Poland

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Republic of Poland
National name: Rzeczpospolita Polska
President: Lech Kaczynski (2005)
Prime Minister: Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz (2005)
Land area: 117,554 sq mi (304,465 sq km); total area: 120,728 sq mi (312,685 sq km)
Population (2006 est.): 38,536,869 (growth rate: -0.1%); birth rate: 9.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 7.2/1000; life expectancy: 75.0; density per sq mi: 328

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Warsaw, 2,201,900 (metro. area), 1,607,600 (city proper)
Other large cities: Lodz, 778,200; Krakow, 733,100; Wroclaw, 632,200; Poznan, 581,200; Gdansk, 456,700; Szczecin, 415,700
Monetary unit: Zloty
Language: Polish
Ethnicity/race: Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belorussian 0.1% Ukrainian 0.1%, other 2.7% (2002)
Religions: Roman Catholic 95% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and other 5%
Literacy rate: 100% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $489.8 billion; per capita $12,700. Real growth rate: 3.5%. Inflation: 2.1%. Unemployment: 18.3%. Arable land: 46%. Agriculture: potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat; poultry, eggs, pork. Labor force: 17.02 million; agriculture 16.1%, industry 29%, services 54.9% (2002). Industries: machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles. Natural resources: coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, amber, arable land. Exports: $75.98 billion (f.o.b., 2004 est.): machinery and transport equipment 37.8%, intermediate manufactured goods 23.7%, miscellaneous manufactured goods 17.1%, food and live animals 7.6% (2003). Imports: $81.61 billion (f.o.b., 2004 est.): machinery and transport equipment 38%, intermediate manufactured goods 21%, chemicals 14.8%, minerals, fuels, lubricants, and related materials 9.1% (2003). Major trading partners: Germany, France, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, China (2003).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 8.07 million (1998); mobile cellular: 13 million (2002). Radio broadcast stations: AM 14, FM 777, shortwave 1 (1998). Radios: 20.2 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 179 (plus 256 repeaters) (Sept. 1995). Televisions: 13.05 million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 19 (2000). Internet users: 6.4 million (2001).

Transportation: Railways: total: 23,420 km (2002). Highways: total: 364,656 km; paved: 249,060 km (including 358 km of expressways); unpaved: 115,596 km (2000). Waterways: 3,812 km navigable rivers and canals (1996). Ports and harbors: Gdansk, Gdynia, Gliwice, Kolobrzeg, Szczecin, Swinoujscie, Ustka, Warsaw, Wroclaw. Airports: 150 (2002).
International disputes: small boundary changes made with Slovakia in 2003.

Geography

Poland, a country the size of New Mexico, is in north-central Europe. Most of the country is a plain with no natural boundaries except the Carpathian Mountains in the south and the Oder and Neisse rivers in the west. Other major rivers, which are important to commerce, are the Vistula, Warta, and Bug.

Government

Democratic republic.

History

Great (north) Poland was founded in 966 by Mieszko I, who belonged to the Piast dynasty. The tribes of southern Poland then formed Little Poland. In 1047, both Great Poland and Little Poland united under the rule of Casimir I the Restorer. Poland merged with Lithuania by royal marriage in 1386. The Polish-Lithuanian state reached the peak of its power between the 14th and 16th century, scoring military successes against the (Germanic) Knights of the Teutonic Order, the Russians, and the Ottoman Turks.

Lack of a strong monarchy enabled Russia, Prussia, and Austria to carry out a first partition of the country in 1772, a second in 1792, and a third in 1795. For more than a century thereafter, there was no Polish state, just Austrian, Prussian, and Russian sectors, but the Poles never ceased their efforts to regain their independence. The Polish people revolted against foreign dominance throughout the 19th century. Poland was formally reconstituted in Nov. 1918, with Marshal Josef Pilsudski as chief of state. In 1919, Ignace Paderewski, the famous pianist and patriot, became the first prime minister. In 1926, Pilsudski seized complete power in a coup and ruled dictatorially until his death on May 12, 1935.

Despite a ten-year nonaggression pact signed in 1934, Hitler attacked Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. Soviet troops invaded from the east on Sept. 17, and on Sept. 28, a German-Soviet agreement divided Poland between the USSR and Germany. Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz formed a government-in-exile in France, which moved to London after France's defeat in 1940. All of Poland was occupied by Germany after the Nazi attack on the USSR in June 1941. Nazi Germany's occupation policy in Poland was designed to eradicate Polish culture through mass executions and to exterminate the country's large Jewish minority.

The Polish government-in-exile was replaced with the Communist-dominated Polish Committee of National Liberation by the Soviet Union in 1944. Moving to Lublin after that city's liberation, it proclaimed itself the Provisional Government of Poland. Some former members of the Polish government in London joined with the Lublin government to form the Polish Government of National Unity, which Britain and the U.S. recognized. On Aug. 2, 1945, in Berlin, President Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin, and Prime Minister Clement Attlee of Britain established a new de facto western frontier for Poland along the Oder and Neisse rivers. « mai multe referate din Engleza