1.
Polish People's Republic
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The Polish Peoples Republic covers the history of Poland under Communist control between 1952 and 1990. The name was defined by the Constitution of 1952 which was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution, between 1947 and 1952, the name of the Polish state was the Republic of Poland, in accordance with the temporary Constitution of 1947. The Soviet Union had much influence over internal and external affairs, and Red Army forces were stationed in Poland. In 1945, Soviet generals and advisors formed 80% of the cadre of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish United Workers Party became the dominant political party, officially making the country a Communist state, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin was able to present his western allies, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, with a fait accompli in Poland. His armed forces were in occupation of the country, and his agents, the USSR was in the process of incorporating the lands in eastern Poland which it had occupied between 1939 and 1941. In compensation, the USSR awarded Poland German territories in Pomerania, Silesia and these awards were confirmed at the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, otherwise known as the Potsdam Conference in August 1945 after the end of the war in Europe. Stalin was determined that Polands new government would become his tool towards making Poland a Soviet puppet state controlled by the communists. He had severed relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London in 1943, the communists held a majority of key posts in this new government, and with Soviet support they soon gained almost total control of the country, rigging all elections. This important victory would be their last, however, as the communists, tightening their grip on power, many of their opponents decided to leave the country, and others were put on staged trials and sentenced to many years of imprisonment or execution. In June 1946 the Three Times Yes referendum was held on a number of issues—abolition of the Senate of Poland, land reform, the communist-controlled Interior Ministry issued results showing that all three questions passed overwhelmingly. Years later, however, evidence was uncovered showing that the referendum had been tainted by massive fraud, Gomułka then took advantage of a split in the Polish Socialist Party. One faction, which included Prime Minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski, wanted to join forces with the Peasant Party, another faction, led by Józef Cyrankiewicz, argued that the Socialists should support the Communists in carrying through a socialist program, while opposing the imposition of one-party rule. Pre-war political hostilities continued to influence events, and Mikołajczyk would not agree to form a front with the Socialists. The Communists played on these divisions by dismissing Osóbka-Morawski and making Cyrankiewicz Prime Minister, between the referendum and the January 1947 general elections, the opposition was subjected to persecution. Only the candidates of the pro-government Democratic Bloc were allowed to campaign completely unmolested, meanwhile, several opposition candidates were prevented from campaigning at all. Mikołajczyks Polish Peoples Party in particular suffered persecution, it had opposed the abolition of the Senate as a test of strength against the government, although it supported the other two questions, the Communist-dominated government branded the PSL traitors. This massive oppression was overseen by Gomułka and the provisional president, the official results of the election showed the Democratic Bloc with 80.1 percent of the vote
2.
Polish Committee of National Liberation
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It exercised control over Polish territory retaken from Nazi Germany and was fully sponsored and controlled by the Soviet Union. It followed Red Army units as they moved into Polish territory, the PKWN manifesto was outlined in advance in Moscow Radio broadcast and published allegedly in Chełm on 22 July 1944, but the first members arrived there on 27 July. By the start of August, the PKWN moved its seat to Lublin, the Soviet Union pretended to transfer the power to the PKWN, but the PKWN transferred it back to the Red Army and NKVD as war zone. Among the members of the PKWN were politicians of various communist and leftist parties accepted by Stalin and his deputies were Soviet citizen Wanda Wasilewska and Andrzej Witos, a younger brother of Wincenty Witos, a notable pre-war politician. Andrzej Witos was later replaced by Stanisław Janusz, other members included those from KRN, ZPP, Workers Party of Polish Socialists, SL, Democratic Party, Polish Workers Party and unaffiliated. Stanisław Radkiewicz was responsible for Security Department and Michał Rola-Żymierski for Defense Ministry, the PKWN claimed to be leftist and broad democratic coalition, although it didnt include any of the major Polish political parties. Soviet employees outside the PPR occupied most of the key positions, only three out of the sixteen ministries were held by declared communists - security, propaganda and military affairs. The PKWNs program didnt contain typical Soviet policies i. e. collectivization or planned economy, the new regime, particularly at the outset, was completely dependent on Moscow. Polish Communists and other leftists had marginal support among the Polish population, in Stalins words to Rola-Żymierski, When the Soviet Army has gone, they will shoot you like partridges. The Committees early decrees authorized NKVDs control over the Red Armys rear areas, the PKWN used a combination of repressive and co-optive measures. It appealed to patriotic sentiment, sponsored activities, and implemented a radical land reform to bind the rural poor to the regime. The new Polish army, largely staffed with Soviet officers, retained the appearance of a national army, at the end of December 1944, the PKWN proclaimed itself the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland and was formally recognized by Moscow in January 1945. The RTRP was to govern the areas taken by the Red Army from Nazi Germany until the elections were held. This development was among reasons for the heightened the tension between the Soviet Union and the other members of the United Nations which would eventually lead to the Cold War. Provisional Government of National Unity Peoples Army of Poland Bibliography Żenczykowski, Tadeusz, mission to Moscow, Time,7 August 1944
3.
Policja
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Policja is the generic name for the police in Poland. The Polish police force was known as policja throughout the Second Polish Republic and its current size is 100,000 officers and ca.25,000 civilian employees. Among the branches in the force are, Criminal Service, Traffic Police Service, Prevention Service, most towns and some villages have their own city guards, which supervise public order and road safety. However, city guards have jurisdiction only over misdemeanors and in cases of crimes may serve only in a role for the state police. The forces name, Policja, translates into the English language as Police, a police station is known as Komenda Policji or Komisariat Policji both of which translate more or less into English as Police Commissariat. Female officers may be referred to as policjantki, the singular of which is policjantka, on occasion, this may or may not be followed by the term Oficer. In 1919, with the re-independence of the Polish nation, the state reorganised itself along non-federalist lines, during the inter-war period, a number of key law enforcement duties were delegated to other formations, such as the Border Guard and Military Gendarmerie. Ironically the reality turned out to be largely the opposite and the Milicja instead represented a rather state-controlled force which was used to political repression on the citizens. Today, most common types include various models from Kia Škoda, Alfa Romeo, Ford Mondeo, Opel, Volkswagen and this expansion in capabilities was a stated requirement of the police forces restructuring program. Beginning in 2009, the scheme is being modified to a silver body design with blue reflective strip. Traditionally, vehicles were painted a blue color with side doors painted in white, and with white stripes. Earlier versions had a stripe with the word POLICJA written under it. This design was adopted from the paint scheme used by the communist milicja, all uniformed and most non-uniformed officers of the state police are routinely armed. Pepper spray is also issued to officers in order to provide them with an alternative non-violent weapon with which to incapacitate violent suspects. Riot police, when needs be, are provided with non-ballistic body armour, helmets, in such cases they also dispose LRAD units. The existence of a ban on civilian-owned firearms in Poland has significantly aided the police in keeping gun crime to a minimum. The below list is not intended to be a full list of all the used by the Polish Police. The largest of police units are currently found on the Vistula river in Warsaw
4.
Militsiya
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Militsiya, often confused with militia, is used as an official name of the civilian police in several former communist states. Eventually, it was replaced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its regional branches are officially called Departments of Internal Affairs—city department of internal affairs, raion department of internal affairs, oblast department of internal affairs, etc. The Russian term for a department is OVD, for region department is UVD or, sometimes, GUVD. Functionally, Ministries of Internal Affairs are mostly police agencies, the Soviet and successor MVDs have usually been headed by a militsiya general and predominantly consist of service personnel, with civilian employees only filling auxiliary posts. Although such ministers are members of their respective countries cabinet, they usually do not report to the minister and parliament. Local militsiya departments are subordinated to their departments, having little accountability before local authorities. Internal affairs units within the militsiya itself are called internal security departments. The official names of particular militsiya bodies and services in post-Soviet countries are very complicated. Laws usually refer to police just as militsiya, the short term for a police officer is militsioner. Slang terms for militsioner include ment and musor, although the latter word is offensive, it originated from an acronym for the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department in Imperial Russia. Ment is an equivalent to the English slang term cop and has derived from the Lwów dialect. The organizational structure, methods and traditions of the militsiya differ significantly from those of western police, Militsiya as an organization consists of many functional departments, such as the GIBDD, a traffic police. Organized crime detectives form highly independent squads inside regional militsiya, some units may have the distinctive names which are more specific than militsiya or militsioner. Militsiya personnel ranks mostly follow those of the Army – from private, detectives hold a rank of lieutenant at least and could be promoted to major or the lieutenant colonel. The militsiya of an oblast is usually headed by a general, the rank name is suffixed with of militsiya. Militsiya personnel carry firearms, but are not permitted to carry their weapons when they are off duty, unlike in some other countries police agencies, militsioners are not assigned permanent partners, but work alone or within larger groups. Neither uniformed officers nor detectives are allowed to drive police vehicles themselves, under the Patrol Police Service Regulations a designated police officer-driver is required to have a driver license and is not allowed to abandon the vehicle. The last two are assigned to the vehicles registered to regional level MVD units
5.
Communism
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Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others argue that historical practice diverged from communist principles to a greater or lesser degree, according to Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, in the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Communist thought has also traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on ownership of property. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine, in the early 19th century, Various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the emphasis with a rational. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, in its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels, in 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. The 1917 October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to power of Lenins Bolsheviks. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a majority, the event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development, Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule, the moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenins Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalins attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party and its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The European and Japanese empires were shattered and Communist parties played a role in many independence movements
6.
Militia
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For instance, the members of some U. S. Army National Guard units are considered professional soldiers, as they are trained to maintain the same standards as their full-time counterparts. Militias thus can be military or paramilitary, depending on the instance, some of the contexts in which the term militia is used include, Forces engaged in defense activity or service, to protect a community, its territory, property, and laws. The entire able-bodied population of a community, town, county, or state, a subset of these who may be legally penalized for failing to respond to a call-up. A subset of these who actually respond to a call-up, regardless of legal obligation, a private, non-government force, not necessarily directly supported or sanctioned by its government. An irregular armed force enabling its leader to exercise military, economic, an official reserve army, composed of citizen soldiers. Called by various names in different countries, such as the Army Reserve, National Guard, the national police forces in several former communist states such as the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries, but also in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia. The term was inherited in Russia and other former CIS countries, in France the equivalent term Milice has become tainted due to its use by notorious collaborators with Nazi Germany. A select militia is composed of a small, non-representative portion of the population, as regular military forces were insufficient to counter the British attackers, Santiago de Liniers drafted all males in the city capable of bearing arms into the military. These recruits included the peoples, who ranked low down in the social hierarchy. With these reinforcements, the British armies were twice defeated, the militias became a strong factor in the politics of the city afterwards, as a springboard from which the criollos could manifest their political ambitions. They were a key element in the success of the May Revolution, a decree by Mariano Moreno derogated the system of promotions involving criollos, allowing instead their promotion on military merit. The Argentine Civil War was waged by militias again, as both federalists and unitarians drafted common people into their ranks as part of ongoing conflicts and these irregular armies were organized at a provincial level, and assembled as leagues depending on political pacts. This system had declined by the 1870s, mainly due to the establishment of the modern Argentine Army, provincial militias were outlawed and decimated by the new army throughout the presidential terms of Mitre, Sarmiento, Avellaneda and Roca. Armenian militia also played a role in the Georgia-Abkhazia War of 1992–1993, in the Colony of New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie proposed a colonial militia but the idea was rejected. Governor Ralph Darling felt a mounted force was more efficient than a militia. A military volunteer movement attracted wide interest during the Crimean War, following Federation, the various military reserve forces of the Commonwealth of Australia became the Citizen Military Force. In the beginning, members didnt have uniforms and often paraded in business attire and they were given instruction on guerrilla warfare, and later the private organization was taken over by the Australian Government and became part of the Australian Military Forces. After World War I, multiple militias formed as soldiers returned home to their villages, only to many of them occupied by Slovene
7.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
8.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
9.
Stalinism
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Stalinism is the means of governing and related policies implemented by Joseph Stalin. These included not only people but also working-class people accused of counter-revolutionary sympathies. Rapid industrialization was accompanied with mass collectivization of agriculture and rapid urbanization, rapid urbanization converted many small villages into industrial cities. After the American private enterprises completed their tasks, Soviet state enterprises took over, the term came into prominence during the mid-1930s, when Lazar Kaganovich, a Soviet politician and associate of Stalin, reportedly declared, Lets replace Long Live Leninism with Long Live Stalinism. Stalin initially met this usage with hesitancy, dismissing it as excessively praiseful, Stalinism usually denotes a style of a government, and an ideology. From 1917 to 1924, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin often appeared united, in his dispute with Leon Trotsky, Stalin de-emphasized the role of workers in advanced capitalist countries. Also, Stalin polemicized against Trotsky on the role of peasants, as in China, in Stalins view, counterrevolutionary elements will try to derail the transition to full Communism, and the state must be powerful enough to defeat them. For this reason, Communist regimes influenced by Stalin have been described as totalitarian. Soviet puppet Sheng Shicai extended Stalinist rule in Xinjiang province in the 1930s, Sheng conducted a purge similar to Stalins Great Purge in 1937. Stalin blamed the Kulaks as the inciters of reactionary violence against the people during the implementation of agricultural collectivisation, in response, the state under Stalins leadership initiated a violent campaign against the Kulaks, which has been labeled as classicide. Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from the party, in the 1930s, Stalin apparently became increasingly worried about the growing popularity of the Leningrad party boss Sergei Kirov. After the assassination of Kirov, which may have been orchestrated by Stalin, Stalin invented a detailed scheme to implicate opposition leaders in the murder, including Trotsky, thereafter, several trials known as the Moscow Trials were held, but the procedures were replicated throughout the country. Article 58 of the code, which listed prohibited anti-Soviet activities as counterrevolutionary crime, was applied in the broadest manner. The Russian word troika gained a new meaning, a quick, Stalins hand-picked executioner, Vasili Blokhin, was entrusted with carrying out some of the high-profile executions in this period. Many military leaders were convicted of treason and a purge of Red Army officers followed. The repression of so many formerly high-ranking revolutionaries and party members led Leon Trotsky to claim that a river of blood separated Stalins regime from that of Lenin. In August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico, where he had lived in exile since January 1937, this eliminated the last of Stalins opponents among the former Party leadership. With the exception of Vladimir Milyutin and Joseph Stalin himself, all of the members of Lenins original cabinet who had not succumbed to death from natural causes before the purge were executed
10.
Legionowo
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Legionowo is a town in Masovia. According to the 2004 Census estimate the town has a population of 50,759. Legionowo is located 23 kilometres to the north-east of the center of Warsaw and only 7 kilometres to the south of Zegrze Reservoir, near the Warsaw-Gdańsk railroad, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship, previously in Warszawa Voivodeship and old Masovian Voivodeship. Currently this is the capital of Legionowo County, which is one of 38 land counties in Masovian Voivodeship, adjoining counties, Pułtusk County, Wyszków County, Wołomin County, Warszawa County, Warszawa Zachód County, Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki County. Wyższa Szkoła Ekonomiczno-Techniczna Legionowos history dates back to 1877, when Jabłonna Nowa rail station was built, the name comes from Jabłonna, the nearby village, where in 1774-1779 Bishop Michał Poniatowski built his palace Jabłonna Palace - now owned by the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1912, Legionowo is given a city rights, in 1919, Jabłonna Nowa was renamed as Legionowo to honour Polish Legions. Ca.1920 Institute of Aerology was opened, during the Battle for Warsaw in August 1920, from barracks in Legionowo, General Żeligowski led the 10th Infantry Division to Radzymin, which helped to save Warsaw from the Red Army. In 1922, the Aviotex balloon and parachute factory, which also produced tents and other camping equipment, after 1925, Legionowo became a summer resort for inhabitants of Warsaw, as by that time, it was a wooded and unpolluted area. Between World War I and World War II, narrow-gauge railroad line connected Legionowo with Warsaw, in 1930, Legionowo became a commune. During World War II, a ward of Stalag 368 in Beniaminowo, during World War II, in 1944, Legionowo took part in Warsaw uprising, as so called District 7, Collar. During the first week of August 1944, Legionowo was a place of fights between German troops and Polish rebels. After a week or so, Germans put down the uprising, after World War II, there was a brick factory, now non-existent. In the 1950s, the railroad line was electrified. In the late 1960s, narrow-gauge railroad line was closed and in the early 1970s the tracks were removed, the terminus and depot buildings remain, currently in private use. In the 1960s, the first 4-storey blocks of flats were built, in the 1970s and 1980s, three large groups of flats were built. In 1977, a tin ware factory Bistyp was opened, in the early 1980s, a house factory was built near Legionowo, which made prefabricated elements for blocks of flats built in the region. In August 1990, the Police Training Centre, one of two institutions in Poland, was opened. After the big flood in southern parts of Poland in 1997, in 2012, Legionowo hosted the Greek football team during the Euro 2012 football competition
11.
European Solidarity Centre
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It opened on 31 August 2014. The design of the building, by Polish firm FORT Architects, was the winner of a competition held in 2007. The walls evoke the hulls of ships built at the Gdańsk Shipyard and it was completed at a cost of 229 million złoty, of which 113 million złoty was provided by the European Union, and the rest locally. The opening ceremony took place on 31 August 2014, on the anniversary of the signing of the Gdańsk Agreement, the 1980 victory for striking shipyard workers which led to Solidaritys foundation. The ceremony was attended by Lech Wałęsa, the co-founder of Solidarity and later President of Poland, the President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski, the preceding day was celebrated as a Citizens Day in which over 12,000 former Solidarity members and others took part. The centre awards Medals of Gratitude to foreigners who assisted the Polish opposition to Communism, the centres permanent exhibition has around 2,000 exhibits, and the library contains around 100,000 books and documents. The centre also contains a research and academic centre and conducts educational activities, as well as providing space for conferences and temporary exhibitions
12.
Highway patrol
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They are also referred to in many countries as traffic police, although in other countries this term is more commonly used to refer to foot officers on point duty who control traffic at junctions. Duties of highway patrols or traffic police may include the following, commercial vehicle enforcement Enforcing highway laws related to commercial transport, including weight limits and hazardous materials rules. Education Providing public information, handouts, and displays to encourage safe driving, emergency response Securing the scene of a traffic accident by using cones and flares as well as providing first aid to the injured. Law enforcement Assisting local police in rural areas, and keeping an eye out for non-traffic violations, maintenance Observing and reporting damage to the roadways, and conducting hasty road surveys after disasters or the passage of inclement weather. Traffic enforcement Enforcing laws and regulations intended to improve traffic safety, in Argentina, traffic policing is the responsibility of the Argentine National Gendarmerie. In Australia, traffic policing is the responsibility of the police forces. Each force has its own sections, often a local section in each area. Wiki page about the WPR In Brazil, traffic policing is the responsibility of state, State administered highways are policed by a branch of the Military Police forces, called State Highway Military Police. At the same time Federal highways and roads are the responsibility of the Federal Highway Police, in Canada, traffic policing on highways is the responsibility of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, except for the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Ontario Provincial Police Sûreté du Québec There is also a police force in Newfoundland known as the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Although this police force no longer exists as the provincial police service. Currently, the provincial sheriffs service in Alberta maintains a patrol that shares traffic duties with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and historically, several provinces. New Brunswick, have had their own highway patrols, Quebec also operates the Contrôle routier Québec, who enforce traffic laws in relation heavy vehicles. In Colombia, traffic policing on highways is the responsibility of the Highway Police, in Croatia, traffic police special department is the national motorway patrol, patrols the motorways in Croatia. Missions include the prevention and detection of driving offences, the car fleet is BMW 330d, Mercedes-Benz C320 CDI, Skoda Superb, VW Passat, VW Tuareg, Audi A4, Honda Accord, Ford Mondeo, Opel Vectra and Porsche Carrera 997. In the Czech Republic, traffic policing on highways is the responsibility of the Policie CR, in the Finland, traffic policing on highways is the responsibility of the Finnish National Police. In Germany, traffic policing on highways is the responsibility of the Autobahnpolizei section of the Landespolizei, in India, traffic policing on highways are carried out by state police forces. The Garda Traffic Corps, a unit of the Garda Síochána is responsible for patrolling the countries motorways
13.
ZOMO
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Zmotoryzowane Odwody Milicji Obywatelskiej, were paramilitary-police formations during the Communist Era, in the Peoples Republic of Poland. ZOMO units were created on December 24,1956 under the command of the President of the Council of Ministers of the Peoples Republic of Poland. From 1972, the duties of ZOMO included counter-terrorism, with the elite Special Platoons of the ZOMO created in 1978, as opposition to the communist government in Poland grew, the units were expanded to counter the growing unrest, and their role became more of anti-riot police. In 1968, ZOMO was used to disperse the student protests during the 1968 Polish political crisis, leading to the reform of the formation. Two years later in 1970, thousands of troops from the Polish Peoples Army and ZOMO were used to quell the Polish 1970 protests, killing dozens of people, the ZOMO gained the most of their infamy during the period of martial law in Poland. To parody the communist newspeak during that time they were often sarcastically called The beating heart of the Party, since 1990 several trials against former ZOMO members and their political leaders took place, most prominently in the case of the massacre in the Wujek Coal Mine. From the mid-1970s ZOMO was reputed to be one of the best trained and equipped police formations in the Eastern Bloc, a candidate for ZOMO had to have the height of at least 180 cm and the weight of at least 90 kg. After the 1968 expansion, people conscripted to the military could serve their draft in ZOMO. The formation numbered more than 12,000 members in the late 1980s, the martial-law-era ZOMO members were equipped with various police and military vehicles and various firearms as well as various types of riot equipment. From 1968 they wore uniforms with a very similar camouflage pattern to the one used by the Polish Peoples Army. The ZOMOs last action took place on July 3,1989, the units were disbanded on September 7,1989, following the fall of the communist system, and replaced with the OPP and SPAP units of Policja. In todays Poland the word ZOMO is a term used by protesters to denote all kinds of riot police. Kasernierte Volkspolizei Lidové milice OMON Eastern Bloc politics Internal Troops Zomoza Historia ZOMO
14.
FSO Warszawa
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Warszawa was a Polish automobile marque manufactured from 1951 to 1973 by the Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych of Warsaw. The Warszawa was the first new-design Polish car built after the Second World War, Warszawas were popular as taxis because of their sturdiness and ruggedness. However, due to their weight they were underpowered and had high fuel consumption, in total,254,471 cars were made. Named after the city of Warsaw, the Warszawa was until 1957 identical to the Soviet Pobeda, built under license, the first major modernisation took place in 1957. The new model was called FSO Warszawa M20 model 57, new model received a restyled front-end section. The powertrain was modified too, compression ratio was raised from 6.2,1 to 6.8,1, since 1962 car could be equipped with the OHV I4 engine. It was much more modern than the archaic sidevalve construction used before, in 1964 the body style was changed to a Ponton, three-box design by then becoming mainstream in Europe, though the car retained a rather heavy style to western eyes. In 1967 it was announced that Perkins four cylinder 1. 76-litre diesel engines would be fitted in export market Warszawas, the Warszawa was the basis for two rigid panel vans, the Żuk and the Nysa. Additionally there was a variant of the saloon car
15.
Polski Fiat 125p
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It was a simplified variation of the Fiat 125, with engines and mechanicals from the Fiat 1300/1500. To distinguish between the models, Fiat and FSO revived the marque Polski Fiat, after the termination of the license agreement, the car was also branded as the FSO1300, FSO1500 or FSO 125p. Even within the realities of a planned, socialist economy. On the 22 December 1965, a agreement was signed concerning manufacturing of intermediate-sized cars in Poland. The FSO plant had to be refurbished to be able to handle the assembly of a modern car, the production preparation process took almost two years, with the assembly of pre-production test series from parts imported from Italy commencing on 28 November 1967. By the end of the year,75 such cars were assembled, there were two main versions, differing in the engine employed,1300 or 1500. The 1300 model entered production in 1968 and the 1500 in 1969, the 1300 ceased production in the 1980s. A less visible but significant change in the Polski Fiat was a safer flat fuel tank above the rear axle and it also had more durable all-around disc brakes. Unlike the Fiat 125, the car was available as an estate. The station wagon won the 1978 Estate Car of the Year Award in the United Kingdom, a few cars were made with original Italian 1600 cc and 1800 cc engines, intended mostly for racing. An unusual variant built in a series was a lengthened cabriolet with three rows of seats, used by the tourist bureau in Warsaw for sightseeing. The power of engines was also raised by 3.7 kW. From 1983, the car was produced as the FSO 125p 1500/1300, in the late 1980s the 125p received its last upgrade in form of power train from the FSO Polonez and a new instrument cluster featuring round gauges in place of the classic Fiat speedometer. The car was produced until 26 June 1991, in total,1,445,689 were manufactured, by that time the design was 24 years old and used mechanicals which were essentially 30 years old, with only minor improvements. From 1978, a version with a new body was available – the FSO Polonez. The Polonez survived with improvements until 2002, in the UK & Ireland the Polski Fiat had been the cheapest car on the market for some time – just over £3000 in 1991. It was well known for its 1960s styling, durable but comfortable leatherette seats, mechanically, the 125p was rugged and reliable. The cars bodywork, however, was assembled from very low quality steel to keep prices and production costs down, also, the cars performance was less than that of the Italian 125, and its handling capabilities came nowhere close to those of the original design
16.
FSO Polonez
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The FSO Polonez was a Polish motor vehicle that was produced from 1978 to 2002. The cars name comes from the Polish dance, polonaise, the Polonez was a rebodied Polski Fiat 125p that Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych built under license from Fiat. The car was meant to be equipped with Fiats 2.0 Litre DOHC engines in the 1980s and this is also why the 125p was produced simultaneously with the Polonez for more than a decade. Moreover, mechanical modernization only took place when it could be applied to both cars and this situation finally changed after the production of the 125p ended in 1991. An advantage of Polonez is its passive safety, in 1978, it was the only East European car built to pass U. S. crash tests. Crash tests were performed in 1994 according to EU safety regulations so that the Polonez could be exported worldwide and they proved the car to be very safe. The Caro 1.9 GLD hitting a block with 40% of the front at 50 km/h survived very well. All doors could be opened without any difficulty, there were no critical injuries for passengers, the Polonez range was expanded to encompass a wide range of bodies. 1974 FSO chose Fiats ESV prototype as base of new car, FSOs designer Zbigniew Watson joins Giorgetto Giugiaro and Walter de Silva to convert ESV project to the size of Fiat 125 floor and design interior and all body details. 1975 Fiat prepared prototypes of type 137 named Polski and sent them to FSO, in May 1978, mass production commenced. The official premiere of the FSO Polonez 1500 and FSO Polonez 1300 took place, the FSO Polonez 2000 Rally with a 2-liter Fiat DOHC engine was displayed. In 1979 the FSO Polonez 2000, sold mostly to government officials, the Polonez 2000 has a Fiat twin-cam engine with 1,995 cc,82 kW, a 5-speed gearbox, a 0–100 km/h acceleration of 12.0 seconds, and a 175 km/h top speed. The FSO Polonez 2000 Rally debuted in the Rallye Monte Carlo, in 1980 the FSO Polonez 1300 and 1500 three-door appeared. With the same front doors as the five-door version, it was produced in 1980-1983 in about 300 units. In 1981, the FSO Polonez in economy version was added and this was sold without black side rubbing strips between the front and rear wheel, chrome bumper strips, rear window wiper-washer, fog lamps, luggage cover, and rev counter. Plain vinyl was used on the seats and in the luggage compartment, at the other end appeared the top version, FSO Polonez 1500 X. This was fitted with the AB1,481 cc engine of 60 kW, a gearbox. It was sold in the market, usually for U. S. dollar payments
17.
ZSD Nysa
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The Nysa van was produced in the town of Nysa, Poland, from 1958 until 1994. The basic body variant was a van, for cargo or persons. At the rear, most variants had a door opening to the left side. There existed also variants, a van, a minibus and an ambulance. A rare variant was made in the form of a light truck, at the time, the Nysa was practically the only van-size ambulance used in Poland. Many vans were sold to the Militia, which was the form of police during the Communist era in Poland. The summit of popularity was in the 1970s, with 18,200 made in 1978, in the 1980s the production decreased. When Poland became a democracy again in 1989 the future was bleak for the Nysa, development work had been minimal for the past 20 years. Most customers, including the Police, chose more modern, faster and safer vans of Western manufacturers, the production was closed in 1994, after manufacturing 380,575 vehicles. Both Nysa and its sibling Żuk van were heavily based on the Warszawa, among others, it had the same wheelbase and engine. Its transmission and suspension were modified, early variants of the Nysa were powered by the M20 petrol engine, most common was the newer S21 petrol engine, used from 1964 onward. A big part of production was exported, mostly to Eastern Bloc countries, especially Bulgaria, Russia and Hungary, in Hungary Nysa vans were almost exclusively used as ambulance cars,777 of them were in use in 1987. In 1968 the front end styling was changed, and the most numerous model 521/522 entered production, Nysa models included, N57, N58, N59, N60, N61, N63,501,503 and 521/522. Nysa and other Polish trucks Discussion Board
18.
FSC Star
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Fabryka Samochodów Ciężarowych Star was a Polish truck manufacturer. The name comes from the City of Starachowice, where the factory is located and their first vehicle was the Star 20 in 1948. The most popular product was the Star 266, the 266 model offered very good quality and powerful engines for a low price. It was sold in countries for many years. For many years FSC Star was a state-owned company, Star is now owned by MAN AG who eliminated the brand in January 2009. The state-owned company Fabryka Samochodów Ciężarowych im, feliksa Dzierżyńskiego was established in 1948 in place of a Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein supplier, which was there since 1920. In 1991 the company was transformed into Zakład Starachowicki STAR SA, in the mid-90s control of the company was taken over by Sobiesław Zasada Centrum S. A. It tried without success to create a Polish company specializing in the production of utility vehicles, later the company was split into two, Star Trucks Sp. Z o. o. and Inwest Star S. A, at the end of 1999, Star Trucks Sp. Z o. o. was taken over by the German group MAN AG, the company continued for a few years production of trucks. Initially of its own design, then models with a share of the group MAN components, such as drivers cabins. On 1 August 2003 MAN Star Trucks Sp, Z o. o. merged with MAN Bus Poland Sp. Z o. o. into MAN Star Trucks & Busses Sp, Z o. o. with headquarters in Sady near Poznan. In the same year the factory in Starachowice started making frames and chassis components for the bus plants in Sady, Sady is the main production site for the Lions City bus range. The level of production of trucks continued to fall, reaching in the period a few hundred units per year. In 2004 manufacturing of trucks was moved to a MAN factory in Steyr, Starachowice continued to make small numbers of trucks for the army and various services. In 2006 manufacturing of trucks ceased completely, the plant in Starachowice currently produces frames of buses and bus and truck components for group MAN. The brand Star was used for selling on the Polish market of Steyr trucks produced in Austria, on 9 January 2009, the company MAN Star Trucks & Buses eliminated Star from the name and is now known as MAN Bus Sp
19.
Combination bus
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A combination bus, also called a truck bus or shift bus is a purpose-built truck with a passenger container fulfilling the role of a bus. Such vehicles used to be common in Communist Bloc countries and in developing countries, alternative combination buses can be a passenger/cargo module/container mounted on a truck chassis, or a bus with a large open or closed in cargo area known as a bruck. Truck buses were used by the military, the police anti-riot units, public utilities, as school buses. Combination buses are built by installing a complete box body equipped for transporting people onto a truck chassis, the body is independent and separate from the driver. There is usually no passage between the cab and box body but there is usually an intercom system, the body is equipped with windows, a separate internal lighting and heating and/or air conditioning systems. Related bodies are different types of workshops or specialized military superstructure. Some companies such as Haargaz manufacture combination buses by installing a partial bus body on a truck chassis. Due to the minimum of comfort provided by the combination bus, specifically, the distribution of workers in large workplaces under the open sky such as a large construction site, agricultural labor, quarries or surface mines. Often these vehicles built on off-road vehicle chassis and these vehicles are also used as police intervention units, commandos and anti-terrorism units. List of buses Patria Manhauler builds a similar concept
20.
ORMO
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ORMO, or the Volunteer Reserve Militia, was a paramilitary organization and voluntary support brigade of MO communist police force. ORMO was founded in the Peoples Republic of Poland soon after the Soviet takeover in 1946, the Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej, ORMO, was created on February 21,1946, by the State National Council under the auspices of the Communist Polish Workers Party. It was placed under the control of the Ministry of Public Security led by the tovarishch Jakub Berman of the Politburo – Joseph Stalins right hand in Poland, the new units were considerably small, made up of 30–300 men armed with rifles and submachine guns. ORMO played a role in the rigging of the first ever vote in postwar Poland. The ORMO men, armed with guns, guarded entrances to all polling stations and expelled official observers and they did it again a year later, during the Polish legislative elections of 1947, when they drove opposition candidates out of towns by using intimidation and violence. In total, almost 100,000 functionaries across the country were deployed in order to secure the communist landslide victory in that year, after 1947, the activities of ORMO became more general, shifting from specific political persecution of the regimes opponents, to the public at large. ORMO infiltrated factories and conducted round-ups among shop owners and they confiscated grain and meat from independent farmers, and took part in arresting them as the enemies of the state, along with regular police. ORMO informants were placed everywhere within the nationalized industry, with time, as the political situation in Poland stabilized, postwar submachine guns were replaced with concealed weapons. ORMO men did not receive salaries, but were showered with regular monetary bonuses. They were given new apartments, talons for cars, exclusive vacations and access to health clinics. They were thoroughly indoctrinated and feared by the general population, the next widely known operation by the ORMO took place during the March 1968 events, simultaneously in several major cities across Poland. Similar operations followed in Kraków, Lublin, Gliwice, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Poznań, at least 2,725 people were arrested. The success of the ORMO attack on universities in the wake of growing citizen discontent prompted the Ministry to begin massive expansion of its rank, by 1979, ORMO reached over 450,000 members. The nascent Solidarity movement took communists by surprise, by mid-1981 the membership of the Trade Union reached 9.5 million, 1⁄3 of the working-age population of Poland. In this case, the ORMO formations werent used against striking workers because many of its volunteers had become demoralized by public resentment, the show-of-force operations were confined only to major urban centres. With the crushing of Solidarity by the 1981 military coup, all operations were taken over by motorized police, the ZOMO. Attempts at restructuring ORMO as the Partys own self-defence force failed miserably, in the following years many regional cells were closed down due to a lack of volunteers. Finally, in 1989 ORMO was officially dissolved by the Sejm, media related to Citizens Militia in Peoples Republic of Poland at Wikimedia Commons
21.
Eastern Bloc politics
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The resulting governments contained vestiges of western democracies to initially conceal the process. Party and social purges were employed along with the use of secret police organizations modeled on the Soviet KGB to monitor. At the end of World War II by mid-1945, all eastern, Eastern Poland, eastern Finland, the Baltics, Bukovina, and Bessarabia, now called Moldova, were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union. The eastern Polish territories remain part of Ukraine and Belarus as of the early 21st century, Red Army and NKVD personnel began to impose the communist system in 1939. The Soviet invasion of these areas in 1939 created local allies, the Soviet Union began planning the transformation of Eastern Europe even before the 1941 Nazi invasion of the USSR. There is evidence that the USSR did not expect to create a communist bloc quickly or easily, Ivan Maiskii, Soviet foreign minister under Stalin, wrote in 1944 that all European nations would eventually become communist states but only after a period of three to four decades. Eastern European communist leaders generally participated in national front coalitions during the 1930s to oppose Nazi expansion and these coalitions were modeled upon those of Spain and France. Historian Tony Judt described the war in Spain as “a dry run for the seizure of power in Eastern Europe after 1945. ”These included Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, part of eastern Finland. By 1945, these additional annexed countries totaled approximately 180,000 additional square miles, or slightly more than the area of West Germany, East Germany and Austria combined. The Soviets encouraged the worship of everything Russian and the reproduction of their own Communist structural hierarchies in each of the Bloc states, the Soviets mandated expropriation and etatization of private property. In addition, media in the Eastern Bloc served as an organ of the state, completely reliant on, the state owned radio and television organizations while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the ruling communist party. The initial issue arising in countries occupied by the Red Army in 1944 and 1945 was the manner in which to transform occupation power into control over domestic development. Because communists were relatively small minorities in all countries but Czechoslovakia, at the wars end, concealment of the Kremlins role was considered crucial to neutralize resistance and to make the regimes appear not only autochthonous, but also to resemble bourgeois democracies. Dissenters who approached such foreigners were arrested, for many years after World War II, even the best informed foreigners did not know the number of arrested or executed Soviet citizens, or how poorly the Soviet economy had performed. In the other countries of the Bloc, Stalin stated that the Eastern European version of democracy was a modification of western bourgeois democracy. This sovietization involved the gradual assimilation of local political, socioeconomic, Moscow trained cadres were placed into crucial power positions to fulfill orders regarding sociopolitical transformation. Elimination of the social and financial power by expropriation of landed. These measures were publicly billed as reforms rather than socioeconomic transformations and those organizations were managed by communist cadres, though some diversity was permitted initially
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