Illustration: Bartosz Stefaniak
100th anniversary of Poland’s independence
For a long time Poland had no luck. In the aftermath of a detrimental conjunction of factors, the once mighty Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist in 1795, dismantled by Russia, Prussia and Austria. Although Poles have done a lot to preserve their identity under foreign occupation, for over a century all their attempts to restore political independence eventually failed. With the outbreak of WWI in 1914 Poles found themselves conBartosz Stefaniak scripted into the armies of the partitionis Poland Today's ing powers in a war that was not theirs. co-founder and Furthermore, they were often forced creative director. He to fight each other, since the armies has cooperated with of Germany and Austria-Hungary Le Monde and Agence France Presse among were allied against Russia. The major other media. Bartosz turbulence that engulfed those three has also worked with countries, however, also opened an Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs unprecedented window of geopolitical on different projects. opportunity for the cause of Poland's He runs a blog about independence. Polish statesmen saw the balance of power in international relations in advance the emerging chance and (facebook.com/3wojna). knew how to make use of it. Thanks to For more information their efforts, on 11 November 1918, after go to madeinPolska.eu 123 years of foreign occupation, Polish statehood was restored over the ruins of the German and Austro-Hungarian monarchies which lost the war, and Tsarist Russia which collapsed under the communist revolution. Back in 1918, when Poland rose from the ashes, nothing was granted except for the formal recognition of the new Polish state by the victorious Allied Powers. Today, one hundred years later, Poland is experiencing what appears to be its best time for centuries. The following pages show the events which have made Poland the country it is today.
1918 11 November 1918:
Poland re-emerged as an independent political entity after 123 years of foreign occupation.
independence had been successfully pitched to the Allied Powers in Paris by Roman Dmowski (below left) and Ignacy Paderewski (below centre). As a result, the claim for Poland's independence was included as part of the peace negotiations with the Central Powers. In the Armistice terms imposed on Germany, all German forces were forced to stand down in Poland and other occupied areas. As the war ended, the Germans sent Józef Piłsudski (pictured right, in the centre), then under arrest for disobeying their orders, back to Warsaw. On 11 November 1918, with the formal end of WWI, Piłsudski took control from the puppet government the Germans had set up in Warsaw a few weeks earlier. This act marked the begining of Poland's sovereignty. Although formally independent, all Poland had at that time was the recognition of its statehood by the Allied Powers. Everything else had to be won, including the state's borders, or built from scratch. The new country required its own institutions, its own legal and monetary system as well as its own infrastructure.
Right: Józef Piłsudski
Above: Ignacy Jan
selection by Bartosz Stefaniak
100th anniversary of independence
By the end of WWI, the concept of Poland's
Above: In 1915,
Roman Dmowski, convinced of Russia's impending defeat, began campaigning on behalf of Polish independence in the capitals of the western Allies. In 1917, in Lausanne, he founded the Polish National Committee, recognised by the Allied Powers as the legitimate representative of Polish interests until late 1918, when the first Polish government took control of the country.
Paderewski was a pianist and composer. His worldwide musical fame granted him access to diplomacy and the press, which eventually made him a major spokesman for Polish independence. In 1918, Paderewski played an important role in persuading US President Woodrow Wilson to include the question of Poland's independence as part of the peace negotiations with Central Powers. A few months later, he was chosen as Prime Minister of the newly reborn Poland and represented the country at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.
correctly predicted the outbreak of a major war, the Russian Empire's defeat by the Central Powers, and the Central Powers' defeat by the western Allies. Concluding that Poland's independence would have to be won militarily, a few weeks after WWI began he formed the Polish Legions, a military force that fought alongside AustriaHungary against Russia and later became the backbone of the Polish Army. In 1917, with both AustriaHungary and Russia faring poorly in the war, Piłsudski withdrew his support for the Central Powers. In November 1918, when Poland regained its independence, he became Head of State. Between 1919 and 1921, he commanded Polish forces in six border wars that shaped the country's territory until 1938. Pictured right is Józef Piłsudski with his officers shortly after the end of WWI.
Poland’s century See following pages for a selection of facts and events by Bartosz Stefaniak
photos: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Wikipedia
In 1918, with the end of WWI and the collapse of the three empires that had wiped Poland off the map in 1795, Poland re-emerged as a sovereign state. Here's what came next.
1919 1928 Decade of emerging from chaos.
The reborn Polish state faced the challenge of unifying disparate regions which had been part of different countries since the late 18th century and therefore had little or no infrastructural or economic links. This all took place while Poland faced unstable internal and external conditions.
100th anniversary of independence
Above: Although Poland's independence
had been legitimised by WWI's victorious powers through the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, most of its territory had to be won back in a series of border wars fought from 1918 to 1921 under the command of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. Most notably, victory against the USSR prevented the loss of the newly-gained Polish independence but also the potential spread of Soviet revolution into West Europe. Pictured above: Polish soldiers with captured banners of the Red Army.
Above: The Polish-Soviet War (1919-21)
shaped Poland's eastern border and, as a result, Ukrainians and Belarusians became the bulk of the population in the country's eastern voivodeships. According to a 1921 census, the total population of the country totalled 25.6m people, of whom only 69% were of Polish nationality. The biggest ethnic minority groups were Ukrainian (15%), Jewish (8%), Belarusian (4%) and German (3%). Pictured: Ukrainians in Eastern Poland in their traditional outfits.
Left: After 123 years
of non-existence, the Polish state re-emerged as a parliamentary democracy. However, it was marred by constant internal tensions and political instability that resulted, for example, in the assassination of Poland's first president, Gabriel Narutowicz in 1922, just five days after his appointment to the office.
Left: The newly
independent Poland inherited the remnants of three different economic systems and five different currencies from its previous occupiers. Following hyperinflation and monetary chaos in the years after WWI, the Polish złoty was reintroduced as Poland’s currency in 1924.
Left: The reborn country gained access to the Baltic Sea but lacked any coastal infrastructure so, in 1920, the government began building its flagship military and trade port in Gdynia. The new port started operations in 1923 and eventually became Poland's window to the world – by 1938 it was servicing 80% of Polish exports and 65% of Polish imports.
Above: Polish
national radio station Polskie Radio began making regular broadcasts from Warsaw in 1926. Mass media had a great role in building a sense of national unity and awareness among people living in distant parts of the country.
Left: The first regular airline in Poland was
photos: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Wikipedia
created in 1922. Aerolloyd - operating under the name Aerolot since 1925 - had a fleet of 17 planes and maintained a 100% safety record throughout its existence. The service was nationalised in 1928, becoming the core of LOT Polish Airlines, Poland's flagship carrier to this day. Pictured are Aerolot's planes in Warsaw's airport, 1927.
On the right and above: Poland's young parliamentary democracy, proving unstable and erratic, met its end in 1926 when Marshal Józef Piłsudski seized power in a coup. For the next decade, Piłsudski (pictured left) dominated Polish affairs as strongman of an authoritarian centrist regime. His personal authority was widely recognised in the nation for his previous merits as one of the country's founding fathers and its victorious military commander. Pictured right: the army on the streets of Warsaw during the coup. Pictured above: a crowd gathering over the body of one of the 600 casualties caused by the coup.
1929 1938 Decade of crisis and consolidation.
100th anniversary of independence
Poland was heavily affected by the Great Depression, yet it successfully overcame it, consolidated its potential and began growing impressively. Unfortunately, dark clouds were already gathering on the horizon, as the international situation became increasingly tense towards the end of the decade.
Left and above: The 1929 financial crash se-
verely affected Poland as the inflow of foreign capital dried up. As a result, between 1930 and 1933, the country suffered a decline of over 20% in GDP. The worst year for the Polish economy was 1932: total industrial production was around 40% lower than in 1928 and unemployment (beyond farming) was estimated at 44%. Above: a donation certificate for a winter help fund for the unemployed. Left: a damaged storefront after a crowd of unemployed triggered riots in the city of Poznań (1936).
Left and right:
The ideologically centrist military regime established in 1926 by Piłsudski outlived its founder. At the cost of suppressing democratic mechanisms, the authoritarian regime prevented Poland from slipping into internal instability at a time when extremism was becoming increasingly popular on both the right and the left of the political spectrum. Pictured right is the funeral of Piłsudski in 1935 in Warsaw. Pictured left are political prisoners deepening an irrigation canal (mid-1930s).
Left: In the interwar period, Poland was one of the most dynamic centres of the avant-garde in Europe, with artists such as Władysław Strzemiński, Katarzyna Kobro, Henryk Stażewski and Henryk Berlewi. The abstract sculptures of Katarzyna Kobro are some of the greatest examples of Polish Constructivism (pictured).
In 1937–1938 the Soviet NKVD
carried out a mass operation against Polish nationals living within the boundaries of USSR: 140,000 were sentenced for alleged espionage, of whom 110,000 were executed.
Left: Luxtorpeda,
a single, first-class only railcar built in Poland starting from 1936. It was fueled with a diesel engine and was able to achieve a maximum speed of 120 km/h. The railcars operated on the most important rail routes of Poland.
Below: The Polish
economy returned to growth by 1934 and grew by over 19% in 1937. Unable to attract sufficient capital from abroad, the government sought to internally accumulate capital by turning to statism, creating a huge investment programme in public works and stimulating private initiatives. Industrial production (index of 100 in 1928) grew from 45.5 in 1932 to 125.8 in 1939. Pictured is a leaflet of Poland's long-term national investment plan, a continuation of the government’s 1936 short-term plan. The ambitious plan was never finished, due to WWII.
Left and below: Ur-
ban development in interwar Poland was based on modernist principles. Left is the Prudential, Europe's second tallest building (66 m) at the time of its opening in 1933. Below is a modernist complex in the mountain resort of Krynica.
Above: One
of the biggest economic projects of interwar Poland was the establishment of the Central Industrial District in 1936. The concept consisted of the development of both civilian and military industry in a strategically secure region that was relatively remote from the country's western and eastern border (as Poland was expecting possible Nazi or Soviet aggression). However, only a few of the intended projects were completely operational before WWII broke out. Pictured are the ironworks in Stalowa Wola.
photos: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Wikipedia
Below: Interwar Poland had colonial ambitions, yet they were never fulfilled. Pictured is a procession of the Maritime and Colonial League, an organisation that had around one million members on the eve of WWII.
Right: In late 1938, Poland took advantage of Nazi Germany’s land grab of Czechoslovakia and seized the disputed area of Cieszyn Silesia (roughly the size of Warsaw), previously a theatre in a border conflict in 1919 between the two newly-created states.
1939 1948 Decade of calamity. WWII was an
100th anniversary of independence
unprecedented disaster for Poland. The country lost not only most of what it had achieved in the previous 20 years, but also lost 16% of its pre-war population - the highest rate of all states involved in the conflict. Poland was at war from the moment it broke out in Europe until its final day; yet the war did not end for Poland with the fall of the Nazi regime. Although the country was formally among the victorious Allied states, it fell into the Soviet zone of influence following a series of agreements between the USSR, USA and UK, eventually becoming a puppet state of one of its 1939 invaders.
Left: WWII started in September 1939 when
Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, followed soon after by the USSR from the east in accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, concerning the partition of Eastern Europe. Pictured are Red Army troops chatting with Wehrmacht soldiers during a joint victory parade in the Polish town of Brześć Litewski, where the two invading armies met on 22 September 1939.
Above: Both invaders
started a campaign of expulsions and ethnic cleansing on the conquered territories. Pictured is one of the mass graves of the 22,000 Polish officers executed by Soviet forces in 1940 in the forest of Katyń. The Polish intellectual leadership was the primary target for both the Soviets and the Nazis.
Right: As the country was unable to withstand
two totalitarian regimes at once, the Polish government fled west in late September 1939 with a significant number of troops, while all its structures in Poland went into in conspiracy mode. The Home Army - estimated to have 400,000 members at its peak - carried out direct actions against the invaders, but the underground state was not purely military in its structure. It also provided various civilian functions such as education, civil courts, culture and social services. It is estimated that Polish agents provided British intelligence with over 50% of its data from the continent.
Left: According to
the Nazi ‘Generalplan Ost’, ethnic Poles were second after Jews in the queue to extermination. Ultimately, 85% of Polish nationals were to be eliminated, while the remaining 15% were to be left as slave labour. Pictured are Germans during an execution of civilians in the town of Bochnia (1939).
Above: Pre-war Poland was home to
the biggest Jewish population in Europe (around 3.3m people), thus occupied Poland became the major site of the ‘final solution’ orchestrated by Nazi Germany. Around 90% of the local prewar Jewish population did not survive the Holocaust, making up half of Poland's total six million loss in population. Pictured is the German death camp in Auschwitz, built in 1940 initially for ethnic Poles, where over 1.1m people (mostly of Jewish ethnicity) lost their lives until its liberation by the Red Army in January 1945.
Above: The first
official account of the Holocaust was a report addressed to the United Nations issued in 1942 by the Polish government-inexile. It was based on intelligence data from occupied Poland gathered by Jan Karski.
Internal ethnic tensions, although present
in prewar Poland, broke out anew during WWII, often orchestrated by the Nazis. It resulted in multiple pogroms of Jewish population by their Polish neighbours, as well as in the massacre of Poles in Volhynia carried out by Ukrainian nationalists.
Right: In the aftermath of the Nazi attack on
USSR, Stalin agreed to release thousands of Polish prisoners in an attempt to use them against Hitler. As a result, in early 1943 the Soviets established the Polish People's Army, a military force under strict Soviet command. They also created the Union of Polish Patriots, which later became a communist puppet counter-government to the Polish government-in-exile operating from London. Pictured is the signing of the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement (London, July 1941) which recognised Poland and USSR as formal allies in the struggle against Hitler and paved the way for the release of Poles detained in Soviet Gulags.
Below: Poles fought not only at home but
also on all European fronts and beyond. Polish soldiers took part in campaigns in France (1940), Norway (1940), the Battle of Britain (1940), the Battle of the Atlantic (1939-45), Northern Africa (1943), Italy (1944-45), the Western Front (194445) and the Eastern Front (1943-45). Over two million Poles took part in the fight, be it within regular army units or partisan units. Pictured is a soldier of the Polish People's Army holding a Polish flag above the Victory Column in Berlin (May 1945).
Above: The fall of Berlin in May 1945
did not mark the end of WWII for Poland. Due to agreements signed in Yalta in February 1945 between the USSR, USA and UK, Poland fell into the Soviet zone of influence. Although the Soviets managed to install a loyal government in Warsaw, its authority over the country had to be enforced, as most did not view it as a legal successor of Poland's pre-war government. A new wave of arrests and deportations took place, similar to those during the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in 1939-1941. Despite the fact that WWII had formally come to an end, the new Soviet-backed Polish authorities had to face armed anti-communist insurgency groups known as ‘cursed soldiers’ that carried out raids on communist prisons and encampments. They killed scores of Soviet agents and freed countless political prisoners. The last known ‘cursed soldier’ was killed in an ambush as late as 1963, almost 20 years after the Soviet takeover of Poland. Pictured above are Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin during the conference in Yalta.
Above and above right: The most notable act of partisan warfare undertaken by the Polish Underground State was the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. It was part of Operation ‘Tempest’, attempting to seize control of areas occupied by the Nazis while they were preparing their defenses against the advancing Red Army. Polish underground authorities aimed to take power before the arrival of the Soviets and thus prevent a Soviet puppet government from being installed. The uprising lasted 63 days and eventually failed at the cost of an estimated 150-200,000 civilian casualties and Warsaw being razed to the ground.
photos: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, IPN, Muzeum Historii Polski, Wikipedia
Left: Compared to
Above: In March 1945, the Soviets invited
16 leaders of Poland's wartime Underground State - including the Home Army and civil authorities - to Moscow to negotiate their possible participation in the Soviet-backed provisional government of national unity for post-war Poland. The Polish politicians were presented with a warrant of safety, but instead they were arrested and given a show trial, having been charged of illegal activity against the USSR. Pictured is General Leopold Okulicki, head of the Home Army, after being arrested by the NKVD.
Poland's borders
in 1948 compared to 1939: – territorial loses in red, – territorial gains in green.
its pre-war borders, post-war Poland was moved west by Stalin into formerly German territories. Meanwhile, Poland lost its pre-war eastern provinces, which were predominantly populated by Ukrainians and Belarusians. The border shift included the expulsion of two million Germans from the newly acquired territories, as well as a forced resettlement of three million Poles living in the areas that became incorporated into USSR. Post-war Poland lost 19% of its prewar territory, yet it became almost entirely ethnically homogenous.
Above: By 1946, the newly established
Soviet-backed provisional government held a fraudulent national referendum that approved economic nationalisation, land reform and a unicameral parliament. A pro-regime coalition of left wing parties was established to participate in the first parliamentary election in postwar Poland in 1947, eventually winning it by fraud. By 1948, the victorious coalition morphed into the single communist party (PZPR) which kept control of the country for the upcoming decades. Pictured is a propaganda poster promoting the referendum.
1949 1958
Below: Post-war Poland under Stalin's rule became a totalitarian state with omnipresent terror and paranoia of counter-espionage executed by the ministry of public security. Soviet advisers were placed in every arm of the government and state security as a guarantee of the pro-Soviet influence of the state. The communist rule was also backed by tens of thousands of Red Army troops that remained in Poland after WWII. In 1953, at the peak of Stalinism, the secret police totalled 32,000 officers and 85,000 secret agents hidden within the society. No one felt safe, even in the highest ranks of the communist regime itself. Pictured is a trial in 1951.
Decade of totalitarianism and relief.
After the Soviets installed their administrative structures in Poland and removed any meaningful armed resistance, they transformed the country into a smaller version of the USSR under Stalin's rule. This involved all aspects of social activity. Stalinist influence lasted beyond Stalin's death. Liberalisation from hardline and partial autonomy from the USSR only became possible in 1956, after Nikita Khrushchev broke away from Stalin's legacy.
Above: By 1949,
100th anniversary of independence
Above: Soviet-style centralised state planning
was introduced in the Six-Year Plan, which began in 1950. The plan called for accelerated development of heavy industry and forced collectivisation of agriculture. The state also took control of nearly all commercial and industrial enterprises, leaving only family-run shops in the private sector that were harassed by bureaucratic requirements set by the government. Pictured is the construction site of Nowa Huta steel mill, the biggest of all investments approved by the plan, which included also a whole new residential district for Kraków.
Above: The
Stalinist regime was particularly eager to persecute anyone who was involved in Poland's wartime Underground State. Pictured is the English edition of a book by Kazimierz Moczarski, head of Bureau of Information and Propaganda of Poland's wartime partisan Home Army. Jailed by the communist regime, he shared his prison cell with the Nazi war criminal Jürgen Stroop, against whom he fought just a few years earlier.
Right: Bolesław
Above: A new constitution based on the
constitution of USSR was imposed in 1952. The new framework broke the tradition of separation of powers and established the worker– peasant alliance as the leading force in Polish society, exerted by the communist monoparty, PZPR. Pictured is the first draft of the constitution in Russian, with personal revisions by Stalin and his handwritten remarks.
Bierut, a pre-war Polish communist, NKVD agent and protégé of Stalin, was Poland's leading figure under Stalinist rule. From 1947, he served as president of Poland until the abolition of the presidency in 1952. Then, he served as Poland's prime minister until 1954 and was also the first secretary general of the ruling communist monoparty PZPR from 1948 to 1956. He mysteriously died during a visit to Moscow in 1956, three years after the death of Stalin. Pictured is a propaganda poster with his mentor.
the USSR concluded a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with Poland, which, among other things, granted the Soviet Union the formal right to a continued military presence on Poland's territory. By 1955, the countries under Soviet occupation signed a treaty of collective defense in Warsaw known as the Warsaw Pact, which was created as a response to NATO. In 1956, Poland and the USSR signed a dedicated treaty to fully regulate the Soviet military presence in Poland. Red Army troops in Poland were, however, exempt from any Polish oversight.
Left: The regime
aimed to enhance the rise of labour productivity by promoting competition between workers and awarding the best of them with the title of ‘Model Worker’, which was seen as the vanguard of the communist movement.
Right: Named after
the city of Warsaw, FSO Warszawa was the first car produced in Poland after WWII. The vehicle was built under Soviet licence and was identical to the GAZ-M20 ‘Pobeda’. Production started in 1951 and lasted until 1973. Over 250,000 were built in total.
Left: Hope for liber-
Left and above: Post-
alisation within the Soviet-imposed regime arose following the death of Stalin in 1953, yet real change only occurred in 1956 after the events known as the Polish October. Pictured is a newspaper announcing Stalin’s death.
photos: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, IPN, Wikipedia
Right & below:
Below: Early on, the communist government avoided persecuting the Catholic Church, and instead sought to stir up anticlerical sentiment within Poland’s traditionally religious society. On the other side, the Polish Catholic clergy denounced the atheism of the regime. In 1949, the Vatican's excommunication of Catholics involved in the PZPR brought open hostility from both sides, including direct repressions against church officials. Pictured is Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński leading a Corpus Christi procession in Warsaw in 1957, shortly after his release from a three year conviction.
The thaw came in 1956. Workers protests in Poznań (right) involved tens of thousands and were brutally squashed (below right), but highlighted the general dissatisfaction of the people. A few months later, taking advantage of a change of policy inside the USSR, a reformist faction led by Władysław Gomułka (below) came into power in Poland and eventually abated the pervasive Stalinist terror. Many political prisoners were released as part of a general amnesty. Repressions, censorship and propaganda still shaped Poland's internal politics, yet became less intense.
Left: The loosened
censorship resulted in, for example, the creation of ‘Ashes and Diamonds’ (1958), a masterpiece of Polish cinema directed by the future Oscar winner Andrzej Wajda, about the neglected and persecuted soldiers of the wartime Home Army.
war modernisation was fashioned according to the principles of socialist realism, an artistic style characterised by the glorified depiction of communist values and a romanticised vision of a perfect future society. Other artistic styles were banned because they were considered to be ideologically inspired by the hostile and decadent capitalist West. Socialist realism shaped the whole realm of visual arts, from painting to architecture. Pictured is the Palace of Culture and Science, which dominated the landscape of post-war Warsaw. Opened in 1955, it is the most notable example of socialist realism in Poland.
1959 1968
Left: Józef Franczak, the last known of the ‘cursed soldiers’ who took to anti-communist partisan warfare after WWII, was killed in an ambush in 1963, almost 20 years after the Soviet takeover of Poland. Pictured is Franczak as a young corporal on the eve of WWII.
Decade of increasing stagnation.
Left: ‘Knife in the Water’ (1962) was Roman
Polański's debut as a movie director. The drama features three characters in a story of rivalry and sexual tension and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1963 Academy Awards, the first Polish motion picture to receive this kind of recognition.
100th anniversary of independence
After the initial post-war development boom in the 1950s, the ineffective centrally planned economy began stagnating. This led to a general dissatisfaction with the performance of Władysław Gomułka's regime and a growing demand for reforms. Afraid of destabilising the system, Gomułka was, however, not inclined towards any social or economic changes and eventually turned to a more rigid and authoritarian policy.
Below: After socialist realism has been repudiated as the dominant style in visual arts, Poland again embraced modernist principles in architecture. Pictured is the Za Żelazną Bramą estate in Warsaw, raised between 1965 and 1972. Left: The establishment of the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole in 1963 was one of the milestones that led to the emergence of modern Polish pop culture. Pictured is the ‘Alibabki’ band performing a show during the third edition of the festival in 1965.
Above: Official state celebrations of the millennial jubilee of Polish statehood. Pictured are people taking part in a parade in Warsaw, 22 July 1966.
Right: Polish bishops addressed their Ger-
man counterparts in an open letter in 1965, asking for mutual forgiveness and inviting them to celebrate together the millennial anniversary of Poland's adoption of christianity in 966. The letter eventually became a groundbreaking factor in the reconciliation between Poland and Germany following the tragedies of WWII. One year later, the millennial anniversary of the baptism of Poland also recognised as the establishment of Polish statehood - became an opportunity for the people to manifest patriotism in opposition to the official secular celebrations organised by the regime. Pictured is an open-air mass in the city of Kielce in 1966, celebrated by Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II.
Above and left:
photos: Janusz Sobolewski (Forum), Jan Morek (Forum), Tadeusz Zagoździński (PAP), Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, IPN, Wikipedia
General dissatisfaction with the political performance of Władysław Gomułka's regime (pictured above with Leonid Brezhnev) led to a political crisis in March 1968 when a series of major student, intellectual and other protests took place. Gomułka could not risk a Soviet invasion similar to that in Czechoslovakia and managed to handle the crisis internally. It resulted in the suppression of student strikes by security forces (pictured left) in all major academic centres across the country and the subsequent repression of its participants.
Above: The jubilee of
1,000 years of Polish statehood in 1966 was commemorated by the authorities with the construction of over 1,400 schools across the country, contributing greatly in raising the availability of education. Pictured is one school in the rural area of Węgierska Górka.
Right: In a desperate act of protest against
Poland's participation in the Warsaw Pact's invasion of Czechoslovakia, Ryszard Siwiec, a Polish accountant and former Home Army resistance member, committed suicide by selfimmolation in front of tens of thousands spectators during a national harvest festival taking place on 8 September 1968 at the national stadium in Warsaw.
Above: Following
Israel's strategic pivot towards the US and Soviet withdrawal of diplomatic relations with Israel in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, a power struggle erupted within the Polish communist party in early 1968. Its Jewish faction began to be portrayed as internal enemies by the party's nationalist wing. As a result of an anti-Jewish campaign, at least 13,000 Poles of Jewish origin were forced to emigrate from Poland. Among them were not only party officials and secret police functionaries but also many non-partisan academics and people of culture. Pictured is an anti-semitic propaganda rally in 1968.
Below: In 1968, Poland took part in
the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia aimed at suppressing the events known as the Prague Spring. After an attempt by Czechoslovak reformists to partially decentralise the economy and democratise the country, half a million soldiers and over 5,000 tanks of the Warsaw Pact from the USSR, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland entered the country to restore the previous order. The intervention killed 137 civilians and seriously wounded 500 more. Pictured is a burning tank on the streets of Prague.
1969 1978 Decade of miracle on credit. The un-
100th anniversary of independence
solvable problems of the centrally planned economy resulted in a rolling deterioration of the availability of basic goods. Protests against a rise of consumer prices which erupted in 1970 in the cities on Poland's Baltic coast were forerunners of a change in power. Edward Gierek, the new First Secretary of the communist party replaced Gomułka and promoted the idea of a new opening with the west and an intensive modernisation programme fuelled by unsustainable foreign loans. After the initial boom, the ineffectual centrally planned economy faced growing difficulties in handling debt payments, which ended with a major crisis by the end of the decade.
Above: In the treaty with West Ger-
many, signed in December 1970 at the end of Gomułka's period in office, Germany recognised the post-World War II borders, establishing a foundation for future peace, stability and cooperation in Central Europe. Pictured is West German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw.
Above & right: The downfall of the Gomułka regime in December 1970 was triggered by a protest of shipyard workers in Gdańsk against drastic price rises of basic goods. When strikes spread from Gdańsk to other Baltic cities, security forces responded with brutal force. During the clashes, several dozen workers were fatally shot. The tragic events forced Gomułka's resignation and retirement. In a generational replacement of the ruling elite, Edward Gierek (pictured right) took over Party leadership and the price increases were rescinded and tensions eased. Pictured above are demonstrators in Gdynia carrying the body of one of their fallen.
Above & right:
Since the riots that brought down Gomułka were caused primarily by economic difficulties, Edward Gierek promised economic reform and instituted a program to modernise industry and increase the availability of consumer goods. His reform was, however, based primarily on unsustainable large scale foreign borrowing, without any major systemic restructuring of the centrally planned Polish economy. Pictured is the construction of Huta Katowice steelworks in 1976, the flagship investment of Edward Gierek's administration.
Above & left: Edward Gierek opened up
Poland to Western influence not only by taking loans from abroad but also by purchasing licenses for different consumer goods. One example was the Italian Fiat 126, which became the first car available for an average Polish family. Production in Poland started in 1972 and lasted until 2000, with a total production of over 4.5 million cars. Another licensed consumer good was Coca-Cola, production of which started in Poland in 1972. Pictured above are brand new Fiats on the factory lot in Tychy, 1978. Pictured left are bottles of CocaCola leaving the production line in Warsaw in 1972.
Right: As time passed, Poland’s economic
Below: In the aftermath of the June 1976 protests, the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR), was established in September to help persecuted worker protesters. The organisation was the first major anti-communist civic group in Poland, as well as in the whole of Eastern Europe. Pictured are KOR members during a hunger strike in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw (1979). From left to right: Anna Kowalska, Antoni Macierewicz, Jacek Bierezin and Adam Michnik.
situation worsened and the regime returned to the idea of raising prices of basic commodities. It resulted in a new wave of workers riots in June 1976. The largest demonstrations took place in Płock, Ursus, and Radom. Pictured is the local communist party office in Radom set on fire by the protesting crowd.
Below: Poland finished third at the 1974 World
photos: Andrzej Wiernicki (Forum), Mirosław Stankiewicz (Forum), Krzysztof Pawela (Forum), Stanisław Kokurewicz (Forum), Jan Morek (Forum), Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Ośrodek Karta, Bundesarchiv, Wikipedia
Cup. Pictured is the tournament's top scorer Grzegorz Lato (left) and Brazil's Marinho Chagas during the match in Munich that gave Poland its place on the podium.
Right: The standard of living increased mark-
edly in Poland in the first half of the 1970s, and, for a time, Edward Gierek was hailed as a miracle-worker. The investment boom, fed by foreign loans, obscured the need for deeper reforms. The ineffectual centrally planned economy eventually proved unable to handle the debt payments and the spiral of debt drove the country into an economic crisis. The centrally controlled production of goods was no longer able to fulfil demand and, near the end of the decade, basic goods started disappearing from store shelves. Pictured is a grocery store in Warsaw, 1977.
Left: The investment
boom of the first half of the 1970s gave birth to a specific socialist version of consumerism. First local consumer brands and adverts started appearing. Pictured is a fashion photo shoot in 1974 in Warsaw under the newly built 111m tall hotel Forum.
Left: The social atmosphere precedessing
the upcoming crisis of the 1980s was portrayed by the ‘cinema of moral anxiety’, a new wave in Polish cinematography that emerged around 1976. The characteristics of those films usually included a small-town setting, realistic depiction of socio-political tension in late Gierek's period, and themes with a general sense of helplessness (against both oppressive power and common moral bankruptcy). Pictured is the poster of Amator (English title: Camera Buff ), a 1978 movie by one of the most notable Polish film directors, Krzysztof Kieślowski.
Right: Richard
Nixon became the first US president to visit Poland when he traveled to Warsaw in 1972. It was also the first presidential visit behind the Iron Curtain since Roosevelt's visit in Yalta in 1945. Pictured is Richard Nixon during talks with Edward Gierek.
Right: Chosen from
among almost 500 other Polish pilots, Mirosław Hermaszewski became the first Pole in space. In June 1978, he flew to the Soviet Salyut 6 orbital station, where he carried out various geoscience experiments over eight days.
1979 1988
Left: Choked by
unsustainable debt, in the late 1970s, Poland's economy fell into a crisis. The centrally controlled production of goods was no longer able to fulfil market demand. A rationing system was introduced to prevent food shortages. Pictured is an empty grocery store in 1981.
Below: In October 1978, Polish cardinal Karol
Wojtyła was chosen as the new pope. Taking the papal name John Paul II, he soon became Poland's major advocate on a geopolitical level and the main authority for Polish people. His visits to Poland attracted vast crowds, eager to find hope and inspiration from his words and example. Not long after his first visit in 1979 (pictured), during which he encouraged Poles to take their fate in their hands, the first independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc was established.
Decade of bankruptcy. As the crisis
100th anniversary of independence
grew, so did the number of protests. In the wake of negotiations with the regime, an independent trade union known as Solidarność was established and became a mass opposition movement with 10m members. The outnumbered communist party reacted by declaring martial law. In response, the trade union adopted a policy of non-violent resistance, bringing the nation to a standstill, which only deepened the economic problems. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was increasingly distracted by its own issues. Unable to control the situation, the regime in Warsaw was eventually forced to back down and negotiate with the opposition.
Below & right: By August 1980, economic
hardship and worsening social conditions led to another series of strikes in cities all over the country. Negotiations between a representation of striking workers and the government which took place in Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa (pictured right) resulted in the birth of Solidarność, the first independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc. Pictured below is Lech Wałęsa on a fence, addressing the crowds gathered around the shipyard during the strike in August 1980.
Below: In August 1980, unlike previously in
June 1976, Edward Gierek decided to negotiate with the workers instead of suppressing the strikes by force. What paved the way to the birth of the first mass legal opposition movement in the Eastern Bloc, gave Gierek himself infamy within his own ranks. Shortly afterwards, in early September 1980 he was removed from power. Unable to handle the deepening crisis, and fearful of a potential Soviet invasion, the party eventually adopted a hawkish approach under the leadership of general Wojciech Jaruzelski. Pictured is Jaruzelski declaring martial law on 13 December 1981.
Right: Soon after its establishment in late
August 1980, the Solidarność trade union became a broad platform of political opposition against the regime. One year later, on the eve of its first nationwide congress, Solidarność counted 10m members, in contrast to the 2m members of the communist party. Pictured is the cover of Tygodnik Solidarność announcing the congress in September 1981. The trade union's official weekly magazine had a print run of 0.5m copies and was the first case of free press behind the Iron Curtain. Its free license granted by the regime expired with the declaration of martial law a few months later.
photos: Chris Niedenthal (Forum), Ireneusz Sobieszczuk (Forum), Scanpix (Forum), Marek Radzikowski (Forum), Witold Kulinski (Forum), Wojciech Krynski (Forum), Bogdan Jankowski (Forum), Janusz Fila (Forum), Piotr Cieśla (Forum), Sławek Biegański, Wikipedia
Left: In February
1980, Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki became the first two climbers in history to reach the summit of Mt Everest in winter. Pictured left is the Polish expedition with Mt Everest in the background.
Below & right: In 1983, Lech Wałęsa was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his leadership of the only mass opposition movement behind the Iron Curtain. Although released from prison in late 1982, Lech Wałęsa decided not to attend the ceremony in Oslo, fearing that communist authorities may not let him back into the country. Pictured below is Wałęsa's wife Danuta in Oslo on December 1983 receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of her husband. Pictured right is Lech Wałęsa at home in Gdańsk, listening to the awards ceremony live on the radio.
Right: The new gov-
ernment attempted to destroy Solidarność by declaring it illegal and imposing martial law on 13 December 1981. The army was ordered into the streets, detaining around 10,000 opposition members, and a campaign of political repression was carried out across the country. During the initial imposition of martial law, several dozen people were killed. In the deadliest incident, nine coal miners were killed by paramilitary police during the strike-breaking at the Wujek coal mine. Others were also killed and wounded during a massive second wave of demonstrations in August 1982.
Left: Imposing martial Above: Founded in law efficiently extinguished the immediate challenge to the regime posed by Solidarność. It did nothing, however, to resolve the longterm crisis. Solidarność adopted a policy of civil resistance, which only worsened the economic problems and halted the nation. Unable to control the situation, the regime was eventually forced to negotiate with the union. Although martial law was lifted in July 1983, many of the political prisoners were not released until a general amnesty in 1986. Pictured is a banner demanding the release of Wałęsa from detention, Warsaw 1982.
1980, the festival of alternative music in Jarocin was tolerated throughout the 1980s as a ‘safe outlet’ by the regime. It was by far the biggest festival of its kind in the Eastern Bloc and the birthplace of Polish counterculture. Pictured is a gig by ‘Siekiera’ punk rock band in 1984.
Right: The first suc-
cessful heart transplant in Poland was performed in 1985 by professor Zbigniew Religa (pictured). His patient lived another 30 years after the operation, outliving Religa himself.
1989 1998
Below & right: The Round Table talks re-
sulted in the first partially free parliamentary elections in the Eastern Bloc in June 1989. Pictured below is a display of voting results. By the end of August, a Solidarność-led coalition government was formed under Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki (right). One year later, in December 1990 Lech Wałęsa was elected President of Poland. The first fully democratic parliamentary elections took place in 1991, but by that time the once united anti-communist opposition was already divided. In effect, the country was torn by political instability until the snap elections in 1993.
Decade of transformation. Nationwide
100th anniversary of independence
strikes in 1988 paralysed the country and forced the communist government into open dialogue with Solidarność. The negotiations paved the way to the first partially free elections in the Eastern Bloc in June 1989 and a peaceful transfer of power in their aftermath. The new paradigm resulted in a transition to liberal democracy and free-market economy. Despite multiple changes of governments, that direction was kept throughout the whole decade and eventually resulted in Poland's accession to western structures.
Above & right:
The bankrupt economy led to a massive wave of strikes all over the country in September 1988. Unable to handle the socio-economic situation, by February 1989 the regime sat down at the negotiation table with the opposition in what eventually turned into stipulating its terms of surrender. The Round Table talks were the very foundation of the upcoming shift towards democracy and free market. Pictured above are negotiations in April 1989. Pictured above right are the opposition leader, Lech Wałęsa and the communist party leader, general Wojciech Jaruzelski, March 1989.
Right: Once united
against the communist regime, the former opposition began to split up in the new political reality. Pictured right is Jarosław Kaczyński posing with Lech Wałęsa during the elections in 1989. Pictured further right is Kaczyński leading a protest against Wałęsa in 1993.
Below: In 1990 Polish intelligence aided the US in successfully extracting several CIA and DIA operatives from Iraq on the eve of operation Desert Storm (pictured). In recognition of that act, the US government urged other governments to cancel half of Poland's foreign debt taken out two decades earlier by Gierek. This, together with the help provided during the secret transfer of tens of thousands of Jews from USSR via Poland to Israel (1990-92), helped build Poland's credibility within the western intelligence community after a long period of hostility. It was one of the factors that later opened the doors to Poland’s membership in NATO.
Right: Following
the 1945 expulsion of the Nazis by the Soviet army, the latter remained in Poland for decades to enforce communist rule. Forty-six years later, upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, Red Army units began withdrawing from Poland. It is estimated that 59 Soviet garrisons were positioned around the country in 1991 with 58,000 Red Army soldiers within. The last Soviet soldier left Poland in late 1993. Pictured are Red Army troops leaving by cargo train the Soviet base in Borne Sulinowo, April 1991.
Left & right: The Bal-
cerowicz Plan, named after Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz (pictured left), was the first ever attempt to switch from centrally planned economy to free market. The shock therapy was adopted in late 1989 and caused a temporary drop in economic output. Growth in GDP was eventually achieved by 1992 at Below: After it was a cost of a drastic rise closed in 1939, the War- of unemployment and saw Stock Exchange a wave of bankruptcies was re-established of state-owned monopin April 1991. Only olies, initially modeled five companies were to service the centrally listed on the first day planned market. After of trading (pictured). being privatised, those Seven brokerages took companies were set by part in the trading, and their new owners to there were 112 buyface free market comand-sell orders with petition. Pictured right a turnover of $2,000. is a bankrupt clothing factory in Żyrardów.
Below: The ineffective state owned companies, were privatised in favour of foreign investors or, often in shady circumstances, in favour of a new breed of oligarchs well-connected with politicians. Meanwhile, the grassroots potential of divine free market was also unlocked. For the first time since WWII, average Poles could start accumulating their own capital. Individual initiatives started flourishing all over the country on an unprecedented scale. Stalls filled the streets of Polish cities. Pictured is a street market improvised in Warsaw's midtown (1996).
Above: The state
structures were adapting to the new circumstances much slower than society. The chaos of transformation to free market, and the wide range of new possibilities lying within, resulted in a significant rise of crime and corruption. Torn by constant political crises, the young underfunded country was unable to respond properly to those threats during the whole decade of the 1990s. Pictured is Bogusław Linda in ‘Dogs’, a Polish thriller directed by Władysław Pasikowski (1992) about former communist secret service officers who became the backbone of organised crime.
photos: Jerzy Kośnik (Forum), Aleksander Keplicz (Forum), Erazm Ciołek (Forum), Artur Hojny (Forum), Chris Niedenthal (Forum), Wikipedia
Above: In 1991,
Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary set a regional platform of cooperation called the Visegrád Group. The same year Poland, Germany and France established a similar platform called the Weimar Triangle. By 1994 Poland applied for membership in the EU and by 1997 in NATO.
Right: Amid the gen-
eral political instability of the early 1990s, the snap elections of 1993 were won by the former communist PZPR party, relabeled now as SLD. It formed a coalition with the agrarian PSL which remained in power until the next elections in 1997. In 1995 Lech Wałęsa proved unable to secure his second term as President of Poland and lost the presidential elections to the SLD's candidate, Aleksander Kwaśniewski (pictured). Despite post-communists being in power, the country continued its path towards membership in western structures.
Right: A genuine
Polish mix of disco and folk music emerged with the transition to capitalism. Despite its kitschy style and poor promotion, it won Polish hearts. In the mid 1990s, disco polo was by far outclassing the sales of any other musical genres. Pictured is a cassette cover (1995).
Left: In 1997 Poland's
Third Republic adopted a new constitution upon a national referendum. The new legal framework for the country replaced the temporary amendments put into place in 1992 to reverse the effects of the communist dictatorship.
1999 2008
Below: After the dissolution of the Warsaw
Left: Although
Pact in 1991, Poland saw membership in NATO not only as an assurance of its security, but also as long overdue recognition of its rightful place in Europe. The country applied for membership in 1997 and two years later, in March 1999 became a member state of the alliance. Pictured is Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bronisław Geremek signing the Act of Accession to NATO as US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stands behind.
Poland formally became a member state of the strongest military alliance on the planet, the country had yet to prove its practical value as an ally. In 2003, Poland took part in the US led invasion of Iraq, and eventually kept a task force there until 2008. In 2004, Poland joined the ISAF mission in Afghanistan and remained in the conflict zone until 2014. During both those engagements, around 20% of Polish military personnel gained combat experience. The training acquired there changed the Polish army dramatically. Pictured is the arrival of Polish troops in Iraq, 2003.
Decade of new order. Ten years after the shift of 1989, the young democracy was united enough to successfully tackle the dysfunctions that were restraining it during the early years of the transition. The country complied with new standards required by membership in NATO and EU. Eventual access to both organisations moved Poland to a completely new reality and was a critical factor for further development.
Right: The establish-
ment of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBŚ) in 2000 and subsequent changes of the legal system, such as enablement of turn state's evidence, resulted in a significant decrease of organised crime. Street gangs, strong in the 1990s, were now in decline.
100th anniversary of independence
Above: Backed by
AWS, a coalition of entities rooted in Solidarność, the centre-right cabinet of Jerzy Buzek (pictured) marked an end to the political fragility of the 90s and was the first government after 1989 to rule during an entire parliamentary cadence (1997-2001). Buzek's government carried out four major, yet unpopular, reforms of education, administration, health and retirement systems, which caused the AWS coalition to lose the 2001 elections. Soon afterwards, AWS dissolved. A few years later, Jerzy Buzek became President of the European Parliament.
Right: The elections
of 2001 saw another revival of the postcommunist SLD. It formed another coalition with the agrarian PSL and governed the country until 2005, at a time of the highest unemployment rate since 1989, reaching 20%. Pictured is Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland between 2001 and 2004.
Above & left: Following a long process of nego-
tiations and required adaptation on many fields, Poland signed the treaty of accession to EU in April 2003. A national referendum was held soon after, with 77% of voters approving the country's entrance into the union. Poland became a member state on 1 May 2004. This marked the end of the process of joining western political structures and an entirely new reality for Poland. Ironically, it happened under a postcommunist cabinet. Pictured left is the campaigning before the referendum in 2003. Pictured above are the crowds on the night of Poland's accession, Warsaw 2004.
Above: In mid-2002, Lew Rywin, a movie
producer well connected within the ruling postcommunist SLD party, solicited a bribe from Adam Michnik, the editor of Poland's most popular newspaper, in exchange for amendments to a media bill that would have enabled the paper’s parent company, Agora, to enter the television business. Michnik recorded Rywin's proposal on tape, which led to the biggest corruption scandal after 1989, and subsequently, SLD's loss during the elections of 2005. Pictured is Lew Rywin (centre) in 2001 at a time when he produced Polański's ‘Pianist’.
Right: Dissatisfaction
with the output of the systemic transformation resulted in the emergence of the first populist party after 1989, Samoobrona. After the elections in 2005 it became the third biggest parliamentary force. Pictured right is Andrzej Lepper, Samoobrona's leader.
photos: Peter Andrews (Reuters), Studio69 (Forum), Michał Sadowski (Forum), Piotr Malecki (Forum), Piotr Combik (Forum), Adam Chelstowski (Forum), JP Pool (Reurters), Łukasz Ptak (Forum), Grzegorz Jakubowski (Forum), Maciej Figurski (Forum), CBA, Wikipedia.
Left: In 2006,
the Central AntiCorruption Bureau (CBA) was set up as an undercover service equipped with special legal tools, such as the controlled bribe. Soon Poland started noting a decline in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International.
Right: Jarosław
Kaczyński was in charge of the government only until the snap elections in 2007, won by PO under Tusk's leadership. PO eventually formed a coalition with the agrarian PSL and Donald Tusk became Prime Minister (pictured after his opening speech).
Above & right: Disgraced by Lew Rywin's scandal, the postcommunist SLD was eventually pushed out in 2005, when the conservatives from Law & Justice (PiS) won the parliamentary elections by calling for a moral revolution that would put an end to corruption and the rule of cliques, with liberal-conservatives from Civic Platform (PO) winning second place. The two parties attempted to form a coalition, but negotiations failed, which led to a durable split between them. PiS eventually formed a fragile coalition with the populists from LPR and Samoobrona. PiS and PO, both having roots in the anti communist movement of the 1980s, eventually became the main rival opposing forces on Poland's political scene. The same year, PO's leader Donald Tusk lost the presidential election to Lech Kaczyński from PiS. Meanwhile, in mid-2006, Lech's twin brother Jarosław formed his government. At that point, both twins were in charge of Poland's two main governing institutions. Pictured above are Donald Tusk (left), Lech Kaczyński (centre) and Jarosław Kaczyński (right) in the parliament shortly before the elections of 2005. Pictured right are the electoral posters of Lech Kaczyński and Donald Tusk during the presidential campaign of 2005.
Below: Poland's entrance into the EU opened new opportunities for trade and investment. The value of Poland's foreign trade doubled between 2004 and 2008. Pictured is the production line of the General Motors plant in Gliwice, 2006.
Left: The death of
John Paul II in April 2005 brought the country to a standstill, including the suspension of regular media broadcasting, for a whole week of mourning. Pictured are the crowds in Warsaw attending a live transmission of the pope's funeral.
Right: Given the
difference in earnings between Poland and the western countries of the EU, an estimated 2m Poles took advantage of the open borders and moved abroad after Poland's access to the Union. Pictured are Polish workers in London (2007).
2009 2018
Left: Benefiting from
a depreciated currency exchange rate, large domestic market, relatively low public, private and corporate debt, and a stimulative fiscal and monetary policy, Poland was the only economy in Europe to avoid falling into recession during the global crisis that started in 2008. Over 25 years of uninterrupted growth has made the country a star performer among the transition economies. Pictured is Prime Minister Donald Tusk in 2009 during a press conference on Poland being the only country in Europe to post growth during the turmoil.
Decade of lift off. Since the fall
100th anniversary of independence
of communism in 1989, the 1990s was a decade of chaos and building from scratch, making an aquarium out of fish soup, as was famously put. The 2000s was the decade of consolidation, reaching basic standards for business and economic operations, and building confidence. The 2010s have seen the country take off, a trend that continues in 2018, despite the ongoing political divide within Polish society.
Above & left: On
the morning of 10th April 2010, the nation awoke to a tragedy of seismic proportions. The plane carrying the Polish President, Lech Kaczyński, his wife and a whole raft of senior officials and aides, had crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, en route to a memorial service for those murdered at Katyn. The country was numb with shock and for a while there was unity in mourning. But it did not last – sadly its legacy has only exacerbated the political divide. Pictured above is the site of the crash. Above left are the coffins after their arrival in Warsaw a few days later.
Above & right: In the years following Poland's
accession to the European Union, the body's structural funds became a significant facilitator in the massive development of new infrastructure. Polish bureaucracy proved to be better prepared than the other CEE countries for the wave of money, achieving the highest absorption rate of EU funds in the region. The initial phase of the boom came during preparations for the EURO 2012 football championship and has continued unabated until today. Pictured right is the junction of A2 and A4 motorways, while the above picture shows the refurbishment of a 100 years old plant in Łódź into a multifunctional centre.
Left: When Poland was chosen, alongside
Ukraine, to host the UEFA EURO 2012 football championship, few Poles believed that the organization of the event would be a success. How wrong they were. The country excelled, and as well as providing a welcome boost to national self-esteem, Poland found itself with vastlyimproved infrastructure and some state-of-theart stadiums. Pictured left are crowds of foreign football fans on Polish streets during the final match. Poland did not succeed in the tournament but managed to draw the world's attention, helping to put the country on the tourist map.
Above: Poland
Today was founded in August 2012, publishing the first issue of its award-winning Poland Today magazine in October of the same year. The aim of the company was, and remains, to promote Poland and Polish business internationally.
Right: In 2014, after
Right: Poland has
seven years as Prime Minister, making him the longest-serving PM in modern Polish history, Donald Tusk resigned to take up the Presidency of the European Council, a position he was re-elected to in 2017. He is pictured in 2014 with his predecessor, Herman Van Rompuy.
become a paradise for summer music festival lovers with a huge variety of vibrant events offering all types of music to choose from, such as the Open'er in Gdynia (pictured) or the Pol’and’Rock festival, the biggest rock festival in Europe.
Left: Since Poland
joined the EU in 2004, some 2 million Poles have moved west for work. More recently, however, there has been an influx of immigrants to Poland, particularly from neighbouring Ukraine. Poland is now the second largest issuer of ‘first residence permits’ in the EU after the UK, handing out 586,000 permits in 2016, of which almost 90% went to Ukrainians. Ukrainians are attracted by the low unemployment rate and higher wages than back home. According to a recent poll, 48% of Ukrainians in Poland plan to stay here for good.
photos: Eunika Sopotnicka, Sergei Karpukhin (Reuters), Marian Zubrzycki (Forum), Cezary Piwowski (Forum), Michal Kazmierczak (Forum), Dominik Werner (Forum), Łukasz Dejnarowicz (Forum), Adam Chełstowski (Forum), Francois Lenoir (Reuters), Yves Herman (Reuters), Petr Josek (Reuters), FIlip Błażejowski (Forum)
Above: Andrzej Duda’s election as Presi-
dent in May 2015 came as a surprise to many, not least to the man he replaced, Bronisław Komorowski, who had been elected in 2010. Since assuming the presidency, Duda has had to counter allegations that he defers decisions to Jarosław Kaczyński, who many observers believe is the real power behind the throne. However, Duda remains popular, with opinion poll numbers that are the envy of most politicians, among them Kaczyński himself. Pictured are Bronisław Komorowski and Andrzej Duda after a TV debate during the elections in 2015.
Right: After the
decline of home-grown industrial and financial capabilities in the early 1990s and consecutively over two decades of globalization, Polish companies such as PESA (right) have now gained enough knowhow and capital to start exploiting the potential of the global market.
Above: Given uncer-
tainty over Russia's growing assertiveness, American troops were deployed to Poland in 2017 as part of a NATO build-up in Eastern Europe. Since the deployment is provisional, Polish authorities are campaigning for a permanent US presence.
Right: In September 2018 global index
provider FTSE Russell upgraded Poland from ‘advanced emerging’ to ‘developed’ market status, immediately moving the country from the basket with countries such as Turkey and Czech Republic to the pool which includes the USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany and Norway. While the move brings its own challenges and a period of adjustment is to be expected, the decision is seen as validation of the country’s rapid transformation from economic basket case to a rugged and vibrant market. Pictured are skyscrapers in Warsaw's midtown.
Above: The big-
gest story in recent politics has been the resurgence of the conservative PiS party, masterminded by Jarosław Kaczyński. Having won the 2015 parliamentary elections, PiS formed the first government since the fall of communism to be able to rule with an outright majority. This time however, Jarosław Kaczyński refused to act as PM. In October 2015 Beata Szydło became Prime Minister, replaced two years later by Mateusz Morawiecki (pictured), a former banker and previously an economic adviser to Donald Tusk.