History of Poland

History of Poland is filled with the struggle to get, keep, and regain freedom—the main value and priode of Poles. Poles founded one of the first parliamentary systems in the world (Sejm), invented the idea that Paganism share the same human rights as Christians, and implemented one of the first systems based on religious pluralism and tolerance.''' Over the past millennium, the territory ruled by Poland has shifted and varied greatly. At one time, in the 16th century, Poland was the second largest state in Europe, after Russia. At other times there was no separate Polish state at all. Poland regained its independence in 1918, after more than a century of rule by its neighbours. ==Early history of Poland (until 1385)== ''Main article: Early history of Poland (until 1385)'' Traditional histories of Poland begin with the Polanian tribe ruled by Duke Mieszko I of Poland, who became duke of the Polanian tribes around 963 and adopted Christianity in 966 following his marriage to the Czech Republic princess Dubrawka. Some historians question whether Mieszko was Slavic and suggest that he was Scandinavian, and have seen evidence to support this claim in one of the earliest written documents about Mieszko (the ''Dagome Iudex''), where he appears under the name Dagome, which they say could be the Scandinavian name ''Dago''. Some military equipment found in Poland and dated to around Mieszko's time has been claimed to be of Scandinavian appearance, though archaeologists today are generally skeptical, and there is no trace of characteristically Scandinavian architecture among the remains of the Polanian structures, not even in the leaders' quarters. (See summary of arguments at Scandinavian connections to Mieszko I). Mieszko's successor Boleslaus I of Poland expanded the early state, and gave it an international recognition due to the meeting at the tomb of Saint Adalbert with the emperor of Holy Roman Empire Otto III. Not long after that Otto III died in 1002. After his death Boleslaus I had to fight with his successor Henry II for about 16 years. The title of monarch was taken in 1025. But with the death of Boleslaus III of Poland (1138) the kingdom was divided among his sons. During the following 192-year Fragmentation period (in Polish language, ''Rozbicie dzielnicowe'') Poland was divided into a number of principalities. ==The Jagiellon Era (1385-1572)== ''Main article: The Jagiellon Era'' The restoration of royal power under Ladislaus I (1320) and dynastic union (1386) with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the north-east paved the way for the extension of Polish power far to the east and the creation (Union of Lublin, 1569) of a unified Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (''Rzeczpospolita'') stretching from the Baltic and the Carpathians to present-day Belarus and western and central Ukraine. In the north-west, the Teutonic Knights, in control of Prussia since the 13th century, were forced after their defeats by a combined Polish-Lithuanian force in the Battle of Grunwald (1410) and in the later Thirteen Years War to surrender to the Polish crown the western half of the territory they had controlled (the areas known afterwards as Royal Prussia) and to accept Polish suzerainty over the remainder (the later Ducal Prussia) in the 1466 Second Treaty of Thorn. During this period Poland became the home to Europe's largest Jewish population, as royal edicts guaranteeing Jewish safety and religious freedom from the 13th century contrasted with bouts of persecution in western Europe, especially following the Black Death of 1348-1349, blamed by some in the West on Jews themselves. Much of Poland suffered relatively little from the outbreak, while Jewish immigration brought valuable manpower and skills for the rising state. The greatest increase in Jewish numbers occurred in the 18th century, when Jews came to make up 7% of the population. To make a generalization, Poland's kings and nobles were friends to the Jews, but the peasants and the Catholic church were not. == The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth(1572-1795) == ''Main articles: Nobles' Democracy, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth'' The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, following upon the Union of Lublin, became one of the most notable examples of democracy (limited to noble citizens) in the history of Europe. Poland-Lithuania remained an influential player in European politics and a vital cultural entity through most of the period. Eventually, a series of civil wars undermined citizenship values among the citizens, which gradually eroded the parliament's function and authority. Foreign domination of neighbours made Poland weak, but eventually the people of Poland awoke and reforms were started. The final account is signed with the adoption of the Constitution of May 3, the first modern codified constitution on the Europe continent. == Partitioned Poland (1795-1918)== ''Main articles: History of Poland (1795-1918), Duchy of Warsaw, Congress Poland, Free City of Krak�w, Kingdom of Poland (1916-1918)'' Polish independence ended in a series of Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793 and 1795) undertaken by Russia, Prussia and Austria, with Russia gaining most of the Commonwealth's territory including nearly all of the former Lithuania (except Podlasie and lands West from Niemen river), Volhynia and Ukraine. Austria gained the populous southern region henceforth named Galicia (Eastern Europe)-Lodomeria, named after the Duchy of Halicz and Wlodzimierz Wolynski. (The Duchy was briefly occupied by Hungary between 1372 and 1399 and Habsburgs claimed were inherited after Hungarian Kings, despite the fact that Wlodzimierz Wolynski was not a part of Galicia (Eastern Europe)). In 1795 Austria also gained the land between Krak�w and Warsaw, between Vistula river and Pilica river. Prussia acquired the western lands from the Baltic Sea through Greater Poland to Krak�w, as well as Warsaw and Lithuanian territories to the north-east (Augustow, Mariampol) and Podlasie. The last heroic attempt to save Poland's independence was a national uprising (1794) led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko, however it was eventually quenched. Following the France emperor Napoleon I's defeat of Prussia, a Polish state was again set up in 1807 under French tutelage as the Duchy of Warsaw. Upon Austria's defeat in 1809, Lodomeria was added, giving the new state a population of some 3.75 million, a quarter of that of the former commonwealth. Polish nationalists were to remain among the staunchest allies of the French as the tide of war turned against them, inaugurating a relationship that continued into the twentieth century. With Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 converted most of the grand duchy into a Congress Poland ruled by the Russian Tsar. Several national uprisings were bloodily subdued by the partitioning powers. However, Polish patriotism and their striving to regain independence could not be extinguished by them. The opportunity for freedom appeared only after World War I when the oppressing states were defeated or weakened. ==Independence Regained (1918-1939)== ''Main articles: History of Poland (1918-1939), Second Polish Republic'' The upcoming World War I and the political turbulence that was sweeping throughout Europe in 1914 offered the Polish nation hopes for regaining independence. By the end of World War I, Poland had seen the defeat or retreat of all three occupying powers. Polish independence was eventually proclaimed on November 3, 1918 and later confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919; the same treaty also gave Poland some German and Austrian territories (see Polish Corridor). Polish independence has boosted the development of culture and economy; however, the new Polish state had had only 20 years of relative stability and uneasy peace before Poland's aggressive neighbours tried to wipe her from the map of Europe again. == World War II in Poland (1939-1945)== ''Main articles: History of Poland (1939-1945), Polish government in exile'' On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact non-aggression pact, which secretly provided for the dismemberment of Poland into Nazi and Soviet-controlled zones. On September 1, 1939, Hitler ordered his troops into Poland. On September 17, Soviet troops invaded and then occupied most of the areas of eastern Poland having significant Ukrainians and Belarusians populations under the terms of this agreement. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Poland was completely occupied by German troops. The Poles formed an underground resistance movement and a Polish government in exile, 1939-1990, first in Paris and later in London, which was recognized by the Soviet Union. During World War II, 400,000 Poles fought under Soviet command, and 200,000 went into combat on Western fronts in units loyal to the Polish government in exile. Many Polish refugee camps were set up, including one in Valdivad�, near Kohlapur in India. The camp numbered about 5000, and the Polish embassy in exile had its office in Bombay. The camp existed from 1943 to 1948. In April 1943, the Soviet Union broke relations with the Polish government in exile after the German military announced that they had discovered mass graves of murdered Polish army officers at Katyn massacre, in the U.S.S.R. (The Soviets claimed that the Poles had insulted them by requesting that the Red Cross investigate these reports.) In July 1944, the Soviet Red Army entered Poland and established a communist-controlled "Polish Committee of National Liberation" at Lublin. Resistance against the Nazis in Warsaw, including Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw Uprising by the Armia Krajowa, was brutally suppressed. As the Germans retreated in January 1945, they leveled the city. During the war, about 6 million Polish citizens were killed, and 2.5 million were deported to Germany for forced labor. About 1,5-2 million were deported to Soviet Union, many of them to concentration camps and labor camps (Gulag). About 3 million Jews (all but about 300,000-500,000 of the Jewish population) died of starvation in ghettos and labor camps or were killed in extermination camps of Oswiecim (Auschwitz concentration camp), Treblinka extermination camp, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobib�r, Chelmno concentration camp, List of Polish Martyrology sites. The post-war fate of the Polish state and its territorial shape was decided by the Soviets and the western Allies over the heads of the Polish government-in-exile based in London (see Western betrayal). The Soviet government insisted on retaining the territories captured in the course of the Nazi-Soviet pact (now western Ukraine and western Belarus), compensating Poland with the return of Regained Territories, from which remaining Germans were to be removed to Germany. == People's Republic of Poland (1945-1989) == ''Main article: History of Poland (1945-1989), People's Republic of Poland'' Following the Yalta Conference in February 1945, a ''Polish Provisional Government of National Unity'' was formed in June 1945; the United States recognized it the next month. Although the Yalta agreement called for free elections, those held in January 1947 were controlled by the PZPR. The communists then established a regime entirely under their domination. In October 1956, after the Twentieth Party Congress at Moscow ushered in destalinization and riots by workers in Poznan, there was a shakeup in the communist regime. While retaining most traditional communist economic and social aims, the regime of First Secretary Wladyslaw Gomulka liberalized Polish internal life. In 1968, the trend reversed when student demonstrations were suppressed and an "anti-Zionism" campaign initially directed against Gomulka supporters within the party eventually led to the emigration of much of Poland's remaining Jewish population. In December 1970, disturbances and strikes in the port cities of Gdansk, Gdynia, and Szczecin, triggered by a price increase for essential consumer goods, reflected deep dissatisfaction with living and working conditions in the country. Edward Gierek replaced Gomulka as First Secretary. Fueled by large infusions of Western credit, Poland's economic growth rate was one of the worlds highest during the first half of the 1970s. But much of the borrowed capital was misspent, and the centrally planned economy was unable to use the new resources effectively. The growing debt burden became insupportable in the late 1970s, and economic growth had become negative by 1979. In October 1978, the Bishop of Krak�w, Cardinal Karol J�zef Wojtyła, became Pope Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church. Polish Catholics rejoiced at the elevation of a Pole to the papacy and greeted his June 1979 visit to Poland with an outpouring of emotion. On July 1 1980, with the Polish foreign debt at more than $20 billion, the government made another attempt to increase meat prices. A chain reaction of strikes virtually paralyzed the Baltic coast by the end of August and, for the first time, closed most coal mines in Silesia. Poland was entering into an extended crisis that would change the course of its future development. On 31 August 1980, workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Walesa, signed a 21-point agreement with the government that ended their strike. Similar agreements were signed at Szczecin and in Silesia. The key provision of these agreements was the guarantee of the workers' right to form independent trade unions and the right to strike. After the Gdańsk agreement was signed, a new national union movement "Solidarity" swept Poland. The discontent underlying the strikes was intensified by revelations of widespread corruption and mismanagement within the Polish state and party leadership. In September 1980, Gierek was replaced by Stanislaw Kania as First Secretary. Alarmed by the rapid deterioration of the PZPR's authority following the Gdańsk agreement, the Soviet Union proceeded with a massive military buildup along Poland's border in December 1980. In February 1981, Defense Minister Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski assumed the position of Prime Minister as well, and in October 1981, he also was named party First Secretary. At the first Solidarity national congress in September-October 1981, Lech Wałęsa was elected national chairman of the union. ===Martial law=== On December 12-December 13, the regime declared martial law, under which the army and ZOMO riot police were used to crush the union. Virtually all Solidarity leaders and many affiliated intellectuals were arrested or detained. The United States and other Western countries responded to martial law by imposing economic sanctions against the Polish regime and against the Soviet Union. Unrest in Poland continued for several years thereafter. In a series of slow, uneven steps, the Polish regime rescinded martial law. In December 1982, martial law was suspended, and a small number of political prisoners were released. Although martial law formally ended in July 1983 and a general amnesty was enacted, several hundred political prisoners remained in jail. In July 1984, another general amnesty was declared, and 2 years later, the government had released nearly all political prisoners. The authorities continued, however, to harass dissidents and Solidarity activists. Solidarity remained proscribed and its publications banned. Independent publications were censored. ==The Third Republic (1989-present)== ''Main article: History of Poland (1989-present), Poland'' A ''shock therapy'' program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. Poland joined NATO in March 1999. Hopes for early admission to the European Union were realized on April 16, 2003, when Poland and nine other countries signed a Treaty for EU membership from May 1, 2004. ==Related articles== * Timeline of Polish history * Rulers of Poland * Presidents of Poland * Myths from Polish history * List of Polish uprisings * List of Polish wars * History of Europe * History of present-day nations and states * History of the Jews in Poland == External links == * [http://zamki.res.pl/zamki.htm Castles of Poland] * [http://www.historycy.org/ Historia - polskie cetrum historyczne] * [http://www.istorija.net/ Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History] * [http://historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=1 A History of East Central Europe by Oscar Halecki] ===Maps=== *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/1.htm Poland and West-Slavs 800-950] *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/2.htm Poland 990-1040] *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/3.htm Poland 1040-1090] *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/4.htm Poland 1090-1140] *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/10.htm Poland 1140-1250] *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/12.htm Poland 1250-1290] *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/13.htm Poland 1290-1333] *[http://www.piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/17.htm Poland 1333-1350] *[http://piastowie.kei.pl/piast/mapy/kwmapa.htm Poland 1350-1370] *[http://www.kresy.co.uk/Images/map.jpg Poland 1550] *[http://www.forumnobilium.net/Poland%201677.jpg Poland 1677] *[http://ornatowski.com/maps/rzeczpospolita1773.jpg Poland 1773] *[http://www.iirzeczpospolita.px.pl/images/mapapolski.jpg Poland 1939] *[http://www.michalowo.ug.gov.pl/bip/image/wojewodztwa.jpg Poland 2004] *[http://rw46.webpark.pl/poczet/poczet.htm Poland (flash version)] Polish history History of Europe

History of Poland

/Gathering scientific evidence and bibliography - moved out of main namespace BTW, i posted Dagome Iudex in latin. i will soon post article with discussion about Scandinavian beginnings of Mieszko. (first version) User:szopen --- You're going to have to do better than: ''It was a wise political move to maintain sovereignty and remain independent from the German state.'' --MichaelTinkler ---- Re the tribes -- are they tribes or peoples? I'm not trying to be troublesome, but Baltic ethnicity has been a thorn in my side for a couple of months now. Personally, I would like to see only pertinent information, with links to each ethnic/cultural group involved...User:JHK ---- This article is *really* unNPOV and repeats lot of Polish nationalist propaganda. --User:Taw : ...et tu Taw contra me ? ;-)) --User:Kpjas :: yup, this Introduction really needed lot of NPOVification. --User:Taw ---- Old Introduction: History of Poland is over 10 centuries long. It has been and to the present day is determined by Poland's geographical location. Poland has always been regarded as a bridge or barrier between the West and the (savage) East. From 966 AD Poland was included into the Latin Christian World and it was planned to make Poland as a forefront spreading Christianity eastward and defending the West at the same time. On numerous occasions Poland's existence was endangered by aggressive expansion of her neighbours that were greedy for new land - in 10 and 11th centuries the Czech and then Germans, Swedes, Russians and Austrians. There were times when once the grand and mighty Polish state was reduced to a small dukedom that was almost totally dependent on Russia. Worse still, Poland was altogether wiped out from the maps of Europe for many years until 1918 when after the World War I it regained independence. One of the features that best characterizes Polish people is that they stand strengthened in times of oppression and hardship. It is very well illustrated by the first line of the Polish national anthem : "Poland will not perish as long as we are alive..." Now, Poland is a proud nation of indisputable sovereignty, united with her allies in the NATO and aspiring to become a full member of the :European Union. ---- Taw, I will be happy to copyedit for better English, sections, etc. In answer to your question about the use of the word 'duke', do you know what he was called in Latin documents of the time? I'm fairly familiar with those titles, and could probably come up with a correct translation in historical context. I am pretty sure that the title usually given is indeed Duke, but that meant something different in the 10th c. than in the 12th, and was also different for east and west...User:JHK ---- The problem is that in Polish we have only one word 'ksiaze' for many different concepts. In this case, Mieszko was just a crownless Christian ruler of a country. I'm not sure about his relation to the Emperor. It changed too often during early Polish history, and all crownless rulers are called 'ksiaze' anyway. Iirc he wasn't Emperor's vassal. --User:Taw :That's why I thought it would be good to see the Latin -- anybody know where to find it? User:JHK ::Oldest Latin documentation ('Dagome iudex') calls him 'iudex', which is probably a translation of some tribal function. But such name isn't used by Polish historical terminology, so it's not very useful. --User:Taw ---- Given the iudex thing, does anyone know (or have a good dictionary) any other possible translations for iudex (besides judge) in this context? User:JHK ----- What kind of evidence is *this* depending on: :''The masses did not identify with Poland until the advent of nationalism in the 18th-20th centuries.'' I changed it to 'do not seem to have identified' pending further explanation. ---- BTW, Dagome Iudex is, IIRC, not the oldest document with reference to Poland. Is one of the oldest, but not _the_ oldest, unless i am mistaken. Widukind, Ibrahim Ibn Jakub etc wrote about Poland and Mieszko earlier. And, in summary of Micheal Tinkler changes i saw "queation", but i can't find any his question here? User:szopen ---- Removed for the main page :
In 1985 the Sczeczin bishop Jan Galecki praised the Catholic clergy of Poland for the roll they played in the establishment of "Stabilisation of the Western Territories". This roll of ''getting rid of minorities''was defined by the highest ranking church official of Poland Primate Cardinal August Hlond over many years.
This is more a rant to justify some sulky feelings of resentment against Poland than Polish history in its own right. It was Hitler and his politics that was detrimental to the prosperity of the German Volk than Polish nationalists etc.
User:Kpjas ---- Removed: Since the death of the Polish moderate leader Pilsudski in 1935, Poland's rulers have been openly nationalistic, lead by the highest authority in Poland the Primate of the Catholic Church of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond. This just didn't make sense in context of where it was in the article, nor did it make sense in English. I also took out (again) this bit Kpjas objected to, because it didn't really fit. Also, I revised much of the article to maintain chronological order and to introduce more NPOV. Then I noticed the bloody thing starts up again with the Middle Ages. I will try to incorporate the bottom section of the article, which has a lot of great information, into the upper portion and break it down into coherent chronological parts. User:JHK ------------------------------------------------------------ Removed from the article:
''The Polish Roman Catholic Primate, Cardinal August Hlond, returned to Poland from exile at the end of the war. One of his actions unpon arrival was to expel many ethnic German members of the clergy. There is still debate as to the reasons for Hlond's actions. Doubtless there were different motivations in different cases. Hlond was certainly a supporter of Polish nationalism, and this may have had something to do with the expulsions. But it should also be noted that some of the clergy had been seen as Nazi sympathizers, or even collaborators, and this may have had something to do with Hlond's actions. Finally, the expulsions, not only of German clergy, but also the majority of the ethnic German population, must be considered as part of the Soviet-supported reprisals against the Germans at the end of the war."
User:Space Cadet :This is one of Helga Jonat's leftovers. -- User:Zoe ---- Removed: :''This popular statement is however very misleading, because what is now referred to as 16th century Poland, includes a number of other non-Polish states.'' :''From this time Poland was under the variable influence of Roman Catholic Church. During the Counter-Reformation, when many of Poland's neighbours had different religions (Protestant Swedes and Germans, Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians, Muslim Turks, not to mention many Jews living in Poland at that time), it became popular to say that 'Polish means Catholic', and much propaganda stressing this connection appeared. For example it was said that Poland was a forefront of Christianity, referring mainly to the wars Poland fought against Muslim Ottoman Empire throughout the 17th century.'' :''The masses do not seem to have identified with Poland until the advent of nationalism in the 18th-20th centuries.'' These are personal opinions that are put in to prove that Poland was not what it is claimed by (Polish) historians to be. I expect facts and balanced opinion based on scientific evidence from this article and not opposing Communist nationalistic propaganda with anti-Polish propaganda.
User:Kpjas 07:46 28 Jun 2003 (UTC) ---- Consider breaking this article into series. I think it has already been done, but there lacks a series box, like in History of Russia. The public domain text from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pltoc.html can also be copied here. --User:Jiang 23:29, 26 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- I;ve made few major changes. First, i removed constant mentioning that those and those prince joined Silesia to German empire (silly considering that in opinion of some whole Poland was formally part of HRE, HOLY ROMAN empire, not GERMAN empire). Second, i've corrected scale of Mongol invasion. It was exxagerated by XIX century German historians, but scaled down by Polish historians in XX century. Third, i corrected "Mieszko vassal of empire" mentionings. Mieszko and Boleslaw were keeping some of their lands as fief from empire, more or less formally, that for sure. Their exact relationship with empire is under very heavy studies from about 60 years. I've also added mentionign that German law does not mean German settlers, and corrected mentioning that German settled only "easy" lands. Germans also settled in sparsely colonised regions of Sudety, for example, so it is not true. The article is IMHO in mess. Someone would hav to correct it, put all sudden mentionings of "Popielids" etc into correct places.user::szopen The interests of the Russian-Soviet Empire in the Nazi-Soviet pact were to incorporate as much as possible of the nations they had already MOSTLY sujegated. That's why the border was placed were it was in the agreement! They didn't care for the strange math that chooses to count over two nations (Ukraine and Belarus') as a group instead of separately, in order to make the Poles look relatively more substantial! User:Genyo 16:30, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC) ==Western Betrayal== I'm preparing an article on the concept of ''Western Betrayal'' User:Halibutt/Western betrayal. Please feel free to drop in and help me finish it.User:Halibutt 09:51, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==India== Is there a sense mentioning one of many Polish refugee camps and one of many functioning Polish embassy? I'm talking about that mentioning of camp in India during WWII. User:Szopen 09:35, 7 May 2004 (UTC) :I asked User:Nichalp to elaborate it a bit. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=User_talk:Nichalp&curid=449517&diff=0&oldid=0]) User:Halibutt 10:30, 7 May 2004 (UTC) == Russia and the 1918 events == User:Monedula added the following phrase: ''The downfall of Imperial Russia in 1917 (see Russian Revolution of 1917) was followed by the "Declaration of Rights of Peoples of Russia", promulgated on November 15, 1917 and signed by Lenin and Stalin. That Declaration granted to peoples of Russia the right to self-determination, including the right to secede completely. ''. With all due respect, no part of Poland was under Russian rule after 1915 and, although this declaration might've been a pretty gesture, it had little to do with both internal and international situation of Poland in 1918. At the moment the central powers collapsed allowing for Poland to be reborn, the nearest Russian administration was some 400 kilometres eastwards from the Polish borders and Lenin might've as well grant Zimbabwe independence - it would have the same effect. User:HalibuttUser_Talk:Halibutt">User:Halibutt|User:HalibuttUser Talk:Halibutt 16:31, Aug 23, 2004 (UTC) :The comparison with Zimbabwe is not correct. Poland might have been occupied by Germany, but ''de jure'' it still was part of Russia. The Declaration provided a basis for international recognition of Poland after WWI, so it must be mentioned. — User:Monedula 17:42, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::Well, you apparently forgot of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in which Russia gave up all claims on Poland and other Central European areas. Poland was neither ''de iure'' nor ''de facto'' a part of Russia. The basis for the post-war recognition of Poland were various international treaties, but I doubt this Lenins declaration was among them (contrary to what commie propaganda tried to prove for the last 50 years...). Also, it is a fact that the independence of Poland was recognized by France before Lenin issued his funny declaration. Among the most important bases were: * Fourteen Points of Thomas Woodrow Wilson, in which he found the reestablishemnt of Poland as one of the 14 aims of the war (''XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.'') * Versailles Treaty * Polish-French Alliance of 1917 * The edicts of the A-H monarchy starting the future core of the Polish Army * the German and Austro-Hungarian Act of November 5, 1916 (''Independence of the Kingdom of Poland Act'') * Creation of the Regention Council and the Council of the State ::Declaration of Lenin perhaps should be mentioned, but in the detailed article, not here. User:HalibuttUser_Talk:Halibutt">User:Halibutt|User:HalibuttUser Talk:Halibutt 23:47, Aug 25, 2004 (UTC) :::The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk has nothing to do with the Declaration, because it was concluded several months later (you did non notice that???). And the moves of Germans, Americans and others were not very important, because Poland did not belong to them anyway (and again, the Declaration had come earlier than many of them). Btw, when exactly did France recognize Polish independence? — User:Monedula 09:22, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::::Yup, you're right, I worded it wrongly. What I ment to say is that it was a pure propaganda document, with absolutely no influence on what happened in Poland. On the contrary, the moves of the Entente were far more important since it was them who won the war and it was them who accepted creation of Poland as one of the aims of their war. ::::As to the Franco-Polish alliance, it's hard to tell. The full military and political bilateral treaty was signed in 1922. However, on August 15, 1917 a treaty was signed with Dmowski to allow the creation of an allied Polish army in France and Polish National Commity, a Polish government-to-be. This predated the declaration by three months. User:HalibuttUser_Talk:Halibutt">User:Halibutt|User:HalibuttUser Talk:Halibutt 12:18, Aug 26, 2004 (UTC) == To Ruy Lopez == I agree that we should avoid touchy terms. However, in this context the usage of the word "totalitarian" is 100% acceptable. If Nazi Germany and Stalinist Soviet Union were not totalitarian - then which states where? The very word "totalitarism" (or "totalitarianism" was coined to show similarities between the two states - and that's what the wiki article on the phenomenon says. User:Halibutt">User:Halibutt|User:Halibutt 02:28, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC) : Totalitarian is just a propaganda term. "Totalitarianism is any political system in which a citizen is totally subject to a governing authority in all aspects of day-to-day life." I'm subject to the governing authority (the US government) in all aspects of my day-to-day life - I can't smoke pot or visit Cuba or refuse to pay rent to someone the state recognizes as my landlord. "It involves constant indoctrination achieved by propaganda to erase any potential for dissent, by anyone, including most especially the agents of government." OK, at a certain level perhaps this would mean something, although I don't think a Russian farmer in 1938 was indoctrinated any more than an American farmer is today between school, church, work and leisure (watching television, going to a sporting event and singing the national anthem etc.) It is just a POV propaganda term that is unnecessary to the article, let people make up their own mind. : If you want to point to other wiki articles, look at USSR or RSFSR. They are not defined as totalitarian there, because people would not allow it. If it would be POV to call the USSR totalitarian there, it would be POV here. And even for Nazi Germany, I don't fail to recognize that the Nazi party came to power through legal, electoral means, and was enormously popular across a strata of Germany society. User:Ruy Lopez 13:10, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC) ::Sorry Ruy, but I don't really understand your POV. I see that for you the US of A are a totalitarian regime. I also understand that you feel opressed by lack of freedom of speech, having to report on the police station everywhere you go, having to obtain an internal passport in order to visit your friends in another town, and having to become a party member in order to be promoted in your job or obtain an external passport. ::But seriously, there is a huge difference between the two states and the rest of the world. If one wanted to follow your logic, he'd have to agree that all (all) political terms are POV, nothing but propaganda and should be avoided. As such, no country's political system should be described since what for some is a republic, for others is a dictatorship... There are lots of such "POV" statements in this very article: ''fully democratic government'', ''free-market'', ''communists'', ''noncommunists''... Why don't you erase those as well? ::Finally, if there is a definition of some phenomenon and it is interlinked - the people still can decide for themselves. Especially that the definition of totalitarism seems quite decent. The article on Nazi Germany has got a link to totalitarism exactly in the header - and nobody opposes it. User:Halibutt">User:Halibutt|User:Halibutt 19:03, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC) :::An internal passport? To drive a car from one state to another you need a drivers license. To ride in an airplane you need a drivers license. To take a *train* you need a drivers license. This seems to cut off all the possibilities of state to state travel without a drivers license, our "internal passport" (although I have not travelled by bus recently). :::Wal-Mart asks a question on its potential employee questionnaire - Do you believe your interests are the same as your bosses, very much so, somewhat, neutral, not much, definitely not. Guess what happens to people who answer definitely not? People who do not belong to one of the two bourgeois political parties are often discriminated against in jobs, I was just speaking with someone whom the internal security force (the FBI) sent letters to his boss informing him he was in the Socialist Workers Party and that he was a supposedly dangerous radical, suggesting he be fired. :::Although even left-liberal people like Martin Luther King Jr. were persecuted by the government a few decades ago for speaking freely, which runs right up to today, and while the wealthy control virtually all broadcast media, it is possible that the US has more free speech rights than the USSR, just as people in the USSR had more of a right to have a job, a right to eat versus a right to speak. :::Your comment that there is no distinction about how POV a political term is is false. I don't think anyone would argue with someone being called non-communist. Free market is more troubling, especially since socialist and capitalist markets were almost identical, with production being the real difference, it is obviously a propaganda term. :::This article is going beyond speaking of Soviet influence over Poland to criticizing the internal character of the USSR. I am assuming you are speaking of the USSR since totalitarian is being applied to the USSR and not Poland in the article. The USSR was also preparing to be invaded in the late 1930s, something which makes any country more "totalitarian", justa s the US became more "totalitarian" during WWII. This article should discuss Soviet influence and relations with Poland, not the internal USSR. Otherwise, this page becomes a place for debate towards issues which are very tangential to the article. User:Ruy Lopez 16:55, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) ::Ok, I'm going to back down on this one, it's not that important after all. But some nitpicking first. ''Guess what happens to people who answer definitely not?'' Well of course, they get arrested by the NSA, tortured in their secret prisons for years and then sent to some concentration camp or labour camp to make them resocialised. That's obvious, isn't it. ::''The USSR was also preparing to be invaded in the late 1930s, something which makes any country more "totalitarian", justa s the US became more "totalitarian" during WWII.'' - Ok then, here's the list of the neighbouring countries of the USSR in late 1930's: Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, USA (by sea), Japan, Manchukuo, China, Sinkiang, Mongolia, Tuva, Afghanistan, Tuva, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Romania, Hungary. Could you tell me which of them was planning to invade it? --User:Halibutt">User:Halibutt|User:Halibutt 02:59, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC) ==Duplicate articles== I came across two boxes claiming to be lists of articles about the history of Poland. It looks as if there is some duplication which needs to be tidied up. --User:Henrygb 11:56, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC) {| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="right" style="font-size:90%" style="margin-left:1.0em;" |+History of Poland series |- |align=center|Polish statehood
|- |bgcolor=papayawhip| Piast Poland
Jagiellon Poland
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Duchy of Warsaw
Congress Poland
Free City of Krak�w
Kingdom of Poland (Mitteleuropa)
Second Polish Republic
Polish government-in-exile
People's Republic of Poland
Poland |} These are an effect of our (still unfinished) work at the Wikipedia:WikiProject History of Poland. We are striving to categorise the Polish history onto a set of four or five series. The Polish statehood is simply a series listing all the independent states formed on Polish territory. User:HalibuttUser talk:Halibutt 14:14, Jan 24, 2005 (UTC)

History of Poland

{| cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 align="right" style="font-size:90%;margin:0 0 1em 1em; border:1px solid #999;background:#fff;" ! style="padding:0 5px;background:#ccf;font-weight:normal;" | History of Poland series
Timeline of Polish history |- | style="padding:0 5px;" | Prehistory of Poland (until 966)
History of Poland (966-1385)
History of Poland (1385-1569)
History of Poland (1569-1795)
History of Poland (1795-1918)
History of Poland (1918-1939)
History of Poland (1939-1945)
History of Poland (1945-1989)
History of Poland (1989-present)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:History_of_Poland&action=edit edit] |}

History of Poland

#redirect Template:History of Poland

History of Poland

== Expantion == I think this should include the History of the Jews in Poland and, when we finally finish it, the History of Polish economy, History of Polish culture and similar projects. Also, we may want to consider a kind of see also to :Template:Polish statehood. What do you think? --User:Piotrus ^{User_talk:Piotrus} 13:50, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

History of poland

#REDIRECT History of Poland

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