The Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686) with Russia was the final border settlement between the two countries before the First Partition of Poland in 1772. The Commonwealth, subjected to almost constant warfare until 1720, suffered enormous population losses and massive damage to its economy and social structure.
In a resounding break with traditions of religious tolerance, Protestants were executed during the Tumult of Thorn in 1724.
In 1732, Russia, Austria and Prussia, Poland's three increasingly powerful and scheming neighbors, entered into the secret Treaty of the Three Black Eagles with the intention of controlling the future royal succession in the Commonwealth.
The War of the Polish Succession was fought in 1733–1735 to assist Leszczyński in assuming the throne of Poland for a second time.
The first Polish public library was the Załuski Library in Warsaw, opened to the public in 1747. ===Reforms and loss of statehood (1764–1795)=== ====Czartoryski reforms and Stanisław August Poniatowski==== During the later part of the 18th century, fundamental internal reforms were attempted in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as it slid into extinction.
The Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686) with Russia was the final border settlement between the two countries before the First Partition of Poland in 1772. The Commonwealth, subjected to almost constant warfare until 1720, suffered enormous population losses and massive damage to its economy and social structure.
In 1773, the "Partition Sejm" ratified the partition under duress as a fait accompli.
104–8 === Maps === Poland and West-Slavs 800–950 Poland 990–1040 Poland 1040–1090 Poland 1090–1140 Poland 1140–1250 Poland 1250–1290 Poland 1290–1333 Poland 1333–1350 Poland 1350–1370 Poland 1773 Poland 2004
However, it also established the Commission of National Education, a pioneering in Europe education authority often called the world's first ministry of education. ====The Great Sejm of 1788–1791 and the Constitution of 3 May 1791==== The long-lasting session of parliament convened by King Stanisław August is known as the Great Sejm or Four-Year Sejm; it first met in 1788.
Despite the bleak from the standpoint of Polish patriots political situation, economic progress was made in the lands taken over by foreign powers because the period after the Congress of Vienna witnessed a significant development in the building of early industry. Economic historians have made new estimates on GDP per capita, 1790–1910.
Significant internal reforms were introduced in the late 18th century, such as Europe's first Constitution of 3 May 1791, but neighboring powers did not allow the reforms to advance.
However, it also established the Commission of National Education, a pioneering in Europe education authority often called the world's first ministry of education. ====The Great Sejm of 1788–1791 and the Constitution of 3 May 1791==== The long-lasting session of parliament convened by King Stanisław August is known as the Great Sejm or Four-Year Sejm; it first met in 1788.
Its landmark achievement was the passing of the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first singular pronouncement of a supreme law of the state in modern Europe.
The nobility's Targowica Confederation, formed in Russian imperial capital of Saint Petersburg, appealed to Catherine for help, and in May 1792, the Russian army entered the territory of the Commonwealth.
The Polish–Russian War of 1792, a defensive war fought by the forces of the Commonwealth against Russian invaders, ended when the Polish king, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated by joining the Targowica Confederation.
The Russian-allied confederation took over the government, but Russia and Prussia in 1793 arranged for the Second Partition of Poland anyway.
The Commonwealth's Grodno Sejm of 1793, the last Sejm of the state's existence, was compelled to confirm the new partition. ====The Kościuszko Uprising of 1794 and the end of Polish–Lithuanian state==== Radicalized by recent events, Polish reformers (whether in exile or still resident in the reduced area remaining to the Commonwealth) were soon working on preparations for a national insurrection.
The Commonwealth's Grodno Sejm of 1793, the last Sejm of the state's existence, was compelled to confirm the new partition. ====The Kościuszko Uprising of 1794 and the end of Polish–Lithuanian state==== Radicalized by recent events, Polish reformers (whether in exile or still resident in the reduced area remaining to the Commonwealth) were soon working on preparations for a national insurrection.
He returned from abroad and issued Kościuszko's proclamation in Kraków on March 24, 1794.
In the end, it was suppressed by the combined forces of Russia and Prussia, with Warsaw captured in November 1794 in the aftermath of the Battle of Praga. In 1795, a Third Partition of Poland was undertaken by Russia, Prussia and Austria as a final division of territory that resulted in the effective dissolution of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The existence of the Commonwealth ended in 1795 after a series of invasions and partitions of Polish territory carried out by the Russian Empire in the east, the Kingdom of Prussia in the west and the Habsburg Monarchy in the south.
From 1795 until 1918, no truly independent Polish state existed, although strong Polish resistance movements operated.
Stanisław August ruled the Polish–Lithuanian state until its dissolution in 1795.
In the end, it was suppressed by the combined forces of Russia and Prussia, with Warsaw captured in November 1794 in the aftermath of the Battle of Praga. In 1795, a Third Partition of Poland was undertaken by Russia, Prussia and Austria as a final division of territory that resulted in the effective dissolution of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Apart from those who went into exile, the nobility took oaths of loyalty to their new rulers and served as officers in their armies. ==Partitioned Poland (1795–1918)== ===Armed resistance (1795–1864)=== ====Napoleonic wars==== Although no sovereign Polish state existed between 1795 and 1918, the idea of Polish independence was kept alive throughout the 19th century.
Tadeusz Kościuszko, initially imprisoned, was allowed to emigrate to the United States in 1796. The response of the Polish leadership to the last partition is a matter of historical debate.
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski's Polish Legions fought in French campaigns outside of Poland between 1797 and 1802 in hopes that their involvement and contribution would be rewarded with the liberation of their Polish homeland.
The Polish national anthem, "Poland Is Not Yet Lost", or "Dąbrowski's Mazurka", was written in praise of his actions by Józef Wybicki in 1797. The Duchy of Warsaw, a small, semi-independent Polish state, was created in 1807 by Napoleon in the wake of his defeat of Prussia and the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit with Emperor Alexander I of Russia.
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski's Polish Legions fought in French campaigns outside of Poland between 1797 and 1802 in hopes that their involvement and contribution would be rewarded with the liberation of their Polish homeland.
The Polish national anthem, "Poland Is Not Yet Lost", or "Dąbrowski's Mazurka", was written in praise of his actions by Józef Wybicki in 1797. The Duchy of Warsaw, a small, semi-independent Polish state, was created in 1807 by Napoleon in the wake of his defeat of Prussia and the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit with Emperor Alexander I of Russia.
The Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, led by Józef Poniatowski, participated in numerous campaigns in alliance with France, including the successful Austro-Polish War of 1809, which, combined with the outcomes of other theaters of the War of the Fifth Coalition, resulted in an enlargement of the duchy's territory.
Peasants under the Prussian administration were gradually enfranchised under the reforms of 1811 and 1823.
The French invasion of Russia in 1812 and the German Campaign of 1813 saw the duchy's last military engagements.
The French invasion of Russia in 1812 and the German Campaign of 1813 saw the duchy's last military engagements.
The Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw abolished serfdom as a reflection of the ideals of the French Revolution, but it did not promote land reform. ====The Congress of Vienna==== After Napoleon's defeat, a new European order was established at the Congress of Vienna, which met in the years 1814 and 1815.
The Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw abolished serfdom as a reflection of the ideals of the French Revolution, but it did not promote land reform. ====The Congress of Vienna==== After Napoleon's defeat, a new European order was established at the Congress of Vienna, which met in the years 1814 and 1815.
The Congress implemented a new partition scheme, which took into account some of the gains realized by the Poles during the Napoleonic period. The Duchy of Warsaw was replaced in 1815 with a new Kingdom of Poland, unofficially known as Congress Poland.
Peasants under the Prussian administration were gradually enfranchised under the reforms of 1811 and 1823.
They confirm the hypothesis of semi-peripheral development of Polish territories in the 19th century and the slow process of catching-up with the core economies. ====The Uprising of November 1830==== The increasingly repressive policies of the partitioning powers led to resistance movements in partitioned Poland, and in 1830 Polish patriots staged the November Uprising.
Despite the significant resources mobilized, a series of errors by several successive chief commanders appointed by the insurgent Polish National Government led to the defeat of its forces by the Russian army in 1831.
The Greater Poland uprising ended in a fiasco in early 1846.
In the Kraków uprising of February 1846, patriotic action was combined with revolutionary demands, but the result was the incorporation of the Free City of Cracow into the Austrian Partition.
This resulted in the Galician slaughter of 1846, a large-scale rebellion of serfs seeking relief from their post-feudal condition of mandatory labor as practiced in folwarks.
The uprising freed many from bondage and hastened decisions that led to the abolition of Polish serfdom in the Austrian Empire in 1848.
A new wave of Polish involvement in revolutionary movements soon took place in the partitions and in other parts of Europe in the context of the Spring of Nations revolutions of 1848 (e.g.
The 1848 German revolutions precipitated the Greater Poland uprising of 1848, in which peasants in the Prussian Partition, who were by then largely enfranchised, played a prominent role. ====The Uprising of January 1863==== As a matter of continuous policy, the Russian autocracy kept assailing Polish national core values of language, religion and culture.
In consequence, despite the limited liberalization measures allowed in Congress Poland under the rule of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, a renewal of popular liberation activities took place in 1860–1861.
In order to cripple the manpower potential of the Reds, Aleksander Wielopolski, the conservative leader of the government of Congress Poland, arranged for a partial selective conscription of young Poles for the Russian army in the years 1862 and 1863.
The 1848 German revolutions precipitated the Greater Poland uprising of 1848, in which peasants in the Prussian Partition, who were by then largely enfranchised, played a prominent role. ====The Uprising of January 1863==== As a matter of continuous policy, the Russian autocracy kept assailing Polish national core values of language, religion and culture.
In order to cripple the manpower potential of the Reds, Aleksander Wielopolski, the conservative leader of the government of Congress Poland, arranged for a partial selective conscription of young Poles for the Russian army in the years 1862 and 1863.
The uprising lasted from January 1863 to the spring of 1864, when Romuald Traugutt, the last supreme commander of the insurgency, was captured by the tsarist police. On 2 March 1864, the Russian authority, compelled by the uprising to compete for the loyalty of Polish peasants, officially published an enfranchisement decree in Congress Poland along the lines of an earlier land reform proclamation of the insurgents.
The History of Poland since 1863.
The uprising lasted from January 1863 to the spring of 1864, when Romuald Traugutt, the last supreme commander of the insurgency, was captured by the tsarist police. On 2 March 1864, the Russian authority, compelled by the uprising to compete for the loyalty of Polish peasants, officially published an enfranchisement decree in Congress Poland along the lines of an earlier land reform proclamation of the insurgents.
Economically and socially backward, it was under the milder rule of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and from 1867 was increasingly allowed limited autonomy.
In the Prussian Partition, for example, agricultural production depended heavily on the German market, whereas the industrial sector of Congress Poland relied more on the Russian market. ====Nationalism, socialism and other movements==== In the 1870s–1890s, large-scale socialist, nationalist, agrarian and other political movements of great ideological fervor became established in partitioned Poland and Lithuania, along with corresponding political parties to promote them.
The Polish Academy of Learning (an academy of sciences) was founded in Kraków in 1872. Social activities termed "organic work" consisted of self-help organizations that promoted economic advancement and work on improving the competitiveness of Polish-owned businesses, industrial, agricultural or other.
Of the major parties, the socialist First Proletariat was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of National Democracy) in 1887, the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia in 1890, the Polish Socialist Party in 1892, the Marxist Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist Bund in 1897.
Of the major parties, the socialist First Proletariat was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of National Democracy) in 1887, the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia in 1890, the Polish Socialist Party in 1892, the Marxist Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist Bund in 1897.
Around 1890, the urban classes gradually abandoned the positivist ideas and came under the influence of modern pan-European nationalism. ====Economic development and social change==== Under the partitioning powers, economic diversification and progress, including large-scale industrialisation, were introduced in the traditionally agrarian Polish lands, but this development turned out to be very uneven.
Galician economic expansion after 1890 included oil extraction and resulted in the growth of Lemberg (Lwów, Lviv) and Kraków. Economic and social changes involving land reform and industrialization, combined with the effects of foreign domination, altered the centuries-old social structure of Polish society.
Of the major parties, the socialist First Proletariat was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of National Democracy) in 1887, the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia in 1890, the Polish Socialist Party in 1892, the Marxist Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist Bund in 1897.
Of the major parties, the socialist First Proletariat was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of National Democracy) in 1887, the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia in 1890, the Polish Socialist Party in 1892, the Marxist Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist Bund in 1897.
Of the major parties, the socialist First Proletariat was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of National Democracy) in 1887, the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia in 1890, the Polish Socialist Party in 1892, the Marxist Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist Bund in 1897.
Of the major parties, the socialist First Proletariat was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of National Democracy) in 1887, the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia in 1890, the Polish Socialist Party in 1892, the Marxist Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist Bund in 1897.
Of the major parties, the socialist First Proletariat was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of National Democracy) in 1887, the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia in 1890, the Polish Socialist Party in 1892, the Marxist Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist Bund in 1897.
In this same era, Marie Skłodowska Curie, a pioneer radiation scientist, performed her groundbreaking research in Paris. ====The Revolution of 1905==== The Revolution of 1905–1907 in Russian Poland, the result of many years of pent-up political frustrations and stifled national ambitions, was marked by political maneuvering, strikes and rebellion.
The revolt was part of much broader disturbances throughout the Russian Empire associated with the general Revolution of 1905.
Ethnically Polish settlement spread over a large area further to the east, including its greatest concentration in the Vilnius Region, amounted to only over 20% of that number. Polish paramilitary organizations oriented toward independence, such as the Union of Active Struggle, were formed in 1908–1914, mainly in Galicia.
Warsaw (a metallurgical center) and Łódź (a textiles center) grew rapidly, as did the total proportion of urban population, making the region the most economically advanced in the Russian Empire (industrial production exceeded agricultural production there by 1909).
Piłsudski's paramilitary units stationed in Galicia were turned into the Polish Legions in 1914 and as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Army fought on the Russian front until 1917, when the formation was disbanded.
Piłsudski, who refused demands that his men fight under German command, was arrested and imprisoned by the Germans and became a heroic symbol of Polish nationalism. Due to a series of German victories on the Eastern Front, the area of Congress Poland became occupied by the Central Powers of Germany and Austria; Warsaw was captured by the Germans on 5 August 1915.
In the Act of 5th November 1916, a fresh incarnation of the Kingdom of Poland (Królestwo Regencyjne) was proclaimed by Germany and Austria on formerly Russian-controlled territories, within the German Mitteleuropa scheme.
Piłsudski's paramilitary units stationed in Galicia were turned into the Polish Legions in 1914 and as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Army fought on the Russian front until 1917, when the formation was disbanded.
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and then the leaders of the February Revolution and the October Revolution of 1917, installed governments who declared in turn their support for Polish independence.
In 1917, France formed the Blue Army (placed under Józef Haller) that comprised about 70,000 Poles by the end of the war, including men captured from German and Austrian units and 20,000 volunteers from the United States.
From 1795 until 1918, no truly independent Polish state existed, although strong Polish resistance movements operated.
The opportunity to regain sovereignty only materialized after World War I, when the three partitioning imperial powers were fatally weakened in the wake of war and revolution. The Second Polish Republic was established in 1918 and existed as an independent state until 1939, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, marking the beginning of World War II.
Apart from those who went into exile, the nobility took oaths of loyalty to their new rulers and served as officers in their armies. ==Partitioned Poland (1795–1918)== ===Armed resistance (1795–1864)=== ====Napoleonic wars==== Although no sovereign Polish state existed between 1795 and 1918, the idea of Polish independence was kept alive throughout the 19th century.
This increasingly autonomous puppet state existed until November 1918, when it was replaced by the newly established Republic of Poland.
The existence of this "kingdom" and its planned Polish army had a positive effect on the Polish national efforts on the Allied side, but in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918 the victorious in the east Germany imposed harsh conditions on defeated Russia and ignored Polish interests.
On the initiative of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, Polish independence was officially endorsed by the Allies in June 1918. In all, about two million Poles served in the war, counting both sides, and about 400–450,000 died.
Much of the fighting on the Eastern Front took place in Poland, and civilian casualties and devastation were high. The final push for independence of Poland took place on the ground in October–November 1918.
Lviv was then contested in the Polish–Ukrainian War of 1918–1919.
Overtaken by the German Revolution of 1918–1919 at home, the Germans released Piłsudski from prison.
The dispute helped engender the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919, the three Silesian uprisings of 1919–1921, the East Prussian plebiscite of 1920, the Upper Silesia plebiscite of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in Geneva. Other boundaries were settled by war and subsequent treaties.
A total of six border wars were fought in 1918–1921, including the Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts over Cieszyn Silesia in January 1919. As distressing as these border conflicts were, the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921 was the most important series of military actions of the era.
Piłsudski had entertained far-reaching anti-Russian cooperative designs in Eastern Europe, and in 1919 the Polish forces pushed eastward into Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine by taking advantage of the Russian preoccupation with a civil war, but they were soon confronted with the Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919.
In the last case, Poland was denied the city of Danzig on the Baltic coast. d1.The government of Soviet Russia issued in August 1918 a decree strongly supportive of the independence of Poland, but at that time no Polish lands were under Russian control. ==References== === Citations === === Works cited === ==Bibliography== More recent general history of Poland books in English Biskupski, M.
The emerging Polish state was internally divided, heavily war-damaged and economically dysfunctional. ==Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)== ===Securing national borders, war with Soviet Russia=== After more than a century of foreign rule, Poland regained its independence at the end of World War I as one of the outcomes of the negotiations that took place at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.
The dispute helped engender the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919, the three Silesian uprisings of 1919–1921, the East Prussian plebiscite of 1920, the Upper Silesia plebiscite of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in Geneva. Other boundaries were settled by war and subsequent treaties.
A total of six border wars were fought in 1918–1921, including the Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts over Cieszyn Silesia in January 1919. As distressing as these border conflicts were, the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921 was the most important series of military actions of the era.
Piłsudski had entertained far-reaching anti-Russian cooperative designs in Eastern Europe, and in 1919 the Polish forces pushed eastward into Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine by taking advantage of the Russian preoccupation with a civil war, but they were soon confronted with the Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919.
Western Ukraine was already a theater of the Polish–Ukrainian War, which eliminated the proclaimed West Ukrainian People's Republic in July 1919.
In the autumn of 1919, Piłsudski rejected urgent pleas from the former Entente powers to support Anton Denikin's White movement in its advance on Moscow.
Lenin also hoped for generating support for the Red Army in Poland, which failed to materialize. Piłsudski's seizure of Vilnius in October 1920 (known as Żeligowski's Mutiny) was a nail in the coffin of the already poor Lithuania–Poland relations that had been strained by the Polish–Lithuanian War of 1919–1920; both states would remain hostile to one another for the remainder of the interwar period.
Narutowicz and his supporters were subjected to an intense harassment campaign, and the president was assassinated on 16 December 1922, after serving only five days in office. Land reform measures were passed in 1919 and 1925 under pressure from an impoverished peasantry.
The dispute helped engender the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919, the three Silesian uprisings of 1919–1921, the East Prussian plebiscite of 1920, the Upper Silesia plebiscite of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in Geneva. Other boundaries were settled by war and subsequent treaties.
The Polish–Soviet War proper began with the Polish Kiev Offensive in April 1920.
Lenin also hoped for generating support for the Red Army in Poland, which failed to materialize. Piłsudski's seizure of Vilnius in October 1920 (known as Żeligowski's Mutiny) was a nail in the coffin of the already poor Lithuania–Poland relations that had been strained by the Polish–Lithuanian War of 1919–1920; both states would remain hostile to one another for the remainder of the interwar period.
Poland endured numerous economic calamities and disruptions in the early 1920s, including waves of workers' strikes such as the 1923 Kraków riot.
The dispute helped engender the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919, the three Silesian uprisings of 1919–1921, the East Prussian plebiscite of 1920, the Upper Silesia plebiscite of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in Geneva. Other boundaries were settled by war and subsequent treaties.
The new eastern boundary was finalized by the Peace of Riga in March 1921. The defeat of the Russian armies forced Vladimir Lenin and the Soviet leadership to postpone their strategic objective of linking up with the German and other European revolutionary leftist collaborators to spread communist revolution.
The permanent March Constitution of Poland was adopted in March 1921.
Joseph Stalin opted for a larger version, allowing a "swap" (territorial compensation for Poland), which involved the eastern lands gained by Poland at the Peace of Riga of 1921 and now lost, and eastern Germany conquered from the Nazis in 1944–1945.
The dispute helped engender the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919, the three Silesian uprisings of 1919–1921, the East Prussian plebiscite of 1920, the Upper Silesia plebiscite of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in Geneva. Other boundaries were settled by war and subsequent treaties.
The open-minded Gabriel Narutowicz was elected president constitutionally (without a popular vote) by the National Assembly in 1922.
Narutowicz and his supporters were subjected to an intense harassment campaign, and the president was assassinated on 16 December 1922, after serving only five days in office. Land reform measures were passed in 1919 and 1925 under pressure from an impoverished peasantry.
Poland endured numerous economic calamities and disruptions in the early 1920s, including waves of workers' strikes such as the 1923 Kraków riot.
Narutowicz and his supporters were subjected to an intense harassment campaign, and the president was assassinated on 16 December 1922, after serving only five days in office. Land reform measures were passed in 1919 and 1925 under pressure from an impoverished peasantry.
The German–Polish customs war, initiated by Germany in 1925, was one of the most damaging external factors that put a strain on Poland's economy.
At the insistence of the National Democrats, who were concerned about how aggressively Józef Piłsudski might exercise presidential powers if he were elected to office, the constitution mandated limited prerogatives for the presidency. The proclamation of the March Constitution was followed by a short and turbulent period of constitutional order and parliamentary democracy that lasted until 1926.
The slow modernization after Piłsudski's death fell far behind the progress made by Poland's neighbors and measures to protect the western border, discontinued by Piłsudski from 1926, were not undertaken until March 1939. Sanation deputies in the Sejm used a parliamentary maneuver to abolish the democratic March Constitution and push through a more authoritarian April Constitution in 1935; it reduced the powers of the Sejm, which Piłsudski despised.
It outpaced Kraków, Lwów and Wilno, the other major population centers of the country. Mainstream Polish society was not affected by the repressions of the Sanation authorities overall; many Poles enjoyed relative stability, and the economy improved markedly between 1926 and 1929, only to become caught up in the global Great Depression.
Another major opponent of Piłsudski, General Włodzimierz Zagórski, disappeared in 1927.
The Centrolew, a coalition of center-left parties, was formed in 1929, and in 1930 called for the "abolition of dictatorship".
It outpaced Kraków, Lwów and Wilno, the other major population centers of the country. Mainstream Polish society was not affected by the repressions of the Sanation authorities overall; many Poles enjoyed relative stability, and the economy improved markedly between 1926 and 1929, only to become caught up in the global Great Depression.
After 1929, the country's industrial production and gross national income slumped by about 50%. The Great Depression brought low prices for farmers and unemployment for workers.
The Centrolew, a coalition of center-left parties, was formed in 1929, and in 1930 called for the "abolition of dictatorship".
In 1930, the Sejm was dissolved and a number of opposition deputies were imprisoned at the Brest Fortress.
Five thousand political opponents were arrested ahead of the Polish legislative election of 1930, which was rigged to award a majority of seats to the pro-regime Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR). The authoritarian Sanation regime ("sanation" meant to denote "healing") that Piłsudski led until his death in 1935 (and would remain in place until 1939) reflected the dictator's evolution from his center-left past to conservative alliances.
From 1930, persistent opponents of the regime, many of the leftist persuasion, were imprisoned and subjected to staged legal processes with harsh sentences, such as the Brest trials, or else detained in the Bereza Kartuska prison and similar camps for political prisoners.
In interwar Poland, compulsory free general education substantially reduced illiteracy rates, but discrimination was practiced in a way that resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of Ukrainian language schools and official restrictions on Jewish attendance at selected schools in the late 1930s. The population grew steadily, reaching 35 million in 1939.
They had neither the vision nor the resources to cope with the perilous situation facing Poland in the late 1930s.
One of the groups, the Camp of National Unity, combined many nationalists with Sanation supporters and was connected to the new strongman, Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły, whose faction of the Sanation ruling movement was increasingly nationalistic. In the late 1930s, the exile bloc Front Morges united several major Polish anti-Sanation figures, including Ignacy Paderewski, Władysław Sikorski, Wincenty Witos, Wojciech Korfanty and Józef Haller.
OUN engaged in political assassinations, terror and sabotage, to which the Polish state responded with a repressive campaign in the 1930s, as Józef Piłsudski and his successors imposed collective responsibility on the villagers in the affected areas.
In the late 1930s, after Piłsudski's death, military persecution intensified and a policy of "national assimilation" was aggressively pursued.
According to the language criterion of the Polish census of 1931, the Poles constituted 69% of the population, Ukrainians 15%, Jews (defined as speakers of the Yiddish language) 8.5%, Belarusians 4.7%, Germans 2.2%, Lithuanians 0.25%, Russians 0.25% and Czechs 0.09%, with some geographical areas dominated by a particular minority.
The last available enumeration of ethnic Poles and the large ethnic minorities is the Polish census of 1931.
Rebellious peasants staged riots in 1932, 1933 and the 1937 peasant strike in Poland.
Besides sponsoring political repression, the regime fostered Józef Piłsudski's cult of personality that had already existed long before he assumed dictatorial powers. Piłsudski signed the Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact in 1932 and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression in 1934, but in 1933 he insisted that there was no threat from the East or West and said that Poland's politics were focused on becoming fully independent without serving foreign interests.
Rebellious peasants staged riots in 1932, 1933 and the 1937 peasant strike in Poland.
Besides sponsoring political repression, the regime fostered Józef Piłsudski's cult of personality that had already existed long before he assumed dictatorial powers. Piłsudski signed the Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact in 1932 and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression in 1934, but in 1933 he insisted that there was no threat from the East or West and said that Poland's politics were focused on becoming fully independent without serving foreign interests.
An invasion to Danzig by Poland was scheduled for April 21, 1933, but the amassing of troops was discovered and the invasion was postponed.
Between 1933 and 1934 Germany would increase its armament expenditures by 68%, and by January 1934 the two powers would sign a ten-year non-aggression pact. When Marshal Piłsudski died in 1935, he retained the support of dominant sections of Polish society even though he never risked testing his popularity in an honest election.
After the disturbances of 1933 and 1934, the Bereza Kartuska prison camp was established; it became notorious for its brutal regime.
About three thousand were detained without trial at different times at the Bereza internment camp between 1934 and 1939.
Besides sponsoring political repression, the regime fostered Józef Piłsudski's cult of personality that had already existed long before he assumed dictatorial powers. Piłsudski signed the Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact in 1932 and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression in 1934, but in 1933 he insisted that there was no threat from the East or West and said that Poland's politics were focused on becoming fully independent without serving foreign interests.
Between 1933 and 1934 Germany would increase its armament expenditures by 68%, and by January 1934 the two powers would sign a ten-year non-aggression pact. When Marshal Piłsudski died in 1935, he retained the support of dominant sections of Polish society even though he never risked testing his popularity in an honest election.
After the disturbances of 1933 and 1934, the Bereza Kartuska prison camp was established; it became notorious for its brutal regime.
Five thousand political opponents were arrested ahead of the Polish legislative election of 1930, which was rigged to award a majority of seats to the pro-regime Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR). The authoritarian Sanation regime ("sanation" meant to denote "healing") that Piłsudski led until his death in 1935 (and would remain in place until 1939) reflected the dictator's evolution from his center-left past to conservative alliances.
The slow modernization after Piłsudski's death fell far behind the progress made by Poland's neighbors and measures to protect the western border, discontinued by Piłsudski from 1926, were not undertaken until March 1939. Sanation deputies in the Sejm used a parliamentary maneuver to abolish the democratic March Constitution and push through a more authoritarian April Constitution in 1935; it reduced the powers of the Sejm, which Piłsudski despised.
Between 1933 and 1934 Germany would increase its armament expenditures by 68%, and by January 1934 the two powers would sign a ten-year non-aggression pact. When Marshal Piłsudski died in 1935, he retained the support of dominant sections of Polish society even though he never risked testing his popularity in an honest election.
The Polish ruling elites considered the Soviets in some ways more threatening than the Nazis. The Soviet Union repeatedly declared intention to fulfill its obligations under the 1935 treaty with Czechoslovakia and defend Czechoslovakia militarily.
In 1936 for example, 369 activists were taken there, including 342 Polish communists.
events of the "Bloody Spring" of 1936), nationalist Ukrainians and the activists of the incipient Belarusian movement.
A major economic transformation and multi-year state plan to achieve national industrial development, as embodied in the Central Industrial Region initiative launched in 1936, was led by Minister Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski.
Edward Rydz-Śmigły rebuked the French suggestion on that matter in 1936, and in 1938 Józef Beck pressured Romania not to allow even Soviet warplanes to fly over its territory.
Rebellious peasants staged riots in 1932, 1933 and the 1937 peasant strike in Poland.
In the case of the 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania, the Polish action nearly resulted in a German takeover of southwest Lithuania, the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory), which had a largely German population.
Also in 1938, the Polish government opportunistically undertook a hostile action against the Czechoslovak state as weakened by the Munich Agreement and annexed a small piece of territory on its borders.
It gained little influence inside Poland, but its spirit soon reappeared during World War II, within the Polish government-in-exile. In October 1938, Joachim von Ribbentrop first proposed German-Polish territorial adjustments and Poland's participation in the Anti-Comintern Pact against the Soviet Union.
Edward Rydz-Śmigły rebuked the French suggestion on that matter in 1936, and in 1938 Józef Beck pressured Romania not to allow even Soviet warplanes to fly over its territory.
The opportunity to regain sovereignty only materialized after World War I, when the three partitioning imperial powers were fatally weakened in the wake of war and revolution. The Second Polish Republic was established in 1918 and existed as an independent state until 1939, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, marking the beginning of World War II.
Millions of Polish citizens of different faiths or identities perished in the course of the Nazi occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945 through planned genocide and extermination.
Five thousand political opponents were arrested ahead of the Polish legislative election of 1930, which was rigged to award a majority of seats to the pro-regime Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR). The authoritarian Sanation regime ("sanation" meant to denote "healing") that Piłsudski led until his death in 1935 (and would remain in place until 1939) reflected the dictator's evolution from his center-left past to conservative alliances.
About three thousand were detained without trial at different times at the Bereza internment camp between 1934 and 1939.
The slow modernization after Piłsudski's death fell far behind the progress made by Poland's neighbors and measures to protect the western border, discontinued by Piłsudski from 1926, were not undertaken until March 1939. Sanation deputies in the Sejm used a parliamentary maneuver to abolish the democratic March Constitution and push through a more authoritarian April Constitution in 1935; it reduced the powers of the Sejm, which Piłsudski despised.
In interwar Poland, compulsory free general education substantially reduced illiteracy rates, but discrimination was practiced in a way that resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of Ukrainian language schools and official restrictions on Jewish attendance at selected schools in the late 1930s. The population grew steadily, reaching 35 million in 1939.
Approached by Ribbentrop again in March 1939, the Polish government expressed willingness to address issues causing German concern, but effectively rejected Germany's stated demands and thus refused to allow Poland to be turned by Adolf Hitler into a German puppet state.
Attempts were therefore made by them to induce Soviet-Polish cooperation, which they viewed as the only militarily viable arrangement. Diplomatic manoeuvers continued in the spring and summer of 1939, but in their final attempts, the Franco-British talks with the Soviets in Moscow on forming an anti-Nazi defensive military alliance failed.
The final contentious Allied-Soviet exchanges took place on 21 and 23 August 1939.
On 23 August, an outcome contrary to the exertions of the Allies became a reality: in Moscow, Germany and the Soviet Union hurriedly signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which secretly provided for the dismemberment of Poland into Nazi- and Soviet-controlled zones. ==World War II== ===Invasions and resistance=== On 1 September 1939, Hitler ordered an invasion of Poland, the opening event of World War II.
The Polish Army of nearly one million men significantly delayed the start of the Battle of France, planned by the Germans for 1939.
Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations, broken since September 1939, were resumed in July 1941 under the Sikorski–Mayski agreement, which facilitated the formation of a Polish army (the Anders' Army) in the Soviet Union.
It was opposed by the gradually forming extreme nationalistic National Armed Forces. Beginning in late 1939, hundreds of thousands of Poles from the Soviet-occupied areas were deported and taken east.
Exact population figures for 1939 are therefore not known. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, at least 3 million Polish Jews and at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians were killed.
The Poles were to be expelled from areas controlled by Nazi Germany through a process of resettlement that started in 1939.
In October 1939, the British Foreign Office notified the Soviets that the United Kingdom would be satisfied with a postwar creation of small ethnic Poland, patterned after the Duchy of Warsaw.
This number would have likely been many times higher had Poland entered into an alliance with Germany in 1939, as advocated by some Polish historians and others. e.Some may have falsely claimed the Jewish identity hoping for permission to emigrate.
Rydz-Śmigły did not allow General Władysław Sikorski, an enemy of the Sanation movement, to participate as a soldier in the country's defense against the Invasion of Poland in September 1939.
The Poles formed an underground resistance movement and a Polish government-in-exile that operated first in Paris, then, from July 1940, in London.
Further significant Jewish emigration followed events such as the Polish October political thaw of 1956 and the 1968 Polish political crisis. In 1940–1941, some 325,000 Polish citizens were deported by the Soviet regime.
Snyder, about 70,000 Poles and about 20,000 Ukrainians were killed in the ethnic violence that occurred in the 1940s, both during and after the war. According to an estimate by historian Jan Grabowski, about 50,000 of the 250,000 Polish Jews who escaped the Nazis during the liquidation of ghettos survived without leaving Poland (the remainder perished).
The latter were dismantled in the late 1940s as not socialist enough, although they were later re-established; even small-scale private enterprises were eradicated.
Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations, broken since September 1939, were resumed in July 1941 under the Sikorski–Mayski agreement, which facilitated the formation of a Polish army (the Anders' Army) in the Soviet Union.
In November 1941, Prime Minister Sikorski flew to the Soviet Union to negotiate with Stalin on its role on the Soviet-German front, but the British wanted the Polish soldiers in the Middle East.
The pro-Soviet resistance movement in Poland, led by the Polish Workers' Party, was active from 1941.
The Soviets claimed that the Poles committed a hostile act by requesting that the Red Cross investigate these reports. From 1941, the implementation of the Nazi Final Solution began, and the Holocaust in Poland proceeded with force.
The Cambridge History of Poland, 2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941 (1697–1935), 1950 (to 1696).
History of Poland, New York: Roy Publishers, 1942.
In April 1943, the Soviet Union broke off deteriorating relations with the Polish government-in-exile after the German military announced the discovery of mass graves containing murdered Polish army officers.
Warsaw was the scene of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April–May 1943, triggered by the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto by German SS units.
The Polish First Army, fighting alongside the Soviet Red Army, entered a devastated Warsaw on 17 January 1945. ===Allied conferences, Polish governments=== From the time of the Tehran Conference in late 1943, there was broad agreement among the three Great Powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union) that the locations of the borders between Germany and Poland and between Poland and the Soviet Union would be fundamentally changed after the conclusion of World War II.
The number of Polish citizens who died at the hands of the Soviets is estimated at less than 100,000. In 1943–1944, Ukrainian nationalists associated with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army perpetrated the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
An establishment of Poland restricted to "minimal size", according to ethnographic boundaries (such as the lands common to both the prewar Poland and postwar Poland), was planned by the Soviet People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in 1943–1944.
The Soviet Union did not want to appear as an aggressor, and moved its troops to eastern Poland under the pretext of offering protection to "the kindred Ukrainian and Belorussian people". i.Joseph Stalin at the 1943 Tehran Conference discussed with Winston Churchill and Franklin D.
From 1943, the leaders of the nationalistic NSZ collaborated with Nazi Germany in a case unique in occupied Poland.
Around that time, Polish-communist civilian and military organizations opposed to the government, led by Wanda Wasilewska and supported by Stalin, were formed in the Soviet Union. In July 1944, the Soviet Red Army and Soviet-controlled Polish People's Army entered the territory of future postwar Poland.
In protracted fighting in 1944 and 1945, the Soviets and their Polish allies defeated and expelled the German army from Poland at a cost of over 600,000 Soviet soldiers lost. The greatest single undertaking of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and a major political event was the Warsaw Uprising that began on 1 August 1944.
The communist-led State National Council, a quasi-parliamentary body, was in existence in Warsaw from the beginning of 1944.
In July 1944, a communist-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation was established in Lublin, to nominally govern the areas liberated from German control.
The PPS, re-established in 1944 by its left wing, had since been allied with the communists.
A key event in the persecution of the Polish Church was the Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia in January 1953. In the Warsaw Pact, formed in 1955, the Polish Army was the second largest, after the Soviet Army. ===Economic and social developments of the early communist era=== In 1944, large agricultural holdings and former German property in Poland started to be redistributed through land reform, and industry started to be nationalized.
Those who stayed behind took advantage of the implementation of the 1944 land reform decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation, which terminated the antiquated but widespread parafeudal socioeconomic relations in Poland.
Such territorial reduction was recommended by Ivan Maisky to Vyacheslav Molotov in early 1944, because of what Maisky saw as Poland's historically unfriendly disposition toward Russia and the Soviet Union, likely in some way to continue.
Joseph Stalin opted for a larger version, allowing a "swap" (territorial compensation for Poland), which involved the eastern lands gained by Poland at the Peace of Riga of 1921 and now lost, and eastern Germany conquered from the Nazis in 1944–1945.
Millions of Polish citizens of different faiths or identities perished in the course of the Nazi occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945 through planned genocide and extermination.
In protracted fighting in 1944 and 1945, the Soviets and their Polish allies defeated and expelled the German army from Poland at a cost of over 600,000 Soviet soldiers lost. The greatest single undertaking of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and a major political event was the Warsaw Uprising that began on 1 August 1944.
The Polish First Army, fighting alongside the Soviet Red Army, entered a devastated Warsaw on 17 January 1945. ===Allied conferences, Polish governments=== From the time of the Tehran Conference in late 1943, there was broad agreement among the three Great Powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union) that the locations of the borders between Germany and Poland and between Poland and the Soviet Union would be fundamentally changed after the conclusion of World War II.
The move prompted protests from Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk and his Polish government-in-exile. By the time of the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the communists had already established a Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland.
About 1% (100,000) of the German civilian population east of the Oder–Neisse line perished in the fighting prior to the surrender in May 1945, and afterwards some 200,000 Germans in Poland were employed as forced labor prior to being expelled.
The remaining members of ethnic minorities were not encouraged, by the authorities or by their neighbors, to emphasize their ethnic identities. ==Polish People's Republic (1945–1989)== ===Post-war struggle for power=== In response to the February 1945 Yalta Conference directives, a Polish Provisional Government of National Unity was formed in June 1945 under Soviet auspices; it was soon recognized by the United States and many other countries.
The Soviet domination was apparent from the beginning, as prominent leaders of the Polish Underground State were brought to trial in Moscow (the "Trial of the Sixteen" of June 1945).
Communist restructuring and the imposition of work-space rules encountered active worker opposition already in the years 1945–1947.
After 1945, the Polish communist regime wholeheartedly adopted and promoted the Piast Concept, making it the centerpiece of their claim to be the true inheritors of Polish nationalism.
After 1945, the so-called "autochthonous" or "aboriginal" school of Polish prehistory received official backing and a considerable degree of popular support in Poland.
Historical Dictionary of Poland, 1945–1996.
More were repatriated from the Soviet Union and elsewhere, and the February 1946 population census showed about 300,000 Jews within Poland's new borders.
The Polish right-wing insurgency faded after the amnesty of February 1947. The Polish people's referendum of June 1946 was arranged by the communist Polish Workers' Party to legitimize its dominance in Polish politics and claim widespread support for the party's policies.
Of the Ukrainians and Lemkos living in Poland within the new borders (about 700,000), close to 95% were forcibly moved to the Soviet Ukraine, or (in 1947) to the new territories in northern and western Poland under Operation Vistula.
The Polish right-wing insurgency faded after the amnesty of February 1947. The Polish people's referendum of June 1946 was arranged by the communist Polish Workers' Party to legitimize its dominance in Polish politics and claim widespread support for the party's policies.
Although the Yalta agreement called for free elections, the Polish legislative election of January 1947 was controlled by the communists.
Some democratic and pro-Western elements, led by Stanisław Mikołajczyk, former prime minister-in-exile, participated in the Provisional Government and the 1947 elections, but were ultimately eliminated through electoral fraud, intimidation and violence.
However, after the 1947 elections, the Government of National Unity ceased to exist and the communists moved towards abolishing the post-war partially pluralistic "people's democracy" and replacing it with a state socialist system.
The communist-dominated front Democratic Bloc of the 1947 elections, turned into the Front of National Unity in 1952, became officially the source of governmental authority.
The PPR chief had been its wartime leader Władysław Gomułka, who in 1947 declared a "Polish road to socialism" as intended to curb, rather than eradicate, capitalist elements.
The moderate Three-Year Plan of 1947–1949 continued with the rebuilding, socialization and socialist restructuring of the economy.
The rejection of the Marshall Plan in 1947 made aspirations for catching up with West European standards of living unrealistic. The government's highest economic priority was the development of heavy industry useful to the military.
The name change from the Polish Republic was not officially adopted, however, until the proclamation of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic in 1952. The ruling PZPR was formed by the forced amalgamation in December 1948 of the communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and the historically non-communist Polish Socialist Party (PPS).
In 1948 he was overruled, removed and imprisoned by Stalinist authorities.
The independent Catholic Church in Poland was subjected to property confiscations and other curtailments from 1949, and in 1950 was pressured into signing an accord with the government.
Of the surviving Jews, many chose to emigrate or felt compelled to because of the anti-Jewish violence in Poland. Because of changing borders and the mass movements of people of various nationalities, the emerging communist Poland ended up with a mainly homogeneous, ethnically Polish population (97.6% according to the December 1950 census).
The independent Catholic Church in Poland was subjected to property confiscations and other curtailments from 1949, and in 1950 was pressured into signing an accord with the government.
It was followed by the Six-Year Plan of 1950–1955 for [industry].
"Territorial self-government", abolished in 1950, was legislated back in March 1990, to be led by locally elected officials; its fundamental unit was the administratively independent gmina. In October 1990, the constitution was amended to curtail the term of President Jaruzelski.
The Cambridge History of Poland, 2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941 (1697–1935), 1950 (to 1696).
The communist-dominated front Democratic Bloc of the 1947 elections, turned into the Front of National Unity in 1952, became officially the source of governmental authority.
The name change from the Polish Republic was not officially adopted, however, until the proclamation of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic in 1952. The ruling PZPR was formed by the forced amalgamation in December 1948 of the communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and the historically non-communist Polish Socialist Party (PPS).
In 1953 and later, despite a partial thaw after the death of Stalin that year, the persecution of the Church intensified and its head, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, was detained.
A key event in the persecution of the Polish Church was the Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia in January 1953. In the Warsaw Pact, formed in 1955, the Polish Army was the second largest, after the Soviet Army. ===Economic and social developments of the early communist era=== In 1944, large agricultural holdings and former German property in Poland started to be redistributed through land reform, and industry started to be nationalized.
A key event in the persecution of the Polish Church was the Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia in January 1953. In the Warsaw Pact, formed in 1955, the Polish Army was the second largest, after the Soviet Army. ===Economic and social developments of the early communist era=== In 1944, large agricultural holdings and former German property in Poland started to be redistributed through land reform, and industry started to be nationalized.
Further significant Jewish emigration followed events such as the Polish October political thaw of 1956 and the 1968 Polish political crisis. In 1940–1941, some 325,000 Polish citizens were deported by the Soviet regime.
A majority of Poland's residents of cities and towns still live in apartment blocks built during the communist era, in part to accommodate migrants from rural areas. ===The Thaw and Gomułka's Polish October (1955–1958)=== In March 1956, after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow ushered in de-Stalinization, Edward Ochab was chosen to replace the deceased Bolesław Bierut as first secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party.
Worker riots in Poznań in June 1956 were violently suppressed, but they gave rise to the formation of a reformist current within the communist party. Amidst the continuing social and national upheaval, a further shakeup took place in the party leadership as part of what is known as the Polish October of 1956.
37.5% of people with higher education perished, 30% of those with general secondary education, and 53.3% of trade school graduates. k.Decisive political events took place in Poland shortly before the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Władysław Gomułka, a reformist party leader, was reinstated to the Politburo of the PZPR and the Eighth Plenum of its Central Committee was announced to convene on 19 October 1956, all without seeking a Soviet approval.
State-mandated provisions of agricultural products at fixed, artificially low prices were reduced, and from 1972 eliminated. The legislative election of 1957 was followed by several years of political stability that was accompanied by economic stagnation and curtailment of reforms and reformists.
One of the last initiatives of the brief reform era was a nuclear weapons–free zone in Central Europe proposed in 1957 by Adam Rapacki, Poland's foreign minister. Culture in the Polish People's Republic, to varying degrees linked to the intelligentsia's opposition to the authoritarian system, developed to a sophisticated level under Gomułka and his successors.
In 1966, the celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary of the Christianization of Poland led by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and other bishops turned into a huge demonstration of the power and popularity of the Catholic Church in Poland. The post-1956 liberalizing trend, in decline for a number of years, was reversed in March 1968, when student demonstrations were suppressed during the 1968 Polish political crisis.
Using the context of the military victory of Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, some in the Polish communist leadership waged an antisemitic campaign against the remnants of the Jewish community in Poland.
Further significant Jewish emigration followed events such as the Polish October political thaw of 1956 and the 1968 Polish political crisis. In 1940–1941, some 325,000 Polish citizens were deported by the Soviet regime.
In 1966, the celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary of the Christianization of Poland led by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and other bishops turned into a huge demonstration of the power and popularity of the Catholic Church in Poland. The post-1956 liberalizing trend, in decline for a number of years, was reversed in March 1968, when student demonstrations were suppressed during the 1968 Polish political crisis.
Warsaw: PWN, 1968 History of Poland, Stefan Kieniewicz et al.
In particular, West Germany recognized the post-World War II de facto border between Poland and East Germany. ===Worker revolts, reforms of Gierek, the Polish pope and Solidarity (1970–1981)=== Price increases for essential consumer goods triggered the Polish protests of 1970.
The opposition circles active in the late 1970s were emboldened by the Helsinki Conference processes. In October 1978, the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła, became Pope John Paul II, head of the Catholic Church.
Catholics and others rejoiced at the elevation of a Pole to the papacy and greeted his June 1979 visit to Poland with an outpouring of emotion. Fueled by large infusions of Western credit, Poland's economic growth rate was one of the world's highest during the first half of the 1970s, but much of the borrowed capital was misspent, and the centrally planned economy was unable to use the new resources effectively.
The growing debt burden became insupportable in the late 1970s, and negative economic growth set in by 1979. Around 1 July 1980, with the Polish foreign debt standing at more than $20 billion, the government made yet another attempt to increase meat prices.
The new regime was seen as more modern, friendly and pragmatic, and at first it enjoyed a degree of popular and foreign support. To revitalize the economy, from 1971 the Gierek regime introduced wide-ranging reforms that involved large-scale foreign borrowing.
New York: Octagon Books, 1971 online edition vol 1 to 1696, old fashioned but highly detailed Roos, Hans.
State-mandated provisions of agricultural products at fixed, artificially low prices were reduced, and from 1972 eliminated. The legislative election of 1957 was followed by several years of political stability that was accompanied by economic stagnation and curtailment of reforms and reformists.
The 1973 oil crisis caused recession and high interest rates in the West, to which the Polish government had to respond with sharp domestic consumer price increases.
Another attempt to raise food prices resulted in the June 1976 protests.
The opposition circles active in the late 1970s were emboldened by the Helsinki Conference processes. In October 1978, the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła, became Pope John Paul II, head of the Catholic Church.
Catholics and others rejoiced at the elevation of a Pole to the papacy and greeted his June 1979 visit to Poland with an outpouring of emotion. Fueled by large infusions of Western credit, Poland's economic growth rate was one of the world's highest during the first half of the 1970s, but much of the borrowed capital was misspent, and the centrally planned economy was unable to use the new resources effectively.
The growing debt burden became insupportable in the late 1970s, and negative economic growth set in by 1979. Around 1 July 1980, with the Polish foreign debt standing at more than $20 billion, the government made yet another attempt to increase meat prices.
Warsaw: PWN, 1979 An Outline History of Poland, by Jerzy Topolski.
By the late 1980s, the Polish reform movement Solidarity became crucial in bringing about a peaceful transition from a planned economy and a communist state to a capitalist economic system and a liberal parliamentary democracy.
The growing debt burden became insupportable in the late 1970s, and negative economic growth set in by 1979. Around 1 July 1980, with the Polish foreign debt standing at more than $20 billion, the government made yet another attempt to increase meat prices.
Workers responded with escalating work stoppages that culminated in the 1980 general strikes in Lublin.
The Strike Committee was sovereign in its decision-making, but was aided by a team of "expert" advisers that included the well-known dissidents Jacek Kuroń, Karol Modzelewski, Bronisław Geremek and Tadeusz Mazowiecki. On 31 August 1980, representatives of workers at the Gdańsk Shipyard, led by an electrician and activist Lech Wałęsa, signed the Gdańsk Agreement with the government that ended their strike.
On 5 September 1980, Gierek was replaced by Stanisław Kania as first secretary of the PZPR. Delegates of the emergent worker committees from all over Poland gathered in Gdańsk on 17 September and decided to form a single national union organization named "Solidarity". While party–controlled courts took up the contentious issues of Solidarity's legal registration as a trade union (finalized by November 10), planning had already begun for the imposition of martial law.
Wałęsa had meetings with Kania, which brought no resolution to the impasse. Following the Warsaw Pact summit in Moscow, the Soviet Union proceeded with a massive military build-up along Poland's border in December 1980, but during the summit Kania forcefully argued with Leonid Brezhnev and other allied communists leaders against the feasibility of an external military intervention, and no action was taken.
A parallel farmers' union was organized and strongly opposed by the regime, but Rural Solidarity was eventually registered (12 May 1981).
The United States, under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, repeatedly warned the Soviets about the consequences of a direct intervention, while discouraging an open insurrection in Poland and signaling to the Polish opposition that there would be no rescue by the NATO forces. In February 1981, Defense Minister General Wojciech Jaruzelski assumed the position of prime minister.
The Solidarity social revolt had thus far been free of any major use of force, but in March 1981 in Bydgoszcz three activists were beaten up by the secret police.
Kania was re-elected at the Party Congress in July, but the collapse of the economy continued and so did the general disorder. At the first Solidarity National Congress in September–October 1981 in Gdańsk, Lech Wałęsa was elected national chairman of the union with 55% of the vote.
To the Soviets, the gathering was an "anti-socialist and anti-Soviet orgy" and the Polish communist leaders, increasingly led by Jaruzelski and General Czesław Kiszczak, were ready to apply force. In October 1981, Jaruzelski was named first secretary of the PZPR.
Jaruzelski asked parliament to ban strikes and allow him to exercise extraordinary powers, but when neither request was granted, he decided to proceed with his plans anyway. ===The martial law, Jaruzelski's rule and the end of communism (1981–1989)=== On 12–13 December 1981, the regime declared martial law in Poland, under which the army and the ZOMO special police forces were used to crush Solidarity.
By December 1982 martial law was suspended and a small number of political prisoners, including Wałęsa, were released.
History of Poland, Hippocrene Books, 1982, Kloczowski, Jerzy.
Although martial law formally ended in July 1983 and a partial amnesty was enacted, several hundred political prisoners remained in jail.
Jerzy Popiełuszko, a popular pro-Solidarity priest, was abducted and murdered by security functionaries in October 1984. Further developments in Poland occurred concurrently with and were influenced by the reformist leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union (processes known as Glasnost and Perestroika).
In September 1986, a general amnesty was declared and the government released nearly all political prisoners.
Warsaw: Interpress Publishers, 1986, An Illustrated History of Poland, by Dariusz Banaszak, Tomasz Biber, Maciej Leszczyński.
Facilitated by the indispensable mediation of the Catholic Church, exploratory contacts were established. Student protests resumed in February 1988.
The Polish government felt compelled to negotiate with the opposition and in September 1988 preliminary talks with Solidarity leaders ensued in Magdalenka.
This process resulted in the creation of the modern Polish state, the Third Polish Republic, founded in 1989. ==Prehistory and protohistory== In prehistoric and protohistoric times, over a period of at least 600,000 years, the area of present-day Poland was intermittently inhabited by members of the genus Homo.
The fitful bargaining and intra-party squabbling led to the official Round Table Negotiations in 1989, followed by the Polish legislative election in June of that year, a watershed event marking the fall of communism in Poland. ==Third Polish Republic (1989–today)== ===Systemic transition=== The Polish Round Table Agreement of April 1989 called for local self-government, policies of job guarantees, legalization of independent trade unions and many wide-ranging reforms.
For the first time in post-war history, Poland had a government led by non-communists, setting a precedent soon to be followed by other Eastern Bloc nations in a phenomenon known as the Revolutions of 1989.
Mazowiecki's acceptance of the "thick line" formula meant that there would be no "witch-hunt", i.e., an absence of revenge seeking or exclusion from politics in regard to former communist officials. In part because of the attempted indexation of wages, inflation reached 900% by the end of 1989, but was soon dealt with by means of radical methods.
In December 1989, the Sejm approved the Balcerowicz Plan to transform the Polish economy rapidly from a centrally planned one to a free market economy.
18 parties entered the new Sejm, but the largest representation received only 12% of the total vote. ===Democratic constitution, NATO and European Union memberships=== There were several post-Solidarity governments between the 1989 election and the 1993 election, after which the "post-communist" left-wing parties took over.
The December 1989 Sejm statute of credit relations reform introduced an "incredible" system of privileges for banks, which were allowed to unilaterally alter interest rates on already existing contracts.
Balcerowicz's policies also caused permanent damage to Polish agriculture, an area in which he lacked expertise, and to the often successful and useful Polish cooperative movement. According to Karol Modzelewski, a dissident and critic of the economic transformation, in 1989 Solidarity no longer existed, having been in reality eliminated during the martial law period.
The Polish government-in-exile, lacking international recognition, remained in continuous existence until 1990. ===Under Stalinism (1948–1955)=== The Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa) was established under the rule of the communist Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR).
The communist Polish United Workers' Party dissolved itself in January 1990.
"Territorial self-government", abolished in 1950, was legislated back in March 1990, to be led by locally elected officials; its fundamental unit was the administratively independent gmina. In October 1990, the constitution was amended to curtail the term of President Jaruzelski.
In November 1990, the German–Polish Border Treaty, with unified Germany, was signed. In November 1990, Lech Wałęsa was elected president for a five-year term; in December, he became the first popularly elected president of Poland.
Poland's first free parliamentary election was held in October 1991.
In 1993, the formerly Soviet Northern Group of Forces, a vestige of past domination, left Poland. In 1995, Aleksander Kwaśniewski of the Social Democratic Party was elected president and remained in that capacity for the next ten years (two terms). In 1997, the new Constitution of Poland was finalized and approved in a referendum; it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, an amended version of the communist constitution. Poland joined NATO in 1999.
18 parties entered the new Sejm, but the largest representation received only 12% of the total vote. ===Democratic constitution, NATO and European Union memberships=== There were several post-Solidarity governments between the 1989 election and the 1993 election, after which the "post-communist" left-wing parties took over.
In 1993, the formerly Soviet Northern Group of Forces, a vestige of past domination, left Poland. In 1995, Aleksander Kwaśniewski of the Social Democratic Party was elected president and remained in that capacity for the next ten years (two terms). In 1997, the new Constitution of Poland was finalized and approved in a referendum; it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, an amended version of the communist constitution. Poland joined NATO in 1999.
New York: Barnes and Noble, 1993, Kenney, Padraic.
In 1993, the formerly Soviet Northern Group of Forces, a vestige of past domination, left Poland. In 1995, Aleksander Kwaśniewski of the Social Democratic Party was elected president and remained in that capacity for the next ten years (two terms). In 1997, the new Constitution of Poland was finalized and approved in a referendum; it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, an amended version of the communist constitution. Poland joined NATO in 1999.
In 1993, the formerly Soviet Northern Group of Forces, a vestige of past domination, left Poland. In 1995, Aleksander Kwaśniewski of the Social Democratic Party was elected president and remained in that capacity for the next ten years (two terms). In 1997, the new Constitution of Poland was finalized and approved in a referendum; it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, an amended version of the communist constitution. Poland joined NATO in 1999.
In 1993, the formerly Soviet Northern Group of Forces, a vestige of past domination, left Poland. In 1995, Aleksander Kwaśniewski of the Social Democratic Party was elected president and remained in that capacity for the next ten years (two terms). In 1997, the new Constitution of Poland was finalized and approved in a referendum; it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, an amended version of the communist constitution. Poland joined NATO in 1999.
Later, between about 4400 and 2000 BC, the native post-Mesolithic populations would also adopt and further develop the agricultural way of life. Poland's Early Bronze Age began around 2400–2300 BC, whereas its Iron Age commenced c.
Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe: From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism Garland Pub., 2000 online edition Halecki, Oskar.
Poland: An Illustrated History, New York: Hippocrene Books, 2000, Pogonowski, Iwo Cyprian.
Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Poland joined the European Union as part of its enlargement in 2004.
104–8 === Maps === Poland and West-Slavs 800–950 Poland 990–1040 Poland 1040–1090 Poland 1090–1140 Poland 1140–1250 Poland 1250–1290 Poland 1290–1333 Poland 1333–1350 Poland 1350–1370 Poland 1773 Poland 2004
Kraków: Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński, 2005, 2009, ==External links== Movie (on-line): Animated history of Poland, (PARP, Expo 2010 Shanghai China) Borders of Poland, A.D.
“After the Blank Spots Are Filled: Recent Perspectives on Modern Poland,” Journal of Modern History Volume 79, Number 1, March 2007 pp 134–61, historiography Kieniewicz, Stefan.
A Traveller's History of Poland, Northampton, Massachusetts: Interlink Books, 2007, Reddaway, W.
Poznań: Publicat, 2008, Poland: History of Poland, by Stanisław Kołodziejski, Roman Marcinek, Jakub Polit.
Kraków: Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński, 2005, 2009, ==External links== Movie (on-line): Animated history of Poland, (PARP, Expo 2010 Shanghai China) Borders of Poland, A.D.
Kraków: Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński, 2005, 2009, ==External links== Movie (on-line): Animated history of Poland, (PARP, Expo 2010 Shanghai China) Borders of Poland, A.D.
Hippocrene Books, 2012.
However, Poland has not adopted the euro as its currency and legal tender, but instead uses the Polish złoty. After the election of the conservative Law and Justice party in 2015, the Polish government repeatedly clashed with EU institutions on the issue of judicial reform and was accused by the European Commission and the European Parliament of undermining "European Values" and eroding democratic standards.
Northern Illinois University Press, 2016.
The Political History of Poland (1917), well-illustrated; 650pp online at books.google.com Litwin Henryk, Central European Superpower, BUM , 2016. Pogonowski, Iwo Cyprian.
In October 2019, Poland's governing Law and Justice party (PiS) won parliamentary election, keeping its majority in the lower house.
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