Located in Central Europe, Poland covers 312,685 square kilometers. Bordered on the north by the Baltic Sea, Russia and Lithuania, on the east by Belarus and Ukraine, on the south by Slovakia and the Czech Republic; and on the west by Germany, the country used to have for capital Cracow (Krakow) until it was moved to Warsaw (Warszawa) in 1611. Its population is about 38,463,689 million. Of this number, a large amount of people were different ethnic Poles. As well, in the world additional million of Poles live abroad. Because of their history, changes occurred over time in the ethnic policies. Similarly, the political and economic record of the country has experienced several dislocations throughout the time which help the country to identify its real image and build up its culture. Poland is one of those nations for whom individuals willfully gave their life for an independent and united Poland. Indeed, it is impossible to identify modern Poles’ ancestors because no one knows their origins. According to Biskupski (2000), their ancestors were living in a part of the Eurasian, and got separated from other Slavs. The history of the Polish state began in 956 C.E, when the Prince Mieszko I married a Bohemian princes, and accepted Christianity. Their son, Boleslaw became the first Polish king. The armies of King Boleslaw Chrobry reached Prague and Kiev, and expanded the next thousand years. In 1382, of Jadwiga Anjou became the spouse of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jagiello (Jogailo). This marriage leads to a personal union of Lithuania and Poland, wherein two states were ruled by one individual. In 1569, The Treaty of Lublin, created the Republic of Poland-Lithuania. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth reached its peak in 1634–1635, and stretched from the Baltic to the Black Seas and encompassed Latvia, Lithuania, and much of present day Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Estonia, as well as scattered territories in some other countries. The union of the two countries, back in the 17th century, was why the Poles and the Lithuanian shares some common values and morals. Thus, according to the constitution, political inequality between townspeople and nobility wasn’t allowed anymore. This treaty was the introduction of a new culture in the Poles and Lithuanian’ life—The culture of a society of liberty. However, after a brief period of time, the country lost its independence and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Later in 1918, Poland declared its independence when powerful nations such as Austria and imperial Germany were weakened. During the World War II, Poland home army organized an uprising in Warsaw. The country didn’t receive any soviet assistance; therefore, the uprising was failed. Germany successfully destroyed a vast part of Warsaw, negating historical importance. At the end of the war, in 1945, Poland regained its unity, albeit it was a Soviet satellite. The country had to give some of its eastern territory to the Soviet Union and, as compensation; it gained territories that had been acquired by German in 1939. After all, for the first time in the history of Poland, the nation has significant ethnic and religious populations. The culture of the country became a complete mixture of different Europeans background. In 1989, the Soviets no longer supported the Polish Communist government, and the Poles began a shift to democracy.
In 1952, a new constitution made of Poland a “people's democracy” of the Soviet type. in 1955, Poland took part in the Warsaw Treaty Organization, , with its foreign policy similar to that of the USSR. The persecution of the Roman Catholic Church was undertaken by the government as a remaining source of opposition. In 1956, Wladyslaw Gomulka was elected leader of the United Workers (Communist) Party. Wladyslaw Gomulka was against the Stalinist terror, chased many Stalinists away, and enhanced the relations the country had with the church.
In January 1981, the party’ strikes fostered the dismissal of Prime Minister Pinkowski and the naming of the fourth prime minister in less than a year, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski.
In 1989, members of Solidarity won a stunning victory, and took almost all the seats in the Senate and all of the 169 seats they were allowed to contest in the Sejm. This gave them an important influence in the new government. Tadeusz Mazowiecki became prime minister. Lech Walesa passed the election of 1990 with 74% of the vote. In 1991, the first fully free parliamentary election since World War II resulted in representation for 29 political parties. For the second democratic parliamentary election of September 1993, the voters gave the power back to ex-Communists and their allies. Solidarity's popularity and influence continued to decrease. In 1995, Aleksander Kwasniewski, leader of the successor to the Communist Party, the Democratic Left, won the presidency over Walesa in a landslide. Since April 10th, 2010, the country elected a new democratic president. In 1999, Poland became part of NATO, along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. The highest law is the Constitution of 16 October 1997. The government of Polish is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch includes important personalities such as a president, a prime minister, two deputy prime ministers, and a cabinet or council of ministers. The chief of state, who is the president, has to be elected by the population for a five-year term. He can also appoint the prime minister and the deputy prime ministers. The president appoints the members of the council of ministers who are then approved by the Sejm while the prime minister nominates. The legislative branch includes two houses: the one hundred seat Senate whose members are elected for four-year terms by a majority vote from the provinces, and the four hundred sixty-seat Sejm whose members serve four years and are elected to ensure proportional representation. Four seats are constitutionally reserved for ethnic German parties.
There are other political parties. Some of them are still trying to develop ideologies, and establish a confidence and basis among the voters. In the same way, some are ideologically successor of parties. In addition, a minority of them has an ideological basis and exhibits the ambitions of a popular individual.
References
Bell, J. (2001).The Political Economy of Reform in Post-Communist: Poland. M.A: Northampton.
Biskupski, M. B. (2000). The History of Poland.
Central Intelligent Agency. (2010, May 19). The World Factbook . Retrieved May 2010, from Central Intelligence Agency: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pl.html
Glenn, E. C, (1992). Poland: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress
Magda, D., & Krzysztof, S. (2010, february). Poland Economy. Retrieved May 2010, from KMM-Tłumaczenia : http://www.kmm-language.com/poland_00000a.htm
