What was poland before it was poland

Germany and the Soviet Union divide Poland between them and treat Polish citizens with extreme brutality. Germany begins systematic persecution of the large Jewish population. The Soviet Union attributed the crime to the Nazis until acknowledging responsibility in the late s. Their names - Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek - become synonymous with the Holocaust. Resistance lasts nearly four weeks before the ghetto is burned down. The Germans announce the capture of more than 50, Jews. The Germans recapture the city in October and burn it to the ground.

All German forces are driven from Poland by March. Poland's borders are set by the post-war Potsdam conference; Poland loses territory to the Soviet Union but gains some from Germany. Liberal Communist leader Wladislaw Gomulka takes over. The protests are suppressed, hundreds are killed.

Edward Gierek becomes party leader. Many of Solidarity's leaders, including Walesa, are imprisoned. Partially free elections see landslide win for Solidarity, which helps form coalition government. Tadeusz Mazowiecki becomes the first non-Communist Polish prime minister since Market reforms, including large-scale privatisation, are launched.

Willys was appointed March 8, , presented his credentials on May 24, and served until May 30, Ambassador Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr. Biddle was also accredited to the governments-in-exile of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Yugoslavia, all of which were resident in London. Biddle left London on December 1, The U. Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane , who had been appointed September 21, , presented his credentials August 4, He served until February 24, Menu Menu.

Poland - Countries. Modern Flag of Poland. Recognition U. Recognition of Polish Independence, Consular Presence First U. Consulate, Warsaw under Russian administration Establishment of a Polish Legation in the United States, Yet, it will be bloodily suppressed by the Germans within two months, while almost completely passive Red Army formations wait across the Vistula River.

The Allies will not cross the Rhine before March — but as the Warsaw Uprising is raging and the Soviet offensive stops on the Vistula River in August , the Red Army will fail to capture most of Germany's territory.

The Soviet authorities capture the leaders of the Polish Underground State, while the Red Army, the NKVD and the Polish Workers' Party ruthlessly suppress all forms of independence aspirations, anti-communist resistance or loyalty to the Polish authorities in exile — by murdering, arresting and deporting opponents to the labor camps in the USSR.

Following the decisions taken by the Big Three in Yalta, the Kremlin appoints the authorities that are going to organize parliamentary elections in the reduced territory of the country, and legalize the communists, even though they are not accepted by the Polish society.

The anti-communist resistance begins to take shape. In Yalta, the Western Allies agree to make further concessions to Stalin, who strives to seize the eastern half of Poland — including Vilnius, Lviv, Grodno, Pinsk, Brest and Tarnopol — and to subjugate the rest of the country. The Soviet occupiers and the Polish Workers' Party rig the referendum and introduce legislation aimed at nationalising the economy, while continuing repressions against the structures subordinate to the legitimate government-in-exile.

The incident is commonly known as the Kielce Pogrom. The communists, representing the Soviet interests in Warsaw, eliminate the opposition by means of murder, imprisonment and other forms of terror. The Legislative Sejm, elected in the rigged elections, passes the Small Constitution. As demanded by Moscow, Poland refuses to participate and benefit from the Marshall Plan, American aid to European economies, devastated by the war.

Based on the Soviet model, the communist government in Poland adopts collectivisation policy to transform traditional agriculture; however, the plan meets with great social resistance and will eventually be abandoned. A more liberal faction of the Polish communists inspires partial democratization of political and economic life. They are bloodily suppressed by the Polish People's Army. A series of demonstrations of students demanding democratic rights sweep the country.

Inefficiency of centrally planned economy in Poland forces the authorities to significantly increase the prices of basic foodstuffs, which leads to social unrest, especially in the cities on the Baltic Sea coast.

The authorities deploy the military to quell street protests, and the soldiers open fire on the protesters, killing dozens and wounding hundreds. The authorities of the Polish People's Republic, led by Edward Gierek, brutally suppress the protests. In order to provide legal, financial and medical assistance to the protesters, the Workers' Defense Committee is established.

The first visit of John Paul II in his homeland stimulates freedom aspirations of Poles, and contributes to strengthening their resistance against the communist authorities. Further increases in prices trigger a wave of strikes. Forced to negotiate, the authorities back down, agreeing to the demands of the protesters, primarily to legalize the "Solidarity" Independent Self-Governing Trade Union.

The authorities introduce martial law in order to destroy "Solidarity" by force; they restrict civil liberties, imprison thousands of people, mainly opposition members, and brutally suppress strikes and protests. Although the communists lift martial law in , the repressions against the opposition continue.

Following further strikes, the communist party is forced to negotiate and make concessions to the protesters. Home Brief History of Poland.