POLSKA HISTORY

Slavic tribes probably lived in what is now Poland as early as 2000 B.C. During the A.D. 800's, several of the tribes united under the Polane, one of the largest groups in the area. The early Polish state. Members of the Piast family became the first rulers of Poland. By the mid-900's, Prince Mieszko I ruled over most of the land along the Vistula and Oder rivers. His son, Boleslaw I, conquered part of what is now the Czech Republic, and parts of what are now Germany, Slovakia, and Ukraine. In 1025, Boleslaw was crowned the first king of Poland. After his death later that year, Poland went through periods of warfare and disunity. By the mid-1100's, the country had broken up into several sections, each ruled by a different noble. During the 1200's, various peoples invaded and conquered parts of Poland. Most of the country was finally reunified in the early 1300's. Casimir the Great, the last Piast monarch, ruled Poland from 1333 to 1370. Casimir formed a strong central government, strengthened the economy, and encouraged cultural development. The Polish empire. In 1386, Queen Jadwiga of Poland married Wladyslaw Jagiello, the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Jagiello ruled Poland and Lithuania as king, but each country remained largely self-governing. Jagiellonian kings ruled Poland for nearly 200 years. Under their leadership, Poland expanded its territory and made important advances in its cultural, economic, and political development. The Polish empire reached its height during the 1500's, when it covered a large part of central and eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Belarus. In 1493, the first national parliament of Poland was established. Poland and Lithuania were united under a single parliament in 1569. The decline of Poland. In spite of the advances of the Jagiellonian period, signs of strain developed in Poland after the mid-1500's. The monarchy began to lose power to the nobles, who dominated the parliament. After the death of the last Jagiellonian monarch in 1572, Polish kings were elected by the nobles. Some of the elected kings were foreigners, and these kings proved to be ineffective rulers. Rivalries among the nobles weakened the Polish parliament, and costly wars ruined the economy. Poland lost much of its territory in Ukraine as a result of a rebellion there in 1648. In 1655, Sweden won control over most of Poland's Baltic provinces. A series of wars with Turkey finally ended with a Polish victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The partitions. Poland's decline continued into the 1700's. In 1772, Austria, Prussia, and Russia took advantage of Poland's weakness and partitioned (divided) Polish territory among themselves. Austria seized land in southern Poland. Prussia took land located in the west part of Poland. Russia took land in the east. As a result, Poland lost about a third of its territory and half its population. After the first partition, the Polish government adopted a series of reform measures to stop the country's decay. In 1791, a new constitution restored the hereditary monarchy. But the reforms came too late. In 1793, Prussia and Russia seized additional territory in eastern and western Poland. This second partition led to an uprising among Poles in 1794. Polish forces under Thaddeus Kosciuszko fought Russian and Prussian troops but were defeated. Austria, Prussia, and Russia carried out the third partition of Poland in 1795, dividing what remained of the country among themselves. Poland no longer existed as a separate country. After 1795, many Poles joined the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte to fight against Austria and Prussia. In 1807, Napoleon gained control of Prussian Poland and made it into a Polish state called the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. But after Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, Poland was again divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia. A small, self-governing Kingdom of Poland was established under Russian control. The struggle against foreign rule. In 1830, Poles in the Kingdom of Poland rebelled against the Russians. But Russia crushed the revolt. Other unsuccessful revolts were launched against Austria and Prussia. After a second revolt in the Kingdom of Poland in 1863, Russia tried to destroy Polish culture by making Russian the official language there. After 1871, when Prussia formed the German Empire, Poles under Prussian control were forced to adopt the German language. Poles under Austrian rule won some self-government in the late 1800's. In the 1880's and 1890's, Polish political parties formed in all three parts of Poland. Leading politicians included Jozef Pilsudski and Roman Dmowski. World War I and independence. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Pilsudski led Polish forces on the side of Austria against Russia. The Russians were driven out of most of Poland by 1915, and the following year, Austria and Germany established a small Polish kingdom under their protection. In 1917, Dmowski formed the Polish National Committee in Paris to win Allied support for an independent Poland. After the Allied victory in 1918, an independent Polish republic was proclaimed. Pilsudski became the first chief of state. Under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Poland regained large amounts of territory from Germany. The port of Gdansk was made the Free City of Danzig under the supervision of the League of Nations. The return of land in Pomerania, a region along the Baltic coast, gave Poland access to the sea. In the east, Poland tried to reestablish its prepartition boundary with Russia. This led to a war with Russia in 1919 and 1920. The 1921 Treaty of Riga represented a compromise. It established a border that gave Poland some of its prepartition land. Rebuilding the Polish nation. The new Polish state faced many problems. Its leaders had to unify three regions that had been separate for more than 100 years. About a third of its population consisted of minority groups, some of whom resented Polish rule. In addition, the partitions and World War I had disrupted the country's economy. During the 1920's and 1930's, Poland slowly rebuilt its economy and developed uniform systems of government, transportation, and education. The 1921 Constitution of Poland provided for a democratic government. But many political parties competed for power, and the government was unstable. In 1926, Pilsudski led a military overthrow of the government. He then took control. In 1935, Poland adopted a new constitution that confirmed many of Pilsudski's unrestricted powers. Pilsudski died in 1935. But his successors continued the policy of absolute rule. In the 1930's, Poland began to be threatened by the growing military strength of Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (The U.S.S.R. had been formed in 1922 under Russia's leadership, and it existed until 1991.) In 1939, Adolf Hitler demanded that Danzig (Gdansk) be given to Germany. He also demanded transportation rights across eastern Pomerania. The Poles resisted Hitler's demands and formed an alliance with Britain. Britain and France, which had signed an alliance pact with Poland in 1921, pledged to defend Poland if its independence were directly threatened. World War II. In August 1939, Germany and the U.S.S.R. signed a treaty in which they secretly planned to divide Poland between themselves. On September 1, Germany attacked Poland. Britain and France then declared war on Germany. The U.S.S.R. invaded Poland on September 17. The Poles fought bravely, but were defeated within a month. Germany and the U.S.S.R. then divided Poland. In 1941, Germany attacked the U.S.S.R. and seized all of Poland. Shortly after the fall of Poland, a Polish government-in-exile was formed in Paris. Later, it was moved to London. Polish armed forces joined Allied forces in many campaigns. In addition, an underground Home Army operated inside Poland against the Germans. After the German attack against the U.S.S.R. in 1941, Polish Communists formed an exile center in the U.S.S.R. Poles under the command of the U.S.S.R. fought against Germany on the eastern front. The Communists also formed their own small underground movement. In 1942, they established the Polish Communist Party. Wladyslaw Gomulka became the party leader in 1943. In 1944, the army of the U.S.S.R. invaded Poland and began to drive out the Germans. Also in 1944, the Home Army staged an uprising against the Germans in Warsaw. But after two months of fighting, the Home Army had to surrender. That same year, a Polish Committee of National Liberation was formed in Lublin. The U.S.S.R. recognized the committee, which consisted almost entirely of Communists, as the provisional government of Poland. At the 1945 Yalta Conference, the Allies agreed to recognize the committee after it was expanded to include representatives of the London government-in-exile and other non-Communist groups (see YALTA CONFERENCE). Poland suffered widespread death and destruction during the war. Much of Warsaw and other cities were destroyed. Millions of Poles, including most Polish Jews, were put into concentration camps when the U.S.S.R. and Germany occupied Poland. Between 1939 and 1945, over 6 million Poles died. About half were Jews. Agreements reached at the end of the war shifted Poland's borders westward, and millions of Poles were resettled. The U.S.S.R. kept most of eastern Poland. In return, Poland received the German lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, including major industrial regions. Communist rule was opposed by most Poles. But the Communists used police power and other methods to crush resistance. Communist-controlled elections in 1947 gave them a large majority in the new legislature. By 1948, Communist rule was firmly established. During the late 1940's, the U.S.S.R. gained increasing influence over the Polish government. In 1949, a U.S.S.R. military officer, Konstantin Rokossovsky, was made Poland's defense minister. Polish Communists suspected of disloyalty to the U.S.S.R. were removed from power. They included Wladyslaw Gomulka, who, as first secretary, held the most powerful post in Poland. He was removed from his post in 1948 and imprisoned in 1951. In 1952, Poland adopted a constitution patterned after that of the U.S.S.R. The government took control of industries and forced farmers to give up their land and work on collective farms. As part of an antireligion campaign, the Communists imprisoned Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. During the 1950's, many Poles began to express discontent with government policies and resentment of domination by the U.S.S.R. In 1956, workers in Poznan and other cities staged antigovernment riots. Wladyslaw Gomulka was then freed from prison and again became head of the Communist Party. He ended the forced take-over of farmland and eased the campaign against religion. Cardinal Wyszynski was released from prison, and defense minister Rokossovsky was dismissed. In the 1960's, Polish intellectuals protested against government limits on freedom of expression, and new disputes erupted between the government and the Catholic Church. In 1970, strikes and riots broke out in Gdansk and other cities. Thousands of Poles demanded better living conditions and economic and political reforms. After days of riots, Gomulka resigned, and Edward Gierek became the Communist Party leader. Recent developments. Gierek's leadership brought better relations between the government and the Catholic Church. Although Poland remained a loyal ally of the U.S.S.R., its government took steps during the 1970's to improve relations with non-Communist countries. In 1978, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, a Polish cardinal and the archbishop of Krakow, was elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He took the name of John Paul II. He became the first Polish pope in history and the first non-Italian pope since 1523. He visited Poland in 1979, 1983, and 1987. John Paul II called on Poland's government to allow greater freedom to its people. Poland has struggled with high prices and shortages of food and consumer goods since the mid-1970's. In 1976, Poles rioted after the government announced big increases in food prices. Government leaders then deferred the increases. Economic conditions worsened in the late 1970's. In the summer of 1980, thousands of workers in Gdansk and other cities went on strike. They demanded higher pay, free trade unions, and political reforms. Communist leaders promised to meet many of the demands. In September, the Central Committee forced Gierek to resign and elected Stanislaw Kania to replace him. In November, the Polish government recognized Solidarity, an organization of free trade unions. This was the first time a Communist country recognized a labor organization that was independent of the Communist Party. Lech Walesa headed Solidarity. Economic problems, including food shortages, increased. In October 1981, the Central Committee made Kania resign and elected Wojciech Jaruzelski, an army general, head of the Communist Party. Jaruzelski's government faced continuing economic problems and demands by the people for economic improvements and greater political freedom. In December 1981, Jaruzelski imposed martial law, suspended Solidarity's activities, and had Walesa and hundreds of union leaders held as prisoners. In October 1982, the government officially outlawed Solidarity. Walesa and some Solidarity members were released in late 1982. The remaining prisoners were released over the next several years. Jaruzelski's government formally ended martial law in July 1983. But many controls over the people's freedom were retained. In 1989, the government reached an agreement with Solidarity that led to the legalization of the union and to changes in the structure of the government. Under the agreement, a Senate was added to the parliament and an office of president with broad powers was created. Non-Communist candidates were allowed to compete for all Senate seats and some lower house (Sejm) seats. The remaining lower house seats were reserved for members of the Communist Party and its allies. Candidates backed by Solidarity were the most successful in the elections, the freest in Poland since the end of World War II. After the elections, parliament elected Jaruzelski president. Parliament appointed Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a Solidarity leader, as prime minister. He became Poland's first non-Communist prime minister since World War II. The new government began to end Communist controls over the lives of the people. Also in 1989, the government began a program to sell government-owned industries to private owners. Much progress was made in this program in the 1990's. In 1990, Poland's Communist Party was dissolved. In June 1990, Solidarity split into two opposing groups. One group supported Mazowiecki, and the other supported Walesa. In November, Mazowiecki, Walesa, and Stanislaw Tyminski ran in a presidential election. Mazowiecki finished third and then resigned as prime minister. Walesa won a runoff election against Tyminski in December and became Poland's president. After the election, Walesa resigned as head of Solidarity. Parliamentary elections were held in October 1991. The 1989 system of reserving lower house seats for members of specific parties was abolished starting with the 1991 election. The Democratic Union, a party that formed out of Mazowiecki's branch of Solidarity, won the most seats in both the lower house and the Senate. By 1993, many people were discouraged by economic hardship brought on by the change to a free-market economy. New elections were held in 1993. The Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish Peasant Party won the most seats in the lower house and the Senate. Both parties include many former Communist Party members. The parties formed a coalition government and said they would continue economic reforms. In 1995, Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Communist leader, was elected president.