1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
2.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
Poland
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Reconstruction of a
Bronze Age,
Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, c. 700 BC
Poland
–
Flag
Poland
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Earliest known contemporary depiction of a Polish ruler; King
Mieszko II Lambert of Poland being presented with a
Liturgical book by
Matilda of Swabia, 1025–1031
Poland
–
Drawing of the
Battle of Grunwald, which was fought against the
German Order of Teutonic Knights, 15 July 1410
3.
Voivodeships of Poland
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A województwo is the highest-level administrative subdivision of Poland, corresponding to a province in many other countries. The term województwo has been in use since the 14th century, the word województwo is also rendered as voivodeship or a variant spelling. The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999 and these replaced the 49 former voivodeships that had existed from 1 July 1975. Todays voivodeships are mostly named after historical and geographical regions, while prior to 1998 generally took their names from the cities on which they were centered. The new units range in area from under 10,000 km2 to over 35,000 km2, voivodeships are further divided into powiats and gminas, see Administrative divisions of Poland. Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode, the sejmik and the marshal. In most cases these institutions are all based in one city, but in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lubusz Voivodeship the voivodes offices are in a different city from those of the executive, Voivodeship capitals are listed in the table below. The voivode is appointed by the Prime Minister and is the representative of the central government. The voivodes offices collectively are known as the urząd wojewódzki, the sejmik is elected every four years, at the same time as the local authorities at powiat and gmina level. It passes bylaws, including the development strategies and budget. It also elects the marszałek and other members of the executive, the marshals offices are collectively known as the urząd marszałkowski. According to 2014 Eurostat data, the GDP per capita of Polish voivodeships varies notably, Administrative division of Poland between 1979 and 1998 included 49 voivodeships upheld after the establishment of the Third Polish Republic in 1989 for another decade. This reorganization of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of government reform acts of 1973–1975. In place of the administrative division, a new two-level administrative division was introduced. The three smallest voivodeships – Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź – had the status of municipal voivodeship. After World War II, the new division of the country within the new national borders was based on the prewar one and included 14 voivodeships. The voivodeships in the east that had not been annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. The newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the new voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław and Olsztyn, two cities were granted voivodeship status, Warsaw and Łódź
Voivodeships of Poland
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Voivodeships 1816-1820
Voivodeships of Poland
–
Voivodeships of Poland Województwa Polski (
Polish)
Voivodeships of Poland
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Voivodeships of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1635
4.
Masovian Voivodeship
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Masovian Voivodeship or Mazovia Province, is the largest and most populous of the sixteen Polish provinces, or voivodeships, created in 1999. It occupies 35,579 square kilometres of east-central Poland, and has 5,324,500 inhabitants. Its principal cities are Warsaw in the centre of the Warsaw metropolitan area, Radom in the south, Płock in the west, Siedlce in the east, the capital of the voivodeship is the national capital, Warsaw. The province was created on January 1,1999, out of the former Warsaw, Płock, Ciechanów, Ostrołęka, Siedlce and Radom Voivodeships, the provinces name recalls the traditional name of the region, Mazowsze, with which it is roughly coterminous. Masovian Voivodeship is divided into 42 counties,5 city counties and 37 land counties and these are subdivided into 314 gminas, which include 85 urban gminas. The counties, shown on the map, are described in the table below. The voivodeship contains 85 cities and towns and these are listed below in descending order of population, Protected areas in Masovian Voivodeship include one National Park and nine Landscape Parks. Together with Płock and Rawa Voivodeships, it formed the province of Masovia, Masovian Voivodeship was one of the voivodeships of Congress Poland. It was formed from Warsaw Department, and transformed into Masovia Governorate, there are three main road routes that pass through the voivodship, Cork–Berlin–Poznań–Warszawa–Minsk–Moscow–Omsk, Prague–Wrocław–Warsaw–Białystok–Helsinki and Pskov–Gdańsk–Warsaw–Kraków–Budapest. Currently there are small stretches of autostrada in the area. However, the A2 autostrada, upon its completion, will be the first autostrada to connect the region, the autostrada will pass directly through the voivodship from east to west connecting it with Belarus and Germany. The railroad system is based on Koleje Mazowieckie and PKP Intercity, the main international airport in the region is Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport. Masovian Voivodeship is the wealthiest province in Poland and it produces 22% of Polish GDP, and GDP per capita is 160% of country average. Second Polish Republics Warsaw Voivodeship Official website Things to do in Warsaw
Masovian Voivodeship
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Masovian Voivodeship Województwo mazowieckie
Masovian Voivodeship
Masovian Voivodeship
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Warsaw is the capital of Poland
Masovian Voivodeship
–
Radom is part of historical
Lesser Poland
5.
Powiat
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A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. The term powiat is most often translated into English as county, a powiat is part of a larger unit, the voivodeship or province. A powiat is usually subdivided into gminas, major towns and cities, however, function as separate counties in their own right, without subdivision into gminas. They are termed city counties and have roughly the same status as county boroughs in the UK. The other type of powiats are termed land counties, as of 2008, there were 379 powiat-level entities,314 land counties, and 65 city counties. For a complete listing, see List of Polish counties. For tables of counties by voivodeship, see the articles on the individual voivodeships, the history of Polish powiats goes back to the second half of the 14th century. They remained the basic unit of organization in Poland, then in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After Poland regained independence in 1918, the powiats were again the territorial units. Powiats were abolished in 1975 in favor of a number of voivodeships. This reform also created 16 larger voivodeships, legislative power within a powiat is vested in an elected council, while local executive power is vested in the starosta, who is elected by that council. The administrative offices headed by the starosta are called the starostwo, however, in city counties these institutions do not exist separately – their powers and functions are exercised by the city council, the directly elected mayor, and the city offices. In some cases a powiat has its seat outside its own territory, for example, Poznań County has its offices in Poznań, although Poznań is itself a city county, and is therefore not part of Poznań County. Powiats have relatively limited powers, since many local and regional matters are dealt with either at gmina or voivodeship level, the Polish the name of an county, in the administrative sense, consists of the word powiat followed by a masculine-gender adjective. In most cases, this is the formed from the name of the town or city where the county has its seat. Thus the county with its seat at the town of Kutno is named powiat kutnowski, if the name of the seat comprises a noun followed by an adjective, as in Maków Mazowiecki, the adjective will generally be formed from the noun only. There are also a few counties whose names are derived from the names of two towns, from the name of a city and an adjective, or a mountain range. There is more one way to render such names into English
Powiat
–
Division of Poland into powiats (counties)
6.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
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Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
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G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
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Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
–
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
7.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
Central European Summer Time
–
light blue
8.
Polish car number plates
–
Polish vehicle registration plates indicate the region of registration of the vehicle encoded in the number plate. According to Polish law, the plate is tied to the vehicle. There is no possibility for the owner to keep the number for use on a different car. The licence plates are issued by the powiat of the vehicle owners registered address of residence, if it is owned by a legal person, the place of registration is determined by the address of its seat. Vehicles leased under operating leases and many de facto finance leases will be registered at the seat of the lessor, when a vehicle changes hands, the new owner must apply for new vehicle registration document bearing his or her name and registered address. The new owner may obtain a new licence plate although it is not necessary when new owners residence address lies in the area as the previous owners. In such a situation the licence plates are carried over to the new owner. If the car has a pre- May 1,2006 plate, the plaque cannot be replaced if destroyed. The change of the set is required. The change in system shown below in 2001 is related to the reduction in the year of the number of voivodeships in Poland from 49 to 16. The pre-2001 licence plates can be used indefinitely, but since they are obsolete they have to be replaced in case of change of vehicles ownership. In the pre-2001 model, there were not sufficient letters in the Polish alphabet for each of the old voivodeships to have a single letter, only the standard latin alphabet were used, the specific Polish characters with diacritics were excluded in order to make the plates fully internationally readable. Therefore, two letters had to be used to indicate the vehicles origin, since the change, the first letter denotes the new voivodeship. One additional letter is used in cities with rights of powiat, two additional letters are used in any other powiat. It is not necessary for EU citizens to re-register the vehicles they have brought them, which are duly registered and taxed elsewhere in the EU. This emerges from European law, although local regulations have to not been changed to reflect the law. If in doubt, refer to your Embassy, if the vehicle uses only one licence plate the excessive sticker must be attached to the registration papers. Each powiat uses a two or three letter code, with the first letter denoting the powiats voivodeship
Polish car number plates
–
Polish license plates from
Radomsko
Polish car number plates
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Polish voivodeship licence plate codes
Polish car number plates
–
Polish license plate from
Ustrzyki Dolne
Polish car number plates
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Motorcycle plate from
Wrocław
9.
Vistula
–
The Vistula is the longest and largest river in Poland, at 1,047 kilometres in length. The drainage basin area of the Vistula is 194,424 km2, the remainder is in Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in the south of Poland,1,220 meters above sea level in the Silesian Beskids, where it begins with the White Little Vistula and the Black Little Vistula. It empties into the Vistula Lagoon or directly into the Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea with a delta, the name was first recorded by Pomponius Mela in AD40 and by Pliny in AD77 in his Natural History. Mela names the river Vistula, Pliny uses Vistla, the root of the name Vistula is Indo-European *u̯eis- to ooze, flow slowly and is found in many European rivernames. The diminutive endings -ila, -ula, were used in many Indo-European languages, in writing about the Vistula River and its peoples, Ptolemy uses the Greek spelling Ouistoula. Other ancient sources spell it Istula, ammianus Marcellinus refers to the Bisula, note the absence of the -t-. Jordanes uses Viscla, while the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith refers to it as the Wistla, the Vistula river basin covers 194,424 square kilometres, its average altitude rising to 270 metres above sea level. In addition, the majority of its basin is located at heights of 100 to 200 m above sea level. The highest point of the basin lies at 2,655 metres. The asymmetry of the basin is 73–27%. The most recent glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch, which ended around 10,000 BC, is called the Vistulian glaciation or Weichselian glaciation in regard to north-central Europe. The river forms a delta called the Żuławy Wiślane around the town of Biała Góra near Sztum, about 50 km from the mouth. In the city of Gdańsk the Head of the Leniwka branch separates again into the Szkarpawa branch, the so-called Dead Wisła divides again into the Przegalinie branch flowing into Gdańsk Bay. Until the 14th century the Vistula was divided into an eastern branch, the Elbląg Vistula, and the smaller western branch. Since 1371 the Vistula of Gdańsk is the main artery. After the flood in 1840 an additional branch formed called the Śmiała Wisła, in 1890 through 1895, additional waterworks were carried out up the Świbna. The history of the River Vistula and her valley spans over 2 million years, the river is connected to the geological period called the Quaternary, in which distinct cooling of the climate took place
Vistula
–
Confluence of the
Narew and the Vistula at
Modlin,
Poland
Vistula
–
Vistula River in the vicinity of
Płock, Poland
Vistula
–
Vistula River flowing through
Kraków, Poland
Vistula
–
Medieval
Wawel Castle in
Kraków seen from the Vistula river
10.
Central Statistical Office (Poland)
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The president of GUS reports directly to the Prime Minister of Poland and is considered the equivalent of a Polish government minister. GUS was organized in 1918 by Ludwik Krzywicki, one of the most notable sociologists of his time, inactive during World War II, GUS was reorganized in 1945. The office is divided into separate branches, each responsible for a different set of data. Notable GUS publications include Rocznik Statystyczny, Mały Rocznik Statystyczny, and Wiadomości Statystyczne
Central Statistical Office (Poland)
–
Main building of the Central Statistical Office,
Warsaw
Central Statistical Office (Poland)
–
Krzywicki
11.
Invasion of Poland
–
The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
Invasion of Poland
–
Vyacheslav Molotov signs the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a German–Soviet non-aggression pact.
Invasion of Poland
–
From left to right:
Luftwaffe preparing to bomb
Wieluń,
SMS Schleswig-Holstein attacking the port of
Danzig,
Wehrmacht soldiers destroying the Polish-German border post, German tank and armored car formation, German and Soviet troops shaking hands following the invasion,
Bombing of Warsaw.
Invasion of Poland
–
Polish Infantry
Invasion of Poland
–
Polish
PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber
12.
Nazi Germany
–
Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
Nazi Germany
–
Hitler became Germany's head of state, with the title of
Führer und Reichskanzler, in 1934.
Nazi Germany
–
Flag
Nazi Germany
–
Joseph Goebbels,
Reich Minister of Propaganda
Nazi Germany
–
Ethnic Germans in
Saaz, Czechoslovakia, greet German soldiers with the
Nazi salute, 1938
13.
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
–
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland were established during World War II in hundreds of locations across occupied Poland. In most cases, the larger ghettos did not correspond to traditional Jewish neighborhoods, smaller Jewish communities with populations under 500 were terminated through expulsion soon after the invasion. The Nazi extermination program depended on killing centers as much as on the effectiveness of their railways, rail transport enabled the SS to run industrial-scale mass-extermination facilities and, at the same time, openly lie to their victims about the resettlement program. Jews were transported to their deaths in Holocaust trains from liquidated ghettos of all occupied cities, including Litzmannstadt, by the time Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe was liberated by the Red Army, not a single Jewish ghetto in Poland was left standing. Only about 50, 000–120,000 Polish Jews survived the war on native soil with the assistance of their Polish neighbors, in total, according to USHMM archives, The Germans established at least 1000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone. Also, not all ghettos are listed due to their transient nature. Permanent ghettos were created only in settlements with connections, because the food aid was completely dependent on the Germans. Throughout 1940 and 1941, most ghettos were sealed off from the outside, walled off or enclosed with barbed wire, and many Jews found leaving them were shot. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles, the Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 inmates. In documents and signage, the Nazis usually referred to the ghettos they created as Jüdischer Wohnbezirk or Wohngebiet der Juden, the quagmire was resolved at the Wannsee conference of 20 January 1942 near Berlin, where the Final Solution was set in place. The settlements listed in the Polish language, including cities, had all been renamed after the 1939 joint invasion of Poland by Germany. Renaming everything in their own image had been one way in which the sought to redraw Europes political map. All Polish territories were confiscated as either Nazi zones of occupation, Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free Jewish aliyah without visas or exit permits upon the conclusion of World War II. By contrast, Stalin forcibly brought Soviet Jews back to USSR along with all Soviet citizens, german camps in occupied Poland during World War II Nazi crimes against the Polish nation Timeline of Treblinka
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
–
A child lies on the street in the
Warsaw Ghetto, May 1941. Photo by Nazi officer P.K. Zermin, now in German Federal Archive
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
–
Partial liquidation of the
Białystok Ghetto, 15–20 August 1943. Jewish men with their hands up, surrounded by military unit
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
–
Originally captioned "Forcibly pulled out of dug-outs," this
Stroop Report photo shows SS man
Josef Blösche pointing his gun at people during the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
14.
The Holocaust in Poland
–
The genocide officially sanctioned and executed by the Third Reich during World War II, collectively known as the Holocaust, took the lives of more than three million Polish Jews. German companies bid for the contracts to build the crematoria in concentration camps run by Nazi Germany in the General Government as well as in parts of occupied Poland and beyond. Throughout the German occupation, at risk to themselves and their families. Grouped by nationality, Polish rescuers represent the biggest number of people who saved Jews during the Holocaust, already recognized by the State of Israel, the Polish Righteous Among the Nations include 6,706 gentiles, more than any other nation. Following the 1939 invasion of Poland in accordance with the protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Nazi Germany. Large areas of western Poland were annexed by Germany, within months, the Polish Jews in the Soviet-occupied zone, who refused to swear an oath of allegiance, were deported to Siberia along with the Catholics. Their number is estimated at about 200,000 men, women and children, both occupying powers were equally hostile to the existence of sovereign Polish state, and endorsed the policy of ethnic cleansing. However, the Soviet rule was short-lived because the terms of the Nazi–Soviet Pact signed earlier in Moscow were broken, from 1941 to 1943 all of Poland was under the control of Nazi Germany. The semi-colonial territory of the General Government, set up in central and south-eastern Poland, prior to World War II, there were 3,500,000 Jews in Poland, living predominantly in the cities, about 10% of the general population. Database of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews provides information on 1926 Jewish communities across the country, following the conquest of Poland, the first German anti-Jewish measures involved the policy of expulsion of Jews from the territories annexed by the Third Reich. Annexed directly to the new Warthegau district, the city of Łódź absorbed the influx of some 40,000 Polish Jews forced out from the surrounding areas, a total of 204,000 Jews passed through the ghetto in Łódź. Initially, they were to be expelled to the Generalgouvernement, however, the ultimate destination of the massive removal of Jews was left open until the Final Solution was set in motion two years later. Persecution of Polish Jews by the German occupation authority began immediately after the invasion, during this period, the Germans ordered Jewish communities to appoint Jewish Councils to administer the ghettos and to be responsible in the strictest sense for carrying out orders. Most ghettos were set up in cities and towns where Jewish life was well organized, for logistical reasons, the Jewish communities in settlements without railway connections in occupied Poland were dissolved. In a massive deportation action involving the use of freight trains, the food aid was completely dependent on the SS. Jews were legally banned from baking bread, they were sealed off from the public in an unsustainable manner. By the end of 1941, most ghettoised Jews had no savings left to pay the SS for further bulk food deliveries, the Warsaw ghetto contained more Jews than all of France, the Łódź Ghetto more Jews than all of the Netherlands. More Jews lived in the city of Kraków than in all of Italy, all of southeast Europe – Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece – had fewer Jews than the original four districts of the General Government
The Holocaust in Poland
–
"The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", by the
Polish government-in-exile addressed to the
wartime allies of the then-
United Nations, 1942
The Holocaust in Poland
–
Map of the Holocaust in occupied Poland during World War II with six
extermination camps:
Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Bełżec,
Chełmno,
Majdanek,
Sobibór and
Treblinka; as well as remote mass killing sites at
Bronna Góra,
Ponary,
Połonka and others. Marked with the
Star of David are selected large Polish cities with the
extermination ghettos
The Holocaust in Poland
–
Entrance to Camp I at
Auschwitz (top) with the sign on the gate reading
Arbeit macht frei, compared with the real
death factory nearby (bottom) at Auschwitz II-Birkenau
The Holocaust in Poland
–
Auschwitz II Birkenau prisoners
15.
Wojciech Gerson
–
Wojciech Gerson was a leading Polish painter of the mid-19th century, and one of the foremost representatives of the Polish school of Realism during the foreign Partitions of Poland. He also wrote art-reviews and published a book of anatomy for the artists, a large number of his paintings were stolen by Nazi Germany in World War II, and never recovered. Gerson was born in Warsaw during the November Uprising against the Russians and he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1844 and graduated with honors in 1850. In 1853 Gerson received a scholarship to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and he graduated with a silver medal in St. Petersburg and returned to Warsaw in 1855. He left for Paris in 1856 and studied under Léon Cogniet, Gerson came back to Poland in February 1858. He resided in Warsaw for the rest of his life, nevertheless continued to travel abroad, Gerson was a co-founder of the Fine-Arts Society Zachęta established in 1860. It was the first support-group of its kind in Warsaw under the foreign occupation and he began to teach art in his own workshop in 1865, and became professor at the School of Fine Arts in 1872. He trained a generation of future Polish artists there, until his retirement in 1896, Gerson was granted the title of academic by the St. Petersburg Fine Arts Academy in 1873 and named a professor in 1878. Gerson also worked as an architect and art critic and he is revered in Poland for his historical paintings of patriotic nature, scenes of country life, and mountain landscapes. Gerson died in Warsaw, at the age of 70, and is buried in the Evangelical Cemetery of the Augsburg Confession in Warsaw. His painting can be seen at the National Museum, Warsaw, Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, and in other branches of the National Museum of Poland as well as in selected churches
Wojciech Gerson
–
Wojciech Gerson
Wojciech Gerson
Wojciech Gerson
Wojciech Gerson
16.
Benedictine
–
Each community within the order maintains its own autonomy, while the order itself represents their mutual interests. Internationally, the order is governed by the Benedictine Confederation, a body, established in 1883 by Pope Leo XIIIs Brief Summum semper, individuals whose communities are members of the order generally add the initials OSB after their names. The monastery at Subiaco in Italy, established by Saint Benedict of Nursia circa 529, was the first of the monasteries he founded. He later founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino, there is no evidence, however, that he intended to found an order and the Rule of Saint Benedict presupposes the autonomy of each community. It was from the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome that Augustine, the prior, at various stopping places during the journey, the monks left behind them traditions concerning their rule and form of life, and probably also some copies of the Rule. Lérins Abbey, for instance, founded by Honoratus in 375, probably received its first knowledge of the Benedictine Rule from the visit of St. Augustine, in Gaul and Switzerland, it supplemented the much stricter Irish or Celtic Rule introduced by Columbanus and others. In many monasteries it eventually displaced the earlier codes. Largely through the work of Benedict of Aniane, it became the rule of choice for monasteries throughout the Carolingian empire, Monastic scriptoria flourished from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Sacred Scripture was always at the heart of every monastic scriptorium, as a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole active work. In the Middle Ages monasteries were founded by the nobility. Cluny Abbey was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910, the abbey was noted for its strict adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict. The abbot of Cluny was the superior of all the daughter houses, one of the earliest reforms of Benedictine practice was that initiated in 980 by Romuald, who founded the Camaldolese community. The English Benedictine Congregation is the oldest of the nineteen Benedictine congregations, Augustine of Canterbury and his monks established the first English Benedictine monastery at Canterbury soon after their arrival in 597. Many of the sees of England were founded and governed by the Benedictines. Monasteries served as hospitals and places of refuge for the weak, the monks studied the healing properties of plants and minerals to alleviate the sufferings of the sick. Germany was evangelized by English Benedictines, willibrord and Boniface preached there in the seventh and eighth centuries and founded several abbeys. In the English Reformation, all monasteries were dissolved and their lands confiscated by the Crown, during the 19th century they were able to return to England, including to Selby Abbey in Yorkshire, one of the few great monastic churches to survive the Dissolution. St. Mildreds Priory, on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, was built in 1027 on the site of an abbey founded in 670 by the daughter of the first Christian King of Kent, currently the priory is home to a community of Benedictine nuns
Benedictine
–
Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–543). Detail from a
fresco by
Fra Angelico (c. 1400–1455) in the
Basilica San Marco,
Florence.
Benedictine
–
Design on the obverse side of the
Saint Benedict Medal
Benedictine
–
Benedict of Aniane (747–821).
Benedictine
–
The two sides of a Saint Benedict Medal
17.
Monastery
–
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
Monastery
–
The
Monastery of Santa María del Parral of the
Hieronymites monks in
Segovia,
Spain
Monastery
–
Monastery of St. Nilus on
Stolbnyi Island in
Lake Seliger near
Ostashkov,
Russia, ca. 1910
Monastery
–
Tengboche Buddhist monastery,
Nepal
Monastery
–
Rumtek Monastery,
Gangtok Sikkim
18.
Polish monarchs
–
This list concerns the historical monarchs of Poland, from the Middle Ages to 1795. For presidents and other heads of state of Poland during the 20th and 21st centuries, Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes or by kings. During the latter period, a tradition of election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe. The birth of Poland as an independent nation coincides with the ascension of Duke Mieszko I and he was succeeded by his son, Bolesław I the Brave, who greatly expanded the boundaries of the Polish state and ruled as the first king in 1025. The following centuries gave rise to the mighty Piast dynasty, consisting of kings such as Mieszko II Lambert, Przemysł II or Władysław I the Elbow-high and dukes like Bolesław III Wrymouth. The dynasty ceased to exist with the death of Casimir III the Great in 1370, in the same year, the Capetian House of Anjou became the ruling house with Louis I as king of both Poland and Hungary. During the reign of Casimir IV Jagiellon and Sigismund I the Old culture flourished and this era of progress, also known as the Polish Renaissance, continued until the Union of Lublin under Sigismund II Augustus, which unofficially marked the end of the Polish Golden Age. The meaningful rule of the Vasa dynasty initially expanded the Commonwealth, developing the arts and crafts, as well as trade and commerce. King Sigismund III Vasa, a talented but somewhat despotic ruler, involved the country in many wars and his son, Władysław IV Vasa, fiercely defended the Commonwealths borders and continued the policy of his father until death, unlike John II Casimir whose tragic rule forced his abdication. The election of John III Sobieski to the Polish throne was a great success and his brilliant military tactics led to the victory at Vienna in 1683 and partial recapture of land from the Ottoman Empire. However, the years that followed werent as successful, the long and ineffective rule of the Wettin dynasty placed the Commonwealth under the influence of Saxony, additional feud with rebelled nobility and most notably Stanisław I Leszczyński and France diminished the influence of Poland-Lithuania in the region. This led to the partitions that occurred under King Stanisław II Augustus, yet another enlightened, the last sovereign was Frederick Augustus I as Duke of Warsaw, who throughout his political career attempted at rehabilitating the Polish state. After Poland declared independence in 1918, the monarchy was abolished, uwagi o godłach napieczętnych Piastów Histmag. org June 14,2009 Duczmal M. Jagiellonowie. Dybkowska A. Żaryn J. Żaryn M. Polskie dzieje, od czasów najdawniejszych po współczesność, wyd. Rzeczpospolita w dobie złotej wolności, Kraków 2001, ISBN 83-85719-56-3 Grodziski S. Polska w czasach przełomu, Kraków 2001. ISBN 83-85719-45-8 Grodziski S. Porównawcza historia ustrojów państwowych, Kraków 1998, ISBN 83-7052-840-6 Grzybowski S. Dzieje Polski i Litwy, Kraków 2000. ISBN 83-85719-48-2 Morby J. E. Dynastie świata, przewodnik chronologiczny i genealogiczny, Kraków 1995, s. ISBN 83-7006-263-6 Wyrozumski J. Dzieje Polski piastowskiej, Kraków 1999, henryk Brodaty i jego czasy, wyd
Polish monarchs
–
Krak
Polish monarchs
–
Royal coat of arms
Polish monarchs
–
Lech II
Polish monarchs
–
Wąda
19.
Duchy of Masovia
–
The Duchy of Masovia with its capital at Płock was a medieval duchy formed when the Polish Kingdom of the Piasts fragmented in 1138. It was located in the historic Masovian region of northeastern Poland, Masovia was reincorporated into the Jagiellon Polish kingdom in 1526. The lands of the Masovians east of the Vistula river had been conquered by Duke Mieszko I of Poland, the Diocese of Płock had been established in 1075. His Masovian realm also comprised the adjacent lands of Kuyavia in the west, in 1233 Konrad gave Kuyavia to his second son Casimir I, while Masovia passed to the first-born Boleslaus I upon his death in 1247, succeeded by the youngest brother Siemowit I the next year. When the kingdom was restored in 1295 by the coronation of Duke Przemysł II of Greater Poland. The Dukes of Masovia also ruled the Duchy of Belz until 1462, after the establishment of the Rawa and Płock Voivodeships, in 1495 the last surviving son of Boleslaus IV, Duke Konrad III Rudy, once again united the remaining Masovian lands under his rule. However, the line of the Masovian Piasts became extinct upon the death of his son Janusz III, in 1526. Parts of the region of neighboring East Prussia received settlers. By the 18th century the portion of East Prussia in which they settled was sometimes referred to as Masuria, and inhabited by a Protestant population of Germans and Poles
Duchy of Masovia
–
Masovian lands (ziemie)
20.
Piast dynasty
–
The Piast dynasty was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Prince Mieszko I, the Piasts royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great. Branches of the Piast dynasty continued to rule in the Duchy of Masovia, the Piasts intermarried with several noble lines of Europe, and possessed numerous titles, some within the Holy Roman Empire. However, the term Piast Dynasty was not applied until the 17th century, in a historical work the expression Piast dynasty was introduced by the Polish historian Adam Naruszewicz, it is not documented in contemporary sources. The first Piasts, probably of Polan descent, appeared around 940 in the territory of Greater Poland at the stronghold of Giecz, shortly afterwards they relocated their residence to Gniezno, where Prince Mieszko I ruled over the Civitas Schinesghe from about 960. The name Polani, from Slavic, pole, did not appear until 1015, the Piasts temporarily also ruled over Pomerania, Bohemia and the Lusatias, as well as Ruthenia, and the Hungarian Spiš region in present-day Slovakia. The ruler bore the title of a duke or a king, depending on their position of power. The Bohemian Přemyslid dynasty, the Hungarian Arpads and their Anjou successors, the Kievan Rus, later also the State of the Teutonic Order, the Piast position was decisively enfeebled by an era of fragmentation following the 1138 Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty. Numerous dukes like Mieszko III the Old, Władysław III Spindleshanks or Leszek I the White were crowned, only to be overthrown shortly afterwards. After the Polish royal line and Piast junior branch had died out in 1370, the Masovian branch of the Piasts became extinct with the death of Duke Janusz III in 1526. The last ruling duke of the Silesian Piasts was George William of Legnica who died in 1675 and his uncle Count August of Legnica, the last male Piast, died in 1679. The last legitimate heir, Duchess Karolina of Legnica-Brieg died in 1707 and is buried in Trzebnica Abbey, nevertheless, numerous families, like the illegitimate descendants of the Silesian duke Adam Wenceslaus of Cieszyn, link their genealogy to the dynasty. About 1295, Przemysł II used a coat of arms with a white eagle – a symbol later referred to as the Piast coat of arms or as the Piast Eagle, Piast kings and rulers of Poland appear in list form in the following table. For a list of all rulers, see List of Polish monarchs
Piast dynasty
–
Duke
Piast dynasty
Piast dynasty
–
Bolesław I the Great
Polish: Bolesław I Chrobry (Wielki)
Piast dynasty
–
King
21.
Baptism of Poland
–
The Christianisation of Poland refers to the introduction and subsequent spread of Christianity in Poland. The impetus to the process was the Baptism of Poland, the baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of the Polish state. The ceremony took place on the Holy Saturday of 14 April 966, although the location is still disputed by historians, with the cities of Poznań. Mieszkos wife, Dobrawa of Bohemia, is credited as a major influence on Mieszkos decision to accept Christianity. According to some historians the baptism of Poland marks the beginning of Polish statehood, nevertheless, the Christianisation was a long and arduous process, as most of the Polish population remained pagan until the Pagan Reaction during the 1030s. Before the adoption of Christianity, Poland was a pagan country, svetovid was among the most widespread pagan gods worshiped in Poland. Although some of the Great Moravian Christian rites and faith might have spread to the Polish lands soon afterward, nonetheless, the Moravian cultural influence played a significant role in the spread of Christianity onto the Polish lands and the subsequent adoption of that religion. In a similar fashion, some of the political struggles involved the Polish Church refusing to subordinate itself to the German hierarchy. The baptism of Poland refers to the ceremony when the first ruler of the Polish state, Mieszko I and much of his court, converted to the Christian religion. Mieszkos wife Dobrawa of Bohemia, a zealous Christian, played a significant role in promoting Christianity in Poland, the exact place of Mieszkos baptism is disputed, historians, however, argue that Gniezno or Poznań are the most likely sites. Some historians have suggested less likely alternative locations, such as Ostrów Lednicki, the date of Mieszkos baptism was on the Holy Saturday of 14 April 966. The ceremony was preceded by a week of oral catechism and several days of fasting, the actual ceremony involved pouring water over the segregated groups of men and women, although it is possible that their heads were immersed instead, and anointed with the chrism. The baptismal mission which began in the two cities of Gniezno and Poznań with the baptism of Mieszko and his court spread throughout the country. During the 10th and 11th centuries various ecclesiastical organs were established in Poland and this included the building of churches and the appointment of clergy. The first Bishop of Poland, Jordan, was appointed by Pope John XIII in 968, nonetheless, by that time Poland had won recognition as a proper European state, both from the papacy and from the Holy Roman Empire. Out of various Polish provinces, Christianitys spread was slowest in Pomerania, by the 13th century Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion throughout Poland. In adopting Christianity as the religion, Mieszko sought to achieve several personal goals. He saw Polands baptism as a way of strengthening his hold on power and it replaced several smaller cults with a single, central one, clearly associated with the royal court
Baptism of Poland
–
Christianization of Poland A.D. 966. by
Jan Matejko
Baptism of Poland
–
Dobrawa, Mieszko's wife who played a major role in Poland's conversion to Christianity.
Baptism of Poland
–
Mieszko I, the first Christian ruler of Poland. Depicted by
Jan Matejko as holding a crucifix in an allusion to the Baptism of Poland.
Baptism of Poland
–
Contemporary mural in
Gniezno commemorating the baptism of Poland.
22.
Mieszko I
–
Mieszko I was the ruler of the Polans from about 960 until his death. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was a son of Siemomysł, and he was the father of Bolesław I the Brave and Gunhild of Wenden with his wife Oda. The first Christian ruler of territories later called Poland, Mieszko I is considered the de facto creator of the Polish state and he continued the policy of both his father and grandfather, who were rulers of the pagan tribes located in the area of present-day Greater Poland. Through both alliances and the use of force, Mieszko extended ongoing Polish conquests and early in his reign subjugated Kuyavia. For most of his reign, Mieszko I was involved in warfare for the control of Western Pomerania, during the last years of his life, he fought the Bohemian state, winning Silesia and probably Lesser Poland. Mieszko Is marriage in 965 to the Czech Přemyslid princess Dobrawa and his baptism in 966 put him, apart from the great conquests accomplished during his reign Mieszko I was renowned for his internal reforms, aimed at expanding and improving the so-called war monarchy system. According to existing sources, Mieszko I was a politician, a talented military leader. He successfully used diplomacy, concluding alliances, first with Bohemia, then Sweden, in foreign policy, he placed the interests of his country foremost, even entering into agreements with his former enemies. On his death, he left to his sons a country with greatly expanded territories, Mieszko I also enigmatically appeared as Dagome in a papal document dating to about 1085, called Dagome iudex, which mentions a gift or dedication of Mieszkos land to the Pope. It is roughly his borders that Poland was returned to in 1945, There is no certain information on Mieszko Is life before he took control over his lands. Only the Lesser Poland Chronicle gives the date of his birth as somewhere between the years 920–931, however, modern researchers dont recognize the Chronicle as a reliable source, There are three major theories concerning the origin and meaning of Mieszko Is name. The most popular theory, proposed by Jan Długosz, explains that Mieszko is a diminutive of Mieczysław, today, this theory is rejected by the majority of Polish historians, who consider the name Mieczysław to have been invented by Długosz to explain the origin of the name Mieszko. Today, we know that ancient Slavs never formed their names using either animal names or weapon names, ancient Slavic names were abstract in nature. The chronicler related this story as follows, At that time Prince Siemomysł urgently asked the people of his country whether his sons blindness conveyed some miraculous meaning. They explained that this meant that Poland was blind back then. In addition, it is known that the Slavic word mzec can be interpreted as having his eyes closed or be blind, in that symbolic rite a child became a man. That explains that Mieszko wasnt blind in fact, besides his sons name was also Mieszko and it is hard to believe that he was also blind. In addition, as we know today ancient Slavs used only abstract names among nobility, the third theory links the name of Mieszko with his other name, Dagome, as it appeared in the document called Dagome iudex
Mieszko I
–
Portrait by
Jan Matejko.
Mieszko I
–
Monumental tomb of Mieszko I. and
Bolesław I. by
Christian Daniel Rauch in the Golden Chapel of
Poznań Cathedral
Mieszko I
–
19th century illustration: Mieszko, a former pagan, aided by his Roman Catholic Czech wife
Dobrawa, daughter of
Boleslaus I, becomes an
evangelist of Roman Catholicism
Mieszko I
–
Contemporary mural in
Gniezno commemorates the baptism of Mieszko I
23.
Polish language
–
Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
Polish language
–
The oldest printed text in Polish – Statuta synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis printed in 1475 in
Wrocław by Kasper Elyan.
Polish language
–
Polish
Polish language
–
The
Jakub Wujek Bible in Polish, 1599 print
listen)) is a city on the Vistula river in central Poland. It is located in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the capital of the Płock Voivodeship (1975–1998). According to the data provided by GUS on 30 June 2009 there were 126,675 inhabitants in the city, its full ceremonial name, according to the preamble to the City Statute, is Stołeczne Książęce Miasto Płock (the Princely or Ducal Capital City of Płock). It is used in ceremonial documents as well as for preserving an old tradition.[1]
- Łęczyca - Płock - Ciechanów - Ostrów Mazowiecka
- Strzelno - Włocławek - Płock - Wyszków - Sokołów Podlaski - Siemiatycze
- to Lipno
- to Szpetal Górny
- to Góra
- to Kazuń Nowy
Warsaw (1807-1815)
