The Ice Flow

By Red Sox Steve

Continued from here:

In efforts to resist the partitioning of its nation, Poles sought but were unable to obtain British and French support. As a result, Poland was forced to enter into a partitioning agreement with enemy Prussia in 1790. By the Polish Constitution of 1791, a Polish middle class was formed, threatening Russian ideology, buttressed by the results of the French Revolution. In early 1793, Prussia and Russia obtained more land during the Second Partitioning of Poland.

Sensing dissatisfaction among Poles at having surrendered about 30% of its land to its enemies, Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish military leader, led a revolt against Russia and Prussia in Poland and Lithuania in 1794. As a result, Poland's neighbors sought to eliminate any evidence of an independent Polish state. In October 1795, Polish, Prussian and Russian representatives signed a treaty, dividing the remaining territories of the Commonwealth between their three countries.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Poland's independence and territory were both in the nation's past. Russia acquired much of Lithuania and the Ukraine, Austria had much of the territory to the south and southeast of Warsaw, and Prussia controlled northern central and northwestern Poland. Napoleonic conquest over Prussia in the early 1800s temporarily established a Duchy of Warsaw which also later reclaimed some Austrian land in Poland. However, as Napoleon was retreating from an unconquered Russia, the Russians, Prussians and Austrians reclaimed parts of the Duchy for themselves as of 1815.

After the Congress of Vienna again created a fractured Polish state, the Russians granted the newly formed "Congress Kingdom of Poland" various freedoms, including an independent army and a parliament. Before the newly established kingdom was 5 years old, Russian tsars abused the absolute rule they held over it. Alexander I, who would later institutionalize Christianity in Russia, removed some of the freedoms enjoyed by citizens of the Polish kingdom. By the 1820s, tensions between the Russian government and its Polish subjects increased to the point where parliamentary sessions were held in secret in Poland.

By 1829, Orthodox Christianity had taken root in Russian government and Nicholas I had succeeded Alexander. Papal bulls could not be read in Poland without Russian permission and many democratic institutions in Polish government were terminated in favor of an administration appointed by the Russian government. By late 1830, the Russian government had designs on using the Polish military to fight against revolutionaries in France and Belgium, which would be a violation of the military independence previously granted by Russia. Armed Polish rebels forced Russian leaders out of power, and a Polish-led revolutionary dictatorship took office in what would later be called the "November Uprising". Unfortunately, due to an overwhelming military response by the Russians and infighting by the Poles during a lull in hostilities, the Russians would take back Warsaw and crack down on the Poles more severely as a result. By late 1831, the Uprising was over and in 1832 the Polish constitution, army, and legislative assembly were abolished.

When Alexander II, Nicholas' son came to power in 1855, Russia was embroiled in conflict against France, the UK and Sardinia (now Italy) in the Crimean War. After Russia ultimately gave in to an Allied coalition, Alexander commenced with a number of reforms in his kingdom, some of which were intended to loosen Russia's grip over Poland. Nevertheless, the desire for Polish nationalism hadn't been satisfied and Polish citizens were inspired by the ideas espoused by the German Karl Marx and reminded of their ideals by the Polish composer Frederic Chopin. Because of a number of uprisings, in 1861 martial law was introduced and public gatherings were banned.

Soon after, meetings of aspiring revolutionaries took place throughout Europe, and ultimately split into two separate ideological factions. The Reds organized peasants, workers and members of the church, while the Whites represented the landowners and bourgeoisie (middle-class whose status in society was not derived from aristocratic lineage, but rather employment, education and wealth). The Reds operated primarily in Poland while the Whites were organized in Lithuania.

The Polish provisional government declared in a manifesto "all sons of Poland free and equal citizens without distinction of creed, condition and rank." When hostilities began in 1863, the Russians had 90,000 men at their disposal, while the Polish government relied on a scattered guerrilla-based fighting force. By May 1864, Russian forces were victorious and the Russian government sought to eliminate any evidence of a free and independent Poland, starting with efforts in schools and churches.

The national mood in Poland prior to the end of the 19th century, has been described as one of resignation. Germany was able to grow its empire in the early 1870s, Russia was bent on eradicating a Polish identity and Austria-Hungary, although quite lenient, retained control over Galicia in southern Poland. At the same time, considerable pressure was placed on the Roman Catholic Church by both Russia and Germany.

The increase in both mining and manufacturing in German and Russian controlled regions of Poland helped to alter the prevailing social and economic forces on the Polish people during the late 19th century. Urbanization increased and the power of the aristocracy decreased during this time as well. Millions joined the urban labor force, while millions of others left Poland for North America and other parts of the world. Because much of the peasant population was unable to find employment, this gave rise to urban-based social tension which ultimately led to the formation of socialist parties. In 1905, the Polish Socialist Party was the largest socialist party in the Russian Empire. In addition, the extreme right was represented as well - by focusing on nationalism and hostility towards Jews, the National Democracy of Roman Dmowski was able to gain support among some Poles.

After the start of World War I, Poland found it had greater leverage over those that partitioned it more than a century earlier. Russia defended Serbia and allied with Britain and France as Germany and Austria-Hungary opposed them as part of the Central Powers. Poland was therefore able to form national organizations in Galicia, as permitted by Austria-Hungary and the Polish National Committee, as allowed by the Russians. Briefly during the war, the Germans and Austrians supported the formation of a new Kingdom of Poland. This kingdom had its own parliament and government as well as its own currency. What was called the Regency Kingdom of Poland would end up being the fourth and final monarchy in Polish history.

Leftist leader Józef Klemens Piłsudski assisted the Central Powers in defeating Russia in order to gain Polish independence. This proved a solid strategy because, as the war continued, the Germans and Austrians were able to push Russia back towards the east. During the conflict, 1 million Polish refugees fled eastward for Russia, 2 million troops in total fought on behalf of all the occupying powers and nearly a half-million of them died. Much of the conflict zone was uninhabitable as a result of the fighting.

During 1917, both the US entering into the conflict to strengthen the Allies and the revolution in Russia weakening Russian forces on the Eastern Front would bring about the end of the war. Russia would finally be forced into signing a peace treaty which would grant all Polish lands to the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). Before the year was over, Germany and Austria-Hungary created a puppet Kingdom of Poland and the United States gained greater influence over the Allied coalition. One of the reasons Poland supported the Allied forces was the result of the thirteenth of US President Woodrow Wilson's fourteen points read before US Congress in January 1918:

"Establishment of an independent Poland with access to the sea."

By late 1918, Austria-Hungary was defeated and the Allies were victorious. In November,
Józef Piłsudski was released from a German prison and ultimately given the title of "Chief of State" by the Regency Council of the Polish Kingdom. Sovereign Poland, free of any obligations to Russia, Germany, or Austria was the result.

One of Pilsudski's earliest goals after the end of the war was expansion of Polish territory. In May 1920, 200,000 Polish soldiers marched on Kiev, but was defeated by the Red Army and the Cossacks. A few months later, Soviet forces established themselves just outside Warsaw. Pilsudski formed a counteroffensive starting a conflict known as the Battle of Warsaw. By October 1920, an armistice between Poland and the Soviet Union had been achieved; by 1921, Poland's land claims in the Ukraine and White Russia (present-day Belarus) were granted by the Treaty of Riga entered into between Poland and the Soviets. In what some historians call one of the most important clashes of the 20th century, 50,000 Polish soldiers were killed, while 150,000 were lost on the Soviet side.

Pilsudski, as a result of the conflict, was in control of territory that had strong ties to both Poland and Russia. Because of his desire to remain in control of all the nation's territory, his leadership style grew more and more dictatorial, and when he left power in 1924, the government quickly became ineffectual. Just two years later, however, Pilsudski gathered three army regiments and marched on Warsaw. By May, although Pilsudski was successful in overthrowing the government, he appointed a puppet leader in his place; he still managed to control and manipulate citizens through organizations like the secret police. Just before he died in 1935, Pilsudski managed to negotiate a non-aggression agreement with Germany, which guaranteed territorial rights for Poland for 10 years.

As a result of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles which formally ended WWI, Poland was able to acquire the territory of East Prussia. Hitler, subsequently rising to power in Germany, appealled to Germany's sense of nationalism by promising to liberate the Germans still in East Prussia as well as the area known as the Free City of Danzig ("Danzig"). As Hitler's desire for Danzig grew, the Poles mistrusted his intentions to construct a connecting highway and appealed to the British and French for protection from him.

On April 28, 1939, Germany withdrew the non-aggression treaty it signed with Polish Chief of State Pilsudski 5 years earlier. By late August, the British and French signed treaties to protect Poland if it was attacked. On August 29, the German Foreign Minister outlined to the British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson the terms which would ensure peace in regards to Poland - Danzig would have to be given back to Germany, and there would be an exchange of minority populations between the two nations. When the Polish ambassador went to see the German Foreign Minister, he was still unable to sign the proposed agreement. Negotiations came to an end when it was broadcast that Poland rejected the Germany's proposals. The Germans were amassed at the Polish border, and on August 31, 1939, Hitler ordered an attack to commence the following morning.

On September 1, 1939 at 4:40 AM, the German airforce attacked Wielun; at 4:45 AM, a German battleship attacked a Polish military facility at Westerplatte in Danzig on the Baltic Sea; At 8:00 AM, German troops, still without a formal declaration of war, attacked near Mokra. Later that same day, Germans attacked at the western, southern and northern borders of Poland. By October, Poland was divided between Germany, the Soviet Union, Lithuania and Slovakia.

By mid-September, many government officials had already fled to Romania. The Polish military commander in chief moved to France with the intent of reforming the military there. General Władysław Sikorski was instructed by the exiled leadership to form a government out of Paris. France immediately recognized the new government, and by 1939 had formed a parliamentary government in exile. Although it had no legislative authority, the Rada Narowada ("National Council") had some moral authority, as conferred by its first president, a well known pianist, composer, nationalist and patriot, Ignacy Paderewski. Subsequently, Poland was Britain's only ally after France fell and before Germany invaded the Soviet Union. After the Soviets entered the war, the Polish government signed a treaty with them, promising full cooperation against Germany. As a result, much of the Polish military was controlled by the Soviet Union for the rest of the war.

In the area of Poland under Soviet occupation, there was a quick assumption of control of many aspects of Polish life by the Soviets. Polish universities were closed and reopened as Soviet universities where much of the focus was on Soviet propaganda. Polish literature and language studies were dismantled and books were burned; Polish currency was removed from circulation without any exchange - the population lost their entire life savings overnight. Polish political groups were broken up and all existing organizations were subordinated to the Communist Party.

In continuing efforts at "sovietization" of Poland, religions were persecuted and churches were closed. Many members of the clergy were discriminated against via higher taxes, mandatory conscription, arrests and deportations. Agriculture was made collective, but food was scarce; although Polish citizens were given Soviet citizenship, many refugees refused to provide their mandatory consent and were thus threatened with repatriation to Nazi-occupied Poland.

By the time the war ended in late 1945, Poland had become an entirely different country. During the interwar years, it was a capitalist country emerging from both feudalism and partition. During the war, the Polish interregnum was portrayed by the Soviets as evil and exploitative. Prior to the war, Catholicism dominated a nation heading towards a self-determinative future. Because Stalin persecuted religions and closed churches, it became one occupied by a foreign government focused on atheism. Most telling of all was that prior to the war, Poland was a diverse and tolerant European nation, but as of 1946, Poland had lost 20% of its citizens in addition to almost 100% of its ethnic minority population.

In 1947, the United States initiated the European Recovery Program (commonly referred to as the "Marshall Plan"). US Secretary of State George Marshall's idea was that the rapidly growing US economy would subsidize growth in Europe. At a meeting in Paris among European officials, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav M. Molotov walked out, calling for Soviet rejection of the plan. Because the Soviets saw it as a system that would promote American-style capitalism and economic unity throughout Europe, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin pressured Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary into rejecting it as well. The Polish government in exile had little control over Polish affairs during the war, due to the grip the Soviets held over much of the country, which only strengthened as the post-war world was being sorted out.

Stalin countered the Marshall Plan with an idea intended to further unify Eastern Europe. In 1949, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance ("Comecon") was formed among the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. By 1955, 2 years after Stalin's death, and in response to the arming of West Germany in the US-led NATO coalition, the Warsaw Pact was formed after a meeting in its eponymous city. The pact's original members were Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. The pact, originally called the "Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance" extended Soviet power in the region; furthermore, it granted supreme military control of all Warsaw Pact nations to the Soviets.

Before the end of the 1950s, Władysław Gomułka, who had been a member of the Polish Communist Party since 1926 was appointed head of the Polish United Workers Party in 1956. Initially, Gomulka's rise was welcomed by Polish citizens, as he sought to resist Soviet influence. However, this resistance as well as the liberalization of Polish elections was a relative comparison, as compared to other Eastern European nations at the time. Soviet control over Poland remained highly repressive, especially by Western standards. There were propaganda campaigns against Western Germany, infused by communist ideology, and during the 1960s, Soviet top-down focus on heavy industry and military development served to slow the economy rather than stimulate it.

The 1960s were tumultuous in Poland and much of Eastern Europe - the economy was crumbling, but the Soviets, by fixing food prices low, prevented urban unrest. In 1968, a theatrical play was banned because it allegedly contained "anti-Soviet" references, although it was originally written in 1824. In spite of public protests, the Polish army participated in the suppression of a 1968 uprising against the Soviets in Czechoslovakia.

Economically, the 1970s were no easier for Poland. Despite further economic and social liberalization allowing freer international travel by Poles as well as inducements made by the government for Polish expatriates to reinvest in their native country, prices swung violently. Initially, wages increased, raising living standards for all Poles, but because of the 1973 energy crisis, food prices and inflation grew quickly. Polish foreign debt grew 60 times in 4 years to 1975. Edward Gierek, who succeeded Gomulka as First Secretary, was losing control of the economy. By the late 1970s, food prices had risen again and Communist regime's influence began to erode, especially after a 1979 visit by native Pole Karol Józef Wojtyła, better known as Pope John Paul II.

The significance of the former Archbishop of Krakow becoming head of the entire Catholic Church as well as the tumultuous events of the 1970s served to deligitimize much of the power and control of the Communist regime. Not only was the papal visit a sign of the importance the pope had in his native country (a quarter of the population attended his outdoor masses), but protests led in the industrialized city of Danzig by a portly electrician would ultimately lead to the undoing of the Communist regime.

Riots, bloodshed, financial tumult and widespread repression characterized much of Polish life since WWII. The Workers Defense Committee, an organization that had formed during the 1970s in response to many of these events codified resistance to the Communist regime. However, in Danzig in August 1980, strikers at the Lenin Shipyard in Danzig locked themselves in the yard, communicated with other striking groups and presented a list of demands to the government. By September, a new party was formed which replaced the Workers Defense Committee - the new party was called Solidarity and it was led by Lech Walesa, the portly electrician who would later rise to become President of Poland.

The Polish government had recognized Solidarity as a legal organization, although this placed considerable pressure on both the Soviet Politburo and Polish head of state, General Wojciech Jaruzelski. Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev insisted that Jaruzelski crack down on Solidarity and even moved Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops to the Polish border in 1981. By December of that year, Lech Walesa and other Solidarity leaders were imprisoned, and Poland was under martial law. Solidarity, although in a repressed state, continued to exist - the leaders were quietly released, Solidarity went underground while the Western media drew its attention to the situation in Poland.

Soviet control over much of the Eastern bloc was loosening, however its support for Warsaw nations seemed to be endless. By 1985, Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev was in power, and Jaruzelski and the Communist regime were weakened, mostly as a result of the rule by martial law over the Polish. The ruling powers were simultaneously opposed by a stronger Solidarity. Gorbachev had repealed the Brezhnev doctrine, which stated that any attempt to abandon Communism would be met with force. By the late 1980s, unrest in Poland, especially strikes by Solidarity led the Communist government to approach the party for Round Table Talks which resulted in the recognition of power in the legislature and president, who would be the sole chief executive of Poland.

Although the Soviets considered the June 1989 Polish elections semi-free in that only a small number parliamentary seats were restricted to Solidarity members, Solidarity captured every single available seat in the new Sejm, and 99 of 100 seats in the Senate. Later that year, the Communist Jaruzelski barely won the presidential election while the new Polish prime minister was a Solidarity member, Tadeusz Mazowiecki. By the next year, after the fall of the Berlin wall, Lech Walesa became president of Poland. By July 1991, the Warsaw Pact had been dissolved, and within a matter of months the Soviet Union as well.

Although the immediate economic result of Polish sovereignty was hyperinflation and a high national deficit, Poland slowly started to grow into a post-Soviet modernizing nation. GDP rose throughout the 1990s, and new technologies and an international focus replaced a stagnated and isolated economy. Poland received $50 billion in FDI over a 10 year period ending in 2005 and had Germany as one of its main trading partners. The agricultural component of Poland's economy which is now centuries old today makes Poland the leading producer of potatoes and rye in Europe. Some historians say that the only stagnation in Poland's growth is social, resulting from high expectations based on the intense political and economic changes that took place at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Through the 1990s, political power shifted to the hands of the Communist party, which had then reorganized itself as the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). The SLD was voted into power in coalition with the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL), a socialist-leftist party in 1993. By 1995, Walesa, voted to a 5 year term in 1990, lost the presidential election to SLD leader Aleksander Kwasniewski. By 1997, Polish values of Catholicism, patriotism and family asserted themselves in the election of new Solidarity leader Marian Krzaklewski as parliamentary deputy. Although Solidarity managed to coalesce a fragmented religious and right-wing, Krzaklewski's party was defeated in 2000, by the SLD. Because Solidarity was not voted to the new parliament in 2001, both the SLD and the PSL formed a coalition, this time with a smaller center-left Union of Labor (UP).

In the first decade of the 21st century, the SLD-led government managed to negotiate Poland's entry into the EU, culiminating in a "yes" vote in the corresponding 2003 Polish referendum. Poland joined the EU in May 2004. However, due to scandal and an economic crisis, the SLD was overwhelmingly defeated in the parliamentary elections of September 2005.

Led by a post-Solidarity center-right coalition, the Law and Justice Party (Pis) was successful in both parliamentary elections and the presidential election of 2005 - Lech Kaczynski (PiS) was victorious over Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform (PO) (a post-Solidarity, conservative-liberal party). By 2007, however, the PO returned to parliamentary power, evidencing dissatisfaction among Poles about PiS leadership, and following the collapse of a PiS coalition. The PiS however, increased its share of the vote, at the expense of its lesser coalition partners who were unable to return to parliament. Today, the PO-led government still enjoys high levels of support among Poles. As a result, it does not wish to risk party stability by introducing bold reforms ahead of the 2010 presidential election.

By the mid 1970s, Polish acquiescence to Communist rule began to evaporate, especially as a result of the economic crises of the decade. The 1980 emergence of Solidarity crystallized Polish resistance to Soviet control. It was only a matter of time before the relationship would end. Between 1989 and 1992, Poland and the entire world's relationship with communism would change, and with it a number of former Soviet-controlled states would be granted sovereignty for the first time in a post-WWII world. The changes were relatively quick and intense, despite the fact that many Poles had desired freedom for over a decade. Since that time, Poland has remained very close to an ideological center, in my view, moving slightly right and slightly left. As a result of this centrist position, and its membership in the EU, Poland's future is promising. It should certainly celebrate not only the fact that it was able to break free of the constraints of communism, but also its rich tradition of religious and ethnic tolerance as well as a commitment to diversification and modernization of its economy.