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Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911:

WARSAW.

WARSAW (Polish Warszawa, Ger. Warschau, Fr. Varsovie), the capital of Poland and chief town of the government of Warsaw. It is beautifully situated on the left bank of the Vistula, 387 m. by rail E. of Berlin, and 695 m. S.W. of St Petersburg. It stands on a terrace 120 to 130 ft. above the river, to which it descends by steep slopes, leaving a broad bench at its base.
The suburb of Praga on the right bank of the Vistula, here 450 to 660 yds. broad, is connected with Warsaw by two bridges — the railway bridge which passes close under the guns of the Alexander citadel to the north, and the Alexander bridge (1666 ft. long; built in 1865 at a cost of £634,000) in the centre of the town.

With its large population, its beautiful river, its ample communications and its commerce, its university and scientific societies, its palaces and numerous places of amusement, Warsaw is one of the most pleasant as well as one of the most animated cities of eastern Europe.
From a military point of view Warsaw is the chief stronghold for the defence of Poland; the Alexander citadel has been much improved, and the bridge across the Vistula is defended by a strong fort, Sliwicki.

Situated in a fertile plain, on a great navigable river, below its confluence with the Pillea and Wieprz, which drain southern Poland, and above its confluence with the Narew and Bug, which tap a wide region in the east, Warsaw became in medieval times the chief entrepôt for the trade of those fertile and populous valleys with western Europe. Owing to its position in the territory of Mazovia, which was neither Polish nor Lithuanian, and, so to say, remained neutral between the two rival powers which constituted the united kingdom, it became the capital of both, and secured advantages over the purely Polish Cracow and the Lithuanian Vilna.
And now, connected as it is by six trunk lines with Vienna, Kiev and south-western Russia, Moscow, St Petersburg, Danzig and Berlin, it is one of the most important commercial cities of eastern Europe. The south-western railway connects it with Lodz, the Manchester of Poland, and with the productive mineral region of Piotrkow and Kielce, which supply its steadily growing manufactures with coal and iron, so that Warsaw and its neighbourhood have become a centre for all kinds of manufactures.

The iron and steel industry has greatly developed, and produces large quantities of rails. The machinery works have suffered to some extent from competition with those of southern Russia, and find the high price of land a great obstacle in the way of extension. But the manufactures of plated silver, carriages, boots and shoes (annual turnover £8,457,000), millinery, hosiery, gloves, tobacco, sugar, and all sorts of small artistic house decorations, are of considerable importance, chiefly owing to the skill of the workers.
Trade is principally in the goods enumerated above, but the city is also a centre for trade in corn, leather and coal, and its two fairs (wool and hops) have a great reputation throughout western Russia. The wholesale deportations of Warsaw artisans after the Polish insurrections of 1794, 1831 and 1863 considerably checked, but by no means stopped, the industrial progress of the town. The barrier of custom-houses all round Poland, and the Russian rule, which militates against the progress of Polish science, technology and art, are so many obstacles to the development of its natural resources.

The population has nevertheless grown rapidly, from 161,008 in 1860, 276,000 in 1872 and 436,750 in 1887, to 756,426 in 1901; of these more than 25,000 are Germans, and one-third are Jews. The Russian garrison numbers over 30,000 men. Warsaw is an archiépiscopal see of the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, and the headquarters of the V., VI. and XV. Army Corps.

The streets of Warsaw are adorned with many fine buildings, partly palaces exhibiting the Polish nobility's love of display, partly churches and cathedrals, and partly public buildings erected by the municipality or by private bodies. Fine public gardens and several monuments further embellish the city.

The university (with 1500 students), founded in 1816 but closed in 1832, was again opened in 1869 as a Russian institution, the teaching being in Russian; it has a remarkable library of more than 500,000 volumes, rich natural history collections, a fine botanic garden and an astronomical observatory. The medical school enjoys high repute in the scientific world. The school of arts, the academy of agriculture and forestry', and the conservatory of music are all high-class institutions. The association of the friends of science and the historical and agricultural societies of Warsaw were once well known, but were suppressed after the insurrections, though they were subsequently revived.

The theatre for Polish drama and the ballet is a fine building, which includes two theatres under the same roof; but the pride of Warsaw is its theatre in the Lazienki gardens, which were laid out (1767-1788) in an old bed of the Vistula by King Stanislaus Poniatowski, and have beautiful shady alleys, artificial ponds, an elegant little palace with ceilings painted by Bacciarelli, several imperial villas and a monument (1788) to John Sobieski, king of Poland, who delivered Vienna from the Turks in 1683. Here an artificial ruin on an island makes an open-air theatre.
Two other public gardens, with alleys of old chestnut trees, are situated in the centre of the city. One of these, the Saski Ogrod, or Saxon garden (17 acres), which has a summer theatre and fine old trees, is one of the most beautiful in Europe; it is the resort of the Warsaw aristocracy. The Krasinski garden is the favourite promenade of the Jews.

The central point of the life of Warsaw is the former royal castle (Zamek Krolewski) on Sigismund Square. It was built by the dukes of Mazovia, enlarged by Sigismund III. (whose memorial stands opposite) and Ladislaus IV., and embellished by John Sobieski and Stanislaus Poniatowski. At present it is inhabited by the "governor- general of the provinces on the Vistula " (i.e. Poland), and by the military authorities. Most of its pictures and other art treasures have been removed to St Petersburg and Moscow.

Four main thoroughfares radiate from it; one, the Krakowskie Przedmiescie, the best street in Warsaw, runs southward. It is continued by the Nowy Swiat and the Ujazdowska Aleja avenue, which leads to the Lazienki gardens. Many fine buildings are found in and near these two streets: the church of St Anne (1454), which belonged formerly to a Bernardine monastery' ; the agricultural and industrial museum, with an ethnographical collection; the monument (1898) to the national poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855); the Alexander Nevski cathedral of the Orthodox Greek Church, built in 1894 and following years on the Saxon Square in the Byzantine style, with five gilded cupolas and a detached campanile, 238 ft. high ; close beside it the former Saxon palace, once the residence of the Polish kings but now used as military administrative offices; the Lutheran church, finished in 1799, one of the most conspicuous in Warsaw; a monument (1841) to the Polish generajs who held with Russia in 1830 and were therefore shot by their compatriots, removed to the Zielony Square in 1898 ; the buildings of the Art Association, erected in 1898-1900; the university (see above); the church of the Holy Ghost (1682-1696), with the heart and monument of the musician F. F. Chopin; a monument (1830) to the astronomer N. Kopernicus (1473-1543); the palaces of the families Zamoyski and Orclynacki (now the conservatory of music) ; the building of the Philharmonic Society (1899-1901); and the church of St Alexander, built in 1826 and splendidly restored in 1891. The Ujazdowska Aleja avenue, planted with lime-trees and bordered with cafés and places of amusement, is the Champs Elysées of Warsaw. It leads to the Lazienki park and to the Belvedere palace (1822), now the summer residence of the governor-general, and farther west to the Mokotowski parade ground, which is surrounded on the south and west by the manufacturing district.

Another principal street, the Marszalkowska, runs parallel to the Ujazdowska from the Saxon garden to this parade ground, on the south-east of which are the Russian barracks. The above-mentioned streets are crosáed by another series running west and east, the chief of them being the Senators, which begins at Sigismund Square and contains the best shops. The palace of the archbishop of Warsaw, the Imperial (Russian) Bank, formerly the Bank of Poland; the town hall (1725), burned in 1863, but rebuilt in 1870; the small Pod Blacha palace, now occupied by a chancery; the theatre (1833); the old mint; the beautiful Reformed church (1882); the Orthodox Greek cathedral of the Trinity, rebuilt in 1837; the Krasinski palace (1692), burned in 1782 but rebuilt; the place of meeting of the Polish diets, now the Supreme Court; the church of the Transfiguration, a thank- offering by John Sobieski for his victory of 1683, and containing his heart and that of Stanislaus Poniatowski; and several palaces are grouped in or near Senators' Street and Miodowa Street.
To the west Senators' Street is continued by Electors' Street, where is the very elegant church (1849) of St Charles Borromeo, and the Chlodna Street leading to the suburb of Wola, with a large field where the kings of Poland used to be elected. In Leshno Street, which branches oft from Senators' Street, are the Zelazna Brama, or Iron Gate; in the market-place the bazaar, the arsenal and the Wielopoiski barracks.

To the north of Sigismund Square is the old town — Stare Miasto — the Jewish quarter, and farther north still the Alexander citadel. The old town very much recalls old Germany by its narrow streets and antique buildings, the cathedral of St John, the most ancient church in Warsaw, having been built in the I3th century and restored in the I7th. The citadeï, erected in 1832-1835 as a punishment for the insurrection of 1831, is of the old type, with six forts too close to the walls of the fortress to be useful in modern warfare.

The suburb of Praga, on the right bank of the Vistula, is poorly built and often flooded; but the bloody assaults which led to its capture in 1794 by the Russians under Suvarov, and in 1831 by Paskevich, give it a name in history.
In the outskirts of Warsaw are various more or less noteworthy villas, palaces and battlefields. Willanow, the palace of John Sobieski, afterwards belonging to Count X. Bramcki, was partly built in 1678-1694 by Turkish prisoners in a fine Italian style, and is now renowned for its historical relics, portraits and pictures. It is situated to the south of Warsaw, together with the pretty pilgrimage church of Czerniakow, built by Prince Stanislaus Lubomirski in 1691, and many other fine villas (Morysinek, Natolin, Krolikarnia, which also has a picture gallery, Wierzbno and Mokotow).
Marymont, an old country residence of the wife of John Sobieski, and the Kaskada, much visited by the inhabitants of Warsaw, in the north, the Saska Kempa on the right bank of the Vistula, and the castle of Jablona down the Vistula are among others that deserve mention.
The castle and forest of Bielany (41m. N.), on the bank of the Vistula, are a popular holiday resort in the spring. Among the battlefields in the neighbourhood is that of Grochow where the Polish troops were defeated in 1831, and Wawer in the same quarter (E. of Praga), where Prince Joseph Poniatowski defeated the Austrians in the war of 1809; at Maciejowice, 50 m. up the Vistula, Kosciuszko was wounded and taken by the Russians in 1794; and 20 m. down the river stands the fortress of Modlin, now Novogeorgievsk.

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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 for 2023 is 37,991,766 (2008: 38,500,696). 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.

CIA World Factbook: Poland

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A Brief Outline of Polish History Konopczyński, 1920
A History of Poland Whitton 1917
A Brief History of Poland Orvis 1916
Slavonic Europe 1447-1796 Bain 1908
Poland: Land, People, Literature Brandes 1903
Poland Morfill 1893
Bone Caves of Ojcow in Poland Roemer 1884
Poets & Poetry of Poland Soboleski 1881
A Sketch of the History of Poland Galecki 1842
The History of Poland Fletcher 1840
Insurrection of Poland 1830-31 Gnorowski 1839
History of the Late Polish Revolution Hordynski 1832
Revolutions of Poland Desfontaines 1736
History of Poland Under Augustus II de Parthenay 1734

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Petersburg and Warsaw,, by A. P. O'Brien, 1864, p.117-:

Chapter XX.
WARSAW.

On the third of September, at half-past four o'clock in the morning, I left Wilna for Warsaw. At different stations along the line guards of soldiers were drawn up, and officers of every grade from general to ensign, all in full uniform, were standing about. Railway officials displayed an exuberance of zeal, and their badges of block-tin were unusually resplendent. Some wonderful Frenchman, connected with the mysterious company which had originally received the concession for this delectable line of railway, rushed madly up and down whenever the train stopped, shouting out hoarse words of command to the guards and engine-drivers...

The cause of all this holiday display and feverish excitement I did not learn till I reached the Warsaw station. There we were all hurried out of the train as quickly as possible and directed to enter the waiting-room, the doors of which were immediately locked.
Our train at once moved on, and was soon succeeded by another, a special one, in which were the Grand Duke Constantine and his suite.

The Grand Duke had been on a short visit to his brother, the Emperor Alexander, at St. Petersburg, for the purpose, it was said, of tendering his resignation as Viceroy of Poland. Through a window of the waiting-room I saw the Grand Duke descend from his carriage, and at the same moment the Grand Duchess with her children hurried forward to welcome him on his return. The platform was crowded with general officers in brilliant uniforms, who offered their respectful greetings to his Imperial Highness.
When the Grand Duke Constantine, the Grand Duchess and their children had driven away, and the military crowd on the platform had dispersed, the railway officials turned their attention to myself and fellow-travelers.

At the door of the station I had given up my passport to a police officer, and I was now directed to proceed to a little office in the waiting-room to get a receipt for that document. I mentioned who I was to the clerk, and he handed me a bit of lithographed paper, about two inches long and an inch wide, in which he had filled up in writing two vacant spaces, one with my name, the other with my date of arrival.
My baggage was then minutely searched, not for contraband goods, as I had last come from Wilna, but for incendiary documents, firearms, and infernal machnines. Nothing of a prohibited nature was found, and I was allowed to re-arrange my effects as well as I could, and lock my portmanteau and travelling-bag.
I then sent a porter for a carriage to take me to the hotel, and, during his absence, which lasted about half an hour, a police officer that I had not seen before came and asked me if I had in my pockets any forbidden documents or any weapons. I answered in the negative; but he seemed to doubt what I said, for he proceeded to search me...

I drove from the station to the wooden pontoon-bridge which crosses the Vistula from the suburb of Praga to the town of Warsaw. As we proceeded at a moderate pace, I had an opportunity of admiring the appearance of the city from that point of view, which is, perhaps, one of the best.
The most striking object was a huge pile of building crowning an eminence on my right hand. The walls were covered with stucco, painted of a dull yellow colour, and entirely devoid of architectural beauty of any kind. Its massive dimensions, however, and its position on a height which rises perpendicularly from the level of the river, give it an imposing appearance. This was the zamek, or Royal Palace.

By a winding road we ascended slowly from the river's banks till we came to the open place in front of the Vice-regal residence, on one side of which stands a very thin column of about fifty feet high, with an enormous capital of the composite order, on which is the statue of the Polish king, Sigismund III. So entirely out of proportion is the diameter of the shaft of the column with the size of the superstructure that, at a distance, you might take the statue for an acrobat balancing himself on the end of a pole.

We turned to the right out of this open place, and drove along the "Regent Street" of Warsaw, which is called in French the Faubourg de Cracovie. I was agreeably surprised at the animation of the scene. The footpaths were thronged with pedestrians, and the carriage-way crowded with vehicles of every description.
There was nothing to indicate to a superficial observer that the town was in a state of siege. The number of military was not greater than in the Nefskoi Prospekt at St. Petersburg, and the only feature which corresponded with what I had read of Warsaw in the newspapers was that the men all wore caps or wide-awake hats, and that the women were dressed in black.
About ten minutes driving from the zamek brought me to the Hôtel de l' Europe.
It was a large, oblong block, four stories high, with two entrances, one through a courtyard in the Faubourg de Cracovie, and the other, and principal one, in the immense platz, which runs from the latter street to the Saxon Gardens. This hotel was built by subscription, and is conducted something on the principle of the Hôtel de Louvre at Paris, each floor being a sort of separate establishment under the care of a superintendent.
The prices were moderate, but the rent of the apartments was arranged in what seemed to me an original manner. The sleeping-rooms on the first floor contained each two or more beds, and you were charged in the bill according to that number. The waiter assured me that no person of condition ever thought of sleeping in anything under a double-bedded room at least, and that a traveller's social position was known by the number of beds in his apartment, just as the rank of a mandarin is know by his buttons.

Not being ambitious, I fixed upon a room with two beds, agreeing to pay for both, as if I had been, not "two single gentlemen rolled into one," but like Mrs. Malaprop's Cerebrus, "two gentlemen at once."
"You have an English lord for a neighbour," said the waiter.
"And how many beds does he pay for?" I asked.
"He pays for seven," said the waiter, with a look of pride, "a British peer could not pay for less. He is a great man," continued the waiter, "he has promised the Polish patriots to send an English army to their assistance if they will only hold out against the Russians a little longer. He is brave, too: he would not salute the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess when they drove past him in the street the other day."

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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Chapter XX.WARSAW.

Chapter XX.
WARSAW.