Poland

Poland has a long and interesting cultural history. It is located in central Europe and shares many similar cultutral aspects as most modern European countries. What makes Poland unique?
Its culture, its food, its contributing artists, scientists, and writers.
Did you know that the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was Polish?

Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Later dynasties include the Jagiellon Dynasty which later led to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569-1795.

The Polish people rebelled several times for independence near the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. One of the most famous and successful attempts at securing renewed Polish independence took place in 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising. In 1807, Napoleon conquered and recreated the Duchy of Warsaw. Russia, Prussia, and Austria vied for control of Poland through the 19th century--and these cultures intermix.

During World War I, the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic. It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have ultimately halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. Poland blossomed after this, until it was crushed by German forces under Hitler. More information about Poland after World War II can be found here.

Today Poland's high-income economy is considered to be one of the healthiest of the post-Communist countries and is one of the fastest growing within the EU. Since the fall of the communist government, Poland has become a successful market-based economy. On April 10, 2010, Lech Kaczyński, the President of the Republic of Poland died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. Currently Bronisław Maria Komorowski is President.

Czeslaw Milosz is one of Poland's best loved poets. His poems can be found here.

Forget by Czeslaw Milosz

Forget the suffering
You caused others.
Forget the suffering
Others caused you.
The waters run and run,
Springs sparkle and are done,
You walk the earth you are forgetting.

Sometimes you hear a distant refrain.
What does it mean, you ask, who is singing?
A childlike sun grows warm.
A grandson and a great-grandson are born.
You are led by the hand once again.

The names of the rivers remain with you.
How endless those rivers seem!
Your fields lie fallow,
The city towers are not as they were.
You stand at the threshold mute.
Other authors can be found here.

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