I. Introduction
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland (Polish Rzeczpospolita Polska), country in Central Europe. Communists ruled Poland from 1945 until 1989, when political and economic unrest among Poles resulted in the collapse of the regime and its replacement by a non-Communist coalition. Poland's capital and largest city is Warsaw.

The name Polska (Poland), applied in the early 11th century, comes from an ancient Slavic tribe known as the Polanie (field or plains dwellers), who settled in the lowlands between the Odra (Oder) and Wisla (Vistula) rivers sometime after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Poland, then united with Lithuania, was one of the major European powers under the Jagiellonian dynasty. When the dynasty came to an end in 1572, Poland entered a long period of decline, culminating in the partition of the country between Russia, Austria, and Prussia in 1772, 1793, and 1795.

Poland was again established as a sovereign state after World War I (1914-1918). It was partitioned a fourth time in 1939 by Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). After World War II (1939-1945), Polish territory suffered a substantial net loss, as the land ceded to the USSR in the east was nearly double that acquired from Germany in the west.
were forced to resign amid campaign finance scandals. An interim government headed by Prime Minister Josef Tosovskż ran the country from January 1998 until after parliamentary elections in June. President Havel was reelected in January 1998 to a second five-year term. Havel, who had earned enemies with his public criticism of Klaus, won by a narrow margin in parliament. The Social Democrats won the most votes in parliamentary elections in June 1998, but took only 32 percent of the seats. Milos Zeman, chairman of the Social Democrats, was appointed prime minister in July and formed a minority government after promising key parliamentary posts to Klaus's Civic Democrats, who had won 28 percent of the vote.


II. Land and Resources
Poland has a total land area of 312,684 sq km (120,728 sq mi). It is bordered on the north by the Baltic Sea and Russia; on the east by Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine; on the south by the Czech Republic and Slovakia; and on the west by Germany. The maximum distance from east to west is about 680 km (about 420 mi) and the maximum distance from north to south is about 790 km (about 490 mi). Poland's borders are marked by the Sudety mountains (Sudetes) in the southwest, the Carpathian Mountains (Karpaty) in the southeast, and Odra and Neisse (Nysa) rivers in the west, and the Bug River in the east. On the northeast, the country is bounded by a section of the Baltic Sea.


III. Population
At the time of the 1988 census Poland had a population of 37,878,641. The 2000 estimate was 38,644,184, yielding an average population density of 124 persons per sq km (320 per sq mi). Poland's highest population densities are in the southern upland areas; the lowest densities are in the northwest and northeast. The average annual rate of population growth was very high in the period following World War II, but after the 1960s it declined to less than 1 percent, and in 1997 the population was estimated to be decreasing. Reasons for the decline include high unemployment and increases in the cost of child rearing. The rate of urbanization in Poland has accelerated since the end of World War II. In 1998, 65 percent of the population lived in urban areas.


IV. Economy
Before World War II, Poland's economy depended largely on agriculture. However, the Communists, who had achieved a monopoly on power by 1947, adopted a Soviet-style planned economy in which heavy industry and engineering were emphasized. Nearly all branches of large industry, trade, transportation, and finance came under the control of the Communist government. Private ownership was limited to agriculture, handicrafts, and certain services. During the first several decades of the Communist period, Poland's economy grew. However, in the late 1970s the country began to experience severe economic difficulties, caused by a series of poor harvests, unrest among industrial workers, shortages of consumer goods, lagging technology, rising inflation, and a massive foreign debt. These economic problems, which worsened during the 1980s, were responsible in large part for the collapse of the Communist regime and its replacement by a non-Communist coalition in 1989.

In December 1989 the new government, led by members of the labor union Solidarity (Solidarnosc), launched a reform program designed to transform Poland's economy into one based on a free-market system. Price controls were lifted, while wage controls were imposed. State enterprises were transformed into joint-stock companies, and many were scheduled for eventual privatization or purchased by foreign investors. The restructuring of the Polish economy led to massive layoffs of workers and a rapid rise in unemployment. Poland's gross domestic product (GDP) declined sharply in 1990 and 1991.

After its initial decline, Poland's economy began to improve. Annual GDP increased between 1992 and 1998, when it reached $158.6 billion. Industrial production increased by about 12 percent in 1994, which, accompanied by a 2 percent drop in unemployment, represented a major increase in labor productivity. Inflation remained above government goals but steadily declined, with an annual rate of 30 percent in 1994 dropping to 18.5 percent in 1996. Although hundreds of enterprises were transferred to private ownership during 1994 and 1995, the pace of privatization was generally slow; the private sector's share of GDP remained at about 60 percent in 1995 and 1996. However, a new constitution adopted in May 1997 committed the country to pursuing a market economy and further privatization. In the early and mid-1990s Poland's foreign debt was significantly alleviated by concessions from creditors, which helped to attract increasing levels of foreign investment.

Poland is a member of a number of international economic organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The country also belongs to the Central European Initiative, a group promoting regional economic and political cooperation. Poland became an associate member of the European Union (EU) in 1994, and in December 1997 it was invited to become a full member. One of six nations picked for the EU's first round of expansion, Poland is expected to join the organization within five to ten years.


V. Government
Communist Poland was governed under a constitution adopted in 1952 and subsequently amended. In December 1989 major constitutional revisions ended the monopoly of the Communist Party, established an upper chamber in the legislature, and reintroduced democratic rules and principles in Poland. In 1992 a transitional constitution known as the “Little Constitution” was adopted. However, this constitution established imprecise limits on the power of Poland's president, prime minister, and legislature, which led to some confrontation between those officeholders, particularly regarding foreign policy and defense. A full revision of the constitution was initiated in November 1992. The final draft was completed in April 1997 and approved by voters in a nationwide referendum the following month. Among its numerous provisions, the new constitution clarifies the division of powers within the branches of government, while shifting some power away from the president. The president's veto, for example, may be overridden by a three-fifths majority in the legislature, rather than the two-thirds previously required.

 

Krakow

Tatry Mountains

Warshaw

Auschwitz