Portal:Poland

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The POLAND WIKIPORTAL

The Republic of Poland, a democratic country with a population of 38,626,349 and area of 312,685 km², is located in Central Europe, between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) to the north. The Polish state is over 1,000 years old. In the 16th century, under the Jagiellonian dynasty, Poland was one of the richest and most powerful countries in Europe. On May 3, 1791 the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania adopted the May Constitution of Poland, being the first written constitution of Europe and second in the world. Soon after Poland ceased to exist for 123 years, upon being partitioned by its neighbours Russia, Austria and Prussia. Poland regained independence in 1918, in the aftermath of the First World War, as the Second Polish Republic. After the Second World War it became a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union, known as the People's Republic of Poland. In 1989 the first partially free elections in Poland's post World War II history concluded the Solidarity movement's struggle for freedom and resulted in the defeat of Poland's communist rulers. In 1999 Poland became a member of NATO and in 2004 it acceded to the European Union.

Featured article edit

Order Virtuti Militari

The Order Virtuti Militari (Latin: "For Military Bravery") is Poland's highest military decoration for valour in the face of the enemy. Some foreign medals that are equivalent to the Virtuti Militari are the British Victoria Cross and the American Medal of Honor.

Awarded in five classes, the order was created in 1792 by King of Poland Stanisław August Poniatowski. However, soon after its introduction, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was destroyed in the partitions of Poland of 1795 and the partitioning powers abolished the decoration and prohibited its wearing. Since then, it has been reintroduced, renamed and banned several times, with its fate closely reflecting the vicissitudes of the Polish people. Throughout its existence, thousands of soldiers and officers, Polish and foreign, several cities and one ship have been awarded the Virtuti Militari for valor or outstanding leadership in war. Since 1989, there have been no new awards.


Selected picture edit

Kolumna Zygmunta in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw

Did you know... edit

"Astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God", painted by Jan Matejko

...that Poland is comprised of 16 voivodeships?
...that a revolutionary semiconductor called the blue laser was constructed by a group of scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2001?
...that there is a Winnie the Pooh Street (Polish Ulica Kubusia Puchatka) in Warsaw and Bydgoszcz due to the character's popularity?
...that Polish mathematicians and cryptologists broke the Enigma cipher?
...that the first extra-solar planetary system was discovered by a Polish astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan?
...that the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) discovered that the Earth revolves around the Sun?

White Stork, juveniles

...that there is an Obi-Wan Kenobi Street in the village of Grabowiec, Poland?
...that after the fall of the November Uprising, Polish women who emigrated to France used to wear black ribands and jewellery as a symbol of mourning for their lost homeland?
...that one-fourth of the world's white storks make their home in Poland, where they are believed to bring good fortune to any farm on whose property they nest?

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa

...that the common word for "hi" and "bye" in Poland is "cześć", which actually means "honor"?
...that Poland's largest distribution daily newspaper, the Gazeta Wyborcza (The Electoral Gazette), got its name because it was originally set up to campaign for Solidarity candidates in the 1989 elections?
...that the Black Madonna of Częstochowa according to a legend was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on the table-top of the Holy Family in Nazareth?
...why Kowalczyk brothers tried to blow up University of Opole in 1971 ?

Poems edit


"The End and the Beginning"
by Wisława Szymborska
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.		 Again we'll need bridges
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road
so the corpse-laden wagons
can pass		 Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.
Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.		 From behind the bush
sometimes someone still unearths
rust-eaten arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.
Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall,
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.		 Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.
Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.		 In the grass which has overgrown
reasons and causes,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.

Selected anniversaries edit

Jan Henryk Dabrowski

Cuisine edit

Pączki Image:Loudspeaker.png listen are traditional Polish doughnuts. A pączek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with jam or another sweet filling. A traditional filling is marmalade made from fried rose buds. Fresh pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing or bits of fried orange zest. Read more...

In the News edit


More current events...

Peopleedit

Stanisław Koniecpolski, (1590/1594 – 11 March 1646) was a Polish nobleman (szlachta), magnate, official (starost and castellan), voivode of Sandomierz from 1625, and Field and later Grand Crown hetman (second highest military commander, after the king) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Stanisław Koniecpolski lived a life that involved almost constant warfare, and during his military career he won many victories. Before he reached the age of 20, he had fought in the Dymitriads and the Moldavian Magnate Wars, where he was taken captive by the forces of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Cecora in 1620. After his release in 1623 he defeated Ottoman vassals the Tatars in 1624. With inferior forces he fought Swedish forces of Gustavus Adolphus to a stalemate in Prussia during the second phase of the Polish-Swedish War (1626-1629). He defeated a major Turkish invasion at Kamieniec Podolski in Ukraine in 1634, and during his life led many other successful campaigns against the rebellious Cossacks and invading Tatars. He is considered to be one of the most skilled and famous military commanders in the history of Poland and Lithuania.

Paintings edit

"Babie lato"
Józef Marian Chełmoński
1875, Oil on canvas, 119,7 x 156,5 cm
National Museum in Warsaw

Quotes edit


"Rex regnat sed non gubernat"
(The King reigns, but does not govern)

Jan Zamoyski

"I see the whole world open before me; the only place that remains sealed off is Poland, and suddenly I feel the atmosphere so close about me that at times it is difficult to breathe."

Ignacy Domeyko

"Peace is a precious and a desirable thing. Our generation, bloodied in wars, certainly deserves peace. But peace, like almost all things of this world, has its price, a high but a measurable one. We in Poland do not know the concept of peace at any price. There is only one thing in the lives of men, nations and countries that is without price. That thing is honor"

Józef Beck

Read more...

Music edit

Bogurodzica (The Mother of God) is the oldest Polish religious hymn. It was written in the 10th-13th century, although its origin is not clear.

Polish knights sang it as an anthem before the Battle of Grunwald and during the battle with the Turkish army at Varna in 1444. Bogurodzica accompanied also the coronation ceremonies of the first Jagiellonian kings.

See also:

Cinema edit

The Revenge (Polish: Zemsta), a film released in 2002, directed by Andrzej Wajda.

This film is based on a perennially popular stage farce by the great Polish playwright and poet Aleksander Fredro. Written in a sharp, ironic style, 'The Revenge' portrays those national characteristics that in time brought on many of Poland's national tragedies. Written for the stage, Wajda has changed very little and transferred practically the entirety of the work to the screen.

Cast: Roman Polański as Papkin, Janusz Gajos as Cześnik Raptusiewicz, Andrzej Seweryn as Rejent Milczek, Katarzyna Figura as Podstolina, Daniel Olbrychski as Dyndalski.

Things you can do edit

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