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{{History of Poland}}

The '''history of Poland''' spans over a thousand years, from [[Lechites|medieval tribes]], [[Christianization of Poland|Christianization]] and [[Kingdom of Poland|monarchy]]; through [[Polish Golden Age|Poland's Golden Age]], [[Polonization|expansionism]] and becoming one of the largest [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|European powers]]; to its [[Partitions of Poland|collapse and partitions]], two [[world war]]s, [[Polish People's Republic|communism]], and the restoration of [[democracy]].

The roots of Polish history can be traced to [[Ancient history|ancient times]], when the territory of present-day Poland was inhabited by diverse ethnic groups, including [[Celts]], [[Scythians]], [[Sarmatians]], [[Slavs]], [[Balts]] and [[Germanic peoples]]. However, it was the [[West Slavs|West Slavic]] [[Lechites]], the closest ancestors of ethnic [[Polish people|Poles]], who established permanent settlements during the [[Early Middle Ages]]. The Lechitic [[Polans (western)|Western Polans]], a tribe whose name denotes "people living in open fields", dominated the region and gave Poland - which lies in the [[North European Plain|North-Central European Plain]] - its [[Name of Poland|name]]. The first ruling dynasty, the [[Piast dynasty|Piasts]], emerged in the 10th century AD. Duke [[Mieszko I of Poland|Mieszko I]], regarded as the creator of Polish statehood, [[Christianization of Poland|adopted Western Christianity]] in 966 CE. Mieszko's dominion was formally reconstituted as a [[High Middle Ages|medieval]] kingdom in 1025 by his son [[Bolesław I the Brave]], known for his military expansions. The most successful and the last Piast monarch, [[Casimir III the Great]], presided over a period of economic prosperity and territorial aggrandizement before his death in 1370 without male heirs.

The period of the [[Jagiellonian dynasty]] in the 14th–16th centuries brought close ties with the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]], a cultural [[Renaissance in Poland]] and continued territorial expansion as well as [[Polonization]] that culminated in the establishment of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] in 1569, one of Europe's [[great power]]s. The Commonwealth was able to sustain centuries-long prosperity, while its political system matured as a unique [[Golden Liberty|noble democracy]] with an [[elective monarchy]]. 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 in the late 18th century, such as Europe's first [[Constitution of 3 May 1791]]. The existence of the Commonwealth ended in 1795 after a series of invasions and [[partitions of Poland|partitions]] carried out by the [[Russian Empire]], the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] and the [[Habsburg monarchy]]. From 1795 until 1918, no truly independent Polish state existed, although strong [[Resistance movements in partitioned Poland (1795–1918)|resistance movements]] operated. The opportunity to regain sovereignty only materialized after [[World War I]], when the three partitioning powers were fatally weakened in the wake of war and revolution.

The [[Second Polish Republic]] was established in 1918 and existed as an independent state until 1939, when [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[Soviet Union]] [[Invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]], marking the beginning of [[World War II]]. Millions of Polish citizens of [[Untermensch|different faiths or identities]] perished under Nazi [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupation between 1939 and 1945]] through planned genocide and [[The Holocaust|extermination]]. A [[Polish government-in-exile]] functioned throughout the war, and the [[Polish contribution to World War II|Poles contributed]] to the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] victory through participation in military campaigns on both the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|eastern]] and [[Western Front (World War II)|western]] fronts. The westward advances of the Soviet [[Red Army]] in 1944 and 1945 compelled Nazi Germany's forces to retreat from Poland, which led to the establishment of a [[satellite state|satellite]] [[communism|communist]] country, known from 1952 as the [[Polish People's Republic]]. The territorial adjustments mandated by the Allies at the end of World War II in 1945 shifted Poland's [[Territorial evolution of Poland|geographic centre of gravity towards the west]], and the re-defined Polish lands largely lost their [[Demographic history of Poland|historic multi-ethnic character]]. By the late 1980s, the Polish reform movement [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] contributed to a peaceful transition from a [[planned economy|planned communist economy]] to [[capitalism]] and a [[liberalism|liberal]] [[parliamentary system|parliamentary democracy]]. This process resulted in the creation of the [[History of Poland (1989–present)|modern Polish state]], the Third Polish Republic, founded in 1989.
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==Prehistory and protohistory==
{{further|Prehistory and protohistory of Poland|Poland in the Early Middle Ages}}
[[File:Krzemionki 20150519 6511.jpg|thumb|right|[[Krzemionki|Krzemionki Flint Mine]], once a source of material for [[Neolithic]] toolmaking, features an example of [[Rock art|ancient parietal art]] – a linear [[pictogram]] of a female [[deity]]. It is now a [[List of World Heritage Sites in Poland|UNESCO World Heritage Site]].]] 

In [[prehistory|prehistoric]] and [[protohistory|protohistoric]] times, over a period of approximately 500,000 years, the area of present-day Poland was intermittently inhabited by members of the [[genus]] ''[[Homo]]''.<ref name="auto1">{{Harvnb|Jurek|Kizik|2013|p=40}}.</ref> The earliest evidence of ''[[Homo erectus]]'' activity in the form of [[microlith]] artifacts was discovered at [[Trzebnica]], in [[Lower Silesian Voivodeship|Lower Silesia]].<ref name="auto1"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Chauhan|2009|p=202}}.</ref> It remains the oldest [[archeological site]] in the country, dating back to the [[Lower Paleolithic]] period of the [[Stone Age]].<ref name="auto1"/> The southern regions of Poland were subsequently penetrated by sporadic groups of [[Neanderthal]]s.<ref name="auto1"/> Their presence was confirmed by the [[stone tools]] unearthed in caves of the [[Kraków-Częstochowa Upland]], a [[limestone]] formation with hills, [[cliff]]s and valleys that came to be known as the Polish Jura.<ref name="auto1"/>

The arrival of ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' and [[Early European modern humans|anatomically modern humans]] coincided with the climatic discontinuity at the end of the [[Last Glacial Period]] ([[Weichselian glaciation]]) around 10,000 BC, when Poland became warmer and habitable.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jurek|2019|p=93}}.</ref> It allowed various groups of early humans to pass the [[Sudeten Mountains]] through the [[Moravian Gate]] and the [[Kłodzko Valley]] into Lower Silesia.<ref name="auto2">{{Harvnb|Jurek|Kizik|2013|pp=40–41}}.</ref> The [[Neolithic]] period ushered in the [[Linear Pottery culture]], whose founders belonged to the [[Danubian culture]] and migrated from the [[Danube|Danube River]] area beginning about 5500 BC.<ref name="auto2"/> This culture was distinguished by the establishment of the first settled [[agriculture|agricultural]] communities in modern Polish territory.<ref name="auto2"/> Later, between about 4400 and 2000 BC, the native post-[[Mesolithic]] 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>

Excavations indicated broad-ranging development in the [[New Stone Age]]. Most notably, the oldest samples of European cheese (5500 BC) were found in the region of [[Kuyavia]], and a [[Bronocice pot|pot]] from [[Bronocice]] is incised with what is now believed to be the earliest-known portrayal of a wheeled vehicle (3400 BC).<ref>{{Harvnb|Subbaraman|2012}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Attema|Los-Weijns|Pers|2006|pp=10–28}}</ref> Toolmaking became more advanced and material was primarily sourced from quarries and mines in the [[Świętokrzyskie Mountains|Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains]].<ref name="auto">{{Harvnb|Jurek|Kizik|2013|p=41}}.</ref> Artifacts that originated in this mountain region were excavated as far as [[Moravia]] and near the [[Baltic Sea]].<ref name="auto"/> It is estimated that the [[List of World Heritage Sites in Poland|UNESCO]]-protected neolithic [[flint]] mines at [[Krzemionki]], one of Europe's largest, were utilised by the [[Funnelbeaker culture|Funnelbeaker]] and [[Globular Amphora culture|Globular Amphora]] cultures from 3900 BC to 1600 BC.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wierzbowski|2006|p=180}}</ref> The only surviving example of [[Rock art|ancient parietal art]] in Poland is at a flint shaft in Krzemionki and features a linear [[charcoal]] [[pictogram]] of a female figure or [[deity]] that has been since associated with fertility.<ref>{{Harvnb|Szafrański|1987|p=97}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hensel|1983|p=97}}</ref>   

[[File:Brama biskupińska.jpg|thumb|right|Reconstructed [[Biskupin]] fortified settlement of the [[Lusatian culture]], 8th century BC.]]

Poland's [[Early Bronze Age]] began around 2400–2300 BC, whereas its [[Iron Age]] commenced c. 750–700 BC. One of the many cultures that have been uncovered, the [[Lusatian culture]], 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 [[Celts]] of the [[La Tène culture]]. They were soon followed by emerging cultures with a strong [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] component, influenced first by the Celts and then by the [[Roman Empire]]. The Germanic peoples migrated out of the area by about 500 AD during the great [[Migration Period]] of the European [[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]]. Wooded regions to the north and east were settled by [[Balts]].<ref name="UzP 76-121">{{Harvnb|Derwich|Żurek|2002|pp=76–121}}.</ref>

According to some archaeological research, [[Slavs]] have resided in modern Polish territories for only 1,500 years.<ref name="UzP 122-143">{{Harvnb|Derwich|Żurek|2002|pp=122–143}}.</ref> However, recent genetic studies determined that the inhabitants of Poland are also the descendants of people from before the Migration Period.<ref name="journals.plos.org">{{Harvnb|Mielnik-Sikorska|2013}}.</ref> According to other archaeological and linguistic research, [[Early Slavs|early Slavic peoples]] were likely present in parts of Poland much earlier, and may have been associated with the ancient [[Przeworsk culture|Przeworsk]] culture of the 3rd century BC, though some Slavic groups may have arrived from the east in later periods.<ref>{{cite book |last=Buko |first=Andrzej |date=2008 |title=The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6A3Q1WQIroC |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |page=57 |isbn=978-90-04-16230-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Brather | first1 = Sebastian | year = 2004 | title = The Archaeology of the Northwestern Slavs (Seventh To Ninth Centuries) | journal = East Central Europe | volume = 31 | issue = 1| pages = 78–81 | doi = 10.1163/187633004x00116 |issn = 0094-3037 }}</ref><ref>Trubačev, O. N. 1985. ''Linguistics and Ethnogenesis of the Slavs: The Ancient Slavs as Evidenced by Etymology and Onomastics''. [http://www.jies.org/ ''Journal of Indo-European Studies'' (JIES)], 13: 203–256.</ref> The West Slavic and [[Lechites|Lechitic]] peoples as well as any remaining minority clans were organized into [[Tribe|tribal units]] ([[Polish tribes]]), as outlined by the anonymous [[Bavarian Geographer]] in the 9th century.<ref name="playground I xxvii">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|p=xxvii}}.</ref> Largely divided, it was the [[Polans (western)|Western Polans]] in the [[Greater Poland]] region who began a process of unification and created a lasting [[political system|political structure]] in the 10th century that subsequently became the [[State (polity)|state]] of Poland.<ref name="UzP 122-143"/>{{Ref label|x|x|none}}

==Piast period (10th century–1385)==

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

===Mieszko I===

[[File:Polska 992 - 1025.png|thumb|right|Poland expanded under its first two rulers. The dark pink area represents Poland at end of rule of [[Mieszko I of Poland|Mieszko I]] (992), whereas the light pink area represents territories added during the reign of [[Bolesław I the Brave|Bolesław I]] (died 1025). The dark pink area in the northwest was lost during the same period.]]
[[File:Muzeum początków Państwa Polskiego Gniezno (6477590483).jpg|thumb|right|[[Gniezno]], considered to be the first capital of Poland and seat of early [[Piast]] rulers.]]

Poland was established as a state under the [[Piast dynasty]], which ruled the country between the 10th and 14th centuries. Historical records referring to the Polish state begin with the rule of Duke [[Mieszko I of Poland|Mieszko I]], whose reign commenced sometime before 963 and continued until his death in 992. Mieszko converted to [[Latin Church|Christianity]] in 966, following his marriage to Princess [[Doubravka of Bohemia]], a fervent [[Christianity|Christian]].<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=xxvii-xxviii}}</ref> The event is known as the "[[Christianization of Poland|baptism of Poland]]", 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 [[Lechites|Lechitic]] tribal lands that was fundamental to the new country's existence. Following its emergence, Poland was led by [[List of Polish monarchs|a series of rulers]] who converted the population to Christianity, created a strong [[Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)|kingdom]] and fostered a distinctive [[culture of medieval Poland|Polish culture]] that was integrated into the broader [[Culture of Europe|European culture]].<ref name="Wyrozumski 80-88">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=80–88}}.</ref>

===Bolesław I the Brave===

Mieszko's son, Duke [[Bolesław I the Brave]] (r. 992–1025), established a [[Catholic Church in Poland|Polish Church]] structure, pursued territorial conquests and was officially crowned the first [[List of Polish monarchs|king of Poland]] 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, [[Adalbert of Prague]], was killed in [[Prussia (region)|Prussia]] in 997.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> During the [[Congress of Gniezno]] in the year 1000, Holy Roman Emperor [[Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto III]] recognized the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno|Archbishopric of Gniezno]],<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 [[Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry II]], Bolesław fought prolonged wars with the [[Kingdom of Germany]] 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 I's expansive rule overstretched the resources of the early Polish state, and it was followed by a collapse of the monarchy. Recovery took place under [[Casimir I the Restorer]] (r. 1039–1058). Casimir's son [[Bolesław II the Generous]] (r. 1058–1079) became involved in a conflict with Bishop [[Stanislaus of Szczepanów]] that ultimately caused his downfall. Bolesław had the bishop murdered in 1079 after being [[Excommunication|excommunicated]] by the Polish church on charges of adultery. 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, [[Gallus Anonymus]] wrote a seminal chronicle, the ''[[Gesta principum Polonorum]]'',<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> intended as a glorification of his patron [[Bolesław III Wrymouth]] (r. 1107–1138), a ruler who revived the tradition of military prowess of Bolesław I's time. Gallus' work remains a paramount written source for the early history of Poland.<ref name="Wyrozumski 93-104">{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=93–104}}.</ref>

===Fragmentation===

After Bolesław III divided Poland among his sons in his [[Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth|Testament of 1138]],<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> [[feudal fragmentation|internal fragmentation]] eroded the Piast monarchical structures in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1180, [[Casimir II the Just]], who sought papal confirmation of his status as a [[Seniorate Province|senior duke]], granted immunities and additional privileges to the Polish Church at the Congress of [[Łęczyca]].<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> Around 1220, [[Wincenty Kadłubek]] wrote his ''[[Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae]]'', another major source for early Polish history.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1226, one of the regional Piast dukes, [[Konrad I of Masovia]], invited the [[Teutonic Order|Teutonic Knights]] to help him fight the [[Balts|Baltic]] [[Old Prussians|Prussian]] pagans.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> The Teutonic Order destroyed the Prussians but kept their lands, which resulted in centuries of warfare between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, and later between Poland and the [[Duchy of Prussia|German Prussian state]]. The [[first Mongol invasion of Poland]] began in 1240; it culminated in the defeat of Polish and allied Christian forces and the death of the [[Silesian Piasts|Silesian Piast]] Duke [[Henry II the Pious]] at the [[Battle of Legnica]] in 1241.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1242, [[Wrocław]] became the first Polish municipality to be [[German town law|incorporated]],<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> as the period of fragmentation brought economic development and growth of towns. New cities were founded and existing settlements were granted town status per [[Magdeburg rights|Magdeburg Law]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Archäologie der westlichen Slawen: Siedlung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Ostmitteleuropa|author=Sebastian Brather|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=2008|page=87|language=de}}</ref> In 1264, [[Bolesław the Pious]] granted [[history of the Jews in Poland|Jewish liberties]] in the [[Statute of Kalisz]].<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===

[[File:Władysław I sarcophagus figure.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Władysław I the Elbow-high]]]]

Attempts to reunite the Polish lands gained momentum in the 13th century, and in 1295, Duke [[Przemysł II]] of [[Greater Poland]] 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 1300–1305 King [[Wenceslaus II of Bohemia]] also reigned as king of Poland.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> The Piast Kingdom was effectively restored under [[Władysław I the Elbow-high]] (r. 1306–1333), who became king in 1320.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1308, the Teutonic Knights seized [[Gdańsk]] and the surrounding region of [[Pomerelia]].<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/>

King [[Casimir III the Great]] (r. 1333–1370),<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 [[Silesia]] (formally ceded by Casimir in 1339) and most of Polish [[Pomerania]] were lost to the Polish state for centuries to come. Progress was made in the recovery of the separately governed central province of [[Mazovia]], however, and in 1340, the conquest of [[Red Ruthenia]] began,<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> marking Poland's expansion to the east. The [[Congress of Kraków]], a vast convocation of central, eastern, and northern European rulers probably assembled to plan an anti-[[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] [[crusades|crusade]], took place in 1364, the same year that the future [[Jagiellonian University]], 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, Casimir III confirmed the privileges granted to Jews in 1264 by Bolesław the Pious and allowed them to settle in Poland in great numbers.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

===Angevin transition===

After the Polish royal line and Piast junior branch died out in 1370, Poland came under the rule of [[Louis I of Hungary]] of the [[Capetian House of Anjou]], who presided over a [[union of Hungary and Poland]] that lasted until 1382.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> In 1374, Louis granted the [[szlachta|Polish nobility]] the [[Privilege of Koszyce]] to assure the succession of one of his daughters in Poland.<ref name="playground I xxvii-xxviii"/> His youngest daughter [[Jadwiga of Poland|Jadwiga]] (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|History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty}}

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

[[File:Battle of Tannenberg.jpg|thumb|right|A representation of the [[Battle of Grunwald]], a great military contest of the [[Late Middle Ages]]]]

In 1386, Grand Duke [[Władysław II Jagiełło|Jogaila]] of [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]] converted to [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] and 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 [[personal union|personal]] [[Polish–Lithuanian union]] ruled by the [[Jagiellonian dynasty]]. The first in a series of formal "unions" was the [[Union of Krewo]] of 1385, whereby arrangements were made for the marriage of Jogaila and Jadwiga.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> The Polish–Lithuanian partnership brought vast areas of [[Ruthenia]] controlled by the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the nationals of both countries, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities 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 [[Baltic Sea]] region, Poland's struggle with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated in the [[Battle of Grunwald]] (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 the [[State of the Teutonic Order|Teutonic Order]] at [[Malbork Castle]]. The [[Union of Horodło]] 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 ''[[szlachta]]'' (nobility) kept expanding and in 1425 the rule of ''[[Neminem captivabimus]]'', which protected the noblemen from arbitrary royal arrests, was formulated.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/>

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

[[File:Król Kazimierz Jagiellończyk z królową Elżbietą i ich dzieci.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[Jagiellonian dynasty|Jagiellonian]] bloodline; King [[Casimir IV Jagiellon|Casimir IV]] was the central figure of the Jagiellonian period and the father of four kings.]]

The reign of the young [[Władysław III of Poland|Władysław III]] (1434–44),<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> who succeeded his father Władysław II Jagiełło and ruled as king of [[Union of Hungary and Poland|Poland and Hungary]], was cut short by his death at the [[Battle of Varna]], during a [[Crusade of Varna|crusade]] against the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=201–204}}.</ref> This disaster led to an [[interregnum]] of three years that ended with the accession of Władysław's brother [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]] in 1447.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Critical developments of the Jagiellonian period were concentrated during Casimir IV's long reign, which lasted until 1492. In 1454, [[Royal Prussia]] was incorporated by Poland and the [[Thirteen Years' War (1454–66)|Thirteen Years' War of 1454–66]] with the [[State of the Teutonic Order|Teutonic state]] ensued.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> In 1466, the milestone [[Second Peace of Thorn (1466)|Peace of Thorn]] was concluded. This treaty [[Partitioning of Prussia|divided Prussia]] to create [[East Prussia]], the future [[Duchy of Prussia]], a separate entity that functioned as a [[fief]] of Poland under the administration of the Teutonic Knights.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> Poland also confronted the Ottoman Empire and the [[Crimean Khanate|Crimean Tatars]] in the south, and in the east helped Lithuania fight the [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]]. The country was developing as a [[feudalism|feudal]] state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly dominant [[landed nobility]]. [[Kraków]], the royal capital, was turning into a major academic and cultural center, and in 1473 the first [[printing press]] began operating there.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> With the growing importance of ''[[szlachta]]'' (middle and lower nobility), the king's council evolved to become by 1493 a [[Bicameralism|bicameral]] [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|General Sejm]] (parliament) that no longer represented exclusively top dignitaries of the realm.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Wyrozumski|1986|pp=205–225}}.</ref>

The ''[[Nihil novi]]'' act, adopted in 1505 by the Sejm, transferred most of the [[legislature|legislative power]] from the monarch to the Sejm.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> This event marked the beginning of the period known as "[[Golden Liberty]]", when the state was ruled in principle by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. In the 16th century, the massive development of [[folwark]] agribusinesses operated by the nobility led to increasingly abusive conditions for the [[peasant]] [[serfdom in Poland|serfs]] 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 the [[middle class]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=24–53}}.</ref>

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

[[File:Nikolaus Kopernikus.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Nicolaus Copernicus]] formulated the [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric]] model of the [[Solar System]] that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at its center]]

In the 16th century, [[Protestantism|Protestant]] [[Reformation]] movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity and the resulting [[History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty#Reformation|Reformation in Poland]] involved a number of different [[Christian denomination|denominations]]. 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 [[Sigismund I the Old]] (1506–1548) and King [[Sigismund II Augustus]] (1548–1572) witnessed an intense cultivation of culture and science (a [[Polish Golden Age|Golden Age]] of the [[Renaissance in Poland]]), of which the astronomer [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] (1473–1543)<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> is the best known representative. [[Jan Kochanowski]] (1530–1584) was a poet and the premier artistic personality of the period.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=116–130}}.</ref> In 1525, during the reign of Sigismund I,<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> the Teutonic Order was secularized and Duke [[Albert, Duke of Prussia|Albert]] performed an act of homage before the Polish king (the [[Prussian Homage]]) for his fief, the Duchy of Prussia.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> [[Mazovia]] was finally fully incorporated into the Polish Crown in 1529.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=53–92}}.</ref>

[[File:Poland-01788 - Courtyard (32000957141).jpg|thumb|left|The Italian courtyard at [[Wawel Castle]] in [[Kraków]], the former seat of Polish monarchs]]

The reign of Sigismund II ended the Jagiellonian period, but gave rise to the [[Union of Lublin]] (1569), an ultimate fulfillment of the union with Lithuania. This agreement transferred [[Ukraine]] from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Poland and transformed the [[Polish–Lithuanian union|Polish–Lithuanian polity]] into a [[real union]],<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>

[[Livonia]] in the far northeast was incorporated by Poland in 1561 and Poland entered the [[Livonian War]] against Russia.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> The [[executionist movement]], which attempted to check the progressing domination of the state by the [[magnates of Poland and Lithuania|magnate families of Poland and Lithuania]], peaked at the Sejm in [[Piotrków Trybunalski|Piotrków]] in 1562–63.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> On the religious front, the [[Polish Brethren]] split from the [[Calvinism|Calvinists]], and the Protestant [[Brest Bible]] was published in 1563.<ref name="playground I xxviii-xxix"/> The [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]], 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|History of Poland in the Early Modern era (1569–1795)|Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}
[[File:Truce of Deulino 1618-1619.PNG|upright=1.35|thumb|right|The [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] at its greatest extent, after the [[Truce of Deulino]] of 1619]]

===Establishment (1569–1648)===

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

====Union of Lublin====

The [[Union of Lublin]] of 1569 established the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], a federal state more closely unified than the earlier political arrangement between Poland and Lithuania. The union was run largely by the nobility through the system of [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|central parliament]] and [[sejmik|local assemblies]], but was headed by [[elective monarchy|elected kings]]. 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 [[absolute monarchy|absolute monarchies]] 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 when great political power was attained and advancements in civilization and prosperity took place. The Polish–Lithuanian Union became an influential participant in European affairs and a vital cultural entity that spread [[Western culture]] (with [[Polonization|Polish characteristics]]) 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 [[Warsaw Confederation]] in 1573.<ref name="playground I xxix">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|p=xxix}}</ref>

====First elective kings====
[[File:France-001615 - King Henri III (15291221709) (2).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Henry III of France|Henry de Valois]], later Henry III of [[France]], was the first elected Polish king in 1573]]
After the rule of the Jagiellonian dynasty ended in 1572, Henry of Valois (later King [[Henry III of France]]) was the winner of the first "[[Royal elections in Poland|free election]]" by the Polish nobility, held in 1573. He had to agree to the restrictive ''[[Pacta conventa (Poland)|pacta conventa]]'' obligations and fled Poland in 1574 when news arrived of the vacancy of the French throne, to which he was the [[heir presumptive]].<ref name="playground I xxix"/> 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 [[Stephen Báthory]] of Hungary followed (r. 1576–1586). He was militarily and domestically assertive and is revered in Polish historical tradition as a rare case of a successful elective king.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The establishment of the legal [[Crown Tribunal]] 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====

[[File:Sigismund at horse.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Sigismund III Vasa]] enjoyed a long reign, but his actions against religious minorities, expansionist ideas and involvement in dynastic affairs of Sweden, destabilized the Commonwealth.]]

A period of rule under the Swedish [[House of Vasa]] began in the Commonwealth in the year 1587. The first two kings from this dynasty, [[Sigismund III Vasa|Sigismund III]] (r. 1587–1632) and [[Władysław IV Vasa|Władysław IV]] (r. 1632–1648), repeatedly attempted to intrigue for accession to the throne of Sweden, which was a constant source of distraction for the affairs of the Commonwealth.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> At that time, the [[Catholic Church]] embarked on an ideological counter-offensive and the [[Counter-Reformation]] claimed many [[Counter-Reformation in Poland|converts from Polish and Lithuanian Protestant circles]]. In 1596, the [[Union of Brest]] split the [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Christians]] of the Commonwealth to create the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Uniate Church]] of the Eastern Rite, but subject to the authority of the pope.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The [[Zebrzydowski rebellion]] against Sigismund III unfolded in 1606–1608.<ref name="playground I xxix"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986a|pp=130–146}}.</ref>

Seeking supremacy in Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth fought wars with [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]] between 1605 and 1618 in the wake of Russia's [[Time of Troubles]]; the series of conflicts is referred to as the [[Polish–Russian War (1609–1618)|Polish–Russian War]] 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. [[Swedish Empire|Sweden]] sought supremacy in the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] during the [[Polish–Swedish wars]] of 1617–1629, and the [[Ottoman Empire]] pressed from the south in the Battles at [[Battle of Cecora (1620)|Cecora]] in 1620 and [[Battle of Khotyn (1621)|Khotyn]] in 1621.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The agricultural expansion and [[serfdom in Poland|serfdom]] policies in Polish Ukraine resulted in a series of [[Cossack uprisings]]. Allied with the [[Habsburg monarchy]], the Commonwealth did not directly participate in the [[Thirty Years' War]].{{Ref label|s|s|none}} Władysław's IV reign was mostly peaceful, with a Russian invasion in the form of the [[Smolensk War]] of 1632–1634 successfully repelled.<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Church]] 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|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)}}

====Deluge of wars====

During the reign of [[John II Casimir Vasa]] (r. 1648–1668), 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 [[Polish Golden Age]].  Their effect was to render the once powerful Commonwealth increasingly vulnerable to foreign intervention.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}{{original research inline|date=January 2023}}

[[File:John II Casimir Vasa 1.PNG|thumb|right|upright|[[John II Casimir Vasa]] 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>]]

The [[Zaporozhian Cossacks|Cossack]] [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]] of 1648–1657 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 ''[[liberum veto]]'' (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 [[Pereyaslav Council|Treaty of Pereyaslav]] (1654), the Ukrainian rebels declared themselves subjects of the [[Tsardom of Russia|Tsar of Russia]]. The [[Second Northern War]] raged through the core Polish lands in 1655–1660; it included a brutal and devastating invasion of Poland referred to as the [[Deluge (history)|Swedish Deluge]]. The war ended in 1660 with the [[Treaty of Oliva]],<ref name="playground I xxix"/> which resulted in the loss of some of Poland's northern possessions. In 1657 the [[Treaty of Bromberg]] established the independence of the [[Duchy of Prussia]].<ref name="playground I xxix"/> The Commonwealth forces did well in the [[Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)]], but the result was the permanent division of Ukraine between Poland and Russia, as agreed to in the [[Truce of Andrusovo]] (1667).<ref name="playground I xxix"/> Towards the end of the war, the [[Lubomirski's rebellion]], a major magnate revolt against the king, destabilized and weakened the country. The large-scale [[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|slave raids]] of the [[Crimean Khanate|Crimean Tatars]] also had highly deleterious effects on the Polish economy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Williams|2013|p=27}}.</ref> ''[[Merkuriusz Polski Ordynaryjny|Merkuriusz Polski]]'', 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 [[Early modern France|France]].{{Ref label|z|z|none}}

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

[[File:Siemiginowski John III Sobieski with his son.jpg|thumb|left|upright|King [[John III Sobieski]] with his son [[James Louis Sobieski|Jakub]], whom he tried to position to be his successor. Sobieski led the Commonwealth to its [[Battle of Vienna|last great military victories]].]]

King [[Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki]], a native Pole, was elected to replace John II Casimir in 1669. The [[Polish–Ottoman War (1672–1676)]] broke out during his reign, which lasted until 1673,  and continued under his successor, [[John III Sobieski]] (r. 1674–1696).<ref name="playground I xxix"/> Sobieski intended to pursue Baltic area expansion (and to this end he signed the secret [[Treaty of Jaworów]] 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 [[Muslim]]s at the [[Battle of Khotyn (1673)|Battle of Khotyn]] in 1673 and decisively helped deliver Vienna from a [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] onslaught at the [[Battle of Vienna]] 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 [[Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686)]] with Russia was the final border settlement between the two countries before the [[First Partition of Poland]] 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.{{synthesis inline|date=January 2023}} 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====

[[File:August der Starke.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Augustus II the Strong]], the first [[Electorate of Saxony|Saxon]] ruler of Poland. His death sparked the [[War of the Polish Succession]].]]

The royal election of 1697 brought a ruler of the [[Saxony|Saxon]] [[House of Wettin]] to the Polish throne: [[Augustus II the Strong]] (r. 1697–1733), who was able to assume the throne only by agreeing to convert to Roman Catholicism.  He was succeeded by his son [[Augustus III of Poland|Augustus III]] (r. 1734–1763).<ref name="playground I xxix"/>  The reigns of the Saxon kings (who were both simultaneously [[prince-elector]]s of [[Electorate of Saxony|Saxony]]) were disrupted by competing candidates for the throne and witnessed further disintegration of the Commonwealth.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

The [[Great Northern War]] 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. [[Stanisław Leszczyński]] 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 [[Silent Sejm]] of 1717 marked the beginning of the Commonwealth's existence as a [[Tsardom of Russia|Russian]] protectorate:<ref name="playground I 375–377">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=375–377}}</ref> the Tsardom would guarantee the reform-impeding [[Golden Liberty]] 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 [[Tumult of Thorn (Toruń)|Tumult of Thorn]] in 1724.<ref name="playground I 139–142">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005a|pp=139–142}}</ref> In 1732, [[Russian Empire|Russia]], [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]] and [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], Poland's three increasingly powerful and scheming neighbors, entered into the secret [[Treaty of the Three Black Eagles]] with the intention of controlling the future royal succession in the Commonwealth. The [[War of the Polish Succession]] was fought in 1733–1735<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 [[Kingdom of Prussia]] became a strong regional power and succeeded in wresting the historically Polish province of [[Silesia]] from the [[Habsburg monarchy]] in the [[Silesian Wars]]; {{synthesis span|text=it thus constituted an ever-greater threat to Poland's security|date=January 2023}}.

The [[personal union]] between the Commonwealth and the [[Electorate of Saxony]] did give rise to the emergence of a reform movement in the Commonwealth and the beginnings of the [[Enlightenment in Poland|Polish Enlightenment]] culture, the major positive developments of this era. The first Polish public library was the [[Załuski Library]] 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 (1764–1795)===

{{further|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–1795)}}

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

[[File:Stanisław August Poniatowski by Johann Baptist Lampi.PNG|thumb|right|upright|[[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 [[Czartoryski]] family faction known as the [[Familia (political party)|''Familia'']], 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 [[Warsaw]], replaced [[Gdańsk|Danzig]] (Gdańsk) as the leading trade center, and the importance of the more prosperous urban [[social class]]es 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 [[Royal elections in Poland|royal election]] of 1764 resulted in the elevation of [[Stanisław August Poniatowski]],<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 [[Catherine the Great]] of Russia, 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 [[Bar Confederation]] (1768–1772)<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> was a rebellion of nobles 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 [[Russian Empire]].<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 [[Frederick the Great]] of Prussia, an action that became known as the [[First Partition of Poland]]:<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 "[[Partition Sejm]]" ratified the partition under duress as a ''[[fait accompli]]''. However, it also established the [[Commission of National Education]], 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 1788–1791 and the Constitution of 3 May 1791====

[[File:Zaprzysiezenie Konstytucji 3 Maja 1791 (456537).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Great Sejm]] adopted the [[Constitution of 3 May 1791]] at the [[Royal Castle, Warsaw]]]]

The long-lasting session of parliament convened by King Stanisław August is known as the [[Great Sejm]] or Four-Year Sejm; it first met in 1788. Its landmark achievement was the passing of the [[Constitution of 3 May 1791]],<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 [[French Revolution]], it soon generated strong opposition from the conservative circles of the Commonwealth's upper nobility and from Empress Catherine of Russia, who was determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth. The nobility's [[Targowica Confederation]], formed in Russian imperial capital of [[Saint Petersburg]], 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 [[Polish–Russian War of 1792]], 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 Russian-allied confederation took over the government, but Russia and Prussia in 1793 arranged for the [[Second Partition of Poland]] anyway. The partition left the country with a critically reduced territory that rendered it essentially incapable of an independent existence. The Commonwealth's [[Grodno Sejm]] of 1793, the last Sejm of the state's 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 end of Polish–Lithuanian state====

[[File:Smuglewicz Kosciuszko 2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Tadeusz Kościuszko]]'s call for a [[Kościuszko Uprising|national uprising]], [[Kraków]] 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. [[Tadeusz Kościuszko]], a popular general and a veteran of the [[American Revolution]], was chosen as its leader. He returned from abroad and issued [[Kościuszko's proclamation]] in [[Kraków]] on March 24, 1794. It called for a [[Kościuszko Uprising|national uprising]] under his supreme command.<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/> Kościuszko emancipated many peasants in order to enroll them as ''[[kosynierzy]]'' 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 in the aftermath of the [[Battle of Praga]].

[[File:Partitions of Poland.png|thumb|right|upright=1.35|The three [[Partitions of Poland|Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] (1772, 1793, and 1795)]]

In 1795, a [[Third Partition of Poland]] 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"/> King Stanisław August Poniatowski was escorted to [[Grodno]], forced to abdicate, and retired to [[Saint Petersburg]].<ref name="playground I xxix–xxx"/><ref name="Gierowski 1764–1864, pp. 90–101">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=90–101}}.</ref> Tadeusz Kościuszko, initially imprisoned, was allowed to emigrate to the [[United States]] 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|History of Poland (1795–1918)|Partitions of Poland|Congress Poland}}

===Armed resistance (1795–1864)===

====Napoleonic wars====

[[File:Death of Poniatowski by January Suchodolski.jpg|thumb|left|The death of [[Józef Poniatowski]], [[Marshal of the Empire|Marshal of the French Empire]], at the [[Battle of Leipzig]]]]

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 armed undertakings waged against the partitioning powers. Military efforts after the partitions were first based on the alliances of Polish émigrés with post-[[French Revolution|revolutionary France]]. [[Jan Henryk Dąbrowski]]'s [[Polish Legions (Napoleonic period)|Polish Legions]] fought in French campaigns outside of Poland between 1797 and 1802 in hopes that their involvement and contribution would be rewarded with the liberation of their Polish homeland.<ref name="playground II xxi">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=xxi}}</ref> The Polish national anthem, "[[Poland Is Not Yet Lost]]", or "Dąbrowski's [[Mazurka]]", was written in praise of his actions by [[Józef Wybicki]] in 1797.<ref name="Gierowski 119–130">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=119–130}}.</ref>

The [[Duchy of Warsaw]], a small, semi-independent Polish state, was created in 1807 by [[Napoleon]] in the wake of his defeat of Prussia and the signing of the [[Treaties of Tilsit]] with Emperor [[Alexander I of Russia]].<ref name="playground II xxi"/> The [[Army of the Duchy of Warsaw]], led by [[Józef Poniatowski]], participated in numerous campaigns in alliance with France, including the successful [[Austro-Polish War]] of 1809, which, combined with the outcomes of other theaters of the [[War of the Fifth Coalition]], resulted in an enlargement of the duchy's territory. The [[French invasion of Russia]] in 1812 and the [[German Campaign of 1813]] saw the duchy's last military engagements. The [[Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw]] abolished serfdom as a reflection of the ideals of the [[French Revolution]], but it did not promote [[land reform]].<ref name="Gierowski 130–147">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=130–147}}.</ref>

[[File:Granting of the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw by Napoleon.PNG|thumb|right|[[Napoleon Bonaparte]] establishing the [[Duchy of Warsaw]] under French protection, 1807]]

====The Congress of Vienna====

After Napoleon's defeat, a new European order was established at the [[Congress of Vienna]], which met in the years 1814 and 1815. [[Adam Jerzy Czartoryski]], a former close associate of Emperor Alexander I, became the leading advocate for the [[Polish question|Polish national cause]]. 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 [[Congress Poland]].<ref name="playground II xxi"/> The residual Polish kingdom was joined to the [[Russian Empire]] in a [[personal union]] under the Russian [[tsar]] and it was allowed [[Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland|its own constitution]] and [[Army of Congress Poland|military]]. East of the kingdom, large areas of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth remained directly incorporated into the Russian Empire as the [[Western Krai]]. These territories, along with Congress Poland, are generally considered to form the [[Russian Partition]]. The Russian, Prussian, and Austrian "partitions" are informal names for the lands of the former Commonwealth, not actual units of [[administrative division of Polish–Lithuanian territories after partitions]].<ref name="Gierowski 147–181">{{Harvnb|Gierowski|1986b|pp=147–181}}.</ref> The [[Prussian Partition]] included a portion separated as the [[Grand Duchy of Posen]].<ref name="playground II xxi"/> Peasants under the Prussian administration were gradually [[Suffrage|enfranchised]] under the reforms of 1811 and 1823. The limited legal reforms in the [[Austrian Partition]] were overshadowed by [[Poverty in Austrian Galicia|its rural poverty]]. The [[Free City of Cracow]] was a tiny republic created by the Congress of Vienna under the joint supervision of the three partitioning powers.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> Despite the bleak political situation (from the standpoint of Polish patriots), economic progress was made in the lands taken over by foreign powers because the period after the Congress of Vienna witnessed a significant development in the building of early industry.<ref name="Gierowski 147–181"/>

Economic historians have made new estimates on GDP per capita, 1790–1910. They confirm the hypothesis of semi-peripheral development of Polish territories in the 19th century and the slow process of catching-up with the core economies.<ref>Maciej Bukowski, et al. "Urbanization and GDP per capita: New data and results for the Polish lands, 1790–1910." ''Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History'' 52.4 (2019): 213-227.</ref>

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

[[File:Marcin Zaleski, Wzięcie Arsenału.jpg|thumb|right|The capture of the Warsaw arsenal at the beginning of the [[November Uprising]] of 1830]]

The increasingly repressive policies of the partitioning powers led to [[Resistance movements in partitioned Poland (1795–1918)|resistance movements in partitioned Poland]], and in 1830 Polish patriots staged the [[November Uprising]].<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 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 errors by several successive chief commanders appointed by the insurgent [[Polish National Government (November Uprising)|Polish National Government]] 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>

[[File:Chopin, by Wodzinska.JPG|thumb|upright|left|[[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]], a [[Romantic music|Romantic]] composer of piano works, including many inspired by [[Music of Poland#Traditional music|Polish traditional dance music]]]]

After the defeat of the November Uprising, thousands of former Polish combatants and other activists emigrated to [[Western Europe]]. This phenomenon, known as the [[Great Emigration]], 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 [[Romanticism in Poland|Romantic]] [[Three Bards|poets]] [[Adam Mickiewicz]], [[Juliusz Słowacki]], [[Cyprian Norwid]], and the composer [[Frédéric Chopin]]. In occupied and repressed Poland, some sought progress through nonviolent activism focused on education and economy, known as [[organic work]]; others, in cooperation with the 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====

The planned national uprising failed to materialize because the authorities in the partitions found out about secret preparations. The [[Greater Poland uprising (1846)|Greater Poland uprising]] ended in a fiasco in early 1846. In the [[Kraków uprising]] of February 1846,<ref name="playground II xxi"/> patriotic action was combined with revolutionary demands, but the result was the incorporation of the [[Free City of Cracow]] 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 [[Galician slaughter]] of 1846,<ref name="playground II xxi"/> a large-scale rebellion of [[serfdom|serf]]s seeking relief from their post-feudal condition of [[Serfdom in Poland|mandatory labor]] as practiced in ''[[folwark]]s''. The uprising freed many from bondage and hastened decisions that led to the [[abolition of serfdom in Poland|abolition of Polish serfdom]] in the [[Austrian Empire]] 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|Spring of Nations]] revolutions of 1848 (e.g. [[Józef Bem]]'s participation in the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire|revolutions in Austria]] and [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848|Hungary]]). The 1848 [[German revolutions of 1848–49|German revolutions]] precipitated the [[Greater Poland uprising (1848)|Greater Poland uprising of 1848]],<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====

[[File:Romuald Traugutt 111.PNG|thumb|upright|right|[[Romuald Traugutt]], the last supreme commander of the [[January Uprising|1863 Uprising]]]]

As a matter of continuous policy, the Russian autocracy kept assailing Polish national core values of language, religion and culture.<ref name="Burant 131–156">{{Harvnb|Burant|1985|pp=131–156}}.</ref> In consequence, despite the limited liberalization measures allowed in [[Congress Poland]] under the rule of Tsar [[Alexander II of Russia]], a renewal of popular liberation activities took place in 1860–1861. During large-scale demonstrations in Warsaw, Russian forces inflicted numerous casualties on the civilian participants. The "[[Reds (January Uprising)|Red]]", or [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] faction of Polish activists, which promoted peasant enfranchisement and cooperated with Russian revolutionaries, became involved in immediate preparations for a national uprising. The "[[Whites (January Uprising)|White]]", or [[Right-wing politics|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, [[Aleksander Wielopolski]], 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 [[January Uprising]], 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 [[Romuald Traugutt]], 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 an [[Abolition of serfdom in Poland|enfranchisement decree in Congress Poland]] along the lines of an earlier land reform proclamation of the insurgents. The act created the conditions necessary for the development of the [[capitalism|capitalist]] system on central Polish lands. At the time when most Poles realized the futility of armed resistance without external support, the various sections of Polish society were undergoing deep and far-reaching evolution in the areas of social, economic and cultural development.<ref name="playground II xxi"/><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====

[[File:Prus 002.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Bolesław Prus]] (1847–1912), a leading novelist, journalist and [[History of philosophy in Poland#Positivism|philosopher]] of Poland's [[Positivism in Poland|Positivism movement]]]]

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 [[Polish nationalism]]. 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 "[[Vistula Land]]" and was more fully integrated into Russia proper, but not entirely obliterated. The [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[German language|German]] languages were imposed in all public communication, and the Catholic Church was not spared from severe repression. Public education was increasingly subjected to [[Russification]] and [[Germanisation]] measures. Illiteracy was reduced, most effectively in the Prussian partition, but education in the [[Polish language]] 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 [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] (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 [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Monarchy]] and from 1867 was increasingly allowed limited autonomy.<ref name="playground II xxi"/> ''Stańczycy'', a conservative Polish pro-Austrian faction led by great land owners, dominated the Galician government. The [[Polish Academy of Learning]] (an [[academy of sciences]]) was founded in Kraków in 1872.<ref name="playground II xxi"/>

Social activities termed "[[organic work]]" 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 association]]s 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 educational and intellectual development of the common people. Many libraries and reading rooms were established in small towns and villages, and numerous printed periodicals manifested 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>

[[Positivism in Poland]] 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> It reflected the ideals and values of the emerging urban [[bourgeoisie]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Wereszycki|1990|pp=66–67}}.</ref> Around 1890, the urban classes gradually abandoned the positivist ideas and came under the influence of modern pan-European [[nationalism]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Wereszycki|1990|pp=297–298}}.</ref>

====Economic development and social change====

[[File:Gierymski Feast of trumpets I.jpg|thumb|right|Many [[History of the Jews in Poland|Jews]] emigrated from the Polish–Lithuanian lands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but most remained to form a large [[Minority group|ethnic minority]]]]

Under the partitioning powers, economic diversification and progress, including large-scale [[industrialisation]], were introduced in the traditionally agrarian Polish lands, but this development turned out to be very uneven. Advanced agriculture was practiced in the Prussian Partition, except for [[Upper Silesia]], 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 took place, all against the background of an extensive, but less productive agriculture.<ref name="Lukowski 187–192, 199">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=187–192, 199}}.</ref> The industrial initiative, capital and know-how were provided largely by entrepreneurs who were not ethnic Poles.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wereszycki|1990|p=294}}.</ref> Warsaw (a metallurgical center) and [[Łódź]] (a textiles center) grew rapidly, as did the total proportion of urban population, making the region the most economically advanced in the Russian Empire (industrial production exceeded agricultural production there by 1909). The coming of the railways spurred some industrial growth even in the vast Russian Partition territories outside of Congress Poland. The Austrian Partition was rural and poor, except for the industrialized [[Cieszyn Silesia]] area. [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]]n economic expansion after 1890 included oil extraction and resulted in the growth of [[Lviv|Lemberg (Lwów, Lviv)]] and [[Kraków]].<ref name="Lukowski 187–192, 199"/>

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 [[intelligentsia]], 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 [[proletariat]], a new [[Privilege (social inequality)|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 [[ethnic group]]s worked or settled in Europe and in [[North America|North]] and [[South America]].<ref name="Lukowski 187–192, 199"/>

Social and economic changes were partial and gradual. The degree of industrialisation, relatively fast-paced in some areas, 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. In the Prussian Partition, for example, 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====
[[File:Mariecurie.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Marie Curie]], discoverer of [[Radioactive decay|radioactive elements]]]]

In the 1870s–1890s, large-scale [[socialism|socialist]], [[nationalism|nationalist]], [[agrarianism|agrarian]] 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 [[Proletariat (party)|First Proletariat]] was founded in 1882, the Polish League (precursor of [[National Democracy (Poland)|National Democracy]]) in 1887, the [[Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia|Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia]] in 1890, the [[Polish Socialist Party]] in 1892, the [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania]] in 1893, the agrarian People's Party of Galicia in 1895 and the Jewish socialist [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia|Bund]] in 1897. [[Christian democracy]] regional associations allied with the Catholic Church were also active; they united into the [[Polish Christian Democratic Party]] in 1919.

[[File:RLuxemburgCpWz.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Rosa Luxemburg]], leader of the [[Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania]]]]

The main minority ethnic groups of the former Commonwealth, including [[Ukrainians]], [[Lithuanians]], [[Belarusians]] 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 [[Prometheism]]).<ref name="Lukowski 194–203">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=194–203}}.</ref>

Around the start of the 20th century, the [[Young Poland]] [[cultural movement]], centered in [[Austria-Hungary|Austrian]] 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, [[Marie Curie|Marie Skłodowska Curie]], a pioneer [[ionizing radiation|radiation]] scientist, performed her groundbreaking research in [[Paris]].<ref name="Lukowski 190">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=190}}.</ref>

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

[[File:Roman Dmowski in color.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Roman Dmowski]]'s [[National Democracy (Poland)|National Democracy]] ideology proved highly influential in Polish politics. 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 [[Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–07)|Revolution of 1905–1907 in Russian Poland]],<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 [[1905 Russian Revolution|Revolution of 1905]]. In Poland, the principal revolutionary figures were [[Roman Dmowski]] and [[Józef Piłsudski]]. Dmowski was associated with the right-wing nationalist movement [[National Democracy (Poland)|National Democracy]], whereas Piłsudski was associated with the [[Polish Socialist Party]]. 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 [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|Duma]]. The collapse of the revolt in the Russian Partition, coupled with intensified Germanization in the Prussian Partition, left [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Austrian Galicia]] as the territory where Polish patriotic action was most likely to flourish.<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 the territories most densely populated by Poles: the western part of the Russian Partition, the Prussian Partition and the western Austrian Partition. Ethnically Polish settlement spread over a large area further to the east, including its greatest concentration in the [[Vilnius Region]], amounted to only over 20% of that number.<ref name="Lukowski 208–216">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=208–216}}.</ref>

Polish paramilitary organizations oriented toward independence, such as the [[Union of Active Struggle]], were formed in 1908–1914, mainly in Galicia. The Poles were divided and their political parties fragmented on the eve of [[World War I]], with Dmowski's National Democracy (pro-[[Allies of World War I|Entente]]) 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|History of Poland during World War I}}

[[File:Pilsudski in Otwock.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|"The Commandant" [[Józef Piłsudski]] with his [[Polish Legions in World War I|legionaries]] in 1915]]

The outbreak of [[History of Poland during World War I|World War I in the Polish lands]] 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 [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] were turned into the [[Polish Legions in World War I|Polish Legions]] in 1914 and as a part of the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] 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>

[[File:Ignacy Paderewski 02.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Ignacy Jan Paderewski|Ignacy Paderewski]] was a pianist and a statesman]]

Due to a series of German victories on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]], the area of [[Congress Poland]] became occupied by the [[Central Powers]] of Germany and Austria;<ref name="playground II xxi"/> Warsaw was captured by the Germans on 5 August 1915. In the [[Act of 5th November]] 1916, a fresh incarnation of the [[Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918)|Kingdom of Poland]] (''Królestwo Regencyjne'') was proclaimed by Germany and Austria on formerly Russian-controlled territories,<ref name="playground II xxi"/> within the German ''[[Mitteleuropa]]'' 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 [[Provisional Council of State]], and a [[Regency Council (Poland)|Regency Council]].  This increasingly autonomous puppet state existed until November 1918, when it was replaced by the newly established [[Second Polish Republic|Republic of Poland]]. The existence of this "kingdom" and its planned Polish army had a positive effect on the Polish national efforts on the [[Triple Entente|Allied side]], but in the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] of March 1918 the victorious in the east [[German Empire|Germany]] imposed harsh conditions on defeated Russia and ignored Polish interests.<ref name="Lukowski 217–222"/><ref name="playground II 279–290"/><ref name="Versailles">{{Harvnb|Henig|2011}}.</ref> Toward the end of the war, the German authorities engaged in massive, purposeful devastation of industrial and other economic potential of Polish lands in order to impoverish the country, a likely future competitor of Germany.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wereszycki|1990|p=276}}.</ref>

[[File:Polish Regents 1916.jpg|thumb|left|The Regency Council of the [[Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918)|Kingdom of Poland]] in 1918. The "Kingdom" was established to entice Poles to cooperate with the [[Central Powers]].]]

The independence of Poland had been campaigned for in Russia and in the West by Dmowski and in the West by [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski]]. Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia]], and then the leaders of the [[February Revolution]] and the [[October Revolution]] of 1917, installed governments who declared in turn their support for Polish independence.<ref name="playground II 279–290"/>{{Ref label|d1|d1|none}} In 1917, France formed the [[Blue Army (Poland)|Blue Army]] (placed under [[Józef Haller]]) 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 [[Polish National Committee (1917–19)|Polish National Committee]] (KNP), became the spokesman for Polish nationalism in the Allied camp. On the initiative of [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s [[Fourteen Points]], Polish independence was officially endorsed by the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] in June 1918.<ref name="playground II xxi"/><ref name="Lukowski 217–222"/><ref name="playground II 279–290"/>{{Ref label|c1|c1|none}}

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>

[[File:Ignacy Daszyński 1915.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Ignacy Daszyński]]]]

The final push for independence of Poland took place on the ground in October–November 1918. Near the end of the war, [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] and German units were being disarmed, and the Austrian army's collapse freed [[Cieszyn]] and [[Kraków]] at the end of October. [[Lviv]] was then contested in the [[Polish–Ukrainian War]] of 1918–1919. [[Ignacy Daszyński]] headed the first short-lived independent Polish government in [[Lublin]] from 7 November, the leftist Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland, proclaimed as a democracy. Germany, now defeated, was forced by the Allies to stand down its large military forces in Poland. Overtaken by the [[German Revolution of 1918–19]]19 at home, the Germans released Piłsudski from prison. He arrived in Warsaw on 10 November and was granted extensive authority by the [[Regency Council (Poland)|Regency Council]]; Piłsudski's authority was also recognized by the Lublin government.<ref name="playground II xxi"/>{{Ref label|b1|b1|none}} On 22 November, he became the temporary head of state. Piłsudski 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 (1918–1939)==

{{further|History of Poland (1918–1939)|Second Polish Republic}}

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

[[File:Powstanie wielkopolskie 1919.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919)|Greater Poland Uprising]], a war with Germany, erupted in December 1918]]

After more than a century of foreign rule, Poland regained its independence at the end of [[World War I]] as one of the outcomes of the negotiations that took place at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference of 1919]].<ref>{{Harvnb|MacMillan|2002|p=207}}.</ref> The [[Treaty of Versailles]] that emerged from the conference set up an independent Polish nation with an outlet to the sea, but left some of its boundaries to be decided by plebiscites. The largely German-inhabited [[Free City of Danzig]] 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. The dispute helped engender the [[Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919)|Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919]], the three [[Silesian Uprisings|Silesian uprisings]] of 1919–1921, the [[1920 East Prussian plebiscite|East Prussian plebiscite]] of 1920, the [[Upper Silesia plebiscite]] of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in [[Geneva]].<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 1918–1921, including the [[Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts]] over [[Cieszyn Silesia]] in January 1919.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

[[File:Polish-soviet war 1920 Polish defences near Milosna, August.jpg|thumb|left|[[Polish–Soviet War]], [[Battle of Warsaw (1920)|defenses near Warsaw]], August 1920]]

As distressing as these border conflicts were, the [[Polish–Soviet War]] of 1919–1921 was the most important series of military actions 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 a [[Russian Civil War|civil war]], but they were soon confronted with the [[Soviet westward offensive of 1918–19]]19. Western Ukraine was already a theater of the [[Polish–Ukrainian War]], which eliminated the proclaimed [[West Ukrainian People's Republic]] in July 1919. In the autumn of 1919, Piłsudski rejected urgent pleas from the former [[Allies of World War I|Entente]] powers to support [[Anton Denikin]]'s [[White movement]] in its advance on Moscow.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> The Polish–Soviet War proper began with the Polish [[Kiev offensive (1920)|Kiev offensive]] in April 1920.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duraczyński|2012|p=112}}</ref> Allied with the [[Directorate of Ukraine]] of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]], the Polish armies had advanced past [[Vilnius]], [[Minsk]] 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 [[Battle of Warsaw (1920)]]. Afterwards, more [[Battle of the Niemen River|Polish military successes]] followed, and the Soviets had to pull back. They left swathes of territory populated largely by Belarusians or Ukrainians to Polish rule.  The new eastern boundary was finalized by the [[Peace of Riga]] in March 1921.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Biskupski|1987}}.</ref>

[[File:Daszynski and Witos.jpg|thumb|right|[[Wincenty Witos]] (right) and Ignacy Daszyński headed a wartime cabinet in 1920. Witos was an [[Polish People's Party "Piast" (1913–31)|agrarian party]] leader and a centrist politician, later [[Brest trials|persecuted]] under the [[Sanation|Sanation government]].]]

The defeat of the Russian armies forced [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the Soviet leadership to postpone their strategic objective of linking up with the German and other European revolutionary leftist collaborators to spread [[communist revolution]]. Lenin also hoped for generating support for the [[Red Army]] in Poland, which failed to materialize.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

Piłsudski's seizure of Vilnius in October 1920 (known as [[Żeligowski's Mutiny]]) was a nail in the coffin of the already poor [[Lithuania–Poland relations]] that had been strained by the [[Polish–Lithuanian War]] of 1919–1920; both states would remain hostile to one another for the remainder of the [[interwar period]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=231}}.</ref> Piłsudski's concept of [[Intermarium]] (an East European federation of states inspired by the tradition of the multiethnic [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] that would include a hypothetical multinational successor state to the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]])<ref name="Snyder 60-65">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=60–65}}.</ref> had the fatal flaw of being incompatible with his assumption of Polish domination, which would amount to an encroachment on the neighboring peoples' lands and aspirations. At the time of rising national movements, the plan thus ceased being 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, [[Stanisław Grabski]], opted for leaving Minsk, [[Berdychiv]], [[Kamianets-Podilskyi]] and the surrounding areas on the Soviet side of the border. The National Democrats did not want to assume the lands they considered politically undesirable, as such territorial enlargement 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>

[[File:Wojciech Korfanty in color (2a).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Wojciech Korfanty]] [[Silesian Uprisings|fought for a Polish Silesia]] and was the leader of the [[Polish Christian Democratic Party]]]]

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 [[Kresy]] (or borderland) territories in the east won by 1921 would form the basis for a swap arranged and carried out by the Soviets in 1943–1945, who at that time [[Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II|compensated]] the re-emerging Polish state for the eastern lands lost to the Soviet Union with [[Recovered Territories|conquered areas of eastern Germany]].<ref name="Heart 115-121, 73-80">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=73–80, 115–121}}.</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 [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]].<ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref name="Prazmowska 164-172"/><ref name="Lukowski 232"/>

===Democratic politics (1918–1926)===

[[File:Narutowicz.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bier]] of [[Gabriel Narutowicz]], the first President of Poland, who was assassinated in 1922.]]

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 [[1919 Polish legislative election|Polish legislative election]] for the re-established [[Sejm]] (national parliament) took place in January 1919. A temporary [[Small Constitution of 1919|Small Constitution]] 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 three-fourths agricultural and one-fourth urban; Polish was the primary language of only two thirds of the inhabitants of the new country.  The minorities had very little voice in the government. The permanent [[March Constitution of Poland]] 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"/>

[[File:Wladyslaw Grabski ca 1930 (777649) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Władysław Grabski]] reformed the currency and introduced the [[Polish złoty]] to replace the [[Polish mark|mark]].]]

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 [[Gabriel Narutowicz]] was elected president according to the Constitution by the [[National Assembly (Poland)|National Assembly]] in 1922, without popular vote. 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 16 December 1922, after serving only five days in office.<ref name="Hart 121-123">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=121–123}}.</ref>

[[Land reform]] 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 [[1923 Kraków riot]]. The [[German–Polish customs war]], 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 [[Władysław Grabski]], 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 (1926–1935)===

[[File:Piłsudski May 1926.jpg|thumb|right|Piłsudski's [[May Coup (Poland)|May Coup]] of 1926 defined Poland's political reality in the years leading to World War II]]

On 12 May 1926, Piłsudski staged the [[May Coup (Poland)|May Coup]], a military overthrow of the civilian government mounted against President [[Stanisław Wojciechowski]] and the troops loyal to the legitimate government. Hundreds died in fratricidal fighting.<ref name="playground 312">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=312}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}} 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>{{Ref label|b1|b1|none}}{{full citation|date=October 2024}} 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}}<ref name="new sources">
* {{cite book |title=Beyond Empire: Interwar Poland and the Colonial Question, 1918–1939 |last=Puchalski |first=Piotr |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/bfe22980348fd04646924c8349f0eb72 |publisher=The University of Wisconsin-Madison Press |year=2019 |access-date=October 19, 2024}}
* {{cite journal |journal=Studia Iuridica Lublinensia |title=From May to Bereza: A Legal Nihilism in the Political and Legal Practice of the Sanation Camp 1926–1935 |last=Kowalski |first=Wawrzyniec |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=985623 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej |issue=5 |pages=133–147 |year=2020 |doi=10.17951/sil.2020.29.5.133-147 |access-date=October 19, 2024|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |journal=Zapiski Historyczne |title=The Formation of Authoritarian Rule in Poland between 1926 and 1939 as a Research Problem |last=Olstowski |first=Przemysław |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1256530 |publisher=Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu |issue=2 |pages=27–60 |year=2024 |doi=10.15762/ZH.2024.13 |access-date=October 19, 2024 |quote=The case of authoritarian rule in Poland [...] following the [[May Coup (Poland)|May Coup of 1926]], is notable for its unique origins [...] Rooted in a period when Poland lacked statehood [...] Polish authoritarianism evolved [...] Central to this phenomenon was Marshal [[Józef Piłsudski]], the ideological leader of Poland's ruling camp after the May Coup of 1926|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Following the coup, the new government initially respected many parliamentary formalities, but gradually tightened its control and abandoned pretenses. The [[Centrolew]], 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 [[Brest Fortress]]. Five thousand political opponents were arrested ahead of the [[1930 Polish legislative election|Polish legislative election of 1930]],<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 309">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=309}}.</ref> which was rigged to award a majority of seats to the pro-government [[Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government]] (BBWR).<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Wybrać, jak trzeba">{{Harvnb|Garlicki|2009}}.</ref><ref name="Gwałt i ratunek">{{Harvnb|Burnetko|2009}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}}<ref name="new sources" />

[[File:Rydz Smigly Bulawa1.jpg|upright|left|thumb|President [[Ignacy Mościcki]] and Marshal [[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]] were among top leaders of [[Sanation]] Poland]]

The authoritarian [[Sanation]] government ("sanation" meant to denote "healing") 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 government, many of the leftist persuasion, were imprisoned and subjected to [[show trial|staged legal processes]] with harsh sentences, such as the [[Brest trials]], or else detained in the [[Bereza Kartuska prison]] and similar camps for political prisoners. About three thousand were detained without trial at different times at the Bereza [[internment]] camp between 1934 and 1939. In 1936 for example, 369 activists were taken there, including 342 [[Communist Party of Poland|Polish communists]].<ref name="Bereza, Polski obóz koncentracyjny">{{Harvnb|Garlicki|2008}}.</ref> Rebellious peasants staged riots in 1932, 1933 and the [[1937 peasant strike in Poland]]. 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 government fostered [[Józef Piłsudski's cult of personality]] that had already existed long before he assumed dictatorial powers.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Piłsudski signed the [[Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact]] in 1932 and the [[German–Polish declaration of non-aggression]] 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 [[Józef Beck]].<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=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EJ5vIyDBpLcC&pg=PA52 52–53]}}.</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>{{full citation|date=October 2024}}

Sanation deputies in the Sejm used a parliamentary maneuver to abolish the democratic [[March Constitution of Poland|March Constitution]] and push through a more authoritarian [[April Constitution of Poland|April Constitution]] 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 [[Polish government-in-exile]] recognized the April Constitution in order to uphold the legal continuity of the Polish state.<ref>{{Harvnb|Szeląg|1968|pp=11–12}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}} Between 1932 and 1933 [[Józef Piłsudski|Piłsudski]] and [[Józef Beck|Beck]] initiated several incidents along the borders with Germany and [[Free City of Danzig|Danzig]], both to test whether Western powers would protect the [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]] arrangements (on which Polish security depended), and as preparation for a [[preventative war]] against Germany. At the same time they sent emissaries to London and Paris, looking for their support in stopping [[German rearmament|Germany's rearmament effort]]. An invasion to Danzig by Poland was scheduled for April 21, 1933, but the amassing of troops was discovered and the invasion was postponed. At the time an invasion by Poland would have posed a serious military threat to Germany, but with the British rejecting the idea (in favor of the [[Four-Power Pact]]), and with wavering support from the French, the Poles had eventually reneged on the idea of invasion. Between 1933 and 1934 Germany would increase its armament expenditures by 68%, and by January 1934 the two powers would sign a ten-year [[German–Polish declaration of non-aggression|non-aggression pact]].<ref name="Crockett 2009">{{Cite journal |last=Crockett |first=Jameson W. |date=2009-12-10 |title=The Polish Blitz, More than a Mere Footnote to History: Poland and Preventive War with Germany, 1933 |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=561–579 |doi=10.1080/09592290903455667 |s2cid=153437646 |issn=0959-2296}}</ref><ref name="new sources" /> When Marshal Piłsudski died in 1935, he retained the support of dominant sections of Polish society even though he never risked testing his popularity in an honest election.  His government 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 Piłsudski perpetrated and his personal rule that followed.<ref name="Gwałt i ratunek"/>

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

[[File:Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski 1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski]] promoted Poland's [[Central Industrial Region (Poland)|Central Industrial Region]]]]

Independence stimulated the development of [[Polish culture in the Interbellum]] 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, [[Lviv|Lwów]] and [[Vilnius|Wilno]], 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 [[Great Depression]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=242}}.</ref> After 1929, the country's [[industrial production]] and [[gross national income]] slumped by about 50%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|p=444}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}}<ref name="new sources" />

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

[[File:Gdynia - ul. 10 Lutego - gmach B.G.K. 1937-1939 (68909901).jpg|thumb|right|[[Gdynia]] was a newly built city in the [[Polish Corridor]] and acted as a major seaport project on the [[Baltic Sea]]. Its [[Modernist Center of Gdynia|Modernist Center]] is an important architectural landmark.]]

The prevalent in political circles [[nationalism]] was fueled by the large size of Poland's minority populations and their separate agendas. According to the language criterion of the [[Polish census of 1931]], the Poles constituted 69% of the population, Ukrainians 15%, Jews (defined as speakers of the [[Yiddish]] language) 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 [[Ukrainian language]] 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 [[Economic stagnation|stagnation]]. 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 million in 1919 to 34.8 million 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 [[Norman Davies]], the failures of the Sanation government (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 oppressive [[Nazi Germany]] or the [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

===Final Sanation years (1935–1939)===

[[File:Składkowski premierem.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|A year after Piłsudski's death, his former personal assistant General [[Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski]] became the [[Second Polish Republic]]'s last prime minister]]

After Piłsudski's death in 1935, Poland was governed until (and initially during) the [[Invasion of Poland|German invasion of 1939]] by old allies and subordinates known as "[[Piłsudski's colonels]]".  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"/>

[[File:Beck przemówienie.jpg|thumb|upright|Foreign Minister [[Józef Beck]] rejected the proposed risky alliances with [[Nazi Germany]] and with the [[Soviet Union]]<ref name="playground 291–321"/>]]

Foreign policy was the responsibility of [[Józef Beck]], under whom Polish diplomacy attempted balanced approaches toward Germany and the Soviet Union, 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 [[1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania]], the Polish action nearly resulted in a German takeover of southwest [[Lithuania]], the [[Klaipėda Region]] (Memel Territory), which had a largely German population.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=391–393}}.</ref> Also in 1938, the Polish government opportunistically undertook a hostile action against the [[Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak]] state as weakened by the [[Munich Agreement]] and [[Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts|annexed a small piece of territory]] on its borders.<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> because in the end the [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia]] markedly weakened Poland's own position.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=26}}.</ref> Furthermore, Beck erroneously 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 and suppressed minorities threatened unrest and violence. Extreme nationalist circles such as the [[National Radical Camp (1934)|National Radical Camp]] grew more outspoken. One of the groups, the [[Camp of National Unity]], combined many nationalists with Sanation supporters and was connected to the new strongman, Marshal [[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]], 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 [[Front Morges]] united several major Polish anti-Sanation figures, including [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski|Ignacy Paderewski]], [[Władysław Sikorski]], [[Wincenty Witos]], [[Wojciech Korfanty]] and [[Józef Haller]]. It gained little influence inside Poland, but its spirit soon reappeared during [[World War II]], within the [[Polish government-in-exile]].<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

[[File:Ulica Marszałkowska w Warszawie przed 1939a.jpg|thumb|left|185px|[[Warsaw]] was one of Europe's chief cities before the [[Second World War]], pictured in 1939]]

In October 1938, [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] first proposed German-Polish territorial adjustments and Poland's participation in the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] against the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=412–413}}.</ref> The status of the [[Free City of Danzig]] 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 [[Adolf Hitler]] into a German [[puppet state]].<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 declaration of non-aggression]] in late April 1939.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=252–253}}.</ref>

To protect itself from an increasingly aggressive [[Nazi Germany]], already responsible for the annexations of [[Austria]] (in the [[Anschluss]] of 1938), Czechoslovakia (in 1939) and a part of Lithuania after the [[1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania]], Poland entered into a military alliance with Britain and France (the 1939 [[Anglo-Polish military alliance]] and the [[Franco-Polish alliance (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 arrangement.<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 21 and 23 August 1939.<ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref name="Heart 155-156">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=155–156}}.</ref>{{Ref label|b|b|none}} The [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] state was the target of an intense German counter-initiative and was concurrently involved in increasingly effective negotiations with Hitler's agents. On 23 August, an outcome contrary to the exertions of the Allies became a reality: in Moscow, Germany and the Soviet Union hurriedly signed the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], 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"/>

==World War II==

{{further|History of Poland (1939–1945)}}

===Invasions and resistance===

[[File:Schleswig Holstein firing Westerplatte September 1939.jpg|thumb|right|German [[battleship]] {{SMS|Schleswig-Holstein||2}} [[Battle of Westerplatte|shells Westerplatte]], 1 September 1939]]

On 1 September 1939, Hitler ordered an [[invasion of Poland]], the opening event of [[World War II]]. Poland had signed an [[Anglo-Polish military alliance]] as recently as the 25th of August, and had long been in [[Franco-Polish alliance (1921)|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 [[Phoney War]]) and extended no aid to the attacked country. The technically and numerically superior ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' 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 17 September, a [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] began. The Soviet Union quickly occupied most of the areas of eastern Poland that were inhabited by a significant [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] and [[Belarusians|Belarusian]] minority.{{Ref label|h|h|none}} The two invading powers divided up the country as they had agreed in the secret provisions of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. Poland's top government officials and military high command fled the war zone and arrived at the [[Romanian Bridgehead]] in mid-September. After the Soviet entry they sought refuge in [[Romania]].<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>

[[File:Poland in 1939.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Poland following the [[Invasion of Poland|German and Soviet invasions]] (1939)]]

Among the military operations in which Poles held out the longest (until late September or early October) were the [[Siege of Warsaw (1939)|Siege of Warsaw]], the [[Battle of Hel]] and the resistance of the [[Independent Operational Group Polesie]]. Warsaw fell on 27 September after a heavy German bombardment that killed tens of thousands civilians and soldiers.<ref name="Kochanski 59-93"/> Poland was ultimately partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union according to the terms of the [[German–Soviet Frontier Treaty]] signed by the two powers in Moscow on 29 September.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=55–56}}.</ref>

[[Gerhard Weinberg]] has argued that the most significant [[Polish contribution to World War II]] was sharing its code-breaking results.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kozaczuk|Straszak|2004}}.</ref>  This allowed the British to perform the [[cryptanalysis of the Enigma]] and decipher the main German military code, which gave the [[Allies of World War II|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 [[Battle of France]], planned by the Germans 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 [[Battle of Britain]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694"/>

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

[[File:Dywizjon 303 in color.jpg|right|thumb|Pilots of [[No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron]] won fame in the [[Battle of Britain]]]]

[[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] was divided from 1939 into two regions: [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany]] directly into the [[German Reich|German ''Reich'']] and areas ruled under a so-called [[General Government]] of occupation.<ref name="playground 326-346">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=326–346}}.</ref> The Poles formed an [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|underground resistance movement]] and a [[Polish government-in-exile]] that operated first in [[Paris]], then, from July 1940, in [[London]].<ref name="Czubiński 226"/> Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations, broken since September 1939, were resumed in July 1941 under the [[Sikorski–Mayski agreement]], which facilitated the formation of a Polish army (the [[Anders' Army]]) in the Soviet Union.<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 [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Soviet-German front]], but the British wanted the Polish soldiers in the [[Middle East]]. 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 organizations forming the [[Polish Underground State]] that functioned in Poland throughout the war were loyal to and formally under the Polish government-in-exile, acting through its [[Government Delegation for Poland]].<ref name="playground 344-346">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=344–346}}.</ref> During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Poles joined the underground Polish [[Home Army]] (''Armia Krajowa''),<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=264–265}}.</ref> a part of the [[Polish Armed Forces in the West|Polish Armed Forces]] of the government-in-exile.<ref name="Czubiński 226"/> About 200,000 Poles fought on the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]] in the [[Polish Armed Forces in the West]] loyal to the government-in-exile, and about 300,000 in the [[Polish Armed Forces in the East#Berling Army: 1943–1945|Polish Armed Forces in the East]] under the Soviet command on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=693–694}}.</ref> The pro-Soviet resistance movement in Poland, led by the [[Polish Workers' Party]], was active from 1941. It was opposed by the gradually forming extreme nationalistic [[National Armed Forces]].<ref name="Czubiński 226">{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=226}}.</ref>{{Ref label|t|t|none}}

[[File:Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 09.jpg|thumb|right|[[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]]]

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 secretly executed by them at the [[Katyn massacre]].<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 murdered Polish army officers. The Soviets claimed that the Poles committed a hostile act by requesting that the [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] investigate these reports.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=382–384}}.</ref>

From 1941, the implementation of the [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] [[Final Solution]] began, and [[the Holocaust in Poland]] proceeded with force.<ref name="playground 337-343">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=337–343}}.</ref> Warsaw was the scene of the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] in April–May 1943, triggered by the liquidation of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] by German [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] units. The elimination of [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland]] took place in many cities. As the Jewish people were being removed to be exterminated, uprisings were waged against impossible odds by the [[Jewish Combat Organization]] and other desperate Jewish insurgents.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=389–390}}.</ref>

===Soviet advance 1944–1945, Warsaw Uprising===

[[File:Sikorski in Gibraltar.jpg|thumb|right|Gen. [[Władysław Sikorski]], prime minister of the [[Polish government-in-exile]] and commander-in-chief of [[Polish contribution to World War II|Polish armed forces]], 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 [[Operation Barbarossa|Nazi invasion of 1941]], 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 [[1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash|plane crash on 4 July 1943]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=73–75}}.</ref> Around that time, Polish-communist civilian and military organizations opposed to the government, led by [[Wanda Wasilewska]] and supported by Stalin, were formed in the Soviet Union.<ref name="Kochanski 371-377">{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=371–377}}.</ref>

In July 1944, the Soviet [[Red Army]] and Soviet-controlled [[Polish People's Army]] 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 soldiers lost.<ref name="Buszko 394-395">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=394–395}}.</ref>

[[File:Warsaw Uprising Surrender- 5 of October 1944.jpg|thumb|left|Surrender of the [[Warsaw Uprising]]]]

The greatest single undertaking of the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II]] and a major political event was the [[Warsaw Uprising]] that began on 1 August 1944. The uprising, in which most of the city's population participated, was instigated by the underground [[Home Army]] 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 [[Vistula]] 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 defeated Poles surrendered on 2 October, the Germans carried out a [[planned destruction of Warsaw]] on Hitler's orders that obliterated the remaining infrastructure of the city. The [[First Polish Army (1944–1945)|Polish First Army]], 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===

From the time of the [[Tehran Conference]] in late 1943, there was broad agreement among the three Great Powers (the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], and the [[Soviet Union]]) that the locations of the borders between Germany and Poland and between Poland and the Soviet Union would be [[Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II|fundamentally changed after the conclusion of World War II]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=75, 104–105}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 1">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=1}}.</ref> Stalin's view that Poland should be moved far to the west was accepted by Polish communists, whose organizations included the [[Polish Workers' Party]] and the [[Union of Polish Patriots]]. The communist-led [[State National Council]], a quasi-parliamentary body, was in existence in Warsaw from the beginning of 1944.<ref>{{Harvnb|Snyder|2009}}.</ref> In July 1944, a communist-controlled [[Polish Committee of National Liberation]] was established in [[Lublin]], to nominally govern the areas liberated from German control. The move prompted protests from Prime Minister [[Stanisław Mikołajczyk]] and his Polish government-in-exile.<ref name="Buszko 394-395"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 4-5"/>

By the time of the [[Yalta Conference]] in February 1945, the communists had already established a [[Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland]]. 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 Great Powers 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 [[Polish government-in-exile|government-in-exile]] was not mentioned. A [[Provisional Government of National Unity]] 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 a strong participation of non-communists in the immediate post-war Polish government were seen by many Poles as a manifestation of [[Western betrayal]].

===War losses, extermination of Jews and Poles===

[[File:Samuel Willenberg Treblinka 2 sierpnia 2013 01.JPG|[[Samuel Willenberg]] showing his drawings of the [[Treblinka extermination camp]]|thumb|right]]

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 [[Polish census of 1931]]. 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>

According to the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], at least 3 million Polish [[Jews]] and at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians were killed.<ref name="Polish victims">{{Harvnb|USHMM}}.</ref> According to the historians Brzoza and Sowa, about 2 million ethnic [[Polish people|Poles]] were killed, but it is not known, even approximately, how many Polish citizens of other [[ethnic group|ethnicities]] perished, including [[Ukrainians]], [[Belarusians]], and [[Germans]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> Millions of Polish citizens were deported to Germany for forced labor or to German [[extermination camp]]s such as [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]], [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and [[Sobibór extermination camp|Sobibór]]. Nazi Germany intended to exterminate the Jews completely, in actions that have come to be described collectively as [[the Holocaust]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=215–217}}.</ref> The Poles were to be expelled from areas controlled by Nazi Germany through a process of [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|resettlement that started in 1939]]. Such Nazi operations matured into a plan known as the ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'' that amounted to displacement, enslavement and partial extermination of the [[Slavs|Slavic]] people and was expected to be completed within 15 years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Berghahn|1999|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=j6VCNno2DVMC&pg=PA32 32]}}.</ref>

[[File:Warsaw Old Town 1945.jpg|thumb|left|[[Warsaw]] destroyed, photo taken January 1945]]

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The majority of Poles remained indifferent to the Jewish plight, and neither assisted nor persecuted Jews.<ref name="Winstone 2014">{{Cite book| publisher = Tauris| isbn = 978-1-78076-477-1 | last = Winstone| first = Martin| title = The Dark Heart of Hitler's Europe: Nazi rule in Poland under the General Government| location = London| date = 2014 |pages=181–186}}</ref><ref name="Connelly 2005">{{cite journal|first=John |last=Connelly |title=Why the Poles Collaborated so Little: And Why That Is No Reason for Nationalist Hubris |journal=Slavic Review |volume=64 |number=4 |year=2005 |pages=771–781|url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272584372 |doi=10.2307/3649912 |jstor=3649912|doi-access=free }}</ref> Of those who have helped [[Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust|rescue, shelter and protect Jews from the Nazi atrocity]], [[Yad Vashem]] and the [[State of Israel]] have recognized 6,992 individuals as ''[[Polish Righteous Among the Nations|Righteous Among the Nations]]''.<ref name="YV Stats">Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, [https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/statistics.html Names and Numbers of Righteous Among the Nations - per Country & Ethnic Origin, as of January 1, 2019]</ref>

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 [[German AB-Aktion in Poland]], [[Operation Tannenberg]] and the [[Katyn massacre]].<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">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=695–696}}.</ref> The large-scale [[History of the Jews in Poland|Jewish presence in Poland]] 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 [[Polish October]] political thaw of 1956 and the [[1968 Polish political crisis]].<ref name="Poland under Communism 157-163">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=157–163}}.</ref>

[[File:Auschwitz - panoramio (40).jpg|thumb|right|The infamous gatehouse at [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz-Birkenau]] concentration camp, where at least 1.1 million people were murdered by Nazi Germany]]

In 1940–1941, some 325,000 Polish citizens were deported by the Soviet Union.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> The number of Polish citizens who died at the hands of the Soviets is estimated at less than 100,000.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/>

In 1943–1944, Ukrainian nationalists associated with the [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN) and the [[Ukrainian Insurgent Army]] perpetrated the [[Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> Estimates of the number of Polish civilian victims vary greatly, from tens to hundreds of thousands.<ref name ="Motyka">{{Harvnb|Motyka|2011|pp=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 [[Lviv|Lwów]] and [[Vilnius|Wilno]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 694-695"/>

The policies of Nazi Germany have been judged after the war by the International Military Tribunal at the [[Nuremberg trials]] and Polish genocide trials to be aimed at extermination of Jews, Poles and Roma, and to have "all the characteristics of genocide in the biological meaning of this term".<ref>Law-Reports of Trials of War Criminals, The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume VII, London, HMSO, 1948 CASE NO. 37 The Trial of Haupturmfuhrer Amon Leopold Goeth page 9.</ref>

===Changing boundaries and population transfers===

[[File:PKWN Manifest.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[PKWN Manifesto]], officially issued on 22 July 1944 in Soviet-liberated Poland. It heralded the arrival of a Polish communist government imposed by the [[USSR]].]]

By the terms of the 1945 [[Potsdam Agreement]] signed by the three victorious Great Powers, the Soviet Union retained most of the territories captured as a result of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] of 1939, including western Ukraine and western Belarus, and gained others. [[Lithuania]] and the [[Kaliningrad Oblast|Königsberg area of East Prussia]] 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 [[Silesia]], including [[Wrocław|Breslau (Wrocław)]] and [[Zielona Góra|Grünberg (Zielona Góra)]], the bulk of [[Pomerania]], including [[Szczecin|Stettin (Szczecin)]], and the greater southern portion of the former [[East Prussia]], along with [[Gdańsk|Danzig (Gdańsk)]], pending a final peace conference with Germany which eventually never took place.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics|author=Geoffrey K. Roberts, Patricia Hogwood|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=50|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q40tDwAAQBAJ|isbn=978-1-84779-032-3}}; {{cite book|title=The United States and Poland|author=Piotr Stefan Wandycz|publisher=Harvard University Press|year= 1980|page=303|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XaFaNshCrkC|isbn=978-0-674-92685-1}}; {{cite book|title=The Oder-Neisse Line: a reappraisal under international law|author=Phillip A. Bühler|series=East European Monographs|year= 1990|page=33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riBpAAAAMAAJ|isbn=978-0-88033-174-6}}</ref>
Collectively referred to by the Polish authorities as the "[[Recovered Territories]]", they were included in the reconstituted Polish state. With Germany's defeat Poland was thus shifted west in relation to its prewar location, to the area between the [[Oder–Neisse line|Oder–Neisse]] and [[Curzon Line|Curzon]] lines, which resulted in a country more compact and with much broader access to the sea.{{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>

The [[flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II|flight and expulsion of Germans]] 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>
8,030,000 Germans were evacuated, expelled, or migrated by 1950.<ref>''Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50''. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt. Wiesbaden Stuttgart: [[Kohlhammer Verlag]], 1958, pp. 38, 45</ref>

[[File:Curzon line en.svg|thumb|right|[[Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II]]: the gray territories were transferred from Poland to the Soviet Union, whereas the pink territories were transferred from Germany to Poland. Poland's new eastern border was adjusted in the following years.]]

Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the Polish communist authorities even before the Potsdam Conference (the "wild expulsions" from June to mid July 1945, when the Polish military and militia expelled nearly all people from the districts immediately east of the [[Oder–Neisse line]]),<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}}</ref> to ensure the establishment of 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|978-1-57607-796-2}}</ref><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> About 1% (100,000) of the German civilian population east of the Oder–Neisse line perished in the fighting prior to the [[End of World War II in Europe|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}}, pp. 23–41</ref> and afterwards some 200,000 Germans in Poland were employed as forced labor prior to being expelled.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gawryszewski|2005|p=312}}.</ref> Many Germans died in [[Forced labor of Germans after World War II|labor camps]] such as the [[Zgoda labour camp]] and the [[Central Labour Camp in Potulice|Potulice camp]]. Of those Germans who remained within the new borders of Poland, many later chose to [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|emigrate to post-war Germany]].

On the other hand, 1.5–2 million ethnic Poles moved or were expelled from the previously Polish [[Kresy|areas annexed by the Soviet Union]]. The vast majority were resettled in the [[Recovered Territories|former German territories]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Langenbacher|2009|pp=59–60}}.</ref> At least one million Poles remained in what had become the Soviet Union, and at least half a million ended up in the West or elsewhere outside of Poland.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> However, contrary to the official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the [[Recovered Territories]] had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation, the [[Recovered Territories]] initially faced a severe population shortage.<ref>{{cite book|title=Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War|author=R. M. Douglas|publisher=Yale University Press|page=261}}</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 [[Polish population transfers (1944–1946)]]). Some were deterred from returning simply on the strength of warnings that anyone who had served in military units in the West would be endangered. Many Poles were pursued, arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Soviet authorities for belonging to the [[Home Army]] or other formations (see [[Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1946)]]),<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>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 175-S00-00326, Flüchtlinge aus Ostpreußen auf Pferdewagen.jpg|thumb|left|German refugees fleeing from [[East Prussia]], 1945]]

Territories on both sides of the new Polish-Ukrainian border were also "[[ethnic cleansing|ethnically cleansed]]". Of the Ukrainians and [[Lemkos]] living in Poland within the new borders (about 700,000), close to 95% were [[Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine|forcibly moved]] to the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Ukraine]], or (in 1947) to the new territories in northern and western Poland under [[Operation Vistula]]. In [[Volhynia]], 98% of the Polish pre-war population was either killed or expelled; in Eastern [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], the Polish population was reduced by 92%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Snyder|1999}}; {{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=179–203}}.</ref> According to [[Timothy D. Snyder]], 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 historian [[Jan Grabowski (historian)|Jan Grabowski]], about 50,000 of the 250,000 Polish Jews who escaped the Nazis during the liquidation of ghettos survived without leaving Poland (the remainder perished).<ref>{{Harvnb|Maciorowski|2018}}.</ref> More were repatriated from the Soviet Union and elsewhere, and the February 1946 population census showed about 300,000 Jews within Poland's 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 the [[Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946|anti-Jewish violence in Poland]].<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 695-696"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=410, 414–417}}.</ref> The remaining members of ethnic minorities were not encouraged, by the authorities or by their neighbors, to emphasize their ethnic identities.{{Ref label|i|i|none}}{{Ref label|a1|a1|none}}

==Polish People's Republic (1945–1989)==

{{further|History of Poland (1945–1989)|Polish People's Republic}}

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

[[File:Mikolajczyk.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Stanisław Mikołajczyk]]'s [[Polish People's Party (1945–1949)|Polish People's Party]] [[1947 Polish legislative election|tried to outvote the communists in 1947]], but the election process was rigged. Mikołajczyk had to flee to the West.]]

In response to the February 1945 [[Yalta Conference]] directives,<ref name="Poland under Communism 6-7"/> a Polish [[Provisional Government of National Unity]] 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> The Soviet domination was apparent from the beginning, as prominent leaders of the [[Polish Underground State]] were brought to trial in Moscow (the "[[Trial of the Sixteen]]" of June 1945).<ref name="Poland under Communism 8">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=8}}.</ref> In the immediate post-war years, the emerging communist rule was challenged by opposition groups, including militarily by the so-called "[[cursed soldiers]]", of whom thousands perished in armed confrontations or were pursued by the [[Ministry of Public Security (Poland)|Ministry of Public Security]] and executed.<ref name="Zamoyski 369-370">{{Harvnb|Zamoyski|1994|pp=369–370}}.</ref> Such guerillas often pinned their hopes on expectations of an imminent outbreak of [[World War III]] and defeat of the Soviet Union.<ref name="Dzień Żołnierzy Wyklętych">{{Harvnb|Wroński|2013}}.</ref> The [[National Military Union|Polish right-wing insurgency]] faded after the [[Amnesty of 1947|amnesty of February 1947]].<ref name="Zdobycie władzy"/><ref name="Po wojnie światowej wojna domowa"/>

The [[1946 Polish people's referendum|Polish people's referendum of June 1946]] was arranged by the communist [[Polish Workers' Party]] to legitimize its dominance in 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 [[1947 Polish legislative election|Polish legislative election of January 1947]] was controlled by the communists.<ref name="Zamoyski 369-370"/> Some democratic and pro-Western elements, led by [[Stanisław Mikołajczyk]], former prime minister-in-exile, participated in the Provisional Government and the 1947 elections, but were ultimately eliminated through [[electoral fraud]], intimidation and violence.<ref name="Zamoyski 369-370"/> In times of severe political confrontation and radical economic change, members of Mikołajczyk's agrarian movement (the [[Polish People's Party (1945–1949)|Polish People's Party]]) attempted to preserve the existing aspects of [[mixed economy]] and protect property and other rights.<ref name="Buszko 417-425">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=417–425}}.</ref> However, after the 1947 elections, the Government of National Unity ceased to exist and the communists moved towards abolishing the post-war partially [[pluralist democracy|pluralistic]] "people's democracy" and replacing it with a [[state socialism|state socialist]] system.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2012|p=249}}.</ref> The communist-dominated [[popular front|front]] Democratic Bloc of the 1947 elections, turned into the [[Front of National Unity]] in 1952, became officially the source of governmental authority. The [[Polish government-in-exile]], lacking international recognition, remained in continuous existence until 1990.

===Under Stalinism (1948–1955)===

[[File:Bolesław Bierut 1949.jpg|thumb|left|upright|President [[Bolesław Bierut]], leader of [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] Poland]]

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

The ruling PZPR was formed by the forced amalgamation in December 1948 of the communist [[Polish Workers' Party]] (PPR) and the historically non-communist [[Polish Socialist Party]] (PPS). The PPR chief had been its wartime leader [[Władysław Gomułka]], who in 1947 declared a "Polish road to socialism" as intended to curb, rather than eradicate, capitalist elements. In 1948 he was overruled, removed and imprisoned by [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] 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> The PPS, 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 [[Left-wing politics|Left]]. 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 PPR. The leading pro-communist leaders of the socialists were the prime ministers [[Edward Osóbka-Morawski]] and [[Józef Cyrankiewicz]].<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 Stalinist period (1948–1953), terror was justified in Poland as necessary to eliminate reactionary subversion. Many thousands of perceived dissidents 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 [[Bolesław Bierut]], [[Jakub Berman]] and [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]].<ref name="Poland under Communism 40">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=40}}.</ref> The independent [[Catholic Church]] 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 Stalin that year, the persecution of the Church intensified and its head, Cardinal [[Stefan Wyszyński]], 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 [[Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia]] 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 [[Warsaw Pact]], formed in 1955, the Polish Army was the second largest, after the Soviet Army.<ref name="playground 434">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=434}}.</ref>

===Economic and social developments of the early communist era===

In 1944, large agricultural holdings and former German property in Poland started to be redistributed through [[land reform]], and industry started to be [[nationalization|nationalized]].<ref name="Buszko 417-425"/> Communist restructuring and the imposition of work-space rules encountered active worker opposition already in the years 1945–1947.<ref name="Poland under Communism 24-26">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=24–26}}.</ref> The moderate [[Three-Year Plan]] of 1947–1949 continued with the rebuilding, [[Social ownership|socialization]] and [[socialist economics|socialist restructuring of the economy]]. It was followed by the [[Six-Year Plan]] of 1950–1955 for [[heavy industry]].<ref name="Zdobycie władzy"/> The rejection of the [[Marshall Plan]] in 1947 made aspirations for catching up with [[Western Europe|West European]] 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 [[Collective farming|collective farms]] and [[worker cooperative]]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 [[Propaganda in the Polish People's Republic|political and ideological propaganda]] and [[indoctrination]] 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>

[[File:A Kultúra és Tudomány Palotája. Fortepan 75020.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Communist aspirations were symbolized by the [[Palace of Culture and Science]] in Warsaw]]

Great strides were made, however, in the areas of employment (which became nearly full), [[Education in the Polish People's Republic|universal public education]] (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 [[urbanization]] 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 [[PKWN Manifesto|land reform decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation]], which terminated the antiquated but widespread parafeudal socioeconomic relations in Poland. The Stalinist attempts at establishing collective farms 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 [[High-rise building|apartment block]]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>

===The Thaw and Gomułka's Polish October (1955–1958)===

[[File:Gomulka speech.jpg|thumb|right|[[Władysław Gomułka]] addressing the crowd in Warsaw in [[Polish October|October 1956]]]]

In March 1956, after the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in Moscow ushered in [[de-Stalinization]], [[Edward Ochab]] 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> [[Poznań 1956 protests|Worker riots in Poznań in June 1956]] 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 the continuing social and national upheaval, a further shakeup took place in the party leadership as part of what is known as the [[Polish October]] 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 state under [[Władysław Gomułka]], the new first secretary of the PZPR, liberalized internal life in Poland. The dependence on the Soviet Union was somewhat mollified, and the state's relationships with the Church and [[Znak (association)|Catholic lay activists]] 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 [[Repatriation of Poles (1955–59)|repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Poles]] who were still in Soviet hands, including many former political prisoners.<ref name="Stelmachowski 26">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=26}}.</ref> [[Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic|Collectivization efforts]] were abandoned—agricultural land, unlike in other [[Comecon]] countries, remained for the most part 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>

The [[1957 Polish legislative election|legislative election of 1957]] was followed by several years of political stability that was accompanied by [[real socialism|economic stagnation and curtailment of reforms and reformists]]. One of the last initiatives of the brief reform era was a nuclear weapons–free zone in Central Europe proposed in 1957 by [[Adam Rapacki]], Poland's foreign minister.<ref name="Poland under Communism 124-143">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=124–143}}.</ref>

[[Culture in the Polish People's Republic]], to varying degrees linked to the [[intelligentsia]]'s opposition to the authoritarian system, developed to a sophisticated level under Gomułka and his successors. The creative process was often compromised by [[Censorship in the Polish People's Republic|state censorship]], 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 [[popular culture]] were well represented. Uncensored information and works generated by [[émigré]] circles were conveyed through a variety of channels. The [[Paris]]-based ''[[Kultura]]'' magazine developed a conceptual framework for dealing with the issues of borders and the neighbors of a future free Poland, but for ordinary Poles [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]] 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 (1958–1970)===

[[File:Bloki ul. Piątkowska - panoramio.jpg|thumb|right|[[High-rise building|Apartment blocks]] built in communist Poland (these located in [[Poznań]])]]

One of the confirmations of the end of an era of greater tolerance was the expulsion from the communist party of several prominent "[[Revisionism (Marxism)|Marxist revisionist]]s" in the 1960s.<ref name="Poland under Communism 124-143"/>

In 1965, the [[Episcopal Conference of Poland|Conference of Polish Bishops]] issued the [[Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops]], 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 [[Christianization of Poland]] led by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and other bishops turned into a huge demonstration of the power and popularity of the [[Catholic Church in Poland]].<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 [[1968 Polish political crisis]]. Motivated in part by the [[Prague Spring]] movement, the Polish opposition leaders, intellectuals, academics and students used a historical-patriotic ''[[Dziady (poem)|Dziady]]'' 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 [[Znak (association)|Znak Association]] members) who attempted to defend the students.<ref name="Poland under Communism 148-163">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=148–163}}.</ref>

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 [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] communist party faction headed by [[Mieczysław Moczar]] that was opposed to Gomułka's leadership. Using the context of the military victory of [[Israel]] in the [[Six-Day War]] 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 "[[Zionism|Zionists]]", they were scapegoated and blamed for the unrest in March 1968, 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 [[Polish People's Army]] took part in the infamous [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in August 1968, after the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]] was informally announced.<ref name="Poland under Communism 163-171">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=163–171}}.</ref>

In the final major achievement of Gomułka diplomacy, the governments of Poland and [[West Germany]] signed in December 1970 the [[Treaty of Warsaw (1970)|Treaty of Warsaw]], which normalized their relations and made possible meaningful cooperation in a number of areas of bilateral interest. In particular, West Germany recognized the post-World War II ''de facto'' border between Poland and [[East Germany]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|p=203}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 177-180">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=177–180}}.</ref>

===Worker revolts, reforms of Gierek, the Polish pope and Solidarity (1970–1981)===

[[File:Polish 1970 protests - Zbyszek Godlewski body.jpg|thumb|left|One of the fatalities of the [[1970 Polish protests|1970 protests on the Baltic Coast]]]]

Price increases for essential consumer goods triggered the [[1970 Polish protests|Polish protests of 1970]]. In December, there were disturbances and strikes in the [[Baltic Sea]] port cities of [[Gdańsk]], [[Gdynia]], and [[Szczecin]] that reflected deep dissatisfaction with living and working conditions in the country. 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 [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]]. In the aftermath, [[Edward Gierek]] 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}}

[[File:Gierek in Rząśnik.jpg|thumb|right|First Secretary [[Edward Gierek]] (second from left) was unable to reverse Poland's economic decline]]

To revitalize the economy, from 1971 the Gierek regime introduced wide-ranging reforms that involved large-scale foreign borrowing. These actions initially caused improved conditions for consumers, but in a few years the strategy backfired and the economy deteriorated. Another attempt to raise food prices resulted in the [[June 1976 protests]].<ref name="Poland under Communism 198-206">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=198–206}}.</ref> The [[Workers' Defence Committee]] (KOR), established in response to the crackdown that followed, consisted of dissident intellectuals determined to support industrial workers, farmers and students persecuted by the authorities.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|p=205}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 212-223">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=212–223}}.</ref> The opposition circles active in the late 1970s were emboldened by the [[Helsinki Accords|Helsinki Conference]] processes.<ref name="Poland under Communism 198-206"/>

In October 1978, the [[Archbishop of Kraków]], Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła, became [[Pope John Paul II]], head of the [[Catholic Church]]. Catholics and others rejoiced at the elevation of a Pole to the [[pope|papacy]] and greeted his June 1979 visit to Poland with an outpouring of emotion.<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 [[planned economy]] was unable to use the new resources effectively. The [[1973 oil crisis]] caused [[recession]] 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="Poland under Communism 198-206"/>

[[File:Lech Walesa 1980.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Lech Wałęsa]] in 1980]]

Around 1 July 1980, with the Polish foreign debt standing at more than $20 billion, the government made yet another attempt to increase meat prices. Workers responded with escalating work stoppages that culminated in the [[Lublin 1980 strikes|1980 general strikes in Lublin]].<ref name="Poland under Communism 229-236">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=229–236}}.</ref> In mid-August, labor protests at the [[Gdańsk Shipyard]] 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 [[Silesia]]. The [[Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee]] coordinated the strike action across hundreds of workplaces and formulated the [[21 demands of MKS|21 demands]] 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 the well-known dissidents [[Jacek Kuroń]], [[Karol Modzelewski]], [[Bronisław Geremek]] and [[Tadeusz Mazowiecki]].<ref name="Poland under Communism 237-268">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=237–268}}.</ref>

[[File:Podpisanie Porozumień Sierpniowych w Szczecinie.jpg|thumb|right|The signing of an [[Szczecin Agreement|agreement between leaders of striking workers and government representatives]] in [[Szczecin]] in August 1980]]

On 31 August 1980, representatives of workers at the Gdańsk Shipyard, led by an electrician and activist [[Lech Wałęsa]], signed the [[Gdańsk Agreement]] with the government that ended their strike. Similar agreements were concluded in Szczecin (the [[Szczecin Agreement]]) and in Silesia. The key provision of these agreements was the guarantee of the workers' right to form independent [[trade union]]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="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 5 September 1980, Gierek was replaced by [[Stanisław Kania]] as first secretary of the PZPR.<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 17 September and decided to form a single national union organization named "[[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]]".<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 [[martial law]]. A parallel farmers' union was organized and strongly opposed by the regime, but [[Rural Solidarity]] was eventually registered (12 May 1981).<ref name="Stelmachowski 52">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=52}}.</ref> In the meantime, a rapid deterioration of the authority of the communist party, disintegration of state power and 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.<ref name="Poland under Communism 272-301">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=272–301}}.</ref>

[[File:00595309(Andropov&Jaruzelski).jpeg|thumb|right|General [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]] meeting Soviet security chief [[Yuri Andropov]] during the 1980 crisis. Jaruzelski was about to become the (last) leader of communist Poland.]]

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 [[Leonid Brezhnev]] 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"/> The United States, under presidents [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Ronald Reagan]], 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 [[NATO]] forces.<ref name="Poland under Communism 302-307">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=302–307}}.</ref>

In February 1981, Defense Minister General [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]] assumed the position of prime minister. The Solidarity social revolt had thus far been free of any major use of force, but in March 1981 in [[Bydgoszcz]] three activists were beaten up by the secret police. In a nationwide "warning strike" the 9.5-million-strong Solidarity union was supported by the population at large, but a general strike was called off by Wałęsa after the 30 March 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 [[History of Solidarity|Solidarity National Congress]] 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 [[Czesław Kiszczak]], were ready to apply force.<ref name="Poland under Communism 307-325"/>

In October 1981, Jaruzelski was named first secretary of the PZPR. 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"/>

===The martial law, Jaruzelski's rule and the end of communism (1981–1989)===

[[File:T-55A Martial law Poland.jpg|thumb|right|[[Martial law in Poland|Martial law]] enforced in December 1981]]

On 12–13 December 1981, the regime declared [[martial law in Poland]], under which the army and the [[ZOMO]] special police forces were used to crush Solidarity. The [[Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis of 1980–1981|Soviet leaders insisted]] that Jaruzelski pacifies the opposition with the forces at his disposal, without Soviet involvement. Almost all Solidarity leaders and many affiliated intellectuals were arrested or detained. Nine workers were killed in the [[Pacification of Wujek]]. 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="Poland under Communism 325-331">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=325–331}}.</ref>

During martial law, Poland was ruled by the so-called [[Military Council of National Salvation]]. The open or semi-open opposition communications, as recently practiced, were replaced by underground publishing (known in the eastern bloc as [[Samizdat]]), 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. Although martial law formally ended in July 1983 and a partial amnesty was enacted, several hundred political prisoners remained in jail.<ref name="Poland under Communism 325-331"/> [[Jerzy Popiełuszko]], 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"/>

[[File:Pope John Paul II 11 06 1987 01.jpg|thumb|left|220px|[[Pope John Paul II]] in Poland, 1987]]

Further developments in Poland occurred concurrently with and were influenced by the reformist leadership of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in the Soviet Union (processes known as [[Glasnost]] and [[Perestroika]]).<ref name="playground II xxiii"/> In September 1986, a general amnesty was declared and the government released nearly all political prisoners. However, the country lacked basic stability, as 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 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. Continuing economic decline led to [[1988 Polish strikes|strikes across the country]] in April, May and August. The Soviet Union, increasingly destabilized, was 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 [[Magdalenka, Masovian Voivodeship|Magdalenka]]. Numerous meetings that took place involved Wałęsa and General Kiszczak, among others. In November, the regime made a major public relations mistake by allowing a televised debate between Wałęsa and [[Alfred Miodowicz]], chief of the [[All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions]], 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 [[Polish Round Table Agreement|Round Table Negotiations]] in 1989, followed by the [[1989 Polish legislative election|Polish legislative election]] in June of that year, a watershed event marking the [[Revolutions of 1989|fall of communism]] in Poland.<ref name="Poland under Communism 361-405"/><ref name="Stelmachowski 58-99"/>

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

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

===Systemic transition===

[[File:Okrągły Stół Pałac Prezydencki 2019.jpg|thumb|right|The reconstructed [[Polish Round Table Agreement|Polish Round Table]] in the [[Presidential Palace, Warsaw|Presidential Palace]] where an agreement between the communists and the opposition was signed on 4 April 1989]]

The [[Polish Round Table Agreement]] of April 1989 called for local self-government, policies of [[job guarantee]]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 [[1989 Polish legislative election|National Assembly elections]] that were set for 4 June and 18 June.<ref name="Stelmachowski 115–123">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=115–123}}.</ref> Only 35% of the seats in the Sejm (national legislature's lower house) and all of the [[Senate of Poland|Senate]] seats were freely contested; the remaining Sejm seats (65%) were guaranteed for the communists and their allies.<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 [[April Novelization]] to the constitution called for re-establishment of the Polish presidency and on 19 July the [[Contract Sejm|National Assembly]] [[1989 Polish presidential election|elected the communist leader]], General [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]], 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 political dynamics and attempts by the communists to form a government failed.<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>

On 19 August, President Jaruzelski asked journalist and Solidarity activist [[Tadeusz Mazowiecki]] to form a government; on 12 September, the Sejm voted approval of Prime Minister Mazowiecki and his cabinet. Mazowiecki decided to leave the economic reform entirely in the hands of [[economic liberalism|economic liberals]] led by the new Deputy Prime Minister [[Leszek Balcerowicz]],<ref name="Stelmachowski 115–123"/> who proceeded with the design and implementation of his "[[Shock therapy (economics)|shock therapy]]" 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 [[Eastern Bloc]] nations in a phenomenon known as the [[Revolutions of 1989]].<ref name="Poland under Communism 391-427"/> Mazowiecki's acceptance of the "[[thick line]]" formula meant that there would be no "[[Witch-hunt#Figurative use of the term|witch-hunt]]", 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 [[indexation]] of wages, [[inflation]] reached 900% by the end of 1989, but was soon dealt with by means of radical methods. In December 1989, the Sejm approved the [[Balcerowicz Plan]] to transform the Polish economy rapidly from a centrally planned one to a [[free market]] economy.<ref name="Stelmachowski 125–130">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=125–130}}.</ref>{{Ref label|v|v|none}} The [[Constitution of the Polish People's Republic]] was amended to eliminate references to the "leading role" of the communist party and the country was renamed the "Republic of Poland". The communist [[Polish United Workers' Party]] dissolved itself in January 1990. In its place, a new party, [[Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland]], was created.<ref name="playground II xxiii"/> "[[Local government|Territorial self-government]]", abolished in 1950, was legislated back in March 1990, to be led by locally elected officials; its fundamental unit was the administratively independent [[gmina]].<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. In November 1990, the [[German–Polish Border Treaty (1990)|German–Polish Border Treaty]], with [[German reunification|unified]] [[Germany]], was signed.<ref name="Stelmachowski 138">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=138}}.</ref>

In November 1990, Lech Wałęsa [[1990 Polish presidential election|was elected president]] for a five-year term; in December, he became the first popularly elected [[president of Poland]]. Poland's [[1991 Polish parliamentary election|first free parliamentary election]] 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 [[1989 Polish legislative election|1989 election]] and the [[1993 Polish parliamentary election|1993 election]], after which the "[[Democratic Left Alliance (Poland)|post-communist]]" left-wing parties took over.<ref name="Stelmachowski 124">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|p=124}}.</ref> In 1993, the formerly Soviet [[Northern Group of Forces]], a vestige of past domination, left Poland.<ref name="playground II xxiii"/>

In 1995, [[Aleksander Kwaśniewski]] of the [[Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland|Social Democratic Party]] was elected president and remained in that capacity for the next ten years (two terms).<ref name="playground II xxiii"/>

In 1997, the new [[Constitution of Poland]] was finalized and approved in a referendum; it replaced the [[Small Constitution of 1992]], an amended version of the [[Constitution of the Polish People's Republic|communist constitution]].<ref name="Stelmachowski 152–156">{{Harvnb|Stelmachowski|2011|pp=152–156}}.</ref>

Poland joined [[NATO]] in 1999.<ref name="playground 517">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=517}}.</ref> Elements of the [[Polish Armed Forces]] have since participated in the [[Iraq War]] and the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)]]. Poland joined the [[European Union]] as part of its [[2004 enlargement of the European Union|enlargement in 2004]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/poland-joined-the-eu-15-years-ago-5757|title=Poland joined the EU 15 years ago|website=www.thefirstnews.com}}</ref> However, Poland [[Poland and the euro|has not adopted]] the [[euro]] as its currency and legal tender, but instead uses the [[Polish złoty]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/euro-area/euro/eu-countries-and-euro/poland-and-euro_en|title=Poland and the euro|website=European Commission - European Commission}}</ref>

In April 2010, Polish president [[Lech Kaczyński|Lech Kaczynski]] and dozens of the country's top political and military leaders died in the [[Smolensk air disaster]].<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/europe/11poland.html| title = Polish President Dies in Jet Crash in Russia - The New York Times| newspaper = The New York Times| date = 10 April 2010| last1 = Kulish| first1 = Nicholas| last2 = Barry| first2 = Ellen| last3 = Piotrowski| first3 = Michal}}</ref>

After the election of the far-right<ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Routledge_Handbook_of_Far_Right_Extr/UMnOEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Europe+is+now+seeing+conservative+parties+that+have+transformed+into+far-right+parties&pg=PA1997&printsec=frontcover The Routledge Handbook of Far-Right Extremism in Europe, 2023, Editors: Katherine Kondor, Mark Littler]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Routledge_Handbook_of_Political_Part/lJ_8EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Far+right+parties+were+by+and+large+marginalised+and+discredited+in+Europe++in+the+aftermath+of+the+Second+World+War&pg=PA126&printsec=frontcover The Routledge Handbook of Political Parties 2023, Editors: Gyda M. Sindre, Neil Carter, Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daniel Keith, P.126]</ref> conservative [[Law and Justice]] party in 2015,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/law-justice-party-small-majority-polish-eleciton| title = Polish election: Law and Justice wins over third of vote in first results {{!}} Poland |work= The Guardian| date = 27 October 2015 }}</ref> the Polish government [[2015–present Polish constitutional crisis|repeatedly clashed]] with EU institutions on the issue of judicial reform and was accused by the [[European Commission]] and the [[European Parliament]] of undermining "European Values" and eroding democratic standards. However, the Polish government headed by the Law and Justice party maintained that the reforms were necessary due to the prevalence of corruption within the Polish judiciary and the continued presence of holdover [[Polish People's Republic|Communist era]] judges.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/controversial-judicial-reform-still-needed-polish-prime-minister-says-after-eu-battle.html |title=Controversial judicial reform still 'needed,' Polish prime minister says after EU battle |last=Ellyatt |first=Holly |date= 22 Jan 2020 |website=CNBC |access-date=25 May 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/europe_who-will-win-rule-law-clash-between-poland-and-eu/6183694.html |title=Who Will Win in Rule-of-Law Clash Between Poland and EU? |last=Dettmer |first=Jamie|date=4 Feb 2020 |website=Voice of America |access-date=25 May 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| url = https://quod.lib.umich.edu/h/humfig/11217607.0005.210/--polish-constitutional-crisis-201516-a-figurational?rgn=main;view=fulltext| title = The Polish Constitutional Crisis 2015–16: A Figurational Perspective| journal = Human Figurations| date = July 2016| volume = 5| issue = 2| last1 = Bucholc| first1 = Marta}}</ref>

In October 2019, Poland's governing Law and Justice party (PiS)  won  [[2019 Polish parliamentary election|parliamentary election]], keeping its majority in the lower house. The second was  centrist [[Civic Coalition (Poland)|Civic Coalition]] (KO). The government of Prime Minister [[Mateusz Morawiecki]] continued. However, PiS leader [[Jarosław Kaczyński]] was considered the most powerful political figure in Poland although not a member of government.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50037654| title = Poland election: Ruling Law and Justice party win poll - BBC News| work = BBC News| date = 14 October 2019}}</ref> In July 2020, President [[Andrzej Duda]], supported by PiS, was [[2020 Polish presidential election|re-elected]].<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.reuters.com/article/poland-election-idINKCN24E0K7| title = Polish conservative Duda re-elected president, deeper EU rifts likely| newspaper = Reuters| date = 13 July 2020}}</ref>

Poland was one of neighbouring Ukraine's most ardent supporters  after the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]].<ref name=apn1>{{cite news |title=Polish-Ukrainian friendship masks a bitter, bloody history |url=https://apnews.com/article/poland-ukraine-history-war-bandera-tensions-d6a4743ca945dc3144886d9232ed795d |work=AP News |date=5 April 2023 |language=en}}</ref> As of November 2022, Poland had received more than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of the war.<ref name=eib1>{{cite web |title=A solidarity package helps Poland integrate Ukrainian refugees |url=https://www.eib.org/en/stories/ukrainian-poland-infrastructure-refugees |website=European Investment Bank |language=en}}</ref> In September 2023, however, Poland said that it would stop supplying arms to Ukraine and instead focus on its own defense. Poland's decision to ban importing Ukrainian grain, in order to protect its own farmers, had caused tension between the two countries.<ref name=f24>{{cite news |title=Poland no longer arming Ukraine: Polish PM |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230920-poland-no-longer-arming-ukraine-polish-pm |work=France 24 |date=20 September 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

In October 2023, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party won the largest share of the vote in the [[2023 Polish parliamentary election|election]], but lost its majority in parliament. In December 2023, [[Donald Tusk]] became the new Prime Minister to succeed Morawiecki, leading a coalition of three [[parliamentary group]]s made up of [[Civic Coalition (Poland)|Civic Coalition]], [[Third Way (Poland)|Third Way]], and [[The Left (Poland)|The Left]]. Law and Justice became the leading opposition party.<ref name=bbc1>{{Cite news |date=2023-12-11 |title=Donald Tusk elected as Polish prime minister |language=en-GB |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67681940 |access-date=2023-12-12}}</ref>

Tensions between Poland and its eastern neighbour, [[Belarus]], reached a new high in June 2024 when Belarus, who had encouraged masses of illegal immigrants to cross the Polish border on foot as part of the undeclared dirty tricks campaign of its [[CSTO]] ally Russia, created the conditions in which a Polish border ground was stabbed to death by a would-be immigrant. The Polish state soon tightened controls of its frontier and on 27 July 2024 the [[Sejm]] passed a law which liberalized the use of firearms by border patrols.<ref name="tvp1">{{Cite web|url=https://tvpworld.com/79509686/poland-removes-criminal-liability-for-soldiers-using-firearms-on-border|title=Poland removes criminal liability for soldiers using firearms on border|website=tvpworld.com}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Poland|History}}
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Historia narodu polskiego]]
* [[History of Europe]]
* [[History of the Jews in Poland]]
* [[List of Polish monarchs]]
* [[List of heads of state of Poland]]
* [[List of prime ministers of Poland]]
* [[History of the Polish Army]]
* [[Polish hussars]]
* [[Politics of Poland]]
{{div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{refbegin}}

''a.''{{Note label|a|a|none}}Piłsudski's family roots in the [[Polonization|Polonized]] gentry of the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] and the resulting perspective of seeing himself and people like him as legitimate Lithuanians put him in conflict with [[Lithuanian National Revival|modern Lithuanian]] nationalists (who in Piłsudski's lifetime redefined the scope and meaning of the "Lithuanian" identity), and, by extension, with other nationalists including the [[National Democracy (Poland)|Polish modern nationalist movement]].<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 [[France|Franco]]-[[United Kingdom|British]] proposal that in the event of war with [[Nazi Germany]], [[Soviet Union|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 Nazis.<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, who also had a [[Locarno Treaties|treaty with Czechoslovakia]] (and [[Franco-Polish alliance (1921)|with Poland]] and [[Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance|with the Soviet Union]]). [[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]] rebuked the French suggestion on that matter in 1936, and in 1938 [[Józef Beck]] pressured Romania not to allow even Soviet warplanes to fly over its territory. Like [[Hungary]], Poland was looking into using the [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia|German-Czechoslovak conflict]] to settle its own territorial grievances, namely [[Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts|disputes]] over parts of [[Trans-Olza]], [[Spiš]] and [[Orava (region)|Orava]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=379, 394–396}}.</ref>

''c.''{{Note label|c|c|none}} In October 1939, the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|British Foreign Office]] notified the Soviets that the United Kingdom would be satisfied with a postwar creation of small ethnic Poland, patterned after the [[Duchy of Warsaw]].<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 [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union)|People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs]] in 1943–1944. Such territorial reduction was recommended by [[Ivan Maisky]] to [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] 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. [[Joseph Stalin]] opted for a larger version, allowing a "swap" (territorial compensation for Poland), which involved the [[Kresy|eastern lands]] gained by Poland at the [[Peace of Riga]] of 1921 and now lost, and [[Recovered Territories|eastern Germany]] conquered from the Nazis in 1944–1945.<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: [[Lower Silesia]] west of the [[Oder]] and the [[Eastern Neisse]] rivers (the British wanted it to remain a part of the future German state),<ref>{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=537–541}}.</ref> [[Szczecin|Stettin]] (in 1945 the German communists already established their administration there), "[[Zakerzonia]]" (western [[Red Ruthenia]] demanded by the Ukrainians), and the [[Białystok]] region (Białystok was claimed by the communists of the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian SSR]]), the Soviet leader made decisions that favored Poland.

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

''d.''{{Note label|d|d|none}}[[Timothy D. Snyder]] spoke of about 100,000 Jews killed by Poles during the Nazi occupation, the majority probably by members of the [[collaborationism|collaborationist]] [[Blue Police]].<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 the [[Jewish identity]] hoping for permission to emigrate. The communist authorities, pursuing the concept of 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 D. Snyder]], ''The Reconstruction of Nations'', chapters on modern "Ukrainian Borderland".

''f.''{{Note label|f|f|none}}A [[Communist Party of Poland]] had [[communism in Poland|existed in the past]], but was eliminated in [[Great Purge|Stalin's purges]] 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 [[Uprising of 1953 in East Germany]], the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] and the [[Prague Spring]] in 1968, in late 1970 became worried about potential demoralizing effects that deployment against Polish workers would have on the Polish army, a crucial [[Warsaw Pact]] component. 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 [[Politburo]] by the Polish [[Central Committee]].<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 Pact|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}}[[Joseph Stalin]] at the 1943 [[Tehran Conference]] discussed with [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] new post-war borders in central-eastern Europe, including the shape of a future Poland. He endorsed the [[Piast Concept]], 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=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lMQei5CPZUgC&pg=PA286 286–287]}}.</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 [[Gymnasium (school)|gimnazium]] diploma."<ref>{{Harvnb|Gella|1989|p=182}}.</ref> According to Brzoza and Sowa, 450,000 of Polish citizens had completed higher, secondary, or trade school education by the outbreak of the war. 37.5% of people with higher education perished, 30% of those with general secondary education, and 53.3% of trade school graduates.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 697">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=697}}.</ref>

''k.''{{Note label|k|k|none}}Decisive political events took place in Poland shortly before the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]. [[Władysław Gomułka]], a reformist party leader, was reinstated to the [[Politburo]] of the [[PZPR]] and the Eighth Plenum of its [[Central Committee]] was announced to convene on 19 October 1956, all without seeking a Soviet approval. The Soviet Union responded with military moves and intimidation and its "military-political delegation", led by [[Nikita Khrushchev]], 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, [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]]. The disconcerted Soviets returned to Moscow, the PZPR Plenum elected Gomułka first secretary and removed Rokossovsky from the Politburo. On 21 October, the Soviet Presidium [[Khrushchev Thaw|followed Khrushchev's lead]] 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"/>

However, unlike the other [[Warsaw Pact]] countries, Poland did not endorse the Soviet armed intervention in Hungary. The Hungarian Revolution 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 [[Tadeusz Jordan-Rozwadowski|Tadeusz Rozwadowski]] and [[Władysław Anders]] wanted to keep on fighting the coup perpetrators, but President [[Stanisław Wojciechowski]] and the government decided to surrender to prevent the imminent spread of civil war. The coup brought to power the "[[Sanation]]" regime under [[Józef Piłsudski]] ([[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]] 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"/> Another major opponent of Piłsudski, General [[Włodzimierz Zagórski (general)|Włodzimierz Zagórski]], disappeared in 1927.<ref name="Co stalo sie">{{Harvnb|Szyc|2012}}.</ref> According to [[Aleksandra Piłsudska]], 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 [[Roman Dmowski]], Piłsudski's nemesis. Rydz-Śmigły did not allow General [[Władysław Sikorski]], an enemy of the Sanation movement, to participate as a soldier in the country's defense against the [[Invasion of Poland]] in September 1939. During World War II in France and then in Britain, the [[Polish government-in-exile]] became dominated by anti-Sanation politicians. The perceived Sanation followers were in turn persecuted (in exile) under prime ministers Sikorski and [[Stanisław Mikołajczyk]].<ref name="Rozliczanie piłsudczyków">{{Harvnb|Wasilewski|2012b}}.</ref>

''m.''{{Note label|m|m|none}}General [[Zygmunt Berling]] of the Soviet-allied [[First Polish Army (1944–1945)|First Polish Army]] attempted in mid-September a crossing of the [[Vistula]] and landing at [[Czerniaków]] 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 [[Warsaw Uprising]] 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 continuation of [[Operation Tempest]], show a loss of the sense of responsibility for the country's fate on the part of the underground Polish leadership.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694"/>

''o.''{{Note label|o|o|none}}One of the party leaders [[Mieczysław Rakowski]], 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 [[state socialism|socialism]] or the [[socialism|socialist idea]]; misconduct by party officials, such as not following the provisions of the constitution, was blamed. From the time of Gierek, this assumed standard of [[political correctness]] was increasingly challenged: [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|pluralism]], and then [[free market]], became frequently used concepts.<ref name="Poland under Communism 215">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=215}}.</ref>

''p.''{{Note label|p|p|none}}The Polish [[Sanation]] authorities were provoked by the independence-seeking [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN). OUN engaged in political assassinations, terror and sabotage, to which the Polish state responded with a repressive campaign in the 1930s, as [[Józef Piłsudski]] and his successors imposed [[Pacification of Ukrainians in Eastern Galicia|collective responsibility on the villagers]] in the affected areas. After the disturbances of 1933 and 1934, the [[Bereza Kartuska prison]] camp was established; it became notorious for its brutal regime. The government brought Polish settlers and administrators to parts of [[Volhynia]] with a centuries-old tradition of Ukrainian peasant rising against Polish land owners (and to Eastern [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|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 [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] churches aroused lasting enmity in Galicia and antagonized Ukrainian society in Volhynia at the worst possible moment, according to [[Timothy D. Snyder]]. 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". [[Halik Kochanski]] wrote of the legacy of bitterness between the Ukrainians and Poles that [[Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia|soon exploded]] in the context of [[World War II]].<ref name="Snyder 143-152">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=143–152}}.</ref><ref name="Kochanski 29">{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|p=29}}.</ref> See also: [[History of the Ukrainian minority in Poland#Second Polish Republic|History of the Ukrainian minority in Poland]].

''q.''{{Note label|q|q|none}}In Poland, officials of central government (the provincial office of ''[[Voivode#Poland|wojewoda]]'') can overrule elected territorial and [[municipality|municipal]] [[local government]]s. However, in such cases ''wojewoda'' decisions have sometimes been invalidated by courts.

''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 [[Peace of Westphalia]] of 1648. Poland's elective kings, restricted by the self-serving and 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 [[serfdom]] and gradual formation of [[parliamentary system|parliamentarism]].<ref name="Polska urojona"/>

''t.''{{Note label|t|t|none}}Besides the [[Home Army]] there were other major underground fighting formations: [[Bataliony Chłopskie]], [[National Armed Forces]] (NSZ) and [[Gwardia Ludowa]] (later [[Armia Ludowa]]).<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 [[Holy Cross Mountains Brigade]] 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 [[Jerzy Eisler]], about 1.1 million people may have been imprisoned or detained in 1944–1956 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 [[Andrzej Stelmachowski]], one of the key participants of the Polish systemic transformation, Minister [[Leszek Balcerowicz]] pursued [[neoliberalism|extremely liberal]] [[Balcerowicz Plan|economic policies]], often extraordinarily painful for society. The December 1989 Sejm statute of credit relations reform introduced an "incredible" system of privileges for banks, which were allowed to unilaterally alter 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, an area in which he lacked expertise, and to the often successful and useful Polish [[cooperative]] movement.<ref name="Stelmachowski 125–130"/><ref name="TINA to fałsz">{{Harvnb|Kuczyński|2014}}.</ref>

According to [[Karol Modzelewski]], a dissident and critic of the economic transformation, in 1989 [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] no longer existed, having been in reality eliminated during the [[History of Poland (1945–1989)#Final decade of the Polish People's Republic (1980–90)|martial law period]]. What the "post-Solidarity elites" did in 1989 amounted to a betrayal of the old Solidarity base, and the retribution was only a matter of time.<ref name="Celem PiS jest władza">{{Harvnb|Walenciak|2017}}.</ref><ref name="Mamy przechlapane">{{Harvnb|Wołk-Łaniewska|2018}}.</ref>

''w.''{{Note label|w|w|none}}Led by [[Władysław Anders]], the [[II Corps (Poland)|Polish II Corps]] fought in 1944–1945 in the Allied [[Italian Campaign (World War II)|Italian Campaign]], where the corps' main engagement was the [[Battle of Monte Cassino]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|2001|p=368}}.</ref>

''x.''{{Note label|x|x|none}}The [[Piast Concept]], of which the chief proponent was [[Jan Ludwik Popławski]] (late 19th century), was based on the claim that the [[Piast dynasty|Piast]] homeland was inhabited by so-called "native" aboriginal Slavs and Slavonic Poles since time immemorial and only later was "infiltrated" by "alien" [[Celts]], [[Germanic peoples]], and others. After 1945, the so-called "autochthonous" or "aboriginal" school of Polish prehistory received official backing and a considerable degree of popular support in Poland. According to this view, the [[Lusatian Culture]], which flourished between the [[Oder]] and the [[Vistula]] in the early [[Iron Age]], 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 [[Marija Gimbutas]], 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 [[North European Plain]] 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 [[Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski]] before the Sejm committee in January 1938, 818 people were killed in police suppression of labor protests (industrial and agricultural) during the 1932–1937 period.<ref name="Krwawe strajki">{{Harvnb|Pietka|2016}}.</ref>

''z.''{{Note label|z|z|none}}[[John II Casimir Vasa]] is known for his remarkable and accurate prediction of the [[Partitions of Poland]], made over a century before the event's occurrence.<ref name="Polska urojona"/>

''a1.''{{Note label|a1|a1|none}}According to war historian [[Ben Macintyre]], "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>Julian Borger. ''[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/06/myth-of-polish-cavalry-charge Debunking Polish stereotypes: the cavalry charge against German tanks]''. ''[[The Guardian]]'', 6 April 2011.</ref>

''b1.''{{Note label|b1|b1|none}}Piłsudski left the Polish Socialist Party in 1914 and severed his connections with the socialist movement, but many activists from the Left and of other political orientations presumed his continuing involvement there.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wereszycki|1990|pp=242–243, 275}}.</ref>

''c1.''{{Note label|c1|c1|none}}[[Woodrow Wilson]]'s [[Fourteen Points]] program was subsequently weakened by internal developments in the US, Britain, France, and Germany. In the last case, Poland was denied the city of [[Gdańsk|Danzig]] on the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] coast.<ref name="Versailles"/>

''d1.''{{Note label|d1|d1|none}}The government of [[History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917–27)|Soviet Russia]] issued in August 1918 a decree strongly supportive of the independence of Poland, but at that time no Polish lands were under Russian control.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wereszycki|1990|p=282}}.</ref>

{{refend}}

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* {{Citation |first=Włodzimierz |last=Kalicki |date=23 August 2009 |url=http://wyborcza.pl/1,101285,6952313,Norman_Davies__W_1939_r__Polacy_sie_swietnie_spisali.html |title=Norman Davies: W 1939 r. Polacy się świetnie spisali |trans-title=Norman Davies: In 1939, the Poles performed exceedingly well |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wyborcza.pl]] |access-date=29 October 2015 |author-link=Włodzimierz Kalicki}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kemp-Welch |first=A. |year=2008 |title=Poland under Communism: A Cold War History |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-71117-3}}
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* {{Cite book |last=Kochanski |first=Halik |author-link=Halik Kochanski |year=2012 |title=The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-06814-8}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Kolko |first1=Joyce |last2=Kolko |first2=Gabriel |author2-link=Gabriel Kolko |year=1972 |title=The Limits of Power: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1945–1954 |location=New York, NY |publisher=[[Harper & Row]] |isbn=<!-- n/a -->}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Kozaczuk |first1=Wladyslaw |last2=Straszak |first2=Jerzy |year=2004 |title=Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code |location=New York, NY |publisher=[[Hippocrene Books]] |isbn=978-0-781-80941-2}}
* {{Citation |last=Kuczyński |first=Piotr |date=3 January 2014 |url=http://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/1,135760,15218091,TINA_to_falsz.html |title=TINA to fałsz |trans-title=TINA is falsehood |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wyborcza.pl]] |access-date=29 October 2015}}
* {{Cite book |last=Langenbacher |first=Eric |year=2009 |chapter=Ethical Cleansing?: The Expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe |title=''In Nicholas A. Robins and Adam Jones, eds.,'' Genocides by the Oppressed: Subaltern Genocide in Theory and Practice ''(pp.&nbsp;58–83)'' |location=Bloomington, IN |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |isbn=978-0-253-35309-2}}
* {{Citation |last=Leszczyński |first=Adam (7 September 2012) |url=http://wyborcza.pl/alehistoria/1,128609,12441919,Polacy_wobec_Holocaustu.html |title=Polacy wobec Holocaustu |trans-title=Poles and the Holocaust (a conversation with Timothy Snyder) |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wyborcza.pl]] |access-date=30 October 2015 |ref={{Harvid|Leszczyński|2012}}}}
* {{Citation |last=Leszczyński |first=Adam |date=20 December 2013 |url=http://wyborcza.pl/alehistoria/1,134751,15171315,Zdobycie_wladzy.html |title=Zdobycie władzy |trans-title=The attainment of power (a conversation with Jerzy Eisler) |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wyborcza.pl]] |access-date=30 October 2015}}
* {{Citation |last=Leszczyński |first=Adam |date=17 January 2015 |url=http://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/1,143015,17266474,Okupacja__ktorej_nie_bylo.html |title=Okupacja, której nie było |trans-title=The occupation that didn't happen |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wyborcza.pl]] |access-date=30 October 2015}}
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* {{Citation |last=Maciorowski |first=Mirosław |date=20 December 2010 |url=http://wroclaw.gazeta.pl/wroclaw/1,35771,8842882,Kresowianie_nie_mieli_wyboru__musieli_jechac_na_zachod.html |title=Kresowianie nie mieli wyboru, musieli jechać na zachód |trans-title=The eastern lands inhabitants had no choice, had to move west (a conversation with Grzegorz Hryciuk) |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wroclaw.gazeta.pl]] |access-date=30 October 2015}}
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* {{Citation |last=Pilawski |first=Krzysztof |date=1 November 2009 |url=http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/ziemia-dla-chlopow |title=Ziemia dla chłopów |trans-title=Land for the peasants |publisher=[[Przegląd]] (43/2009) |access-date=30 October 2015 |archive-date=13 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113134504/http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/ziemia-dla-chlopow }}
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* {{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy D. Snyder |year=2010 |title=Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin |location=London |publisher=[[The Bodley Head]] |isbn=978-0-224-08141-2 |title-link=Bloodlands}}
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* {{cite book |last=Szafrański |first=Włodzimierz |date=1987 |title=Prahistoria religii na ziemiach polskich |location=Wrocław |publisher=Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich |isbn=978-83-04-02624-7 |lang=pl}}
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* {{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=[[Przegląd]] (43/2012) |access-date=30 October 2015 |ref={{Harvid|Wasilewski|2012b}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Weinberg |first=Gerhard L. |author-link=Gerhard Weinberg |year=2005 |title=A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II |edition=2nd |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-61826-7}}
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* {{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=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wyborcza.pl]] |access-date=30 October 2015}}
* {{cite book |last=Wierzbowski |first=Andrzej |date=2006 |title=Jurassic of Poland and Adjacent Slovakian Carpathians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0PvaAAAAMAAJ&q=krzemionki%203900%201600 |location=Warsaw |publisher=Polish Geological Institute |isbn=978-83-7372-909-4}}
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* {{Citation |last=Maciorowski |first=Mirosław |date=17 March 2018 |url=http://wyborcza.pl/alehistoria/7,121681,23154070,prof-jan-grabowski-pomagalismy-niemcom-zabijac-zydow.html |title=Prof. Jan Grabowski: Pomagaliśmy Niemcom zabijać Żydów |trans-title=Prof. Jan Grabowski: We helped the Germans kill Jews |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|wyborcza.pl]] |access-date=19 March 2018}}
* {{Citation |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 |access-date=31 October 2015}}
* {{Citation |last=Zdrada |first=Jerzy |date=27 January 2010 |url=http://www.polityka.pl/historia/1502653,1,powstanie-styczniowe-po-147-latach.read |title=Powstanie styczniowe po 147 latach |trans-title=January Uprising after 147 years |publisher=[[polityka]].pl |access-date=31 October 2015}}
* {{Cite book |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 |isbn=83-60657-00-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Zubrzycki |first=Geneviève |title=The Crosses of Auschwitz: Nationalism And Religion in Post-communist Poland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6HI5Bbn9e8sC&pg=PA64 |access-date=5 April 2012 |date=15 September 2006 |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-99304-1}}
{{Refend}}

==Bibliography==
{{Main|Bibliography of the history of Poland}}
'''Academic journals'''
{{Main|List of Slavic studies journals}}

'''More recent general history of Poland books in English'''
{{Refbegin}}
* Biskupski, M. B. ''The History of Poland''. Greenwood, 2000. 264 pp. [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28002395 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213165821/https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28002395 |date=2008-02-13 }}
* Dabrowski, Patrice M. ''Poland: The First Thousand Years.'' Northern Illinois University Press, 2016. 506 pp. {{isbn|978-0875807560}}
* Frucht, Richard. ''Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe: From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism'' Garland Pub., 2000 [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106917725 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100318003453/https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106917725 |date=2010-03-18 }}
* [[Oskar Halecki|Halecki, Oskar]]. ''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
* Kieniewicz, Stefan. ''History of Poland'', [[Hippocrene Books]], 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. [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=29299640 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213163601/https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=29299640 |date=2008-02-13 }}
* 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 [https://books.google.com/books?id=9foDAAAAYAAJ&q=intitle:poland online at books.google.com]
* Litwin Henryk, [https://www.msz.gov.pl/resource/49da65c5-9917-40de-b542-5c89751cacf6:JCR ''Central European Superpower''], ''BUM '', 2016.
* [[Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski|Pogonowski, Iwo Cyprian]]. ''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}}
* Reddaway, W. F., Penson, J. H., Halecki, O., and Dyboski, R. (Eds.). ''The Cambridge History of Poland'', 2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941 (1697–1935), 1950 (to 1696). New York: Octagon Books, 1971 [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=58956854 online edition vol 1 to 1696] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213164136/https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=58956854 |date=2008-02-13 }}, old fashioned but highly detailed
* 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.
* Zamoyski, Adam. ''Poland: A History''. Hippocrene Books, 2012. 426 pp. {{isbn|978-0781813013}}
{{Refend}}

'''Published in Poland'''
{{Refbegin}}
* ''History of Poland'', [[Aleksander Gieysztor]] et al. Warsaw: PWN, 1968
* ''History of Poland'', [[Stefan Kieniewicz]] et al. Warsaw: PWN, 1979
* ''An Outline History of Poland'', by [[Jerzy Topolski]]. 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}}

; Movie (on-line):
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DrXgj1NwN8 Animated history of Poland, (PARP, Expo 2010 Shanghai China)]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAVVWlUywO0 Borders of Poland, A.D. 990–2008]

; Other:
* [http://culture.pl/en/article/looking-at-polands-history-through-the-prism-of-art Looking at Poland's History Through the Prism of Art]
* [http://www.zincavage.org/paintings-index.html History of Poland, in paintings]
* [http://www.historycy.org/index.php?showforum=206 History of Poland on Historycy.org forum]
* [http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/History_of_Poland:_Primary_Documents History of Poland: Primary Documents]
* [http://commonwealth.pl Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures: Poland's Heritage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624022527/http://www.commonwealth.pl/ |date=2011-06-24 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070212070149/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc09.html?term=Poland,%20Christianity%20in "Poland, Christianity in" ''The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge'' (1910) vol 9 pp. 104–8]
* [[Henry Smith Williams|Williams, Henry Smith (Ed.)]] 1905, [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73369 ''The Historians' History of the World'' in twenty-five volumes, volume 17: Switzerland (concluded), Russia and Poland], New York: The Outlook Company.

=== Maps ===
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/1.htm Poland and West-Slavs 800–950] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025191718/http://piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/1.htm |date=2017-10-25 }}
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/2.htm Poland 990–1040] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213161555/http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/2.htm |date=2017-12-13 }}
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/3.htm Poland 1040–1090] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213164745/http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/3.htm |date=2017-12-13 }}
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/4.htm Poland 1090–1140] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811072127/http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/4.htm |date=2017-08-11 }}
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/10.htm Poland 1140–1250] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213190320/http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/10.htm |date=2017-12-13 }}
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/12.htm Poland 1250–1290] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212185227/http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/12.htm |date=2017-02-12 }}
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/13.htm Poland 1290–1333] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212185647/http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/13.htm |date=2017-02-12 }}
* [http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/17.htm Poland 1333–1350] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071224151718/http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/17.htm |date=2007-12-24 }}
* [http://piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/kwmapa.htm Poland 1350–1370] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811054256/http://piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/kwmapa.htm |date=2017-08-11 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050416165253/http://ornatowski.com/maps/rzeczpospolita1773.jpg Poland 1773]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050416165257/http://www.michalowo.ug.gov.pl/bip/image/wojewodztwa.jpg Poland 2004]

{{Poland topics}}
{{Years in Poland}}
{{History of Europe}}
{{European history by country}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Poland}}
[[Category:History of Poland| ]]