The Russian Empire crumbled in 1917. A loss to the Germans in WWI destabilized the state. The subsequent Communist Revolution overthrew the czars. One year later, Germany and Austro-Hungary lost WWI to the Allied Powers. As a consequence of the turmoil experienced by these partitioning powers, Poland regained its independence. After the failed revolutions of the 19th century, Druga Rzeczpospolita (the Second Polish Republic) was officially created in November 1918. The Polish National Independence Day falls on November 11th, or Armistice Day, which is celebrated globally as a commemoration of the end of World War I.
Even after the Treaty of Versailles was signed in late June of 1919, however, the ultimate shape of the new nation remained in question. The borders of the Second Republic would not be settled until 1921, after a series of uprisings and wars, including a conflict with Soviet Russia, finally legally defined the Polish map. After years of partition and (often forced) migration in what was already a multiethnic state on the eve of its 18th century division, the newly demarcated lands of the Second Republic were hotly contested. 19th century nationalist movements in Eastern Europe had stoked desires for the establishment of multiple independent states in the eastern reaches of the new nation. German resentment at having to cede territory fueled uncertainty over Poland’s Western and Northern borders. Eventually, the Second Republic gained a narrow sliver of territory known as korytarz Polski (the Polish Corridor) that guaranteed access to the Baltic Sea, a crucial condition for the new nation’s economic development. The corridor separated East Germany from the rest of the German state. It was a later used by Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945) as one argument to invade Poland in 1939.
The Motława River in Gdańsk (Danzig), a port on the Baltic that was a “Free City” in the Polish Corridor in the interwar period. It was independent of Germany and Poland. Photo sourced from the Polish National Digital Archives (3/1/0/17/6163).
Almost immediately after the new nation was created, it became embroiled in a war (1919 – 1920) with the newly formed USSR over its eastern borders, thus facing a major challenge to its independence. The Polish leadership believed that the stability of the new country depended on control over the country’s pre-partition eastern boundary. On the other hand, Vladimir Lenin’s (1870 – 1924) ambition to spread the Soviet revolution westward, joining up with Western European communist counterparts, hinged on easy access to the West. Both sides then, had significant stakes in the conflict. The resulting war ended with a Soviet defeat in 1920. Poland’s new constitution was ratified in Warsaw a day before the peace treaty that decided the final shape of the Second Republic was decided. The politically complex and culturally vibrant interwar period, roughly the two decades between WWI and II, had fully begun.
Map of midcentury Poland included in Tymowski et al. The solid black line demarcates Poland’s 1939 boundaries. The other boundaries mark Soviet and German divisions during the initial phase of WWII.
Independent Poland’s head of state was Józef Piłsudzki (1867 – 1935), a political and military leader who was an early member and eventual leader of the Polska Partia Socialistyczna (Polish Socialist Party). Maneuvering between Russian and German powers in WWI, Piłsudzki was able to emerge as a de facto leader of the new nation, assuming power as the commander in chief in 1918. Piłsudzki’s political vision initially favored a multiethnic and multinational federalized entity modeled on the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, though he is remembered as a leader invested in Polish nationhood. Despite Piłsudzki’s grand intent, the war with the Soviets curtailed this plan. Poland emerged as a nation-state, albeit one with a complex and volatile multiethnic population.
Throughout the interwar period, the Polish state was not only politically, but also economically unstable due to runaway inflation in the new nation’s initial years. Ostensibly concerned at the succession of short-lived elected governments, Piłsudzki staged a successful coup in 1926. Piłsudzki’s strongman turn was coupled with a new ideology, sanacja (sanation), a movement aimed at “healing” (per the term’s Latin root of sanatio) the Polish nation of corruption and economic woes. Sanacja was not aligned with any single party’s politics and its most powerful figures were at best suspicious of parliamentary democracy; the movement elevated the interest of the nation above democratic norms. Despite the authoritarian potential of the coup, the sanacja regime was less culturally restrictive, allowing for relative freedom of speech and press (though political opponents were at times imprisoned). Economic development picked up in the 1930s, but domestic unrest (among various groups, but especially workers) characterized this tumultuous decade. Meanwhile, external forces, Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia, emerged as serious threats to a Polish nation. As is evident in the Pathé documentary footage linked below, Poland was aware of the threat.
WWII erupted in Europe on September 1st, 1939, when German forces began their invasion of Poland. Soviet forces invaded a mere 16 days later, on September 17th, in line with their Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. The act was signed weeks before in late August of that year, dividing the nations between the USSR and German (sometimes called a “fourth” partition of Poland). Despite French and English guarantees of assistance in case of German attack, after the September offensive in Poland, WWII in Europe settled into an eight-month period of “Phoney War” during which both countries declared war on Germany but did not engage in a meaningful offensive. Since assistance never materialized, after a month of fighting the country fell to Germany. Despite this ostensibly quick defeat and heavy losses, the Polish army visited significant losses on the Germans and resisted invasion longer than their much stronger French counterparts who faced German invasion in 1940. Aware of the futility of war on two fronts, resistance on the east was limited. The Soviets immediately started planning their takeover of eastern Poland, focusing on eliminating elites. On Joseph Stalin’s (1878 – 1953) orders, around 20,000 officers and professionals who had been arrested were murdered by the Soviet secret police, among other locations, in Katyń forest in 1940. When the Germans attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, the mass graves were unearthed. Upon their discovery, which was publicized by the Germans, the Polish government in exile demanded an inquiry. In response, the USSR denied responsibility and severed ties with the London-based government in exile, establishing a pro-communist camp instead. It only admitted culpability for the murders in the early 1990s during the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
World War II was devastating in terms of loss of life and damage to cities and infrastructure. Poland, home to over three million Jews before WWII (just under 10 % of the total population), was used by the Germans as the major staging ground of the Holocaust. The US State Department reports that between 5.5 and 6 million Polish citizens, of them, three million Jews, were killed in WW2, a staggering 16-17% of the prewar population of Poland. Both German and Soviet forces also carried out massacres and executions of soldiers and civilians alike. In addition to the killings, millions of Poles were forced to work in German factories. Since Nazi racial policies held that Eastern Europeans (Slavic people) were an inferior race, Poles worked in horrific conditions and were treated more cruelly than forced laborers from Western European countries.
A unit of the Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising. Women and children were active participants. Photo sourced from Polish National Digital Archives (3/21/0/-/222).
Before the Allied European victory in May of 1945, Warsaw saw two major uprisings against the German occupation. The monthlong Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 was the most significant Jewish act of defiance against Nazi violence during the war; it ended in defeat and the destruction of the ghetto. The Warsaw Uprising of 1944, part of an organized resistance throughout Poland, once again embroiled the capital city in deadly fighting. This resistance movement was carried out by the non-communists under the leadership of the government-in exile, Armia Krajowa (AK; Home Army). It lasted for two months before its leaders surrendered. The Soviets, correctly gauging that the uprising intended to assert independent Polish control over Warsaw, and by extension, over post-war Poland, withheld assistance to AK during the uprising. Throughout the war, the USSR supported the ideologically aligned Armia Ludowa (People’s Army) in their resistance efforts. After the uprising, AK forces were lethally persecuted by Germans, who went on to systematically raze the city. Those who fled to Soviet-controlled areas were required to pledge fealty to the USSR or suffer deportation to labor camps. These wartime politics would prove tragically significant in the postwar period.
Poland’s territorial changes from the 10th to the 20th century. The current shape of the country is marked with dashes. Map included in Tymowski et al.
Having settled its new boundaries only 24 years previously, Poland emerged after WWII in a new guise. Negotiations between the Allies, represented by the heads of state Joseph Stalin (1878 – 1953), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945), and Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) shifted Poland’s position on the European map. The country’s eastern regions, about 1/3 of Polish territory, were ceded to the Soviet Union, while formerly German lands were added to the country’s west. Redrawing the map caused significant upheaval as millions of former inhabitants were forced to abandon their homes and relocate to their newly defined nations (with movements both to and from the new Poland). Postwar displacements and the Holocaust significantly diminished Poland’s multiethnic diversity and gave rise to the notion that Poland was historically always an ethnically homogenous state.
After the war, Poland became a Soviet satellite state. Many Polish intellectuals and professionals had been killed in the war, and since resistance organizations like the AK and conservative political groups were persecuted by the communists, the resulting political system was the single-party rule of Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (the Polish United Workers Party). The organization was loyal to the Soviet Union. After a provisional period, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (Polish People’s Republic, abbreviated in Polish as PRL) was formally formed in 1952 and a new constitution was ratified.
The late 1940s and 1950s were a period of rebuilding following the horrible destruction of WW2. Initially, the communist government introduced collectivized farming reforms. The policy was not popular or economically successful. By the mid 50s, private farming was admitted as part of the Polish socialist model, rather unique for socialist bloc countries. Warsaw, burned to the ground after the uprising, was rebuilt remarkably quickly through the collective efforts of the whole nation. While much of the city was aesthetically redesigned to emulate Stalinist urban aesthetics, the old town was rebuilt as an almost exact replica of the original historic district. Today, visitors to the city are surprised that the Medieval and Renaissance structures of the district date to the 1950s. Despite visible successes like the rebuilding of Warsaw, however, Poland in the 1950s remained a poor and politically stifled country in which ordinary people increasingly bristled at the power of the communist elites and the excesses of their secret police enforcers.
“Warsaw – the day after liberation. Varsovians returning to the ruined capital on every road. Top: return of Warsaw residents. Bottom: Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and Gen. Marian Spychalski tour the ruins of the Old Town. Photo sourced from the Polish National Digital Archive (56/877/0/-/2082).
Warsaw’s Old Town as it appears today. The Royal Castle is on the right. Photo by Alicia Baca.
Following Stalin’s death in 1953, the countries of the Soviet Bloc experienced a political “thaw.” Nikita Khruschev’s (1894 – 1971) famous 1956 denunciation of Stalinist crimes reverberated across the socialist world. Poland’s old guard communist leader Bolesław Bierut (1892 – 1956) died short thereafter. As a result of the political debates sweeping the Bloc, Poland was rocked by a series of worker’s strikes protesting the government’s labor practices in the western city of Poznań. The strikes were violently suppressed by state forces, but in their wake, the relatively more moderate Władysław Gomułka (1905 – 1982) assumed leadership of the party and nation during what is known as Polski październik (Polish October). The Soviets were wary of liberalization, but Gomułka was able to negotiate concessions that lessened explicit Soviet control in Poland. In the video below, he is seen returning from negotiations in Moscow.
The quality of life improved in Gomułka’s 1960s, a decade characterized both by a turn towards global trends and the development of iconic Polish material culture. The blok and blokowisko (apartment building & apartment building complex) reached its modernist apogee after the decline of Stalinist aesthetics. Inspired by the functional simplicity of architects like Le Corbusier, Polish builders and architects in the postwar period created thousands of blok-style apartment complexes to alleviate housing shortages caused by wartime destruction. In the 1960s, apartments in newly built bloks, often prefab concrete structures, were desirable commodities. Today, the exciting modernity of the blok is overshadowed by the reality of buildings that turned out not to be nearly as durable or comfortable as promised. By the late 70s, they became symbols of communist grayness and stagnation. Many people, however, bought up their apartments from the state when the transformations of the 1990s allowed them to do so (in the socialist period, they were technically renting from the state). Today, 12 million Poles continue to live in bloks (Cymer). After extensive interior and exterior renovation (new kitchens and windows inside, attractive paneling, murals, and landscaping outside) the blok may still be a reminder of socialist housing, but it is no longer necessarily a depressing one.
Bloks going up in Warsaw in the 1960s. Photo sourced from the Polish National Digital Archive (3/53/0/8/497/2).
The famous “Manhattan” bloki of Łódź. Construction began in 1969. Today, the north facade of one building is covered in a mural depicting the Witcher, the hero of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy series. A billboard in the foreground advertises a new apartment complex that will be built in the vacant lot.
Fashion and industrial design also flourished in the 1960s—ceramics from this period, for example, are now pricey collectors’ items and museum pieces. Under a license agreement with the Italian car maker Fiat, the Polish company Fabryka Samochodów Małolitrażowych (Small Car Factory) began producing the Polish Fiat 125p. This model was followed in 1973 by the most iconic Polish car, the Fiat 126p, affectionately, and a touch derisively, known as the maluch (litte one). Although the maluch was prone to breakdowns, it was a popular car that lingered on Polish streets into the 1990s. Today, it’s a rare to see the maluch “in the wild,” but tourist companies that cater to nostalgia use this car and other communist wheels to transport travelers on tours designed around Poland’s socialist history.
The maluch on display in front of the Palace of Culture and Science in the capital of Poland. Photo by PhotoRK (Adobe Stock #409481490).
The economic promise of the early 1960 began to fade in the later years of the decade. Rises in food prices and economic stagnation led to social unrest. Within the party, the anti-Israeli Soviet reaction to the Six-Day War, a 1967 conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, allowed Gomułka to use accusations of Jewish imperialism and Zionism as political tools to solidify his control over a fractious party. The government produced antisemitic propaganda and demoted many influential Jews from leadership positions. Concurrently, the global culture of student protest blossomed in Poland. When authorities shut down a new staging of Adam Mickiewicz’s (1798 – 1855) play Dziady in Warsaw’s National Theater in 1968 after the audience cheered sections of the play directed against Russian oppression of Poles, students began protesting. Often committed to socialist ideals themselves, the students were shocked by the censorship of a national epic. Protests soon spread beyond Warsaw and beyond student groups. The government, in turn, used the Zionist conspiracy pretext and blamed Zionists for the student protests. By the time the protests were quashed, and the antisemitic political purges ended, around 20,000 Jews had left Poland.
A screenshot from the trailer of the film Gierek (dir. Michał Węgrzyn; 2022). Gierek (right) looks onto a map of investments planned in Poland.
Gomułka’s political ploy in 1968 did not significantly strengthen his position as party leader. The economy continued to falter, and a new round of protests erupted in 1970 when commodity and food prices were suddenly raised by the state. Dockworkers in Gdańsk were brutally suppressed with tens killed and thousands injured and arrested. As with the 1956 protests, Polish labor confronted the communist state and forced the government to respond to their grievances. With the consent of Moscow, Gomułka was out and a new leader, Edward Gierek (1913 – 2001), took over as the head of state. Gierek (the subject of a 2022 biopic available to stream on Amazon) was a controversial figure. He was known as a second reformer after Gomułka’s turn away from Stalinism. Gierek’s initial years looked promising because the new leader aggressively pursued deals with and loans from foreign sources, hoping to build a Polish economy that grew thanks to exports of world class industrial goods. Wages rose and the nation optimistically embraced the “economic miracle.” “Building a second Poland,” as Gierek called it, however, was not without its faults. By the middle of the 70s, the global oil crisis had impacted energy prices, making export less profitable. Inflation was high, as was the foreign loan burden, and in response, the state moved to raise prices again in 1976. Protests followed. Gierek’s mandate had started to wear off. Meanwhile, Karol Wojtyła (1920 – 2005) was elected pope John Paul II in 1978. With one of their own in a position of global leadership, Polish society, long fed up with broken promises of prosperity and variously repressive political regimes, gained a newfound confidence in challenging the state. The video below shows massive street demonstrations demanding food that took place in 1981.
Poland began the 1980s in turmoil. Strikes in the famous Gdańsk stockyards had resulted in the formation of the first labor union independent from the state, Solidarność (Solidarity). Solidarity was a popular movement that challenged a communist state by bringing attention to the sorry plight of workers in a nation purportedly designed to benefit them. Membership in the union grew rapidly; in 1981, there were 10,000,000 members. The union spanned various political positions but was importantly anti-Soviet (though not necessarily antithetical to a socialist political program). Alarmed by Solidarity’s popularity, the government’s new leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923 – 2014) declared a state of emergency and martial law in 1981 to quell resistance. Stan wojenny (literally “state of war,” but translated as “martial law”) lasted through the summer of 1983. Solidarity was outlawed in 1981 and remained illegal until 1989. Oppositional groups were persecuted. Underground publishing, known in Poland as drugi obieg wydawniczy (second run publishing), had become especially active, and especially dangerous, during the unrest of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Even forbidden “second run” films circulated on newly available VHS tapes. Tadeusz Konwicki’s (1926 – 2015) absurdist political parody, Mała apokalipsa (Little Apocalypse; 1979), was an unofficial hit that illustrated the nation’s disillusion with communism. And yet, for the rest of the decade, the state hobbled on. The economic situation was dismal. By 1988 and 1989, new strikes and protests had broken out and the communist leadership was aware that Soviet system was collapsing. The anxious government sat down with opposition leaders (including Solidarity) at the Okrągly stól (Round Table Agreements) in the early spring of 1989. Among other reforms, the Round Table allowed for partially free parliamentary elections to be held on June 4th, 1989. Solidarity won an astounding high share of the freely contested votes and ushered in a new non-communist government. The era of transformation had begun.
The 10th 1979 issue of the second run journal Zapis, featuring Konwicki’s Little Apocalypse.
The name of the Polish People’s Republic was replaced by the III Rzeczpospolita (Third Republic) at the end of 1989. Jaruzelski resigned, and the Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa (1943 – ) succeeded him as the freely elected president following the 1990 electoral contest. A new constitution was signed in 1997. The political and economic transformations may have initially appeared euphoric, but the collapse of state-run industries resulted in high unemployment and country plunged into speculative economic chaos. Naomi Klein’s influential critique of capitalist development, Shock Doctrine, devotes a chapter to the Polish situation, noting that Solidarity quickly splintered into rival factions and that its (formerly socialist) leaders acquiesced to rapacious capitalist reform. The 1990s were thus a difficult period for most Poles. Despite initial disruption, however, the Polish economy grew and eventually outpaced the postsocialist economic development its Eastern neighbors. The country joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1999 and acceded to the European Union in 2004. It is now the 6th largest economy in the EU.
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