Poland

**Poland** is a country in the eastern region of Central Europe. Its official name is **Republic of Poland**. It is on the east of Germany (along Oder and Lusatian Neisse). The Czech Republic and Slovakia are to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the north. The total land area of Poland is about 312,679&nbsp;km2 (120,728&nbsp;mi2), slightly larger than Oman. That makes Poland the 77th-largest country

After the death of Casimir the Great, the last Piast on the Polish throne, Louis I of Hungary and his daughter Jadwiga of Poland began their rule. She married the Lithuanian prince Jogaila. Their marriage started a new dynasty in Poland: the Jagiellon dynasty. Under the Jagiellon dynasty, Poland made an alliance with its neighbor Lithuania.

### Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to Second Republic of Poland 
In the 17th century Sweden attacked almost all of Poland (this was called “the Deluge”). Many wars against the Ottoman Empire, Russia, the Cossacks, Transylvania and Brandenburg-Prussia ended in 1699. For the next 80 years, the government and the nation were weak, which made Poland dependent on Russia, whose tsars took advantage of this by offering money to dishonest members of the Polish government to block new ideas and solutions. Russia, Prussia, and Austria conquered all of Poland into three pieces in 1772, 1793 and 1795, which dissolved the country. A constitution called the Constitution of 3 May, was made in 1791.

Napoleon made another Polish state, the Duchy of Warsaw, but after the Napoleonic wars, Poland was divided again by the countries at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar. The Polish people did not like that and often rebelled (two large rebellions in 1830). During World War I, the Allies agreed to restore the independence of Poland. Soon after the surrender of Germany in November 1918, Poland became the Second Polish Republic (*II Rzeczpospolita Polska*). It got its freedom after several military conflicts; the largest was the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War.

### World War II 
On September 1, 1939, World War II started when Germany attacked Poland. The Soviet Union attacked Poland on September 15 .Warsaw was defeated on September 28. Poland divided into one part ruled by Nazi Germany and the other by the Soviet Union. More than 6 million Polish people died, and half of then were Jewish. Most of the deaths were part of the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews and 1.5 million Poles were killed. At the war's end, Poland's borders were moved west to push the eastern border to the Curzon line. The western border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line. The new Poland became 20% smaller by 77,500 square kilometres (29,900 sq mi). The shift forced millions of Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews to move.

### Polish People's Republic to Third Polish Republic 
After these events, Poland gradually became a communist country. It was supposedly an independent country, but in reality, the new government was appointed by the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, and was under the control of the Soviet Union. The country was then renamed the People's Republic of Poland. There are many Poles in the neighboring countries Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania (the three countries were part of the Soviet Union until 1991), as well as in other countries. Most Poles outside of Poland are in the United States, especially in Chicago. Germany and the United Kingdom are also home to a large Polish diaspora. The most recent mass emigration of Poles to western countries began after 1989.

In 1989, Solidarity, a trade union led by Lech Wałęsa, helped to defeat the communist government in Poland. Even before that event, Lech Wałęsa was given a Nobel Prize for leading the first non-communist trade union fighting for democracy in the Eastern Bloc. When communism ended in Poland there were many improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, democracy, etc. In 1991 Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined NATO in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Polish voters then voted to join the European Union in a vote in June 2003. The country joined the EU on May 1, 2004.

Currently, the Prime Minister is Donald Tusk. On 10 April 2010 the President Lech Kaczyński died in a government plane crash in Smolensk in Russia. The president is elected directly by the citizens for a five-year term. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Sejm, the lower chamber of Parliament legislature for the country. It has 460 deputies elected every four years.

## Geography 
Poland's territory is a plain reaching from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Carpathian Mountains in the south. Within that plain, the land varies from east to west.

The Polish Baltic coast is mostly smooth but has natural harbors in the Gdańsk-Gdynia region and Szczecin in the far northwest. This coast has several spits, dunes, and coastal lakes. Coast lakes are former bays that have been cut off from the sea. These areas are sometimes called lagoons. Szczecin Lagoon is on the western border with Germany. The Vistula Lagoon is on the eastern border with Kaliningrad, province of Russia. The longest river in Poland, the Vistula river, empties into the Vistula Lagoon and also directly into the Baltic Sea.

The northeastern region is densely wooded, sparsely populated, and lacks agricultural and industrial resources. The geographical region has four hilly districts of moraines and lakes created by moraines. These formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four districts and covers much of northeastern Poland.

Poland has many lakes. In Europe, only Finland has more lakes. The largest lakes are Śniardwy and Mamry. In addition to the lake districts in the north, there are also many mountain lakes in the Tatras mountains.

South of the northeastern region is the regions of Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by the broad ice-age river valleys. The Silesia region has many resources and people. Coal is abundant. Lower Silesia has large copper mining. Masovian Plain is in central Poland. It is in the valleys of three large rivers: Vistula, Bug and Narew.

Further south is the Polish mountain region. These mountains include the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The highest part of the Carpathians is the Tatra mountains which is along Poland’s southern border. The tallest mountain in Poland, Rysy at 2,503 m (8,210&nbsp;ft), is in the High Tatras.

### Climate 
Poland has a continental climate. 

The highest temperature ever recorded in Poland was  on 29 July 1921 in Prószków. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Poland was  on 11 January 1940 in Siedlce.

Top 5 warmest days

### Administrative divisions 
Poland is made of sixteen regions known as voivodeships (*województwa*, singular - *województwo*). They are basically created from the country's historical regions, whereas those of the past two decades (till 1998) had been focused on and named for separate cities. The new units range in areas from under 10,000&nbsp;km2 (Opole Voivodeship) to over 35,000&nbsp;km2 (Masovian Voivodeship). Voivodeships are controlled by voivod governments, and their legislatures are called voivodeship sejmiks.

The sixteen voivodeships that make up Poland are further divided into *powiaty* (singular *powiat*), second-level units of administration, which are about the same as to a county, district or prefecture in other countries.

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## Literature 
, famous Polish novelist]]
Almost no Polish literature remains before Christianisation in the 10th century. Polish literature was written in the Latin language during the Middle Ages. The Polish language was accepted as equal to Latin after the Renaissance for literature.

Jan Kochanowski was a leading poet of European Renaissance literature in the 16th century. Other great Polish poets include Adam Mickiewicz who wrote *Pan Tadeusz* epic in 1834.

Several Polish novelists have won the Nobel prize. Henryk Sienkiewicz won in 1905 dramatized versions of beginnings of Christianity (*Quo Vadis*). Władysław Reymont won a Nobel prize in 1924. He wrote the novel Chłopi, recently filmed. Olga Tokarczuk 2018. Two Polish poets won Nobel prizes as well. One is Czesław Miłosz (1980) and the second Wisława Szymborska (1996).

Stanisław Lem is a famous science fiction author in the modern era. His *Solaris* novel was made twice into a feature film.

## People 
, famous Polish composer and pianist]]
In the past, Poland was inhabited by people from different nations and of different religions (mainly Catholics, Orthodox and Judaism). This changed after 1939, because of the Nazi Holocaust which killed many Polish Jews. After World War II, the country was changed into a communist country, by the Warsaw Pact which included most central European countries and Russia Russia.

Today 38,038,000 people live in Poland (2011). In 2002 96.74% of the population call themselves Polish, while 471,500 people (1.23%) claimed another nationality. 774,900 people (2.03%) did not declare any nationality. Nationalities, or ethnic groups in Poland are Silesians, Germans (most in the former Opole Voivodeship), Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Russians, Jews, Roma and Belarusians. The Polish language is part of the West Slavic section of the Slavic languages. It is also the official language of Poland. English and German are the most common second languages studied and spoken.

, famous Polish chemist and two time Nobel Prize winner]]

In the past few years, Poland's population has gone down because of an increase in emigration and a sharp drop in the birth rate. In 2006, the census office estimated the total population of Poland at 38,536,869, a very small rise from the 2002 figure of 38,230,080. Since Poland's accession to the European Union, many Polish people have moved to work in Western European countries like the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Some organizations state people have left because of high unemployment (10.5%) and better opportunities for work somewhere else. In April 2007, the Polish population of the United Kingdom had risen to about 300,000 people and estimates predict about 65,000 Polish people living in the Republic of Ireland. However, in recent years strong growth of the Polish economy and the increasing value of Polish currency (PLN) makes many Polish immigrants go back home. In 2007, the number of people leaving the country was lower than people who are coming back. Poland became an attractive place to work for people from other countries (mainly Ukraine).

A Polish minority is still present in neighboring countries of Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, as well as in other countries. The largest number of ethnic Poles outside of the country can be found in the United States.

## Famous people 
* Fryderyk Chopin, a music composer.
* Joseph Conrad, born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, an acclaimed author who however wrote in English.
* Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer who showed that the Earth moves around the Sun.
* Maria Skłodowska-Curie discovered radium and polonium.
* Franciszek Kamieński, discovered mycorrhiza.
* Tadeusz Kościuszko, an army commander who fought for USA's and Poland's independence.
* Robert Kubica, a F1 driver.
* Stanisław Lem, a science fiction writer.
* Adam Małysz, a ski-jumper.
* Adam Mickiewicz, a poet
* Pope John Paul II (earlier Karol Wojtyła). Before he became Pope, he was a Bishop in Kraków.
* Agnieszka Radwańska, female tennis player
* Władysław Reymont, a novelist
* Henryk Sienkiewicz, a novelist
* Kamil Stoch, a ski jumper
* Wisława Szymborska, a writer
* Andrzej Wajda, a film director
* Lech Wałęsa, leader of "Solidarność" ("Solidarity"), he helped defeat the communist government in Poland and USSR influence in Central and Eastern Europe
* Robert Lewandowski, a football player
* Czesław Miłosz, a poet
*Jan Matejko, a painter
## Urban demographics 
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The lists below show the population count of Poland's largest cities based on 2005 estimates.

## Culture 
There is a Lil Yachty song called Poland.

## Related pages
*List of rivers of Poland
*Poland at the Olympics
*Poland national football team

## Notes
## References 
## Other websites 
* Tourist information portal
* Poland.gov.pl - Polish national portal 
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs
* Poland at the World Factbook 
* Background Note: Poland
* WorldFlicks in Poland: photos and interesting places on Google Maps