Background Information

16^th Century Poland

 The 16^th century saw the Golden Age of Poland. The kingdom of Poland consisted of the territories of both Poland and Lithuania for a total of 815,000 square miles and a population of 8 million. The 16^th century into the 17^th century was a time of political stability and economic strength for Poland as well as a time of Renaissance and the development of Polish literature.

 The 16^th century nobility of Poland were united under the Republic of the Gentry and were able to overcome regional, ethnic, and religious divisions. The whole of the knighthood were equal in terms of the law. The government of the kingdom of Poland and Lithuania was controlled by the General Sejm which first convened in 1493. The General Sejm was a bicameral body composed of the House of Deputies which represented the gentry and the Royal Council (also called the Senate) which represented the Magnates. The Magnates were the most powerful nobles in terms of land and status. The king was the ultimate head of the government but his power was tempered by the nobility. By the Nieszawa Freedoms, the king was required to consult the nobility and gain their consent before collecting taxes or waging war.

 The most notable rulers of 16^th century Poland were King Sigismund the Old who reigned from 1506 to 1548 and King Sigismund Augustus who reigned from 1548 to 1572. Under the rule of Sigismund the Old, the General Sejm reformed taxes and standardized the system of weights and measures. King Sigismund Augustus incorporated the Ruthenian lands of Lithuania into the Polish crown to jointly elect the ruler. While Lithuania and Poland had separate government offices, laws, treasuries and armies, they had the joint General Sejm, jointly elected king, and the same foreign policy.

 The year 1573 was a significant year politically in Poland. The Convocational Sejm of 1573 and the Warsaw Confederation provided for religious tolerance throughout Poland and banned religious wars. Religious tolerance was a very progressive idea in 16^th century Europe. The first free election for the king was held in 1573. Under the terms of election, the king had to renounce the idea of hereditary succession to the throne, recognize the legitimacy of the free elections, the Sejm’s power, the right of the Senate to oversee foreign policy, and swear to practice religious tolerance. The gentry had the power to remove the king if any of these oaths were broken.

 The economy of 16^th century Poland was based on agriculture and trade. Grain was exported to Western Europe, specifically the Netherlands, England and Northern Germany. Wood products, such as timber, tar, and timber ash were also exported. Every year huge cattle herds were driven to Silesia and Germany. Serfdom on farms was legal and allowed for inexpensive ways to run farms. Therefore, while production costs were low, profits were large which encouraged economic growth.

 The Decline of Poland

 Poland began to lose its power and stability in the 17^th century.  The population declined by one third and the Sejm was becoming ineffective. Because of the policy of “Liberum Veto”, any member of the Sejm had the power to veto all resolution since they had to be carried unanimously. Consequently, little was accomplished and the government was weakened politically.

 Between 1700 and 1721, Poland was in an alliance with Russia in a war with Sweden for control of the Baltic region. This opened the door for Russia to interfere in the internal affairs of Poland. By 1717, Poland was on the brink of civil war between King Augustus II and the Sejm. Russia stepped in to “mediate” between the two sides but eventually took control of governing. In 1732, Russia and Austria signed the “Alliance of the Three Black Eagles” to keep Poland paralyzed. An anti-Russian uprising, called the “Confederation of Bar” was crushed by the Russians and 5000 Poles were sent to Siberia. Among the few who escaped was Kazimiers Pulaski who would later play an important role in the American Revolution.

 The Partitions: 1772-1795

 The weakened state of Poland was taken advantage of by Prussia, Russia, and Austria when they annexed much of the Polish territory. 23% of Poland was taken as well as 4,500,000 members of the population. Prussia took a small economic area, Russia took the largest of the three, and Austria took a heavily populated section. To make these annexations legal, the Sejm was forced to ratify them in 1773.

 During this time of the first partition, there was a small national revival. The “Committee of National Education” was formed to encourage education and was the first of its kind in Europe. The “Great Sejm” met from 1788-1792 during a Prussian war with Turkey and drafted the Constitution of the Third of May. This Constitution abolished the “Liberum Veto”, established majority rule, and established personal freedoms.

 In 1793, the second partition took place when Prussia and Russia seized more than half of the remaining territory in Poland and 4 million more of the population. Many of the reforms made by the Great Sejm were abolished. The third partition of 1795 saw the rest of Poland annexed by Russia. The king was forced to abdicate and was taken to St. Petersburg.

 Napoleon and the Duchy of Warsaw

 During the Napoleonic Wars, many Poles fought for the French in the hopes of defeating the Russians and gaining their independence. Napoleon used Polish units in all of his campaigns and eventually established a Polish state formed from lands taken by the Prussians in the second Partition. This was the Duchy of Warsaw and was used as a pawn government by Napoleon. Napoleon was able to use this government to incite the Lithuanians to rebel and give him an excuse to invade Russia in 1812.

 The Congress Kingdom

 In 1815, the Duchy of Warsaw was partitioned by Russia and Prussia and Austria began a campaign to eradicate Polish culture and language. The Russian tsar, Alexander I, was more liberal and allowed for a semi-autonomous “Congress Kingdom” within Poland which kept Polish culture and language alive.

 Insurrections

 The Polish people rebelled against the Russians, Prussians, and Austrians many times while partitioned by those three countries. All of the insurrections failed. In 1793, Russia and Prussia defeated the Polish and slaughtered the population in the suburb of Praga. An 1830 insurrection was led by students from the Warsaw Military College and ended with more than 25,000 polish prisoners being sent to Siberia. Thousands of other Poles fled to the West. The 1846 insurrection in the city of Krakow was doomed from the start and the 1848 rebellion was equally unsuccessful.

 The “January Uprising” of 1863 lasted more than a year and a half. After the uprising was put down, a severe policy of persecution was put in place. All schools were shut down, speaking the Polish language became a crime, and the Catholic Church was persecuted. In Prussia, beginning in 1872, German was compulsory in schools. In Austrian Poland, conditions were less severe and speaking Polish was allowed. All three powers kept their sections of Poland weak economically and as a result there were many strikes and demonstrations by Polish workers.

 World War I and Rebirth: 1914-1922

 At the beginning of WWI, Poles were conscripted into the German, Austrian, and Russian armies and were force to fight each other. The majority of the fighting on the Eastern Front took place on Polish soil. The Central Powers made promises to the Poles to create an independent Poland but were slow in fulfilling these promises. In the Treaty of Versailles, Polish Independence was proclaimed.

 After the end of WWI, several new countries had arisen that laid claim to lands occupied by Poles: Lithuania, Czechoslovakia and the Ukrainian Republic. The Russian Red Army had crushed all the counter-revolutionary forces in Russia and turned their attention to Poland. A treaty was signed in October and was followed by another in March 1921 that secured to eastern borders of Poland. The Geneva Convention of 1922 granted part of Upper Silesia to Poland following three uprisings by Poles whose territory had been given over to Germany in the Treaty of Versailles.

 The Second Republic: 1921-1939

 A modern, democratic constitution was written and ratified on March 17^th, 1921. The task of rebuilding Poland was a large one given that the country was ruined economically and had been ruled by foreign powers for a hundred and twenty years. In 1930, what began as a democratic government became a virtual dictatorship. Still, there was a Polish economic revival by producing steel and developing her mining, textile, and chemical industries. The Treaty of Versailles also granted Poland access to the sea which cut Germany in two. This fact lead to conflict between Poland and Germany which became worse once Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. In 1939, Poland entered into a military alliance with Britain and France as a defensive effort against constant threats from Germany. In August of that year, Germany and Russia entered into a secret alliance concerning the future of Poland.

 World War II: 1939-1945

 On September 1, 1939, 1.8 million German troops invaded Poland on three fronts: East Prussia in the north, Germany in the west, and Slovakia in the south. The Blitzkrieg tactics of the Germans caught the Polish off guard and by September 14^th, Warsaw was surrounded. Even though Britain and France entered the war on September 3^rd, the Polish received little help. The Soviets invaded Poland on September 17^th, opening a second front in Poland. Warsaw was forced to surrender on October 5^th.

 The fourth partition was between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Germans took Pomerania, Posnania, and Silesia and the Soviet Union took the eastern half of Poland. The soviet zone contained 1.5 million Poles who were shipped off to Siberia or executed. The Germans decided to eliminate the Polish race along with the Jews during the Holocaust. Despite Nazi efforts to destroy Polish culture, a “Cultural Underground” was able to keep Polish culture and language alive. 2000 concentration camps were built in Poland and at least 300 Polish villages were completely destroyed. The Polish refused to surrender or cooperate with the Nazis and fought with their Home Army of 400,000.

 The Polish Army, Navy, and Air Force fought the Germans throughout the war and were involved in every front of the war. In 1943, a division of Polish soldiers even fought alongside the Soviet army despite the negative history between the two groups. The Home Army was involved I the war in several ways, sometimes in open combat, other times in sabotage, and often fighting a psychological campaign against the Germans. The Intelligence Service of the Home Army was responsible for capturing and sending German intelligence to London for examination.

 In 1943, at Teheran, the British and Americans agreed to allow Russia to keep the land they had absorbed from their invasion of Poland in 1939. In 1944, Russian forces surrounded the Home Army and deported many of the Poles to Siberia. The Poles fought the Russians for 63 days in Warsaw before the city was completely destroyed. This defeat opened the way for Soviet control of Poland. As a result of the Yalta Conference in 1945, all of Poland was put in the Russian zone of influence, a move interpreted by most Poles as a betrayal.

 Post-War Poland

 As a result of the war, 7 million Polish people (about 22% of the population) had been killed. 90 percent of these losses were victims of prisons, death camps, raids, executions, epidemics, starvation, and other forms of ill treatment. The country of Poland lost 38% of the national assets where Britain lost 0.8% and France lost 1.5%, and half the country was controlled by the Soviet Union.

 In 1944, the Polish Committee of National Liberation was established and was recognized as the temporary government of Poland by the USSR. The provisional government occupied western territories promised to them in return for the eastern part of Poland. This new Poland was very similar to the Poland that existed in 1138 and contained very few minorities such as Lithuanians and Jews.

 In 1947, the elected leader of Poland was dismissed and a full Stalinist dictatorship began that put an emphasis on industrialization. Polis workers demonstrated in 1956 and when they were attacked, a riot broke out. These riots led to “The Polish October” in which Stalinism was overthrown and a more independent relationship with the USSR was established. In 1968, student revolts broke out in Warsaw and Krakow which were put down and resulted in a period of repression against Intellectuals and Jews.

 Poland was gripped by an economic depression. In 1976, as an attempt to ease foreign debt, food prices were raised by 60%. This led to more strikes in Warsaw and Radom. The price increases were cancelled but this resulted in more oppression. When, in 1978, Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal of Krakow, was elected pope, a sense of Polish “destiny”, centered on the idea of “national messianism”, began to surface in Poland. However, when the pope visited Poland in 1979, the economic crisis was deepening. More price rises in 1980 sparked strikes that spread across the nation. Eventually, Lech Walesa became the leader of the strikes. The Gdansk Agreement in August of 1980 created Solidarity as an independent trade union.

 In 1981, martial law was declared in Poland and Solidarity was suspended. Slowly, as politics and the economy retuned to normal, martial law was lifted in 1983. From 1986 on, there was debate as to which direction of development the nation should pursue. In 1988, a referendum and fresh elections paved the way for significant changes in 1989 and the return of Democracy. In 1990, Lech Walesa became the first non-Communist president of Poland since World War II.

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