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Poland

Country in eastern Europe, bounded north by the Baltic Sea, northeast by Lithuania, east by Belarus and Ukraine, south by the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, and west by Germany.

Government

Under its 1997 constitution, Poland is a multiparty liberal democracy with a limited presidential political system. The executive president, directly elected for a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms in a two-round majority contest, has responsibility for military and foreign affairs and has the authority to appoint the prime minister, dissolve parliament, call referenda, veto bills, and impose martial law. The president appoints the prime minister on the basis of the person able to command a majority within the parliament, and the prime minister heads the council of ministers, or cabinet. There is a two-chamber legislature, comprising a 460-member lower assembly, the Sejm (parliament), and a 100-member upper chamber, the Senat (senate). Deputies are elected to the Sejm for four-year terms by means of proportional representation in free, multiparty contests. The Sejm passes bills, adopts the state budget and economic plan, and holds to account the prime minister and cabinet. The Senat is elected on a provincial basis, each province returning two senators, except Warsaw and Katowice, which elect three. The Senat has the power of veto in specified areas, which can be overridden by a two-thirds Sejm vote. The two bodies meet together as a National Assembly in the case of proceedings to indict the president. There are 16 provinces under appointed governors and more than 2,000 elected local councils.

History For the history of Poland up to 1945 see Poland: history to 1945.

Poland had been occupied by German forces during World War II, and had been liberated by Soviet forces by March 1945. During the war some 6 million Polish citizens (including some 3 million Jews, and one third of the educated elite) had perished, and the country's economy and social structure had been shattered.

As the Soviet army had moved into central Poland in mid 1944, the USSR formed a Committee of National Liberation in Lublin. The Lublin administration started a programme of radical land reform, and in April 1945 a 20-year treaty of ‘friendship, mutual assistance, and post-war cooperation’ was signed between Poland and the USSR.

Adjustments to Poland's borders

As a result of the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam conferences (in November 1943, February 1945, and July–August 1945 respectively) the USA, the USSR, and Britain decided that the USSR would receive the eastern provinces of prewar Poland (including Wilno (Vilnius) and Lviv), and that Poland would acquire corresponding German territory in the west. The consequence was a 20% contraction in size for Poland and a westward shift in its borders, with the resulting migration of millions of people. A treaty between Poland and the USSR in August 1945 (ratified in 1946) established Poland's eastern frontier at the Curzon Line. Poland lost 181,350 sq km/70,000 sq mi in the east to the USSR, but gained 101,000 sq km/39,000 sq mi in the west from Germany.

In April 1945 the Oder and the Western Neisse rivers became the new western border, leaving nearly all Silesia and Pomerania and half of East Prussia in Poland. The German population of these provinces had fled or was expelled, being replaced by Poles moved from the former eastern provinces. The new western border was recognized by the Soviet bloc, including East Germany (1951), and was later recognized as the de facto frontier by West Germany (1970).

The communists come to power

Poland emerged from the war with a more ethnically homogenous population and fewer national minorities: the Jews had been almost totally exterminated, the Ukrainians and Belorussians absorbed into the USSR, and the Germans expelled. A Provisional Government of National Unity was formed as a short-lived compromise in June 1945 between the communist Lublin Committee, and the Polish Peasant Party of Stanislaw Mikołajczyk, who had been premier of the government-in-exile in London during 1943–44, after Gen Sikorski's death in 1943. The Western powers recognized the new government in Warsaw.

The premier of the new government was the left-wing socialist Edward Osóbka-Morawski, with the communist Wladyslaw Gomułka and Mikołajczyk as deputy premiers. Mikołajczyk had the goodwill of many elements who adopted a negative attitude to the regime. His position was difficult, as he was the leader of the opposition, who had joined the government for a common purpose pending the promised general election. The key positions in the administration and economic affairs belonged to the communist Polish Workers' Party, which could rely, if necessary, on the support of Soviet troops. Manipulation and intimidation ensured that the pro-Soviet Union communist-controlled ‘Democratic Bloc’ won the elections, held eventually in January 1947. Mikołajczyk fled the country.

Stalinist rule

The Polish government of 1947 was not democratic in the Western sense. Reconstruction of the shattered country, especially its ruined cities, became a major task, and was helped by the industrial facilities acquired from Germany. The United Nations also provided aid. In December 1948 the few remaining socialists merged with the communists to form the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP), which continued to rule Poland up to 1989. The two peasant parties merged into the United Peasant Party, and all political parties belonged to the communist-controlled National Unity Front.

The collectivization of farming, condemnation of Tito's Yugoslavia, and an extensive party purge that removed the moderate Gomulka from office (1948–49) indicated growing Stalinist tendencies and the dependence of the Polish government (headed by Bolesław Bierut) on the USSR. The new constitution of 1952 followed the Soviet model, only government-sponsored candidates standing at elections, and a People's Republic was declared. Poland joined Comecon in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

Increasing friction between the government and the Catholic Church, the one powerful force still resisting Soviet penetration, led to the imprisonment of the primate, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, in October 1953. Although Poland increased its heavy industrial output, agriculture was undermined by collectivization. Discontent grew, owing to the scarcity of basic consumer goods, the harsh labour conditions, and the oppressive administration.

Liberalization under Gomulka

After Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in the USSR serious rioting, leading to 53 deaths, broke out in the Polish city of Poznań in opposition to Soviet ‘exploitation’ and food shortages (June 1956). Control of the PUWP went in October 1956 to anti-Stalinist elements under the pragmatic Gomulka, who had previously been imprisoned. Soviet personnel were expelled, including the minister of defence, Marshal Rokossovsky, and some liberalizing reforms initiated. Most collective farms were dissolved, some dissidents released from prison, and relations with the church improved.

The initial liberal impetus of the Gomulka regime slackened as time went by, while Poland continued to industrialize. Church–state relations became uneasy, especially in 1966 over the Polish bishops' ‘reconciliation gesture’ to the German episcopate, a gesture that the Polish government interpreted as unpatriotic. Student riots in March 1968 and a power struggle within the party led to ‘anti-Zionist’ purges in the party, armed forces, and among intellectuals. Meanwhile economic performance worsened and disenchantment with Gomulka grew. An unexpected increase in food prices in December 1970 precipitated strikes, riots, and savage government reprisals in the Baltic ports of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Szczecin. Compelled to resign, Gomulka was replaced as PUWP leader by the Silesia party boss Edward Gierek.

Gierek takes over

Gierek calmed the deteriorating situation with price freezes, which were renewed in 1972. Gierek aimed at raising living standards, and increased technological imports from the West, although this added to the country's mounting foreign debt. The process by which Poland had been transformed from being a principally agricultural country in 1939 to a highly industrialized nation continued. Although remaining firmly allied to the Soviet Union, Gierek's regime was relatively tolerant and progressive by Eastern Bloc standards.

In the summer of 1976 proposals were made to increase the price of basic foodstuffs, but these were withdrawn in the face of widespread strikes and demonstrations. Opposition to the Gierek regime, which was accused of corruption, mounted in 1979 after a visit to his homeland by the recently elected Pope John Paul II.

The rise of Solidarity

Strikes in Warsaw in 1980, following a poor harvest and meat-price increases, rapidly spread across the country. The government attempted to appease workers by entering into pay negotiations with unofficial strike committees, but at the Gdańsk shipyards demands emerged for permission to form free, independent trade unions.

The government conceded the right to strike, and in Gdańsk 1980 the Solidarity (Solidarność) union was formed under the leadership of Lech Wałȩsa. In 1980 the ailing Gierek was replaced as PUWP leader by Stanisław Kania, but unrest continued as the 10-million-member Solidarity campaigned for a five-day working week and established a rural section.

Martial law

With food shortages mounting and PUWP control slipping, Kania was replaced as PUWP leader in 1981 by the prime minister, Gen Wojciech Jaruzelski; the Soviet army was active on Poland's borders; and martial law was imposed in December 1981. Trade-union activity was banned, the leaders of Solidarity arrested, a night curfew imposed, and a Military Council of National Salvation established, headed by Jaruzelski. Five months of severe repression ensued, resulting in 15 deaths and 10,000 arrests. The USA imposed economic sanctions.

In June 1982, curfew restrictions were eased, prompting further serious rioting in August. In November Wałȩsa was released, and in December 1982 martial law was suspended (lifted in 1983). The pope visited Poland in 1983 and called for conciliation. The authorities responded by dissolving the Military Council and granting an amnesty to political prisoners and activists. In 1984, 35,000 prisoners and detainees were released on the 40th anniversary of the People's Republic, and the USA relaxed its economic sanctions.

Slow improvements

The Jaruzelski administration, encouraged by reform underway in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, pursued pragmatic reform, including liberalization of the electoral system. Conditions remained tense, however, strained by the continued ban on Solidarity and by a threat (withdrawn in 1986) to try Wałȩsa for slandering state electoral officials. Economic conditions and farm output slowly improved, but Poland's foreign debt remained huge. During 1988 the nation's shipyards, coalmines, ports, and steelworks were paralyzed by a wave of Solidarity-led strikes for higher wages to offset the effect of recent price rises. With its economic strategy in tatters, the government of prime minister Zbigniew Messner resigned, being replaced in December 1988 by a new administration headed by the reformist communist Mieczysław F Rakowski, and the PUWP's politburo was infused with a new clutch of technocrats.

Socialist pluralism

With the Soviet Union under Gorbachev following a new doctrine of allowing its satellite states in eastern Europe more autonomy, the threat of military intervention to re-impose communist control receded. After six weeks of PUWP–Solidarity–church negotiations, a historic accord was reached in April 1989 under which Solidarity was re-legalized, the formation of opposition political associations tolerated, legal rights conferred on the Catholic Church, the state's media monopoly lifted, and a new ‘socialist pluralist’ constitution drafted.

In the subsequent national assembly elections, held in June 1989, Solidarity captured all but one of the Sejm and Senate seats, for which they were entitled to contest (most seats were reserved for PUWP-backed candidates). Jaruzelski was elected president by parliament in July 1989.

Conversion to a market economy

In September 1989 a ‘grand coalition’ was formed with Tadeusz Mazowiecki, editor of Solidarity's newspaper, as prime minister. Jaruzelski continued as president, and was re-elected in July. The new government, which attracted generous financial aid from Western powers, proceeded to dismantle the command economy and encourage the private sector. A tough austerity programme approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was also instituted to combat hyperinflation, which ran at 550% in 1989.

In January 1990 the PUWP disbanded and re-formed as the Social Democracy Party. Censorship was abolished in April. During 1990 living standards in Poland fell by 40% and the number of unemployed rose to over 1 million. In July 1990, 40 members of the 259-strong Solidarity caucus, under the leadership of Zbigniew Bujak and Władysław Frasyniuk, established the Citizens' Movement–Democratic Action Party (ROAD) to provide a credible alternative to the Wałȩsa-oriented Solidarity Centre Citizens' Alliance (SCA) established in May.

Wałȩsa becomes president

Wałȩsa accused the government of delaying political and economic reform and forcing workers to bear the brunt of the austerity programme. In July 1990, 100 SCA deputies and senators petitioned Jaruzelski to stand down to make way for Wałȩsa. In the November 1990 first round of the presidential elections, a split developed within Solidarity with both Prime Minister Mazowiecki and Lech Wałȩsa contesting. Having run a populist campaign, Wałȩsa topped the poll with a 40% vote share, and Mazowiecki, defending an unpopular government, finished in third position, with 18% of the vote, behind Stanislaw Tymiński, a right-wing entrepreneur who had returned from Canada and captured 23% of the vote. Wałȩsa defeated Tymiński in the second round in December 1990

On becoming president, Wałȩsa resigned the Solidarity chair and he chose an economist and former Solidarity activist, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki (1951– ), to replace Mazowiecki, who had resigned, as prime minister. The new government included the IMF-backed finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz and other ministers from the outgoing administration.

The new government pledged to consolidate the ‘shock therapy’ free market reforms they had introduced, and the first privatization share sales were held in January 1991, with mixed success. The IMF approved further major loans in support, but there was growing public discontent with the decline in living standards brought about by currency reform and the deepening recession. This led to industrial unrest as unemployment reached 1.5 million (8.4% of the working population) by June 1991.

Bielecki's offer to resign in August 1991, was rejected by parliament, but it also refused to approve budget cuts or give President Wałȩsa emergency powers to rule by decree.

GNP fell during 1990 and 1991 by 12% and 17% respectively and unemployment rose to more than 11%, with more than 2 million out of work. However, the annual rate of inflation fell from 684% in early 1990 to 60% at the end of 1991.

Relations with the USSR and Germany

Poland's relations with the USSR deteriorated in early 1991 over the issue of Soviet troop withdrawals: there were some 50,000 stationed on Polish territory. Poland wanted them to leave by the end of 2001, coinciding with withdrawals from Hungary and Czechoslovakia, while the USSR said withdrawal would take three years. Wałȩsa refused to allow Soviet troops to pass through Poland on their way back to the USSR from other countries. In October 1991 a treaty was signed providing for the withdrawal of all Soviet combat troops by 15 November 1992 and the remainder by the end of 1993.

In June 1991 a treaty of good-neighbourliness and friendly cooperation was signed with Germany, confirming the Oder–Neisse border and recognizing the rights of the 500,000-strong German minority in Poland to their own culture, language, and religion.

First multiparty election

In October 1991, Poland held its first post-communist, fully free, multiparty general election. It produced a ‘hung parliament’, with no clear winner. In December 1991 Jan Olszewski, a former Solidarity defence lawyer and a representative of the SCA, formed a five-party, centre-right coalition government which pledged to pursue a more gradual approach to market-oriented reform. In particular, it slowed down the privatization programme.

In June 1992 Olszewski was ousted on a vote of no confidence. He was succeeded briefly by Waldemar Pawlak and then, from July 1992, by the centre-right Hanna Suchocka, as Poland's first woman premier. Faced with public-sector unrest, Suchocka resigned in May 1993, after narrowly losing a vote of confidence.

Ex-communists return to power

In October 1993, after an inconclusive general election, in which the ex-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and Polish Peasant Party (PSL) polled strongly, Pawlak again became prime minister. Wałȩsa sought to defend market-centred reforms in the face of the left-of-centre SLD–PSL administration, but was increasingly criticized for his autocratic style of leadership. In February 1995, claiming to be dissatisfied with the slow pace of economic reforms, he nominated Józef Oleksy to succeed Pawlak, who later resigned after losing a vote of no confidence.

In the second round of the November 1995 presidential election, the ex-communist SLD leader, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, narrowly defeated Wałȩsa. In January 1996 Prime Minister Oleksy resigned, dogged by charges that he had been an informer to the Soviet and then the Russian secret service in 1982–95. Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz became premier in February 1996. Under the new administration, the economy began to grow more strongly and in February 1997, Marek Bełka, an independent economist, was appointed finance minister to speed up structural reform and privatization.

The 1997 constitution

In March 1997 parliament passed a new constitution guaranteeing free education (to the age of 18) and basic health care, and committing Poland to a social market economy, respecting free enterprise and private ownership. The constitution was adopted, eight years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, in a referendum in May 1997. The constitution wiped out the last remnants of communism and sought to foster Poland's desire for integration into Europe. The new charter committed Poland to a market economy and private ownership, guaranteed personal freedoms necessary for entrance into the European Union (EU), and ensured civilian control of the military required for Poland's goal of NATO membership.

The 1997 general election

In September 1997 the general election was won by Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS), a largely right-wing and Christian grouping of 36 parties based on the anticommunist Solidarity trade union and led by Marian Krzaklewski. It campaigned for faster privatization, decentralization, reform of pensions, and membership of the EU, and attracted 34% of the national vote. A coalition government with the centrist, pro-business Freedom Union (UW), which was led by Leszek Balcerowicz and won 13% of the vote, was formed in November 1997, ending four years of rule by the SLD, which won 27% of the vote, and the Peasants' Party. The new prime minister was Jerzy Buzek, a Protestant chemical-engineering professor and Solidarity organizer in the 1980s, from the AWS. Balcerowicz, resumed his position as finance minister, which he held in the early 1990s, and also became a deputy prime minister.

In February 1998, the new government put forward radical plans to decentralize government and created two tiers of elected government, overseeing half of the country's tax revenues. In July 1998 a reduction in the number of provinces from 49 to 16 was agreed by President Kwaśniewski.

Membership of NATO and the European Union

In 1994 Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) ‘partnership for peace’ programme and in March 1999 Poland became a full member of NATO, along with the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Poland was formally invited to apply for European Community (now European Union) membership in 1993, and began full EU membership negotiations in 1998. It became a member of the EU on 1 May 2004, after, in a 2003 referendum, 77% of voters approved accession.

Opposition to prime minister Buzek

The parliamentary majority of the centre-right AWS-UW coalition government was gradually reduced through defections of populists, nationalists, and hard-line Roman Catholics from AWS, with some joining the Patriotic Movement for the Fatherland, an embryonic right-wing party formed by the former prime minister Jan Olszewski. It was also undermined by criticisms of its implementation of health, education, and pensions reforms and in September 1999, 35,000 farmers and miners protested in Warsaw against the government. In June 2000 the Freedom Union withdrew from the government, leaving the AWS Solidarity group as a minority government.

In October 2000 President Kwaśniewski was re-elected for a second and final five-year term in what was seen as a vote for continuity.

In May 2001, former president Gen Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's last communist leader, went on trial accused of ordering soldiers to fire on shipyard workers in 1970, killing 44, when he was defence minister. The trial was seen as an important symbol in Poland's attempts to reach closure with its communist past.

Swing to the centre left in 2001

The centre-right government, based on the Solidarity trade-union movement, lost power at the September 2001 general election, attracting only 6% of the vote and no seats in parliament. Its reverse was attributable to a brief economic recession in 2001, following eight years of strong economic growth. The SLD was swept to power, with 41% of the vote and Leszek Miller became prime minister. In May 2004, Miller resigned, following a corruption scandal, and was replaced as prime minister by Marek Belka, the former finance minister.

The right-of-centre in power from 2005

Despite strong economic growth, averaging around 4% per annum, and Poland's entry into the EU, there was a swing to the right-of-centre in elections in 2005 amid discontent with the high level of unemployment, public spending cuts, and government corruption scandals. The October 2005 presidential election was won by Lech Kaczynski, a former president of Warsaw and one-time adviser to Lech Walesa, representing the right-of-centre Law and Justice Party. Following parliamentary elections in September 2005, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, from the same party, became prime minister, heading a minority government. In July 2006, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of the president, took over as prime minister.

Poland

Town in Androscoggin County, southwestern Maine, USA, 16 km/10 mi southwest of Auburn; population (1990 est) 4,300. It is spread over seven hills, on part of the Range Ponds. The town includes West Poland on Tripp Lake, and Poland Spring, noted for its mineral water. The remains of Poland Spring House, one of the great 19th-century resort hotels, survive in the town.