Poland is a nation in east-central Europe. It borders on the Baltic Sea and the \TUSSR\t in the north, the \TUSSR\t in the east, Germany in the west, and Czechoslovakia in the south. Formerly much larger than it is today, Poland was the dominant power in eastern Europe from the 14th to the 17th century. In the 18th century it was divided up by its neighbors and ceased to exist until resurrected in 1918. Again partitioned by Germany and the \TUSSR\t at the beginning of World War II, it was reestablished as a Soviet satellite state in 1945, and remained a Communist-dominated "people's republic" until 1989. Poland is now an emerging liberal democracy that has abandoned its former centrally-planned system and is moving toward a market economy. The capital is \TWarsaw\t. LAND AND RESOURCES Poland's principal topographical characteristic is the North European Plain, which extends across most of the country from the German to the Soviet border. Along the Czechoslovak border in the south are the \TCarpathian\t and \TSudeten\t mountains. The highest elevation is Rysy (2,499 m/8,200 ft) in the High Tatra range of the Carpathians. Soil and Drainage Poland's highest quality soils are loessial, and occur in the central and southern areas of the country. The two principal river systems flowing northward into the Baltic Sea are the \TOder\t, which forms the border with Germany, and the \TVistula\t in central Poland. The Mazurian Lakes district in the north and the marshlands along the Bug river in the east offer further topographical contrasts. Climate The country's climate is continental, moderated by maritime weather from the Atlantic, which produces significant snowfall in the central and southern regions in the winter, and generally warm and dry summers. Mountain regions can suffer extreme cold in the winter as well as sudden "fohns," which are dry south winds sweeping the northern side of the ranges. Average annual precipitation in Warsaw is 635 mm (25 in); the mountain resort of Zakopane has twice as much. Flora and Fauna Poland's forest lands, which account for about one-quarter of its territory, are coniferous, deciduous, and mixed. Pine, spruce, fir, oak, elm, poplar, and the indigenous Polish larch can be found in various parts of the country. The Bialowieza forest on the Soviet border is unique in Europe not only for its unspoiled, primeval nature but as the home of the European bison. The makeup of Poland's fauna puts the country into the European-Western Siberian group. Animals commonly found in deciduous and mixed forests include deer and wild boar. More typical of the taiga are elk and mountain hare, while fauna found in the mountains include the lynx and the brown bear. Natural Resources Coal is the most important mineral resource. The hard (or bituminous) coal mined around Katowice in Upper \TSilesia\t is of high quality, but Poland also produces brown coal (lignite). Upper Silesia also contains significant deposits of lead ore and zinc, while Lower Silesia has some of Europe's largest copper deposits. PEOPLE Prior to World War II, Poland had sizable German, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Jewish minorities. Polish Jewry was largely destroyed in the \THolocaust\t; after the war most of the Germans of western Poland were expelled, and the Ukrainian and Belorussian districts of eastern Poland were transferred to the \TUSSR\t. As a result, 98% of the present population are ethnic Poles. Roman Catholicism, the predominant religion, is closely identified with Polish national feeling. The Polish language, which belongs to the Western Slavic group of languages (along with Czech and Slovak), serves as the first language for nearly the entire population, but many regional dialects exist. In the freer atmosphere that followed the end of Communist domination in 1989, the minority groups that remain became more assertive. Silesians of German descent called for the establishment of German schools, and the Ukrainians demanded the legalization of the long-banned Ukranian Catholic church. Urbanization accelerated during the Communist period, the urban population exceeding the rural component for the first time. Aside from Warsaw, the largest cities are \TLodz\t, \TKrakow\t, \TWroclaw\t, \TPoznan\t, \TGdansk\t, \TSzczecin\t, \TBydgoszcz\t, \TKatowice\t, \TLublin\t, Sosnowiec, Bialystok, and \TCzestochowa\t. Education and Health Compulsory elementary education together with a two-track secondary system of academic and vocational schools have produced a generally well-educated population with varying skills. Under Communist party rule all education and health care was free, but by the late 1980s both systems began to break down in the wake of economic crisis. The coalition government that took office in 1989 encouraged the establishment of private schools and private medical care. The Arts Poland's literary tradition is covered in the article \TPolish literature\t. In music and the visual arts, as in literature, Poland's heritage is linked to the countries of Western Europe. Polish artistic culture reflected the trends prevalent in Europe generally during the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Polish avant-garde art can be dated to the early 20th century dramatists and painters Stanislaw \TWyspianski\t and Stanislaw Witkacy, who were equally creative in both areas. The most noteworthy figures of the post-World War II period include the sculptor Wladyslaw Hasior, the poster artists Franciszek Starowieyski and Waldemar Swierzy, and the experimental theatre directors Jerzy \TGrotowski\t, Adam Hanuszkiewicz, Tadeusz Kantor, and Jozef Szajna. The Lodz film school's most renowned graduate is Andrzej \TWajda\t, but filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi also has a large following. Contemporary Polish music has produced several composers who have exerted worldwide influence: Tadeusz Baird, Grazyna Bacewicz, Witold \TLutoslawski\t, and Krzysztof \TPenderecki\t. The annual "Warsaw Autumn" contemporary music festival and the biennial poster festival provide a forum for new innovative works. Traditional culture--folkloric music, handicrafts, costumes--have given way to international popular culture. Sporting events, beauty pageants, rock music, and television miniseries are increasingly the leisure-time activities of much of the population. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY The deterioration of the Polish economy in the 1980s was a major factor in the crisis that forced the Polish United Workers (Communist) party to surrender its monopoly of power in 1989. Heavy borrowing from Western banks in the 1970s left Poland saddled with an unmanageable debt that brought the country close to bankruptcy. The government had to suspend payments on its foreign debts from 1982 to 1985. In 1987 this $40 billion debt was rescheduled over a period of 15 years. Western aid also increased substantially after the political revolution of 1989, and in 1991, 50% of the debt was canceled by Poland's creditors. The new non-Communist government sought to bring about economic reform through "shock therapy" in a scheme devised by Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz. Price subsidies on foodstuffs and manufactured goods were removed, and many state-owned industries were sold to private owners, work-force collectives, and foreign companies. At first the results were chaotic. Inflation and unemployment rose dramatically, industrial production fell, and the currency lost much of its value. The situation was eased by the inflow of foreign credits and foreign investments, and by mid-1990 the currency had stabilized. Inflation remained high, however, and the public was fearful about the threat posed to the economy by the anticipated failure of unprofitable state-run industries inherited from the Communist period. Manufacturing In line with Communist policy emphasizing heavy industry, iron and steel production--largely based in the Katowice region--was at the heart of the manufacturing sector between 1945 and 1989. The chemical industry--represented, for example, by the huge petrochemical plant at Plock--was developed in the same period. The chief light industry was textiles, based in Lodz. Beginning in the 1970s, greater attention was given to production for the consumer market, for example, motor vehicles, food processing (especially fish), and electronics, but metallurgy remained a priority along with shipbuilding, railroad rolling stock, and light aircraft. Agriculture Temperate-zone grains produced in Poland include barley, oats, rye, and wheat. The country's production of potatoes and sugar beets is among the world's highest. Cropland accounts for three-quarters of all agricultural land. Pork has been the traditional animal stock bred on Polish farms, but cattle and sheep farming increased in the 1980s. Pasture land represents 20% of agricultural land use. The most productive farm sector, even under Communist rule, was the family farm. The Communist government's approach to agriculture was to maintain large-scale private ownership, in contrast to neighboring Communist countries, which carried out forced collectivization. Transportation Extensive rail and road systems span the country, but the majority of freight tonnage and passenger traffic is still carried by the state-owned railroads. The major ports--equipped with modern shipyards, bulk cargo handling facilities, and container terminals--are Gdansk, Gdynia, and Szczecin. Lot, the Polish national airline, provides regular flights between all major Polish cities. Access to smaller towns by road or air often presents difficulties. Trade As a member of the \TCouncil for Mutual Economic Assistance\t (\TComecon\t), Poland's trade until the 1970s was principally with the \TUSSR\t and other Communist countries. During the 1980s foreign trade began shifting more toward the Western world, especially to the European Community (EC). Since 1990, Poland has aggressively sought association with the EC. The principal exports are coal, machinery, and agricultural products, and the major import commodities are petroleum and natural gas. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS The so-called "roundtable agreement," worked out in 1989 between Communist leaders and \TSolidarity\t, the previously outlawed opposition movement, established the basis for a new political system with a powerful presidency. The presidency, as initially established, is elected by the National Assembly for a six-year term. He is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and has the power to dissolve the National Assembly and call new elections, nominate the prime minister, initiate his own legislation and veto that passed by the Assembly, impose martial law, and ratify international agreements. The counter-signature of the prime minister is required for "acts of major importance." The presidency was at first entrusted to the head of the previous Communist regime, Gen. Wojciech \TJaruzelski\t, but in December 1990 Solidarity leader Lech \TWalesa\t was elected president with nearly 75% of the vote. The National Assembly consists of two houses: the Sejm (or Diet), which has 460 seats based on electoral districts, and the Senate, whose 100 members represent the country's 49 provinces. The Senate, which serves as a check on the Sejm, has very limited powers. Members of both houses serve four-year terms. The first elections for the Assembly were held in June 1989, and in August Tadeusz Mazowiecki, representing the Solidarity-backed Civic Committees, was installed as prime minister. His government was composed of non-Communists except for the two security ministries of National Defense and the Interior. As the Communist party's role diminished over the next few months, however, even these Communists were replaced. In May 1990 the first elections to local councils were held throughout the country and Solidarity candidates won handily. These councils were units of self-government exercising local autonomy or home rule, not administrative agents of the central government as under the old system. The party system continued to evolve following the official dissolution of the Polish Communist party in early 1990. The Citizens' Committees increasingly moved away from the trade union part of Solidarity. By the summer of 1990, Lech Walesa's supporters had organized into the Center Bloc, while his rivals in the Solidarity movement formed the Democratic Union under Mazowiecki. Solidarity itself continued as a trade union but ceased to function as a political party. Other political groups include a peasants' party that invokes the legacy of the interwar party politician Stanislaw Mikolajczyk. Two other peasant parties are Rural Solidarity and a previously pro-Communist group called Renewal. Other noteworthy parties include the right-wing nationalist Confederation for Independent Poland, the Christian Democratic party, a new Polish Socialist party, and, further to the left, the successor to the old Communist party, known as Social Democracy of the Polish Republic. Party X is headed by Stanislaw Tyminski, who ran unsuccessfully against Walesa in the 1990 presidential contest. Most parties in Poland claim to base their programs on the social teachings of the Catholic church and seek the support of the primate, Jozef Cardinal Glemp and the Polish-born pope, \TJohn Paul II\t. Nevertheless, in 1991 a church-backed bill that would have outlawed abortion aroused strong opposition and was rejected by the National Assembly. After his election to the presidency Walesa appointed Jan Krzysztof Bielecki of the Gdansk-based Liberal Democratic Congress to succeed Mazowiecki as prime minister. Walesa, unlike his predecessor Jaruzelski, tried to assert the full powers of the presidential office. Elections in October 1991 left no single party dominant in parliament. HISTORY The name Poland is derived from that of the Polanie, a Slavic people that settled in the area, probably in the 5th century AD. Polish history begins with the conversion of the Polish nation to Christianity in 966 under Prince Mieszko I. Mieszko's son, \TBoleslaw I\t, became the first king of Poland, establishing the \TPiast\t dynasty, which lasted until 1370. Under the Piast kings, the young Polish state was threatened from within by rivalries among nobility, and from without by Bohemian and Germanic invasions. The last of the dynasty was \TCasimir III\t, crowned in 1333. He extended Polish influence eastward into Lithuania and Russia and acquired \TPomerania\t from the \TTeutonic Knights\t in the west. During his 37-year reign a university was established, law was codified, castles were fortified, and minority groups were given protection. In 1386, sixteen years after Casimir's death, the Polish nobility selected a grand duke of Lithuania, \TJagello\t, to rule by arranging his marriage to the Polish princess \TJadwiga\t. The initial personal union with Lithuania, formalized only two centuries later by the Union of Lublin in 1569, produced a state that extended from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Poland's Golden Age had begun, symbolized by the Polish victory over the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410. While dealing effectively with foreign threats posed by Prussians, Tartars, and Muscovy, the Polish political system began to devolve into decentralized rule by the nobility, which would subsequently lead to the disintegration of the state. The Polish Renaissance of the 16th century produced a flourishing of the arts and intellectual life, exemplified by the scientific work of \TCopernicus\t and the lyric poetry of Jan Kochanowski. Protestantism gained adherents in Poland during this period, which was one of great religious diversity. The Jewish community, which had prospered in Poland since the 14th century, won the right of self-government. The country's economic wealth was based on grain exports to Western Europe. In 1572 the Jagello dynasty ended with the death of \TSigismund II\t, and power was transferred from the aristocracy to the broader class of the nobility called the szlachta. From 1573 to the last partition of Poland in 1795 the Republican Commonwealth was organized around a system of elective monarchy and of a Sejm in which each of the nobles had a vote. Even though subsequent Polish kings (some of them foreigners) had to accept the idea of szlachta rule, this did not prevent them from seeking greater influence abroad. Thus Stephen Bathory (r.1575-1586; see \TBathory\t family) and \TSigismund III\t (r.1587-1632) intervened in Russia, and Sigismund even succeeded briefly in installing his son on the Russian throne during Muscovy's \TTime of Troubles\t. But after Polish troops were driven out of Moscow in 1613, the balance of power turned in favor of the Russians. During a war-torn decade beginning in 1648, Poland's vast territories were attacked by Ukrainian Cossacks, marauding Tartars, Turks, and Russians. But the greatest devastation was inflicted by the Swedes, who conquered and laid waste virtually the entire country in 1655. King \TJohn III\t Sobieski's victory over the Turks at Vienna in 1683 recovered some of Poland's prestige as a European power, but he could not stop Russian encroachment in the Ukraine and further the loss of eastern territories. During the reign (1697-1733) of \TAugustus II\t, who was also elector of Saxony, Poland was involved in the \TGreat\t \TNorthern War\t, which took place largely on Polish soil. Austro-Russian intervention in Poland in support of the second Saxon king, \TAugustus III\t, triggered the War of the \TPolish Succession\t (1733-35). The last king of Poland, \TStanislaw II\t (r.1764-1795), was a puppet of Catherine II of Russia. Anti-Russian feeling led to the formation (1768) of the Confederation of Bar, a French-supported alliance of Polish nobles, but this was unable to prevent the dismemberment of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria (see \TPoland, Partitions of\t). Even as its fate was being decided by the great powers, the country plunged forward with radical new experiments in democracy and reform, culminating with the constitution of May 3, 1791, which granted political rights to the burghers and peasants. The defeat of Tadeusz \TKosciuszko\t's national insurrection of 1794 was followed by the partition of 1795, which marked the disappearance of Poland from the map of Europe. Foreign Rule A short-lived Polish state reemerged when Napoleon I established the Grand Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, but in 1815 the Congress of Vienna once more divided the country among Russia, Prussia, and Austria. In the Russian sector, Tsar Alexander I established the Congress Kingdom of Poland with himself as monarch. The failure to obtain concessions from Russia led to the bloody Polish uprising of 1830, which was put down after a nine-month struggle. A second abortive nationalist uprising in the Russian-administered part of Poland occurred in 1863. In the 1870s the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck sought to eliminate Polish culture in the Prussian-occupied lands. In Austrian-controlled \TGalicia\t, on the other hand, the Poles enjoyed considerable autonomy. At the beginning of the 20th century, Polish leaders were divided over the means to employ to regain independence. The most notable representative of the political right was Roman \TDmowski\t, who headed the National Democracy movement. Although statehood was not his overriding priority, Dmowski believed that an ethnically homogeneous Polish nation, free of Ukrainian and Jewish influence and willing to collaborate with the Russian autocracy in the name of \TPan Slavism\t, had the best chance to regain a political identity. On the left, the international socialist movement was split over the issue of Polish independence. Rosa \TLuxemburg\t and Feliks \TDzerzhinsky\t believed that nationalism was anachronistic and that only class struggle would bring about the liberation of all oppressed peoples. Others, including Jozef \TPilsudski\t, argued that the Polish workers' movement should not be subordinated to any other movement. Independence When independence finally came in 1918, it was not the result of Polish insurrection, but of the dissolution of the Russian, German, and Austrian empires at the end of World War I; the ideological foundation of the reborn Polish state owed more to Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points than to the arguments of the Polish right or left. Pilsudski captured this turn in Polish fortunes when he remarked that he got off the streetcar of socialism at the stop called independence. Pilsudski became the dominant political figure in interwar Poland until his death in 1935. In 1920 he led Polish legionnaires against the Russian Bolsheviks in the \TPolish-Soviet War\t with considerable success, winning boundary concessions favorable to Poland in the Treaty of Riga (1921). It did not matter to Pilsudski that 60% of the population in the territories regained from Russia were non-Polish. In 1926, Pilsudski staged a coup d'etat and established a thinly-disguised personal dictatorship. His regime was intended to purge Poland of corrupt elements, but it became increasingly irresponsible itself and could not manage the growing ethnic and social divisions in a class-ridden society. The "colonels' regime" that followed Pilsudski was not able, in turn, to meet the threat posed by Nazism in Germany and failed to conclude defensive security agreements with the other European powers. World War II In September 1939 the German army attacked Poland from the west and the Soviet army from the east. Hitler and Stalin had agreed in the \TNazi-Soviet Pact\t to carve up Poland once again, and after a six-week struggle the nation capitulated. German occupation led to the extermination of Polish Jews at the \TAuschwitz\t, \TTreblinka\t, and Majdanek death camps, and the slaughter of three million ethnic Poles in summary street executions, gas chambers, labor camps, and the \TWarsaw\t UPRISINGS. The Poles suffered at the hands of Russian forces, too. Close to 2 million Poles were removed from territories east of the Bug River and sent to Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the Soviet Far East, many to die in the harsh gulags. The massacre of at least 10,000 Polish officers at Katyn and elsewhere by the Soviet secret police further showed the brutality of the Stalinist regime. The murderous policies toward the Poles were moderated only by Hitler's attack on Russia in June 1941, when Stalin found reason to organize Polish armies for the defense of the \TUSSR\t. By July 1944, Soviet forces had begun to drive the Germans out of eastern parts of Poland, and a pro-Soviet provisional government was established in Lublin. In May 1945 Soviet and Polish armies entered Berlin and placed their national flags atop the Reichstag. Communist Poland Agreements among the victorious Allied powers had placed Poland in the Soviet orbit; by 1948 anti-Communist resistance had been overcome, and the country was firmly in the hands of the Polish United Workers' party, which established a rigid police state. Redrawn boundaries had deprived Poland of its eastern lands, but compensated it with former German territories in the west. Hopes for greater freedom rose in 1956 when Wladyslaw \TGomulka\t came to power in the liberal atmosphere of the "Polish October." Gomulka quickly shut the door on political pluralism, however, and his attacks on the church, the cultural intelligentsia, and protesting students in 1968 were greatly resented. Edward \TGierek\t, who replaced Gomulka as party chief in 1970, helped modernize the Polish economy during his ten years in power, but he also countenanced widespread corruption, graft, and waste. Gierek's overthrow was accomplished by the Solidarity-inspired strikes in the Gdansk shipyards during the summer of 1980. The Solidarity labor union created the first independent social and political movement in postwar Eastern Europe. Its demands for democratic reforms led to the imposition of martial law (December 1981) by Wojciech Jaruzelski, who had taken over leadership of the party and government. The Solidarity movement went underground, and for the rest of the 1980s, Polish society manifested both battle fatigue from the lost political struggle and renewed determination to live as much of its life as possible free from Communist dictates. Mikhail Gorbachev's appointment as Kremlin leader in March 1985 was the signal that the Polish opposition had been waiting for. Exploiting the new liberalization in the region, Lech Walesa and Solidarity, Pope John Paul II and the church hierarchy, and ordinary citizens stung by the deepening economic recession combined to force the Communists to sit down at roundtable talks in 1989. They secured far-reaching political concessions and exploited the resulting opportunities for political competition to drive the Communists from power. On Dec. 9, 1990, Lech Walesa decisively won in the first direct presidential elections in Poland's history. Raymond Taras Bibliography: \TGeneral\t \TWorks\t: Davies, Norman, Heart of Europe (1986); Kaufman, Michael T., Mad Dreams, Saving Graces: Poland, A Nation in Conspiracy (1989); Milosz, Czeslaw, The Captive Mind (1981); Steven, Stewart, The Poles (1982). \LPeople\ls AND \TSociety\t: Hagan, W. W., Germans, Poles, and Jews (1980); Hann, C. M., A Village without Solidarity (1985); Szajkowski, Bogdan, Next to God...Poland (1983). \Teconomics\t: Gomulka, Stanislaw, Growth, Innovation and Reform in Eastern Europe (1986); Landau, Zbigniew, and Roszkowski, Wojciech, The Polish Economy in the Twentieth Century (1985); Marer, Poaul and Sivinski, Wlodzimierz, eds., Creditworthiness and Reform in Poland (1988). \LPolitic\ls AND \Tgovernment\t: Ascherson, Neil, The Polish August (1981); Kolankiewicz, George and Lewis, Paul, Poland: Politics, Economics and Society (1988); Michta, Andrew A., Red Eagle: The Army in Polish Politics, 1944-1988 (1990); Terry, Sarah Meiklejohn, Poland's Place in Europe (1983); Weschler, Lawrence, The Passion of Poland (1984). \Thistory\t: Davies, Norman, God's Playground, 2 vols. (1984); Dziewanowski, M. K., Poland in the Twentieth Century (1977); Fedorowicz, J. K. ed., A Republic of Nobles (1982); Leslie, R. F., The History of Poland since 1863 (1983); Wandycz, Piotr, The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795-1918 (1974); Watt, Richard M., Bitter Glory: Poland and its Fate, 1918-1939 (1979).