Situated in the heartland of Europe, Poland has been both a bridge and a front line between eastern and
western Europe. Today, free from outside interference, Poland is the place to go if you’re interested in seeing
how a nation picks itself up off the floor and tries to reinvent.
FACTS
Full country name: Republic of Poland
Area: 322,577 sq km (121,944 sq mi)
Population: 38,6 million
Capital city ( biggest city): Warsaw (population 1,75 mln)
Language: Polish
People: 98% Polish, plus Ukrainian and Belorussian
minorities
Religion: 95% Roman Catholic
President: Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Government: Parliamentary republic
Prime Minister: Leszek Miller
SURFACE
Poland is a lowland country, the average altitude is not more than 200m. Only at the south there are
mountains and at the north Baltic sea. The mountain chains in Poland are: Sudety and Karpaty. Tatry and
Beskidy are the highest parts of Karpaty. Rysy are the highest top of Tatry – 2499mWe have a rich web of
rivers and lakes. The largest rivers are Wisła and Odra. The area is in 29% covered with woods. They are
mainly in the mountains and highland on the south and some on the north. The majority are coniferous
woods.
CLIMATE
Poland is in the zone of continental climate, with long and mainly rough winters, even so baltic region
is more of a soft and moist climate. The more we go on east and south the winters are more frosty. During the
whole year we have lot of summer storms and snow in winter. We have lots of nice, attractive for tourists
places like Mazury or our Polish mountain, old towns and more modern ones.
CULTURE
Poland’s first cultural crop was tended by Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548). Through his cultivation,
Latin was gradually supplanted by Polish, a national literature was born and architectural expertise
blossomed. Scientific endeavor was also a feature of his period. In 1543, the patently bonkers Nicolaus
Copernicus published “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Sphares”, proposing that the earth moves around the
sun. Polan’s next king, Sigismund II August (1548-1572) continued father’s patronage of arts and culture, and
two reigns came to be referred to as Poland’s golden age.
Sculrpure and painting in Poland is typically religious, with Gothic and Renaissance representations of
the Madonna and Christ evident in most churches. Ornate tomb decorations was a particular specialty of
Polish stone-workers, their anonymous artistry also evident in the bas-relief facades of many Renaissance
houses. Secular work has been largely documentary, even until well into this century. Zdzisław beksiński is an
exception. Born in 1929, he is a creator of a striking and mysterious world of dreams and is thought by many to
be the best artist Poland has produced.
Artists in Poland today are still shaking off the hideous legacy of Communism under Stalin. During
this period, Socialist Realism became the dominant style, bequeathing an abominable body of a visual arts,
architecture, literature and music. Poland has spawned fine fiction writers, many of them emigrants like Isaac
Bashevis Singer, whose work recreates in Yiddish the vanished milieu of Jewish Poland. Among the composer
Henryk Górecki, whose third symphony achieved world-wide success a couple of years ago.
Polish food is healthy and filling, with thick soups and sauces, abundant in potatoes and dumplings,
rich in meat and vegetables. Characteristic ingredients are dill, marjoram, caraway seeds and wild mushrooms;
favourite dishes include BIGOS (sauerkraut and meet) and BARSZCZ (beetroot soup). There are four daily
meals in Poland: an early breakfast, a light snack for second breakfast, a substantial dinner (lunch) taken after
work, and a small supper before bed. Tea and vodka are the favoured Polish beverages, both consumed with
fervor, but to somewhat differing effect.
HISTORY
There’s obviously something about the borders of Poland to say ‘Hey come and get it.’ All of the great
(and many of the lesser) European empire builders have been bingeing and purging here since the Polanie
(‘people from fields’) parked themselves in the 10th century. The unrelenting incursions have ceased only
recently with the warning of Soviet influence.
But war and subjugation is not Poland’s only story. One of Europe’s cultural powerhouses, as well as its
erstwhile granary, Poland has flourished under some enlightened and energetic rulers. Casimir III the Great
(1333-1370) was a monarch of some renown, bestowing one of Europe’s first universities on Krakow, and an
extensive network of castles and fortifications on the country at large. Through the ensuing centuries of
territorial expansion and contraction, and of wealth and poverty, the infrastructures bequeathed by Casimir
held firm – most of Poland’s blew in from outside.
Internal stability faltered in the 17th century. With the parliament crippled by a stipulation that any
legislation could be voted by any one member, decades stumbled by without one law being passed and Poland
was frustrated into dissent. While the nobles took things into their own hands, usurping political rights and
ruling their vast estates as virtual suzerainties, foreign invaders systematically carved up Poland. Russia
exerted the most influence but telling battles were also conducted with Tatars, Ukrainians, Cossacks, Ottomans
and Swedes.
By the late 19th century , Poland was in disarray. Four million people has succumbed to war, famine
and bubonic plagues, and Russia, Prussia and Austria were experimenting with various ways of splitting the
Polish booty. Despite steady economic recovery on paper, poverty was still very much the go in rural areas
and about one fifth of Poland’s 20 million people emigrated, mostly to the USA.
Just like it seemed like Poland was a working definition of ‘worst’, history kicked in with WWI. With
Poland’s three occupying powers at war, most fighting took place on territories inhabited by Poles, who were
often conscripted into opposing occupying armies and forced to fight one another. The loss of life and
livelihood was staggering. IN the confusion following the war, particularly Russia’s preoccupation with the
October Revolution, Poland was able to consolidate its bedraggled selves into a sovereign identity and
attempted to build up its nation and nationhood practically from scratch. This monumental project was going
along pretty well until WWII when Germany, and the Soviet Union, gobbled up Poland, viciously subduing
the population at large – Nazis paying particular attention to the Jews.
The Polish government in exile slipped into a de facto relationship with Stalin, a sordid alliance with
little to offer Poles still in Poland. Particularly charming was the Soviet trick of sending uderequipped Polish
bodies to soak up Nazi ammunition, then sending in the Red Army to clean up, grab the glory and a bit more
Polish territory in the process. By 1945, Poland was ruined (again), having lost over six million of its
population, half of whom were Jews. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin
decided to leave Poland under Soviet control (thanx guys) and Poland became a site of repression and
victimization Stalin-style. Poles never embraced Stalinism, and the communist period featured waves of
strikes.
The triumphal visit of Pope John Paul II to his homeland in 1978 dramatically increased political
ferment. The organization and articulation of the labour movement became superior to that of the
demoralized Communist government and by 1980, the government was no longer in a position to use force
against its opponents. Intial economic overtones. Poland’s workers’ delegations convened under the Solidarity
trade union banner, led by Lech Wałęsa. Solidarity had a dramatic effect on the whole of Polish society,
garnering a membership of a 10 million in its first month, a million of this coming from Communist Party
ranks. After more than a generation of restraint, the Poles launched themselves into a spontaneous and chaotic
sort of a democracy. Although the government had ceded to the workers the right to organize and the right to
strike all this was proving a bit much to take: material law was introduced in 1981, Solidarity was suspended
and its leaders interned, including Wałęsa. The brutalities of material law were gradually relaxed but
Solidarity was forced to operate as an underground organization until Gorbachov-instigated perestroika
filtered through Poland.
Semi-free elections were held in 1989 and Solidarity succeeded in getting an overwhelming majority of
its supporters elected to the upper house of parliament. Wałęsa become President in 1990 but his role was a
gradual decline from euphoria to disillusionment. There were no economic miracles, no political stability and
Wałęsa presidential style and his accomplishments were repeatedly questioned by practically all political
parties and the majority of the electorate. Former communists Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Włodzimierz
Cimoszewicz tipped Wałęsa from the presidency in late 1995, holding office until late 1997 when Jerzy Buzek’s
Solidarity-led coalition took the reins. Nut it wasn’t long before Aleksander Kwaśniewski, running of a
Democratic Left Alliance, recaptured political control and, to top it all off, he was then re-elected for a second
presidential term in October 2000.
The new Poland is garnering international credibility as it capitalizes on its material strengths – it
became a full NATO member in 1999 and on 1st May it will become a member of EU and is now preparing
itself for the first historical European Parliament elections on 13th June. Those preparations need a lot of effort
and ideas, especially because of the crisis of Polish political scene, people are turning their back on politics,
loosing their trust and hope, finally not taking part in the elections at all.
Poland as a cultural place has got a lot to share with others and to bring into European Union, which
we hope will finally bring stabilization in our country.