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History of Poland

Did you know ...

• the prewar AVA Radio Company, in Warsaw, built all the electro-mechanical equipment used by Poland's Cipher Bureau to break German Enigma ciphers?
• the neo-romantic Chłopomania movement based in Young Poland's fascination with folk culture inspired Polish playwright Stanisław Wyspiański to marry a peasant wife in 1900?
• the Polish Club Class glider SZD-59 "Acro" is competitive in both unlimited aerobatics and cross-country flying?
• the Polish lake Morskie Oko was once called "Fish Lake" due to its natural stock of fish, which are uncommon in lakes and ponds of the Tatra Mountains?
• the Gothic Collegiate church in Wislica, Poland (pictured), was built in 1350 on foundations of two earlier Romanesque churches?
• the German-language socialist newspaper Volkswille in Katowice, Poland, went from daily to weekly publication after the 1933 Nazi takeover stopped the newspaper's financial subsidies from Germany?
• the 1945 Trial of the Sixteen helped the USSR consolidate its control over Poland?
• the Broadway play Irena's Vow tells the story of Irena Gut, a Polish nurse who during World War II saved twelve Jews from the Holocaust at the risk of her own life?
• the equestrian statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko (pictured), Polish American hero of independence, which was erected around 1920 at the Wawel Castle in Kraków, Poland, has a duplicate in Detroit, Michigan?
• the Frédéric Chopin monument in Warsaw, Poland, was designed by Wacław Szymanowski in 1907, erected in 1926, destroyed by the Germans in 1940, and reconstructed in 1958?
• the Polish literary critic Ostap Ortwin would wake up the people of Lwów by loudly threatening futurism in the middle of a night and then abuse the policemen who’d ask him for identification?
• the Polish Independent Socialist Labour Party of Joseph Kruk merged into the Labour Zionist Poalei Zion in 1937?
• the priest Leopold Moczygemba (pictured) was responsible for the founding of Panna Maria, Texas, the first Polish community in the United States?
• the 1986 Vrancea earthquake in Romania, which damaged roughly 55,000 homes, was felt as far north as Poland and as far southwest as Italy?
• the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (pictured), by the time of its construction in 1912 was the tallest building in Warsaw, Poland, but was demolished less than 15 years after its construction, in the mid-1920s?
• the All Sky Automated Survey is a Polish astronomical project based in Chile, controlled remotely from Poland through the Internet, and that it has discovered two comets since 1996 with a tiny budget?
• the polska—the Swedish word for Polish—is the signature music and dance form in Swedish folk music?
• the Polish writer Gustaw Morcinek survived three Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War?
• the Polish historian and survivor of the Nazi German Operation Sonderaktion Krakau Stanisław Kutrzeba joined an underground university in defiance of Nazi edicts?
• the Polish interbellum organization Maritime and Colonial League‎ promoted Polish colonies and settlements in Africa and South America?
• the Polish painter Alexander Kucharsky is best known for his portraits of the French royal family, including the doomed Louis XVII (portrait pictured)?
• the Polish town of Polanów was completely destroyed during the Second World War?
• the 1940 Czortków Uprising was a failed attempt by anti-Soviet teenagers to free Polish soldiers?
• the 1923 children's novel King Matt the First is as popular in Poland as Peter Pan is in the English-speaking world?
• in 1919, Poland tried to overthrow the Lithuanian government, but the Sejny Uprising resulted in the plan's failure?
• in 1949 the Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Yugoslav and Czechoslovak socialist parties founded the Socialist Union of Central-Eastern Europe as a common centre for work in exile?
• in 1975, Eugeniusz Knapik became known as a member of a group of Polish composers who rejected the previous generation for seeking the destruction of musical tradition?
• in the Prussian partition of Poland, Germanization policies had the opposite effect of strengthening Polish national consciousness?
• in 1526, with the heirless death of Janusz III Mazowiecki, last of the Masovian Piasts, the Duchy of Masovia was reunited with Poland?
• hundreds of political prisoners were freed in numerous raids on communist prisons in Poland between 1944 and 1946?
• during the G-8 Summit in Germany on June 7-8, Russian president Vladimir Putin offered to deploy elements of an American anti-misssile shield in Qabala Radiolocation Station in Azerbaijan instead of Poland and the Czech Republic?
• former President of Poland Lech Walesa only won 1% of the vote in the 2000 Polish presidential election?
• girls in Poland wear red lingerie underneath their dresses during a studniówka (high school ball)?
• historic memorabilia from the Polish National Museum in Rapperswil, Switzerland were shipped in 1927 to the newly independent Poland, only to be largely destroyed during World War II?
• in the center of the Old Town Market Place in Warsaw, Poland is the Warsaw Mermaid Statue (pictured) along with other Warsaw Old Town attractions?
• legendary Polish boxing champion Antoni Czortek fought for his life in boxing matches while at Auschwitz?
• only three works of Egardus, a fourteenth century composer whose music was known in Flanders, Italy, and Poland, are known to have survived?
• publicist Stephen Rivers arranged Jane Fonda's 1987 trip to Poland, where she went to express her support for Lech Wałęsa, leader of the then-banned Solidarity movement?
• segregated seating known as ghetto ławkowe ("ghetto desks" or "ghetto benches") were introduced in Polish universities in the late 1930s, primarily for Jewish students?
• thanks to its well-preserved medieval fortifications, the town of Paczków is called the Polish Carcassone?
• one of the founders of modern Russian psychiatry, Pavel Jacobi, brother of the painter Valery Jacobi, participated in the January Uprising in Poland and volunteered in the Army of the Vosges led by Giuseppe Garibaldi?
• one political faction in Isabelline Spain was known as the polacos because of its leader's Polish ancestry?
• local mountaineers have organized daily canoe trips down Dunajec River Gorge (pictured) in Pieniny National Park, Poland since the early 19th century?
• novelist Joseph Conrad was strongly influenced by his uncle and mentor Tadeusz Bobrowski, who is himself remembered in Poland as a notable memoirist?
• of the ninety historic Synagogues of Kraków, Poland active before World War II, only the Remuh Synagogue (pictured) still serves as a Jewish house of prayer?
• the Alvensleben Convention allowed Russian troops to cross the Prussian border in pursuit of Polish revolutionaries of the 1863 January Uprising?
• the Augustów Canal in north-eastern Poland (pictured) was built in order to circumvent high customs duties introduced by Prussia for the transit of goods to the Baltic Sea?
• the life of Polish ship captain Mamert Stankiewicz was immortalized in a popular book series?
• the main building of the Krzyżtopór Castle (pictured), a Baroque structure in Poland, has been a ruin since the Swedish Deluge?
• the new Polish party called Forward Poland rejected an alliance with Declan Ganley's Libertas?
• the new building of the Warsaw University Library (pictured) in Warsaw, Poland, was consecrated on 11 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II?
• the last Hungarian inhabitants of Niedzica Castle, Poland, (pictured) remained there until 1943 when the coming of the Soviet front in World War II inspired the last countess to abandon it with her children?
• the founding father of physical education in Poland, Dr. Henryk Jordan, started a school for midwives during his stay in New York City in the late 19th century?
• the Wolf Popper Synagogue in Kraków, Poland, was founded in 1620 by one of the richest European traders in saltpetre, used for the making of gunpowder?
• the Polish town of Dzierżoniów was the venue of a meeting between Poland, Prussia, Holland and Austria during the Great Turkish War?
• the book Fear by Jan T. Gross has been a subject of significant controversy in Poland?
• the first television set made entirely in Poland, the Belweder, cost 7000 złoty at the time when the average monthly salary ranged from 1 to 2 thousand?
• the now-Polish Gliwice Canal was known as the "Adolf Hitler Canal" during WWII?
• the opening of the Gesta principum Polonorum, a history of early Poland written sometime in the 1110s, is addressed to Martin I, Archbishop of Gniezno?
• the town of Marche, Arkansas, was founded by a Polish count who wanted to restore the agricultural environment familiar to most Poles before their arrival in America?
• the veteran Polish actress Irena Kwiatkowska is most remembered for her television series role in which she performed various unusual or absurd jobs?
• when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Polish-Jewish poet Rajzel Żychlińsky fled by taking a taxicab?
• with over 1.2 million burials, the Bródno Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Warsaw, Poland?
• the three-story tall Torah Ark (pictured) of the Great Synagogue in Włodawa, Poland, is decorated with carvings of 18th-century musical instruments to illustrate one of the Psalms?
• the region of Cieszyn Silesia was in 1920 divided by the Spa Conference between Poland and Czechoslovakia and remains divided to date?
• the painter Jan Matejko always depicted Stańczyk, Poland's most famous court jester, with a concerned and reflective look on his face?
• the primary Polish Scouting organization is Zwiazek Harcerstwa Polskiego?
• the recently released diary of teenaged Polish Holocaust victim Rutka Laskier has been compared to the diary of Anne Frank?
• the reconstructed Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the main tourist attractions of Warsaw, Poland?
• the Town Hall in Słupsk, Poland, was built on land reclaimed from a lake?
• the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw holds the remains of a Polish soldier killed at the Battle of Lvov in 1919?
• the Kłodzko Fortress in present-day southwestern Poland took the Austrians and the Prussians 200 years to build?
• the Krasiczyn Palace (pictured) in southeastern Poland was built on the site of a 14th-century wooden complex called Sliwnica?
• the LWD Szpak (pictured) was the first Polish-designed post-World War II airplane?
• the Land Coastal Defence that defended the Polish coast during the German invasion of Poland was subordinate to the Polish Navy, not the Army?
• the Jagiellonian Library (pictured) of Kraków, dating back to the 14th century, is the largest Polish collection of pre-19th century texts?
• the Imperial Castle in Poznań was to be a symbol of Prussian power but was lost to Poland only eight years after its completion?
• the Autumn of Nations, which began in Poland, marked the end of the Cold War?
• the Chalk Tunnels under Chełm, Poland are thought to total up to 15 km (9.3 mi) in length?
• the first mass transport to Auschwitz concentration camp consisted of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnow prison?
• the Academy of Music in Warsaw (pictured), the oldest and largest music school in Poland, is named after the most famous of its students, Fryderyk Chopin?
• the Little Treaty of Versailles was the first of several Minority Treaties, and Poland's renouncing of it was the deathblow to the League of Nations' ethnic minority-protection regime?
• the Lublin 1980 strikes marked the beginning of important socio-political changes in Poland, such as the creation of Solidarity and democratization of the country?
• the Polish Coal Trunk-Line, one of the most important rail connections in Poland, was built because post-First World War border changes made old rail lines obsolete?
• the Poznań International Fair is the largest trade fair in Poland?
• the decision of Pope Pius XII to appoint German apostolic administrators to occupied Poland during World War II was labelled "one of his most controversial decisions"?
• the Secret Military Printing Works of the WWII Polish resistance Home Army was probably the largest underground publisher in the world?
• the Polish 4th Rifle Division was the only Polish military unit that fought in the Russian Civil War and returned to Poland undefeated?
• the Otłoczyn railway accident on August 19, 1980, was the biggest railway crash in the post-World War Two history of Poland?
• the Luxtorpeda, looking more like a cross between a rail bus and a limousine than a train, was the fastest and most luxurious train in interbellum Poland?
• the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom in Warsaw, Poland, preserves cells in which Nazis tortured and killed Polish resistance fighters?
• the Opera Krakowska, one of the leading Polish opera companies, founded in 1954, moved into its first permanent house only in 2008?
• during the 1939 Battle of Wizna in Poland, German planes dropped leaflets asking the Poles to surrender?
• during June 1976 protests in Poland, the biggest demonstrations took place in Radom, where workers burned the local office of the Polish Communist party?
• Polish writer Henryk Rzewuski fought for Poland's independence in 1809 but later collaborated with the Russian Imperial Viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland, Ivan Paskevich?
• Polish-Armenian Roman Catholic priest, Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski was ordered to be silent by the Krakow Curia because of his clergy lustration activities?
• Polish general Józef Zając held military decorations from Poland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the short-lived state of Central Lithuania?
• Polish novelist Bolesław Prus, who had been a young soldier in the Polish 1863–65 Uprising, wrote a short story, "Fading Voices", whose protagonist had served in the 1830–31 Uprising?
• Polish sculptor Maria Albin Boniecki practiced his craft even when imprisoned in the Nazi Majdanek concentration camp?
• Polish pilot Władysław Turowicz moved to Pakistan, became a citizen, and has since become known as the "Rocket-Missile Man of Pakistan"?
• Polish actor Roman Kłosowski portrayed Nostradamus in the 2009 film Before Twilight?
• Polish archaeologist Mieczysław Domaradzki, who was based in Bulgaria for 22 years studying the archaeology of Thrace, discovered the ancient market centre Pistiros?
• Polish caricaturist Eryk Lipiński worked for the Polish resistance during World War II, forging documents, and was imprisoned in Auschwitz?
• Polish painter and critic Józef Czapski was twice sent to the Soviet Union to find missing Polish officers who had been executed by the Soviets?
• Oxford economist Włodzimierz Brus could not return to his homeland, Poland, in the 1990s, because his wife Helena Wolińska faced charges for her involvement in the execution of General Fieldorf?
• World War II historian Janusz Piekałkiewicz fled Poland in 1956, relying on mountaineering and secret resistance routes?
• BŻ-1 GIL was the first Polish experimental helicopter?
• Barbara Tuge-Erecińska, the Republic of Poland Ambassador to the United Kingdom, became Poland's first female Deputy Foreign Minister in 1999?
• Czesława Kwoka, a Polish Catholic child victim of the Holocaust, was the subject of a 2007 award-winning mixed-media presentation?
• Danuta Siedzikówna, a Polish nurse in anti-Nazi and anti-Communist resistance was only seventeen years old when she was sentenced to death and executed by the communist government of Poland in 1946?
• Bóg się rodzi, a Polish Christmas carol, has been called "one of the most beloved Polish Christmas carols"?
• Antoni Bohdziewicz, a Polish film director, was a member of the Armia Krajowa Polish resistance and worked on a documentary film made and shown entirely in besieged Warsaw?
• Abraham Blum, a Bundist participant in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, was murdered by the Gestapo, but his wife Luba Blum-Bielicka, a nurse, survived the Holocaust and ran an orphanage in post war Poland?
• a 2007 accident on the Rampe de Laffrey killed 26 Polish pilgrims, but was not the worst ever seen along the road?
• Albinus of Angers, who as bishop reportedly used diocesan funds to ransom people captured by pirates, thereafter became the patron saint against pirate attack and of coastal communities as far away as Poland and New Jersey?
• Anna Borkowska, the mother superior of a Polish convent of Dominican Sisters in World War II, was the first to smuggle in grenades for the Vilnius Jewish ghetto insurgents?
• Polish General Jerzy Wołkowicki was not murdered by the Soviets in the Katyn Massacre probably due to his heroic past in the Russian Imperial Navy?
• Polish politician and Sejm member, Joanna Senyszyn, gained media attention due to her distinctive, high-pitched voice?
• neoclassical Staszic Palace in Warsaw was temporarily given a Russo-Byzantine redesign upon Poland's partition?
• Norwegian professor of bacteriology Sverre Dick Henriksen was an honorary member of the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists, despite having never worked in Poland?
• Poland's Antoni Gawryłkiewicz, a recipient of the Righteous among the Nations medal, signed his Yad Vashem deposition in Hebrew, a language he did not understand?
• Poland's only "official" ghost town, Kłomino, used to be a base of both the Wehrmacht and the Soviet Army?
• Japan and Poland are the world's largest krill fishing nations since Russia abandoned its operations in 1993?
• Greek–Polish singer Eleni Tzoka has been awarded the Saint Rita of Cascia prize for the act of mercy towards the killer of her young daughter?
• 19th century Polish general Ludwik Mierosławski led revolutionaries in Poland, Germany and Italy?
• abrasion has destroyed the 14th century Church in Trzęsacz, Poland, near the Baltic Sea, except for part of its southern wall?
• French-born artist Jan Piotr Norblin is famous in Poland for illustrating many important historical moments of the last years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and is considered one of the most important painters of the Polish Enlightenment?
• German socialist politician Siegmund Glücksmann initiated the first socialist protests against the Piłsudski government in Poland?
• Polish architect Chrystian Piotr Aigner used a range of styles including Classicist, Neoclassicist, Palladian, Neogothic, Empire and Romantic?
• Polish Communists forbade the use of Wymysojer shortly after World War II, and now only about 100 native speakers remain?
• Polish media mogul Jan Wejchert, founder of the TVN television network, also converted a ruined papermill into a shopping center?
• Polish mountaineer Tadeusz Piotrowski, one of the finest winter mountaineers of the 1970s and '80s, died during descent from K2, after completing the first and only ascent by the "South Face"?
• Polish philosopher Józef Kalasanty Szaniawski began as an advocate for restoring Poland's independence but ended as a high government official in Russian Poland—and an enemy of philosophy?
• Polish philosopher Władysław Heinrich wrote the first report in experimental psychology to be presented to the Polish Academy of Learning in 1898?
• Polish Jesuit and missionary Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki introduced the knowledge of logarithms to China in the mid-17th century?
• Polish historical painter Juliusz Kossak (pictured) was the progenitor of a family of painters and poets spanning four generations?
• Polish composer Rafał Augustyn′s Symphony of Hymns took twenty years to complete, typically lasts for 100 minutes and requires an orchestra of over 170 players?
• Polish Countess Delfina Potocka served as muse to both Romantic poet Count Zygmunt Krasiński and composer Frédéric Chopin—who both wrote works in her honor?
• Polish partisan leader Władysław Łukasiuk, despite his paralyzed leg, always marched at the head of his unit, using his carbine as a crutch?
• E.Wedel (pictured), a famous confectionery company of Poland, retained its logo even under the Polish communist government?
• Edward Fokczyński knew that Poland had solved Germany's Enigma ciphers, but kept the secret even while being worked to death at Sachsenhausen?
• Tadeusz Pyka was appointed in 1980 to lead a Polish government commission to negotiate with strikers at Gdańsk, despite vowing that he would have "nothing to do" with the strikers' main representative body?
• Tytus Filipowicz, nominally the first Polish ambassador to Georgia, was captured during the Soviet invasion and ultimately organized the first Polish embassy to the Soviet Union?
• Wojciech Bartosz Głowacki, a peasant, became a Polish national hero after he captured a Russian cannon during the Battle of Racławice?
• Wronki Prison is the largest prison in Poland?
• Tadeusz Hołówko became one of the first victims of the assassination campaign carried out by the members of the radical Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists despite his relatively moderate stance in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict?
• Supreme National Tribunal, a war crime tribunal active in Poland from 1946 to 1948, presided over seven high-profile cases, including the First Auschwitz Trial?
• Silesia Stadium in Poland has hosted crowds of over 100,000 people, but its capacity was reduced below 50,000 to comply with international safety standards?
• Stanisław Warszycki, a wealthy 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth magnate, gave rise to many legends about his cruelty, and several places in Poland claim sightings of his ghost?
• Steven van Herwijck created portrait medals of both Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and Elizabeth I of England?
• Supraśl Lavra is one of six Eastern Orthodox monasteries for men in Poland?
• according to an old Polish legend, the sorcerer Pan Twardowski was the first man on the Moon?
• all Allied pilots shot down over Poland in World War II are laid to rest at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków?
• circumstances of the 1977 death of Stanisław Pyjas, a Polish student and anti-communist activist, are still a mystery?
• construction of Żarnowiec, Poland's only nuclear power plant, was cancelled as the project neared completion?
• courses in bioethics and journalism are a part of the academic curriculum of The Pontifical Academy of Theology (pictured) in Kraków, Poland?
• despite having immigrated from Poland, Dahn Ben-Amotz was often considered the epitome of the concept of the Israeli native "Sabra"?
• by 1937, the Warsaw branch of the Bundist Morgnshtern was the largest sporting organisation in Poland?
• at its height, the Polish World War II resistance movement Bataliony Chłopskie had 175,000 members?
• among the editors of Robotnik (pictured), an underground newspaper of the Polish Socialist Party, were Józef Piłsudski, future dictator of Poland, and Stanisław Wojciechowski, future president of Poland?
• an eclectic castle in a small village of Moszna in Poland has exactly 99 turrets and 365 rooms?
• as a poet, Antoni Edward Odyniec was a mediocre imitator of his friend, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, but left colorful memoirs describing Mickiewicz's private life?
• at age 17 years and 331 days, Polish hammer thrower Kamila Skolimowska (pictured) was the youngest Olympic champion in the 2000 Summer Olympics?
• Sebastian Petrycy (1554–1626), in Poland, created a vernacular philosophical terminology not much later than did philosophers in France and Germany?
• Remuh Synagogue (pictured) is the only functioning synagogue in Kraków, Poland?
• Jan Kulczyk is currently the richest Pole? His fortune is estimated at PLN 12.5 bn (around USD 4 bn).
• Jerzy Sosnowski, a top Polish spy in Weimar Germany, caused two of his two lovers, each a German noble woman, to be executed by the axe?
• Karol Szajnocha, one of Poland's leading 19th century historians, was self-taught as he was expelled from university?
• Kasztanka, Polish Marshal Józef Piłsudski's favorite combat mare, (pictured) was stuffed upon her death in 1927 and after World War II was destroyed allegedly on the orders of Piłsudski's enemy, Marshal Michał Rola-Żymierski?
• Iliaş of Moldavia, Jagiello's brother-in-law, lost his throne and was blinded following Poland's withdrawal from Moldavian affairs?
• Igo Sym, one of the most popular actors of interbellum Poland, was executed in 1941 by the Polish resistance for cooperating with German occupiers?
• Flying University was the secret educational conspiratorial enterprise that existed in Warsaw, Poland, in various forms in the 19th and 20th century to provide education outside of the dominating ideology?
• Fortified Area Silesia were Polish fortifications constructed along the interbellum border of Poland and Germany in the area of Upper Silesia?
• Hel Fortified Area was in 1939 the last place of Poland to surrender to the invading Wehrmacht, and during World War II it was used as a Kriegsmarine base?
• Henryk Zieliński (pictured), a modern Polish historian who studied in the underground university in his youth, died in mysterious circumstances?
• Maharam's Synagogue in Lublin, Poland was burnt down during the Cossack–Muscovite invasion in 1655?
• Marian Massonius (pictured), a Polish university professor, wrote in 1920 about the Bolsheviks' rise to power as a new Russian oligarchy with the aid of Marxist ideology?
• PZL-106 Kruk (pictured) is a Polish agricultural aircraft designed and built by WSK-Okęcie?
• PZL-230 Skorpion attack aircraft, cancelled in 1992, was one of the most ambitious airplane projects of Poland?
• Penley, a small village near Wrexham in north east Wales, was home to a hospital founded on the orders of Sir Winston Churchill after World War II to care for Polish ex-servicemen?
• Proclamation of Połaniec from 1794, abolishing serfdom in Poland, is regarded as the most famous legal act of the Kościuszko Uprising?
• Niepołomice Forest in Poland incorporates the most protected nature reserve inhabited by European bison called wisent (pictured), the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe?
• Narcyz Wiatr, a Polish activist in the agrarian movement and member of the anti-Nazi resistance group Peasant Battalions, was murdered by the communist secret police in Kraków’s Planty Park?
• Matysiakowie is both the most popular radio drama in Poland and one of the longest running in the world, with over 2600 episodes broadcast since 1956?
• Miś Uszatek, a children's cartoon about a bear and his friends, is one of the best-selling export products of Polish TV?
• Michał Dymitr Krajewski's first book, Podolanka wychowana w stanie natury, życie i przypadki swoje opisująca ("The Podolian Girl: raised in the natural state, describing her life and events"), was responsible for initiating the first literary debate in Poland, and had seven editions in one year?
• "Spieprzaj dziadu!" (Polish for "Piss off, old man!"), said by current Polish President Lech Kaczynski, has become one of the most famous phrases in modern Poland?