Poland, a Unique Country, and Its People - Essay Example

Poland Introduction Nestled in the heart of Central Europe, Poland is flanked by the countries of Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Germany. Poland has a difficult past, with its territory being subjected to partition at different periods of its history. The former Soviet Socialist Republic and Germany has subjugated and placed the country under their rule. But the strategic role of Poland during the WW I had earned it the gratitude of the Allies which advocated for the return of its territorial integrity. Likewise, the rise of personalities like Lech Walesa and the ascendancy of Mikhail Gorbachev to the leadership of the USSR paved the way for the disintegration of the communistic hold on the country. Today, Poland has become a democratic, market-oriented country with membership in many international organizations. It is considered one of the success stories in the transition economies. History In the 4th century, the Slav people who originally occupied the area between the Carpathian and the Middle Vistula in Eastern Europe, began drifting eastwards to Russia, southwards into the Balkans, and westwards towards the Order and Elbe Rivers. The pressures of a growing population resulted in the expansion of the areas originally inhabited by the Slavs. A written account of the country appeared only in the 14th century although a historical highlight of the country started when its ruler Mieszko I of the Piast Dynasty personally embraced Latin Christianity and imposed it on his people in 966. In the early medieval state, expeditions for plundering purposes were vital to the country’s existence but the reigns of Mieszko II (1025-34), Boleslaw II (1058-81), and Boleslaw III (1102-38) were marked by internal revolts and foreign invasions. It was believed that the country had no leader between the years of 1034 and 1039 when paganism and Bohemian invasion threatened to pull the country apart. It was Casimir “The Restorer” (son of Mieszko) who restored the territorial integrity of the country and established Kraskow as its capital (Lukowski & Zawadzki p 7). Before 1157, not all of Poland accepted Christianity. However, the 12th century witnessed invasions, in the name of the religion, one after another. A deeper Christianity was established in the 12th and 13th centuries when more friars came and monasteries were established. The coming of the new bishops presented a new form of political authority in Poland, limiting the ruler’s monopoly to it. During these times, the rulers tried to attract settlers to augment the population and gain economic progress. Most settlers came from Germany and the governing classes in many Polish towns were German and German-speaking (Lukowski & Zawadzki p 9). In 1384, the Polish crowned Jadwiga of Hungary as their queen. Jadwiga was the daughter King Louis, a nephew of Poland’s King Casimir and a claimant to the Polish throne. At that time, Poland was beset with invasions by pagans from all side. To resolve this problem, Jadwiga, then only 11 years old, was convinced to marry the 30 year-old Prince Jagiello, the pagan ruler of Lithuania who agreed to convert to Christianity upon their marriage. For the sake of her country she went on and married Jagiello. The union was the start of the Jagiellon Dynasty which continued for 400 years (Heinze 2003 pp 60-61) and was instrumental in the defeat of the Teutonic Knights which was formed to spread Christianity. However, in 1410, the German crusaders returned to battle the Polish/Lithuanian alliance after the latter defeated Timur in Ukraine in 1399 (Minahan 1998 pp 164-165). The legal system of Poland was first established in 1346 by the first Polish Legal Code under Casimir the Great and 1430, the “Niemineum Captivabimus” (Polish Habeas Corpus) was enacted. In 1493, the Polish Parliament was created and in 1505 the Statute of Nihil Novi which declared that every decision must pass through Parliament. The Jagiellon era enacted prototypal laws that set the precedent for rights granted by modern-day democracies. The “golden freedoms” of Poland-Lithuania is part of the present day Polish tradition of liberty (Deck-Partyka 2006 p 165). On December 23, 1568, delegates from Lithuania and Poland met in Lublin to formalize a Lithuanian-Polish union. Several months later or on July 1, 1569, the Union of Lublin was passed and it declared: “The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are one inseparable and indistinguishable body, and there is one united commonwealth put together and joined out of two states, and two nations into one people.” The union was characterized by a common institution which governed both Poland and Lithuania as a union, a common sovereign which could either be the king of Poland or grand duke of Lithuania, and a common parliament. This was known as the golden age of Poland (Stone 2001 p 62). During the period of 1598-1613, called the Times of Troubles in Russia, a Polish/Lithuanian contingent invaded and occupied Russia. Russia was then in a state of disarray owing to the vacuum created by the death of Theodore I who passed away without leaving an heir. This resulted in succession disputes, creating a disintegrating republic inviting invasions left and right. The Polish/Lithuanian invasion and subsequent occupation and the installation of King Sigismund of Poland as tsar of Russia completed Russia’s humiliation. This however, stirred the Russian people’s sense of patriotism and eventually drove the Polish out (Treasure 1985 p 554). The golden age however, ended in 1655 when Sweden invaded Poland in what is known as ‘The Deluge’. Charles V Gustavas, then the Sweden King, thinking Poland was an easy conquest, invaded and subjugated it. The Poland king fled while the Swedes occupied Cracow and Warsaw. In 1657, the Polish people succeeded in driving away the Swedes but the damage has been done and the country was left with so much devastation. However, in 1700 Sweden again invaded Poland as the latter was caught in the conflict between Sweden and the coalition of Russia, Denmark and Saxony. It became the battleground of the conflict until its settlement by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. The devastation that Poland suffered in the earlier invasion was worsened by the second invasion (Lenski, Wrőbel & Kozicki 1991 p 579). Also contributing to the slow deterioration of the Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth was the adoption of liberium veto in 1652. The liberium veto is an arrangement that allows each member of the nobility to veto bills that are under consideration and those previously passed (Cleveld 1999 p 277). In 1764, Stanislas Poniatowski was elected by the Sejm (legislature) to succeed King Augustus III who died. He initiated much needed reforms but the alliance of Russia, Austria and Prussia, alarmed at Poland’s revival, decided to partition it into three in 1772 and a large chunk of its territories were gone. This did not stop however the momentum of the reform movement and in 1791, the Polish Constitution was passed. The Constitution of 1791 embodied the principles of popular sovereignty and the rights of man found in most modern Constitutions of democratic countries. Article V stated: “All authority in human society takes its origin in the will of the people. Therefore, that the integrity of the state, civil liberty, and social order remain forever and in equal balance, the government of the Polish nation ought to, and by the will of the present law forever shall, comprise three authorities, to wit: a legislative authority in the assembled estates, a supreme executive authority in a king and guardianship, and a judicial authority in jurisdictions to that end instituted or to be instituted” (qtd. Gonenc 2002 p 54). The aforesaid Constitution introduced the constitutional monarchy and granted the executive power to the King and the Guardianship of the Laws, and the legislative power to the Sejm (the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies). The Constitution of 1791, along with the Polish independence was brought to a stop when the nobility of the country appealed to Russia to intercede as the said Constitution which abolished election of kingship and the liberium veto was a sure death warrant to their authority. Russia thus invaded Poland in 1792 and the country was divided among Russia, Prussia and Austria in three stages (Gonenc 2002 p 54). The last partition virtually erased Poland from the map but in 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte of France decided to recreate the nucleus of the former Polish state. To be called the Duchy of Warsaw, the recreated Poland will however include only the areas partitioned to Prussia and later Austria. The new Poland was headed in name by the King of Saxony but the actual control was retained by Bonaparte. Promised of a pre-Russian partition recreation once Russia was defeated, the Duchy of Warsaw was inveigled to aid Bonaparte in his Russian campaign. As it turned out, Russia won this war and once again held hostage all of Poland. In 1815, however, Poland was again divided by the Congress in Vienna when the Allies won against France (Nicolson 2000 p 29). The victory of the allies in World War I paved the way for Poland to declare its independence from Russia. Poland’s role in the war in helping the allies made President Woodrow Wilson of the United States include its independence in his Fourteen Points speech in January 1918 and on June 3, 1918, the restoration of Poland was officially endorsed ( ). This was shortlived however as Poland was again invaded in 1939 by Hitler’s Germany to kick-off World War II after Germany had allegedly been provoked by Polish incursions into their homeland. As part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which Germany and Russia secretly signed, the latter also attacked Poland from the other side. Germany completely subdued Poland as it also later attacked Russia. Polish rebellion aided by the Soviets finally defeated the Germans in 1944 (Havers 2002 pp 40-60). The Polish Committee of National Liberation was formed in Lublin in 1944 but since the Western Powers did not recognize it, it was transformed to the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland and had its seat on Warsaw. A year later, it was renamed the Provisional Government of National Unity, consisting of 21 persons, eighteen of whom belonged to communist organizations. The committee later caused the deportation of some four million German nationals to Germany and made reforms leaning towards the sovietization of Poland by undertaking land reforms, taking lands from the nobility and giving them to the peasants as well as making the government the single virtual employer of the country and the marginalization of the non-communist citizens. This provoked resistance and the formation of guerilla groups. The communist-controlled government backed by the Soviets responded strongly by deploying a big contingent of US troops in the Polish territory. Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands more were imprisoned (Fucht 2005 pp 31-32). After the death of Stalin in 1953 however, the sovietization of Poland started to disintegrate boosted by the harshening economic and social conditions. In 1956, the workers at Poznaň went on a mass walkout and a riot ensued. A worker’s leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka, was arrested, rehabilitated and was made a Secretary of the Party. He was initially met with approval but was unable to sustain it when he was not able to make the much needed reforms. He was later replaced (Fucht 2005 pp 33). The rising food prices triggered another series of workers’ strikes and saw the emergence of a very popular workers’ leader by the name of Lech Walesa, an electrician. Walesa negotiated for reforms with the government like the “legitimization of trade unions, the lifting of censorship, the release of political prisoners, the strengthening of the position of the Catholic Church, and the changes of the government priorities in social welfare.” This was called the Gdarisk Agreements. In September of 1980, the first independent self-governing trade union called Solidarity was born with Walesa as its head. Solidarity became the largest trade union in Europe with about 10 million members (Fucht 2005 pp 34). Alarmed by the growing deterioration of the government’s authority, the Soviet invoked their right under the Brezhnev Doctrine to interfere with domestic issues in Poland. Soviet troops massed with Polish soldiers along Poland’s borders. Soon martial law was anoounced and many form of civil repressions were imposed. The leaders of Solidarity went underground. The ascendancy of Mikhail Gorbachev to power in the USSR changed the course in Poland. All political prisoners were thenceforth freed and a Consultation Council was formed. The Round Table Discussions in 1989 between Walesa and the Communist Minister of Interior Cselaw Kiszczak marked the beginning of the end of the communist regime in the country. The subsequent free election in 1989 dealt the final blow on communism in Poland as Solidarity took all the contested seats in the Sejm and 99 seats in the Senate (Fucht 2005 pp 35). In August 1989, the first non-communist Prime Minister of Poland since 1943 was elected. A Catholic journalist, Tadeusz Mazowiecki initially enjoyed overwhelming support but the problems that his administration inherited subsequently made him a target of intense criticisms. In 1990, Walesa was elected president. In 1991, Poland held its first free parliamentary elections and the Soviet Northern Group of Forces finally left Poland in 1993 (Fucht 2005 pp 36-38). Table 1 Map of Poland Demographic Variables Poland is located in Central Europe, east of Germany and the Czech Republic, west of Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus, and north of Slovakia (see Fig. 1). It has a total area of 312, 679 sq. kms, 304, 459 sq.kms. of which is land and 8,220 sq km is water. It is slightly smaller than Mexico. The climate is generally “temperate with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters with frequent precipitation; mild summers with frequent showers and thundershowers.” The terrain of the country is mostly flat plain with mountains in the southern border.” Its natural resources consist of “coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, amber, arable land.” Forty point twenty-five per cent of its total land area is arable; 1% is utilised for permanent crops. The only natural hazard of the country is flooding perhaps because as Fig. 1 shows, it is located directly south of the Baltic Sea (Poland 2008). As of July 2008, the population of Poland is estimated to be 38,500,696. Fifteen point two of the population is aged fourteen and below, 71.4% are aged 15-64 years old, and 13.4% are above 64 years of age. Population-wise, the country grows at about -0.045% . The net migration rate is -0.46 migrants/1,000 population. The infant mortality rate is 6.93 deaths per 1,000 live births. As to major infectious diseases: bacterial diarrhea for water-borne diseases; tickborne encephalitis for vectorborne diseases, and; H5N1 avian influenza poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens with close contacts with birds. The ethnic groups are composed of the following: Polish (96.7%); Germans (0.4%); Belarusian (0.1%); Ukrainian (0.1%), and other unspecified 2.7% based on the 2002 census (Poland 2008). With regards to literacy, 99.8% of the population is literate, children 15 years old and over can read and write. As of 2007, Poland has an estimated labor force of 16.86 million. Sixteen point one per cent is into agriculture, 29 % is into industry, and 54.9% is into services. The unemployment rate stands at 12.8% per the 2007 survey. Seventeen per cent of the population is below the poverty line (Poland 2008). The role of demographic variables is that it allows anyone to know at a glance the economic and social condition of the country. A look, for example, into the labor force of Poland will show that the bulk of the workers are into the services sector followed by the industry sector, the implication being that the country is a fairly industrialized one. The age demographics of the country will show that the country’s population is fairly young. This will be vital to manufacturers and producers to determine what kind of goods should be produced and viable in the market. Role of Civil Society According to John Nagle and Alison Mahr, civil society is the “space between the individual and the state.” It is the “aggregate of networks and institutions that either exist and act independently of the state or are official organizations capable of developing their own spontaneous views on national or local issues and then impressing these views on their members, on small groups and, finally, on the authorities” (qtd. Nagle & Mahr 1999 p. 65). In Poland, powerful forces of intellectuals, the workers and the Catholic Church were joined together to lead economic and political developments in the 1970s. Strikes were conducted to protest high food prices and the intellectuals formed the Committee for the Defence of Workers to mobilize public opinion and assist the workers in their strikes. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, collected money to support the families of strikers who were arrested. All these led to the development of Solidarity, the union of workers led by Walesa who made possible the ultimate collapse of the communist and Soviet hold on the Polish society (Nagle & Mahr 1999 p 66). The people of Poland elect a President who acts as the chief of state and a Prime Minister who acts as the head of government. Thus, both presidential and parliamentary elections are periodically held in the country. The next presidential election will be held in 2010 and the parliamentary election in 2011. The National Assembly, on the other hand, consists of the Senate and the Sejm, both members of which are elected by universal suffrage for a term of four years. These two bodies have unequal powers though: whilst the Senate deals with purely legislative concerns, the Sejm goes beyond those (Frankowski & Bodnar 2005 p 17). During the last presidential election in 2005, 50.99% of the registered 30,279,209 voters cast their votes. The following parties were represented: Civic Platform, representing the Christian democratic; Law and Justice, representing the centre-right; Self-Defense Party, representing the agrarian sector; Social Democratic Party of Poland, representing the social democrats; Polish Peasant Party, representing the peasants; Union of Real Politics; Democratic Party of the social liberal; Polish National Party; Polish-Polonian Organisation of Polish Nation – Polish League, and; Confederation of Independent Poland (Election Profile: Poland 2006). Role of Culture and Religion The majority of the people in Poland are Roman Catholics consisting of 89.8%, eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, and an unspecified 8.3%. Most of the people speak Polish (97.8%). The RC being the dominant religion in the country, it can be expected that the Polish are conservative and religious since Roman Catholics are devout observers of their religion. This is an indication of the kind of society that Poland – a family centered, ritualistic leaning society. Culture and religion are important because they tend to influence the behavior of society. “The values that people internalize surely play a significant role in shaping behavior, especially with regard to intimate matters touching on marriage, sexuality, and childbearing” (McQuillan 1999 p. 6). In Poland’s history, the Catholic Church played a great role in the ultimate disintegration of the communist and Soviet hold on the country. It united and provided strength to the people at a time when Poland was beset with economic and social ills. It worked closely with civil society as well as the workers to protest these ills. In the end, the Church played a strategic role in the democratization of Poland. Role of Technology, Technology Transfer and Modernization As of 2006, an estimated 11.457 million telephone lines are in use in Poland, whilst 36.457 million of mobile phones are in use. In 2003, the telecommunication network of the country was modernized enabling a rapid growth in this sector. Meanwhile the fast growth in the wireless telephony dwarfed whatever growth was gained in the fixed line sector. There are currently four mobile cellular providers operating in the country whilst he fixed-line industry is a little behind it. Poland has a satellite earth station -1 with access to Intelsat, Eutelsat, Inmarsat and Intersputnik. It has 14 AM stations, 777 FM stations, one shortwave, forty television broadcast stations, internet hosts of 5.681 million and an approximate number of 11 million internet users (Poland 2008). Poland has 123 airports all over the country, and 7 heliports. It has 13,552 km long of gas pipelines, 1, 384 km long of oil pipelines, and 777 km of refined products. Its railways have a total length of 23,072 km. The roadways, on the other hand, has a total length of 423,997 km, whilst the waterways has a total length of 3,997 km. There are 13 ships (1000 GRT or over), 59,597 GRT/36,576 DWT. Obviously, the purpose of knowing the technology, technology transfer and degree of modernization of a country is to know the potential and viability of a country when it comes to investments especially foreign direct investments. If a multinational corporation, for example, intends to put up a branch in Poland, it will look into the facilities, infrastructures and superstructures that will make it easier to establish business in that country. Modern technology, technology transfers and modernization are important to progress. The statistical data showing modern telecommunication systems, technology and infrastructures in place in Poland show the reasons why Poland has become a success story as a transition economy. References Barber, Malcolm. 2004. The Two Cities: Medieval Europe, 1050-1320: Medieval Europe 1050-1320. Routledge. Country Profile: Poland. Election Guide. http://www.electionguide.org/country.php?ID=173 Creveld, Martin L. Van. (1999). The Rise and Decline of the State: prehistory to AD 1300 The rise of the state: 1300 to 1648 The state as an instrument: 1648 to 1789 The state as an ideal: 1789 to 1945 The spread of the state: 1696 to 1975 The decline of the state: 1975-. Cambridge University Press, 1999 Deck-Partyka, Alicja. (2006). Poland, a Unique Country & Its People: A Unique Country and Its People. AuthorHouse. Frucht, Richard C. (2005). Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. Gönenç, Levent. (2002). 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