Portal:Poland

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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.

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Polish clear beetroot borscht with uszka

Borscht (barszcz) is a sour soup common to various Eastern European cuisines. It derives from a soup originally made by the Slavs from common hogweed, a herbaceous plant growing in damp meadows, which lent the dish its Slavic name. Its stems, leaves and umbels were chopped, covered with water and left in a warm place to ferment. After a few days, lactic and alcoholic fermentation produced a mixture described as "something between beer and sauerkraut". It was then used for cooking a soup with a mouth-puckering sour taste and pungent smell. As the Polish ethnographer Łukasz Gołębiowski wrote in 1830, "Poles have been always partial to tart dishes, which are somewhat peculiar to their homeland and vital to their health." With time, other ingredients were added to the soup, eventually replacing hogweed altogether. In modern Polish cuisine, borscht usually comes in one of two varieties: clear beetroot-based red borscht, typically served with mushroom-filled uszka dumplings (pictured), or white borscht made from fermented rye flour and served over boiled sausage, potatoes and eggs. They are traditionally associated with Christmas and Easter, respectively. (Full article...)

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Marie Curie

Marie Curie (1867–1934) was a Polish-French physicist and chemist. Born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw, she studied at the clandestine Floating University and began her practical scientific training in the same city. In 1891, she followed her older sister to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work, becoming the first female professor at the University of Paris (La Sorbonne). Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium (which she named for her native country) and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (in Physics, shared with her husband, Pierre Curie, and with her doctoral advisor, Henri Becquerel, in 1903), the only woman to win it in two fields (the other being Chemistry, in 1911), and the only person to win in multiple sciences. Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia brought on by years of her exposure to radiation. (Full article...)

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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...)

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Did you know – show different entries

... that Zambian-born Polish economist and MP Killion Munyama (pictured) did not originally plan to stay in Poland, but the fall of communism changed his mind?
... that Poland is considered a founding member of the United Nations despite not having attended the first meeting?
... that some historians consider a 1619 strike by Polish craftsmen in the Jamestown Settlement to be the first strike in North American history?
... that one of the international reactions to the Euromaidan was the formation of a human chain on the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing at Medyka as a sign of support for pro-EU protesters in Ukraine?

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Poland now

Recent events

Poland won 23 medals, including eight gold, at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, ranking 16th in the medal table.
- On 7 September, Karolina Pęk won a gold medal in table tennis, while Renata Śliwińska won a silver medal in shot put.
- On 6 September, Barbara Bieganowska-Zając (pictured) and Karolina Kucharczyk won gold medals in 1500-metre run and long jump, respectively, while Maciej Lepiato and Michał Dąbrowski won bronze medals in high jump and wheelchair fencing.
- On 5 September, Rafał Czuper and Dorota Bucław won gold and bronze medals, respectively, in table tennis, while Rafał Wilk won a bronze medal in cycling.
On 18 August, Polish cyclist Katarzyna Niewiadoma won the 2024 Tour de France Femmes.
Poland won 10 medals, including one gold, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, ranking 42nd in the medal table.

Ongoing
Constitutional crisis • Belarus–EU border crisis • Ukrainian refugee crisis

Holidays and observances in September 2024
(statutory public holidays in bold)

Harvest festivals (wreath pictured)
Polish Underground State Day, 27 September

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Stanislaus of Szczepanów

Credit: Stanisław Samostrzelnik

Miniature from a manuscript copy of two books by Jan Długosz, created in the 1530s for Piotr Tomicki, bishop of Kraków. It depicts Bishop Stanislaus of Szczepanów as a patron saint of Poland, venerated by King Sigismund I and Tomicki himself together with church and secular dignitaries. Although in the 16th century the art of manuscript illumination was becoming obsolete due to the invention of printing press, Stanisław Samostrzelnik was still able to find wealthy clients willing to pay for custom-made codices.