Portal:Poland

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

Welcome to the Poland Portal — Witaj w Portalu o Polsce

Cityscape ofKraków,Poland's former capital

Polandis a country inCentral Europe,bordered byGermanyto the west, theCzech Republicto the southwest,Slovakiato the south,UkraineandBelarusto the east,Lithuaniato the northeast, and theBaltic SeaandRussia'sKaliningrad Oblastto the north. It is an ancient nation whose history as a statebegannear the middle of the 10th century. Itsgolden ageoccurred in the 16th century when it united with theGrand Duchy of Lithuaniato form thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.During the following century, the strengthening of thegentryand internal disorders weakened the nation. In aseries of agreementsin the late 18th century,Russia,PrussiaandAustriapartitioned Poland amongst themselves. It regained independence as theSecond Polish Republicin the aftermath ofWorld War Ionly tolose it againwhen it was occupied byNazi Germanyand theSoviet UnioninWorld War II.The nation lost over six million citizens in the war, following which it emerged as the communistPolish People's Republicunder strong Soviet influence within theEastern Bloc.Awestward border shiftfollowed by forced population transfers after the war turned a once multiethnic country into a mostly homogeneous nation state. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union calledSolidarity(Solidarność) that over time became a political force which by 1990 had sweptparliamentary electionsand thepresidency.Ashock therapy programduring the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented country completed, Poland joinedNATOin 1999 and theEuropean Unionin 2004, but has experienced aconstitutional crisisanddemocratic backslidingsince 2015.

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

From Polish history –show another

Swiderian tanged points

TheStone Age in what is now Polandlasted about 500,000 years and involved three differenthuman species:Homo erectus,Homo neanderthalensisandHomo sapiens.Stone Age cultures ranged from early human groups with primitive tools to advancedagriculturalsocieties, which used sophisticatedstone tools,built fortified settlements and developedcoppermetallurgy. As elsewhere inEurope,the Stone Age human cultures went through the stages known as thePaleolithic,MesolithicandNeolithic,each bringing new refinements of the stone tool making techniques. The Paleolithic human activities were intermittent because of the recurring periods ofglaciation.A general climate warming and the resulting increase in ecologic diversity was characteristic of the Mesolithic (9,000-8,000 BCE). The Neolithic brought the first settled agricultural communities whose founders migrated from theDanubeRiver area starting ca. 5,500 BCE. Later the native post-Mesolithic populations also adopted and further developed the agricultural way of life (4,400–2,000 BCE). (Full article...)

More selected articles

edit

Selected image –show another

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Credit:Marcin Białek

A bust ofHenryk Sienkiewicz,an epic writer and journalist, stands near his home village ofWola Okrzejska.Sienkiewicz, known for his grandhistorical novels,includingQuo VadisandThe Trilogy,as well as short stories about modern social issues, won theNobel Prize in Literaturein 1905.

More selected pictures

edit

Did you know –show different entries

... that theSzombierki Heat Power Station(pictured)is considered one of the "Seven Architectural Wonders of theSilesian Voivodeship"?
... thatSzlama Ber Winerescaped the work commando at theChełmno extermination campand managed towrite a reportabout his experience soon before his and his family's death in thegas chambersofBełżec?
... thatEwa Ziarek,aPolish Americanphilosopher, wrote the bookAn Ethics of Dissensus?
... that after missing the whole of 2009 through injury,mixed martial artistJan Błachowiczreturned atKSW XIIIto defeat two opponents on the same night?

More did you know...

edit

You can help!

edit

Selected biography –show another

Stanisław Ulam

Stanisław Ulam(1909–1984) was aPolish-Americanmathematician. Born into a wealthyPolish Jewishfamily, Ulam earned hisD.Sc.in mathematics at theLwów Polytechnic Institutein 1933. He then worked on theergodic theoryatHarvard University,shuttling between Poland and America, and ultimately settled in the United States after theGerman invasion of Polandin 1939, becoming an assistant professor at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison.In 1943, Ulam joined theManhattan Project,where he madehydrodynamiccalculations to predict the behavior ofexplosive lensesfor animplosion-type nuclear weapon.After the war, he became an associate professor at theUniversity of Southern California,but returned toLos Alamosin 1946 to helpEdward Tellerdevelop theTeller–Ulam designofthermonuclear weapons.Ulam contributed to such fields of mathematics asset theory,topology,transformation theory,group theory,projective algebra,number theory,combinatorics,andgraph theory.WithEnrico FermiandJohn Pasta,he studied theFermi–Pasta–Ulam problem,which became the inspiration for the vast field ofnonlinear science.Ulam is perhaps best known for realising that electronic computers made it practical to apply statistical methods to functions without known solutions, and as computers have developed, theMonte Carlo methodhe invented has become a standard approach to many physical and mathematical problems. (Full article...)

More selected biographies

edit

Selected location –show another

Izrael Poznański's Palace in Łódź

Łódź,located in central Poland, is one of the country's largest cities. Although dating back as far as the 14th century, the city's growth began underRussian rulein the 1820s as immigrants were attracted by its boomingtextile industry.Nicknamed "promised land", its character was shaped by its Polish, Jewish, German and Russian population. During theNazi Germanoccupation, it was renamedLitzmannstadtand became the site of the second largestJewish ghetto.AfterWorld War II,Łódź became the principal center of Polishfilmmakingand home of theNational Film School.As textile industry collapsed following the fall of communism, Łódź has attracted investment in theIT sector,from companies includingDellandInfosys.(Full article...)

More selected locations

edit