Portal:Poland

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

Welcome to the Poland Portal — Witaj w Portalu o Polsce

Cityscape of Kraków, Poland's former capital

Poland is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic to the southwest, Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, Lithuania to the northeast, and the Baltic Sea and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast to the north. It is an ancient nation whose history as a state began near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century when it united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements in the late 18th century, Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. It regained independence as the Second Polish Republic in the aftermath of World War I only to lose it again when it was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. The nation lost over six million citizens in the war, following which it emerged as the communist Polish People's Republic under strong Soviet influence within the Eastern Bloc. A westward border shift followed by forced population transfers after the war turned a once multiethnic country into a mostly homogeneous nation state. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union called Solidarity (Solidarność) that over time became a political force which by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. A shock therapy program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented country completed, Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, but has experienced a constitutional crisis and democratic backsliding since 2015.

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

From Polish history – show another

King Stephen Báthory receiving homage from Russians at Pskov in 1582, as painted by Jan Matejko in 1872

The Livonian War was fought between 1558 and 1583 for control of Old Livonia, the territory of present-day Estonia and Latvia. The Tsardom of Russia faced a variable coalition of Denmark–Norway, Sweden and Poland–Lithuania. The years 1558–1578 were a period of Russian dominance in the region, marked by early successes at Dorpat (Tartu) and Narva, and the dissolution of the Livonian Confederation. The Confederation's collapse brought Poland–Lithuania into conflict with Russia. Stephen Báthory, after becoming king of Poland, eventually turned the tide of the war, with successes between 1578 and 1581, including the joint Polish–Swedish offensive at the Battle of Wenden. This was followed by a long campaign through Russia, before a prolonged and difficult siege of Pskov. The war between Poland-Lithuania and Russia was concluded favourably for the former with the Truce of Yam-Zapolsky in 1582, with Russia losing Polotsk and all its holdings in Livonia to Poland–Lithuania. Sweden gained most of Ingria and northern Livonia, while Russia was left in humiliating defeat and became increasingly isolated from western politics and influence. (Full article...)

More selected articles

edit

Selected image – show another

Gniezno Doors

Credit: Krzysztof Mizera

Prayer of Saint Adalbert, one of 18 scenes in bas-relief, telling the story of Adalbert's life and martyrdom, that decorate the Romanesque bronze Gniezno Doors, the main entrance to the Gniezno Cathedral, which houses relics of the saint. Adalbert (Vojtěch) was a bishop of Prague and a missionary to Hungary, Poland, and Prussia where he was slain in AD 997.

More selected pictures

edit

Did you know – show different entries

... that the thousand-year-old Bishop Petros with Saint Peter the Apostle (pictured) ended up in Poland after being saved from a watery grave?
... that Auschwitz survivor Bat-Sheva Dagan (born Izabella Rubinsztajn in Łódź, Poland) writes Holocaust stories for children that have happy endings "in order not to rob them of their faith in mankind"?
... that Sir Joseph Rotblat, a Polish-born physicist who helped design atomic bombs for the Manhattan Project during World War II, won the Nobel Prize for Peace?
... that the council of the Free City of Danzig Government in Exile was supposedly recognised in secret as the legal successor to the Danzig Senate by ethnic German expellees from Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland)?

More did you know...

edit

You can help!

edit

Selected biography – show another

George Chapman, born Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski, one of many Jack the Ripper suspects

"Jack the Ripper" is the best known pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished districts in and around the Whitechapel district of London's East End in 1888. Attacks ascribed to the Ripper typically involved women prostitutes from the slums whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. As the murders were never solved, the legends surrounding them became a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. Among more than one hundred Jack the Ripper suspects suggested since 1888, there have been several Poles and Polish Jews. These include Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski (pictured), also known as George Chapman, a serial killer executed in 1903; Aaron Kosminski, an insane Jew from Kłodawa; and John Pizer, another Polish Jew, also known as "Leather Apron". In 1987, Martin Fido, a ripperologist, speculated that the crimes may have been committed by Nathan Kaminsky, a Polish Jew who went by a generic Jewish name, David Cohen. The civil parish of Whitechapel around the time of the murders was experiencing an influx of immigrants from Ireland and Eastern Europe; its population was transient, impoverished and often used aliases. The Ripper's true identity will almost certainly never be known. (Full article...)

More selected biographies

edit

Selected location – show another

Silesian Planetarium in Chorzów

Chorzów is a city on the Rawa River in Upper Silesia and part of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, Poland's largest conurbation. Originally called Königshütte in German and Królewska Huta in Polish (both meaning "Royal Iron Works"), it was renamed Chorzów after a merger with a village of that name in 1934. Chorzów used to be one of the most important cities of the Upper Silesian Industrial Region with extensive industry in coal mining, steel, chemistry, manufacturing, and energy sectors. As heavy-industry establishments were either closed or scaled down, or restructured and modernized, the city has been evolving towards service economy. Chorzów is nationally famous for its Silesian Central Park, complete with amusement grounds, a cable line railway, a zoo, a sports stadium, and the largest and oldest planetarium in Poland (pictured). (Full article...)

More selected locations

edit

Poland now

Recent events

On 9 June, the ruling Civic Coalition won the European Parliament election in Poland.
On 8 June, Polish tennis player Iga Świątek (pictured) won the 2024 French Open, her fifth Grand Slam singles title.
On 21 May, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, a composer best known for writing film scores, died at the age of 71.
On 10 May, an unusually spectacular aurora borealis was observed in large parts of Poland due to an intense solar storm.
On 8 April, local elections were held throughout Poland, with run-off votes in some municipalities held on 21 April.