Overview
Poland, a country located on the plains of Eastern Europe, is also a West Slavic country. Her history is an epic history, including countless glory, pride and Blood and tears.
As early as the 6th century to the mid-10th century, West Slavic primitive communes began to gradually disintegrate, and feudal land ownership emerged. In the mid-10th century, the Polish tribes centered on Gniezno gradually unified other tribes. Grand Duke Mieszko I (reigned from about 960 to 992) of the Piastów dynasty established an early feudal state. In 996 AD, Poland accepted Christianity. In 1025, Boleslaw I Chrobry (the Brave) (reigned 992-1025) was crowned king of Poland, and Poland became a strong and unified country.
Historical Period
The establishment and unification period of the feudal country (10th to mid-15th century)
In the mid-12th century, Boleslaus III (Boleslaus I) , reigned 1102-1138) after his death, due to the development of feudal land ownership by princes, nobles and churches and the rise of cities, the country was divided into several principalities, and Poland entered a period of feudal separatism, which lasted for 200 years. Wladyslaw I (Ladislaus I, reigned 1314-1333) unified Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, and Kujawi, and was crowned King of Poland in Krakow in 1320. Emperor Casimir III (Kazimierz III Wielki, reigned 1333-1370) unified Mazovia again. However, Western Pomerania and Eastern Pomerania were also occupied by the Brandenburg and Teutonic Knights respectively. Silesia was occupied by the Bohemian royal family. In order to resist the invasion of the Teutonic Knights, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania implemented a dynastic union (1385), and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Wladyslaw II Jagiellon (Jagiellon), was the king of Poland. In 1410, the Polish-Lithuanian coalition delivered a devastating blow to the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald. In 1466, Tongpo Mori was recovered.
The First European War Period (mid-15th century - 1795)
The recovery of Eastern Pomerania, centered on Gdansk, stimulated the export of Polish grain. Noble manors established labor manors one after another to engage in the production of commercial grain. Handicraft workshops appeared in towns. In 1505, Parliament passed a constitution that stipulated that the king had no power to promulgate laws without the consent of Parliament. This weakened the royal power and attracted the intervention of external forces. Faced with Moscow's aggressive expansion momentum, the parliaments of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania passed a resolution in Lublin to establish a unified Polish Republic, and the capital was moved from Krakow to Warsaw. The Polish Republic became a multi-ethnic serfdom country with an area of ??310,000 square kilometers. In the second half of the 17th century, Poland's serfdom entered a crisis stage. In 1648, Khmelnytsky (Богдан Михайлович Хмельницкий), The Cossacks led a national uprising in Ukraine. The ruling class also fell apart. In 1652, the great nobles forced Parliament to pass a free veto. In 1654, Tsarist Russia declared war on Poland and annexed Ukraine east of the Dnieper River. In the early days of the Northern War, Poland was forced to follow Russia into the war. The Polish-Swedish War broke out in 1655, and Poland lost part of its territory. From 1733 to 1735, Russia, Austria, France, Spain, and Sardinia fought for Poland, seriously damaging Poland's sovereignty and national economy.
The political system of the First Polish Republic was very special and quite advanced at the time. It was called "aristocratic democracy". This system has two pillars. One is called the free election system. The king is elected by the nobles. Anyone who is not a noble has no democratic power; the other is called the free veto. As long as one member of the parliament objects, the bill cannot be passed. The true democracy is based on the minority obeying the majority, so this kind of aristocratic democracy has caused extreme democracy and anarchy in Poland. This also led to the fact that controversial issues were often discussed but not decided, resulting in the country's will not being reflected. This was also an important factor in Poland's final decline.
In the second half of the 18th century, the sprouts of capitalism appeared in Poland’s production relations. Under the influence of the Western European Enlightenment, the small and medium-sized nobles and the emerging bourgeoisie launched a patriotic reform movement. However, they were influenced by the Russian Empress Catherine II. World (Екатерина II Алексеевна) armed intervention. In 1772, Russia, Prussia and Austria carried out the first partition of Poland. Under the influence of the French Revolution, the Polish people pushed the reform movement to a climax. On May 3, 1791, the Polish Four-Year-Old Parliament passed the May 3rd Constitution (Konstytucja 3 Maja), which abolished the free veto power. This was also the earliest constitution in Europe. Catherine II once again launched armed intervention in Poland. In 1793, Russia and Prussia carried out the second partition of Poland. In 1794, the Polish people held an uprising under the leadership of the national hero Kosciuszko, which was later suppressed by Russia. In 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria carried out the third partition of Poland.
Poland was partitioned three times
A diagram of the Polish territory that was partitioned in the 19th century. In May 1772, Czarist Russia, Prussia, and Austria held talks in Petersburg and signed on August 5 Treaty of the First Partition of Poland. Accordingly, Poland lost about 35% of its territory and 33% of its population, and Poland became a protectorate of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. On January 23, 1793, Russia and Prussia signed an agreement for the second partition of Poland in Petersburg. After the second partition, Poland became a small country with only 200,000 square kilometers of territory and a population of 4 million, becoming a puppet state of Tsarist Russia. The King of Poland could not declare war or make peace with foreign countries without the permission of the Tsar. On January 3, 1795, Russia and Austria signed an agreement for the third partition of Poland. On October 24, Prussia also signed the agreement. According to the agreement, all Polish territory was divided. "Russia annexed Lithuania, Courland, western Belarus and western Volyn, and pushed the border to the Neman-Bug River line, covering an area of ??120,000 square kilometers and a population of 1.2 million; Austria occupied Krakow, All of Lesser Poland including Lublin and part of the Mazowieckia region, ***47,500 square kilometers, with a population of 1.5 million; Prussia captured the rest of the western region, Warsaw, and the rest of the Mazowieckia region, *** 55,000 square kilometers and a population of 1 million.” At this point, the Polish state, which had existed for more than 800 years, was destroyed. In summary, during the three partitions of Poland, Tsarist Russia occupied approximately 62% of the original Polish territory, approximately 460,000 square kilometers; Prussia occupied approximately 20%, approximately 141,100 square kilometers; Austria It occupies about 18%, covering about 121,800 square kilometers. After these three partitions, Poland was subjugated, and Poland disappeared from the map of Europe for more than 123 years.
Period of foreign rule (1795-1918)
In 1809, Napoléon Bonaparte established the Principality of Warsaw (Ksi?stwo Warszawskie) in central Poland. After Napoleon's defeat, the Principality of Warsaw was Dismembered, its western lands became the Principality of Poznań (Wielkie Ksi?stwo Poznańskie), under the jurisdiction of Prussia; the neutral Krakow *** and Republic (also called the Free City of Krakow, Rzeczpospolita Krakowska, was established in Krakow, Or Wolne Miasto Kraków); the Kingdom of Poland (Królestwo Kongresowe) was established in its main area, with the Russian Tsar as king. On November 29, 1830, a group of aristocratic youths staged an uprising in Warsaw, but failed. The Krakow Uprising also failed in 1846, and Krakow was annexed to Austria. In 1848, the Polish people launched another revolution, forcing the Prussian-Austrian authorities to abolish serfdom. The January 1863 uprising spread throughout the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuania and western Belarus. On March 2, 1864, the tsarist government had to issue a decree to emancipate the serfs. After 1864, capitalism in the Kingdom of Poland developed greatly, and in the 1870s and 1880s, the industrial revolution was completed. Since the 1980s, the Polish National Democratic Party, the Polish Proletarian Party, the Polish Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland (later renamed the Kingdom of Poland and the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania) have been established.
During World War I, the National Democratic Party defected to Russia, and the right wing of the Socialist Party defected to Austria and Germany. Only the Social Democratic Party and the left wing of the Socialist Party firmly opposed the war.
The Second World War (1918-1939)
The First World War continued in 1917, and the October Revolution broke out in Russia on August 29, 1918. , the Soviet Russian government issued a decree declaring the abolition of all treaties on the partition of Poland signed between Tsarist Russia and Prussia and Austria, and recognized that the Polish people enjoyed "the undeniable right to independence and unity." At the same time, in November 1916, the German government promised to establish an "independent Polish state." At the end of December, Germany and Austria established the "Polish Provisional State Council" and recruited Polish youths. Socialist Pi?sudski (Józef Pi?sudski) Klemens Pi?sudski (1867-1935) was appointed Minister of Military Affairs of the Provisional Council of State. In October and November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany tended to collapse, thus creating favorable international conditions for Poland's restoration. On October 28, Polish patriots in the Austrian-occupied areas established the "Polish Liquidation Committee" in Krakow. On November 7, the Social Democrats established the Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On October 23, a Polish government was formed in Warsaw, which was led by Pi?sudski on November 11. The Lublin government and the liquidation committee in Krakow also announced their acceptance of Pi?sudski's leadership. On November 18, Pi?sudski formed a coalition government in Warsaw, and he became the head of state of the Polish Republic. In this way, it took 123 years since Poland was partitioned and destroyed in 1795 to regain its independence and rebuild the motherland in November 1918.
On December 8, 1919, the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers passed a resolution at the Paris Peace Conference, agreeing to reestablish the Polish state, recognize the Polish Republic, and propose a temporary dividing line between Russia and Poland. That is, along Grodno, Brest, Hrubeszov, Przemydale, and up to the Carpathian Mountains. However, the Polish government tried to restore the Russian-Polish border line in 1772. To this end, the newly established Polish Republic launched a war against the newly born socialist country Soviet Russia, which was known as the Soviet-Polish War in history. In April 1920, the Polish army invaded vast areas of Ukraine and Belarus. The Soviet Red Army counterattacked, driving the Polish army participating in the intervention out of the country, and brought the war to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. However, in the final battle of Warsaw, the Soviet Russian army Defeated by the Polish army, although the Polish army achieved a final military victory, the war, which it was unable to handle, left the people destitute and financially exhausted. In the end, both parties agreed to make peace. On July 12, British Foreign Secretary George Nathaniel Curzon (1859-1925) sent a message to Soviet Russia on behalf of the Allied Powers to propose a ceasefire. The ceasefire line was roughly the dividing line stipulated in the Paris Peace Conference resolutions, so it was called the "Curzon Line." On July 22, Poland demanded an armistice. On March 18, 1921, Poland and the Soviet Union formally signed the "Peace Treaty between Poland, Russia and Ukraine" in Riga, also known as the "Treaty of Riga". Its main content is: the contracting parties recognized the independence of Ukraine and Belarus, and delineated the eastern border of Poland (the western areas of Ukraine and Belarus were assigned to Poland). At this time, the Polish-Russian border was approximately 150 miles east of the Curzon Line. According to the treaty, Poland received Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, and part of Lithuania. Soviet Russia lost large areas of territory in this war, which also paved the way for the Soviet Union and Germany to divide Poland during World War II. The Polish-Russian (Soviet) border determined by the Treaty of Riga remained until September 17, 1939. In addition, according to the resolution of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Poland obtained the Eastern Pomerania and Poznan regions, Danzig (later changed to Gdansk in Poland) was established as an international free city, and most of Silesia still belonged to Germany. Poland has a territory of ***388,000 square kilometers. In March 1921, the Parliament passed the constitution, and Poland became a parliamentary republic, historically known as the Second Polish Republic.
In May 1926, Pi?sudski launched a military coup and came to power, appointed himself prime minister, implemented dictatorship in Poland, arrested those who opposed him in the parliament, and promoted fascism. In addition, he actively cooperated with Adolf Hitler, the head of Nazi Germany, and signed the Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact. In 1938, the Polish Communist Party was disbanded and the party's main leaders were killed.
World War II (1939-1944)
Poland’s territorial changes after World War II From October 1938, Hitler raised the issue of the Polish Corridor to Poland and Issued threats of war. On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed a non-aggression pact and a secret protocol demarcating spheres of influence (the Soviet Union has always denied the existence of this secret protocol). On September 1, 1939, the Polish invasion war broke out. Germany launched a blitzkrieg raid on Poland and quickly occupied most of Poland's territory. The Polish soldiers and civilians resisted heroically. On September 17, the Polish government fled abroad and first formed a Polish government-in-exile in Paris headed by General W?adys?aw Eugeniusz Sikorski. After France's defeat, in 1940, the Polish government-in-exile moved to Britain. At the same time, on September 17, Soviet leader Stalin (Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин) ordered 600,000 Soviet Red Army troops to cross the Soviet-Polish border, enter eastern Poland, and occupy Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in order to establish the Eastern Defense Line. On September 18, the Soviet and German armies met at Brest-Litovsk, and the German and Soviet armies divided Poland along the Pisa, Narev, Vistula, and San river lines. On September 28, the German army captured Warsaw and Poland fell again. The Polish people began their anti-fascist war of national liberation.
In 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and occupied all Polish territory. After that, the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with the Polish government-in-exile. In 1942, the government-in-exile established the National Army in the country. In the same year, the Polish Communists supported by the Soviet Union established the Polish United Workers' Party and the People's Army, and launched an arduous underground struggle against the Nazi occupying forces. For this, many people paid their precious lives. In 1943, due to the Katyn massacre, the government-in-exile broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union again.
As the war situation developed, the Soviet counterattack gradually pushed the front into Poland. On New Year's Day, 1944, at the initiative of the Workers' Party, the National People's Congress was established, with Boles?aw Bierut as its chairman. On July 22, 1944, the National People's Congress formed the Polish National Liberation Committee in Che?m and promulgated the historic "July Declaration", announcing the birth of a new Polish state.
In August 1944, the Soviet Red Army advanced to the outskirts of Warsaw. In order to obtain greater benefits from the newly born Polish national authority, the exile government in the UK ordered the underground national army in Warsaw to launch an uprising. , this is the famous Warsaw Uprising. Because Stalin believed that this irresponsible approach should not be sympathetic, the Soviet army did not give much support to the uprising in Warsaw. Under the bloody suppression of the Nazi German army, the uprising failed, and the crazy Hitler ordered Warsaw to be razed to the ground. On the ground, many precious cultural relics and monuments were destroyed, and most Warsaw residents were sent to death camps. It was later proven that the Soviet Union should bear some moral responsibility for the failure of the Warsaw Uprising. On January 17, 1945, Soviet and Polish troops liberated Warsaw, which had become ruins. In April, Poland and the Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship, mutual assistance and economic cooperation. In June, the Polish Council of National Liberation was reorganized into the Provisional Government of National Unity.
According to the decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the eastern and western borders of Poland were determined. The Curzon Line in the east was the Polish-Soviet border, and the Polish-German border in the west (Oder-Neisse line) moved westward. to the Oder-Neisse River and added Szczecin and Schweinowice to the Polish side of the border. In this way, Poland's territory as a whole moved westward by more than 200 kilometers, and its area was reduced by about 76,000 square kilometers compared with before the war, which was a loss of about 20% of its territory.
In World War II, the Polish people made huge sacrifices for the anti-fascist war. About 6 million Polish soldiers and civilians died in this war. Many concentration camps where the Nazis massacred Jews and other civilians were found in Poland, the most famous of which is Auschwitz. Among all the participating countries, Poland suffered the most casualties in proportion to its population.
The People's Republic of China (1944-1989)
In 1947, Poland held parliamentary elections, and Beirut, supported by the Soviet Union, was elected president, and the socialist Silenkiewicz ( Józef Cyrankiewicz became prime minister, Poland embarked on the path of socialist development, and Western governments in exile were basically excluded from the center of power. In December 1948, the Polish Workers' Party and the Polish Socialist Party merged to form the Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR). Beirut serves as General Secretary. The People's Government nationalized large and medium-sized industries, transportation, and banks, implemented land reform, and mobilized the people to complete the three-year plan for restoring the national economy (1947-1949). The country's economic situation and people's lives improved. In October 1949 On the 7th, Poland established diplomatic relations with the new People's Republic of China. Since 1950, Poland began to implement the six-year plan (1950-1955) to develop the national economy.
In 1952, Poland changed its name to the Polish People's Republic of China (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL), and adopted the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic of China. Aleksander Zawadzki was elected Chairman of the Council of State, Beirut was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In March 1956, Beirut died of illness in Moscow, and Edward Ochab succeeded him as First Secretary.
However, Poland’s social structure, political and cultural traditions, religious beliefs, and the development of the capitalist economy all show that establishing socialism in Poland has inherent flaws. However, the dogmatists in the Polish government headed by Beirut still fully accepted the Soviet model of socialism. Based on the Soviet model, Poland formulated an economic development strategy that prioritized the development of heavy industry and carried out industrialization in the order of "heavy - light - agriculture". As a result, the proportion of the national economy was seriously imbalanced, heavy industry developed one-sidedly, agriculture lagged behind for a long time, and prices soared. The currency depreciated and people's living standards dropped.
The serious flaws of the Soviet model, coupled with the anti-Russian rebelliousness deep in the hearts of the Poles, the religious and liberal traditions, the Polish party’s governance mistakes, the prevalence of bureaucratic corruption and other comprehensive factors have made socialism Implementation in Poland proved extremely difficult, causing Poland to become the most unstable country in the Eastern socialist camp after World War II.
In 1956, the "de-Stalinization" of the Soviet Union's supreme leader Khrushchev (Никита Сергеевич Хрущев) had a huge impact on the entire socialist Eastern camp. Poland was at that time. The famous Poznan incident. In June of that year, after workers at Stalin's Locomotive Factory in Poznan, an industrial city in western Poland, had their economic demands for increased wages and reduced taxes rejected by the authorities, on June 28, 1956, 100,000 people erupted in Poznan. demonstrations of people. It later turned into a shootout between police and workers. Tanks and security forces also took part in the crackdown on workers. According to statistics, in just one day of conflict and riots, 54 people died, more than 2,000 people were injured, and more than 300 people were arrested. In order to calm the already serious situation, the authorities adopted a compromised position. On June 30, the authorities took some measures to ease the conflict: the former Minister of Machinery Industry was demoted; the taxes collected from the Stalin Locomotive and Rolling Stock Factory will be returned to the workers of the factory in installments; a burial ceremony was held for the victims of the incident, etc. The commotion subsided.
On August 4, 1956, the Polish United Workers Party decided to withdraw its criticism and criticism of the former Polish Communist Party leader W?adys?aw Gomu?ka and others in November 1949. Condemned and released from prison. On October 19 of the same year, Gomulka was elected as a member of the Central Committee. During the talks between the Soviet and Polish parties, Gomulka opposed the Soviet Union's interference and pressure in Poland's internal affairs and insisted on following "Poland's own path." On October 21, he was elected as the first secretary of the Party Central Committee. At the Eighth Plenary Session of the Second Central Committee of the Party held in October of the same year, Gomulka was elected as the first secretary. The five-year plan from 1956 to 1960 took the development of consumer goods production and agriculture and improving people's living standards as its main tasks.
The meeting criticized previous principles and policies and proposed new policies to overcome "bureaucracy and dogmatism", "strengthen the legal system and democratize political life", develop the economy and "improve people's lives faster". However, due to the serious flaws of the Soviet model that could not be fundamentally overcome, the proportions of the national economy remained seriously imbalanced during the next two five-year plans (1961-1970).
In December 1970, Poland faced another crisis. Workers, students, and citizens in coastal cities such as Gdańsk (formerly Danzig) protested against the government's increase in the price of food and daily necessities and went on strike, which led to a serious social commotion that later developed into bloody conflicts. At the Seventh Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held on December 20, Gomulka was dismissed as First Secretary of the Party and Edward Gierek succeeded him as First Secretary of the Party. Silenkiewicz was renamed Chairman of the Council of State, and Yarosiewicz became Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
The 1970s was the period of the fastest economic development in Poland after the war. The Galek government confidently implemented the so-called "three high policy" of "high speed, high accumulation, and high consumption" and introduced a large number of Foreign investment has led to large-scale construction projects and greatly improved people's living standards. Poland is thriving. However, haste leads to waste. Behind the surface prosperity, in the late 1970s, various government subsidies accounted for 40% of the fiscal budget, and foreign debt reached US$26 billion. In the 1980s, the government had to take measures to freeze wages and raise prices for some commodities to avoid a crisis. The Poles, who had long been accustomed to planned prices, were unprepared. When the government announced in July 1980 that meat prices in "bargain shops" would be increased by 40-60%, popular dissatisfaction triggered a nationwide strike.
In September of the same year, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party dismissed Galek as First Secretary and was succeeded by Stanislaw Kania. In October, Solidarno?, a well-known trade union organization at the time and the first independent trade union organization in Eastern Europe, emerged, and Lech Wa?sa was elected as the leader of Solidarno? The strike movement led by Solidarity was initially peaceful and recognized socialism as Poland's political foundation, recognizing the leadership role of the United Workers' Party and its alliance with the Soviet Union. The First National Congress was held in Gdansk in 1981, and it was decided to establish a National Committee to replace the National Consultative Committee, and adopted a new political program, calling for the implementation of pluralism in Poland and the establishment of an "autonomous communist republic". It is said that Solidarity is the main force in Poland's reform, and the leadership role of socialism and the United Workers' Party is not mentioned in the union's platform. During the strike movement, the trade unions proposed to have their own newspapers and periodicals, have free publishing rights, and "seize power from the bottom up." The unions are at odds with the government.
At the Fourth Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the United Workers' Party in 1981, Kania resigned and Wojciech Jaruzelski was elected as the First Secretary of the Party Central Committee. On December 13, 1981, Poland declared a state of war, Solidarity was banned, Lech Walesa and other union leaders were detained, and some union backbones went underground. The union is divided into two factions. The moderate faction headed by Walesa advocates avoiding direct conflict with the government and advocating consultation and dialogue; the radical faction advocates overthrowing the government through violence. Subsequently, major divisions occurred in society, and people who originally supported Solidarity turned to support the government. In February 1982, the Parliament passed a new trade union law, requiring the establishment of new trade unions. In February 1982, the Parliament passed a new trade union law, requiring the establishment of new trade unions. In July 1983, the wartime state ended. Poland announced amnesty in 1984, and Walesa and others worked hard to legalize Solidarity. The situation in Poland entered a brief period of stability.
The Third Soviet War Period (1989 to the present)
Beginning in 1986, due to the internal and external policies of the Soviet Union Gorbachev (Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв) began to adopt the The "new thinking" of the right turn and the loosening of restrictions on Eastern European countries caused the situation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to become unstable. In 1988, the Polish government's price reforms aroused public dissatisfaction. From February to April 1989, the Polish United Workers' Party held a round table meeting (Rozmowy Okr?g?ego Sto?u) with Solidarity and other opposition parties. After discussion, the United Workers' Party agreed that Solidarity was legal. Poland held national elections in June, with Solidarity winning 99% of the Senate seats.
On September 12, Solidarity's Tadeusz Mazowiecki formed a coalition government led by Solidarity and including the United Farmers' Party and the Democratic Party. Jaruzelski, the former leader of the United Workers' Party, served as the first president for a six-year term. On December 29 of the same year, the Parliament passed a constitutional amendment and decided to change the country's name to the Republic of Poland, and the white eagle with a crown on a red background was restored to the national emblem of Poland. Historically known as the Third Republic of Poland. Poland has officially embarked on a development path of pursuing Western-style parliamentary democracy politically and implementing a market economy based on privatization economically.
Soon, Jaruzelski resigned as general secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party. Walesa and his supporters declared that the roundtable agreement was outdated, demanding the president's resignation and holding a new presidential and parliamentary election. On January 27, 1990, the Polish United Workers' Party held its 11th Congress and announced that the party would cease its activities. A large party that had been in power for 45 years and had nearly 3 million members was dissolved. In 1990, Walesa proposed to run for president, but Mazowiecki's government opposed it. Solidarity was split into the centrist Council, which supported Lech Walesa, and the Civic Movement Democratic Action, which supported Mazowiecki.
A general election was held in November 1990, and Walesa was elected president in the second round of voting. He proposed "building a free, democratic, and prosperous new communist country", economically developing a market economy based on private ownership, removing restrictions on the free sale of land, and emphasizing in foreign policy opening up to the entire Europe and the world.
Since then, Poland has achieved regime change and political system changes, and has begun to move closer to the West. In 1995, Walesa lost to Kwasniewski in the presidential election. Economically, Poland's transition has brought pain. However, Poland has still become one of the most successful countries in economic transition among Eastern European countries, achieving steady economic growth. In 1999, Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and in 2004, Poland joined 10 other European countries in the European Union.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia