Poland
Overview |History | Geography | Economy | People | Current Event
Star Player | World Cup Information | Links | Sources

Overview*
In 1918. Poland gained it's independence.  Germany and the Soviet Union soon took over Poland in World War 2.  Poland began to depend on the Soviet Union after the war.   Labor tumoil led to many things like the beginning of independent trade union- "Solidarity".  10 years later this became a political force.  In the 1990's, A shock theropy country made Poland able to change it's economy to on eof the best economy's in central Europe.  In 1999, Poland joined the NATO alliance.
 

History
The communist Party in Poland*

    The Polish group of Liberation was organized in 1944 by the Communist Poles.  It was later recognized by the USSR as the temporary Polish government

    The Poles were promised the old lands by the Oder and Neisse rivers, that were owned by Germany, in exchange for the eastern part of Poland.
The promise was not formal or accepted by the western Allies. At the end of the war, the Provisional government owned the western territories. Most of the Polish population of the east lands, moved west because there lands were taken over by the USSR.

    In 1947, The January elections were held.  The non communist politicians were defeated becuase of violence and fraud.. Wladyslaw
Gomulka, He was the leader of the Polish communist party, became the leader of Poland, In 1948, Gomulka was no longer the leader.

    After discovering that the non communist party had been cheated in some of their wages, the workers of the Cegielski and Stalin rioted. These riots created the "The Polish October" when Stalinism was overthrown. Gomulka persuaded Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, that he would be able to control the situation. Soviet troops were not used. Gomulka returned to power and a relationship with the USSR began.

    In December 13, 1981., General Jaruzelski, minister of defence and first secretary of PZPR took away Solidarity. Slowly, the country's political/economic life began to return back to normal. From 1986 on, the the country began to redevelop which led to fresh elections that opened the way to the changes of 1989 and the return of Democracy.
 
 

Geography

Economy People
Population: 38, 633,912
Ethnic groups: Polish-97.6%, German-1.3%, Ukrainian-0.6%, Byelorussian-0.5%
languages: Polish
religions:Roman Catholic-95%, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant-5%
literacy rates:  99% can read

Current Event
            POLAND AND RUSSIA SIGN A RESTITUTION AGREEMENT
    Russian and Polish leaders recently signed anrestitution agreement for archive documents, works of arts and other cultural property items which had vanished after World War 2.  Russia announced the restoration of some polish archives kept on the terriroty of the Russian Ferderation.  Poland announced that they were willing to trade with Russia's findings for some archive documents that have to do with the Kaliningrad Region.  Poland has signed Russia's consent for sending the exports and unlimited access to Russian archives if used to support research.
 

Star Player: DUDEK Jerzy

World Cup Information
    This year Poland qualified for the world cup.  Poland is in group D, playing against Korea republic, USA and Portugal.
   Poland Plays against the Korea Republic on June 4, Potugal on June 10, and Poland will play against the United States on June 14,2002. I think Poland will not make it to the second round because they were recently defeated by Korea.  The score was Korea 2, Poland 0.