SLD) and former Communist, was eventually nominated. Amid this
atmosphere Pawlak’s government lost a vote of confidence. Pawlak resigned as
prime minister in March and was replaced by Oleksy.
In the presidential election held in
November 1995, Wałęsa, who had discredited himself among the Poles through his
personal failings and political mistakes, was unseated by Kwaśniewski, a former
Communist and the founder and leader of the SLD. Kwaśniewski pledged to continue
the process of economic reform and to seek full membership for Poland in the EU
and NATO. In a move intended to help heal the political rifts resulting from the
election, Kwaśniewski resigned from the leadership of the SLD later that month.
Kwaśniewski was reelected president in 2000.
In January 1996 Prime Minister Oleksy
resigned in the face of a formal investigation into allegations that he had been
spying for Russia for more than a decade. Oleksy, Poland’s seventh prime
minister since the collapse of Communism, had once served in the Communist
Party’s Central Committee. Although he admitted to having a friendship with a
Russian intelligence agent who had been stationed in Warsaw since the 1980s,
Oleksy denied the espionage charges and declared his innocence. Włodzimierz
Cimoszewicz, also of the SLD, replaced Oleksy as prime minister in February. In
April the military prosecutor investigating the charges against Oleksy decided
to drop the case due to insufficient evidence of criminal activity.
In October 1996 the Sejm voted not to
charge Jaruzelski and other former Communist officials with constitutional
violations in connection with the imposition of martial law in 1981.
P1 | A New Constitution for Poland |
In 1997 a special parliamentary
commission, dominated by former Communists, completed the task of drafting a new
constitution. Following parliamentary approval of the document in April, a
nationwide referendum was held in May in which 52.7 percent of voters approved
the new constitution. A coalition of right-wing groups associated with
Solidarity and some Catholics strongly opposed its passage, claiming some of its
provisions were overly secular. A synthesis of seven competing versions, the
243-article charter delineates the powers of the presidency, guarantees basic
civil rights, ensures civilian control over the armed forces, and commits the
country to a market economy and private ownership of enterprise.
In October 1997 the conservative
Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) and the pro-business Freedom Union (UW) formed
a coalition government after winning a combined majority of seats in both the
Sejm and the Senat in legislative elections the previous month. Kwaśniewski
appointed Jerzy Buzek, a former Solidarity activist in the 1980s and an AWS
legislator, as prime minister. A liberal reformer, Buzek pledged to accelerate
the privatization of state-owned industries and to decentralize government
power. In December 1997 the EU invited Poland to begin the process of becoming a
full member.
In July 1998 the Polish government
approved a plan to slash the number of provinces from 49 to 16, and to invest
each province’s elected officials with more authority. The administrative
reform, which took effect on January 1, 1999, was part of Poland's efforts to
bring its laws and procedures in line with EU standards for admission.
Government leaders celebrated Poland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) in March, about two years after it was invited into the
historically western alliance.
The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD)
emerged as the largest party in the September 2001 legislative elections and it
formed a coalition government with the Polish People’s Party (PSL). Leszek
Miller, SLD leader and a former member of the Polish Communist Party’s Central
Committee, became prime minister in October. Miller vowed to reduce Poland’s
growing budget deficit and to win membership for Poland in the EU. The elections
were a stunning defeat for the Solidarity-led AWS, which was ousted from the
legislature after failing to win the minimum 8 percent of the vote required for
coalitions.
P2 | Poland Since Its Entry into the EU |
In a nationwide referendum in June
2003, Polish voters overwhelmingly supported Poland’s entry into the European
Union (EU). The vote gave President Kwaśniewski popular approval to ratify
Poland’s accession to the EU, which formally occurred in May 2004. Rising
unemployment and mounting economic problems ahead of Poland’s entry into the EU
led to widespread dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Miller’s government. In
March 2004 Miller announced his intention to resign. A few days later the
president named Marek Belka, an economist, as his successor.
However, persistently high
unemployment and corruption scandals undermined the governing SLD, and support
for the party plunged heading into the September 2005 parliamentary elections.
The elections brought the lowest voter turnout—about 40 percent—since the fall
of Communism in 1989.
The socially conservative Law and
Justice Party (PiS) won the most seats in the election, followed by the
pro-business Civic Platform (PO). Talks between the two parties to create a
coalition government failed, and Law and Justice instead formed a minority
government with the support of a number of smaller parties. Kazimierz
Marcinkiewicz, a noted economics expert, was named prime minister. Shortly after
the parliamentary elections, Lech Kaczyński of Law and Justice won Poland’s
presidency in a separate vote. Marcinkiewicz stood down as prime minister in
July 2006 and was replaced by the president’s twin, Jarosław Kaczyński.
Prime Minister Kaczyński made rooting
out corruption his highest priority and to this end formed the Central
Anti-Corruption Bureau. His government also sought to remove former Communist
officials from public positions. Relations with other EU countries, especially
Germany, became strained as the prime minister pursued a more isolationist path
for Poland.
The Law and Justice Party’s unstable
coalition collapsed in August 2007, forcing early parliamentary elections in
October. The elections had the highest turnout since 1989, with 53.8 percent of
voters going to the polls. Civic Platform (PO) emerged as the clear winner,
taking 209 seats in the 460-member Sejm, while Law and Justice trailed with 166
seats. The election outcome continued a trend: No government had been reelected
in Poland since the fall of Communism. The Civic Platform victory was largely
attributed to higher turnout among younger Poles, who favored the party’s pro-EU
policies. Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk became prime minister and formed a
coalition government with the Polish People’s Party, thereby securing a
comfortable majority in the Sejm. Tusk’s highest priorities included improving
relations with other EU countries and meeting stringent economic requirements
for Poland’s eventual adoption of the euro, the currency of the EU.
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