title: Polish People's Republic

text: Over the coming years, private industry was nationalised, the land seized from the pre-war landowners and redistributed to the lower-class farmers, and millions of Poles were transferred from the lost eastern territories to the lands acquired from Germany. Poland was now to be brought into line with the Soviet model of a "people's democracy" and a centrally planned socialist economy. The government also embarked on the collectivisation of agriculture, although the pace was slower than in other satellites: Poland remained the only Eastern Bloc country where individual farmers dominated agriculture.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Through a careful balance of agreement, compromise and resistance — and having signed an agreement of coexistence with the communist regime — cardinal primate Stefan Wyszyński maintained and even strengthened the Polish church through a series of failed government leaders. He was put under house arrest from 1953 to 1956 for failing to punish priests who participated in anti-government activity.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Bierut died in March 1956, and was replaced with Edward Ochab, who held the position for seven months. In June, workers in the industrial city of Poznań went on strike, in what became known as 1956 Poznań protests. Voices began to be raised in the Party and among the intellectuals calling for wider reforms of the Stalinist system. Eventually, power shifted towards Gomułka, who replaced Ochab as party leader. Hardline Stalinists were removed from power and many Soviet officers serving in the Polish Army were dismissed. This marked the end of the Stalinist era.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: In 1970, Gomułka's government had decided to adopt massive increases in the prices of basic goods, including food. The resulting widespread violent protests in December that same year resulted in a number of deaths. They also forced another major change in the government, as Gomułka was replaced by Edward Gierek as the new First Secretary. Gierek's plan for recovery was centered on massive borrowing, mainly from the United States and West Germany, to re-equip and modernize Polish industry, and to import consumer goods to give the workers some incentive to work. While it boosted the Polish economy, and is still remembered as the "Golden Age" of socialist Poland, it left the country vulnerable to global economic fluctuations and western undermining, and the repercussions in the form of massive debt is still felt in Poland even today. This Golden Age came to an end after the 1973 energy crisis. The failure of the Gierek government, both economically and politically, soon led to the creation of opposition in the form of trade unions, student groups, clandestine newspapers and publishers, imported books and newspapers, and even a "flying university."


title: Polish People's Republic

text: On 16 October 1978, the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, was elected Pope, taking the name John Paul II. The election of a Polish Pope had an electrifying effect on what had been, even under communist rule, one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in Europe. Gierek is alleged to have said to his cabinet, "O God, what are we going to do now?" or, as occasionally reported, "Jesus and Mary, this is the end". When John Paul II made his first papal tour of Poland in June 1979, half a million people heard him speak in Warsaw; he did not call for rebellion, but instead encouraged the creation of an "alternative Poland" of social institutions independent of the government, so that when the next economic crisis came, the nation would present a united front.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: A new wave of labour strikes undermined Gierek's government, and in September Gierek, who was in poor health, was finally removed from office and replaced as Party leader by Stanisław Kania. However, Kania was unable to find an answer for the fast-eroding support of communism in Poland. Labour turmoil led to the formation of the independent trade union Solidarity ("Solidarność") in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. In fact, Solidarity became a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church, to members of the anti-Stalinist left. By the end of 1981, Solidarity had nine million members—a quarter of Poland's population and three times as many as the PUWP had. Kania resigned under Soviet pressure in October and was succeeded by Wojciech Jaruzelski, who had been Defence minister since 1968 and Premier since February.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: On 13 December 1981, Jaruzelski proclaimed martial law, suspended Solidarity, and temporarily imprisoned most of its leaders. This sudden crackdown on Solidarity was reportedly out of fear of Soviet intervention (see Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis of 1980–1981). The government then disallowed Solidarity on 8 October 1982. Martial law was formally lifted in July 1983, though many heightened controls on civil liberties and political life, as well as food rationing, remained in place through the mid-to-late-1980s. Jaruzelski stepped down as prime minister in 1985 and became president (chairman of the Council of State).


title: Polish People's Republic

text: This did not prevent Solidarity from gaining more support and power. Eventually it eroded the dominance of the PUWP, which in 1981 lost approximately 85,000 of its 3 million members. Throughout the mid-1980s, Solidarity persisted solely as an underground organization, but by the late 1980s was sufficiently strong to frustrate Jaruzelski's attempts at reform, and nationwide strikes in 1988 were one of the factors that forced the government to open a dialogue with Solidarity.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: From 6 February to 15 April 1989, talks of 13 working groups in 94 sessions, which became known as the "Roundtable Talks" ("Rozmowy Okrągłego Stołu") saw the PUWP abandon power and radically altered the shape of the country. In June, shortly after the Tiananmen Square protests in China, the 1989 Polish legislative election took place. Much to its own surprise, Solidarity took all contested (35%) seats in the Sejm, the Parliament's lower house, and all but one seat in the elected Senate.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Solidarity persuaded the communists' longtime allied parties, the United People's Party and Democratic Party, to throw their support to Solidarity. This all but forced Jaruzelski, who had been named president in July, to appoint a Solidarity member as prime minister. Finally, he appointed a Solidarity-led coalition government with Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the country's first non-communist prime minister since 1948.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Parliament amended the Constitution on 29 December 1989 to formally rescind the PUWP's constitutionally-guaranteed power and restore democracy and civil liberties. This began the Third Polish Republic, and served as a prelude to the democratic elections of 1991 — the fourth ever held in Poland.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The PZPR was disbanded on 30 January 1990, but Wałęsa could be elected as president only eleven months later. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved on 1 July 1991 and the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991. On 27 October 1991, the 1991 Polish parliamentary election, the first democratic election since the 1920s. This completed Poland's transition from a communist party rule to a Western-style liberal democratic political system. The last post-Soviet troops left Poland on 18 September 1993. After ten years of democratic consolidation, Poland joined OECD in 1996, NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The government and politics of the Polish People's Republic were governed by the Polish United Workers' Party ("Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR"). Despite the presence of two minor parties, the United People's Party and the Democratic Party, the country was generally reckoned by western nations as a "de facto" one-party state because these two parties were supposedly completely subservient to the Communists and had to accept the PZPR's "leading role" as a condition of their existence. It was politically influenced by the Soviet Union to the extent of being its satellite country, along with East Germany, Czechoslovakia and other Eastern Bloc members.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: From 1952, the highest law was the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, and the Polish Council of State replaced the presidency of Poland. Elections were held on the single lists of the Front of National Unity. Despite these changes, Poland was one of the most liberal communist nations and was the only communist country in the world which did not have any communist symbols (red star, stars, ears of wheat, or hammer and sickle) on its flag and coat of arms. The White Eagle founded by Polish monarchs in the Middle Ages remained as Poland's national emblem; the only feature removed by the communists from the pre-war design was the crown, which was seen as imperialistic and monarchist.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Polish People's Republic maintained a large standing army and hosted Soviet troops in its territory, as Poland was a Warsaw Pact signatory. The UB and succeeding SB were the chief intelligence agencies that acted as secret police. The official police organization, which was also responsible for peacekeeping and suppression of protests, was renamed Citizens' Militia (MO). The Militia's elite ZOMO squads committed various serious crimes to maintain the communists in power, including the harsh treatment of protesters, arrest of opposition leaders and in some cases, murder. According to Rudolph J. Rummel, at least 22,000 people killed by the regime during its rule. As a result, Poland had a high imprisonment rate but one of the lowest crime rates in the world.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: During its existence, the Polish People's Republic maintained relations not only with the Soviet Union, but several communist states around the world. It also had friendly relations with the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Western Bloc as well as the People's Republic of China. At the height of the Cold War, Poland attempted to remain neutral to the conflict between the Soviets and the Americans. In particular, Edward Gierek sought to establish Poland as a mediator between the two powers in the 1970s. Both the U.S. presidents and the Soviet general secretaries or leaders visited communist Poland.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Poland's relations with Israel were on a fair level following the aftermath of the Holocaust. In 1947, the PRL voted in favour of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which led to Israel's recognition by the PRL on 19 May 1948. However, by the Six-Day War, it severed diplomatic relations with Israel in June 1967 and supported the Palestine Liberation Organization which recognized the State of Palestine on 14 December 1988. In 1989, PRL restored relations with Israel.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The PRL participated as a member of the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Warsaw Pact, Comecon, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, and Interkosmos.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Poland suffered tremendous economic losses during World War II. In 1939, Poland had 35.1 million inhabitants, but the census of 14 February 1946 showed only 23.9 million inhabitants. The difference was partially the result of the border revision. Losses in national resources and infrastructure amounted to approximately 38%. The implementation of the immense tasks involved with the reconstruction of the country was intertwined with the struggle of the new government for the stabilisation of power, made even more difficult by the fact that a considerable part of society was mistrustful of the communist government. The occupation of Poland by the Red Army and the support the Soviet Union had shown for the Polish communists was decisive in the communists gaining the upper hand in the new Polish government.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: As control of the Polish territories passed from occupying forces of Nazi Germany to the subsequent occupying forces of the Soviet Union, and from the Soviet Union to the Soviet-imposed puppet satellite government, Poland's new economic system was forcibly imposed and began moving towards a radical, communist centrally planned economy. One of the first major steps in that direction involved the agricultural reform issued by the Polish Committee of National Liberation government on 6 September 1944. All estates over 0.5 km in pre-war Polish territories and all over 1 km in former German territories were nationalised without compensation. In total, 31,000 km of land were nationalised in Poland and 5 million in the former German territories, out of which 12,000 km were redistributed to farmers and the rest remained in the hands of the government (Most of this was eventually used in the collectivization and creation of sovkhoz-like State Agricultural Farms "PGR"). However, the collectivization of Polish farming never reached the same extent as it did in the Soviet Union or other countries of the Eastern Bloc.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Nationalisation began in 1944, with the pro-Soviet government taking over industries in the newly acquired territories along with the rest of the country. As nationalization was unpopular, the communists delayed the nationalization reform until 1946, when after the 3xTAK referendums they were fairly certain they had total control of the state and could deal a heavy blow to eventual public protests. Some semi-official nationalisation of various private enterprises had begun also in 1944. In 1946, all enterprises with over 50 employees were nationalised, with no compensation to Polish owners.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Allied punishment of Germany for the war of destruction was intended to include large-scale reparations to Poland. However, those were truncated into insignificance by the break-up of Germany into East and West and the onset of the Cold War. Poland was then relegated to receive her share from the Soviet-controlled East Germany. However, even this was attenuated, as the Soviets pressured the Polish Government to cease receiving the reparations far ahead of schedule as a sign of 'friendship' between the two new communist neighbors and, therefore, now friends. Thus, without the reparations and without the massive Marshall Plan implemented in the West at that time, Poland's postwar recovery was much harder than it could have been.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: During the Gierek era, Poland borrowed large sums from Western creditors in exchange for promise of social and economic reforms. None of these have been delivered due to resistance from the hardline communist leadership as any true reforms would require effectively abandoning the Marxian economy with central planning, state-owned enterprises and state-controlled prices and trade. After the West refused to grant Poland further loans, the living standards began to sharply fall again as the supply of imported goods dried up, and as Poland was forced to export everything it could, particularly food and coal, to service its massive debt, which would reach US$23 billion by 1980.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: In 1981, Poland notified Club de Paris (a group of Western-European central banks) about its insolvency and a number of negotiations of repaying its foreign debt were completed between 1989 and 1991.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The party was forced to raise prices, which led to further large-scale social unrest and formation of the Solidarity movement. During the Solidarity years and the imposition of martial law, Poland entered a decade of economic crisis, officially acknowledged as such even by the regime. Rationing and queuing became a way of life, with ration cards ("Kartki") necessary to buy even such basic consumer staples as milk and sugar. Access to Western luxury goods became even more restricted, as Western governments applied economic sanctions to express their dissatisfaction with the government repression of the opposition, while at the same time the government had to use most of the foreign currency it could obtain to pay the crushing rates on its foreign debt.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: In response to this situation, the government, which controlled all official foreign trade, continued to maintain a highly artificial exchange rate with Western currencies. The exchange rate worsened distortions in the economy at all levels, resulting in a growing black market and the development of a shortage economy. The only way for an individual to buy most Western goods was to use Western currencies, notably the U.S. dollar, which in effect became a parallel currency. However, it could not simply be exchanged at the official banks for zlotys, since the government exchange rate undervalued the dollar and placed heavy restrictions on the amount that could be exchanged, and so the only practical way to obtain it was from remittances or work outside the country. An entire illegal industry of street-corner money changers emerged as a result. The so-called "Cinkciarze" gave clients far better than official exchange rate and became wealthy from their opportunism albeit at the risk of punishment, usually diminished by the wide scale bribery of the Militia.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: As Western currency came into the country from emigrant families and foreign workers, the government in turn attempted to gather it up by various means, most visibly by establishing a chain of state-run "Pewex" and "Baltona" stores in all Polish cities, where goods could only be bought with hard currency. It even introduced its own "ersatz" U.S. currency ("bony PeKaO" in Polish). This paralleled the financial practices in East Germany running its own ration stamps at the same time. The trend led to an unhealthy state of affairs where the chief determinant of economic status was access to hard currency. This situation was incompatible with any remaining ideals of socialism, which were soon completely abandoned at the community level.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: In this desperate situation, all development and growth in the Polish economy slowed to a crawl. Most visibly, work on most of the major investment projects that had begun in the 1970s was stopped. As a result, most Polish cities acquired at least one infamous example of a large unfinished building languishing in a state of limbo. While some of these were eventually finished decades later, most, such as the Szkieletor skyscraper in Kraków, were never finished at all, wasting the considerable resources devoted to their construction. Polish investment in economic infrastructure and technological development fell rapidly, ensuring that the country lost whatever ground it had gained relative to Western European economies in the 1970s. To escape the constant economic and political pressures during these years, and the general sense of hopelessness, many family income providers traveled for work in Western Europe, particularly West Germany ("Wyjazd na saksy"). During the era, hundreds of thousands of Poles left the country permanently and settled in the West, few of them returning to Poland even after the end of socialism in Poland. Tens of thousands of others went to work in countries that could offer them salaries in hard currency, notably Libya and Iraq.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: After several years of the situation continuing to worsen, during which time the socialist government unsuccessfully tried various expedients to improve the performance of the economy—at one point resorting to placing military commissars to direct work in the factories — it grudgingly accepted pressures to liberalize the economy. The government introduced a series of small-scale reforms, such as allowing more small-scale private enterprises to function. However, the government also realized that it lacked the legitimacy to carry out any large-scale reforms, which would inevitably cause large-scale social dislocation and economic difficulties for most of the population, accustomed to the extensive social safety net that the socialist system had provided. For example, when the government proposed to close the Gdańsk Shipyard, a decision in some ways justifiable from an economic point of view but also largely political, there was a wave of public outrage and the government was forced to back down.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The only way to carry out such changes without social upheaval would be to acquire at least some support from the opposition side. The government accepted the idea that some kind of a deal with the opposition would be necessary, and repeatedly attempted to find common ground throughout the 1980s. However, at this point the communists generally still believed that they should retain the reins of power for the near future, and only allowed the opposition limited, advisory participation in the running of the country. They believed that this would be essential to pacifying the Soviet Union, which they felt was not yet ready to accept a non-Communist Poland.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The origins of Polish television date back to the late 1930s, however, the beginning of World War II interrupted further progress at establishing a regularly televised program. The first prime state television corporation, Telewizja Polska, was founded after the war in 1952 and was hailed as a great success by the communist authorities. The foundation date corresponds to the time of the very first regularly televised broadcast which occurred at 07:00 p.m CET on 25 October 1952. Initially, the auditions were broadcast to a limited number of viewers and at set dates, often a month apart. On 23 January 1953 regular shows began to appear on the first and only channel, TVP1. The second channel, TVP2, was launched in 1970 and coloured television was introduced in 1971. Most reliable sources of information in the 1950s were newspapers, most notably "Trybuna Ludu" (People's Tribune).


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The chief newscast under the Polish People's Republic for over 31 years was "Dziennik Telewizyjny" (Television Journal). Commonly known to the viewers as "Dziennik", aired in the years 1958–1989 and was utilized by the Polish United Workers' Party as a propaganda tool to control the masses. Transmitted daily at 07:30 p.m CET since 1965, it was infamous for its manipulative techniques and emotive language as well as the controversial content. For instance, the "Dziennik" provided more information on world news, particularly bad events, war, corruption or scandals in the West. This method was intentionally used to minimize the effects of the issues that were occurring in communist Poland at the time. With its format, the show shared many similarities with the East German "Aktuelle Kamera". Throughout the 1970s, "Dziennik Telewizyjny" was regularly watched by over 11 million viewers, approximately in every third household in the Polish People's Republic. The long legacy of communist television continues to this day; the older generation in contemporary Poland refers to every televised news program as "Dziennik" and the term also became synonymous with authoritarianism, propaganda, manipulation, lies, deception and disinformation.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Under martial law in Poland, from December 1981 "Dziennik" was presented by officers of the Polish Armed Forces or newsreaders in military uniforms and broadcast 24-hours a day. The running time has also been extended to 60 minutes. The program returned to its original form in 1983. The audience viewed this move as an attempt to militarize the country under a military junta. As a result, several newsreaders had difficulty in finding employment after the fall of communism in 1989.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Despite the political agenda of Telewizja Polska, the authorities did emphasize the need to provide entertainment for younger viewers without exposing the children to inappropriate content. Initially created in the 1950s, an evening cartoon block called "Dobranocka", which was targeted at young children, is still broadcast today under a different format. Among the most well-known animations of the 1970s and 1980s in Poland were "Reksio", "Bolek and Lolek", "Krtek" (Polish: Krecik) and "The Moomins".


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Countless shows were made relating to Second World War history such as "Four Tank-Men and a Dog" (1966–1970) and "Stakes Larger Than Life" with Kapitan Kloss (1967–1968), but were purely fictional and not based on real events. The horrors of war, Soviet invasion and the Holocaust were taboo topics, avoided and downplayed when possible. In most cases, producers and directors were encouraged to portray the Soviet Red Army as a friendly and victorious force which entirely liberated Poland from Nazism, Imperialism or Capitalism. The goal was to strengthen the artificial Polish-Soviet friendship and eliminate any knowledge of the crimes or acts of terror committed by the Soviets during World War II, such as the Katyn massacre. Hence, the Polish audience were more lenient towards a TV series exclusively featuring Polish history from the times of the Kingdom of Poland or the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Being produced in a then-socialist country, the shows did contain a socialist agenda, but with a more informal and comical tone; they concentrated on everyday life which was appealing to ordinary people. These include "Czterdziestolatek" (1975–1978), "Alternatywy 4" (1986–1987) and "Zmiennicy" (1987–1988). The wide range of topics covered featured petty disputes in the block of flats, work issues, human behaviour and interaction as well as comedy, sarcasm, drama and satire. Every televised show was censored if necessary and political content was erased. Ridiculing the communist government was illegal, though Poland remained the most liberal of the Eastern Bloc members and censorship eventually lost its authority by the mid-1980s. The majority of the TV shows and serials made during the Polish People's Republic earned a cult status in Poland today, particularly due to their symbolism of a bygone era.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: In November 1945 the newly formed communist government founded the film production and distribution corporation Film Polski, and placed the well-known Polish filmmaker of Jewish descent Aleksander Ford in charge. The Film Polski output was limited; only thirteen features were released between 1947 and its dissolution in 1952, concentrating on Polish suffering at the hands of the Nazis during World War II for propaganda purposes. In 1947, Ford's contribution to film was crucial in establishing the new National Film School in Łódź, where he taught for 20 years. The first film produced in Poland following the war was "Forbidden Songs" (1946), which was seen by 10.8 million people in its initial theatrical screening, almost half of the population at the time. Ford's biggest success was "Knights of the Teutonic Order" from 1960, one of the most celebrated and attended Polish films in history.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The change in political climate in the 1950s gave rise to the Polish Film School movement, a training ground for some of the icons of the world cinematography. It was then that independent Polish filmmakers such as Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski, Wojciech Has, Kieślowski, Zanussi, Bareja and Andrzej Munk often directed films which were a political satire aimed at stultifying the communist authorities in the most gentle manner as possible. However, due to censorship, some films were not screened in cinemas until 1989 when communism ended in Central and Eastern Europe. The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) was so controversial, the communist government forbade Wojciech Has to direct for a period of ten years. The authorities also hired or bribed film critics and literary scholars to poorly review the film. The reviewers, however, were so ineffective that in turn the film was applauded in the West and won the Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The first nominated Polish film at the Academy Awards was Knife in the Water by Polanski in 1963. Between 1974 and 1981, Polish films were nominated five times and three consecutively from 1974 to 1976.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The architecture in Poland under the Polish People's Republic had three major phases – short-lived socialist realism, modernism and functionalism. Each of these styles or trends was either imposed by the government or communist doctrine.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Under Stalinism in the late 1940s and 1950s, the Eastern Bloc countries adopted socialist realism, an idealized and monumental realistic art intended to promote communist values, such as the emancipation of the proletariat. This style became alternatively known as Stalinist Empire style due to its grandeur, excessive size and political message (a powerful state) it tried to convey. This expensive form greatly resembled a mixture of classicist architecture and Art Deco, with archways, decorated cornices, mosaics, forged gates and columns. It was under this style that the first skyscrapers were erected in communist states. Stalin wanted to assure that Poland will remain under communist yoke and ordered the construction of one of the largest buildings in Europe at the time, the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. With the permission of the Polish authorities who wouldn't dare to object, the construction started in 1952 and lasted until 1955. It was deemed a "gift from the Soviet Union to the Polish people" and at 237 meters in height it was an impressive landmark on European standards. With its proportions and shape it was to mediate between the Seven Sisters in Moscow and the Empire State Building in New York, but with style it possesses traditionally Polish and Art Deco architectural details.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Following the Polish October in 1956, the concept of socialist realism was condemned. It was then that modernist architecture was promoted globally, with simplistic designs made of glass, steel and concrete. Due to previous extravagances, the idea of functionalism (serving for a purpose) was encouraged by Władysław Gomułka. Prefabrication was seen as a way to construct tower blocks or plattenbau in an efficient and orderly manner. A great influence on this type of architecture was Swiss-French architect and designer Le Corbusier. Mass-prefabricated multi-family residential apartment blocks began to appear in Poland in the 1960s and their construction continued until the early 1990s, although the first examples of multi-dwelling units in Poland date back to the 1920s. The aim was to quickly urbanize rural areas, create space between individual blocks for green spaces and resettle people from densely-populated poorer districts to increase living conditions. The apartment blocks in Poland, commonly known as "bloki", were built on East German and Czechoslovak standards, alongside department stores, pavilions and public spaces. As of 2017, 44% of Poles reside in blocks built between the 1960s and 1980s.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Some groundbreaking architectural achievements were made during the People's Republic, most notably the reconstruction of Warsaw with its historical Old Town and the completion of Warszawa Centralna railway station in the 1970s under Edward Gierek's personal patronage. It was the most modern railway station building in that part of Europe when completed and was equipped with automatic glass doors and escalators, an unlikely sight in communist countries. Another example of pure late modernism was the Smyk Department Store, constructed in 1952 when socialist realism was still in effect; it was criticized for its appearance as it resembled the styles and motifs of the pre-war capitalist Second Polish Republic.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Communist authorities placed an emphasis on education since they considered it vital to create a new intelligentsia or an educated class that would accept and favour socialist ideas over capitalism to maintain the communists in power for a long period.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Prior to the Second World War, education in the capitalist Second Polish Republic (1918–1939) had many limitations and wasn't readily available to all, though under the 1932 Jędrzejewicz reform primary school was made compulsory. Furthermore, the pre-war system of education was in disarray; many educational facilities were much more accessible in wealthier western and central Poland than in the rural east (Kresy), particularly in the Polesie region where there was one large school per 100 square kilometers (39 square miles). Schools were also in desperate need of staff, tutors and teachers before 1939.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: After the 1947 Polish legislative election, the communists took full control of the education in the newly formed Polish People's Republic. All private schools were nationalized, subjects that could question the socialist ideology (economics, finance) were either supervised or adjusted and religious studies were completely removed from the curriculum (secularization).


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Primary as well as secondary, tertiary, vocational and higher education was made free. Attendance gradually grew, which put an end to illiteracy in rural areas. The communist government also introduced new beneficial content into the system; sports and physical education were enforced and students were encouraged to learn foreign languages, especially German, Russian or French and from the 1980s also English. On July 15, 1961, two-year vocational career training was made obligatory to boost the number of skilled labourers and the minimum age of graduation rose to 15. Additionally, special schools were established for deaf, mute and blind children. Such institutions for the impaired were almost nonexistent in the Second Polish Republic. During the 1960s, thousands of modern schools were founded.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The number of universities nearly doubled between 1938 and 1963. Medical, agricultural, economical, engineering and sport faculties became separate colleges, under a universal communist model used in other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Theological faculties were deemed unnecessary or potentially dangerous and were therefore removed from state universities. Philosophy was also seen as superfluous. In order to strengthen the post-war Polish economy, the government created many common-labour faculties across the country, including dairying, fishing, tailoring, chemistry and mechanics to achieve a better economic output alongside efficiency. However, by 1980 the number of graduates from primary and secondary schools was so high that admission quotas for universities were introduced.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The experiences in and after World War II, wherein the large ethnic Polish population was decimated, its Jewish minority was annihilated by the Germans, the large German minority was forcibly expelled from the country at the end of the war, along with the loss of the eastern territories which had a significant population of Eastern Orthodox Belarusians and Ukrainians, led to Poland becoming more homogeneously Catholic than it had been.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Polish anti-religious campaign was initiated by the communist government in Poland which, under the doctrine of Marxism, actively advocated for the disenfranchisement of religion and planned atheisation. The Catholic Church, as the religion of most Poles, was seen as a rival competing for the citizens' allegiance by the government, which attempted to suppress it. To this effect the communist state conducted anti-religious propaganda and persecution of clergymen and monasteries. As in most other Communist countries, religion was not outlawed as such (an exception being Communist Albania) and was permitted by the constitution, but the state attempted to achieve an atheistic society.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Catholic Church in Poland provided strong resistance to Communist rule and Poland itself had a long history of dissent to foreign rule. The Polish nation rallied to the Church, as had occurred in neighbouring Lithuania, which made it more difficult for the government to impose its antireligious policies as it had in the USSR, where the populace did not hold mass solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Church. It became the strongest anti-communist body during the epoch of Communism in Poland, and provided a more successful resistance than had religious bodies in most other Communist states.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Catholic Church unequivocally condemned communist ideology. This led to the antireligious activity in Poland being compelled to take a more cautious and conciliatory line than in other Communist countries, largely failing in their attempt to control or suppress the Polish Church.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The state attempted to take control of minority churches, including the Polish Protestant and Polish Orthodox Church in order to use it as a weapon against the anti-communist efforts of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, and it attempted to control the person who was named as Metropolitan for the Polish Orthodox Church; Metropolitan Dionizy (the post-war head of the POC) was arrested and retired from service after his release.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Following with the forcible conversion of Eastern Catholics in the USSR to Orthodoxy, the Polish government called on the Orthodox church in Poland to assume 'pastoral care' of the eastern Catholics in Poland. After the removal of Metropolitan Dionizy from leadership of the Polish Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Macarius was placed in charge. He was from western Ukraine (previously eastern Poland) and who had been instrumental in the compulsory conversion of eastern Catholics to orthodoxy there. Polish security forces assisted him in suppressing resistance in his taking control of Eastern Catholic parishes. Many eastern Catholics who remained in Poland after the postwar border adjustments were resettled in Western Poland in the newly acquired territories from Germany. The state in Poland gave the POC a greater number of privileges than the Roman Catholic Church in Poland; the state even gave money to this Church, although it often defaulted on promised payments, leading to a perpetual financial crisis for the POC.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Before World War II, a third of Poland's population was composed of ethnic minorities. After the war, however, Poland's minorities were mostly gone, due to the 1945 revision of borders, and the Holocaust. Under the National Repatriation Office ("Państwowy Urząd Repatriacyjny"), millions of Poles were forced to leave their homes in the eastern Kresy region and settle in the western former German territories. At the same time, approximately 5 million remaining Germans (about 8 million had already fled or had been expelled and about 1 million had been killed in 1944–46) were similarly expelled from those territories into the Allied occupation zones. Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities found themselves now mostly within the borders of the Soviet Union; those who opposed this new policy (like the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Bieszczady Mountains region) were suppressed by the end of 1947 in the Operation Vistula.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The population of Jews in Poland, which formed the largest Jewish community in pre-war Europe at about 3.3 million people, was all but destroyed by 1945. Approximately 3 million Jews died of starvation in ghettos and labor camps, were slaughtered at the German Nazi extermination camps or by the Einsatzgruppen death squads. Between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust in Poland, and another 50,000 to 170,000 were repatriated from the Soviet Union, and 20,000 to 40,000 from Germany and other countries. At its postwar peak, there were 180,000 to 240,000 Jews in Poland, settled mostly in Warsaw, Łódź, Kraków and Wrocław.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: According to the national census, which took place on 14 February 1946, population of Poland was 23.9 million, out of which 32% lived in cities and towns, and 68% lived in the countryside. The 1950 census (3 December 1950) showed the population rise to 25 million, and the 1960 census (6 December 1960) placed the population of Poland at 29.7 million. In 1950, Warsaw was again the biggest city, with the population of 804,000 inhabitants. Second was Łódź (pop. 620,000), then Kraków (pop. 344,000), Poznań (pop. 321,000), and Wrocław (pop. 309,000).


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Females were in the majority in the country. In 1931, there were 105.6 women for 100 men. In 1946, the difference grew to 118.5/100, but in subsequent years, number of males grew, and in 1960, the ratio was 106.7/100.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Most Germans were expelled from Poland and the annexed east German territories at the end of the war, while many Ukrainians, Rusyns and Belarusians lived in territories incorporated into the USSR. Small Ukrainian, Belarusian, Slovak, and Lithuanian minorities resided along the borders, and a German minority was concentrated near the southwestern city of Opole and in Masuria. Groups of Ukrainians and Polish Ruthenians also lived in western Poland, where they were forcefully resettled by the authorities.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: As a result of the migrations and the Soviet Unions radically altered borders under the rule of Joseph Stalin, the population of Poland became one of the most ethnically homogeneous in the world. Virtually all people in Poland claim Polish nationality, with Polish as their native tongue.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Polish People's Army (LWP) was initially formed during World War II as the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, but more commonly known as the Berling Army. Almost half of the soldiers and recruits in the Polish People's Army were Soviet. In March 1945, Red Army officers accounted for approximately 52% of the entire corps (15,492 out of 29,372). Around 4,600 of them remained by July 1946.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: It was not the only Polish formation that fought along the Allied side, nor the first one in the East – although the first Polish force formed in the USSR, the Anders Army, had by that time moved to Iran. The Polish forces soon grew beyond the 1st Division into two major commands – the Polish First Army commanded by Zygmunt Berling, and the Polish Second Army headed by Karol Świerczewski. The Polish First Army participated in the Vistula–Oder Offensive and the Battle of Kolberg (1945) before taking part in its final offensive with the Battle of Berlin.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Following the Second World War, the Polish Army was reorganized into six (later seven) main military districts: the Warsaw Military District with its headquarters in Warsaw, the Lublin Military District, Kraków Military District, Łódź Military District, Poznań Military District, the Pomeranian Military District with its headquarters in Toruń and the Silesian Military District in Katowice.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Throughout the late 1940s and early 50s the Polish Army was under the command of Polish-born Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky, who was intentionally given the title "Marshal of Poland" and was also Minister of National Defense. It was heavily tied into the Soviet military structures and was intended to increase Soviet influence as well as control over the Polish units in case of war. This process, however, was stopped in the aftermath of the Polish October in 1956. Rokossovsky, viewed as a Soviet puppet, was excluded from the Polish United Workers' Party and driven out back to the Soviet Union where he remained a hero until death.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: Geographically, the Polish People's Republic bordered the Baltic Sea to the North; the Soviet Union (via the Russian SFSR (Kaliningrad Oblast), Lithuanian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs) to the east; Czechoslovakia to the south and East Germany to the west. After World War II, Poland's borders were redrawn, following the decision taken at the Tehran Conference of 1943 at the insistence of the Soviet Union. Poland lost 77,000 km of territory in its eastern regions (Kresy), gaining instead the smaller but much more industrialized (however ruined) so-called "Regained Territories" east of the Oder-Neisse line.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: The Polish People's Republic was divided into several voivodeships (the Polish unit of administrative division). After World War II, the new administrative divisions were based on the pre-war ones. The areas in the East that were not annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. Newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław, Olsztyn and partially joined to Gdańsk, Katowice and Poznań voivodeships. Two cities were granted voivodeship status: Warsaw and Łódź.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: In 1950, new voivodeships were created: Koszalin – previously part of Szczecin, Opole – previously part of Katowice, and Zielona Góra – previously part of Poznań, Wrocław and Szczecin voivodeships. In addition, three other cities were granted the voivodeship status: Wrocław, Kraków and Poznań.


title: Polish People's Republic

text: In 1973, Poland's voivodeships were changed again. This reorganization of the administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of local government reform acts of 1973 to 1975. In place of three-level administrative division (voivodeship, county, commune), a new two-level administrative division was introduced (49 small voidships and communes). The three smallest voivodeships: Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź had a special status of municipal voivodeship; the city mayor ("prezydent miasta") was also province governor.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Black Country, New Road (commonly abbreviated to BCNR or BC,NR) are an English rock band formed in Cambridgeshire in 2018, consisting of Tyler Hyde (vocals, bass), Lewis Evans (vocals, flute, saxophone), May Kershaw (vocals, keys), Georgia Ellery (vocals, violin), Charlie Wayne (drums) and Luke Mark (guitar). The band's first two albums featured guitarist and lead vocalist Isaac Wood, who left the band in 2022.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: The band gained initial attention through debut singles "Athens, France" and "Sunglasses" in 2019, which combined features of experimental rock, post-punk and post-rock, drawing comparisons to bands such as Slint and contemporaries Black Midi. Their debut album "For the First Time", released in 2021, received widespread critical acclaim, was nominated for the Mercury Prize and reached No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart. Four days before the release of their 2022 second album "Ants from Up There", Wood left the band, citing mental health struggles. The album received further critical acclaim and commercial success, debuting at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Hyde, Evans, Ellery, Kershaw, Wayne and former vocalist/guitarist Isaac Wood, along with Connor Browne and Jonny Pyke, were members of Nervous Conditions, a Cambridge, UK-based band with dual drums and a similar, but more improvised sound, to Black Country, New Road. They formed in 2015 and recorded a full-length album in 2017, provisionally titled "Zak's Anniversary". The album was shelved and remains officially unreleased. Following multiple allegations of sexual assault against Browne, Nervous Conditions split in early 2018.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: The ensemble, without Browne and Pyke, reconvened soon after as Black Country, New Road, a six-piece named after a road in the West Midlands in England, which they came up with after utilising Wikipedia's 'random article' button. They performed several live shows and gained a small level of notoriety in the underground scene in London. Their debut single, "Athen's, France", released on 18 January 2019, and was pressed on a limited run of 250 7-inch singles via Speedy Wunderground.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Black Country, New Road gained its seventh member, Luke Mark, between the release of "Athens, France" and their second single, "Sunglasses". This second single released on 25 July 2019, via Blank Editions, and had three different 7-inch pressings: the first was limited to 500 copies and had a unique picture assembled onto the cover by the band themselves, the second limited to 250 with the cover art featuring a marching band, and the third with an unknown number of copies and a picture of the band assembling the first pressing. The single gained the attention and acclaim of many critics; "Stereogum" noted the wide variety of genre influences on the track, describing it as a "wild ride", and John Doran of "The Quietus" lauded the group on the back of "Sunglasses" as the "best in the entire world".


title: Black Country, New Road

text: On 28 October 2020, Black Country, New Road signed to Ninja Tune and announced their debut album, "For the First Time", which was released on 5 February 2021. This announcement was backed by their third single, "Science Fair", which has no physical release outside of "For the First Time". Their fourth single, "Track X", was released on 11 January 2021.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: On 12 October 2021, the band announced their second album "Ants from Up There" and released its lead single "Chaos Space Marine". Four of the album's songs were released as singles: "Chaos Space Marine", "Bread Song" on 2 November 2021, "Concorde" on 30 November 2021 and "Snow Globes" on 19 January 2022.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: On 3 November 2021, Black Country, New Road cancelled their upcoming European tour due to a band member's illness. The band released the "Never Again" EP on 3 December, a Rough Trade Records exclusive limited to 1,500 copies which features covers of songs by MGMT, ABBA and Adele.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: On 31 January 2022, lead vocalist and guitarist Isaac Wood announced his sudden departure from the band four days before the release of "Ants From Up There" via the band's Instagram, citing struggles with his mental health. This resulted in the cancelling of the band's planned first United States tour. Black Country, New Road announced that the remaining six members had already began to work on new music without Wood, as they were aware of Wood's planned exit long before it was announced. Out of respect for Wood, the band will not play any music from the first two albums live but will open the door for Wood to return in the future if he chooses to. Immediately prior to Wood's departure, Tyler Hyde noted that the band's next release might not take the form of a studio album: "I know it's not going to be an album in its normal form. It would be cool to work with an orchestra; it would be cool to do a film score. These are just some of the ideas we're bouncing around at the moment." Bassist Tyler Hyde had initially planned to become the band's new lead vocalist, with the option to share the duty with other members.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: "Ants from Up There" was released on 4 February 2022 to universal critical acclaim. It also debuted at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, the band's highest placement yet.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: The band scheduled and announced a European tour in summer 2022, as well as an American tour supporting Black Midi. The dates will be used to road-test and perform new material.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: On 14 November 2022, the band released a second EP of covers called "Never Again Pt. 2", to celebrate the band getting on Rough Trade's album of the year list. The EP was limited to 1,500 copies and features covers of songs by Regina Spektor, Caroline Polachek, The Magnetic Fields, and Billie Eilish.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Black Country, New Road has been described as a centerpiece of a new scene of British rock bands rooted in experimental post-punk with "sprechgesang" – or "talk-singing" – vocals, alongside contemporaries Black Midi, Squid, Dry Cleaning, Shame, Yard Act and Irish band Fontaines D.C. The band often references other musicians in their songs, such as jokingly referring to themselves as "the world’s second-best Slint tribute act" in the song "Science Fair". "Track X" references the band's relationship with Black Midi. "Sunglasses," meanwhile, features the line "leave Kanye out of this", and "The Place Where He Inserted the Blade" references West's song "Bound 2". "Chaos Space Marine" and "Good Will Hunting" describe a girl with "Billie Eilish style". "Athens, France" – as it appears on "For the First Time" – contains lyrics from Phoebe Bridgers' "Motion Sickness"; the original single also references Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next".


title: Black Country, New Road

text: The band's debut album "For the First Time" is rooted in post-punk, post-rock, indie rock and klezmer. Their instrumentation also draws from American composer Steve Reich and jazz musician Ornette Coleman. Wood's vocals were compared to Slint frontman Brian McMahan and The Fall lead singer Mark E. Smith; his lyrics were influenced by American singer-songwriter Father John Misty, with Wood declaring "he's not the best lyricist in the world, but what he is is entirely, entirely honest."


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Their second album "Ants From Up There" was written to feature a more accessible sound. It has been described as post-rock and chamber pop. The band became "obsessed" with Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire during the United Kingdom's COVID-19 lockdown; several critics have compared songs such as "Chaos Space Marine" and "The Place Where He Inserted the Blade" to Arcade Fire. Black Country, New Road also recalled listening to Kurt Vile and Frank Ocean for inspiration during the writing process.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: The band regularly performs live with experimental rock group Black Midi, touring collectively as Black Midi, New Road. Geordie Greep of Black Midi has stated that there will likely be a full album released under this joint moniker: “If there's another band who are really good in the same city, who you also really get on with, there's no reason not to get together and do something proper. It's just making sure you don't do it for the sake of it and you have a solid reason for doing it.”


title: Black Country, New Road

text: The band collaborated with fellow London musician Ethan P. Flynn on a released live version of his song "Television Show".


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Violinist Georgia Ellery is one half of the experimental electronic duo Jockstrap, who have released 2 EPs under Warp Records. She also collaborated with Jamie xx on a BBC Radio 3 session on 30 May 2020. She made her acting debut in 2019's "Bait", which won a BAFTA award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Ellery has performed and recorded as a member of conservatory folk trio Contours and Happy Beigel Klezmer Orkester, a six-piece Klezmer band formed during studies at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Bassist Tyler Hyde is the daughter of Underworld founder Karl Hyde. She also performs solo as 'Tyler Cryde'.


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Drummer Charlie Wayne was also a drummer of another British band, Ugly. Saxophonist Lewis Evans has performed and recorded as a member of 3-piece experimental ensemble 'Guildhall Military Orchestra'. He also made a self-titled album under the alias Good With Parents and featured on the TRAAMS single "The Greyhound".


title: Black Country, New Road

text: Former lead singer Isaac Wood has released singles and made a collaboration EP with James Martin, titled "Good Dog vs. Bad Dog", under his alias The Guest.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Kurup is a 2021 Indian Malayalam-language biographical crime thriller film based on fugitive Sukumara Kurup. Produced by Dulquer Salmaan and directed by Srinath Rajendran, it stars Dulquer Salmaan in the title role with an ensemble cast including Indrajith Sukumaran, Shine Tom Chacko, Sunny Wayne, Sobhita Dhulipala, Bharath, Tovino Thomas, Shivajith, Vijayaraghavan, Saiju Kurup and Anupama Parameswaran.


title: Kurup (film)

text: "Kurup" was theatrically released on 4 November 2021, during Diwali, and became the first Indian film to have non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles. "Kurup" received critical acclaim with praise for the score, production design, characterization and performances. A critical and commercial success, it grossed over worldwide, and is among the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Krishnadas, a former SP of Kerala Police, has just retired and prepares to attend a send-off event arranged by his colleagues when a subordinate officer, CI Praveen arrives to inform him that an IB report has warned against the arrival of a criminal. Upon knowing that Das is retiring, the officer glances through the former's cupboard to find one of his case diaries (titled "Kurup"). Krishnadas is mostly known as the officer who investigated the famous Charlie murder case long back when he was a DYSP, which paved way for a still-untraced fugitive named Sudhakara Kurup. As the officer reads through the diary, the story of Kurup unfolds on screen.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Born as Gopikrishna Kurup, Kurup is sent to the Indian Air Force forcibly by his uncle after he fails to acquire his degree. At the IAF, he meets and befriends Peter who was also forcibly made to join the IAF despite his passion for music. Weeks later, Peter and Kurup along with some other inmates are sent to Bombay by the Air Force. There, Peter starts liking his new life while Kurup meets and befriends Sharadamma, who is the daughter of his family's old maid and falls in love with her. Later, Peter is informed that Kurup, who was hospitalized days ago, has committed suicide. He informs the same to Sharada. However, Sharada gets the message that Kurup is still alive and meets him in a subway, wherein Kurup announces the new name he currently lives under, Sudhakara Kurup. Kurup apparently created his death to escape the tedious life in the force. He soon marries Sharada and they leave for Persia, starting a new life there. However, further problems lead Kurup to hasty decisions and he leaves to his hometown along with his office clerk and right-hand man Sabu (Shivajith).


title: Kurup (film)

text: In Kerala, Pillechan Bhasippilla who is Kurup's co-brother (Sharada's brother-in-law) and Ponnachan who is Kurup's personal driver in Allepey, welcome Kurup and Sabu. Kurup discusses a plan he made with the three other men - that he has applied for life insurance under his own name and an amount of Rs 8 Lakh can be obtained if Kurup's death was proved. Kurup decides to fake his own death and offers the three men an equal share of the insurance money. For this, they require a corpse that matches Kurup's physique. After searching a lot for corpses matching Kurup's height and weight, Pillechan puts forward the idea of killing someone who matches their requirements after spotting a bartender who resembles Kurup in height and style. However, Pillechan's attempt to abduct the bartender backfires and the men end up quarrelling with Kurup.


title: Kurup (film)

text: The next day, an Ambassador car is found apparently involved in an accident and burnt badly next to a paddy field. A charred and killed person is found in the driver's seat. The police team headed by DYSP Krishnadas arrives and starts investigating. The car is identified to be that of Kurup. However, Das spots match, gloves and footsteps at the site, thereby confirming that it wasn't an accident but a murder. Das questions Pillechan which makes him suspicious of the latter. Das finds out burnt marks in Pillechan's body and takes him into custody. In custody, Pillechan admits that he had murdered Kurup due to a long-standing rivalry.


title: Kurup (film)

text: However, the experienced Das easily finds that Pillai is lying. He asks his colleagues to cross-check recent man-missing cases that lead him to the house of Charlie, a film distribution company staff. Charlie's wife identifies cloth remnants from the charred body which belong to Charlie, making it clear that Charlie was the one murdered and burnt (and not Kurup). Pillai is tortured in custody till he confesses that the four of them found the perfect victim in Charlie and subsequently murdered and burnt him along with Kurup's car, to fabricate Kurup's death.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Sabu and Ponnachan are also arrested. The missing Kurup is hiding at a lodge and a room boy informs the police about the same. However, the police is unable to trace him. Despite getting to know Kurup's exact route - Allepey to Ernakulam, then to his uncle at Mannar, further to his relative at Bhopal and finally to Sharada's aunt at Bombay - Das and his team miss Kurup each time. However, Das is ultimately able to find Isaac, Kurup's long-time friend with whom he was spotted by a peon, who informs the police. Isaac refuses to reveal Kurup's plan, but Das is able to connect the dots and finds that Kurup is planning to migrate via a cruise ship. However, Kurup slips away even this time and escapes on the cruise.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Das's case diary then tries to give more clarity to the incidents. It is revealed that while in Bombay, Kurup was driven by greed - which stirred his mind right during his IAF days - that led him into the smuggling of the force's arms which were pending post the war. He forms a smuggling setup with Isaac, then his close friend and Leo, a gangster. After creating many alterations, Kurup gets the need to evade capture and decides to fake his death for the first time. Kurup (then Gopikrishna) fakes his death and changes to Sudhakara Kurup with his family knowing about it. The propaganda is swiftly spread by Kurup's friend who is a cop.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Next, after marrying Sharada, both leaves for Persia where they lead a luxurious life. Kurup meets with Leo who leads him to Prince Walid, son of the emperor. Walid is impressed by Kurup. Kurup is assigned by Walid to smuggle precious crude oil without the knowledge of the former's father. However, Kurup's greed resurfaces and combined with Walid's ill-treatment, he decides to rob a high amount from Walid and then fakes his own death once again to evade Walid. The insurance was arranged only as a part of this big plan and Kurup with the help of his team in Kerala kills Charlie to fake Kurup's death. However, this time his plans go awry, thanks to an efficient Das.


title: Kurup (film)

text: It is then revealed that Kurup was hiding right above the room when Das and his team arrived to arrest him at the lodge. He further hides at his aforementioned places in Bhopal and Bombay before planning to escape on the cruise (with the help of Leo). He even joins the police team disguised as a driver shortly before evading Das's eye and getting into the cruise, but Das is informed by Walid about Kurup's treachery beforehand. Das and Walid join hands against their common enemy. As the cruise leaves and Das find that Kurup is in it, the former immediately informs Walid about the same. Meanwhile, Kurup meets Leo and is assigned a new name 'Alexander' and a new passport. Once Kurup (now Alexander) walks out, he is called "Alexander" by Walid, who along with his bodyguards plans to kill Kurup. Das, confirming that Kurup will be killed, informs Charlie's family that he has avenged the person who is responsible for their condition. A few years later, Das gets conferred as an IPS officer and is given the rank of Superintendent of Police.


title: Kurup (film)

text: At the end of the ceremony, Das leaves the office, before which the officer who was reading his diary hands it to Das and salutes him respectfully. Das, leaving his official life behind and believing that Kurup is no more, leaves the office and the moment he leaves, a cop receives fax showing a lookout notice of an international criminal who is shown to be none other than Kurup. In the epilogue, it is shown that when Alexander was stopped by Walid, he just smiles to the camera and a newspaper story showing Walid's death in a car accident follows, indirectly suggesting that Alexander had set a plan B with Leo's help to end Walid in case he spotted him in the cruise. Various news stories and channel clips of the police searching all around the world for Alexander follow. Back to the present, in a busy street in Helsinki in 2005, Alexander is spotted and photographed by a person who works for the police. Upon realizing that he is being photographed, Alexander kills the photographer.


title: Kurup (film)

text: In mid-2018, Dulquer Salmaan announced the title of the film through social media, directed by Srinath Rajendran which marks their second collaboration after their debut film "Second Show". Rajendran stated that it took five years of research to get the film on the floors. The film is about one of the most wanted criminals in Kerala, Sukumara Kurup. He murdered Chacko, a man of similar appearance, in order to falsify his own death and claim insurance money.


title: Kurup (film)

text: The film, which is backed by Dulquer Salmaan's home banner Wayfarer Films is jointly producing "Kurup" with M-Star Entertainments. The entire production process took six months with the shoot alone taking up 105 days. The locations include Kerala, Mumbai, Dubai, Mangalore, Mysuru, Gujarat and Ahmedabad.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Principal photography began on 1 September 2019 with a customary pooja function held at Palakkad, Kerala. Indrajith Sukumaran joined set the sets on 7 September 2019. Sobhita Dhulipala joined the sets on 21 September 2019. The first schedule was wrapped on 23 September 2019 with completing all the shoots in Kerala. The second schedule was held in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. In mid-November 2019, Dulquer Salmaan joined the shooting in Dubai. The final schedule of the film shooting was held in Mangalore. Filming was wrapped on 23 February 2020.


title: Kurup (film)

text: The songs were composed by Sushin Shyam, Sulaiman Kakkodan and Leo Tom, produced and arranged by Sushin Shyam.


title: Kurup (film)

text: "Kurup" was planned to release in May 2021 but due to COVID-19 second wave lockdown this movie was postponed. The film was released in theatres on 12 November 2021. The movie was released in Malayalam along with dubbed versions in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada.


title: Kurup (film)

text: "Kurup" became the first Indian film to release a series of NFTs as part of the promotion. As part of the promotion, film merchandise was also released. A pre-release event had taken place at Hyderabad on 9 November 2021. Ahead of the film's screening, the visuals and the trailer shots were showcased at Burj Khalifa, Dubai on 10 November 2021, which is the first time for a Malayalam film.


title: Kurup (film)

text: "The Times of India" gave a rating of 3.5 on 5 while praising the score and wrote that, "The story is a tough one to tell, but the makers keep you on the edge of the seat, even when the narration goes back and forth in time to chart Kurup’s mysterious misdeeds." S. R. Praveen of "The Hindu" commented that, "Dulquer Salman’s crime biopic takes too many liberties with a real-life story. One of the things the film gets right is the production design, especially in scenes set in the bygone era, with tastefully-done recreations of the 1970s and 80s." "Sify" rated the movie with 3.5 on 5 and said that, "Kurup is not an easy film to make considering almost everyone knows the facts and the fables that the story is based on. Still it is to be applauded that this has been made into a gripping adventure drama."


title: Kurup (film)

text: "Hindustan Times" wrote that, "Kurup, a compelling crime drama, attempts to narrate the story of the notorious, elusive criminal in the most realistic fashion while taking certain cinematic liberties. Spanning over three decades, Kurup manages to impress, especially in recreating the mood of the times. Dulquer Salmaan plays the elusive fugitive with swag and sincerity in this Srinath Rajendran film." Sajin Srijith of "The New Indian Express" wrote that, "Kurup' movie is a stunningly designed, globe-trotting crime epic. Every frame in this film looks like a million bucks. Its top-notch production value is on par with anything seen in Hollywood. The real star of the film is Shine Tom Chacko as Kurup’s accomplice, Bhasi Pillai. If you thought you saw all the dimensions of the actor before, wait till you see this one.


title: Kurup (film)

text: Manoj Kumar of "The Indian Express" gave the film a 2.5 out of 5 writing "It is criminal that the filmmakers have tucked away a compelling idea about a larger-than-life wicked phantom in the footnote of the movie. Towards the end, Kurup takes the shape of an urban mythical character. " "News18" gave a positive review from the film, praising the cast especially Shine Tom Chacko's performance in addition to narration, music, background elements and climax. A reviewer from "The News Minute" criticised for the characterization of Kurup.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in northwest England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county town is the cathedral city of Chester, while its largest town by population is Warrington. Other towns in the county include Alsager, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Frodsham, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Middlewich, Nantwich, Neston, Northwich, Poynton, Runcorn, Sandbach, Widnes, Wilmslow, and Winsford.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire is split into the administrative districts of Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Halton, and Warrington. The county covers and has a population of around 1.1 million as of 2021. It is mostly rural, with a number of towns and villages supporting the agricultural and chemical industries; it is primarily known for producing chemicals, Cheshire cheese, salt, and silk. It has also had an impact on popular culture, producing notable figures such as "Alice in Wonderland" author Lewis Carroll; musicians Gary Barlow, Ian Curtis, and Harry Styles; actors Daniel Craig, Tim Curry, and Pete Postlethwaite; and athletes Shauna Coxsey, Tyson Fury, and Paula Radcliffe.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire's name was originally derived from an early name for Chester, and was first recorded as "Legeceasterscir" in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", meaning "the shire of the city of legions". Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920. In the Domesday Book, Chester was recorded as having the name "Cestrescir" (Chestershire), derived from the name for Chester at the time. A series of changes that occurred as English itself changed, together with some simplifications and elision, resulted in the name Cheshire, as it occurs today.


title: Cheshire

text: Because of the historically close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west, which became modern Wales, there is a history of interaction between Cheshire and North Wales. The Domesday Book records Cheshire as having two complete Hundreds (Atiscross and Exestan) that later became the principal part of Flintshire. Additionally, another large portion of the Duddestan Hundred later became known as Maelor Saesneg when it was transferred to North Wales. For this and other reasons, the Welsh language name for Cheshire ("Swydd Gaerlleon") is sometimes used.


title: Cheshire

text: After the Norman conquest of 1066 by William I, dissent and resistance continued for many years after the invasion. In 1069 local resistance in Cheshire was finally put down using draconian measures as part of the Harrying of the North. The ferocity of the campaign against the English populace was enough to end all future resistance. Examples were made of major landowners such as Earl Edwin of Mercia, their properties confiscated and redistributed amongst Norman barons.


title: Cheshire

text: The earldom was sufficiently independent from the kingdom of England that the 13th-century Magna Carta did not apply to the shire of Chester, so the earl wrote up his own Chester Charter at the petition of his barons.


title: Cheshire

text: William I made Cheshire a county palatine and gave Gerbod the Fleming the new title of Earl of Chester. When Gerbod returned to Normandy in about 1070, the king used his absence to declare the earldom forfeit and gave the title to Hugh d'Avranches (nicknamed Hugh Lupus, or "wolf"). Because of Cheshire's strategic location on the Welsh Marches, the Earl had complete autonomous powers to rule on behalf of the king in the county palatine.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire in the Domesday Book (1086) is recorded as a much larger county than it is today. It included two hundreds, Atiscross and Exestan, that later became part of North Wales. At the time of the Domesday Book, it also included as part of Duddestan Hundred the area of land later known as English Maelor (which used to be a detached part of Flintshire) in Wales. The area between the Mersey and Ribble (referred to in the Domesday Book as "Inter Ripam et Mersam") formed part of the returns for Cheshire. Although this has been interpreted to mean that at that time south Lancashire was part of Cheshire, more exhaustive research indicates that the boundary between Cheshire and what was to become Lancashire remained the River Mersey. With minor variations in spelling across sources, the complete list of hundreds of Cheshire at this time are: Atiscross, Bochelau, Chester, Dudestan, Exestan, Hamestan, Middlewich, Riseton, Roelau, Tunendune, Warmundestrou and Wilaveston.


title: Cheshire

text: There were 8 feudal baronies in Chester, the barons of Kinderton, Halton, Malbank, Mold, Shipbrook, Dunham-Massey, and the honour of Chester itself. Feudal baronies or baronies by tenure were granted by the Earl as forms of feudal land tenure within the palatinate in a similar way to which the king granted English feudal baronies within England proper. An example is the barony of Halton. One of Hugh d'Avranche's barons has been identified as Robert Nicholls, Baron of Halton and Montebourg.


title: Cheshire

text: In 1182, the land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire, resolving any uncertainty about the county in which the land "Inter Ripam et Mersam" was. Over the years, the ten hundreds consolidated and changed names to leave just seven—Broxton, Bucklow, Eddisbury, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich and Wirral.


title: Cheshire

text: In 1397 the county had lands in the march of Wales added to its territory, and was promoted to the rank of principality. This was because of the support the men of the county had given to King Richard II, in particular by his standing armed force of about 500 men called the "Cheshire Guard". As a result, the King's title was changed to "King of England and France, Lord of Ireland, and Prince of Chester". No other English county has been honoured in this way, although it lost the distinction on Richard's fall in 1399.


title: Cheshire

text: Through the Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, some areas in the north became part of the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Stockport (previously a county borough), Altrincham, Hyde, Dukinfield and Stalybridge in the north-east became part of Greater Manchester. Much of the Wirral Peninsula in the north-west, including the county boroughs of Birkenhead and Wallasey, joined Merseyside as the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. At the same time the Tintwistle Rural District was transferred to Derbyshire. The area of south Lancashire not included within either the Merseyside or Greater Manchester counties, including Widnes and the county borough of Warrington, was added to the new non-metropolitan county of Cheshire.


title: Cheshire

text: Halton and Warrington became unitary authorities independent of Cheshire County Council on 1 April 1998, but remain part of Cheshire for ceremonial purposes and also for fire and policing.


title: Cheshire

text: A referendum for a further local government reform connected with an elected regional assembly was planned for 2004, but was abandoned.


title: Cheshire

text: As part of the local government restructuring in April 2009, Cheshire County Council and the Cheshire districts were abolished and replaced by two new unitary authorities, Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester. The existing unitary authorities of Halton and Warrington were not affected by the change.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire has no county-wide elected local council, but it does have a Lord Lieutenant under the Lieutenancies Act 1997 and a High Sheriff under the Sheriffs Act 1887.


title: Cheshire

text: Local government functions apart from the Police and Fire/Rescue services are carried out by four smaller unitary authorities: Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, and Warrington. All four unitary authority areas have borough status.


title: Cheshire

text: Policing and fire and rescue services are still provided across the county as a whole. The Cheshire Fire Authority consist of members of the four councils, while governance of Cheshire Constabulary is performed by the elected Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner.


title: Cheshire

text: Winsford is a major administrative hub for Cheshire with the Police and Fire & Rescue Headquarters based in the town as well as a majority of Cheshire West and Chester Council. It was also home to the former Vale Royal Borough Council and Cheshire County Council.


title: Cheshire

text: From 1 April 1974 the area under the control of the county council was divided into eight local government districts; Chester, Congleton, Crewe and Nantwich, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Halton, Macclesfield, Vale Royal and Warrington. Halton (which includes the towns of Runcorn and Widnes) and Warrington became unitary authorities in 1998. The remaining districts and the county were abolished as part of local government restructuring on 1 April 2009. The Halton and Warrington boroughs were not affected by the 2009 restructuring.


title: Cheshire

text: On 25 July 2007, the Secretary of State Hazel Blears announced she was 'minded' to split Cheshire into two new unitary authorities, Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East. She confirmed she had not changed her mind on 19 December 2007 and therefore the proposal to split two-tier Cheshire into two would proceed. Cheshire County Council leader Paul Findlow, who attempted High Court legal action against the proposal, claimed that splitting Cheshire would only disrupt excellent services while increasing living costs for all. A widespread sentiment that this decision was taken by the European Union long ago has often been portrayed via angered letters from Cheshire residents to local papers. On 31 January 2008 "The Standard", Cheshire and district's newspaper, announced that the legal action had been dropped. Members against the proposal were advised that they may be unable to persuade the court that the decision of Hazel Blears was "manifestly absurd".


title: Cheshire

text: The Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority covers the area formerly occupied by the City of Chester and the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston and Vale Royal; Cheshire East now covers the area formerly occupied by the boroughs of Congleton, Crewe and Nantwich, and Macclesfield. The changes were implemented on 1 April 2009.


title: Cheshire

text: Congleton Borough Council pursued an appeal against the judicial review it lost in October 2007. The appeal was dismissed on 4 March 2008.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire covers a boulder clay plain separating the hills of North Wales and the Peak District (the area is also known as the Cheshire Gap). This was formed following the retreat of ice age glaciers which left the area dotted with kettle holes, locally referred to as meres. The bedrock of this region is almost entirely Triassic sandstone, outcrops of which have long been quarried, notably at Runcorn, providing the distinctive red stone for Liverpool Cathedral and Chester Cathedral.


title: Cheshire

text: The eastern half of the county is Upper Triassic Mercia Mudstone laid down with large salt deposits which were mined for hundreds of years around Winsford. Separating this area from Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone to the west is a prominent sandstone ridge known as the Mid Cheshire Ridge. A footpath, the Sandstone Trail, follows this ridge from Frodsham to Whitchurch passing Delamere Forest, Beeston Castle and earlier Iron Age forts.


title: Cheshire

text: The highest point (county top) in the historic county of Cheshire was Black Hill () near Crowden in the Cheshire Panhandle, a long eastern projection of the county which formerly stretched along the northern side of Longdendale and on the border with the West Riding of Yorkshire. Black Hill is now the highest point in the ceremonial county of West Yorkshire.


title: Cheshire

text: Within the current ceremonial county and the unitary authority of Cheshire East the highest point is Shining Tor on the Derbyshire/Cheshire border between Macclesfield and Buxton, at above sea level. After Shining Tor, the next highest point in Cheshire is Shutlingsloe, at above sea level. Shutlingshoe lies just to the south of Macclesfield Forest and is sometimes humorously referred to as the "Matterhorn of Cheshire" thanks to its distinctive steep profile.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire contains portions of two green belt areas surrounding the large conurbations of Merseyside and Greater Manchester (North Cheshire Green Belt, part of the North West Green Belt) and Stoke-on-Trent (South Cheshire Green Belt, part of the Stoke-on-Trent Green Belt), these were first drawn up from the 1950s. Contained primarily within Cheshire East and Chester West & Chester, with small portions along the borders of the Halton and Warrington districts, towns and cities such as Chester, Macclesfield, Alsager, Congleton, Northwich, Ellesmere Port, Knutsford, Warrington, Poynton, Disley, Neston, Wilmslow, Runcorn, and Widnes are either surrounded wholly, partially enveloped by, or on the fringes of the belts. The North Cheshire Green Belt is contiguous with the Peak District Park boundary inside Cheshire.


title: Cheshire

text: The ceremonial county borders Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire in England along with Flintshire and Wrexham in Wales, arranged by compass directions as shown in the table. below. Cheshire also forms part of the North West England region.


title: Cheshire

text: Based on the Census of 2001, the overall population of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester is 673,781, of which 51.3% of the population were male and 48.7% were female. Of those aged between 0–14 years, 51.5% were male and 48.4% were female; and of those aged over 75 years, 62.9% were female and 37.1% were male. This increased to 699,735 at the 2011 Census. The population for 2021 is forecast to be 708,000.


title: Cheshire

text: In 2001, the population density of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester was 32 people per km, lower than the North West average of 42 people/km and the England and Wales average of 38 people/km. Ellesmere Port and Neston had a greater urban density than the rest of the county with 92 people/km.


title: Cheshire

text: In 2001, ethnic white groups accounted for 98% (662,794) of the population, and 10,994 (2%) in ethnic groups other than white.


title: Cheshire

text: In the 2001 Census, 81% of the population (542,413) identified themselves as Christian; 124,677 (19%) did not identify with any religion or did not answer the question; 5,665 (1%) identified themselves as belonging to other major world religions; and 1,033 belonged to other religions.


title: Cheshire

text: The boundary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester follows most closely the pre-1974 county boundary of Cheshire, so it includes all of Wirral, Stockport, and the Cheshire panhandle that included Tintwistle Rural District council area. In terms of Roman Catholic church administration, most of Cheshire falls into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire has a diverse economy with significant sectors including agriculture, automotive, bio-technology, chemical, financial services, food and drink, ICT, and tourism. The county is famous for the production of Cheshire cheese, salt and silk. The county has seen a number of inventions and firsts in its history.


title: Cheshire

text: A mainly rural county, Cheshire has a high concentration of villages. Agriculture is generally based on the dairy trade, and cattle are the predominant livestock. Land use given to agriculture has fluctuated somewhat, and in 2005 totalled 1558 km over 4,609 holdings. Based on holdings by EC farm type in 2005, 8.51 km was allocated to dairy farming, with another 11.78 km allocated to cattle and sheep.


title: Cheshire

text: The chemical industry in Cheshire was founded in Roman times, with the mining of salt in Middlewich and Northwich. Salt is still mined in the area by British Salt. The salt mining has led to a continued chemical industry around Northwich, with Brunner Mond based in the town. Other chemical companies, including Ineos (formerly ICI), have plants at Runcorn. The Essar Refinery (formerly Shell Stanlow Refinery) is at Ellesmere Port. The oil refinery has operated since 1924 and has a capacity of 12 million tonnes per year.


title: Cheshire

text: Crewe was once the centre of the British railway industry, and remains a major railway junction. The Crewe railway works, built in 1840, employed 20,000 people at its peak, although the workforce is now less than 1,000. Crewe is also the home of Bentley cars. Also within Cheshire are manufacturing plants for Jaguar and Vauxhall Motors in Ellesmere Port.


title: Cheshire

text: The county also has an aircraft industry, with the BAE Systems facility at Woodford Aerodrome, part of BAE System's Military Air Solutions division. The facility designed and constructed Avro Lancaster and Avro Vulcan bombers and the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod. On the Cheshire border with Flintshire is the Broughton aircraft factory, more recently associated with Airbus.


title: Cheshire

text: Tourism in Cheshire from within the UK and overseas continues to perform strongly. Over 8 million nights of accommodation (both UK and overseas) and over 2.8 million visits to Cheshire were recorded during 2003.


title: Cheshire

text: At the start of 2003, there were 22,020 VAT-registered enterprises in Cheshire, an increase of 7% since 1998, many in the business services (31.9%) and wholesale/retail (21.7%) sectors. Between 2002 and 2003 the number of businesses grew in four sectors: public administration and other services (6.0%), hotels and restaurants (5.1%), construction (1.7%), and business services (1.0%). The county saw the largest proportional reduction between 2001 and 2002 in employment in the energy and water sector and there was also a significant reduction in the manufacturing sector. The largest growth during this period was in the other services and distribution, hotels and retail sectors.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire is considered to be an affluent county. However, towns such as Crewe and Winsford have significant deprivation. The county's proximity to the cities of Manchester and Liverpool means counter urbanisation is common. Cheshire West has a fairly large proportion of residents who work in Liverpool and Manchester, while the town of Northwich and area of Cheshire East falls more within Manchester's sphere of influence.


title: Cheshire

text: All four local education authorities in Cheshire operate only comprehensive state school systems. When Altrincham, Sale and Bebington were moved from Cheshire to Trafford and Merseyside in 1974, they took some former Cheshire selective schools. There are two universities based in the county, the University of Chester and the Chester campus of The University of Law. The Crewe campus of Manchester Metropolitan University was scheduled to close in 2019.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire has produced musicians such as Joy Division members Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris, One Direction member Harry Styles, the members of The 1975, Take That member Gary Barlow, The Cult member Ian Astbury, Catfish and the Bottlemen member Van McCann, Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts, Stephen Hough, John Mayall, The Charlatans member Tim Burgess, and Nigel Stonier.


title: Cheshire

text: Actors from Cheshire include Russ Abbot, Warren Brown, Julia Chan, Ray Coulthard, Daniel Craig, Tim Curry, Wendy Hiller, Tom Hughes, Tim McInnerny, Ben Miller, Pete Postlethwaite, Adam Rickitt, John Steiner, and Ann Todd. The most famous author from the county is Lewis Carroll, who wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and named the Cheshire Cat character after it. Other notable Cheshire writers include Hall Caine, Alan Garner, and Elizabeth Gaskell. Artists from Cheshire include ceramic artist Emma Bossons and sculptor/photographer Andy Goldsworthy.


title: Cheshire

text: Local radio stations in the county include Dee 106.3, Capital, Smooth Radio, Silk FM and Signal 1. It is one of only four counties in the country (along with County Durham, Dorset, and Rutland) that does not have its own designated BBC radio station; the south and parts of the east are covered by BBC Radio Stoke, while BBC Radio Merseyside tends to cover the west, and BBC Radio Manchester covers the north and parts of the east. The BBC directs readers to Stoke and Staffordshire when Cheshire is selected on their website. There were plans to launch BBC Radio Cheshire, but those were shelved in 2007 after the BBC license fee settlement was lower than expected.


title: Cheshire

text: Athletes native to Cheshire include sailor Ben Ainslie, cricketer Ian Botham, rock climber Shauna Coxsey, boxer Tyson Fury, oarsman Matt Langridge, mountaineer George Mallory, marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, cyclist Sarah Storey, and hurdler Shirley Strong. It has also been home to numerous athletes from outside the county. Many Premier League footballers have relocated there over the years upon joining nearby teams such as Manchester United FC, Manchester City FC, Everton FC, and Liverpool FC. These include Dean Ashton, Seth Johnson, Jesse Lingard, Michael Owen, and Wayne Rooney. The "Cheshire Golden Triangle" is the collective name for a group of adjacent Cheshire villages where the amount of footballers, actors, and entrepreneurs moving in over the years led to the average house prices becoming some of the most expensive in the UK.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire has one Football League team, Crewe Alexandra FC, which plays in League One. Chester FC, a phoenix club formed in 2010 after ex-Football League club Chester City FC was dissolved, competes in the National League North. Northwich Victoria FC, another ex-League team which was a founding member of the Football League Division Two in 1892/1893, now represents Cheshire in the Northern Premier League along with Nantwich Town FC, Warrington Town FC, and Witton Albion FC. Macclesfield Town FC formerly played in the National League, but went into liquidation in 2020.


title: Cheshire

text: The Warrington Wolves and Widnes Vikings are the premier rugby league teams in Cheshire; the former plays in the Super League, while the latter plays in the Championship. There are also numerous junior clubs in the county, including Chester Gladiators. Cheshire County Cricket Club is one of the clubs that make up the minor counties of English and Welsh cricket. Cheshire also is represented in the highest level basketball league in the UK, the BBL, by Cheshire Phoenix (formerly Cheshire Jets). Europe's largest motorcycle event, the Thundersprint, is held in Northwich every May.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire has also produced a military hero in Norman Cyril Jones, a World War I flying ace who won the Distinguished Flying Cross.


title: Cheshire

text: As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the cuckooflower as the county flower. Previously, a sheaf of golden wheat was the county emblem, a reference to the Earl of Chester's arms in use from the 12th century.


title: Cheshire

text: Prehistoric burial grounds have been discovered at The Bridestones near Congleton (Neolithic) and Robin Hood's Tump near Alpraham (Bronze Age). The remains of Iron Age hill forts are found on sandstone ridges at several locations in Cheshire. Examples include Maiden Castle on Bickerton Hill, Helsby Hillfort and Woodhouse Hillfort at Frodsham. The Roman fortress and walls of Chester, perhaps the earliest building works in Cheshire remaining above ground, are constructed from purple-grey sandstone.


title: Cheshire

text: The distinctive local red sandstone has been used for many monumental and ecclesiastical buildings throughout the county: for example, the medieval Beeston Castle, Chester Cathedral and numerous parish churches. Occasional residential and industrial buildings, such as Helsby railway station (1849), are also in this sandstone.


title: Cheshire

text: Many surviving buildings from the 15th to 17th centuries are timbered, particularly in the southern part of the county. Notable examples include the moated manor house Little Moreton Hall, dating from around 1450, and many commercial and residential buildings in Chester, Nantwich and surrounding villages.


title: Cheshire

text: Early brick buildings include Peover Hall near Macclesfield (1585), Tattenhall Hall (pre-1622), and the Pied Bull Hotel in Chester (17th-century). From the 18th century, orange, red or brown brick became the predominant building material used in Cheshire, although earlier buildings are often faced or dressed with stone. Examples from the Victorian period onwards often employ distinctive brick detailing, such as brick patterning and ornate chimney stacks and gables. Notable examples include Arley Hall near Northwich, Willington Hall near Chester (both by Nantwich architect George Latham) and Overleigh Lodge, Chester. From the Victorian era, brick buildings often incorporate timberwork in a mock Tudor style, and this hybrid style has been used in some modern residential developments in the county. Industrial buildings, such as the Macclesfield silk mills (for example, Waters Green New Mill), are also usually in brick.


title: Cheshire

text: The county is home to some of the most affluent areas of northern England, including Alderley Edge, Wilmslow, Prestbury, Tarporley and Knutsford, named in 2006 as the most expensive place to buy a house in the north of England. The former Cheshire town of Altrincham was in second place. The area is sometimes referred to as The Golden Triangle on account of the area in and around the aforementioned towns and villages.


title: Cheshire

text: Some settlements which were historically part of the county now fall under the counties of Derbyshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester:


title: Cheshire

text: Bus transport in Cheshire is provided by various operators. The major bus operator in the Cheshire area is Arriva North West. Other operators in Cheshire include Stagecoach Chester & Wirral and Network Warrington.


title: Cheshire

text: There are also several operators based outside of Cheshire, who either run services wholly within the area or services which start from outside the area. Companies include Arriva Buses Wales, BakerBus, High Peak, First Greater Manchester, D&G bus and Stagecoach Manchester.


title: Cheshire

text: Some services are run under contract to Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Borough of Halton and Warrington Councils.


title: Cheshire

text: The main railway line through the county is the West Coast Main Line. Trains on the main London to Scotland line call at Crewe (in the south of the county) and Warrington Bank Quay (in the north of the county). Trains stop at Crewe and Runcorn on the Liverpool branch of the WCML; Crewe and Macclesfield are each hourly stops on the two Manchester branches.


title: Cheshire

text: In the east of Cheshire, Macclesfield station is served by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and Northern, on the Manchester–London line. Services from Manchester to the south coast frequently stop at Macclesfield. Neston on the Wirral Peninsula is served by a railway station on the Borderlands line between Bidston and Wrexham.


title: Cheshire

text: Cheshire has of roads, including of the M6, M62, M53 and M56 motorways; there are 23 interchanges and four service areas. It also has the A580 "East Lancashire Road" at its border with Greater Manchester at Leigh. The M6 motorway at the Thelwall Viaduct carries 140,000 vehicles every 24 hours.


title: Cheshire

text: The Cheshire canal system includes several canals originally used to transport the county's industrial products (mostly chemicals). Nowadays they are mainly used for tourist traffic. The Cheshire Ring is formed from the Rochdale, Ashton, Peak Forest, Macclesfield, Trent and Mersey and Bridgewater canals.


title: Cheshire

text: The Manchester Ship Canal is a wide, stretch of water opened in 1894. It consists of the rivers Irwell and Mersey made navigable to Manchester for seagoing ships leaving the Mersey estuary. The canal passes through the north of the county via Runcorn and Warrington.


title: Ampere

text: The ampere (, ; symbol: A), often shortened to amp, is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). One ampere is equal to electrons worth of charge moving past a point in a second. It is named after French mathematician and physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836), considered the father of electromagnetism along with Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted.