Exploring Poland and Your Polish Heritage

The central European nation of Poland has a long and proud history dating back hundreds of years, marked by repeated struggles to regain control of its territory and assert its independence. It first emerged as a kingdom in the 10th century, led by Mieszko I, who adopted Christianity in order to prevent being invaded and forced to convert by what would become the Holy Roman Empire. In the coming centuries, the nation’s leadership would pass through the hands of a series of dukes, many of these transitions marked by conflict and upheaval. Things stabilized in the late 14th century, however, when Queen Jadwiga of Poland married Wladyslaw II Jagiello, grand duke of Lithuania, then a major power in eastern Europe. The two nations would unite in 1569, becoming the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest European states and a political and military powerhouse.

However, by the 17th century, the Commonwealth faced numerous challenges, including invasions from Sweden, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire, as well as internal political strife. Weakening over time, Poland began to lose its territory in 1772, when neighboring Russia, Austria, and Prussia annexed parts of the country in the First Partition of Poland. In 1793, after an invasion by and war with Russia, the Second Partition of Poland gave more Polish territory to Russia and Prussia. The Polish people, inspired by the American Revolution just a few years before and the French Revolution that was in progress, revolted against the Russians and Prussians in 1794, with Tadeusz Kosciuszko taking command of the Poles and leading what would become known as the Kosciuszko Uprising. However, Russia and Prussia (later Germany) took quick action to crush the rebellion, and the result was the 1795 Third Partition of Poland, after which the country ceased to exist.

But while Poland was erased from the map, its culture and heritage remained. Throughout the 19th century, Polish patriots continued to fight for independence through uprisings while working to preserve their culture. Polish artists, including composer Frédéric Chopin and poet Adam Mickiewicz, became famous across Europe. And many Poles found a new home in communities abroad, including in the Midwestern United States.

After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles gave Poles their country back. For 20 years, Poland was an independent republic, and by 1938, it had become one of the largest countries in Europe, home to around 35 million people. It was also a diverse country, home to millions of Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Jewish people; in fact, Poland was home to more than 3 million Jewish people, the second-largest population in the world. But in 1939, Poland would fall again, invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland was divided between the two nations during World War II. The Soviets executed and deported many thousands of Poles, while the Germans worked toward a total destruction of the Polish people, carrying out deportations and killings while closing schools and destroying libraries and museums in an effort to stamp out Polish culture. The Germans also built concentration camps in Poland, where they murdered 3 million Polish Jews and more than a million non-Jewish Poles. By the end of the war, around 6 million Poles had been killed.

Still, the Polish people would endure. Polish troops fought valiantly for the Allies, serving under the Soviets and under their own government in exile, which also directed resistance efforts in occupied Poland. The work of Polish cryptologists helped to break the Enigma code. And Polish scientists who fled to America contributed to creating the atomic bomb.

At the war’s end, Poland would once again be an independent nation. But the Soviet Union quickly moved to bring Poland under its sphere of influence, turning Poland into a communist state, with limited sovereignty and an economy controlled by Moscow. For nearly half a century, Polish citizens endured economic hardship and political repression.

But in the 1980s, the Solidarity movement, led by labor leader Lech Walesa and supported by the Catholic Church, became a powerful force against the communist regime. Following a wave of protests, Poland held its first partially free elections in 1989, marking the beginning of the end for communism in Eastern Europe. Since then, Poland has transformed into a modern, democratic state, joining NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. Today, it stands as a vibrant European nation with a rich cultural heritage, having preserved its identity despite centuries of foreign domination and conflict.

• A Brief Timeline of Modern Polish History

• The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

• The Partitions of Poland

• Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Kosciuszko

• The Nazi Invasion of Poland

• The Phenomenon of the Polish Underground State

• How Auschwitz Became the Center of the Holocaust

• Maria Sklodowska-Curie

• Stalin’s Conquest of Poland

• Lech Walesa

• The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe