Poland

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Poland

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A country of central Europe bordering on the Baltic Sea. Unified as a kingdom in the 10th century, it enjoyed a golden age under the Jagiello dynasty (1386-1572) and was a major power in the 15th and 16th centuries. National independence was lost in 1697 and it was carved up among other states in three partitions (1772, 1793, and 1795). Poland then disappeared as a geographic entity until its reconstitution as a republic in 1918. Its present boundaries date from the end of World War II. Warsaw is the capital and the largest city. Population: 38,500,000.

 

For more information on Poland, visit Britannica.com.

In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Polish Zloty.

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Like the other arts, photography in Poland has often been influenced by politics, especially the passions aroused by desire for independence from powerful neighbours; in 1839, it should be recalled, there was no Polish state and the country was partitioned between Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Images directly inspired by, or documenting, political movements have been important, especially in the 20th century; but landscapes and ethnographic photographs have also carried strong patriotic undertones.

The announcements of 1839 evoked a rapid response in Poland. Photographs taken with Talbot's process were made the same year by the engineer Maksymilian Strasz, as were daguerreotypes by Andzej Radwanski. An important early photographer was Karol Beyer (1818-77), who worked in Warsaw (where the principal early studios appeared) until 1845. Noted especially for his portraits and landscapes, Beyer also recorded events leading to the January 1863 uprising against Russian rule. While Poland experienced much the same photographic fashions as other countries (e.g. the carte de visite, stereoscopy), an interesting Polish speciality from the 1870s—again with patriotic associations—was mountain photography, linked with Awit Szubert, Stanislaw Bizanski, and others.

Polish pictorialism was, as in other countries, centred on ‘art photography’ societies created by amateurs: in Lvov, for example, the Art Photography Club (later the Lvov Photographic Society), which in 1895 launched the Photography Review, photography's first monthly journal. The Warsaw Photographic Society was created in 1901. This activity was significant both photographically and politically, in that it encouraged discussion of ideas from abroad (especially France and Austria), and because leading pictorialists such as Jan Bulhak (1876-1950) consciously used their portraits, landscapes, and architectural images as patriotic metaphors. Before 1914, Polish photographers also participated vigorously in the international salons held in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and elsewhere.

The creation of an independent, albeit tension-ridden, Polish Republic after the First World War strengthened the political and cultural ties to Western Europe, especially France. Although pictorialism remained the dominant photographic mode, and the ‘New Vision’ photography that flourished in Germany and Czechoslovakia was relatively uninfluential in Poland, avant-garde movements such as Dada, Constructivism, and Surrealism all had their adherents in major centres like Warsaw, Lvov, and Kraków. Individuals like Wladyslaw Strzeminski and Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, and groups like the Polish Avant-Garde Film Studio in Kraków, experimented with combinations of photography and film and with photomontage and cameraless images. Documentary work embraced Aleksander Minorski's photographs of poverty in Warsaw, Roman Vishniac's, Mojzesz Worobieczk's and Stefan Kielsznia's documentation of Polish Jews, and Jozef Szymanczyk's coverage of the rural east. Notable also was the First Workers' Photographic Exhibition held in Lvov in 1936.

During the Second World War the German occupation massively inhibited all forms of cultural activity, including photography, although some illicit pictures were taken of conditions in the ghettoes by Jewish and anti-Nazi German photographers. During the 1944 Warsaw Rising, however, an extraordinary number of Polish photographers, despite the savagery of the fighting and all kinds of logistical problems, took pictures for record and propaganda purposes. Their heroic efforts were commemorated in Wladyslaw Jewsiewicki's extensively illustrated book Powstanie Warszawskie 1944, published in 1989.

With the post-war establishment of a communist regime, Socialist Realism was imposed, with veterans like Bulhak adapting pictorialism to propaganda needs. On the other hand, although conformity was a precondition for access to the media and many other kinds of work, plenty of semi-clandestine experimentation went on, partly looking back to the pre-war avant-gardes, partly responding to Western movements such as ‘Subjective Photography’ and Pop art. Even in periods of intense repression such as the years of martial law between 1981 and 1984, this activity never entirely ceased. Moreover, coverage of the rise of the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, even by approved photojournalists and film-makers, arguably helped to undermine communism's grip on power.

Since the restoration of political and cultural pluralism in 1989, the Polish photographic scene has increasingly come to resemble that in other liberal societies, with the proliferation of avant-garde groups and the expansion of commercial opportunities in photojournalism, advertising, and fashion photography. Poland has also followed the same institutional path as other countries, with the formation of numerous photographic societies, galleries, and museum collections. Several photographic schools were founded in the 1990s, and degree courses in or including photography were established at a number of academies and universities. Regular events include the Photography Biennale in Poznań (since 1988), the Polish Landscape Biennale in Kielce (since 1963), and an International Photographic Trade Fair in Miedzyzdroje (since the early 1990s).

— Lisa Ann Lavender

Ballet in Poland dates from the 16th century when it featured as a court entertainment. The first Polish company was founded in 1785, although it was short-lived, owing to the breakup of the country in 1794. Warsaw, which fell to Russia, became a centre of ballet activity. The French choreographers Louis Thierry (1818-23) and Maurice Pion (1825-43) worked here. Thierry (with Julia Mierzynska) created Cracow Wedding in 1823, the oldest Polish ballet still in the repertoire. F. Taglioni, who worked as director in Warsaw (1843-53), built up the repertoire and created works for the company. In the 1850s and 1860s, when Roman Turczynowicz was in charge, the company was prominent on the European dance scene and stars of the dance world, such as Grisi and Blasis, came to work in Warsaw. By the end of the 19th century, the company was heavily under the influence of the Russian ballet. Russian ballets were featured in the repertoire and Russian dancers (Pavlova and Karsavina among them) came to guest. From 1902 to 1905 Cecchetti was director of the company, and some of the dancers he taught later joined the Diaghilev company (Woizikowski and Idzikowski). In 1920 ballet began to spread outside Warsaw, with the opening of a new centre in Poznán, attached to the Grand Theatre. Between the First and Second World Wars modern dance began to take hold, under the influence of Duncan, Jaques-Dalcroze, and Wigman, whose methods were taught in private schools. In 1937 the Polish Ballet was founded to promote Polish ballet abroad. It was financed by the government and engaged Bronislava Nijinska as choreographer; the company toured throughout Europe but was disbanded in 1939 due to the outbreak of war. After the Second World War, which resulted in so much devastation to the companies and the theatres, ballet in the country had to rebuild, as did the Warsaw Grand Theatre which reopened in 1965. Companies sprang up in regional opera houses, although ballet faced a major restructuring following the end of Communist rule in 1989. In 1973 the independent Polish Dance Theatre was founded in Poznán by Conrad Drzewiecki; it remains the most important company in the country.

Country in Eastern Europe. On September 1, 1939 Germany attacked Poland, launching World War II. Poland's allies, Great Britain and France, immediately declared war on Germany. Despite this, Poland fell to the Germans in just weeks, its capital, Warsaw, capitulating on September 28.

A Polish Government-In-Exile was quickly established in France (when France fell to the German army in mid-1940, the government-in-exile moved to London). This government, represented in Poland by the underground Delegatura and the Polish National Council, continued to wage war against Germany for the duration of World War II.

According to the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, signed in August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union eagerly divided up the newly-conquered Poland: Germany annexed the western third to the Reich, a region that included 600,000 Jews; the Soviet Union annexed the eastern third to its Soviet republics of Belorussia and the Ukraine, adding 1.2 million Jews to its population; and the middle third was put under the control of a German civil administration, called the Generalgouvernement. Approximately 1.5 million Jews found themselves under the Generalgouvernement's jurisdiction.

The Nazis had a plan for Poland: to turn it into Lebensraum ("living space") for Germans. To do so, they first had to destroy the Polish society and people. Thus, some two million Poles with German blood were given special privileges, while the rest of the Polish population was treated with great brutality and suppression. Many Poles were displaced to make room for ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche), while leaders of the Polish people and resisters were killed, often in Nazi camps. There was a broad resistance in Poland that took the form of an underground state. Contact from Poland was maintained with the Polish government-in-exile in London. The two largest armed resistance organizations in Poland were the Home Army and the Home Guard (see also Home Guard, Poland).

The single most defining feature of the history of Polish Jewry under the Nazis is the appearance of the "final solution." The history must be viewed in each community as two distinct periods---before and after the start of the murders. Immediately after the Germans occupied Poland, the country's Jews were subjected to a two-month wave of random murders. After the Germans and Soviets carved up Poland, some 300,000 Jews fled to the Soviet-occupied region from the German areas, leaving 1.8--2 million Jews in German-ruled Poland.

Among the first sets of official anti-Jewish measures in Poland was that issued by gestapo chief Reinhard heydrich on September 21, 1939: he demanded that the Jews living in areas annexed to the Reich be expelled to the Generalgouvernement; that they be concentrated in large cities near major railroad junctions; and that judenraete be established. In late fall the governor of the Generalgouvernement, Hans frank, decreed that in his jurisdiction all Jews over the age of 10 must wear a white armband with a blue Star of David (see also badge, jewish). In October he issued a decree whereby all Jewish males of a certain age could be sent to do forced labor. In addition, the Nazis began seizing and liquidating Jewish businesses with the exception of small shops. Jews were only allowed to keep small amounts of money, making it very hard to buy or sell anything. In January 1940 Jews were forbidden to use trains, except by special permit, and they were ordered to register their property with the authorities. Many Jews were attacked, rounded up randomly and made to do various jobs, and robbed.

The first Polish ghetto was established in October 1939 in piotrkow trybunalski. The first large ghetto, in the city of lodz, was decreed in February 1940 and was closed off from the outside world in May 1940. Ghettos were set up in Warsaw in November 1940, in lublin and cracow in March 1941, and in the Zaglembie region as late as 1942 and 1943, after mass extermination had begun.

In some ghettos, Jews had the ability to leave, which helped them smuggle in food and supplies. Other ghettos were hermetically sealed, letting no one in or out---subjecting the Jews to starvation and epidemics. Jews in all the ghettos, however, were determined to survive. The Judenraete and Jewish community organizations tried their hardest to procure and distribute food and medicine to the ghetto population, provide some semblance of schooling for the children, and cultural activities for all. zegota (the Polish Council for Aid to Jews), the Jewish Self-Help Organization, the youth movements and political undergrounds all strove to help their fellow Jews survive, both physically and emotionally.

In June 1941 Germany turned on its ally, the Soviet Union, and began a massive invasion. The Germans created a new territorial district called Bialystok, and accorded it a status similar to that of the Polish areas that were incorporated into the Reich earlier on. Other areas taken from the Soviet Union by Germany became part of the reichskommissariat ukraine and the reichskommissariat ostland administrations. German mobile killing units called einsatzgruppen immediately embarked upon the mass extermination of the Jews living in the newly conquered areas.

Just months after the slaughter began in the Soviet Union, the Germans launched a mass murder campaign in Poland, as well. The first of six extermination camps on Polish soil, chelmno, was established on December 7, 1941. During the spring of 1942, three other extermination camps began to function---sobibor, belzec, and treblinka---as part of aktion reinhard, the plan to liquidate all Jews in the Generalgouvernement. In addition, the concentration camps at auschwitz and majdanek were expanded to function as extermination centers, as well. Those Jews who had been interned in ghettos were now sent to their deaths in these camps. The liquidation of ghettos in the Generalgouvernement continued throughout 1943, and by summer 1944 only the Lodz Ghetto was left.

The Germans did not immediately kill all the Jews, however, because they wanted to exploit Jewish slave labor for the war economy. In early 1943 some 250,000 Jews were still being kept as slave laborers in the Generalgouvernement. But the killing continued, and by late 1944, when ss chief Heinrich himmler ordered a halt to the murders in Auschwitz, only tens of thousands of Jews were left.

Some ninety percent of Polish Jewry, about three million, were murdered by the Nazis; approximately three million non-Jewish Poles, soldiers and civilians, also met their deaths during the war.

Relations between Poles and Russians have never been easy. Despite their close linguistic and ethnic ties, differences rather than similarities characterize the relationship between them. In religious denomination, political tradition, worldview, even the alphabets in which they write their related languages, Poles and Russians are clearly distinct. Russia took its form of Christianity during the late ninth century from Byzantium while Poland was christened by emissaries from the pope almost a century later. Russia came to be the very essence of autocratic rule under Ivan IV and the Romanovs, while Poland developed in an opposite direction, toward a highly decentralized polity linked with Lithuania and dominated by the nobility. Throughout history, Poland has tended to see itself as the easternmost outpost of Western values and traditions: unlike Russia, Poland participated in the Renaissance and Reformation. Defining themselves as Europeans, Poles have often depicted their Eastern neighbors as barbarians and schismatics. Russians returned the favor, describing Poles as flighty, hysterical, and treacherous.

Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania

The first significant clashes between the Polish state and Muscovy occurred after the Union of Lublin (1569). During the 1550s and 1560s Muscovy had pursued an aggressive westward policy, seizing some Lithuanian lands. When Muscovite political authority dissolved into anarchy during the Time of Troubles during the early seventeenth century, Poland was ready to fish in troubled Russian waters. Polish nobles and Jesuits supported the first "False Dmitry," who claimed to be Ivan IV's son and triumphantly entered Moscow in 1605. In great part because of the large Polish retinue and openly Catholic sympathies of "Dmitry," he was soon deposed and murdered. But Polish interference in confused Muscovite politics continued. Most spectacularly, King Sigismund III of Poland succeeded in having his son Wladyslaw proclaimed tsar in 1610. The Polish presence in Moscow was not to last; by 1613 the Poles had been slaughtered or forced to flee, and Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar.

As Russia recovered and expanded under the Romanovs, Poland grew weaker. Poland's highly decentralized government and elected king meant that the central government could not impose its will on the provinces. Increasingly, power devolved to the local magnates, further weakening the center. The anti-Polish rebellion of Bohdan Khmelnitsky in 1648 allowed Muscovy to extend its power into the Ukraine with the Treaty of Pereiaslavl (1654). Additional Polish territory, including the cities of Smolensk and Kiev, was lost to the Russians during the following decade.

The Eighteenth Century

The eighteenth century witnessed further Polish descent into anarchy. Already during the 1690s Polish king Jan Sobieski had complained of his inability to force the Polish magnates to obey him. Worse was to come. The fact that Polish kings were elected allowed Poland's neighbors to put up their own candidates in the hope of influencing future policy. Poland also had the misfortune to be placed geographically between three rising absolutist states - Prussia, Russia, and Habsburg Austria. In 1764, St. Petersburg succeeded in placing its candidate on the Polish throne. Stanisl-aw-August Poniatowski, a former lover of Catherine the Great, was to be the last Polish king.

Partitions and Russian Rule

The impetus toward partition came not from Russia, but from Poland's western neighbor, Prussia. That state's ambitious ruler, Frederick II ("the Great") suggested a dividing up of Polish territory to prevent destabilizing "anarchy." In the first Partition of Poland (1772), Russia absorbed some thirteen percent of the commonwealth's territory. The shock of the partition fueled a push for serious political reforms, including a strengthening of the central government and the king. The partitioning powers, including Russia, feared a strong Poland.

They were particularly disturbed by the fruitful efforts of the Four-Years-Sejm, including the Polish constitution of May 3, 1791. Once again using the excuse of Polish anarchy, Prussia and Russia seized more Polish territory in the Second Partition of 1793, calling forth a Polish national uprising. However, the heroic efforts of insurrectionist Tadeusz Kosciuszko could not prevent the Third Partition of 1795, after which Poland disappeared from the European map for more than a century.

After the Napoleonic wars, borders between the partitioning powers were altered significantly, bringing a large portion of ethnic Poland under Russian rule. The majority of Poles thus became subjects of the Russian tsar. Tsar Alexander I afforded the Kingdom of Poland considerable rights and autonomy. The Poles enjoyed their own coinage, legal system, army, legislature, and constitution. Disagreements between Warsaw and St. Petersburg over the limits of Polish autonomy exploded into the open during the November Uprising of 1830, which lasted well into the following year. After Nicholas I put down this insurrection, he abolished the Kingdom of Poland's legislature, constitution, and army. Still, legal and administrative differences existed between Russian and Polish provinces - though these differences would be considerably narrowed after the crushing of the subsequent January 1863 uprising.

The final half century of Romanov rule over much of historic Poland has generally been characterized as a period of Russification. Certainly, St. Petersburg viewed Poles en masse as at least potentially disloyal subjects, and Polish culture was kept on a very tight leash. Poles in the Russian Empire could not use their native tongue in education at any level except the most elementary - and even here Russian was often introduced. In the so-called Western Provinces (present-day western Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus) even speaking Polish in public could lead to fines or worse. Still, there was no systematic attempt to Russify the Polish nation in the sense of total cultural (or religious) assimilation. Rather, Russification amounted to a severe limiting of Polish civil and cultural rights in this period.

World War I and Independence

The outbreak of World War I transformed relations between the partitioning powers and Poles. Now securing the loyalty of Poles became a paramount consideration for both Russia and the Central Powers. The Russian commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, issued a manifesto in mid-August 1914, holding out the postwar promise of a unified Polish state under the Romanov scepter. In the end, force of arms decided the issue: By autumn 1915 Russian armies had for the most part been pushed out of ethnic Poland. With the Bolsheviks' coming to power in October 1917 and the subsequent Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), all hopes of continued Russian - or Soviet - domination over Poland came to an end. In late 1918 Poland regained its independence.

Relations between Poland and the fledgling Soviet state got off to a very bad start. Moscow was vitally interested in exporting revolution to Western Europe, most likely by way of Poland. Further, the unclear borders between Poland and its neighbors to the east presented a serious potential for conflict. Historically, Poles had been very prominent as landowners and townspeople in these border regions between ethnic Poland and ethnic Russia. Thus Poles figure in early Soviet propaganda as portly mustachioed noblemen bent on enslaving Ukrainian or Belarusian peasants. Between 1919 and 1921 Soviet Russia and newly independent Poland clashed on the battlefield, the Poles occupying Kiev and, at the opposite extreme, the Red Army getting all the way to the Vistula River in central Poland. In March 1921, both sides, exhausted for the moment, signed the Peace of Riga.

The USSR was not satisfied with the treaty's terms. In particular, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Belarusians and Ukrainians ended up on the Polish side of the frontier, providing the USSR with a would-be constituency for extending the border westward. Nor did relations between Poland and the USSR improve in the interwar period. The two primary politicians of interwar Poland, Józef Pil-sudski and Roman Dmowski, both despised and feared the Soviet state. The Communist Party was outlawed in Poland, and many Polish communists fled to the USSR, often straight into the Gulag. Even Adolf Hitler's coming to power in 1933 did not bring the USSR and Poland closer. Rather, the later 1930s witnessed the Great Purges in the USSR and a downward spiral in Polish politics toward an increasingly vicious form of Polish chauvinism and official anti-Semitism.

Poland was stunned by the Molotov-Ribbentropp Pact of August 1939. This agreement between Josef Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany demonstrated that their mutual enmity toward the Polish state outweighed ideological differences. The pact allowed Hitler to invade on September 1, 1939, and the Red Army, following a secret protocol, occupied eastern Poland later that month. Once again Poland disappeared from the map. When the Polish state was resurrected in 1945, it was devastated. The large and vibrant Polish Jewish community had been all but wiped out during the Holocaust, some three million non-Jewish Poles had lost their lives, and the capital city Warsaw was a wasteland, systematically destroyed by the Germans in retaliation for the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944. Polish nationalists and some Western writers contend that the Red Army, by that time nearing the eastern outskirts of the city, could have prevented the Nazi devastation of the city. Others argue that the Red Army had been successfully repulsed by the Germans. In any case, the failure of the Soviets to move into Warsaw allowed the Nazis to massacre Polish fighters who might very well have opposed the imposition of communist rule.

People's Poland

Having liberated Poland from the Nazis, Stalin was determined to see a pro-Soviet government installed there. Despite the tiny number of native Polish communists and little support for communist or pro-Soviet candidates, intimidation and rigged voting placed a Stalinist Polish government, led by Bolesl-aw Bierut, in power in 1948. Bierut launched a crash industrialization drive, attempted to collectivize Polish agriculture, and jailed many Catholic clergymen. After Bierut's death in 1956, leadership passed to the more flexible Wladyslaw Gomulka who allowed Poles a considerable amount of cultural and economic leeway while reassuring Moscow of People's Poland's stability.

Unfortunately for Gomulka, Poles compared their economic and cultural situation not with that in the USSR, but with conditions in the West. As the 1960s progressed, the relative backwardness of Poland compared with Germany or the United States only increased. Domestically, internal party tensions led to an ugly state-sponsored anti-Semitic episode in 1968, during which Poland's few remaining Jews - most highly assimilated - were hounded out of the country. Thus, Gomulka's position was already weak before the notorious price hikes on basic foodstuffs of December 1970 that led to rioting and his replacement by Edward Gierek. Gierek promised prosperity, but was never able to deliver. In 1980, price increases caused civil disturbances and his resignation.

The discontent of 1980 also spawned something quite new: the Polish trade union Solidarity. This first independent trade union in a communist bloc country appeared in late 1980, was banned just more than one year later, and was resurrected - more properly, relegalized - during the late 1980s. Solidarity represented a novel phenomenon for a People's Democracy: a popular and independent trade union that brought together intellectuals and workers. The outlawing of Solidarity by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in December 1981 was a desperate measure taken, according to Jaruzelski himself, to forestall an actual Soviet invasion of the country. One may doubt Jaruzelski's account, but tensions between the USSR and Poland certainly ran high, and the threat of invasion cannot be entirely discounted. Ultimately, however, Jaruzelski's attempt to save People's Poland failed. Early in 1989 Solidarity was relegalized and in summer of that year the communists handed over power to Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first noncommunist prime minister since the 1940s. The refusal of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to intervene in Polish affairs made possible this peaceful transfer of power.

Relations between Poland and Russia during the 1990s have been remarkably positive, considering the amazing changes brought by that decade. Despite grumbling and even saber rattling from Moscow over Poland's plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in the end NATO expansion took place in 1999 without a hitch. At the same time, economic and cultural links between Moscow and Warsaw have weakened considerably as Poland has turned toward the West both institutionally (NATO, European Union) and culturally (learning English instead of Russian). Still, the correct if not always cordial relations between the two countries during the 1990s give reason for hope that the two largest Slavic nations will finally be able to both live together and prosper.

Bibliography

Davies, Norman. Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland. (1984). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Gross, Jan. (1988). Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Jedlicki, Jerzy. (1999). A Suburb of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Polish Approaches to Western Civilization. Budapest: Central European University Press.

Polonsky, Antony. (1972). Politics in Independent Poland 1921 - 1939: The Crisis of Constitutional Government. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Snyder, Timothy. (2003). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569 - 1999. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Walicki, Andrzej. (1991). Russia, Poland, and Universal Regeneration: Studies on Russian and Polish Thought of the Romantic Epoch. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Wandycz, Piotr. (1974). The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795 - 1918. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

—THEODORE R. WEEKS

Poland was divided between Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary when psychoanalysis came into being at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ludwig Jekels, a follower of Freud, practiced psychoanalysis in Austrian Poland in the clinic he directed outside Lvov, a city that has been Ukrainian since 1945 but was Austro-Hungarian at the start of the twentieth century. Jekels was joined by Hermann Nunberg until the latter emigrated to the United States. We also have to thank him for the first publications in Polish dating from 1908. Between 1911 and 1914, three titles appeared in the Polish Psychoanalytic Library.

After World War I psychoanalysis went through a dynamic period of development in the new Polish state. As a result of its many publications and conferences, its influence extended to the medical world and the cultural life of the country. The majority of Polish analysts at the time were trained in the Berlin Institute. Two names stand out: Roman Markuszewicz and Gustav Bychowski. The first published an apologetic work in 1926 on psychoanalysis and its therapeutic function and, ten years later, a critical work: "Toward a Revision of the Fundamental Freudian Notion." Bychowski was trained in Berlin and published on methaphysics and schizophrenia there before returning to Poland to take up a position in Warsaw as a university professor. There he published on the psychoanalytic aspect of the psychoses. The following names are also worthy of note: Stefan Borowiecki, Maurycy Bornsztajn, Jan Kuchta, Rudolf Kesselring, Wladislaw Matecki, Joseph Mirski, Norbert Praeger, Adam Wisel, and Leopold Wolowicz.

Eugénie Sokolnicka deserves a special mention. She trained in Zurich, Vienna, and Budapest between 1911 and 1920 but, not being a physician, she failed to find her place in the Warsaw psychoanalytic milieu of 1920. Freud, who had been her analyst, advised her to go to Paris, where she arrived in 1921. She met with no better success in the Paris medical world, but she analyzed René Laforgue andÉdouard Pichon. She did, however, take an active part in founding the Paris Psychoanalytic Society in 1926 and became its first vice-president.

World War II and the ensuing communist régime reduced this first development to dust and it took another ten years before the Polish psychoanalytic movement again showed signs of life. Three young psychiatrists went to train in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, where psychoanalysis was leading an underground existence. The first of these, Jan Malewski, went first to Prague and then, more importantly, to Budapest, where for ten years he alternated six months of analysis with Imre Hermann and six months of activity in Poland. The second, Zbigniew Sokolik, had Theodor Dosuzkov as his analyst in Prague. The third, Michael Lapinski, was analyzed in Prague by Otakar Kucera.

Greater freedom of circulation between eastern countries and later between them and the West fostered a new period of development for psychoanalysis: Young psychiatrists and psychologists in analysis went on to become the active practitioners of contemporary Polish psychoanalysis. In this climate the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) elected two direct associate members at the 1989 Congress in Rome: Elzbieta Bohomolec, a psychiatrist who was analyzed by Michael Lapinski in Warsaw and who was in supervision in Berlin; and Katarzyna Walewska, a psychologist in analysis in Warsaw and then in Paris, and who was in supervision in Warsaw and London. They are at the root of two psychoanalytic groups. The first, the Polish Society for the Development of Psychoanalysis, was founded in 1991; the second, the Institute of Psycho-analysis and Psychotherapy, was founded in 1992. The names of these two groups clearly reflect the nuance that distinguishes them: increasing the number of practitioners for the first, the quality of the training for the second. Members from both groups work together in the Raztów Center for Psychotherapy of Neuroses, founded in 1965 by Jan Malewski. Having been prohibited during and after World War II, psychoanalysis began to be taught in the psychology faculties of Warsaw, Krakow, and Lublin in 1961. Psychotherapeutic practice has developed in these cities and in Gdansk.

Only Zbigniew Sokolik has remained in Warsaw. Michael Lapinski emigrated to Australia in 1983 and became a member of the Australian Psychoanalytic Society. Jan Malewski settled in Heidelberg in 1975 and became a member of the German Psychoanalytic Association. At the same timeémigrés who fled the Nazi persecutions, like Hanna Segal, have reestablished contacts with Poland. Analysts from the international analytic community have visited Poland to give clinical and theoretical training in psychoanalysis. The vitality of the Polish group was demonstrated in 1991 at Pototsk, near Warsaw, on the occasion of the third seminar for East Europeans, a seminar that was organized under the auspices of the European Federation of Psychoanalysis.

Bibliography

Bychowski, Gustav. (1952). Psychotherapy of psychosis. New York, London: Grune and Stratton.

——. (1954) On the handling of some schizophrenic defence mechanisms and reaction patterns. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 35, 2, 147-153.

——. (1966). Obsessive compulsive façade in schizophrenia. With commentary by M. Wexler. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 47, 2-3, 189-202.

Diatkine, Gilbert, et al. (1993). La psychanalyse en Europe orientale, in Diatkine, Gilbert; Le Goues, Gerard; and Reiss-Schimmel, Ilana (Eds.), La psychanalyse et l'Europe de 1993. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

—MICHEL VINCENT

Republic in central Europe, bordered by the Baltic Sea and Russia to the north, Lithuania to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, The Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, and Germany to the west. Its capital and largest city is Warsaw.

• Poland was a great power from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries, but in the eighteenth century it was partitioned three times among Austria, Prussia, and Russia. It was again recognized as an independent state in 1919.
• The invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 precipitated World War II.
• During World War II, about six million Poles, including three million Jews, died from German massacres, starvation, and execution in concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
• In 1952, Poland became a people's republic on the Soviet model.
• The Solidarity movement, which demanded greater worker control in Poland, emerged in the early 1980s as one of the first signs of popular discontent with single-party rule and the communist economic system.
• In 1989, Solidarity-backed candidates swept to victory in free elections, but Solidarity subsequently declined sharply as a political force.
• Poland joined NATO in 1999.

The international dialing code for Poland is:   48

It is 5:29 AM, November 30, in Poland.

Polish Zloty

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Background:

Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. Poland regained its independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. It became a Soviet satellite state following the war, but its government was comparatively tolerant and progressive. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" that over time became a political force and 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, but Poland still faces the lingering challenges of high unemployment, underdeveloped and dilapidated infrastructure, and a poor rural underclass. Solidarity suffered a major defeat in the 2001 parliamentary elections when it failed to elect a single deputy to the lower house of Parliament, and the new leaders of the Solidarity Trade Union subsequently pledged to reduce the Trade Union's political role. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented country largely completed, Poland is an increasingly active member of Euro-Atlantic organizations.

Location:	Central Europe, east of Germany
Geographic coordinates:	52 00 N, 20 00 E
Map references:	Europe
Area:	total: 312,679 sq km land: 304,459 sq km water: 8,220 sq km
Area - comparative:	slightly smaller than New Mexico
Land boundaries:	total: 3,047 km border countries: Belarus 605 km, Czech Republic 615 km, Germany 456 km, Lithuania 91 km, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) 432 km, Slovakia 420 km, Ukraine 428 km
Coastline:	440 km
Maritime claims:	territorial sea: 12 nm exclusive economic zone: defined by international treaties
Climate:	temperate with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters with frequent precipitation; mild summers with frequent showers and thundershowers
Terrain:	mostly flat plain; mountains along southern border
Elevation extremes:	lowest point: near Raczki Elblaskie -2 m highest point: Rysy 2,499 m
Natural resources:	coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, amber, arable land
Land use:	arable land: 40.25% permanent crops: 1% other: 58.75% (2005)
Irrigated land:	1,000 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources:	63.1 cu km (2005)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):	total: 11.73 cu km/yr (13%/79%/8%) per capita: 304 cu m/yr (2002)
Natural hazards:	flooding
Environment - current issues:	situation has improved since 1989 due to decline in heavy industry and increased environmental concern by post-Communist governments; air pollution nonetheless remains serious because of sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, and the resulting acid rain has caused forest damage; water pollution from industrial and municipal sources is also a problem, as is disposal of hazardous wastes; pollution levels should continue to decrease as industrial establishments bring their facilities up to EU code, but at substantial cost to business and the government
Environment - international agreements:	party to: Air Pollution, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Kyoto Protocol, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94
Geography - note:	historically, an area of conflict because of flat terrain and the lack of natural barriers on the North European Plain

Population:	38,482,919 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure:	0-14 years: 15% (male 2,964,995/female 2,802,278) 15-64 years: 71.6% (male 13,713,078/female 13,845,251) 65 years and over: 13.4% (male 1,966,406/female 3,190,911) (2009 est.)
Median age:	total: 37.9 years male: 36.1 years female: 39.7 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate:	-0.047% (2009 est.)
Birth rate:	10.04 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate:	9.99 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net migration rate:	-0.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Urbanization:	urban population: 61% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: -0.3% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
Sex ratio:	at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate:	total: 6.8 deaths/1,000 live births male: 7.52 deaths/1,000 live births female: 6.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:	total population: 75.63 years male: 71.65 years female: 79.85 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate:	1.28 children born/woman (2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:	0.1%; note - no country specific models provided (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:	20,000 (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:	fewer than 200 (2007 est.)
Major infectious diseases:	degree of risk: intermediate food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea vectorborne disease: tickborne encephalitis note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
Nationality:	noun: Pole(s) adjective: Polish
Ethnic groups:	Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other and unspecified 2.7% (2002 census)
Religions:	Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3% (2002)
Languages:	Polish 97.8%, other and unspecified 2.2% (2002 census)
Literacy:	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99.8% male: 99.8% female: 99.7% (2003 est.)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):	total: 15 years male: 15 years female: 16 years (2006)
Education expenditures:	5.5% of GDP (2005)

Country name:	conventional long form: Republic of Poland conventional short form: Poland local long form: Rzeczpospolita Polska local short form: Polska
Government type:	republic
Capital:	name: Warsaw geographic coordinates: 52 15 N, 21 00 E time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
Administrative divisions:	16 provinces (wojewodztwa, singular - wojewodztwo); Dolnoslaskie (Lower Silesia), Kujawsko-Pomorskie (Kuyavia-Pomerania), Lodzkie, Lubelskie (Lublin), Lubuskie (Lubusz), Malopolskie (Lesser Poland), Mazowieckie (Masovia), Opolskie, Podkarpackie (Subcarpathia), Podlaskie, Pomorskie (Pomerania), Slaskie (Silesia), Swietokrzyskie, Warminsko-Mazurskie (Warmia-Masuria), Wielkopolskie (Greater Poland), Zachodniopomorskie (West Pomerania)
Independence:	11 November 1918 (republic proclaimed)
National holiday:	Constitution Day, 3 May (1791)
Constitution:	adopted by the National Assembly 2 April 1997; passed by national referendum 25 May 1997; effective 17 October 1997
Legal system:	based on a mixture of Continental (Napoleonic) civil law and holdover Communist legal theory; changes being gradually introduced as part of broader democratization process; limited judicial review of legislative acts, but rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal are final; court decisions can be appealed to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
Suffrage:	18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:	chief of state: President Lech KACZYNSKI (since 23 December 2005) head of government: Prime Minister Donald TUSK (since 16 November 2007); Deputy Prime Ministers Waldemar PAWLAK (since 16 November 2007) and Grzegorz SCHETYNA (since 16 November 2007) cabinet: Council of Ministers responsible to the prime minister and the Sejm; the prime minister proposes, the president appoints, and the Sejm approves the Council of Ministers elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 9 and 23 October 2005 (next to be held in the fall 2010); prime minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president and confirmed by the Sejm election results: Lech KACZYNSKI elected president; percent of popular vote - Lech KACZYNSKI 54%, Donald Tusk 46%
Legislative branch:	bicameral legislature consists of an upper house, the Senate or Senat (100 seats; members are elected by a majority vote on a provincial basis to serve four-year terms), and a lower house, the Sejm (460 seats; members are elected under a complex system of proportional representation to serve four-year terms); the designation of National Assembly or Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only used on those rare occasions when the two houses meet jointly elections: Senate - last held 21 October 2007 (next to be held by October 2011); Sejm elections last held 21 October 2007 (next to be held by October 2011) election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PO 60, PiS 39, independents 1; Sejm - percent of vote by party - PO 41.5%, PiS 32.1%, LiD 13.2%, PSL 8.9%, other 4.3%; seats by party - PO 209, PiS 166, LiD 53, PSL 31, German minorities 1; note - seats by parliamentary grouping as of February 2009 - PO 208, PiS 156, Left 42, PSL 31, SDPL-New Left 5, Polska XXI 6, Democratic Caucus 3, German minorities 1, nonaffiliated 8 note: one seat is assigned to ethnic minority parties in the Sejm only
Judicial branch:	Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary for an indefinite period); Constitutional Tribunal (judges are chosen by the Sejm for nine-year terms)
Political parties and leaders:	Civic Platform or PO [chairman Donald TUSK; parliamentary caucus leader Zbigniew CHLEBOWSKI]; Democratic Caucus (Democratic Party and independents) [Bogdan LIS]; Democratic Left Alliance or SLD [Grzegorz NAPIERALSKI]; Democratic Party or PD [Brygida KUZNIAK]; German Minority of Lower Silesia or MNSO [Henryk KROLL]; Law and Justice or PiS [Przemyslaw GOSIEWSKI]; League of Polish Families or LPR [Miroslaw ORZECHOWSKI]; Left (Democratic Left Alliance and independents) [Wojciech OLEJNICZAK]; Polish People's Party or PSL [Stanislaw ZELICHOWSKI]; Polska XXI (political grouping of former PiS members; not officially registered) [Jaroslaw SELLIN]; Samoobrona or SO [Andrzej LEPPER]; Social Democratic Party of Poland or SDPL [chairman Wojciech FILEMONOWICZ]; Social Democratic Party of Poland-New Left (SDPL-New Left) [parliamentary caucus leader Marek BOROWSKI]; Union of Labor or UP [Waldemar WITKOWSKI]
Political pressure groups and leaders:	All Poland Trade Union Alliance or OPZZ (trade union) [Jan GUZ]; Roman Catholic Church [Cardinal Stanislaw DZIWISZ, Archbishop Jozef MICHALIK]; Solidarity Trade Union [Janusz SNIADEK]
International organization participation:	Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA (cooperating state), EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, Schengen Convention, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
Diplomatic representation in the US:	chief of mission: Ambassador Robert KUPIECKI chancery: 2640 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 telephone: [1] (202) 234-3800 through 3802 FAX: [1] (202) 328-6271 consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York
Diplomatic representation from the US:	chief of mission: Ambassador Victor ASHE embassy: Aleje Ujazdowskie 29/31 00-540 Warsaw mailing address: American Embassy Warsaw, US Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-5010 (pouch) telephone: [48] (22) 504-2000 FAX: [48] (22) 504-2688 consulate(s) general: Krakow
Flag description:	two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; similar to the flags of Indonesia and Monaco which are red (top) and white

Economy - overview:	Poland has pursued a policy of economic liberalization since 1990 and today stands out as a success story among transition economies. In 2008, GDP grew an estimated 5.3%, based on rising private consumption, a jump in corporate investment, and EU funds inflows. GDP per capita is still much below the EU average, but is similar to that of the three Baltic states. Since 2004, EU membership and access to EU structural funds have provided a major boost to the economy. Unemployment is falling rapidly, though at roughly 9.7% in 2008, it remains above the EU average. In 2008 inflation reached 4.3%, more than the upper limit of the National Bank of Poland's target range, but has been falling due to global economic slowdown. Poland's economic performance could improve further if the country addresses some of the remaining deficiencies in its business environment. An inefficient commercial court system, a rigid labor code, bureaucratic red tape, and persistent low-level corruption keep the private sector from performing up to its full potential. Rising demands to fund health care, education, and the state pension system present a challenge to the Polish Government's effort to hold the consolidated public sector budget deficit under 3.0% of GDP, a target which was achieved in 2007-08. The PO/PSL coalition government which came to power in November 2007 plans to further reduce the budget deficit with the aim of eventually adopting the euro by 2012. The new government has also announced its intention to enact business-friendly reforms, reduce public sector spending growth, lower taxes, and accelerate privatization. The government, however, has moved slowly on major reforms. Pension and health-care bills passed through the legislature, but the legislature failed to overturn a presidential veto.
GDP (purchasing power parity):	$667.4 billion (2008 est.) $636.9 billion (2007) $596.9 billion (2006) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate):	$567.4 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:	4.8% (2008 est.) 6.7% (2007 est.) 6.2% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):	$17,300 (2008 est.) $16,500 (2007 est.) $15,500 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector:	agriculture: 4% industry: 31.3% services: 64.7% (2008 est.)
Labor force:	16.95 million (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:	agriculture: 17.4% industry: 29.2% services: 53.4% (2005)
Unemployment rate:	9.7% (2008 est.)
Population below poverty line:	17% (2003 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:	lowest 10%: 3.1% highest 10%: 27% (2002)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:	34.9 (2005)
Investment (gross fixed):	22.7% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget:	revenues: $117 billion expenditures: $127.3 billion (2008 est.)
Fiscal year:	calendar year
Public debt:	41.6% of GDP (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):	4.3% (2008 est.)
Central bank discount rate:	5% (31 December 2007)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:	5.48% (31 December 2006)
Stock of money:	$137.4 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money:	$93.99 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit:	$223.2 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares:	$207.3 billion (31 December 2007)
Agriculture - products:	potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat; poultry, eggs, pork, dairy
Industries:	machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles
Industrial production growth rate:	6% (2008 est.)
Electricity - production:	149.3 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - consumption:	126.2 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - exports:	13.11 billion kWh (2007)
Electricity - imports:	7.761 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - production by source:	fossil fuel: 98.1% hydro: 1.5% nuclear: 0% other: 0.4% (2001)
Oil - production:	37,670 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - consumption:	524,000 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - exports:	57,920 bbl/day (2005)
Oil - imports:	499,200 bbl/day (2005)
Oil - proved reserves:	96.38 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)
Natural gas - production:	6.025 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:	16.38 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - exports:	45 million cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - imports:	10.12 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:	164.8 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)
Current account balance:	-$29.51 billion (2008 est.)
Exports:	$190.5 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Exports - commodities:	machinery and transport equipment 37.8%, intermediate manufactured goods 23.7%, miscellaneous manufactured goods 17.1%, food and live animals 7.6% (2003)
Exports - partners:	Germany 25.9%, Italy 6.6%, France 6.1%, UK 5.9%, Czech Republic 5.5%, Russia 4.6% (2007)
Imports:	$213.9 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Imports - commodities:	machinery and transport equipment 38%, intermediate manufactured goods 21%, chemicals 14.8%, minerals, fuels, lubricants, and related materials 9.1% (2003)
Imports - partners:	Germany 29%, Russia 8.7%, Italy 6.6%, Netherlands 5.7%, France 5.1%, China 4.2% (2007)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:	$84.48 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Debt - external:	$227.5 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:	$196.1 billion (2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:	$24.59 billion (2008 est.)
Currency (code):	zloty (PLN)
Currency code:	PLN
Exchange rates:	zlotych (PLN) per US dollar - 2.3 (2008 est.), 2.81 (2007), 3.1032 (2006), 3.2355 (2005), 3.6576 (2004) note: zlotych is the plural form of zloty

Telephones - main lines in use:	10.336 million (2007)
Telephones - mobile cellular:	41.389 million (2007)
Telephone system:	general assessment: modernization of the telecommunications network has accelerated with market based competition finalized in 2003; fixed-line service, dominated by the former state-owned company, is dwarfed by the growth in wireless telephony domestic: mobile-cellular service available since 1993 and provided by three nation-wide networks with a fourth provider beginning operations in late 2006; cellular coverage is generally good with some gaps in the east; fixed-line service is growing slowly and still lags in rural areas international: country code - 48; international direct dialing with automated exchanges; satellite earth station - 1 with access to Intelsat, Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Intersputnik (2007)
Radio broadcast stations:	AM 14, FM 63, shortwave 2 (2008)
Radios:	20.2 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations:	75 (2008)
Televisions:	13.05 million (1997)
Internet country code:	.pl
Internet hosts:	7.808 million (2008)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):	19 (2000)
Internet users:	16 million (2007)

Airports:	126 (2008)
Airports - with paved runways:	total: 84 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 30 1,524 to 2,437 m: 39 914 to 1,523 m: 7 under 914 m: 4 (2008)
Airports - with unpaved runways:	total: 42 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 5 914 to 1,523 m: 14 under 914 m: 22 (2008)
Heliports:	7 (2007)
Pipelines:	gas 13,631 km; oil 1,384 km; refined products 777 km (2008)
Railways:	total: 23,072 km broad gauge: 629 km 1.524-m gauge standard gauge: 22,443 km 1.435-m gauge (20,555 km operational; 11,910 km electrified) (2006)
Roadways:	total: 423,997 km paved: 295,356 km (includes 662 km of expressways) unpaved: 128,641 km (2006)
Waterways:	3,997 km (navigable rivers and canals) (2007)
Merchant marine:	total: 15 by type: cargo 8, chemical tanker 4, passenger/cargo 1, roll on/roll off 1, vehicle carrier 1 foreign-owned: 2 (Cyprus 1, Nigeria 1) registered in other countries: 98 (Antigua and Barbuda 2, Bahamas 17, Cyprus 18, Liberia 13, Malta 24, Norway 3, Panama 11, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Slovakia 2, Vanuatu 7) (2008)
Ports and terminals:	Gdansk, Gdynia, Swinoujscie, Szczecin

Military branches:	Polish Armed Forces: Land Forces, Navy, Air and Air Defense Aviation Forces, Special Forces (2008)
Military service age and obligation:	18-28 years of age for male voluntary or compulsory military service; service obligation shortened from 12 to 9 months in 2005; conscription is to end in 2012; only soldiers who have completed their conscript service are allowed to volunteer for professional service; as of April 2004, women are only allowed to serve as officers and noncommissioned officers; reserve obligation to age 50 (2009)
Manpower available for military service:	males age 16-49: 9,741,508 females age 16-49: 9,514,843 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:	males age 16-49: 7,898,892 females age 16-49: 7,888,035 (2009 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:	male: 246,667 female: 235,698 (2009 est.)
Military expenditures:	1.71% of GDP (2005 est.)

Disputes - international:	as a member state that forms part of the EU's external border, Poland has implemented the strict Schengen border rules to restrict illegal immigration and trade along its eastern borders with Belarus and Ukraine
Illicit drugs:	despite diligent counternarcotics measures and international information sharing on cross-border crimes, a major illicit producer of synthetic drugs for the international market; minor transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and Latin American cocaine to Western Europe

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Christmas Eve Supper Menu Bread Carp in horseradish sauce Mushroom soup Noodles with honey and poppy seeds Pickled herring Fruit compote (stewed fruit) Poppy seed rolls

Recipes

Bigos (Polish Hunter's Stew)
Pierogi (Dumplings)
Golabki (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)
Cheesecake
Noodles with Poppy Seeds
Dried Fruit Compote
Mushroom Barley Soup
Kielbasa and Cabbage
Veal Meatballs with Dill
Stuffed Eggs

Geographic Setting and Environment

Poland is in Eastern Europe. It is a little smaller than New Mexico, and has lowlands, a narrow coastal area with rocky cliffs, and a southern region rich with minerals and fertile farmland.

Poland struggles with air and water pollution. In the late 1990s, Poland ranked twelfth in the world in industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Water pollution in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Poland is ten times higher than in the ocean at large. Environmental protection was a high priority for the government at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

History and Food

The Roman Catholic rituals of feasting and fasting, introduced to Poland around A.D. 900, have had a strong influence on Polish food traditions. During the fasts no meat is eaten, so many meatless and fish dishes have become a part of Polish cookery.

Located between two powerful neighbors, Germany and Russia, Poland was forced to form many political alliances throughout its history. These influenced its food customs. For example, the marriage of King Zygmunt to the Italian princess Bona Sforza in the sixteenth century brought Italian food customs to Poland, including the introduction of salad. Since that time, the people of Poland, known as Poles, have called salad greens wloszcycna ("Italian things"). Other foreign dishes that were brought to Poland included goulash (stew) from Hungary, pastry from France, andborscht (beet soup) from Ukraine. However, all these foreign dishes have become part of a unique Polish cooking style.

Foods of the Poles

The cereal grains, grown on Poland's rich agricultural land, are among the country's most important dietary staples. These include wheat, rye, buckwheat, and barley. They find their way into dark bread, noodles, dumplings, and other everyday foods.

Other important agricultural products include potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, and cucumbers. Boiled potatoes are the most commonly eaten side dish with meat, poultry, or fish. Cucumbers, seasoned with the herb, dill, are the raw ingredients of dill pickles, for which the Poles are known throughout the world. Cucumbers are also eaten in a salad with sour cream, another staple of the Polish diet. Vegetables are usually eaten boiled.

Meat is an important part of the Polish diet. Pork is the most popular meat, and the most commonly eaten meat dish is a fried, breaded pork cutlet served with thick sauce. Beef, ham, and sausage are also eaten regularly. The meat stew called bigos is often called the national dish of Poland. Other famous Polish dishes are golabki (cabbage leaves stuffed with ground meat and rice) and golonka (fresh ham served with horse-radish). Poles also like to eat smoked and pickled fish, especially herring.

Most Polish meals start with one of Poland's many soups. These range from clear broth to thick soup so hearty it could be a meal in itself. The best known is the beet soup called borscht.

Poles love desserts, especially cakes. Popular cakes include cheesecake, sponge cake, poppy seed cake, and a pound cake called babka. Special cakes are baked for feast days and weddings.

Popular beverages include coffee, tea, milk, buttermilk, and fruit syrup and water. However, vodka distilled from rye is known as the national drink.

See Bigos (Polish Hunter's Stew) recipe.

See Pierogi (Dumplings) recipe.

See Golabki (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls) recipe.

Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations

Poland is a heavily Roman Catholic country, and many Poles observe Catholic fast days by not eating meat. Traditionally, many meat substitutes have been made from mushrooms.

The two most important holidays are Christmas and Easter. The traditional Christmas Eve dinner consists of twelve or thirteen courses. There is one for each of the twelve apostles (Jesus of Nazareth's followers) in the New Testament of the Bible. Sometimes there is a thirteenth course for Jesus. No meat is eaten at this meal. The main dish is carp or pike (two types of fish). Carp is served with a sweat-and-sour sauce or a spicy horseradish sauce. Other traditional dishes include mushroom soup, sauerkraut, pierogi (Polish dumplings), noodles with honey and poppy seeds, and poppy-seed rolls. Cookies and cakes are also served, and some cookies are used to decorate the Christmas tree.

Easter is the second most important religious feast of the year. The fast of Lent is broken with Easter breakfast, and feasting continues through the day. Traditionally, a roasted lamb was served for Easter. In recent years, a lamb made of sugar or butter has replaced the real lamb. Meats served for Easter in modern Poland include roast turkey, ham, sausage, veal, or a roast pig. Painted hard-boiled Easter eggs are part of the celebration, and everyone eats part of an egg. Easter sweets include babka (rich pound cake), cheesecake, and mazurek (a Polish shortbread).

See Cheesecake recipe.

See Noodles with Poppy Seeds recipe.

See Dried Fruit Compote recipe.

Mealtime Customs

Poles like to eat hearty, filling meals, and they eat four meals a day. Sniadanie (shnah DAHN-yeh, breakfast) is eaten between 6 and 8 A.M. It includes many of the same breakfast foods eaten in the United States, such as scrambled or soft-boiled eggs, rolls with butter, bagels, and, in winter, hot cereal. However, cheese and ham or other meats are also served. Coffee, cocoa, or tea with milk is served, or even hot milk by itself. Between 11 A.M. and 1 P.M., a light meal, or "second breakfast," is eaten. It is similar to lunch in the United States and may consist of a sandwich, soup, fried eggs, or a plate of cold meats. Children usually take sandwiches to school for their midday meal. The main meal of the day is obiad (oh-BEE-ahd, dinner), served in the late afternoon (usually between 4 and 6 P.M.). There is usually at least one meat dish, boiled vegetables or salad, some form of potatoes, soup, and a grain dish or dumplings (pierogi). The Poles like both their meat and vegetables cooked until they are very tender. A sweet dessert, usually cake, is served at the end, with a beverage.

The last meal of the day is a light wieczerza (wee-CHAIR-zah, supper), served at about 8 or 9 P.M. in the evening. It includes a hot or cold main dish, pickled vegetables, a dessert, and hot tea with lemon or hot cocoa.

When they have to "eat on the run," Poles can pick up an inexpensive meal or snack at small places called milk bars (bar mleczny). Western-style fast foods, including pizza and hamburgers, are also available. A popular Polish "fast food" is flaki, a dish made from tripe (cow stomach). It is either boiled or fried with carrots or onions.

See Mushroom Barley Soup recipe.

See Kielbasa and Cabbage recipe.

See Veal Meatballs with Dill recipe.

See Stuffed Eggs recipe.

Politics, Economics, and Nutrition

More than half of Poland's land is used for farming. Polish farms don't produce as large a crop as farms in other parts of the world, because of poor soil and lack of rainfall. In the late 1990s, Polish farmers began to use more mechanical farming aids, such as tractors, which helped to improve the size of the crops. Polish farmers grow fruits and vegetables. Since the 1950s, Poland has been forced to import wheat, since it can't produce enough on its own.

Further Study

Books

Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Gorgey, Maria de. A Treasury of Polish Cuisine. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1999.

Halvorsen, Francine. Eating Around the World in Your Neighborhood. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Nowakowski, Jacek, and Marlene Perrin. Polish Touches: Recipes and Traditions. Iowa City: Penfield Press, 1996.

Webb, Lois Sinaiko. Holidays of the World Cookbook for Students. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1995.

Zamojska-Hutchins, Danuta. Cooking the Polish Way. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1984.

Web Sites

Epicurious. [Online] Available http://epicurious.com (accessed February 7, 2001).

SOAR (online recipe archive). [Online] Available http://soar.berkeley.edu (accessed February 7, 2001).

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Poland's history of staunch Roman Catholic beliefs has offered an interesting perspective on that country's interest in parapsychology and the paranormal. For observers, the belief in miracles and other spiritual phenomena alone might have qualified as testimony to belief in the supernatural. In 2000 the country's Roman Catholic population was estimated at 80 percent of all Poles. Eastern Orthodoxy shares the majority of the remaining population but remains isolated to the eastern frontier, representing approximately one percent-still making it second to Roman Catholicism. Other communities of Protestants and Buddhists exist on a small scale. Prior to World War II, psychical phenomena not necessarily related to religion could be found throughout Poland. In the nineteenth century, Poland was the home of psychical researcher Julien Ochorowicz (1850-1917). He investigated the medium Eusapia Palladino who visited Warsaw from 1892 through 1894. Ochorowicz testified to the levitation of Palladino. He also experimented with the medium Stanislawa Tomczyk. His 1887 book, Mental Dominance-Classics of Personal Magnetism and Hypnotism was considered by experts to be the most comprehensive work on mental suggestion to appear in the nineteenth century.

After World War I, in the 1920s, a Metapsychical Society was founded in Crakow with approximately one hundred members, including authors and lecturers. The medium Stefan Ossowiecki, born in Moscow to Polish parents, served as the honorary chairman of the society. He also "demonstrated" telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, and the projection of the astral body (also known as out-of-the-body travel).

Ossowiecki was investigated by researchers such as Charles Richet, Gustave Geley, and Baron Schrenck-Notzing. His psychic abilities were also investigated by the Polish Society for Psychical Research. Ossowiecki was murdered by the Nazis in the final days of World War II.

Also active in the 1930s, was the Psycho-Physical Society in Warsaw. Its president, P. de Szmulro, edited the journal Zagadnienia Metapsychiczne.

As Poland began to recover from World War II, psychical research reappeared with an informal parapsychological network in Western Europe and North America. Psychical research in Poland has developed its own terminology.

Research on radiesthesia, hypnosis, and clairvoyance was conducted by the Bio-Electronic Section of the Copernicus Society of Naturalists, whose president was Dr. Franciszek Chmielewski. The section's activities included investigations of electric phenomena in living organisms, higher nerve activity in connection with parapsychological phenomena and hypnosis, and the influence on living organisms of cosmic and earth radiation.

Psychotronika embodies the papers of the proceedings presented at the biennial symposium of the Society of Radiesthesists held annually in Poland. Address: Towarzystwo Psychotroniczne w Warszawie, ul Noakowskiego 10 m 54, 00-666 Warszawa. The Polish monthly journal Trzecie Oko (Third Eye) is published by Stowarzyszenie Radiestetow, ul Noakowskiego 10 m 54, Warzawa.

In a country that can boast of a cultural life especially in literature and music that has crossed several centuries, and with education a top priority, Poland is shaping its future in the twenty-first century with the political freedom for which its people have fought. An economy and lifestyle that will open to more Western and American influences could broaden the landscape in a way yet to be determined.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Dydyriski, Krzysztof. Krakow. Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 2000.

Materialy z Konfernecji Parapsychologów '94. Warsaw: Polskie Towarzystwo Psychotroniczne, 1994.

Ochorowica, Julien. Mental Dominance-Classics of Personal Magnetism and Hypnotism (1887).http://www.tranceworks.com/history.htm. 2000.

Swick, Thomas. Unquiet Days. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1991.

Jeszcze Polska nie zginela,
Kiedy my zyjemy.
Co nam obca przemoc wziela,
Szabla odbierzemy.

CHORUS: Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski,
Z ziemi wloskiej do Polski,
Za twoim przewodem
Zlaczym sie z narodem.

Przejdziem Wisle, przejdziem Warte,
Bedziem Polakami,
Dal nam przyklad Bonaparte,
Jak zwyciezac mamy.

Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski...

Jak Czarniecki do Poznania
Po szwedzkim zaborze,
Dla ojczyzny ratowania
Wracal sie przez morze.

Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski...

Mowil ojciec do swej Basi
Caly zaplakany:
"Sluchaj jeno, pono nasi
Bija w tarabany."

Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski...

Text: Jozef Wybicki; Music: Traditional

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - Polen

Français (French)
n. - Pologne

Deutsch (German)
n. - Polen

Português (Portuguese)
n. - Polônia

Español (Spanish)
n. - Polonia

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
波兰

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 波蘭

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폴란드 (유럽 중부; 수도 Warsaw; 폴란드명은 Polska)

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n. - ‮פולין‬

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