For our
belated 2010 trip, we are heading
east again this time to Poland, a fellow member state of the EU whose 1989 post-Communist
revival has recently been thrown into turmoil by the tragic death in a plane
crash of the
country's Head of State President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and so many of
Poland's governing and diplomatic elite. Never before has our
visit to a country been prefaced by such a scale of national disaster.
Few other European countries have had such a
chequered history as Poland: at its mightiest, a huge commonwealth extending
into the Baltics, Russia and Ukraine; at its nadir, a nation which existed only
as an ideal having been partitioned by powerful and aggressive neighbours. Having
regained its independence after WW1, Poland suffered more than any other under German
barbarism in WW2 and its population and cities devastated, only then to languish under 40 years of Communist oppression
until its re-emergence as a sovereign democratic republic in 1989. Yet for all
this historic suffering, the Polish people have shown a remarkable resilience
and a distinctive Polish culture has survived and developed
without interruption for more than a millennium.
Having spent 10 weeks in autumn 2009 exploring
the neighbouring
Czech Republic, and slipped briefly across the border into southern Poland
during our 2008 trip to
Slovakia, we felt obligated to make a full scale visit this year to the
Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita
Polaska). We set off shortly, but as is our custom, we
present this Prologue study of Poland's geographical, economic,
cultural and historical background as a foretaste of our late summer 2010 host
country.
GEOGRAPHY,
DEMOGRAPHICS and
ECONOMY:
Polish National Anthem: the dignified Mazurek
Dąbrowskiego is currently playing, the opening line of which translates as Poland Is Not Yet Lost. Originally written in 1797 at a time when the
nation of Poland had been erased from the map, this patriotic poem gave
inspiration to the Polish people despite their nation's lack of political
sovereignty. When Poland re-emerged as an independent state in 1918, Mazurek
Dąbrowskiego became its de facto anthem, officially adopted as the national
anthem of the Republic of Poland in 1926, and along with the national colours
and White Eagle coat of arms is one of the three national symbols defined by the 1997
constitution of the modern Polish state.
Geography: situated in north-central
Europe, Poland extends 524 kms along its Baltic
coastline,
and shares its 3,054 kms land border with Germany to the west,
Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Russia
to the east. With 312,685 square kms of territory, it is the ninth largest country in
Europe. The country is divided administratively into 16 provinces (Voivodeships);
click on the map
above for details. The Baltic coastal plain was shaped by the retreating
Scandinavian ice-sheet after the last Ice Age, leaving the sand and gravel
deposits which now characterise the coastline. Some 9,000 post-glacial lakes now
cover Poland's NE plains which also contain Europe's only remaining primeval
forests (puszcza). Much of central Poland consists of fertile
agricultural plains, the country's main grain producing region. The 19th century
industrial revolution was fuelled from the vast coal deposits of Upper
Silesia in the western part of the lowlands. In dramatic contrast, the forested
Sudetes hills, jagged alpine peaks of the Tatra Mountains and Carpathian Bieszczady hills form Poland's
natural demarcation with its southern neighbours, with
the country's highest point Mount Rysy in the Tatras rising to 2,499m. Poland's
rivers drain northwards into the Baltic Sea: the 1090 kms long River Vistula,
with its source in the Tatra mountains to the south and its tributaries the Bug
and Narev Rivers, drains almost half the country and passes through both Kraków
and the capital Warsaw; the second largest river the Odra and its major
tributary the Warta drains the western part of Poland and forms part of the
western border. Over-intensive industrialisation during the Communist period left
Poland with appalling environmental problems. The situation has improved since
1989 due to decline in heavy industry and increased environmental concern by
post-Communist governments, but air
pollution remains serious because of sulphur dioxide emissions from coal-fired
power plants, with resulting acid rain causing forest damage. Pollution levels
should continue to decrease as industrial establishments are brought up to EU
standards, but at substantial cost to business and the government.
Demographics: Poland was for centuries one of Europe's most
cosmopolitan countries with a varied population, and because of historical
religious tolerance was home to Europe's largest Jewish community. The county however
suffered unparalleled physical and humanitarian devastation in WW2. The post WW2 radical boundary changes
were followed by population relocation involving 10 million people: Poles were
moved into the newly defined state of Poland, while Poland's ethnic Germans,
Ukrainians and Belarusians were resettled outside its new borders. The result is
that 97% of the country's current population of 38.5 million now claims Polish
ancestry, making Poland one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in
Europe. Poland is a staunchly Catholic country with support from 90% of the
population; for Poles the late Pope John Paul II (formerly Karol Wojtyła,
Archbishop of Krakow) retains cult status.
Economy: WW2 left Poland in utter ruins with its cities reduced to
rubble; the boundary changes did however restore to Poland industrially valuable
Silesia and the port-city of Gdańsk. With Poland firmly under Soviet control, the
country was burdened by inflexible command-economy
geared to heavy engineering, ship-building,
coal and steel production: industries were nationalised, farming collectivised,
enterprise stifled by absurd central planning, with scant regard for environmental impact
or the wider needs of the population. By the 1980s spiralling inflation and
excessive cost of foreign debts brought disastrous economic slump; continuing
increases in food prices prompted
organised industrial unrest which paralysed industry. Confrontation with the
Solidarity trade union brought the imposition of martial law, and the Communist
ability to cling to power was ended with Gorbachev's programme of perestroika.
The movement for change was irreversible:
elections in
summer 1989 ushered in eastern Europe's first post-communist government.
Post-1989 democratic governments embarked on an initially successful process of
switching to market economy, and until 1997, Poland was seen as the economic
success story of the former eastern bloc with healthy foreign investments, new
businesses flourishing and revived tourism bringing in much-needed revenue. GDP
grew about 5% annually, based on rising private consumption, increased corporate
investment, and inflow of EU funds providing a major boost to the economy. But
the economic downturn of the late 1990s has produced severe economic hardship:
unemployment runs at some 9%, soaring to over 30% in some parts of the country
and among the young. Poland still has a
large farming sector which is unwieldy and inefficient, with poverty still
widespread in rural areas. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in
2004, but still retains its own currency, the Złoty (pronounced 'zwoti') with current exchange rate around
5zł to the pound
sterling; the Polish government plans to meet the criteria for joining the Euro-zone around 2012.
Foundation of the Kingdom of Poland (AD 960~1370): lying beyond the
frontiers of the Roman Empire, the great plain that is present-day Poland,
stretching from the River Oder in the west to the Russian steppes,
had supported a nomadic tribal culture for 1000s of years.
The
region was first settled by Slavic tribes around the 8th century AD and by the
10th century, these Slavic groups were unified into a recognisable
territorial entity under
the legendary Piast dynasty, gradually extending their territory eastwards.
Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I (960~992) was baptized in 966 AD,
adopting Catholic Christianity as the nation's new official religion, and by 1000 AD
Poland's status as a
fully fledged kingdom was recognized by papal authority
under Bolesłav the
Brave, with Kraków as its capital. By the 12th century however the Polish
kingdom had fragmented into several smaller states, weakened by dynastic
feuding, its territories threatened by expansionist neighbours. In 1225 support
was enlisted from the quasi-monastic militaristic Order of Teutonic Knights to
protect the northern frontiers from the heathen Prussians. The Teutonic Knights
established themselves as the principal military power in northern Europe in a
series of mighty castles, ruthlessly turning on their Polish hosts to form an
independent state. They captured the great port of Gdańsk which developed into a
wealthy mercantile city, and settled German peasants along the fertile
agricultural Baltic plain. Although now landlocked, Poland was reunited under
the last of the Piast kings, Kazimierz the Great (1333~70). Kazimierz
re-established a firm central political authority, embellishing Kraków with
magnificent buildings worthy of a great European capital and seat of the
country's first university. He codified the country's laws, unified its
governing structure and secured its frontiers, extending Poland's territory
eastwards. Most significantly, Kazimierz encouraged the settlement of Jews who
had been the victims of pogroms all over Europe, and a law of 1346 specifically
protected Jews against persecution within Poland, leading to Poland's
centuries-long position as home to the largest community of European Jewry.
The Jagiełłonian dynasty, the
Renaissance and Reformation, and the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania
(1384~1600): this period was marked by two important factors: the
Polish aristocracy's assertion of power to elect future monarchs, and the
alliance between Poland and Lithuania whose territory stretched from the Baltic to the Crimea. In 1384 Jadwiga was chosen by the
Polish nobles
to succeed to the throne; her marriage to Jagiełło, Grand Duke of
Lithuania, tied the two nations into a lasting alliance, sufficiently powerful
to defeat the Teutonic Knights at the decisive Battle of Grunwald in 1410. This
victory marked the decline of Teutonic power: Gdańsk (Danzig) became an
independent mercantile city-state; the remainder of the Knights' territory
became known as Royal Prussia subject to Poland, leaving just East Prussia in
the Teutonic Order's control. Poland's Catholic links with Italy greatly
facilitated the spread of Renaissance learning under leading thinkers like
Nicolaus Copernicus. The establishment of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, in
1493 increased the nobility's control as a check on monarchical power. Under the Reformation, Lutheranism took
a strong hold in Danzig and the German dominated cities of Royal Prussia and in
East Prussia ruled by the Hohenzollern clan. By the end of the
15th century, Poland faced new threats from the east with the Muscovite
Tsars intent on expanding the Russian empire. Lacking an heir, the last of the Jagiełłonians,
Sigismund August (1548~1572) spent his final years trying to forge an alliance
strong enough to withstand the expanding might of Moscow. The result was the
1569 Union of Lublin under which Poland and Lithuania were formally merged into
the Commonwealth of the Two Nations. During this Golden Age period (Commonwealth
of Poland~Lithuania), Poland expanded its borders to become the largest
country in Europe, now controlling territories covering most of what today is
Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and parts of Russia. In 1596, the capital officially moved to
Warsaw as a more central location for the combined state. Sigismund's death led
to constitutional reforms known as the Noble's Republic: the increase of the Sejm's
powers meant that henceforth Polish kings, elected by the nobles, were subject
to strict parliamentary checks, foreshadowing the modern concept of constitutional monarchy.
Poland's decline and
Partitioning between Russia, Prussia and Austria (1620~1795): under
ineffectual kings in the mid-17th century, Poland was weakened by wars with
Russia, by Swedish invasion and by Prussia's assertion of power under the
Hohenzollens. Internal rule by the nobles
began Poland's decline into ungovernability by repeated misuse of the liberum
veto under which a single vote could stall legislation and
even dissolve the Sejm. Despite this erosion of Polish power, King Jan Sobieski led the successful
repulse of the Ottoman Turks from Vienna in 1683, but the war exhausted Polish
military capacity, enabling Habsburg Austria to recover as an imperial power and
the predatory Prussians to encroach further into Polish territory. Sobieski's
neglect of domestic policy and the nobles' abuse of power led to further
destabilization of its political system bringing Poland to the brink of
political anarchy. In the 18th century, internal conflict between the monarch
and nobles further weakened Poland, enabling Tsarist Russia to exercise
increasing influence and control over the kingdom, and for expansionist Prussia
to seize more of Poland's northern territory. From 1772 this led to Poland's
progressive annexation and partitioning between the Empires of Tsarist Russia,
Imperial Prussia and Habsburg Austria. Despite residual resistance from the
Poles, in 1795 the three partitioning powers abolished the very name of Poland
which was erased from the map of Europe for the next 120 years. (Partitioning
of Poland - map)
Defeat of Napoleon, Congress of Vienna and 19th Century struggles
against the Partitions (1799~1914):
Revolutionary France was naturally the country that Polish patriots looked to in
their struggle to regain national independence, and Paris became the focus of
Polish exiles and conspiratorial groups.
Hopes centred around Napoleon Bonaparte, and Polish legions played a part in the
French victory over Prussia, leading to the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw in
1807 out of Polish territory previously annexed by the Prussians. Although only
a buffer state, it was a first step in the recreation of Poland with Józef
Poniatowski as its leader. Napoleon's 1809 successful Austrian campaign ceded
part of Galicia to the Duchy and his 1812 victories restored Poland's historic
frontier with Russia. Napoleon's humiliating retreat from Moscow was as
disastrous for Poland as for France, and
Poniatowski's choice of heroic but suicidal defeat at the hands of the Prussians and
Russians near Leipzig, encapsulating the nation's hopeless plight, served as a
symbol to Polish patriots for the rest of the 19th century. The 1815 congress of
Vienna ruled against the re-establishment of an independent Poland in
post-Napoleonic Europe, since this was opposed by the Russians. Instead, parts
of the Duchy of Warsaw were restored to Prussia and Austria, and most of Poland
placed under the dominion of the Russian Tsar. Polish
insurrections during the 19th century achieved little, leading to the first
great wave of Polish emigration principally to America.
Polish patriots within the Russian and Austrian sectors were less concerned with
trying to win independence than trying to keep alive their distinctive culture.
Prussia was the most efficiently repressive of the three partitioning
powers, forging a modern industrial society with Poles making up a large
proportion of the workforce, and in 1871, they unified Germany, imposing their
ruthlessly ambitious and militaristic tradition.
World War I, the Reconstitution of the Polish Republic, Nazi Germany and
Stalinist Soviet Union (1918~1939): WW1 smashed the might of the three
partitioning empires, Prussian-dominated Germany, Habsburg Austria and Tsarist
Russia, allowing the victorious Allies in 1918 to recognise
a reconstituted independent Poland, backed by the Bolshevik government in
Moscow. Józef Piłsudski emerged from the rival contenders for leadership of the
Polish nation, and was sworn in as the head of state. The new Poland lacked a
defined territory, and the precise frontiers were only established over the
following three years. The Paris peace conference gave Poland access to the sea
by the Polish Corridor cut through former Royal Prussia which left East Prussia
cut off from Germany; Danzig (Gdańsk) was excluded on the grounds that its
population was predominantly German and reverted to its status as a city-state.
All of this unsatisfactory compromise was to have tragic consequences in 1939.
The Allies attempted by diplomacy to resolve the eastern frontier issue along a
line defined by the British Foreign Secretary George Curzon, the so-called
Curzon Line. But the Polish-Soviet War of 1919~21 more significantly
determined Poland's post-WW1 eastern borders: to prevent the Bolsheviks spreading their
revolution westwards, Piłsudski took advantage of the civil war between
'Red' and 'White Russians to regain a chunk of the former Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth's eastern territories, (Poland's
post-WW1 1922 borders - map), an acquisition confirmed by the 1921 Treaty of
Riga. The League of Nations resolved by plebiscite other border issues, dividing
Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland so giving the new Poland an
industrial base around Katowice. After a
period of ineffectual governments attempting to deal with hyper-inflation and
agrarian reform, Piłsudski staged a military coup and functioned as
Poland's unelected leader until his death in 1935. Poland's international
position was tenuous: having a country led by Stalin as eastern neighbour was
bad enough, but when Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, Poland became a
sitting duck between two ruthless predators. Alliance with appeasement-minded
Britain and France seemed a less than reliable defence, as Czechoslovakia was to
discover to her cost. Hitler made no pretence about his determination to wipe
Poland from the map, contemptuously regarding Slavs as untermenschen fit
only as slaves to Aryans. In August 1939, Hitler's foreign minister von
Ribbentrop concluded the notorious Non-aggression Pact with his Soviet opposite
number Molotov; a secret clause cynically agreed the full partition of Poland
between the two dictators, and on 1 September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland
precipitating WW2.
World War II (1939~1945):
the German
invasion of Poland began with the annexation of the free city of Danzig followed
by the blitzkrieg overrunning of western Poland. The Poles fought with great
courage but were numerically and technologically in a hopeless position. On 17
September, the Soviets invaded the eastern part of the country, grabbing the
share-out agreed by the Nazi-Soviet Pact. The
Allies, who had
guaranteed to come to Poland's defence, failed to react other than by declaring war
on Hitler, and by the first week of October Poland had capitulated. A government
in exile was established in London under Władysław Sikorski.
Western Poland was absorbed into the German Reich, while the rest of German-occupied Poland
including Warsaw, Lublin and Kraków was placed under separate German administration,
called the General Government, set up to
exploit the economic and labour
potential of Poland. Concentration, forced-labour and extermination camps were
established on an industrial scale across the country, and millions of Polish civilians
were annihilated, including virtually the entire Jewish population who were
forcibly herded into ghettoes and transported to camps for systematic extermination (German
WW2 extermination camps across Poland - map).
In the Soviet-occupied eastern part of the country, Polish POWs were transported
east to the Gulag camps, and under Stalin's direct orders, over 20,000 members of the
Polish officer corps, intelligentsia and leading officials were executed by the NKVD secret police, the
most notorious massacre being in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk.
Members of the Polish armed forces escaped
to the west and fought with distinction alongside the Allies: Polish pilots
fought with the RAF in the Battle of Britain, Polish troops suffered high
casualties in the capture of Monte Casino in the Italian campaign, and a Polish
parachute brigade took part in the Arnhem drop with their commander General Sosabowski
later being made a scapegoat for the operation's failure. With the German
invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Stalin was obliged to make an
alliance with Sikorski, leading to an uneasy cooperation between the Red Army and Polish
Resistance, the Home Army (AK). Soviet victory at Stalingrad in 1943 marked the
turning point, enabling Stalin to backtrack on undertakings made to the Polish
government-in-exile and the
Red Army forced the Germans to retreat westwards. At
the Tehran Conference of the Big Three in November 1943, Stalin insisted that
the USSR should retain the territories annexed in 1939 with the borders of
post-war Poland determined along the Oder-Neisse rivers and the Curzon line;
future European 'spheres of influence' were agreed making it inevitable that
Poland would be forced into the Soviet camp. As the Red Army liberated eastern Poland in July 1944,
the Polish Home Army rose in rebellion against the German occupiers to liberate
Warsaw and secure Polish sovereignty before the arrival of the Soviets. The Red
Army dallied on the city's outskirts, allowing the Uprising to be crushed in a
bloodbath; Stalin wanted the insurrection to fail so that
Soviet occupation of
Poland would be uncontested. Hitler ordered Warsaw to be totally razed, leaving
the ruins to be occupied by
the Red Army (see photo left). The Soviets continued westwards, liberating the
rest of Poland on the way to overrunning Berlin in April 1945. No country suffered as much in WW2 as Poland:
the whole country lay in devastation, and over 6 million people, 25% of the pre-war population, lost their lives; out
of 3 million Polish Jews in 1939, only a few survived the holocaust. As a
result of WW2, Poland was reduced in size and its borders shifted west by some
200 kms; Stalin had achieved his aim of moving the Soviet frontier and sphere of
influence westwards. At Tehran, Churchill and Roosevelt had consented to the USSR setting up puppet
communist governments in Poland and other Eastern European countries which would
result in a loss of freedom for these countries for the next fifty years and
would be the genesis of the Cold War.
(Poland's
1922 borders, Soviet and Nazi-Germany occupation 1939, and post-WW2 1945).
Post-war Polish Communism under Gomułka and Gierek (1946~1979): the Polish communists took power not with public
support as the Czechs had done but through the military and political
dictate of the occupying Soviets who ran the country as an outlying province of Moscow, intimidating political opposition and brutally suppressing a
nationalist uprising in
Western Ukraine by the Polish
army. In 1948 the
communists and socialists merged to form the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)
under Władyslaw Gomulka, and as the Cold War emerged, Poland was locked into
Soviet economic and political control. In 1952, a new constitution enshrined the
leading role of the PZPR in every aspect of political life with power resting
with the Politburo and Central Committee bureaucracy. The Catholic Church
retained a degree of political and cultural independence its defiance epitomised
by the primate Cardinal Wynszyński who was imprisoned in 1953 for
'anti-state' activities. Three and Six Year Plans drove forward collectivization
of agriculture and development of nationalised mining and steel industries in
Silesia and shipbuilding in Gdańsk; but standards of living remained low, food
was scarce, and unrestrained industrialisation resulted in appalling pollution.
1956 saw the first political crisis of the communist era with industrial unrest
leading to major confrontation with the
authorities over shortages of food and consumer goods, bad housing and decline in
income. Gomulka managed to restore order with
promises of reform, and despite Khrushchev's rage at this flouting of Kremlin
authority, Soviet military intervention was narrowly avoided. After some easing
of cultural and economic control, the
impetus for political reform faded and the
1960s saw a progressive return to centralised panning, stagnant economy and
attempts to control an increasingly disaffected populace. in 1970, further food
price rises triggered outbreaks of strikes and demonstrations in the Gdańsk
shipyards; when troops fired on protesters killing many, unrest spread to the
point of open insurrection. The Central Committee hastened Gomulka's retirement
replacing him with the reformist Edward Gierek. Despite promises of price freeze
and wage increases strikes broke out again with demands for free trade unions
and free press. Gierek restored calm and with heavy government borrowing, the
early 1970s were marked by higher living standards, and cheaper more plentiful
food and consumer goods. But with the economic recession and oil crisis of the
mid-1970s, government debt became impossible to sustain, and by 1976 Gierek
again
announced unprecedented food price rises, and this time the resultant strikes
and demonstrations were forcibly suppressed and activists imprisoned. Perhaps
even more decisive was the election in 1978 of Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of
Kraków as Pope John Paul II. A fierce opponent of the communist regime, he
became a symbol of cultural identity and international influence for the Polish
people, and his visit to Poland in 1979 provided a public demonstration of potential popular power.
Solidarity Trade Union, Jarulzelski and the demise of Communism (1980~1989): Gierek's announcement
in 1980 of 100% rises in food prices
brought more strikes in the Gdańsk led by Lech Wałęsa a shipyard
electrician; the strikers' Twenty One Points manifesto demanded freeing
of
political prisoners, freedom of the press and trade unions, the right to strike,
televised Catholic Mass,
higher wages, consultation over the economic
crisis and an end to Party privileges. The Party caved in and signed the
historic Gdańsk Agreements under which free trade unions under the name of
Solidarity (Solidarność) were formed covering 75% of Poland's workforce. Gierek
and his supporters were swept from office by the Party and Warsaw Pact forces
were mobilised along Poland's borders as other East European political communist
leaders foresaw Solidarity's success threatening their own states. Deadlock ensued throughout 1981, while the economic crisis gathered pace
with Solidarity powerless to do other than bring the economy to its knees. In
1981 General Jarulzelski took control of the Party, and in the face
of threats
of general strike, continued to negotiate with Solidarity leaders but refused to
relinquish any power. Occupations and strikes were broken up by troops, martial
law imposed, Solidarity banned, civil liberties suspended, and union leaders
arrested. Such repressive measures did nothing to solve the underlying economic
malaise, and in the face of determined opposition from the now underground
Solidarity movement, martial law was lifted in the wake of Pope
John Paul II's second visit to his home
country in 1983. Jarulzelski continued trying to dig Poland out of economic crisis between 1984
and 1988, with national debt running at astronomical levels, wages slumped and
production hampered by endemic labour unrest. In 1987 a referendum on the
government's programme of reforms was rejected and Jarulzelski finally
acknowledged defeat, accepting the
need for power sharing with Solidarity; only
Mikhail Gorbachev's election as Kremlin secretary general made this
capitulation possible. In 1989, the famous Round Table Agreement led to communist
acceptance of opposition demands for limited free elections in which the
communists suffered a totally humiliating defeat: although 65% of seats in the Sejm
(parliament) were reserved for the PZPR (communist) party, the unthinkable
became possible with a Solidarity-led government, the first non-communist
government in Eastern Europe since WW2. In January 1989 the PZRP disintegrated and voted to dissolve itself.
Lech Wałęsa won the presidential elections in 1990 promising a faster
pace of reform and removal of privileges for communist elite. His new
government's austerity programme won backing from the IMF resulting in agreement
on reduction of Poland's multi-billion national debt. In 1991 the first fully
free elections since WW2 produced a wide array of parties in the Sejm and a
coalition centre-right government which adopted an increasingly aggressive
stance on unmasking public figures compromised by collaboration with the
security services during the communist era; this issue of 'lustration' -
exclusion from public life of those tainted by such accusations - has been
a controversial issue in Polish politics since.
The post-Communist Republic of Poland (1993~ present):
the 1993 elections brought a left-wing coalition government led by the
Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which affirmed its commitment to continued
market reforms while pledging to address its negative social effects. The
government's authority was undermined however by wrangling with President Wałęsa who finally retired from office after defeat in
the 1995
presidential elections by Aleksander Kwaśniewski, a more consensus-building
national figurehead
than his predecessor who resisted the temptation to
interfere in day to day politics and was elected for a second term in 2000. 1997 brought a return to power of a
centre-right coalition, Solidarity Election Action (AWS) which continued the
market
reforms and as a dominant
foreign policy pursued Poland's membership of
NATO and the EU; despite Russian misgivings, Poland along with Hungary and the
Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999. Despite
volatile party politics which failed to impress public expectations and
political scandals, Poland joined the EU in 2004. New political parties emerged
in 2005, with the traditionalist-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS)
winning a narrow parliamentary margin over the rival Civic Platform Party (PO).
The PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski's twin brother Lech Kaczynski was elected
President in a prolonged and bitterly fought contest. The PiS formed a minority
government under prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, but the quarrelsome and
unstable political climate led to his resignation; instead President Lech Kaczynski
appointed his twin brother Jaroslaw as prime minister, leading to a period of
controversial rule by the 'Terrible Twins'. Internally the PiS government
embarked on further 'lustrations' in what was seen as a political witch-hunt,
with a powerful Anti-Corruption Bureau investigating and prosecuting public
officials accused of corruption and links with organised crime and the former
communist security services. Internationally the Kaczynski brothers' defence of
Polish national interests and marked
pro-American stance
offended EU partners, particularly France and Germany, and
Russia. Coalition infighting caused the collapse of the PiS government in 2007,
and in the ensuing general elections, Civic Platform Party (PO) won an emphatic
victory with Donald Tusk as prime minister. To date the PO government has
continued to enjoy high ratings but has appeared over-cautious in introducing
critical economic reforms. On foreign policy, the Tusk administration has
achieved improvements in Poland's relations with the EU but less so with Russia.
Tragedy on a national scale hit Poland in April 2010 when the airliner carrying
President Kaczynski, ironically on the way to attend the commemoration ceremony marking the
70th anniversary of the Katyń Massacre, crashed killing some 90 leading
Polish government
officials, members of the diplomatic service and senior military officers. In
line with the constitution, the Speaker of the Sejm
Bronisław Komorowski assumed the position of Acting President, until new
Presidential elections are held on 20 June; there are 10 candidates, including Bronisław Komorowski and former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin
brother of the late president.
So
that's
the chequered and turbulent background story of Poland so far, with so much more
for us to learn and to understand as the country prepares to elect a new
president after the recent national tragedy. We hope
our travels will give the opportunity of learning
more for ourselves about Polish culture which has so resiliently withstood
centuries of oppression. We look forward also to discussing and understanding more about peoples'
lives in modern Poland as a fully-fledged EU democratic state, and their hopes for a politically and economically stable future. We set
off shortly and as usual shall be publishing
regular updates to our web site, with news and pictures
of our travels. Add the site to your Favourites and be sure of sharing our travels; we should welcome your companionship.