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{{History of Poland}} {{History of Poland}}
Infinite (172)
The '''history of ]''' originates in the ] who established permanent settlements in the ] during the ].{{Citation needed|date=February 2017}} The first ruling dynasty, the ], emerged by the 10th century AD. Duke ] (d. 992) is considered the ''de facto'' creator of the Polish state and is widely recognized for the ] that followed his ] in 966. Mieszko's duchy of Poland was formally reconstituted as a ] in 1025 by his son ], known for military expansion under his rule. Perhaps the most successful of the Piast kings was the last one, ], who presided over a brilliant period of economic prosperity and territorial aggrandizement before his death in 1370 without male heirs. The period of the ] in the 14th–16th centuries brought close ties with the ], a cultural ] and continued territorial expansion that culminated in the establishment of the ] in 1569.
Adjective- Something that is infinite has no limit, end, or edge.

There is an infinite amount of options to pick from.
In its early phases, the Commonwealth was able to sustain the levels of prosperity achieved during the Jagiellonian period, while its political system matured as a unique ]. From the mid-17th century, however, the huge state entered a period of decline caused by devastating wars and the deterioration of its political system. Significant internal reforms were introduced during the later part of the 18th century, especially in the ], but neighboring powers did not allow the reform process to advance. The independent existence of the Commonwealth ended in 1795 after a series of invasions and ] carried out by the ], the ], and the Austrian ].

From 1795 until 1918, no truly independent Polish state existed, although strong ] operated. After the failure of the last military uprising against the Russian Empire, the ] of 1863, the nation preserved its identity through educational initiatives and a program of "]" intended to modernize the economy and society. The opportunity to regain independence only materialized after ], when the three partitioning imperial powers were fatally weakened in the wake of war and revolution.

The ], established in 1918, existed as an independent state until 1939, when ] and the ] destroyed it in their ] at the beginning of ]. Millions of Polish citizens perished in the course of the Nazi ] between 1939 and 1945 as Germany classified ethnic ] and other ], ] and ] (Gypsies) as ]. Nazi authorities targeted the last two groups for ], deferring the extermination and/or enslavement of the Slavs as part of the "]" ("General Plan for the East") conceived by the Nazi régime. A ] nonetheless functioned throughout the war and the ] to the ] victory through participation in military campaigns on both the ] and ] fronts. The westward advances of the Soviet ] in 1944 and 1945 compelled Nazi Germany's forces to retreat from Poland, which led to the establishment of a ] ] of the Soviet Union, known from 1952 as the ].

As a result of territorial adjustments mandated by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II in 1945, Poland's ] and the re-defined Polish lands largely lost their ] character through the extermination, expulsion and migration of various ]s during and after the war. By the late 1980s, the Polish reform movement ] became crucial in bringing about a peaceful transition from a ] to a ] economic system and a ] ]. This process resulted in the creation of the ]: the ], founded in 1989.
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==Prehistory and protohistory==

{{further information|Prehistory and protohistory of Poland|Poland in the Early Middle Ages}}

] fortified settlement of the ], 8th century BC]]

In ] and ] times, over a period of at least 500,000 years, the area of present-day Poland was intermittently inhabited by members of the '']'' ]. It went through the ], ] and ] stages of development, along with the nearby regions.<ref name="UzP 1-75">{{Harvnb|Derwich|Żurek|2002|pp=1–75}}.</ref> The ] period ushered in the ], whose founders migrated from the ] area beginning about 5,500 BC. This culture was distinguished by the establishment of the first settled agricultural communities in modern Polish territory. Later, between about 4,400 and 2,000 BC, the native post-] populations would also adopt and further develop the agricultural way of life.<ref name="UzP 32-53">{{Harvnb|Derwich|Żurek|2002|pp=32–53}}.</ref>
Poland's ] began around 2300–2400 BC, whereas its ] commenced c. 700–750 BC. One of the many cultures that have been uncovered, the ], spanned the Bronze and Iron Ages and left notable settlement sites.<ref name="UzP 54-75">{{Harvnb|Derwich|Żurek|2002|pp=54–75}}.</ref> Around 400 BC, Poland was settled by ] of the ]. They were soon followed by emerging cultures with a strong ] component, influenced first by the Celts and then by the ]. The Germanic peoples migrated out of the area by about 500 AD during the great ] of the European ]. Wooded regions to the north and east were settled by ].<ref name="UzP 76-121">{{Harvnb|Derwich|Żurek|2002|pp=76–121}}.</ref>

According to mainstream archaeological research, ] have resided in modern Polish territories for over 1500 years.<ref name="UzP 122-143">{{Harvnb|Derwich|Żurek|2002|pp=122–143}}.</ref> Recent genetic studies, however, determined that people who live in the current territory of Poland include the descendants of people who inhabited the area for thousands of years, beginning in the early Neolithic period.<ref name="journals.plos.org">{{Harvnb|Mielnik-Sikorska|2013}}.</ref>

Slavs on the territory of Poland were organized into ], of which the larger ones were later known as the ]; the names of many tribes are found on the list compiled by the anonymous ] in the 9th century.<ref name="playground I xxvii">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|p=xxvii}}.</ref> In the 9th and 10th centuries, these tribes gave rise to developed regions along the upper ], the coast of the ] and in ]. This latest tribal undertaking resulted in the formation of a lasting ] in the 10th century that became the ] of Poland, one of the ] nations.<ref name="UzP 122-143"/>{{Ref label|x|x|none}}

==Piast period (10th century–1385)==

{{further information|History of Poland during the Piast dynasty}}

===Mieszko I===

] (992), whereas the light pink area represents territories added during the reign of ] (died 1025). The dark pink area in the northwest was lost during the same period.]]

Poland was established as a nation state under the ], which ruled the country between the 10th and 14th centuries. Historical records of an official Polish state begin with Duke ] in the second half of the 10th century. Mieszko, who began his rule sometime before 963 and continued as the Polish monarch until his death in 992, chose to be ] in the Western ], probably on 14 April 966, following his marriage to Princess ], a fervent Christian.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=xxvii-xxviii}}</ref> This event has become known as the ], and its date is often used to mark a symbolic beginning of Polish statehood.<ref name="Zubrzycki2006">{{Harvnb|Zubrzycki|2006|p=64}}.</ref> Mieszko completed a unification of the ] tribal lands that was fundamental to the new country's existence. Following its emergence, the Polish nation was led by ] who converted the population to ], created a strong ] and fostered a distinctive ] that was integrated into broader European culture.<ref name="Wyrozumski 80-88">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=80–88}}.</ref>

===Bolesław I Chrobry===

Mieszko's son, Duke ] (r. 992–1025), established a ] structure, pursued territorial conquests and was officially crowned the first ] in 1025, near the end of his life.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> Bolesław also sought to spread Christianity to parts of eastern Europe that remained pagan, but suffered a setback when his greatest missionary, ], was killed in ] in 997.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> During the ] in the year 1000, Holy Roman Emperor ] recognized the ],<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> an institution crucial for the continuing existence of the sovereign Polish state.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> During the reign of Otto's successor, Holy Roman Emperor ], Bolesław fought prolonged wars with the ] between 1002 and 1018.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/><ref name="Wyrozumski 88-93">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=88–93}}.</ref>

===Piast monarchy under Casimir I, Bolesław II and Bolesław III===

Bolesław's expansive rule overstretched the military resources of the early Polish state, and it was followed by a collapse of the monarchy. Restoration took place under ] (r. 1039–58). Casimir's son ] (r. 1058–79) became involved in a conflict with Bishop ] that seriously marred his reign. Bolesław had the bishop murdered in 1079 after being ] by the Polish church on charges of ]. This act sparked a revolt of Polish nobles that led to Bolesław's deposition and expulsion from the country.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> Around 1116, ] wrote a seminal chronicle, the '']'',<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> intended as a glorification of his patron ] (r. 1107–38), a ruler who revived the tradition of military prowess of Bolesław I's time. Gallus' work became important as a key source for the early history of Poland.<ref name="Wyrozumski 93-104">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=93–104}}.</ref>

===Fragmentation===

]]]

After Bolesław Krzywousty the third divided Poland among his sons in his ],<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> ] eroded the Piast monarchical structures in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1180, ], who sought papal confirmation of his status as a ], granted immunities and additional privileges to the Polish Church at the Congress of ].<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> Around 1220, ] wrote his '']'', another major source for early Polish history.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1226, one of the regional Piast dukes, ], invited the ] to help him fight the ] ] pagans.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> Konrad's move caused centuries of warfare between Poland and the Teutonic Knights {the Teutonic Order destroyed the pagans,but it didn't gave the lands to Poland}, and later between Poland and the ]. The ] began in 1240; it culminated in the defeat of Polish and allied Christian forces and the death of the ] Duke ] at the ] in 1241.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1242, ] became the first Polish municipality to be ],<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> as the period of fragmentation brought economic development and growth of towns. In 1264, ] granted ] in the ].<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/><ref name="Wyrozumski 104-137">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=104–137}}.</ref>

===Late Piast monarchy under Władysław I and Casimir III===

Attempts to reunite the Polish lands gained momentum in the 13th century, and in 1295, Duke ] of ] managed to become the first ruler since Bolesław II to be crowned king of Poland.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> He ruled over a limited territory and was soon killed. In 1300–05 the ] ] also reigned as king of Poland.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> The Piast Kingdom was effectively restored under ] (r. 1306–33), who was crowned king in 1320.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1308, the Teutonic Knights seized ] and the surrounding region (]).<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/>

King ] (r. 1333–70),<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> Władysław's son and the last of the Piast rulers, strengthened and expanded the restored Kingdom of Poland, but the western provinces of ] (formally ceded by Casimir in 1339) and most of ] were lost to the Polish state for centuries to come. Progress was made in the recovery of the central province of ], however, and in 1340, the conquest of ] began,<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> marking Poland's expansion to the east. The ], a vast convocation of central, eastern, and northern European rulers probably assembled to plan an anti-] ], took place in 1364, the same year that the future ], one of the oldest European universities, was founded.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/><ref name="Wyrozumski 137-171">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=137–171}}.</ref> On 9 October 1334, he confirmed the privileges granted to Jews in 1264 by Bolesław the Pious and allowed them to settle in Poland in great numbers.

===Angevin transition===

After the Polish royal line and Piast junior branch died out in 1370, Poland came under the rule of ] of the ], who presided over a ] that lasted until 1382.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1374, Louis granted the ] the ] to assure the succession of one of his daughters in Poland.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> His youngest daughter ] (d. 1399) assumed the Polish throne in 1384.<ref name="Wyrozumski 171-177">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=171–177}}.</ref>

==Jagiellonian dynasty (1385–1572)==

{{further information|History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty}}

===Dynastic union with Lithuania, Władysław II Jagiełło===

], a great military contest of the ]]]

In 1386, Grand Duke ] of ] married Queen Jadwiga of Poland. This act enabled him to become a king of Poland himself,<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=xxviii-xxix}}</ref> and he ruled as Władysław II Jagiełło until his death in 1434. The marriage established a ] ruled by the ]. The first in a series of formal "unions" was the ] of 1385, whereby arrangements were made for the marriage of Jogaila and Queen Jadwiga.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> The Polish–Lithuanian partnership brought vast areas of ] controlled by the ] into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the nationals of both countries, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest ] in Europe for the next four centuries. When Queen Jadwiga died in 1399, the Kingdom of Poland fell to her husband's sole possession.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=178–195}}.</ref>
In the ] region, Poland's struggle with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated in the ] (1410),<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> a great victory that the Poles and Lithuanians were unable to follow up with a decisive strike against the main seat of ] at ]. The ] of 1413 further defined the evolving relationship between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=195–201}}.</ref>

The privileges of the '']'' (nobility) kept growing and in 1425 the rule of '']'', which protected the noblemen from arbitrary royal arrests, was formulated.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/>

===Władysław III and Casimir IV Jagiellon===

] was the central figure of the Jagiellonian period]]

The reign of the young ] (1434–44),<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> a son of Władysław II who ruled as king of ], was cut short by his death at the ] against the forces of the ].<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=201–204}}.</ref> This disaster led to an ] of three years that ended with the accession of Władysław's brother ] in 1447.

Critical developments of the Jagiellonian period were concentrated during Casimir IV's long reign, which lasted until 1492. In 1454, ] was incorporated by Poland and the ] with the ] ensued.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> In 1466, the milestone ] was concluded. This treaty divided Prussia to create ], the future ], a separate entity that functioned as a ] of Poland under the administration of the Teutonic Knights.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> Poland also confronted the Ottoman Empire and the ] in the south, and in the east helped Lithuania fight the ]. The country was developing as a ] state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly dominant ]. ], the royal capital, was turning into a major academic and cultural center, and in 1473 the first ] began operating there.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> With the growing importance of the ''szlachta'', the king's council evolved to become by 1493 a ] ] (parliament) that no longer represented only the top dignitaries of the realm.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=205–225}}.</ref>

The '']'' act, adopted in 1505 by the Sejm, transferred most of the ] from the monarch to the Sejm.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> This event marked the beginning of the period known as "]", when the state was ruled in principle by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. In the 16th century, the massive development of ] agribusinesses operated by the nobility led to increasingly abusive conditions for the ] ] who worked them. The political monopoly of the nobles also stifled the development of cities, some of which were thriving during the late Jagiellonian era, and limited the rights of townspeople, effectively holding back the emergence of a middle class.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=24–53}}.</ref>

===Early modern Poland under Sigismund I and Sigismund II===

] courtyard of ]]]

In the 16th century, ] movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity and the resulting ] involved a number of different ]. The policies of religious tolerance that developed in Poland were nearly unique in Europe at that time and many who fled regions torn by religious strife found refuge in Poland. The reigns of King ] (1506–1548) and King ] (1548–1572) witnessed an intense cultivation of culture and science (a ] of the ]), of which the astronomer ] (died 1543)<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> is the best known representative. In 1525, during the reign of Sigismund I,<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> the Teutonic Order was secularized and Duke ] performed an act of homage before the Polish king (the ]) for his fief, the Duchy of Prussia.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> ] was finally fully incorporated into the Polish Crown in 1529.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=53–92}}.</ref>

The reign of Sigismund II<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> ended the Jagiellonian period, but gave rise to the ] (1569), the ultimate fulfillment of the union with Lithuania. This agreement transferred ] from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Poland and transformed the ] into a ],<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> preserving it beyond the death of the childless Sigismund II, whose active involvement made the completion of this process possible.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=92–109}}.</ref>

] in the far northeast was incorporated by Poland in 1561 and Poland entered the ] against Russia.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> The ] (an attempt to prevent domination by the ]) peaked at the Sejm in ] in 1562–63.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> On the religious front, the ] split from the ], and the ] ] was published in 1563.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> The ], who arrived in 1564,<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> were destined to make a major impact on Poland's history.

==Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth==

{{further information|History of Poland in the Early Modern era (1569–1795)|Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

===Establishment (1569–1648)===

{{further information|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648)}}

====Union of Lublin====

] at its greatest extent, after the ] (Dywilino) of 1619]]

The ] of 1569 established the ], a more closely unified federal state than the earlier political arrangement between Poland and Lithuania. The Union was largely run by the nobility through the system of a ] and ], but was headed by ]. The formal rule of the nobility, who were proportionally more numerous than in other European countries, constituted an early democratic system ("a sophisticated noble democracy"),<ref name="Overy 176-177">{{Harvnb|Overy|2010|pp=176–177}}.</ref> in contrast to the ] prevalent at that time in the rest of Europe.<ref name="Europe 555">{{Harvnb|Davies|1996|p=555}}.</ref> The beginning of the Commonwealth coincided with a period in Polish history of great political power and advancements in civilization and prosperity. The Polish–Lithuanian Union became an influential participant in European affairs and a vital cultural entity that spread ] (with ]) eastward. In the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century, the Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous states in contemporary Europe, with an area approaching {{convert|1|e6km2|spell=in|lk=out|abbr=off}} and a population of about ten million. Its economy was dominated by export-focused agriculture. Nationwide religious toleration was guaranteed at the ] in 1573.<ref name="playground I xxix">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|p=xxix}}</ref>

====First elective kings====

After the rule of the Jagiellonian dynasty ended in 1572, Henry of Valois (later King ]) was the winner of the first "]" by the Polish nobility, held in 1573. He had to agree to the restrictive '']'' obligations,<ref name="playground I xxix"/> but fled Poland in 1574 when news arrived of the vacancy of the French throne, to which he was the ]. He remained the nominal ruler of the Commonwealth until 1575. From the start, the royal elections increased foreign influence in the Commonwealth as foreign powers sought to manipulate the Polish nobility to place candidates amicable to their interests.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=109–116}}.</ref> The reign of ] of Hungary followed (1576–86); he was militarily and domestically assertive.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The establishment of the legal ] in 1578 meant a transfer of many appellate cases from the royal to noble jurisdiction.<ref name="playground I xxix"/>

====First kings of the Vasa dynasty====

] ]. The king enjoyed a long reign, but was excessively involved in dynastic affairs of his native Sweden.]]

A period of rule under the Swedish ] began in the Commonwealth in the year 1587. The first two kings from this dynasty, ] (1587–1632) and ] (1632–48), constantly attempted to intrigue for accession to the throne of Sweden, a constant source of distraction for the foreign affairs of the Commonwealth.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> At the same time, the ] embarked on an ideological counter-offensive and the ] claimed many ]. In 1596, the ] split the ] of the Commonwealth to create the ] of the Eastern Rite, but subject to the authority of the pope.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The ] against Sigismund III unfolded in 1606–8.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=130–146}}.</ref>

The Commonwealth fought wars between 1605 and 1618 with ] for supremacy in Eastern Europe in the wake of Russia's ], a period referred to as the ] (or the "Dymitriads"). The efforts resulted in expansion of the eastern territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but the goal of taking over the Russian throne for the Polish ruling dynasty was not achieved. ] sought supremacy in the ] during the ] of 1617–29, and the ] pressed from the south in the Battles ] in 1620 and ] in 1621.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The agricultural expansion and ] policies in Polish Ukraine resulted in a series of ]. Allied with the ], the Commonwealth did not directly participate in the ].{{Ref label|s|s|none}} Władysław's IV reign was mostly peaceful, with a Russian invasion in the form of the ] of 1632–34 successfully repelled.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The ] hierarchy, banned in Poland after the Union of Brest, was re-established in 1635.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=146–173}}.</ref>

===Decline (1648–1764)===

{{further information|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)}}

====Deluge of wars====

] reigned during the Commonwealth's most difficult period. Frustrated with his inability to reform the state, he abdicated in 1668.<ref name="Polska urojona">{{Harvnb|Wodecka|2013}}.</ref>]]

During the reign of ] (1648–68), the third and last king of his dynasty, the nobles' democracy fell into decline as a result of foreign invasions and domestic disorder.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref name="Gierowski(a) 190-219">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=190–219}}.</ref> These calamities multiplied rather suddenly and marked the end of the ]. Their effect was to render the once powerful Commonwealth increasingly vulnerable to foreign intervention.

The ] ] of 1648–57 engulfed the south-eastern regions of the Polish crown;<ref name="playground I xxix"/> its long-term effects were disastrous for the Commonwealth. The first '']'' (a parliamentary device that allowed any member of the Sejm to dissolve a current session immediately) was exercised by a deputy in 1652.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> This practice would eventually weaken Poland's central government critically. In the ] (1654), the Ukrainian rebels declared themselves subjects of the ]. The ] raged through the core Polish lands in 1655–60, including an invasion of Poland so brutal and devastating that it is referred to as the ]. The war ended in 1660 with the ],<ref name="playground I xxix"/> which resulted in the loss of some of Poland's northern possessions. In 1657 the ] established the independence of the ].<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The Commonwealth forces did well in the ], but the end result was the permanent division of Ukraine between Poland and Russia, as agreed to in the ] (1667).<ref name="playground I xxix"/> Towards the end of the war, the ],<ref name="playground I xxix"/> a major magnate rebellion against the king, destabilized and weakened the country. The large-scale ] of the ] also had highly deleterious effects on the Polish economy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Williams|2013|p=27}}.</ref> '']'', the first Polish newspaper, was published in 1661.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=220–240}}.</ref>

In 1668, grief-stricken at the recent death of his wife and frustrated by the disastrous political setbacks of his reign, John II Casimir abdicated the throne and fled to France.

====John III Sobieski and last military victories====

] with his son ], whom he tried to position to be his successor. Sobieski led the Commonwealth to its ].]]

King ], a native Pole, was elected to replace John II Casimir in 1669. The ] broke out during his reign, which lasted until 1673, and continued under his successor, ] (1674–1696).<ref name="playground I xxix"/> Sobieski intended to pursue Baltic area expansion (and to this end he signed the secret ] with France in 1675),<ref name="playground I xxix"/> but was forced instead to fight protracted wars with the Ottoman Empire. By doing so, Sobieski briefly revived the Commonwealth's military might. He defeated the expanding ]s at the ] in 1673 and decisively helped deliver Vienna from a ] onslaught at the ] in 1683.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> Sobieski's reign marked the last high point in the history of the Commonwealth: in the first half of the 18th century, Poland ceased to be an active player in international politics. The ] with Russia of 1686 was the final border settlement between the two countries before the ] in 1772.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=240–258}}.</ref>

The Commonwealth, subjected to almost constant warfare until 1720, suffered enormous population losses and massive damage to its economy and social structure. The government became ineffective in the wake of large-scale internal conflicts, corrupted legislative processes and manipulation by foreign interests. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of feuding magnate families with established territorial domains. The urban population and infrastructure fell into ruin, together with most peasant farms, whose inhabitants were subjected to increasingly extreme forms of serfdom. The development of science, culture and education came to a halt or regressed.<ref name="Gierowski(a) 190-219"/>

====Saxon kings====

]]]

The royal election of 1697 brought a ruler of the ] ] to the Polish throne: ]" (r. 1697–1733), who was able to assume the throne only by agreeing to convert to Roman Catholicism. He was succeeded by his son ] (r. 1734–1763).<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The reigns of the Saxon kings (who were both simultaneously ]s of Saxony) were disrupted by competing candidates for the throne and witnessed further disintegration of the Commonwealth. The ] of 1700–1721,<ref name="playground I xxix"/> a period seen by the contemporaries as a temporary eclipse, may have been the fatal blow that brought down the Polish political system. ] was installed as king in 1704 under Swedish protection, but lasted only a few years.<ref name="playground I 374–375">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=374–375}}</ref> The ] of 1717 marked the beginning of the Commonwealth's existence as a Russian protectorate:<ref name="playground I 375–377">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=375–377}}</ref> ] would guarantee the reform-impeding ] of the nobility from that time on in order to cement the Commonwealth's weak central authority and a state of perpetual political impotence. In a resounding break with traditions of religious tolerance, Protestants were executed during the ] in 1724.<ref name="playground I 139–142">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=139–142}}</ref> In 1732, ], ] and ], Poland's three increasingly powerful and scheming neighbors, entered into the secret ] with the intention of controlling the future royal succession in the Commonwealth. The ] was fought in 1733–35<ref name="playground I xxix"/> to assist Leszczyński in assuming the throne of Poland for a second time. Amidst considerable foreign involvement, his efforts were unsuccessful. The ] became a strong regional power and succeeded in wresting the historically Polish province of ] from the ] in the ]; it thus became an ever-greater threat to Poland's security. The ] between the Commonwealth and the ] did give rise to the emergence of a reform movement in the Commonwealth and the beginnings of the ] culture, the major positive developments of this era. The first Polish public library was the ] in Warsaw, opened to the public in 1747.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=258–301}}.</ref>

===Reforms and loss of statehood (1764–95)===

{{further information|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–95)}}

====Czartoryski reforms and Stanisław August Poniatowski====

], the "enlightened" monarch]]

During the later part of the 18th century, fundamental internal reforms were attempted in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as it slid into extinction. The reform activity, initially promoted by the magnate ] faction known as the ], provoked a hostile reaction and military response from neighboring powers, but it did create conditions that fostered economic improvement. The most populous urban center, the capital city of ], replaced ] (Gdańsk) as the leading trade center, and the importance of the more prosperous urban social classes increased. The last decades of the independent Commonwealth's existence were characterized by aggressive reform movements and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art and the evolution of the social and political system.<ref name="Gierowski 1764–1864, pp. 1–60">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=1–60}}.</ref>

The ] of 1764 resulted in the elevation of ],<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=xxix–xxx}}</ref> a refined and worldly aristocrat connected to the Czartoryski family, but hand-picked and imposed by Empress ] of ], who expected him to be her obedient follower. Stanisław August ruled the Polish–Lithuanian state until its dissolution in 1795. The king spent his reign torn between his desire to implement reforms necessary to save the failing state and the perceived necessity of remaining in a subordinate relationship to his Russian sponsors.<ref name="Gierowski 1764–1864, pp. 60–66">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=60–66}}.</ref>

The ] (1768–72)<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> was a noble rebellion directed against Russia's influence in general and Stanisław August, who was seen as its representative, in particular. It was fought to preserve Poland's independence and the nobility's traditional interests. After several years, it was brought under control by forces loyal to the king and those of the ].<ref name="Gierowski 1764–1864, pp. 66–74"/>

Following the suppression of the Bar Confederation, parts of the Commonwealth were divided up among Prussia, Austria and Russia in 1772 at the instigation of ] of Prussia, an action that became known as the ]:<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> the outer provinces of the Commonwealth were seized by agreement among the country's three powerful neighbors and only a rump state remained. In 1773, the "]" ratified the partition under duress as a '']''. However, it also established the ], a pioneering in Europe education authority often called the world's first ministry of education.<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/><ref name="Gierowski 1764–1864, pp. 66–74">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=66–74}}.</ref>

====The Great Sejm of 1788-91 and the Constitution of May 3, 1791====

] adopted the ] at the ] in ]]]

The long-lasting Sejm convened by Stanisław August is known as the ], or "Four-Year" Sejm, which first met in 1788. Its landmark achievement was the passing of the ],<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> the first singular pronouncement of a supreme law of the state in modern Europe. A moderately reformist document condemned by detractors as sympathetic to the ideals of the ], it soon generated strong opposition from the conservative circles of the Commonwealth's upper nobility and the Russian Empress Catherine, who was determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth. The nobility's ], formed in Russian imperial capital of ], appealed to Catherine for help, and in May 1792, the Russian army entered the territory of the Commonwealth.<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> The ], 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 Confederation took over the government, but Russia and Prussia in 1793 arranged for the ], which left the country with a critically reduced territory that rendered it essentially incapable of an independent existence. The Commonwealth's ] of 1793, the last Sejm of its existence,<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> was compelled to confirm the new partition.<ref name="Gierowski 1764–1864, pp. 74–90">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=74–90}}.</ref>

====The Kościuszko Uprising of 1794 and the loss of Polish independence====

]'s call for a ], ] 1794]]

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. ], a popular general and a veteran of the ], was chosen as its leader. He returned from abroad and issued ] in ] on March 24, 1794. It called for a ] under his supreme command.<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> Kościuszko emancipated many peasants in order to enroll them as '']'' in his army, but the hard-fought insurrection, despite widespread national support, proved incapable of generating the foreign assistance necessary for its success. In the end, it was suppressed by the combined forces of Russia and Prussia, with Warsaw captured in November 1794 at the ].

In 1795, a ] was undertaken by Russia, Prussia and Austria as a final division of territory that resulted in the effective dissolution of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> The Polish king was escorted to ], forced to abdicate, and retired to ].<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/><ref name="Gierowski 1764–1864, pp. 90–101">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=90–101}}.</ref> Kościuszko, initially imprisoned, was allowed to emigrate to the ] in 1796.<ref name="Herbst 437">{{Harvnb|Herbst|1969|p=437}}.</ref>

The response of the Polish leadership to the last partition is a matter of historical debate. Literary scholars found that the dominant emotion of the first decade was despair that produced a moral desert ruled by violence and treason. On the other hand, historians have looked for signs of resistance to foreign rule. Apart from those who went into exile, the nobility took oaths of loyalty to their new rulers and served as officers in their armies.<ref>{{Harnvb|Czubaty|2009|pp=95–109}}.</ref>

==Partitioned Poland (1795–1918)==

{{further information|History of Poland (1795–1918)|Partitions of Poland|Congress Poland}}

===Armed resistance (1795–1864)===

====Napoleonic wars====

] (1772, 1793, and 1795)]]

Although no sovereign Polish state existed between 1795 and 1918, the idea of Polish independence was kept alive throughout the 19th century. There were a number of uprisings and other military conflicts against the partitioning powers. Military efforts after the partitions were first based on the alliances of Polish émigrés with ]. ]'s ] fought in French campaigns outside of Poland between 1797 and 1802<ref name="playground II xxi">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=xxi}}</ref> in hopes that their involvement and contribution would be rewarded with the liberation of their Polish homeland. The Polish national anthem, "]", or "Dąbrowski's Mazurka", was written in praise of his actions by ] in 1797.<ref name="Gierowski 119–130">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=119–30}}.</ref>

The ], a small, semi-independent Polish state, was created in 1807 by ]<ref name="playground II xxi"/> in the wake of his defeat of Prussia and the signing of the ] with Emperor ]. The ], led by ], participated in numerous campaigns in alliance with France, including the successful ] of 1809, which, combined with the outcomes of other theaters of the ], resulted in an enlargement of the Duchy's territory. The ] in 1812 and the ] saw the Duchy's last military engagements. The ] abolished serfdom as a reflection of the ideals of the ], but it did not promote ].<ref name="Gierowski 130–147">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=130–147}}.</ref>

====The Congress of Vienna====
After Napoleon's defeat, a new European order was established at the ], which met in the years 1814 and 1815. ], a former close associate of Alexander I, became the leading advocate for the ]. 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 ].<ref name="playground II xxi"/> The residual Polish kingdom was joined to the ] in a ] under the Russian ], and it was allowed ] and ]. East of the kingdom, large areas of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth remained directly incorporated into the Russian Empire as the ]. These territories, along with "Congress Poland," are generally considered to form the "]" as it existed in the 19th century. The Russian, Prussian, and Austrian "partitions" were the lands of the former Commonwealth, not actual units of its ] in the 19th century.<ref name="Gierowski 147–181">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=147–181}}.</ref> The "]" was formed from territories acquired from the Commonwealth and included a portion separated as the ].<ref name="playground II xxi"/> Peasants under the Prussian administration were gradually enfranchised under the reforms of 1811 and 1823. The limited legal reforms in the "]" were overshadowed by ]. The ] was a tiny republic newly created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 under the joint supervision of the three partitioning powers.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> As bleak as the new political divisions of the former Commonwealth were to Polish patriots, economic progress was made because the period after the Congress of Vienna witnessed a significant development in the building of early industry in the lands taken over by foreign powers.<ref name="Gierowski 147–181"/>

====The Uprising of November 1830====

] of 1830]]

The increasingly repressive policies of the partitioning powers led to ], and in 1830 Polish patriots staged the ].<ref name="playground II xxi"/> This revolt developed into a full-scale war with Russia, but the leadership was taken over by Polish conservatives who were reluctant to challenge the Russian empire and hostile to broadening the independence movement's social base through measures such as land reform. Despite the significant resources mobilized, a series of military mistakes by several successive chief commanders appointed by the insurgent ] led to the defeat of its forces by the Russian army in 1831.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> Congress Poland lost its constitution and military, but formally remained a separate administrative unit within the Russian Empire.<ref name="Gierowski 181–194">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=181–194}}.</ref>

], a ] composer of piano works, many of them inspired by ] national musical styles, especially dance styles]]

After the defeat of the November Uprising, thousands of former Polish combatants and other activists emigrated to ]. This phenomenon, known as the ], soon dominated Polish political and intellectual life. Together with the leaders of the independence movement, the Polish community abroad included the greatest Polish literary and artistic minds, including the ] poets ] (traditionally considered ], who died as an ] in 1855),<ref name="playground II xxi"/> ], ], and the composer ]. In occupied and repressed Poland, some sought progress through nonviolent activism focused on education and economy, known as ]; others, in cooperation with emigrant circles, organized conspiracies and prepared for the next armed insurrection.<ref name="Gierowski 208–231">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=208–231}}.</ref>

====Revolts of the era of the Spring of Nations====

As soon as the authorities in the partitions found out about secret preparations, whatever planned national uprisings failed to materialize in the Polish territories for many years. The ] ended in a fiasco in early 1846. In the ] of February 1846,<ref name="playground II xxi"/> patriotic action was combined with revolutionary demands, but the result was the incorporation of the Republic of Kraków into the Austrian Partition. The Austrian officials took advantage of peasant discontent and incited villagers against the noble-dominated insurgent units. This resulted in the ] of 1846,<ref name="playground II xxi"/> a large-scale rebellion of ]s seeking relief from their post-feudal '']'' ]. The uprising freed many from bondage and hastened decisions that led to the ] in the ] 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 ] revolutions of 1848 (e.g. ]'s participation ] and ]). The 1848 ] precipitated the ],<ref name="playground II xxi"/> in which peasants in the Prussian Partition, who were by then largely enfranchised, played a prominent role.<ref name="Gierowski 232–287">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=232–287}}.</ref>

====The Uprising of January 1863====

], the last supreme commander of the ]]]

Despite the limited liberalization measures allowed in the Congress Poland under the rule of Tsar ], a renewal of popular liberation activities took place in 1860–61. The Russian autocracy gave the Polish artisans and gentry reason to rebel in 1863 by assailing national core values of language, religion, culture.<ref>Stephen R. Burant, "The January Uprising of 1863 in Poland: Sources of Disaffection and the Arenas of Revolt." ''European History Quarterly'' 15#2 (1985): 131-156.</ref> During large-scale demonstrations in Warsaw, Russian forces inflicted numerous casualties on the civilian participants. The "]", or left-wing faction, which promoted peasant enfranchisement and cooperated with Russian revolutionaries, became involved in immediate preparations for a national uprising. The "]", or right-wing faction, was inclined to cooperate with the Russian authorities and countered with partial reform proposals. In order to cripple the manpower potential of the Reds, ], 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.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> This action hastened the outbreak of hostilities. The ], joined and led after the initial period by the Whites, was fought by partisan units against an overwhelmingly advantaged enemy. The uprising lasted from January 1863 to the spring of 1864,<ref name="playground II xxi"/> when ], the last supreme commander of the insurgency, was captured by the tsarist police.<ref name="Gierowski 287–311">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=287–311}}.</ref><ref name="Biel, czerwień, czerń">{{Harvnb|Zdrada|2010}}</ref>

On 2 March 1864, the Russian authority, compelled by the uprising to compete for the loyalty of Polish peasants, officially published ]<ref name="playground II xxi"/> along the lines of an earlier land reform proclamation of the insurgents. The act created the conditions necessary for the development of the capitalist system on central Polish lands. At the time when the futility of armed resistance without external support was realized by most Poles, the various sections of Polish society were undergoing deep and far-reaching social, economic and cultural changes.<ref name="Biel, czerwień, czerń"/><ref name="Gierowski 311–318">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=311–318}}.</ref>

===Formation of modern Polish society under foreign rule (1864–1914)===

====Repression and organic work====

] (1847–1912), a leading novelist, journalist and ] of Poland's ]]]

The failure of the January Uprising in Poland caused a major psychological trauma and became a historic watershed; indeed, it sparked the development of modern ]. The Poles, subjected within the territories under the Russian and Prussian administrations to still stricter controls and increased persecution, sought to preserve their identity in non-violent ways. After the Uprising, Congress Poland was downgraded in official usage from the "Kingdom of Poland" to the "]" and was more fully integrated into Russia proper, but not entirely obliterated. The Russian and German languages were imposed in all public communication, and the Catholic Church was not spared from severe repression; public education was increasingly subjected to ] and ] measures. Illiteracy was reduced, most effectively in the Prussian partition, but education in Polish was preserved mostly through unofficial efforts. The Prussian government pursued German colonization, including the purchase of Polish-owned land. On the other hand, the region of ] in western Ukraine and southern Poland experienced a gradual relaxation of authoritarian policies and even a Polish cultural revival. Economically and socially backward, it was under the milder rule of the ] and from 1867 was allowed increasingly limited autonomy.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> ''Stańczycy'', a conservative Polish pro-Austrian faction led by great land owners, dominated the Galician government. The ] was founded in Kraków in 1872.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> ] replaced Romanticism as the leading intellectual, social and literary trend.<ref name="Lukowski 182–187">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=182–187}}.</ref><ref name="Lukowski 192–194">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=192–194}}.</ref>

Social activities termed "]" consisted of self-help organizations that promoted economic advancement and work on improving the competitiveness of Polish-owned businesses, industrial, agricultural or other. New commercial methods of generating higher productivity were discussed and implemented through trade associations and special interest groups, while Polish banking and cooperative financial institutions made the necessary business loans available. The other major area of effort in organic work was the educational and intellectual development of the common people. Many libraries and reading rooms were established in small towns and villages, and numerous printed periodicals reflected the growing interest in popular education. Scientific and educational societies were active in a number of cities. Such activities were most pronounced in the Prussian Partition.<ref name="Lukowski 182–187"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=84–85}}.</ref>

====Economic development and social change====
Under the partitioning powers, large-scale ], economic diversification and progress were introduced in the traditionally agrarian Polish lands, but this development turned out to be very uneven. In the Prussian Partition, advanced agriculture was practiced, except for ], where the coal-mining industry created a large labor force. The densest network of railroads was built in German-ruled western Poland. In Russian Congress Poland, a striking growth of industry, railways and towns was taking place, all against the background of an extensive, but less productive agriculture. Warsaw (a metallurgical center) and ] (a textiles center) grew rapidly, as did the total proportion of the urban population, making the region the most advanced in the Russian Empire (industrial production exceeded agricultural production by 1909). The coming of the railways spurred some industrial growth even in the vast Russian Partition territories outside Congress Poland. The Austrian Partition was rural and poor, except for the industrialized ] area. Galician economic expansion after 1890 included oil extraction and resulted in the growth of ] and ].<ref name="Lukowski 187–192, 199">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=187–192, 199}}.</ref>

] emigrated from the Polish-Lithuanian lands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but most remained to form a large ethnic minority]]

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. Among the newly emergent strata were wealthy industrialists and financiers, distinct from the traditional, but still critically important landed aristocracy. The ], an educated, professional or business middle class, often originated from lower gentry, landless or alienated from their rural possessions, and from urban people. Many smaller agricultural enterprises based on serfdom did not survive the land reforms.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|p=44}}.</ref> The industrial ], a new underprivileged class, was composed mainly of poor peasants or townspeople forced by deteriorating conditions to migrate and search for work in urban centers in their countries of origin or abroad. Millions of residents of the former Commonwealth of various ]s worked or settled in Europe and in North and South America.<ref name="Lukowski 187–192, 199"/>

Social and economic changes were partial and gradual, and the degree of (fast-paced in some areas) industrialization generally lagged behind the advanced regions of western Europe. The three partitions developed different economies and were more economically integrated with their mother states than with each other (for example the Prussian Partition's agricultural production depended heavily on the German market, whereas the industrial sector of Congress Poland relied more on the Russian market).<ref name="Lukowski 187–192, 199"/>

====Nationalism, socialism and other movements====
], discoverer of ]]]

In the 1870s–90s, large-scale ], ], ] and other political movements of great ideological fervor became established in partitioned Poland and Lithuania, along with corresponding political parties to promote them. Of the major parties, the socialist ] was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of ]) in 1887, the ] in 1890, the ] in 1892, the ] ] in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist ] in 1897. ] regional associations allied with the Catholic Church were also active; they united into the ] in 1919. The main minority ethnic groups of the former Commonwealth, including Ukrainians, Lithuanians, ] and Jews, were getting involved in their own national movements and plans, which met with disapproval on the part of those Polish independence activists who counted on an eventual rebirth of the Commonwealth or the rise of a Commonwealth-inspired federal structure (a political movement referred to as ]).<ref name="Lukowski 194–203">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=194–203}}.</ref>

Around the start of the 20th century, the ] ], centered in Galicia, took advantage of a milieu conducive to liberal expression in that region and was the source of Poland's finest artistic and literary productions.<ref name="Lukowski 207–209">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=207–209}}.</ref> In this same era, ], a pioneer ] scientist, performed her groundbreaking research in ].<ref name="Lukowski 190">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=190}}.</ref>

====The Revolution of 1905====

]|thumb|left|275px]]
]'s ] ideology proved highly influential in early 20th-century Poland. He favored the dominance of Polish-speaking Catholics in civic life without concern for the rights of ethnic minorities, in particular the Jews, whose emigration he advocated.]]

The ],<ref name="playground II xxi"/> 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 ]. In Poland, the principal revolutionary figures were ] and ]. Dmowski was associated with the right-wing nationalist movement ], whereas Piłsudski was associated with the ]. As the authorities re-established control within the Russian Empire, the revolt in Congress Poland, placed under martial law, withered as well, partially as a result of tsarist concessions in the areas of national and workers' rights, including Polish representation in the newly created Russian ]. The collapse of the revolt in the Russian Partition coupled with intensified Germanization in the Prussian Partition left ] as the territory most amenable to patriotic action.<ref name="Lukowski 203–208">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=203–208}}.</ref>.

In the Austrian Partition, Polish culture was openly cultivated, and in the Prussian Partition, there were high levels of education and living standards, but the Russian Partition remained of primary importance for the Polish nation and its aspirations. About 15.5 million Polish-speakers lived in what was the central and western territories of the Russian Partition. Much fewer were spread in the east: 1.3 million in Austrian ] and about 2 million along Russia's western districts, with the heaviest concentration in the ].<ref name="Lukowski 208–216">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=208–216}}.</ref>
Polish paramilitary organizations oriented toward independence, such as the ], were being formed in 1908–14, mainly in Galicia. The Poles were divided and their political parties fragmented on the eve of ], with Dmowski's National Democracy (pro-]) and Piłsudski's faction assuming opposing positions.<ref name="Lukowski 208–216"/><ref name="Lukowski 217–222"/>

===World War I and the issue of Poland's independence===

{{further information|History of Poland during World War I}}

] with his ] in 1915]]

The outbreak of ] offered Poles unexpected hopes for achieving independence as a result of the turbulence that engulfed the empires of the partitioning powers. All three of the monarchies that had benefited from the partition of Polish territories (Germany, Austria and Russia) were dissolved by the end of the war, and many of their territories were dispersed into new political units. At the start of the war, the Poles found themselves conscripted into the armies of the partitioning powers in a war that was not theirs. Furthermore, they were frequently forced to fight each other, since the armies of Germany and Austria were allied against Russia. Piłsudski's paramilitary units stationed in ] were turned into the ] in 1914, and as a part of the ], they fought on the Russian front until 1917, when the formation was disbanded.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> 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.<ref name="Lukowski 217–222">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=217–222}}.</ref><ref name="playground II 279–290">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=279–290}}</ref>

] in Paris in 1918.]]

Due to a series of German victories on the ], the area of ] became occupied by the ] of Germany and Austria;<ref name="playground II xxi"/> Warsaw was captured by the Germans on 5 August 1915. In the ] 1916, a fresh incarnation of the ] (''Królestwo Regencyjne'') was created by Germany and Austria on formerly Russian-controlled territories<ref name="playground II xxi"/> within the German ] scheme. The sponsor states were never able to agree on a candidate to assume the throne, however; rather, it was governed in turn by German and Austrian Governor-Generals, a ], and a ]. This increasingly autonomous puppet state existed until November 1918, when it was replaced by the newly established ]. The existence of this "kingdom" and its planned Polish army had a positive effect on the Polish national efforts on the ]. But the ] between Germany and defeated Russia of March 1918 ignored Polish interests.<ref name="Lukowski 217–222"/><ref name="playground II 279–290"/>

The independence of Poland had been campaigned for in Russia and in the West by Dmowski and in the West by ]. Tsar ], and then the leaders of the ] and the ] of 1917, installed governments who declared in turn their support for Polish independence.<ref name="playground II 279–290"/> In 1917, France formed the ] (placed under ]) 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. There was also a 30,000-men strong Polish anti-German army in Russia. Dmowski, operating from Paris as head of the ] (KNP), became the spokesman for Polish nationalism in the Allied camp. On the initiative of Woodrow Wilson's ], Polish independence was officially endorsed by the Allies in June 1918.<ref name="playground II xxi"/><ref name="Lukowski 217–222"/><ref name="playground II 279–290"/>

] in 1916. The "Kingdom" was established to entice Poles to cooperate with the ].]]

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.<ref name="Lukowski 217–222"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=112}}.</ref> Total ] from 1914 to 1918 within the 1919–39 borders of Poland, military and civilian, were estimated at 1,128,000.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gawryszewski|2005|p=?}}.</ref>

The final upsurge of the push for independence of Poland took place on the ground in October–November 1918. Near the end of the war, Austro-Hungarian and German units were being disarmed, and the Austrian army's collapse freed ] and Kraków at the end of October. Lviv was then contested in the ] of 1918–19. ] headed the first short-lived independent Polish government in ] from November 7, the leftist Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland, which was proclaimed as a democracy. Germany, now defeated, was forced by the Allies to stand down its large military forces in Poland. Overtaken by the ] at home, the Germans released Piłsudski from prison. He arrived in Warsaw on November 10 and was granted extensive authority by the Polish kingdom's ], which was also recognized by the Lublin government.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> On November 22 Piłsudski became the temporary head of state. He was held by many in high regard, but was resented by the right-wing National Democrats. The emerging Polish state was internally divided, heavily war-damaged and economically dysfunctional.<ref name="Lukowski 217–222"/><ref name="playground II 279–290"/>

==Second Polish Republic (1918–39)==

{{further information|History of Poland (1918–39)|Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee|Second Polish Republic}}

===Securing national borders, war with Soviet Russia===

], a war with Germany, erupted in December 1918]]

After more than a century of foreign rule, Poland regained its independence at the end of ] as one of the outcomes of the negotiations that took place at the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|MacMillan|2002|p=207}}.</ref> The ] that emerged from the conference set up an independent nation with an outlet to the sea, but left some of its boundaries to be decided by plebiscites. The largely German ] was granted a separate status that guaranteed its use as a port by Poland. In the end, the settlement of the German-Polish border turned out to be a prolonged and convoluted process. It helped engender the ] of 1918–19, the three ] of 1919–21, the ] of 1920, the ] of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in ].<ref name="playground 291–321">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=291–321}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=224, 226–227}}.</ref><ref name="Heart 115-121">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=115–121}}.</ref>

Other boundaries were settled by war and subsequent treaties. A total of six border wars were fought in 1918–21, including the ] over ] in January 1919.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

], ], August 1920]]

As distressing as these border conflicts were, the ] of 1919–21 was the most important military action 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 ], but they were soon confronted with the ]. Western Ukraine was already a theater of the ], which eliminated the proclaimed ] in July 1919. In the autumn of 1919, Piłsudski rejected urgent pleas from the former Entente powers to support ]'s ] in its advance on Moscow.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> The Polish–Soviet War proper began with the Polish ] in April 1920.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duraczyński|2012|p=112}}</ref> Allied with the ] of the ], the Polish armies had advanced past ], ] and Kiev by June.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=224–229}}</ref> At that time, a massive Soviet counter-offensive pushed the Poles out of most of Ukraine. On the northern front, the Soviet army reached the outskirts of Warsaw in early August. A Soviet triumph and the quick end of Poland seemed inevitable. However, the Poles scored a stunning victory at the ]. Afterwards, more ] followed, and the Soviets had to pull back. They left swathes of territory occupied largely by Belarusians or Ukrainians to Polish rule. The new eastern boundary was finalized by the ] in 1921.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Biskupski|1987}}.</ref>

] (right) and ] headed a wartime cabinet in 1920. Witos was an ] leader and a centrist politician, later ] under the ].]]

The defeat of the Russian armies forced ] and the Soviet leadership to postpone their strategic objective of linking up with the German and other European revolutionary-minded comrades to spread ]. Lenin's hope of generating support for the ] in Poland had already failed to materialize.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

Piłsudski's seizure of Vilnius in October 1920 (known as ]) was a nail in the coffin of the already poor ] that had been strained by the ] of 1919–20; both states would remain hostile to one another for the remainder of the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=231}}.</ref> Piłsudski's planned ] (an East European federation of states inspired by the tradition of the multiethnic ] that would include a hypothetical multinational successor state to the ])<ref name="Snyder 60-65">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=60–65}}.</ref> and thus became incompatible with his assumption of Polish domination and encroachment on neighboring peoples' lands and aspirations at the time of rising national movements. It soon ceased to be a feature of Poland's politics.<ref name="Prazmowska 164-172">{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|pp=164–172}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=225, 230, 231}}.</ref><ref name="Snyder 57-60, 62">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=57–60, 62}}.</ref>{{Ref label|a|a|none}} A larger federated structure was also opposed by Dmowski's National Democrats. Their representative at the Peace of Riga talks, ], opted for leaving Minsk, ], ] and the surrounding areas on the Soviet side of the border, since the National Democrats did not want to permit population shifts that they considered politically undesirable, especially if the transfers would result in a reduced proportion of citizens who were ethnically Polish.<ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=230}}.</ref><ref name="Snyder 64-65, 68-69">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=64–65, 68–69}}.</ref>

]]]

The Peace of Riga settled the eastern border by preserving for Poland a substantial portion of the old Commonwealth's eastern territories at the cost of partitioning the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuania and Belarus) and Ukraine.<ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref name="Snyder 63-69">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=63–69}}.</ref><ref name="Heart 147">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=147}}</ref> The Ukrainians ended up with no state of their own and felt betrayed by the Riga arrangements; their resentment gave rise to extreme nationalism and anti-Polish hostility.<ref name="Snyder 139-144">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=139–144}}.</ref> The ] (or borderland) territories in the east won by 1921 would form the basis for a swap arranged and carried out by the Soviets in 1943–45, who at that time ] the re-emerging Polish state for the eastern lands lost to the Soviet Union with ].<ref name="Heart 115-121, 73-80">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=115–121, 73–80}}.</ref>

The successful outcome of the Polish–Soviet War gave Poland a false sense of its prowess as a self-sufficient military power and encouraged the government to try to resolve international problems through imposed unilateral solutions.<ref name="Prazmowska 164-172"/><ref name="Lukowski 232">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=232}}.</ref> The territorial and ethnic policies of the interwar period contributed to bad relations with most of Poland's neighbors and uneasy cooperation with more distant centers of power, especially France and Great Britain.<ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref name="Prazmowska 164-172"/><ref name="Lukowski 232"/>

===Democratic politics, 1919-26===

] ] and was the leader of the ]]]

Among the chief difficulties faced by the government of the new Polish republic was the lack of an integrated infrastructure among the formerly separate partitions, a deficiency that disrupted industry, transportation, trade and other areas.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

The first ] for the re-established ] took place in January 1919. A temporary ] was passed by the body the following month.<ref name="Lukowski 223">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=223}}.</ref>

The rapidly growing population of Poland within its new boundaries was ¾ agricultural and ¼ urban; Polish was the primary language of only ⅔ of the inhabitants of the new country. The minorities had very little voice in the government. The permanent ] was adopted in March 1921. 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.<ref name="Heart 115-121"/>

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 legislature remained fragmented, without stable majorities, and governments changed frequently. The open-minded ] was elected president constitutionally (without a popular vote) by the ] in 1922. However, members of the nationalist right-wing faction did not regard his elevation as legitimate. They viewed Narutowicz rather as a traitor whose election was pushed through by the votes of alien minorities. Narutowicz and his supporters were subjected to an intense harassment campaign, and the president was assassinated on December 16, 1922, after serving only five days in office.<ref name="Hart 121-123">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=121–123}}.</ref>

] reformed the currency]]

Corruption was held to be commonplace in the political culture of the early Polish Republic. However, the investigations conducted by the new regime after the 1926 ] failed to uncover any major affair or corruption scheme within the state apparatus of its predecessors.<ref name="Wybrać, jak trzeba">{{Harvnb|Garlicki|2009}}.</ref>

] measures were passed in 1919 and 1925 under pressure from an impoverished peasantry. They were partially implemented, but resulted in the parcellation of only 20% of the great agricultural estates.<ref name="Ziemia dla chłopów">{{Harvnb|Pilawski|2009}}.</ref> Poland endured numerous economic calamities and disruptions in the early 1920s, including waves of workers' strikes such as the ]. The ], initiated by Germany in 1925, was one of the most damaging external factors that put a strain on Poland's economy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=237–238}}.</ref><ref name="playground 307, 308">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=307, 308}}.</ref> On the other hand, there were also signs of progress and stabilization, for example a critical reform of finances carried out by the competent government of ], which lasted almost two years. Certain other achievements of the democratic period having to do with the management of governmental and civic institutions necessary to the functioning of the reunited state and nation were too easily overlooked. Lurking on the sidelines was a disgusted army officer corps unwilling to subject itself to civilian control, but ready to follow the retired Piłsudski, who was highly popular with Poles and just as dissatisfied with the Polish system of government as his former colleagues in the military.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Hart 121-123"/>

===Piłsudski's coup and the Sanation Era, 1926-39===

] of 1926 defined Poland's political reality in the years leading to World War II]]

On May 12, 1926, Piłsudski staged the ], a military overthrow of the civilian government mounted against President ] and the troops loyal to the legitimate government. Hundreds died in fratricidal fighting.<ref name="playground 312">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=312}}.</ref> Piłsudski was supported by several leftist factions who ensured the success of his coup by blocking the railway transportation of government forces.<ref name="Hart 123-127">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=123–127}}.</ref> He also had the support of the conservative great landowners, a move that left the right-wing National Democrats as the only major social force opposed to the takeover.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|1988|pp=45–46}}.</ref>{{Ref label|l|l|none}}

Following the coup, the new regime initially respected many parliamentary formalities, but gradually tightened its control and abandoned pretenses. ], 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 ]. Five thousand political opponents were arrested ahead of the ],<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 309">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=309}}.</ref> which was rigged to award a majority of seats to the pro-regime ] (BBWR).<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Wybrać, jak trzeba"/><ref name="Gwałt i ratunek">{{Harvnb|Burnetko|2009}}.</ref>

]: Marshal ] and President ] in 1936]]

The authoritarian "]" regime (meant to denote a "healing" regime) 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.<ref name="Wybrać, jak trzeba"/> Political institutions and parties were allowed to function, but the electoral process was manipulated and those not willing to cooperate submissively were subjected to repression. From 1930, persistent opponents of the regime, many of the leftist persuasion, were imprisoned and subjected to ] with harsh sentences, such as the ], or else detained in the ] and similar camps for political prisoners. About three thousand were detained without trial at different times at the Bereza ] between 1934 and 1939. In 1936 for example, 369 activists were taken there, including 342 ].<ref name="Bereza, Polski obóz koncentracyjny">{{Harvnb|Garlicki|2008}}.</ref> Rebellious peasants staged riots in 1932, 1933 and the ]. Other civil disturbances were caused by striking industrial workers (e.g. events of the "Bloody Spring" of 1936), nationalist Ukrainians{{Ref label|p|p|none}} and the activists of the incipient Belarusian movement. All became targets of ruthless police-military pacification.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=248–249}}.</ref><ref name="Brzoza Sowa 322–329">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=322–329}}.</ref><ref name="Brzoza Sowa 353–359">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=353–359}}.</ref>{{Ref label|y|y|none}} Besides sponsoring political repression, the regime also fostered a ] that had already existed long before he assumed dictatorial powers.

Piłsudski signed the ] in 1932 and the ] in 1934,<ref name="Hart 123-127"/> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|1988|pp=124–125}}.</ref> He initiated the policy of maintaining an equal distance and an adjustable middle course regarding the two great neighbors, later continued by ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|p=379}}.</ref> Piłsudski kept personal control of the army, but it was poorly equipped, poorly trained and had poor preparations in place for possible future conflicts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=}}.</ref> His only war plan was a defensive war against a Soviet invasion.<ref>{{Harvnb|Drzewieniecki|1981}}.</ref>{{Ref label|r|r|none}} 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=37–38}}.</ref>

Sanation deputies in the Sejm used a parliamentary maneuver to abolish the democratic ] and push through a more authoritarian ] in 1935; it reduced the powers of the Sejm, which Piłsudski despised.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> The process and the resulting document were seen as illegitimate by the anti-Sanation opposition, but during World War II, the ] recognized the April Constitution in order to uphold the legal continuity of the Polish state.<ref>{{Harvnb|Szeląg|1968|pp=11–12}}.</ref>

When Marshal Piłsudski died in 1935, he retained the support of the main sections of Polish society even though he never risked testing his popularity in an honest election. His regime was dictatorial, but at that time only Czechoslovakia remained democratic in all of the regions neighboring Poland. Historians have taken widely divergent views of the meaning and consequences of the coup he perpetrated and his personal rule that followed.<ref name="Gwałt i ratunek"/>

===Social and economic trends of the interwar period===

{{multiple image
|align = right
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|header_align =
|header = Portraits of poets by ]
|image1 = Witkacy Maria P J.jpg
|width1 = 135
|alt1 =
|caption1 = ]
|image2 = Witkacy Julian Tuwim.jpg
|width2 = 128
|alt2 =
|caption2 = ]
}}
]'s ] was meant to help Poland's defenses and employment]]

Independence stimulated the development of ] and intellectual achievement was high. Warsaw, whose population almost doubled between World War I and World War II, was a restless, burgeoning metropolis. It outpaced Kraków, ] and ], the other major population centers of the country.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

Mainstream Polish society was not affected by the repressions of the Sanation authorities overall;<ref name="Heart 126">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=126}}.</ref> many Poles enjoyed relative stability, and the economy improved markedly between 1926 and 1929, only to become caught up in the global ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=242}}.</ref> After 1929, the country's ] and ] slumped by about 50%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|p=444}}.</ref>

The Great Depression brought low prices for farmers and unemployment for workers. Social tensions increased, including rising ]. A major economic transformation and multi-year state plan to achieve national industrial development, as embodied in the ] initiative launched in 1936, was led by Minister ]. Motivated primarily by the need for a native ], the initiative was in progress at the time of the outbreak of World War II. Kwiatkowski was also the main architect of the earlier ] project.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=249–250}}.</ref>

The prevalent nationalism in political circles was fueled by the large size of Poland's minority populations and their separate agendas. According to the language criterion of the ], the Poles constituted 69% of the population, Ukrainians 15%, Jews (defined as speakers of the ]) 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. In time, the ethnic conflicts intensified, and the Polish state grew less tolerant of the interests of its national minorities. 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 ] schools and official restrictions on Jewish attendance at selected schools in the late 1930s.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

The population grew steadily, reaching 35 million in 1939. However, the overall economic situation in the interwar period was one of ]. There was little money for investment inside Poland, and few foreigners were interested in investing there.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> Total industrial production barely increased between 1913 and 1939 (within the area delimited by the 1939 borders), but because of population growth (from 26.3 millions in 1919 to 34.8 millions in 1939),<ref name="playground 291–321"/> the ''per capita'' output actually decreased by 18%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|p=360}}.</ref>

Conditions in the predominant agricultural sector kept deteriorating between 1929 and 1939, which resulted in rural unrest and a progressive radicalization of the Polish peasant movement that became increasingly inclined toward militant anti-state activities. It was firmly repressed by the authorities. According to ], the failures of the Sanation regime (combined with the objective economic realities) caused a radicalization of the Polish masses by the end of the 1930s, but he warns against drawing parallels with the incomparably more destructive precedents of ] or the ].<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

===Final years===

] became the Second Republic's last prime minister]]
<!-- ] violation: ] and ] in 1937. The influential Polish foreign minister was even-handed: he rejected the proposed risky alliances with ] and with the ].<ref name="playground 291–321"/>]] -->

After Piłsudski's death in 1935, Poland was governed until the ] by old allies and subordinates known as "]". They had neither the vision nor the resources to cope with the perilous situation facing Poland in the late 1930s. The colonels had gradually assumed greater powers during Piłsudski's life by manipulating the ailing marshal behind the scenes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Szeląg|1968|p=125}}.</ref> Eventually they achieved an overt politicization of the army that did nothing to help prepare the country for war.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

Foreign policy was the responsibility of ], under whom Polish diplomacy attempted balanced approaches toward Germany and the Soviet Union, unfortunately without success, on the basis of a flawed understanding of the European geopolitics of his day. Beck had numerous foreign policy schemes and harbored illusions of Poland's status as a great power. He alienated most of Poland's neighbors, but is not blamed by historians for the ultimate failure of relations with Germany. The principal events of his tenure were concentrated in its last two years. In the case of the ], the Polish action nearly resulted in a German takeover of southwest Lithuania.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=391–393}}.</ref> Also in 1938, the Polish government opportunistically undertook a hostile action against the Czechoslovak state as weakened by the ] and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=128}}.</ref> In this case, Beck's understanding of the consequences of the Polish military move turned out to be completely mistaken.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=409–410}}.</ref><ref name="Jak Polacy i Rosjanie młócą historię">{{Harvnb|Zasuń|2009}}.</ref> In the end, the ] ushered in by the Munich Agreement markedly weakened Poland's own position.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=26}}.</ref> Furthermore, Beck mistakenly believed that Nazi-Soviet ideological contradictions would preclude their cooperation.<ref name="Zgórniak 455–465">{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=455–465}}.</ref>

At home, increasingly alienated minorities threatened unrest and violence and were suppressed. Extreme nationalist circles such as the ] grew more outspoken. One of the groups, the ], combined many nationalists with Sanation supporters and was connected to the new strongman, Marshal ], whose faction of the Sanation ruling movement was increasingly nationalistic.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=247–248, 251–252}}.</ref><ref name="Heart 127-129">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=127–129}}.</ref><ref name="Brzoza Sowa 361–365">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=361–365}}.</ref>

In the late 1930s, the exile bloc ] united several major Polish anti-Sanation figures, including ], ], ], ] and ]. It gained little influence inside Poland, but its spirit soon reappeared during ], within the ].<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

In October 1938, ] first proposed German-Polish territorial adjustments and Poland's participation in the ] against the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=412–413}}.</ref> The status of the ] was one of the key bones of contention. 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 ] into a German ].<ref name="Zgórniak 422–425">{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=422–425}}.</ref> Hitler, incensed by the British and French declarations of support for Poland,<ref name="Zgórniak 422–425"/> abrogated the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact in late April 1939.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=252–253}}.</ref>

] Street in ] (1939)]]

To protect itself from an increasingly aggressive ], already responsible for the annexations of Austria (in the ] of 1938), Czechoslovakia (in 1939) and a part of Lithuania after the ], Poland entered into a military alliance with Britain and France (the 1939 ] and the earlier ] of 1921, as updated in 1939).<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=38–40}}.</ref> However, the two Western powers were defense-oriented and not in a strong position, either geographically or in terms of resources, to assist Poland. Attempts were therefore made by them to induce Soviet-Polish cooperation, which they viewed as the only militarily viable possibility.<ref name="playground 319-320">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=319–320}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|p=454}}.</ref>

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. Warsaw's refusal to allow the Red Army to operate on Polish territory doomed the Western efforts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=29}}.</ref> The final contentious Allied-Soviet exchanges took place on August 21 and 23, 1939.<ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref name="Stalin million troops">{{Harvnb|Holdsworth|2008}}.</ref><ref name="Heart 155-156">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=155–156}}.</ref>{{Ref label|b|b|none}} Stalin's regime was the target of an intense German counter-initiative and was concurrently involved in increasingly effective negotiations with Hitler's agents. On August 23, an outcome contrary to the exertions of the Allies became a reality: in Moscow, Germany and the Soviet Union hurriedly signed the ], which secretly provided for the dismemberment of Poland into Nazi and Soviet-controlled zones.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref name="Heart 127-129"/><ref name="Department of State">{{Harvnb|DoS|2012}}.</ref>

==World War II==

{{further information|History of Poland (1939–45)}}

{{quote box|"The Polish contribution to allied victory in the Second World War was extraordinary, perhaps even decisive, but for many years it was disgracefully played down, obscured by the politics of the Cold War." '']''<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/06/myth-of-polish-cavalry-charge</ref>}}

===Invasions and resistance===

] {{SMS|Schleswig-Holstein||2}} ], 1 September 1939]]

On September 1, 1939, Hitler ordered the ], the opening event of ]. Poland had signed an ] as recently as August 25, and had long been in alliance with France. The two Western powers soon declared war on Germany, but they remained largely inactive (the period early in the conflict became known as the ]) and extended no aid to the attacked country. The numerically and technically superior '']'' formations rapidly advanced eastwards and engaged massively in the murder of Polish civilians over the entire occupied territory.<ref name="Wrzesień '39">{{Harvnb|Wieliński|2011}}.</ref> On September 17, a ] began. The Soviet Union quickly occupied most of the areas of eastern Poland that contained large populations of Ukrainians and Belarusians.{{Ref label|h|h|none}} The two invading powers divided up the country as they had agreed in the secret provisions of the ]. Poland's top government officials and military high command fled the war zone and arrived at the ] in mid-September. After the Soviet entry they sought refuge in ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=362–369}}.</ref><ref name="Biskupski 214-215">{{Harvnb|Biskupski|2003|pp=214–215}}.</ref><ref name="Kochanski 59-93">{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=59–93}}.</ref>

Among the military operations in which Poles held out the longest (until late September or early October) were the ], the ] and the resistance of the ]. Warsaw fell on 27 September after a heavy German bombardment that killed about 40,000 civilians.<ref name="Kochanski 59-93"/> Poland was ultimately partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union according to the terms of the ] signed by the two powers in Moscow on September 29.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=55–56}}.</ref>

]

] has argued that the most significant ] was sharing its code-breaking results.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kozaczuk|Straszak|2004}}.</ref> This allowed the British to perform the ] and decipher the main German military code, which gave the Allies a major advantage in the conflict.<ref name = "Winberg 2005 50">{{Harvnb|Weinberg|2005|p=50}}.</ref> As regards actual military campaigns, some Polish historians have argued that simply resisting the initial invasion of Poland was the country's greatest contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany, despite its defeat. The Polish Army of nearly one million men significantly delayed the start of the ], planned for 1939. When the Nazi offensive in the West did happen, the delay caused it to be less effective, a possibly crucial factor in the victory of the ].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=693}}.</ref>

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union as part of its ] in June 1941, the whole of pre-war Poland was overrun and occupied by German troops.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=68–69}}.</ref>

] pilots won fame in the ]]]

] was divided from 1939 into two regions: ] directly into the ] and areas ruled under a so-called ] of occupation.<ref name="playground 326-346">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=326–346}}.</ref> The Poles formed an ] and a ] that operated first in ], then, from July 1940, in ].<ref name="Czubiński 226"/> Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations, broken since September 1939, were resumed in July 1941 under the ], which facilitated the formation of a Polish army (the ]) in the Soviet Union.<ref name="Department of State 10/03">{{Harvnb|DoS|2003}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=375–382}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=231}}.</ref> In November 1941, Prime Minister Sikorski flew to the Soviet Union to negotiate with Stalin on its role on the ], but the British wanted the Polish soldiers in the ]. Stalin agreed, and the army was evacuated there.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=232–233}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|2001|pp=316–317}}.</ref>{{Ref label|w|w|none}}

The members of the ] that functioned in Poland throughout the war were loyal to and formally under the Polish government-in-exile, acting through its ].<ref name="playground 344-346">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=344–346}}.</ref> During World War II, about 400,000 Poles joined the underground Polish ] (''Armia Krajowa''),<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=264–265}}.</ref>{{Ref label|t|t|none}} a part of the ] of the government-in-exile.<ref name="Czubiński 226"/> About 200,000 fought in the ] in ], and about 300,000 ] in the ].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=693–694}}.</ref> The pro-Soviet resistance movement, led by the ], was active from 1941. It was opposed by the gradually forming extreme nationalistic ].<ref name="Czubiński 226">{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=226}}.</ref>

]]]

Beginning in late 1939, hundreds of thousands of Poles from the Soviet-occupied areas were deported and taken east. Of the upper-ranking military personnel and others deemed uncooperative or potentially harmful by the Soviets, about 22,000 were ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=67–68}}.</ref>
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 Polish army officers murdered by the Soviets at the ]. The Soviets claimed that the Poles committed a hostile act by requesting that the ] investigate these reports.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=382–384}}.</ref>

From 1941, the implementation of the ] began, and ] proceeded with force.<ref name="playground 337-343">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=337–343}}.</ref> As the Jewish ] was being liquidated by ] ] units, the city was the scene of the ] in April–May 1943. The elimination of ] took place in a number of cities besides Warsaw and other uprisings were waged against impossible odds by desperate ], whose people were being removed and exterminated.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=389–390}}.</ref>

===Soviet advance 1944–45, Warsaw Uprising===

], prime minister of the ] and commander-in-chief of ], shortly before his death in 1943]]

At a time of increasing cooperation between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union in the wake of the ], the influence of the Polish government-in-exile was seriously diminished by the death of Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski, its most capable leader, in a ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=73–75}}.</ref> His successors lacked the ability or willingness to negotiate effectively with the Soviets and proved equally ineffective in pressing for the interests of the Polish people with the Western Allies.<ref name="Kochanski 425-426">{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=425–426}}.</ref>

In July 1944, the Soviet ] and Soviet-controlled ] 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 and over 60,000 Polish soldiers lost.<ref name="Buszko 394-395">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=394–395}}.</ref>

]]]

The greatest single action of the ] and a major political event was the ] that began on August 1, 1944. The uprising, in which most of the city's population participated, was instigated by the underground ] and approved by the Polish government-in-exile in an attempt to establish a non-communist Polish administration ahead of the arrival of the Red Army. The uprising was originally planned as a short-lived armed demonstration in expectation that the Soviet forces approaching Warsaw would assist in any battle to take the city.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=250}}.</ref> The Soviets had never agreed to an intervention, however, and they halted their advance at the ] River. The Germans used the opportunity to carry out a brutal suppression of the forces of the pro-Western Polish underground.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=650–663}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 4-5">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=4–5}}.</ref>{{Ref label|m|m|none}}

The bitterly fought uprising lasted for two months and resulted in the death or expulsion from the city of hundreds of thousands of civilians. After the Poles realised the hopelessness of the situation and surrendered on 2 October, the Germans carried out a ] on Hitler's orders that obliterated the remaining infrastructure of the city. The ], fighting alongside the Soviet Red Army, entered a devastated Warsaw on 17 January 1945.<ref name="Poland under Communism 4-5"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|2001|pp=386–387, 390}}.</ref>{{Ref label|n|n|none}}

===Allied conferences, Polish governments===

] on the ]]]

From the time of the ] in late 1943, there was broad agreement among the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union that the locations of the borders between Germany and Poland and between Poland and the Soviet Union would be ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=75, 104–105}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 1">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=1}}.</ref> ]'s proposal that Poland should be moved far to the west was readily accepted by the ], who were at that time in the early stages of forming a post-war government (the ], a quasi-parliamentary body, was created).<ref>{{Harvnb|Snyder|2009}}.</ref> In July 1944, a communist-controlled ] was established in ] nominally to govern the areas liberated from German control, a move that prompted protests from Prime Minister ] and his government-in-exile.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Buszko 394-395"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 4-5"/>

By the time of the ] in February 1945, the communists had already established a ]. The Soviet position at the conference was strong because of their decisive contribution to the war effort and as a result of their occupation of immense amounts of land in central and eastern Europe. The three Great Powers (the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) gave assurances that the communist provisional government would be converted into an entity that would include democratic forces from within the country and active abroad, but the London-based government-in-exile was not mentioned. A ] and subsequent democratic elections were the agreed stated goals.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=398–401}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 6-7">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=6–7}}.</ref> The disappointing results of these plans and the failure of the Western powers to ensure the strong participation of non-communists in the immediate post-war Polish government were seen by many Poles as a manifestation of ].

===War losses, extermination of Jews===

] showing his drawings of the ]|thumb|right|230px]]

A lack of accurate data makes it difficult to document numerically the extent of the human losses suffered by Polish citizens during World War II. Additionally, many assertions made in the past must be considered suspect due to flawed methodology and a desire to promote certain political agendas. The last available enumeration of ethnic Poles and the large ethnic minorities is the ]. Exact population figures for 1939 are therefore not known.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 694-695">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=694–695}}.</ref><ref name="Polskosc nosze z soba w plecaku">{{Harvnb|Domagalik|2011}}.</ref>

Modern research indicates that about 5 million Polish citizens were killed during the war by the Nazis, including 3 million ].<ref name="Herausforderung Bevölkerung Part 6">{{Harvnb|Haar|2007|p=267}}.</ref> According to the ], at least 1.9 to 2 million ethnic Poles and 3 million Polish Jews were killed.<ref name="Polish victims">{{Harvnb|USHMM:|Polish victims}}.</ref> Millions of Polish citizens were deported to Germany for forced labor or to German death camps such as ], ] and ].<ref name="Department of State"/> According to another estimate, between 2.35 and 2.9 million Polish Jews and about 2 million ethnic Poles were killed.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=695–696}}.</ref> Nazi Germany intended to exterminate the Jews completely, in actions that have come to be described collectively as the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=215–217}}.</ref> The ] from areas controlled by Nazi Germany through a process of resettlement that started in 1939 and was expected to be completed within 15 years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Berghahn|1999|p=}}.</ref>

] destroyed, photo taken January 1945]]

In an attempt to incapacitate Polish society, the Nazis and the Soviets executed tens of thousands of members of the intelligentsia and community leadership during events such as the ], ] and the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Naimark|2010|p=91}}; {{Harvnb|Snyder|2010|pp=126, 146–147, 415}}.</ref>{{Ref label|j|j|none}} Over 95% of the Jewish losses and 90% of the ethnic Polish losses were caused directly by Nazi Germany,{{Ref label|d|d|none}} whereas 5% of the ethnic Polish losses were caused by the Soviets and 5% by Ukrainian nationalists.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> The large-scale ] that had endured for centuries was rather quickly put to an end by the policies of extermination implemented by the Nazis during the war. Waves of displacement and emigration that took place both during and after the war removed from Poland a majority of the Jews who survived. Further significant Jewish emigration followed events such as the ] political thaw of 1956 and the ].<ref name="Poland under Communism 157-163">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=157–163}}.</ref> The magnitude of the losses of Polish citizens of German, Ukrainian, Belarusian and other nationalities, which were also great, are not known.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 696">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=696}}.</ref>

In 1940–41, some 325,000 Polish citizens were deported by the Soviet regime.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=695}}.</ref> The number of Polish citizens who died at the hands of the Soviets is estimated at less than 100,000.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 696"/>

In 1943–44, Ukrainian nationalists associated with the ] (OUN) and the ] perpetrated the ].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 696"/> The number of Polish civilian victims are estimated at 60 up to 200 thousands of people.<ref>Snyder, Timothy, ''The Reconstruction of Nations'', Yale University Press, 2004</ref><ref>Motyka, Grzegorz, ''Od rzezi wołyńskiej do akcji "Wisła"'', 2011, pages 447-448</ref>

Approximately 90% of Poland's war casualties were the victims of prisons, death camps, raids, executions, the annihilation of ghettos, epidemics, starvation, excessive work and ill treatment. The war left one million children orphaned and 590,000 persons disabled. The country lost 38% of its national assets (whereas Britain lost only 0.8%, and France only 1.5%).<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=410–411}}.</ref> Nearly half of pre-war Poland was expropriated by the Soviet Union, including the two great cultural centers of ] and ].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 694">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=694}}.</ref>

===Changing boundaries and population transfers===

], officially issued on 22 July 1944 in Soviet-liberated Poland. It heralded the arrival of a communist, Soviet-dominated government of Poland.]]

By the terms of the 1945 ] signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain, the Soviet Union retained most of the territories captured as a result of the ] of 1939, including western Ukraine and western Belarus, and gained others. ] and the ] were officially incorporated into the Soviet Union, in the case of the former without the recognition of the Western powers. Poland was compensated with the bulk of ], including ] and ], the bulk of ], including ], and the greater southern portion of the former ], along with ]. Collectively referred to as the "]", they were included in the reconstituted Polish state. With Germany's defeat, the re-established Polish state was thus shifted west to the area between the ] and ] lines.{{Ref label|c|c|none}} The Poles lost 70% of their pre-war oil capacity to the Soviets, but gained from the Germans a highly developed industrial base and infrastructure that made a diversified industrial economy possible for the first time in Polish history.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kolko|Kolko|1972|p=188}}.</ref>

], 1945]] ] from Poland to the Soviet Union, whereas the pink territories were transferred from Germany to Poland. Post-war Poland comprises the white and pink areas.]]
The ] from what was eastern Germany prior to the war began before and during the Soviet conquest of those regions from the Nazis, and the process continued in the years immediately after the war.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=408–410}}.</ref>
Figures of Germans evacuated, migrated, or expelled by 1950 totalled 8,030,000.<ref>''Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50''. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. - Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1958 Pages 38 and 45</ref> Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the Polish Communist military authorities<ref>Philipp Ther, ''Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956'', 1998, p.56, {{ISBN|3-525-35790-7}}: From June until mid July, Polish military and militia expelled nearly all people from the districts immediately east of the rivers </ref> even before the Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"),{{sfn|Kamusella|2004|p=27}} to ensure the later integration into an ethnically homogeneous Poland<ref name=Gibney197>Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, ''Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present'', 2005, p. 197, {{ISBN|1-57607-796-9}}, {{ISBN|978-1-57607-796-2}}</ref> as envisioned by the Polish Communists.<ref>Naimark, ''Russian in Germany''. p. 75 reference 31:" a citation from the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers Party, May 20–21, 1945."</ref>{{sfn|Kamusella|2004|p=26}} Overall 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.<ref>Spieler, Silke. ed. ''Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen 1945–1948''. Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Mai 1974. Archivalien und ausgewählte Erlebnisberichte. Bonn: Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen. (1989). {{ISBN|3-88557-067-X}}. Pages 23–41</ref>
Some 200,000 Germans in Poland were employed as forced labor in communist-administered camps prior to being expelled from Poland.<ref>{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Of those Germans who remained, many chose to ]. On the other hand, 1.5–2 million Poles moved or were expelled from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. The vast majority were resettled in the former German territories.<ref>{{Harvnb|Langenbacher|2009|pp=59–60}}.</ref>

Many exiled Poles could not return to the country for which they had fought because they belonged to political groups incompatible with the new communist regimes, or because they originated from areas of pre-war eastern Poland that were incorporated into the Soviet Union (see ]). Some were deterred from returning simply on the strength of warnings that anyone who had served in Western military units would be endangered under the new communist regimes. Many Poles were pursued, arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Soviet authorities for belonging to the Home Army or other formations (see ]),<ref name="Poland under Communism 23-24">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=23–24}}.</ref> or were persecuted because they had fought on the Western front.<ref>{{Harvnb|Radzilowski|2007|pp=223–225}}.</ref>

Territories on both sides of the new Polish-Ukrainian border were also "ethnically cleansed". Of the Ukrainians and ] living in Poland within the new borders (about 700,000), close to 95% were ] to the ], or (in 1947) to the new territories in northern and western Poland under ]. In ], 98% of the Polish pre-war population was either killed or expelled; in ], the Polish population was reduced by 92%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Snyder|1999}}; {{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=179–203}}.</ref> In all, 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.<ref name="Snyder 204-205">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=204–205}}.</ref>

According to an estimate by Polish researchers, 40–60,000 of the 200–250,000 Polish Jews who escaped the Nazis survived without leaving Poland (the remainder perished).<ref>{{Harvnb|Zaremba|2011}}.</ref> More were repatriated from the Soviet Union and elsewhere, and the February 1946 population census showed about 300,000 Jews within the new borders.<ref name="Buszko 410">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|p=410}}.</ref>{{Ref label|e|e|none}} Of the surviving Jews, many chose to emigrate or felt compelled to because of ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|p=191}}.</ref>

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).<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=410, 414–417}}.</ref> Minority members were not encouraged by the authorities or their neighbors to emphasize their ethnic identities.{{Ref label|i|i|none}}

==Polish People's Republic (1945–89)==

{{further information|History of Poland (1945–89)|Polish People's Republic}}

===Post-war struggle for power===

]'s ] tried to outvote the communists in 1947, but the ]. Mikołajczyk had to flee to the West.]]

In response to the February 1945 ] directives,<ref name="Poland under Communism 6-7"/> a Polish ] was formed in June 1945 under Soviet auspices; it was soon recognized by the United States and many other countries.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=406–408}}.</ref> Communist rule and Soviet domination were apparent from the beginning: sixteen prominent leaders of the Polish anti-Nazi underground were brought to trial in Moscow ("the ]") already in June 1945.<ref name="Poland under Communism 8">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=8}}.</ref> In the immediate post-war years, emerging communist rule was challenged by opposition groups ("]"), and many thousands perished in the fight or were pursued by the ] and executed.<ref name="Zamoyski 369-370">{{Harvnb|Zamoyski|1994|pp=369–370}}.</ref> Such insurgents often pinned their hopes on expectations of the imminent outbreak of a ] and the defeat of the Soviet Union.<ref name="Dzień Żołnierzy Wyklętych">{{Harvnb|Wroński|2013}}.</ref> The ] faded after the ].<ref name="Zdobycie władzy"/><ref name="Po wojnie światowej wojna domowa"/>

The ] was arranged by the communist ] to legitimize its dominance over Polish politics and claim widespread support for the Party's policies.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|p=192}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 9">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=9}}.</ref> Although the Yalta agreement called for free elections, the ] was controlled by the communists.<ref name="Department of State 10/03"/><ref name="Zamoyski 369-370"/> Some democratic and pro-Western elements, led by ], the former prime minister-in-exile, participated in the Provisional Government and the 1947 elections, but were ultimately eliminated through ], intimidation and violence.<ref name="Zamoyski 369-370"/> In times of radical political and economic change, members of Mikołajczyk's agrarian movement (the ]) attempted to preserve some degree of ] to protect rights and interests of limited property ownership. After the 1947 elections, the Government of National Unity ceased to exist and the communist-dominated ] was officially the only source of governmental authority.<ref name="Buszko 417-425">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=417–425}}.</ref> The ] remained in continuous existence until 1990, although its influence declined.<ref name="Department of State"/>

===Under Stalinism===

The ] (''Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa'') was established under the rule of the communist ]. The name change from the Polish Republic was not officially adopted, however, until the proclamation of the ] in 1952.<ref name="Sowa 178-179">{{Harvnb|Sowa|2011|pp=178–179}}.</ref>

The ruling party itself was formed by the forced amalgamation in December 1948 of the communist Polish Workers' Party and the historically non-communist ]. The latter, re-established in 1944 by its left wing,<ref name="Ost Solidarity 36-38">{{Harvnb|Ost|1990|pp=36–38}}.</ref> had since been allied with the communists.<ref name="Buszko 442-445">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=442–445}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 18, 39">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=18, 39}}.</ref><ref name="Lukowski 285-286">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=285–286}}.</ref> The ruling communists, who in post-war Poland preferred to use the term "socialism" instead of "communism" to identify their ideological basis,<ref name="Poland under Communism 18">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=18}}.</ref>{{Ref label|f|f|none}} needed to include the socialist junior partner to broaden their appeal, claim greater legitimacy and eliminate competition on the political ]. The socialists, who were losing their organization, were subjected to political pressure, ideological cleansing and purges in order to become suitable for unification on the terms of the "Workers' Party". The leading pro-communist leaders of the socialists were the prime ministers ] and ].<ref name="Buszko 442-445"/><ref name="Lukowski 285-286"/><ref name="Buszko 398-399, 407">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=398–399, 407}}.</ref>

During the most oppressive phase of the ] period (1948–53), terror was justified in Poland as necessary to eliminate reactionary subversion. Many thousands of perceived opponents of the regime were arbitrarily tried, and large numbers were executed.{{Ref label|u|u|none}} The People's Republic was led by discredited Soviet operatives such as ], ] and ].<ref name="Poland under Communism 40">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=40}}.</ref> The independent ] in Poland was subjected to property confiscations and other curtailments from 1949, and in 1950 was pressured into signing an accord with the government.<ref name="Zdobycie władzy">{{Harvnb|Leszczyński|2013}}.</ref><ref name="Po wojnie światowej wojna domowa">{{Harvnb|Daszczyński|2013}}.</ref> In 1953 and later, despite a partial thaw after the death of Joseph Stalin that year, the persecution of the Church intensified and its head, Cardinal ], was detained.<ref name="Poland under Communism 66-68">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=66–68}}.</ref> A key event in the persecution of the Polish church was the ] in January 1953.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|pp=194–195}}.</ref><ref name="Lukowski 286-292">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=286–292}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 39-48, 63">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=39–48, 63}}.</ref>

In the ], formed in 1955, the army of the Polish People's Republic was the second largest, after the Soviet Army.<ref name="playground 434">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=434}}.</ref>

===Economic and social developments===

] ]'s leadership led to the exceptional strength of the Polish ]]]

In 1944, large agricultural holdings and former German property in Poland started to be redistributed through ], and industry started to be ].<ref name="Buszko 417-425"/> Communist restructuring and the imposition of work-space rules encountered active worker opposition already in the years 1945–47.<ref name="Poland under Communism 24-26">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=24–26}}.</ref> The ] of 1947–49 continued with the rebuilding, ] and ]. It was followed by the ] of 1950–55 for ].<ref name="Zdobycie władzy"/> The rejection of the ] in 1947 made aspirations for catching up with ] standards of living unrealistic.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=434–440}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 12-16">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=12–16}}.</ref>

The government's highest economic priority was the development of heavy industry useful to the military. State-run or controlled institutions common in all the socialist countries of eastern Europe were imposed on Poland, including ] and ]s. 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.<ref name="Poland under Communism 27, 39">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=27, 39}}.</ref> Stalinism introduced heavy ] and ] in social life, culture and education.<ref name="Lukowski 286-292"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 35-39">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=35–39}}.</ref>

] in Warsaw]]

Great strides were made, however, in the areas of employment (which became nearly full), ] (which nearly eradicated adult illiteracy), health care and recreational amenities.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|pp=195, 196}}.</ref><ref name="Stelmachowski 22, 189">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=22, 189}}.</ref> Many historic sites, including the central districts of Warsaw and Gdańsk, both devastated during the war, were rebuilt at great cost.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=282}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 21-22">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=21–22}}.</ref>

The communist industrialization program led to increased ] and educational and career opportunities for the intended beneficiaries of the social transformation along the lines of the peasants-workers-working intelligentsia paradigm. The most significant improvement was accomplished in the lives of Polish peasants, many of whom were able to leave their impoverished and overcrowded village communities for better conditions in urban centers. Those who stayed behind took advantage of the implementation of the 1944 ], which terminated the antiquated, but widespread parafeudal socioeconomic relations in Poland. Under Stalinism, attempts were made at establishing collective farms; they generally failed. Due to urbanization, the national percentage of the rural population decreased in communist Poland by about 50%. A majority of Poland's residents of cities and towns still live in ]s built during the communist era in part to accommodate migrants from rural areas.<ref name="Ziemia dla chłopów"/><ref name="Główny propagator kapitalizmu">{{Harvnb|Wasilewski|2012a}}.</ref><ref name="Ostatni, chłopi nowoczesnej Europy">{{Harvnb|Bogucka|2013}}.</ref>

===Thaw===
] declared a "Polish road to socialism" intended to curb, rather than eradicate, capitalist elements, but was soon overruled, removed and imprisoned by ] authorities<ref name="Poland under Communism 26, 32-35">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=26, 32–35}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 63">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=63}}.</ref>]]

] built in communist Poland (these located in ])]]

In March 1956, after the ] in Moscow ushered in ], ] was chosen to replace the deceased Bolesław Bierut as first secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party.<ref name="Poland under Communism 68-75">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=68–75}}.</ref> As a result, Poland was rapidly overtaken by social restlessness and reformist undertakings; thousands of political prisoners were released and many people previously persecuted were officially rehabilitated.<ref name="Poland under Communism 76-86">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=76–86}}.</ref> ] were violently suppressed, but they gave rise to the formation of a reformist current within the communist party.<ref name="Poland under Communism 86-92">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=86–92}}.</ref><ref name="Stelmachowski 24–25">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=24–25}}.</ref>

Amidst continuing social and national upheaval, a further shakeup took place in the party leadership as part of what is known as the ] of 1956.<ref name="Poland under Communism 96-104">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=96–104}}.</ref>{{Ref label|k|k|none}} While retaining most traditional communist economic and social aims, the regime led by the new Polish Party's First Secretary ] liberalized internal life in Poland.<ref name="Department of State"/> The dependence on the Soviet Union was somewhat mollified, and the state's relationships with the Church and ] were put on a new footing.<ref name="Poland under Communism 116-123">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=116–123}}.</ref> A repatriation agreement with the Soviet Union allowed the ] who were still in Soviet hands, including many former political prisoners.<ref name="Stelmachowski 26">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=26}}.</ref> ] efforts were abandoned—agricultural land, unlike in other ] countries, mostly remained in the private ownership of farming families.<ref name="Stelmachowski 26"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 80, 101">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=80, 101}}.</ref> State-mandated provisions of agricultural products at fixed, artificially low prices were reduced and, from 1972, eliminated.<ref name="Stelmachowski 36">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=36}}.</ref>

], to varying degrees linked to the ]'s opposition to the authoritarian system, developed to a sophisticated level under Gomułka and his successors. The creative process was often compromised by ], but significant works were created in fields such as literature, theater, cinema and music, among others. Journalism of veiled understanding and varieties of native and western ] were well represented. Uncensored information and works generated by ] circles were conveyed through a variety of channels. The ]-based ] magazine developed a conceptual framework for dealing with the issues of borders and the neighbors of a future free Poland, but ] was of foremost importance.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|pp=198–200}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 59-60">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=59–60}}.</ref><ref name="Snyder 218-222">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=218–222}}.</ref>

===Stagnation and crackdown===

]]]

The ] was followed by several years of political stability that was accompanied by ]. One of the last initiatives of the brief reform era was a nuclear weapons–free zone in Central Europe proposed in 1957 by ], Poland's foreign minister. One of the confirmations of the end of an era of greater tolerance was the expulsion from the communist party of several prominent "]s" in the 1960s.<ref name="Poland under Communism 124-143">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=124–143}}.</ref>

In 1965, the ] issued the ], a gesture intended to heal bad mutual feelings left over from World War II.<ref name="Stelmachowski 33">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=33}}.</ref> In 1966, the celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary of the ] led by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and other bishops turned into a huge demonstration of the power and popularity of the ].<ref name="playground I 15-16">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=15–16}}</ref>

The post-1956 liberalizing trend, in decline for a number of years, was reversed in March 1968, when student demonstrations were suppressed during the ]. Motivated in part by the ] movement, the Polish opposition leaders, intellectuals, academics and students used a historical-patriotic ] theater spectacle series in Warsaw (and its termination forced by the authorities) as a springboard for protests, which soon spread to other centers of higher education and turned nationwide. The authorities responded with a major crackdown on opposition activity, including the firing of faculty and the dismissal of students at universities and other institutions of learning. At the center of the controversy was also the small number of Catholic deputies in the Sejm (the ] members) who attempted to defend the students.<ref name="Poland under Communism 148-163">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=148–163}}.</ref>

] (second from left) was unable to reverse Poland's economic decline]]

In an official speech, Gomułka drew attention to the role of Jewish activists in the events taking place. This provided ammunition to a nationalistic and ] communist party faction headed by ] that was opposed to Gomułka's leadership. Using the context of the military victory of Israel in the ] of 1967, some in the Polish communist leadership waged an antisemitic campaign against the remnants of the Jewish community in Poland. The targets of this campaign were accused of disloyalty and active sympathy with Israeli aggression. Branded "]", they were scapegoated and blamed for the unrest in March, which eventually led to the emigration of much of Poland's remaining Jewish population (about 15,000 Polish citizens left the country).<ref name="Poland under Communism 148-163"/>

With the active support of the Gomułka regime, the ] took part in the infamous ] in August 1968 after the informal announcement of the ].<ref name="Poland under Communism 163-171">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=163–171}}.</ref>

In December 1970, the governments of Poland and ] signed the ], which normalized their relations and made possible meaningful cooperation in a number of areas of bilateral interest. West Germany recognized the post-war ''de facto'' border between Poland and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|p=203}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 177-180">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=177–180}}.</ref>

===Worker revolts and Solidarity===

] in ] in August 1980]]

Price increases for essential consumer goods triggered the ]. In December, there were disturbances and strikes in the port cities of ], ], and ] that reflected deep dissatisfaction with living and working conditions in the country.<ref name="Department of State"/> The activity was centered in the industrial shipyard areas of the three coastal cities. Dozens of protesting workers and bystanders were killed in police and military actions, generally under the authority of Gomułka and Minister of Defense ]. In the aftermath, ] replaced Gomułka as first secretary of the communist party. The new regime was seen as more modern, friendly and pragmatic, and at first it enjoyed a degree of popular and foreign support.<ref name="Poland under Communism 180-198">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=180–198}}.</ref>{{Ref label|g|g|none}}{{Ref label|o|o|none}}

Gierek's regime introduced wide-ranging (but ultimately unsuccessful) government reforms to revitalize the economy between 1970 and 1980. Another attempt to raise food prices resulted in the ].<ref name="Poland under Communism 198-206">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=198–206}}.</ref> ] was among the activists who defended accused rioters from ] and other towns.<ref name="Poland under Communism 206-212">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=206–212}}.</ref> The ] (KOR), established in response to the crackdown, consisted of dissident intellectuals willing to support industrial workers, farmers and students who were struggling with and persecuted by the authorities throughout the late 1970s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|p=205}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 212-223">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=212–223}}.</ref> During this period, the opposition circles were emboldened by the ] processes.<ref name="Poland under Communism 198-206"/>

] in 1980]]

In October 1978, the ], Cardinal ], became ], head of the ]. Catholics and others rejoiced at the elevation of a Pole to the ] and greeted his June 1979 visit to Poland with an outpouring of emotion.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 228-229">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=228–229}}.</ref>

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 ] was unable to use the new resources effectively. The ] caused ] and high interest rates in the West, to which the Polish government had to respond with sharp domestic consumer price increases. The growing debt burden became insupportable in the late 1970s, and negative economic growth set in by 1979.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 198-206"/>

Around July 1, 1980, with the Polish foreign debt standing at more than $20 billion, the government made another attempt to increase meat prices.<ref name="Department of State"/> Workers responded with escalating work stoppages that culminated in the ].<ref name="Poland under Communism 229-236">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=229–236}}.</ref> In mid-August, labor protests at the ] gave rise to a chain reaction of strikes that virtually paralyzed the Baltic coast by the end of the month and, for the first time, closed most coal mines in ]. The ] coordinated the strike action across hundreds of workplaces and formulated the ] as the basis for negotiations with the authorities. The Strike Committee was sovereign in its decision-making, but was aided by a team of "expert" advisers that included ] and ], well-known intellectuals and dissidents.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 237-268">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=237–268}}.</ref>

] meeting Soviet security chief ] during the 1980 crisis. Jaruzelski was about to become the (last) leader of communist Poland.]]

On August 31, 1980, representatives of workers at the Gdańsk Shipyard, led by an electrician and activist ], signed the ] with the government that ended their strike. Similar agreements were concluded in Szczecin (the ]) and in Silesia. The key provision of these agreements was the guarantee of the workers' right to form independent ]s and the right to strike. Following the successful resolution of the largest labor confrontation in communist Poland's history, nationwide union organizing movements swept the country.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 237-268"/>

Edward Gierek was blamed by the Soviets for not following their "fraternal" advice, not shoring up the communist party and the official trade unions and allowing "anti-socialist" forces to emerge. On September 5, 1980, Gierek was replaced by ] as first secretary.<ref name="Poland under Communism 269-272">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=269–272}}.</ref>

Delegates of the emergent worker committees from all over Poland gathered in Gdańsk on September 17 and decided to form a single national union organization named "]" (the name was adopted following a suggestion by ]).<ref name="Stelmachowski 44–45">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=44–45}}.</ref>

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 ]. A parallel farmers' union was organized and strongly opposed by the regime, but ] was finally registered on May 12, 1981.<ref name="Stelmachowski 52">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=52}}.</ref> In the meantime, a rapid deterioration of the authority of the communist party, the disintegration of state power and an escalation of demands and threats by the various Solidarity–affiliated groups were occurring.<ref name="Stelmachowski 47">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=47}}.</ref> According to Kuroń, a "tremendous social democratization movement in all spheres" was taking place and could not be contained. 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 ] and other allied communists leaders against the feasibility of an external military intervention, and no action was taken.<ref name="Poland under Communism 272-301">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=272–301}}.</ref> The United States, under presidents ] and ], 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 ] forces.<ref name="Poland under Communism 302-307">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=302–307}}.</ref>
] ranks among the great Polish poets]]
In February 1981, Defense Minister General ] assumed the position of prime minister. A World War II veteran with a generally positive image, Jaruzelski engaged in preparations for calming the Polish unrest by the use of force, utilizing ] troops and other security forces backed up by the Polish and Soviet bloc military. The 1980–81 Solidarity social revolt had thus far been free of any major use of force, but in March 1981 in ], three activists were beaten up by the secret police. A nationwide "warning strike" took place, in which the 9.5-million-strong Solidarity union was supported by the population at large. A general strike was called off by Wałęsa after the March 30 settlement with the government. Both Solidarity and the communist party were badly split and the Soviets were losing patience. Kania was re-elected at the Party Congress in July, but the collapse of the economy continued and so did the general disorder.<ref name="Poland under Communism 307-325">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=307–325}}.</ref>

At the first ] in September–October 1981 in Gdańsk, Lech Wałęsa was elected national chairman of the Union with 55% of the vote. An appeal was issued to the workers of the other East European countries, urging them to follow in the footsteps of Solidarity.<ref name="Stelmachowski 53">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=53}}.</ref> To the Soviets, the gathering was an "anti-socialist and anti-Soviet orgy" and the Polish communist leaders, increasingly led by Jaruzelski and General ], were ready to apply force.<ref name="Poland under Communism 307-325"/>

In October 1981, Jaruzelski was named the first secretary of the communist party, an unusual advancement for a military figure in the communist world. The Plenum's vote was 180 to 4, and he kept his government posts. 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.<ref name="Poland under Communism 307-325"/>

===Martial law and end of communism===

] in December 1981: the communist power reasserted itself once more]]

On December 12–13, 1981, the regime declared ], under which the army and ZOMO riot police were used to crush Solidarity. In the ], the Soviet leaders insisted that Jaruzelski pacify the opposition with the forces at his disposal, without direct Soviet involvement or backup. Virtually all Solidarity leaders and many affiliated intellectuals were arrested or detained. Nine workers were killed in the ]. The United States and other Western countries responded by imposing economic sanctions against Poland and the Soviet Union. Unrest in the country was subdued, but continued.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 325-331">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=325–331}}.</ref>

During martial law, Poland was ruled by the so-called ]. The open or semi-open opposition communications, as recently practiced, were replaced by underground publishing (known in the eastern bloc as ]), and Solidarity was reduced to a few thousand underground activists.<ref name="playground II xxiii">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=xxiii}}</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 332-360">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=332–360}}.</ref>

Having achieved some semblance of stability, the Polish regime relaxed and then rescinded martial law over several stages. By December 1982, martial law was suspended, and a small number of political prisoners, including Wałęsa, were released.<ref name="Department of State"/> Although martial law formally ended in July 1983 and a partial amnesty was enacted, several hundred political prisoners remained in jail.<ref name="Department of State 10/03"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 325-331"/> ], a popular pro-Solidarity priest, was abducted and murdered by security functionaries in October 1984.<ref name="playground II xxiii"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 332-360"/>

] in Poland in 1987]]

Further developments in Poland occurred concurrently with and were influenced by the reformist leadership of ] in the Soviet Union (processes known as ] and ]).<ref name="playground II xxiii"/> In September 1986, a general amnesty was declared, and the government released nearly all political prisoners, but the authorities continued to harass dissidents and Solidarity activists.<ref name="Department of State 10/03"/> The regime's efforts to organize society from the top down had failed, while the opposition's attempts at creating an "alternate society" were also unsuccessful.<ref name="Stelmachowski 57">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=57}}.</ref> With the economic crisis unresolved and societal institutions dysfunctional, both the ruling establishment and the opposition led by Solidarity leaders began looking for ways out of the stalemate. Facilitated by the indispensable mediation of the Catholic Church, exploratory contacts were established.<ref name="Poland under Communism 332-360"/>

Student protests resumed in February 1988. The government's inability to forestall Poland's economic decline led to the ] across the country in April, May and August. The Soviet Union was becoming increasingly destabilized and unwilling to apply military or other pressure to prop up allied regimes in trouble.<ref name="Poland under Communism 332-360"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 361-405">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=361–405}}.</ref> The Polish government felt compelled to negotiate with the opposition, and in September 1988, preliminary talks with Solidarity leaders ensued in ]. Numerous meetings took place involving Wałęsa and General Kiszczak, among others, and the regime made a major public relations mistake by allowing a televised debate in November between Wałęsa and ], chief of the ], the official trade union organization.<ref name="Stelmachowski 58-99">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=58–99}}.</ref> The fitful bargaining and intra-party squabbling led to the official ] in the following year, followed by the ], a watershed event marking the ] in Poland.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 361-405"/><ref name="Stelmachowski 58-99"/>

==Third Polish Republic (1989–today)==

{{further information|History of Poland (1989–present)|Politics of Poland}}

===Transition from communism===

], one of the leaders of the ] opposition, became prime minister in 1989]]

The ] of April 1989 called for local self-government, policies of ]s, legalization of independent trade unions and many wide-ranging reforms.<ref name="Stelmachowski 99–113">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=99–113}}.</ref> The current Sejm promptly implemented the deal and agreed to ] that were set for June 4 and June 18.<ref name="Stelmachowski 115–123">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=115–123}}.</ref> Only 35% of the seats in the Sejm (the national legislature's lower house) and all of the ] seats were freely contested; the remaining Sejm seats (65%) were guaranteed for the communists and their allies.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 391-427">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=391–427}}.</ref>

The failure of the communists at the polls (almost all of the contested seats were won by the opposition) resulted in a political crisis. The new ] called for the re-establishment of the Polish presidency and on July 19 the ] ] General ] to that office. His election, seen at the time as politically necessary, was barely accomplished with tacit support from some Solidarity deputies, and the new president's position was not strong. Moreover, the unexpected definitiveness of the parliamentary election results created new dynamics and attempts by the communists to form a government failed.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Stelmachowski 115–123"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 391-427"/><ref name="Historia polityczna 42-51">{{Harvnb|Dudek|2007|pp=42–51}}.</ref>

] with ] in 2005. Kwaśniewski defeated Wałęsa in the ]; he was one of the several "]" politicians elected to highest offices.]]

On August 19, President Jaruzelski asked journalist and Solidarity activist ] to form a government; on September 12, the Sejm voted approval of Prime Minister Mazowiecki and his cabinet. Mazowiecki decided to leave the economic reform entirely in the hands of ] led by the new Deputy Prime Minister ],<ref name="Stelmachowski 115–123"/> who proceeded with the design and implementation of his "]" policy. 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 ] in a phenomenon known as the ].<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 391-427"/> Mazowiecki's acceptance of the "]" formula meant that there would be no "]", i.e., an absence of revenge seeking or exclusion from politics in regard to former communist officials.<ref name="Stelmachowski 115–123"/>

In part because of the attempted ] of wages, ] reached 900% by the end of 1989, but was soon dealt with by means of radical methods. In December 1989, the Sejm approved the ] to transform the Polish economy rapidly from a centrally planned one to a ] economy.<ref name="Stelmachowski 125–130">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=125–130}}.</ref>{{Ref label|v|v|none}} The ] was amended to eliminate references to the "leading role" of the communist party and the country was renamed the "Republic of Poland". The communist ] dissolved itself in January 1990. In its place, a new party, ], was created.<ref name="Department of State"/><ref name="playground II xxiii"/> "]", abolished in 1950, was legislated back in March 1990, to be led by locally elected officials; its fundamental unit was the administratively independent ].<ref name="Stelmachowski 133–134">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=133–134}}.</ref>{{Ref label|q|q|none}}

In October 1990, the constitution was amended to curtail the term of President Jaruzelski.<ref name="Department of State 10/03"/> In November 1990, the ] was signed.<ref name="Stelmachowski 138">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=138}}.</ref>

In November 1990, Lech Wałęsa ] for a five-year term; in December, he became the first popularly elected ]. Poland's ] was held in October 1991. 18 parties entered the new Sejm, but the largest representation received only 12% of the total vote.<ref name="Stelmachowski 136–143">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=136–143}}.</ref>

===Democratic constitution, NATO and European Union memberships===

There were several post-Solidarity governments between the ] and the ], after which the "]" left-wing parties took over.<ref name="Stelmachowski 124">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=124}}.</ref> In 1993, the formerly Soviet ], a vestige of past domination, left Poland.<ref name="playground II xxiii"/>

In 1995, ] of the ] was elected president and remained in that capacity for the next ten years (two terms).<ref name="playground II xxiii"/>

In 1997, the new ] was finalized and approved in a referendum; it replaced the ], an amended version of the ].<ref name="Stelmachowski 152–156">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=152–156}}.</ref>

Poland joined ] in 1999.<ref name="playground 517">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=517}}.</ref> Elements of the ] have since participated in the ] and the ]. Poland joined the ] as part of its ]. The two memberships were indicative of the ]'s integration with the ]. Poland ] the ] currency, however.

==See also==
{{Portal|History}}
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== Notes ==
{{refbegin}}

''a.''{{Note label|a|a|none}}Piłsudski's family roots in the ] gentry of the ] and the resulting perspective of seeing himself and people like him as legitimate Lithuanians put him in conflict with ] nationalists (who in Piłsudski's lifetime redefined the scope of the meaning of "Lithuanian"), and by extension with other nationalists and also with the ].<ref name="Snyder 40-41, 64-65, 68-69">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=40–41, 64–65, 68–69}}.</ref>

''b.''{{Note label|b|b|none}}In 1938 Poland and Romania refused to agree to a Franco-British proposal that in the event of war with Germany Soviet forces would be allowed to cross their territories to aid Czechoslovakia. The Polish ruling elites considered the Soviets in some ways more threatening than the ].<ref name="Heart 145">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=145}}.</ref><ref name="playground 311">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=311}}.</ref>

The Soviet Union repeatedly declared its intention to fulfill its obligations under the 1935 treaty with Czechoslovakia and defend Czechoslovakia militarily. A transfer of land and air forces through Poland and/or Romania was required and the Soviets approached the French about it, who also had a ] (and with Poland and ]). ] rebuked the French suggestion on that matter in 1936, and in 1938 ] pressured Romania not to allow even Soviet warplanes to fly over its territory. Like Hungary, Poland was looking into using the German-Czechoslovak conflict to settle its own territorial grievances, namely ] over parts of Zaolzie, ] and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=379, 394–396}}.</ref>

''c.''{{Note label|c|c|none}} In October 1939, the ] notified the Soviets that the United Kingdom would be satisfied with a post-war creation of small ethnic Poland, patterned after the ].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 518">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=518}}.</ref> 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),<ref name="Overy 236 map">{{Harvnb|Overy|2010|p=236}}.</ref> was planned by the Soviet ] in 1943–44. Such territorial reduction was recommended by ] to ] 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. ] opted for a larger version, allowing a "swap" (territorial compensation for Poland), which involved the ] gained by Poland at the ] of 1921 and now lost, and ] conquered from the Nazis in 1944–45.<ref name="Poland under Communism 1-3">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=1–3}}.</ref><ref name="Kresowianie nie mieli wyboru">{{Harvnb|Maciorowski|2010}}.</ref> In regard to the several major disputed areas: ] west of the ] and the ] rivers (the British wanted it to remain a part of the future German state),<ref>{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=537–541}}.</ref> ] (in 1945 the German communists already established their administration there), "]" (western ] demanded by the Ukrainians), and the ] region (Białystok was claimed by the communists of the ]), the Soviet leader made decisions that favored Poland.

Other territorial and ethnic scenarios were also possible, generally with outcomes less advantageous to Poland than its present form.<ref name="Norman Davies 1939">{{Harvnb|Kalicki|2009}}.</ref>

''d.''{{Note label|d|d|none}}] spoke of about 100,000 Jews killed by Poles during the Nazi occupation, the majority probably by members of the ] ].<ref name="Polacy wobec Holocaustu">{{Harvnb|Leszczyński|2012}}.</ref> 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.''{{Note label|e|e|none}}Some may have falsely claimed ] hoping for permission to emigrate. The communist authorities, pursuing the concept of a Poland of single ethnicity (in accordance with the recent border changes and expulsions),<ref name="Buszko 410"/><ref name="Snyder 89">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|p=89}}.</ref> were allowing the Jews to leave the country.<ref name="Poland under Communism 23">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=23}}.</ref> For a discussion of early communist Poland's ethnic politics, see Timothy Snyder, ''The Reconstruction of Nations'', chapters on modern "Ukrainian Borderland".

''f.''{{Note label|f|f|none}}A ] had ], but was eliminated in ] in 1938.<ref name="Poland under Communism 18, 64-65">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=18, 64–65}}.</ref>

''g.''{{Note label|g|g|none}}The Soviet leadership, which had previously ordered the crushing of the ], the ] and the ], now became worried about the demoralization of the Polish army, a crucial ] component, because of its deployment against Polish workers. The Soviets withdrew their support for Gomułka, who insisted on the use of force; he and his close associates were subsequently ousted from the Polish ] by the Polish ].<ref name="Poland under Communism 57-59, 187, 196">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=57–59, 187, 196}}.</ref>

''h.''{{Note label|h|h|none}}East of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line, the population was 43% Polish, 33% Ukrainian, 8% Belarusian and 8% Jewish.<ref>{{Harvnb|Snyder|2010|p=128.}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Kochanski 59-93"/>

''i.''{{Note label|i|i|none}}] at the 1943 ] discussed with ] and ] new post-war borders in central-eastern Europe, including the shape of a future Poland. He endorsed the ], which justified a massive shift of Poland's frontiers to the west.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sharp|1977}}.</ref> Stalin resolved to secure and stabilize the western reaches of the Soviet Union and disable the future military potential of Germany by constructing a compact and ethnically defined Poland (along with the Soviet ethnic Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania) and by radically altering the region's system of national borders.<ref name="Snyder 179-187">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=179–187}}.</ref> 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 all the killings and population transfers during and after the war the country was 99% "Polish".<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=}}.</ref>

''j.''{{Note label|j|j|none}}"All the currently available documents of Nazi administration show that, together with the Jews, the stratum of the Polish intelligentsia was marked for total extermination. In fact, Nazi Germany achieved this goal almost by half, since Poland lost 50 percent of her citizens with university diplomas and 35 percent of those with a gimnazium diploma."<ref>{{Harvnb|Gella|1989|p=182}}.</ref>

''k.''{{Note label|k|k|none}}Decisive political events took place in Poland shortly before the ]. ], a reformist leader at that time, was reinstated to the Polish Politburo and the Eighth Plenum of the Party's ] was announced to convene on October 19, 1956, all without seeking a Soviet approval. The Soviet Union responded with military moves and intimidation and its "military-political delegation", led by ], quickly arrived in Warsaw. Gomułka tried to convince them of his loyalty but insisted on the reforms that he considered essential, including a replacement of Poland's Soviet-trusted minister of defense, ]. The disconcerted Soviets returned to Moscow, the Polish Plenum elected Gomułka first secretary and removed Rokossovsky from the Politburo. On October 21, the Soviet Presidium ] and decided unanimously to "refrain from military intervention" in Poland, a decision likely influenced also by the ongoing preparations for the invasion of Hungary. The Soviet gamble paid off because Gomułka in the coming years turned out to be a very dependable Soviet ally and an orthodox communist.<ref name="Poland under Communism 96-104"/>

Unlike the other ] countries, Poland did not endorse the Soviet armed intervention in Hungary. The ] was intensely supported by the Polish public.<ref name="Poland under Communism 114-116">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=114–116}}.</ref>

''l.''{{Note label|l|l|none}}The delayed reinforcements were coming and the government military commanders General ] and ] wanted to keep on fighting the coup perpetrators, but President ] and the government decided to surrender to prevent the imminent spread of civil war. The coup brought to power the "]" regime under ] and ] after Piłsudski's death. The Sanation regime persecuted the opposition within the military and in general. Rozwadowski died after abusive imprisonment, according to some accounts murdered.<ref name="Gwałt i ratunek"/> According to ], the marshal's wife, following the coup and for the rest of his life Piłsudski lost his composure and appeared over-burdened.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|1988|pp=46–47}}.</ref>

At the time of Rydz-Śmigły's command, the Sanation camp embraced the ideology of ], Piłsudski's nemesis. Rydz-Śmigły did not allow General ], an anti-Sanation enemy, to participate as a soldier in the ]. During World War II in France and Britain the ] became dominated by anti-Sanation politicians. The perceived Sanation followers were in turn persecuted (in exile) under prime ministers Sikorski and ].<ref name="Rozliczanie piłsudczyków">{{Harvnb|Wasilewski|2012b}}.</ref>

''m.''{{Note label|m|m|none}}General ] of the Soviet-allied ] attempted in mid-September a crossing of the ] and landing at ] to aid the insurgents, but the operation was defeated by the Germans and the Poles suffered heavy losses.<ref name="Kirchmayer 381-396">{{Harvnb|Kirchmayer|1970|pp=381–396}}.</ref>

''n.''{{Note label|n|n|none}}The decision to launch the ] resulted in the destruction of the city, its population and its elites and has been a source of lasting controversy.<ref name="The Warsaw Rising: Was it all worth it?">{{Harvnb|J.P.|2010}}.</ref><ref name="The Warsaw Rising 1944: Perception and Reality">{{Harvnb|Chodakiewicz|2004}}.</ref> According to the historians Czesław Brzoza and Andrzej Leon Sowa, orders of further military offensives, issued at the end of August 1944 as a part of ], show the loss of a sense of responsibility for the country's fate on the part of the Polish leadership.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694"/>

''o.''{{Note label|o|o|none}}One of the party leaders ], who abandoned his mentor Gomułka following the 1970 crisis, saw the demands of the demonstrating workers as "exclusively socialist" in character, because of the way they were phrased.<ref name="Poland under Communism 193">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=193}}.</ref> Most people in communist Poland, including opposition activists, did not question the supremacy of ] or the socialist idea; misconduct by party officials, such as not following the provisions of the constitution, was blamed. This assumed standard of ] was increasingly challenged in the decades that followed, when ] became a frequently used concept.<ref name="Poland under Communism 215">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=215}}.</ref>

''p.''{{Note label|p|p|none}}The Polish ] authorities were provoked by the independence-seeking ] (OUN). OUN engaged in political assassinations, terror and sabotage, to which the Polish state responded with a repressive campaign in the 1930s, as ] and his successors imposed ] in the affected areas. After the disturbances of 1933 and 1934, a ] was established, which became notorious for its brutal regime. The government brought Polish settlers and administrators to Volhynian areas with a centuries-old tradition of Ukrainian peasant rising against Polish land owners (and to Eastern Galicia). In the late 1930s, after Piłsudski's death, military persecution intensified and a policy of "national assimilation" was aggressively pursued. Military raids, public beatings, property confiscations and the closing and destruction of ] aroused lasting enmity in ] and antagonized Ukrainian society in ] at, according to ], the worst possible moment. However, he also notes that "Ukrainian terrorism and Polish reprisals touched only part of the population, leaving vast regions unaffected" and "the OUN's nationalist prescription, a Ukrainian state for ethnic Ukrainians alone was far from popular". ] wrote of the legacy of bitterness between the Ukrainians and Poles that ] in the context of the ].<ref name="Snyder 143-152">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=143–152}}.</ref><ref name="Kochanski 29">{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|p=29}}.</ref> See also: ].

''q.''{{Note label|q|q|none}}In Poland, officials of central government ('']'' provincial office) can overrule elected local territorial and ] governments.

''r.''{{Note label|r|r|none}}Foreign policy was one of the few governmental areas in which Piłsudski took an active interest. He saw Poland's role and opportunity as lying in Eastern Europe and advocated passive relations with the West. He felt that a German attack should not be feared because, even if this unlikely event were to take place, the Western powers would be bound to restrain Germany and come to Poland's rescue.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|1988|pp=78–87}}.</ref>

''s.''{{Note label|s|s|none}}According to the researcher Jan Sowa, the Commonwealth failed as a state because it was not able to conform to the emerging new European order established at the ] of 1648. Poland's elective kings, restricted by the self-serving but short-sighted nobility, could not impose a strong and efficient central government, with its characteristic post-Westphalian internal and external sovereignty. The inability of Polish kings to levy and collect taxes (and therefore sustain a standing army) and conduct independent foreign policy were among the chief obstacles to Poland competing effectively on the changed European scene, where absolutist power was a prerequisite for survival and became the foundation for the abolition of ] and gradual formation of ].<ref name="Polska urojona"/>

''t.''{{Note label|t|t|none}}Besides the ] there were other major underground fighting formations: ], ] (NSZ) and ] (later ]).<ref name="playground 344-346"/> From 1943, the leaders of the nationalistic NSZ collaborated with Nazi Germany in a case unique in occupied Poland. The NSZ conducted an anti-communist civil war. Before the arrival of the Soviets, the NSZ's ] left Poland under the protection of the German army.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=218, 226}}.</ref> According to the historians Czesław Brzoza and Andrzej Leon Sowa, participation figures given for the underground resistance are often inflated. In the spring of 1944, the time of the most extensive involvement of the underground organizations, there were most likely considerably fewer than 500,000 military and civilian personnel participating, over the entire spectrum, from the right wing to the communists.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694"/>

''u.''{{Note label|u|u|none}}According to ], about 1.1 million people may have been imprisoned or detained in 1944–56 and about 50,000 may have died because of the struggle and persecution, including about 7,000 soldiers of the right-wing underground killed in the 1940s.<ref name="Zdobycie władzy"/><ref name="Po wojnie światowej wojna domowa"/> According to Adam Leszczyński, up to 30,000 people were killed by the communist regime during the first several years after the war.<ref name="Okupacja ktorej nie bylo">{{Harvnb|Leszczyński|2015}}.</ref>

''v.''{{Note label|v|v|none}}According to ], one of the key participants of the Polish systemic transformation, Minister ] pursued ] ], often unusually painful for society. The December 1989 Sejm statute of credit relations reform introduced an "incredible" system of privileges for banks. Banks were allowed to alter unilaterally interest rates on already existing contracts. The exceedingly high rates they instantly introduced ruined many previously profitable enterprises and caused a complete breakdown of the apartment block construction industry, which had long-term deleterious effects on the state budget as well. Balcerowicz's policies also caused permanent damage to Polish agriculture, which Balcerowicz "did not understand", and to the often successful and useful Polish ] movement.<ref name="Stelmachowski 125–130"/><ref name="TINA to fałsz">{{Harvnb|Kuczyński|2014}}.</ref>

''w.''{{Note label|w|w|none}}Led by ], the ] fought at the famous ] in 1944, as part of the Allied ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|2001|p=368}}.</ref>

''x.''{{Note label|x|x|none}}The concept which had become known as the ], the chief proponent of which was ], was based on the statement that the ] homeland was inhabited by so-called "native" aboriginal Slavs and Slavonic Poles since time immemorial and only later was "infiltrated" by "alien" ], ] and others. After 1945, the so-called "autochthonous" or "aboriginal" school of Polish prehistory received official backing in Poland and a considerable degree of popular support. According to this view, the ] which archaeologists have identified between the ] and the ] in the early ], was said to be Slavonic; all non-Slavonic tribes and peoples recorded in the area at various points in ancient times were dismissed as "migrants" and "visitors". In contrast, the critics of this theory, such as ], regarded it as an unproved hypotheses and for them the date and origin of the westward migration of the Slavs were largely uncharted; the Slavonic connections of the Lusatian Culture were entirely imaginary; and the presence of an ethnically mixed and constantly changing collection of peoples on the ] was taken for granted.<ref name="Davies Acta Iaponica Heritage">{{Harvnb|Davies|1986|pp=79–87}}.</ref>

''y.''{{Note label|y|y|none}}According to the count presented by Prime Minister and Internal Affairs Minister ] before the Sejm committee in January 1938, 818 people were killed in police suppression of labor protests (industrial and agricultural) during the 1932–37 period.<ref name="Krwawe strajki">{{Harvnb|Pietka|2016}}.</ref>

{{refend}}

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|url= http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005473 |accessdate= 20 October 2013
|ref= {{Harvid|USHMM}}}}
:{{Citation
|last=Wasilewski
|first=Krzysztof
|date=26 August 2012
|url=http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/krzysztof-wasilewski-glowny-propagator-kapitalizmu
|title=Główny propagator kapitalizmu
|trans-title=The main propagator of capitalism
|publisher=] (34/2012)
|accessdate=30 October 2015
|ref= {{Harvid|Wasilewski|2012a}}}}
:{{Citation
|last=Wasilewski
|first=Krzysztof
|date=28 October 2012
|url=http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/rozliczanie-pilsudczykow
|title=Rozliczanie piłsudczyków
|trans-title=Calling Piłsudski's men to account
|publisher=] (43/2012)
|accessdate=30 October 2015
|ref= {{Harvid|Wasilewski|2012b}}}}
:{{Cite book
|last= Weinberg |first= Gerhard L. |authorlink= Gerhard Weinberg |year= 2005
|title= A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II |edition= 2nd
|location= Cambridge |publisher= ]
|isbn= 978-0-521-61826-7 |ref= harv}}
:{{Citation
|last=Wieliński
|first=Bartosz T.
|date=1 September 2011
|url=http://wyborcza.pl/1,75475,10213548,Wrzesien__39__Wojna_zaczela_sie_dwa_lata_pozniej_.html
|title=Wrzesień '39. Wojna zaczęła się dwa lata później?
|trans-title=September 1939. The war began two years later? (a conversation with German historian Jochen Böhler)
|publisher=]
|accessdate=30 October 2015
|ref= {{Harvid|Wieliński|2011}}}}
:{{Cite book |last= Williams |first= Brian Glyn |authorlink= Brian Glyn Williams |year= 2013 |title= The Sultan's Raiders: The Military Role of the Crimean Tatars in the Ottoman Empire |url= http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/Crimean_Tatar_-_complete_report_01.pdf |accessdate= 21 October 2013 |location= Washington, D.C. |publisher= ] |ref= harv |deadurl= yes |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20131021092115/http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/Crimean_Tatar_-_complete_report_01.pdf |archivedate= 21 October 2013 |df= }}
:{{Citation
|last=Wodecka
|first=Dorota
|date=8 November 2013
|url=http://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/1,134728,14919359,Polska_urojona.html
|title=Polska urojona
|trans-title=Imaginary Poland (a conversation with Jan Sowa)
|publisher=]
|accessdate=31 October 2015
|ref= {{Harvid|Wodecka|2013}}}}
:{{Citation
|last=Wroński
|first=Paweł
|date=1 March 2013
|url=http://bialystok.gazeta.pl/bialystok/1,35235,13483112,Dzien_Zolnierzy_Wykletych__Cywilny_opor_czy_III_wojna_.html
|title=Dzień Żołnierzy Wyklętych. Cywilny opór czy III wojna? Rozmowa z dr hab. Rafałem Wnukiem
|trans-title=The day of cursed soldiers. Civil resistance or World War III? A conversation with Professor Rafał Wnuk
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|accessdate=31 October 2015
|ref= {{Harvid|Wroński|2013}}}}
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|last= Wyrozumski |first= Jerzy |year= 1986
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|location= Warsaw |publisher= ]
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:{{Cite book
|last= Zamoyski |first= Adam |authorlink= Adam Zamoyski |year= 1994
|title= The Polish Way: A Thousand Year History of the Poles and Their Culture
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:{{Citation
|last=Zaremba
|first=Marcin
|date=17 January 2013
|url=http://wyborcza.pl/1,111789,8951226,Biedni_Polacy_na_zniwach___Recenzja__Zlotych_Zniw_.html
|title=Biedni Polacy na żniwach - Recenzja ‚Złotych Żniw’
|trans-title=Poor Poles at the harvest - review of 'Golden Harvests
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|last=Zasuń
|first=Rafał
|date=27 August 2009|url=http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/1,114881,6970149,Jak_Polacy_i_Rosjanie_mloca_historie.html
|title=Jak Polacy i Rosjanie młócą historię
|trans-title=How the Poles and the Russians thresh history
|publisher=wiadomosci.gazeta.pl
|accessdate=31 October 2015
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|last=Zdrada
|first=Jerzy
|date=27 January 2010|url=http://www.polityka.pl/historia/1502653,1,powstanie-styczniowe-po-147-latach.read
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|trans-title=January Uprising after 147 years
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|last1= Zgórniak |first1= Marian |last2= Łaptos |first2= Józef |last3= Solarz |first3= Jacek|year= 2006
|title= Wielka historia świata, tom 11, wielkie wojny XX wieku (1914–1945) |trans-title= The Great History of the World, vol. 11: Great Wars of the 20th century (1914–1945)
|location= Kraków |publisher= Fogra
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|last= Zubrzycki |first= Geneviève
|title= The Crosses of Auschwitz: Nationalism And Religion in Post-communist Poland
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|date= 15 September 2006
|location= Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press
|isbn= 978-0-226-99304-1 |ref= harv}}

{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
'''More recent general history of Poland books in English'''
{{Refbegin}}
* Biskupski, M. B. ''The History of Poland''. Greenwood, 2000. 264 pp.
* ''The Cambridge History of Poland'', 2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941 (1697–1935), 1950 (to 1696). New York: Octagon Books, 1971 , old fashioned but highly detailed
* Frucht, Richard. ''Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe: From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism'' Garland Pub., 2000
* ]. ''History of Poland'', New York: Roy Publishers, 1942. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1993, {{ISBN|0-679-51087-7}}
* Kenney, Padraic. “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
* Stefan Kieniewicz, ''History of Poland'', ], 1982, {{ISBN|0-88254-695-3}}
* Kloczowski, Jerzy. ''A History of Polish Christianity''. Cambridge U. Pr., 2000. 385 pp.
* Lerski, George J. ''Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966–1945''. Greenwood, 1996. 750 pp.
* Leslie, R. F. et al. ''The History of Poland since 1863''. Cambridge U. Press, 1980. 494 pp.
* Lewinski-Corwin, Edward Henry. ''The Political History of Poland'' (1917), well-illustrated; 650pp
* Litwin Henryk, , ''BUM '', 2016.
* ]. ''Poland: An Illustrated History'', New York: Hippocrene Books, 2000, {{ISBN|0-7818-0757-3}}
* Pogonowski, Iwo Cyprian. ''Poland: A Historical Atlas''. Hippocrene, 1987. 321 pp.
* Radzilowski, John. ''A Traveller's History of Poland'', Northampton, Massachusetts: Interlink Books, 2007, {{ISBN|1-56656-655-X}}
* Roos, Hans. ''A History of Modern Poland'' (1966)
* Sanford, George. ''Historical Dictionary of Poland''. Scarecrow Press, 2003. 291 pp.
* Wróbel, Piotr. ''Historical Dictionary of Poland, 1945–1996''. Greenwood, 1998. 397 pp.
{{Refend}}

'''Published in Poland'''
{{Refbegin}}
* ''History of Poland'', ] et al. Warsaw: PWN, 1968
* ''History of Poland'', ] et al. Warsaw: PWN, 1979
* ''An Outline History of Poland'', by ]. Warsaw: Interpress Publishers, 1986, {{ISBN|83-223-2118-X}}
* ''An Illustrated History of Poland'', by Dariusz Banaszak, Tomasz Biber, Maciej Leszczyński. Poznań: Publicat, 2008, {{ISBN|978-83-245-1587-5}}
* ''Poland: History of Poland'', by Stanisław Kołodziejski, Roman Marcinek, Jakub Polit. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński, 2005, 2009, {{ISBN|83-7447-018-6}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons|Atlas of Poland#History_maps|Atlas of Poland}}
{{Wikisourcelang|pl|Dokumenty historyczne|Sources to History of Poland}}
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; Movie (on-line):
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; Other:
* {{cite web|url=http://hungarian-history.hu/lib/halecki/halecki.pdf|title=BORDERLANDS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION A History of East Central Europe|first=Oscar|last=Halecki|authorlink=Oscar Halecki|format=PDF|publisher=Oscar Halecki|accessdate=2010-08-08}}
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=== Maps ===
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{{Poland topics}}
{{Years in Poland}}
{{History of Europe}}
{{European history by country}}

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Revision as of 01:37, 15 December 2017

Part of a series on the
History of Poland
Topics
Prehistory and protohistory
Middle Ages
Piast period10th century–1385
Jagiellonian period1385–1572
Early Modern
Early elective monarchy1572–1648
Deluge and decline1648–1764
Three partitions1764–1795
Modern
Partitioned Poland1795–1918
World War I1914–1918
Second Republic1918–1939
World War II1939–1945
Communist Poland1945–1989
Contemporary
Third Republic1989–present

Timeline of Polish history

Infinite (172) Adjective- Something that is infinite has no limit, end, or edge. There is an infinite amount of options to pick from.