 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.
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