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The Republic of Poland is located in north central Europe, with a coastline on the Baltic Sea, and seven other nations on its borders. The capital is Warsaw. The area of Poland is 120,728 square miles (312,685 square km). The estimated population of Poland in July, 2004 was 38,626,349. The official language is Polish. Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived around the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. Poland regained its independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. It became a Soviet satellite state following the war, but its government was comparatively tolerant and progressive. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" that over time became a political force and by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. ...Poland currently suffers low GDP growth and high unemployment. Solidarity suffered a major defeat in the 2001 parliamentary elections when it failed to elect a single deputy to the lower house of Parliament, and the new leaders of the Solidarity Trade Union subsequently pledged to reduce the Trade Union's political role. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. -- The CIA World Factbook: Poland
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TIME Magazine, February 17, 1947, p. 33: FOREIGN NEWS: POLAND: "We Are All Gentlemen" The scene was Warsaw's renovated, horseshoe-shaped Parliament Hall. One by one, the members walked to a wicker basket in front of the speaker's dias to vote in Poland's first postwar presidential election. Everyone knew that the winner would be Boleslaw Bierut, who for 24 months had been the Communist-stooge Provisional President. Midway in the voting, rolypoly Speaker Wladislaw Kowalski rang for order. Gravely he announced: "Some of you have been putting ballots into the basket openly. This is a secret vote. You must fold your ballots, so your choice cannot be seen." The irony was not lost on the Parliament's few true democrats. The essence of a democratic popular election is a secret ballot, but most of the members had been chosen in a terror-ridden election in which most voters had cast open ballots in plain view of the Government's poll watchers (TIME, Jan. 27). On the other hand, democratic practice usually calls for an open vote by elected representatives, so that their constituents can check up on them. Poland's rulers have just reversed Western democratic procedure. Stubborn, glum Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, the Polish Peasant Party's leader, tried, amidst jeers, to block the steamroller. Although he and 25 members of his party, now the sole opposition in Parliament, dropped blank votes in the basket, the result was foregone. Next day Bierut named husky, hard-faced 35-year-old Josef Cyrankiewicz, an able and energetic left-wing Socialist, as Premier. Egg-bald Cyrankiewicz is a onetime artillery officer who was liberated by U.S. troops from the infamous German prison camp at Mauthausen. He has come up fast. Right-wing Socialists accuse him of double-crossing them and swinging to the left after advising them not to. He gets along well with the Communists. "Mistreatment & Cordiality. As expected, Cyrankiewicz's Cabinet marked a leftward swing. Mikolajzyk was out as Vice Premier and Minister of Agriculture; also out were two of Mikolajczyk's partymen. In his place was Russian-trained Wladyslaw Gomulka, the Communist Party's secretary. Undisturbed in his sub-Cabinet post of Under Secretary of State, but stronger than ever behind the scenes, was Moscow-trained Jakub Berman, Poland's real boss. Bierut's seven-year term as President began with much ceremony, flecked with U.S. and British icicles. Britain's Ambassador Victor Cavendish-Bentinck and U.S. Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane stayed away from the Parliament's opening, a mild underscoring of their Governments' protests that it was unfairly elected... To answer that charge, Poland's Government announced that 68 of its Electoral Commission members and guard had been killed "by the underground" during the election campaign. Mikolajczyk had said that 18 of his party's workers had been killed or died of "mistreatment." The niceties of diplomacy were not entirely ignored. President Bierut held a formal reception (the invitations specified le cutaway). Britain's Cavendish-Bentinck and the U.S.'s Lane showed up, shook Bierut's hand, drank his health, sat for an hour at a big round table and exchanged pleasantries with Bierut. There was no hint of tension or mention of terror. Explained a Pole: "Everyone was extremely cordial and polite; after all, we are all gentlemen." |
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