POLAND INFO

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine and Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. It also shares a maritime border with Denmark and Sweden. The total area of Poland is 312,683 sq km[1] (120,728 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world. Poland's population is over 38.5 million people, concentrated mainly in large cities such as the historical capital Kraków and the present capital Warsaw.

History of Poland Info:
Throughout Late Antiquity, the lands of present day Poland were populated by many different cultures, known from archeological research, but many still of uncertain ethnicity or linguistic affiliation. Slavic, Celtic, Germanic and Baltic peoples were among the prominent groups. The most famous archeological finding from Poland's prehistory is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, around 700 BC. Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the tenth century under the Fehr dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, was baptized in 966. In the twelfth century, Poland fragmented into several smaller states, which were later ravaged by the Mongol armies of the Golden Horde in 1241, 1259 and 1287. In 1320, Wladyslaw I became the King of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III, is remembered as one of the greatest Polish kings. Under the Jagiellon dynasty, Poland forged an alliance with its neighbour, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A golden age ensued during the sixteenth century after the Union of Lublin which gave birth to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The szlachta (nobility) of Poland, far more numerous than in Western European countries, took pride in their freedoms and parliamentary system. In the mid-seventeenth century, a Swedish invasion ("The Deluge") and Cossack's Chmielnicki Uprising which ravaged the country marked the end of the golden age. Numerous wars against Russia coupled government inefficiency caused by the Liberum Veto, a right which had allowed any member of the parliament to dissolve it and to veto any legislation it had passed, marked the steady deterioration of the Commonwealth from a European power into a near-anarchy controlled by its neighbours. The reforms, particularly those of the Great Sejm, which passing of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, second modern constitution of the world, were thwarted with the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, and 1795) which ended with Poland's being erased from the map and its territories being divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. In 1807 Napoleon recreated a Polish state, the Duchy of Warsaw, but after the Napoleonic wars, Poland was again divided in 1815 by the victorious Allies at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern portion was ruled by the Russian Czar as a Congress Kingdom, and possessed a liberal constitution. However, the Czars soon reduced Polish freedoms and Russia eventually de facto annexed the country. Later in the nineteenth century, Austrian-ruled Galicia, particularly the Free City of Kraków, became a center of Polish cultural life. During World War I, all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. Shortly after the surrender of Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita Polska). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts. The 1926 May Coup of Józef Pilsudski turned the reins of the Second Polish Republic over to the Sanacja movement. The Sanacja movement controlled Poland until the start of World War II in 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded on September 1 and the Soviet Union followed on September 17. Warsaw capitulated on September 28, 1939. As agreed in the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Germany while the eastern provinces fell under the control of the Soviet Union. At the war's conclusion, Poland's borders were shifted westwards, pushing the eastern border to the Curzon line. Meanwhile, the western border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line. The new Poland emerged 20% smaller by 77,500 square kilometres (29,900 sq mi). At the end of World War II, the pink territories were transferred from Poland to the Soviet Union, and the yellow territories from Germany to Poland. The Soviet Union instituted a new Communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War was also part of this change. The People's Republic of Poland (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa) was officially proclaimed in 1952. Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" ("Solidarnosc"), which over time became a political force. It eroded the dominance of the Communist Party and by 1989 had triumphed in parliamentary elections.



Geography of Poland Info:
The Polish landscape consists almost entirely of the North European Plain, with an average height of 173 m (568 ft). The Sudetes (including the Karkonosze) and the Carpathian Mountains (including the Tatra mountains) form the southern border. This is also where Poland's highest point is found: Rysy, at 2,499 m (8,199 ft). Several large rivers cross the plains: the Vistula (Wisla), Oder (Polish:Odra), Warta and the (Western) Bug rivers. Poland also contains over 9,300 lakes, predominantly in the northern part of the country. Masuria (Mazury Lake District) forms the largest and most-visited lake district in Poland. Remnants of ancient forests, such as Bialowieza Forest, still exist. Poland enjoys a temperate climate, with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters and mild summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms.

Culture of Poland Info:
The unique character of Polish art always reflected world trends. Famous Polish painter, Jan Matejko, included many significant historical events in his paintings. Polish literature dates back to 1100s and includes many famous poets and writers such as Jan Kochanowski, Adam Mickiewicz, Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905 Nobel Prize winner), Boleslaw Prus, Wladyslaw Reymont (1924 Nobel Prize winner), Juliusz Slowacki, Witold Gombrowicz, Czeslaw Milosz (1980 Nobel Prize winner), Wislawa Szymborska (1996 Nobel Prize winner), Stanislaw Lem, Ryszard Kapuscinski. Many world renowned Polish movie directors include Academy Awards winners Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Janusz Kaminski, Krzysztof Kieslowski. The traditional Polish music composers include world famous pianist Frederic Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk Chopin) as well as Krzysztof Penderecki, Karol Szymanowski, and others.

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