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| Poland PROFILE
OFFICIAL NAME: Geography People Government Economy PEOPLE Most Germans left Poland at the end of the war, while many Ukrainians and
Belorussians lived in territories incorporated into the then-U.S.S.R. Small
Ukrainian, Belorussian, Slovakian, and Lithuanian minorities reside along the
borders, and a German minority is concentrated near the southwest city of Opole.
HISTORY Independence for Poland was one of the 14 points enunciated by President
Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Many PolishAmericans enlisted in the
military services to further this aim, and the United States worked at the
postwar conference to ensure its implementation.
However, the Poles were largely responsible for achieving their own
independence in 1918. Authoritarian rule predominated for most of the period
before World War II.
On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the RibbentropMolotov
nonaggression pact, which secretly provided for the dismemberment of Poland into
Nazi and Sovietcontrolled zones. On September 1, 1939, Hitler ordered his
troops into Poland. On September 17, Soviet troops invaded and then occupied
eastern Poland under the terms of this agreement. After Germany invaded the
Soviet Union in June 1941, Poland was completely occupied by German troops.
The Poles formed an underground resistance movement and a governmentinexile,
first in Paris and later in London, which was recognized by the Soviet Union.
During World War II, 400,000 Poles fought under Soviet command, and 200,000 went
into combat on Western fronts in units loyal to the Polish governmentinexile.
In April 1943, the Soviet Union broke relations with the Polish governmentinexile
after the German military announced that they had discovered mass graves of
murdered Polish army officers at Katyn, in the U.S.S.R. (The Soviets claimed
that the Poles had insulted them by requesting that the Red Cross investigate
these reports.) In July 1944, the Soviet Red Army entered Poland and established
a communistcontrolled "Polish Committee of National Liberation" at
Lublin.
Resistance against the Nazis in Warsaw, including uprisings by Jews in the
Warsaw ghetto and by the Polish underground, was brutally suppressed. As the
Germans retreated in January 1945, they leveled the city.
During the war, about 6 million Poles were killed, and 2.5 million were
deported to Germany for forced labor. More than 3 million Jews (all but about
100,000 of the Jewish population) were killed in death camps like those at
Oswiecim (Auschwitz), Treblinka, and Majdanek.
Following the Yalta Conference in February 1945, a Polish Provisional
Government of National Unity was formed in June 1945; the U.S. recognized it the
next month. Although the Yalta agreement called for free elections, those held
in January 1947 were controlled by the Communist Party. The communists then
established a regime entirely under their domination.
Communist Party Domination In 1968, the trend reversed when student demonstrations were suppressed and
an "antiZionist" campaign initially directed against Gomulka
supporters within the party eventually led to the emigration of much of Poland's
remaining Jewish population. In December 1970, disturbances and strikes in the
port cities of Gdansk, Gdynia, and Szczecin, triggered by a price increase for
essential consumer goods, reflected deep dissatisfaction with living and working
conditions in the country. Edward Gierek replaced Gomulka as First Secretary.
Fueled by large infusions of Western credit, Poland's economic growth rate
was one of the worlds highest during the first half of the 1970s. But much of
the borrowed capital was misspent, and the centrally planned economy was unable
to use the new resources effectively. The growing debt
burden became insupportable in the late 1970s, and economic growth had become
negative by 1979.
In October 1978, the Bishop of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, became Pope
John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church. Polish Catholics rejoiced at
the elevation of a Pole to the papacy and greeted his June 1979 visit to Poland
with an outpouring of emotion.
In July 1980, with the Polish foreign debt
at more than $20 billion, the government made another attempt to increase meat
prices. A chain reaction of strikes virtually paralyzed the Baltic coast by the
end of August and, for the first time, closed most coal mines in Silesia. Poland
was entering into an extended crisis that would change the course of its future
development.
The Solidarity Movement The discontent underlying the strikes was intensified by revelations of
widespread corruption and mismanagement within the Polish state and party
leadership. In September 1980, Gierek was replaced by Stanislaw Kania as First
Secretary.
Alarmed by the rapid deterioration of the PZPR's authority following the
Gdansk agreement, the Soviet Union proceeded with a massive military buildup
along Poland's border in December 1980. In February 1981, Defense Minister Gen.
Wojciech Jaruzelski assumed the position of Prime Minister as well, and in
October 1981, he also was named party First Secretary. At the first Solidarity
national congress in SeptemberOctober 1981, Lech Walesa was elected national
chairman of the union.
On December 1213, the regime declared martial law, under which the army and
special riot police were used to crush the union. Virtually all Solidarity
leaders and many affiliated intellectuals were arrested or detained. The United
States and other Western countries responded to martial law by imposing economic
sanctions against the Polish regime and against the Soviet Union. Unrest in
Poland continued for several years thereafter.
In a series of slow, uneven steps, the Polish regime rescinded martial law.
In December 1982, martial law was suspended, and a small number of political
prisoners were released. Although martial law formally ended in July 1983 and a
general amnesty was enacted, several hundred political prisoners remained in
jail.
In July 1984, another general amnesty was declared, and 2 years later, the
government had released nearly all political prisoners. The authorities
continued, however, to harass dissidents and Solidarity activists. Solidarity
remained proscribed and its publications banned. Independent publications were
censored.
Roundtable Talks and Elections These talks produced an agreement in April for partly open National Assembly
elections. The June election produced a Sejm (lower house), in which onethird
of the seats went to communists and onethird went to the two parties which had
hitherto been their coalition partners. The remaining onethird of the seats in
the Sejm and all those in the Senate were freely contested; virtually all of
these were won by candidates supported by Solidarity.
The failure of the communists at the polls produced a political crisis. The
roundtable agreement called for a communist president, and on July 19, the
National Assembly, with the support of some Solidarity deputies, elected General
Jaruzelski to that office. Two attempts by the communists to form governments
failed, however.
On August 19, President Jaruzelski asked journalist/Solidarity activist
Tadeusz Mazowiecki to form a government; on September 12, the Sejm voted
approval of Prime Minister Mazowiecki and his cabinet. For the first time in
more than 40 years, Poland had a government led by noncommunists.
In December 1989, the Sejm approved the government's reform program to
transform the Polish economy rapidly from centrally planned to freemarket,
amended the constitution to eliminate references to the "leading role"
of the Communist Party, and renamed the country the "Republic of
Poland." The Polish United Workers' (Communist) Party dissolved itself in
January 1990, creating in its place a new party, Social Democracy of the
Republic of Poland. Most of the property of the former Communist Party was
turned over to the state.
The May 1990 local elections were entirely free. Candidates supported by
Solidarity's Citizens' Committees won most of the races they contested, although
voter turnout was only a little over 40%. The cabinet was reshuffled in July
1990; the national defense and interior affairs ministersholdovers from
the previous communist governmentwere among those replaced.
In October 1990, the constitution was amended to curtail the term of
President Jaruzelski. In December, Lech Walesa became the first popularly
elected President of Poland.
Poland in the 1990s Poland's first free parliamentary elections were held in 1991. More than 100
parties participated, representing a full spectrum of political views. No single
party received more than 13% of the total vote. After a rough start, 1993 saw
the second group of elections, and the first parliament to actually serve a full
term. The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) received the largest percentage of
votes.
After the election, the SLD and PSL formed a governing coalition. Waldemar
Pawlak, leader of the junior partner PSL, became Prime Minister. Relations
between President Walesa and the Prime Minister remained poor throughout the
Pawlak government, with President Walesa charging Pawlak with furthering
personal and party interests while neglecting matters of state importance.
Following a number of scandals implicating Pawlak and increasing political
tension over control of the armed forces, President Walesa demanded Pawlak's
resignation in January 1995. In the ensuing political crisis, the coalition
removed Pawlak from office and replaced him with the SLD's Jozef Oleksy as the
new Prime Minister.
In November 1995, Poland held its second postwar free presidential
elections. SLD leader Aleksander Kwasniewski defeated Walesa by a narrow
margin--51.7% to 48.3%. Soon after Walesa's defeat, Interior Minister Andrzej
Milczanowski accused then-Prime Minister Oleksy of longtime collaboration with
Soviet and later Russian intelligence. In the ensuing political crisis, Oleksy
resigned. For his successor, The SLDPSL coalition turned to deputy Sejm
speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz--who was linked to, but not a member of, the
SLD. Polish prosecutors subsequently decided that there was insufficient
evidence to charge Oleksy, and a parliamentary commission decided in November
1996 that the Polish intelligence services may have violated rules of procedure
in gathering evidence in the Oleksy case.
Poland's most recent parliamentary elections were in September 1997 when two
parties with roots in the Solidarity movement--Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS)
and the Freedom Union (UW)--won 261 of the 460 seats in the Sejm and formed a
coalition government. Jerzy Buzek of the AWS has been Prime Minister since these
elections in 1997. Today the AWS and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) hold the
majority of the seats in the Sejm. Marian Krzaklewski is the leader of the AWS,
and Leszek Miller leads the SLD. In June 2000, UW withdrew from the governing
collation, leaving AWS at the helm of a minority government.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS Former SLD leader Aleksander Kwasniewski was elected President in November
1995. President Kwasniewski has supported Polish membership in NATO and the EU
and backed the SLD's legislative agenda on issues such as redrafting of the
constitution and abortion liberalization.
The parliament, consisting of 460 members of the Sejm and 100 members of the
Senate, was elected in September 1997 in free and fair elections in which 16
political parties participated. A 1993 electoral law stipulated that with the
exception of guaranteed seats for small German and Ukrainian ethnic parties,
only parties receiving at least 5% of the total vote could enter parliament. As
of June 2000, nine parties are represented in the Sejm.
Currently, Poland is lead by a minority government, comprised of the AWS
party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek. The coalition has
maintained generally promarket economic policies and made clear its commitment
to a democratic political system. The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) is the
opposition to the ruling coalition and holds 161 seats in the Sejm and 26 seats
in the Senate. The UW and SLD currently dominate the Warsaw municipal council,
which has lead to some clashes recently between the three dominant political
parties.
Along with AWS, other parties represented in parliament are the Polish
Peasant Party (PSL), the Polish Alliance (PP), the Independent Party, the
Confederation for an Independent Poland (KPNO), the Movement for the
Reconstruction of Poland (ROP), the Polish Socialist Party-Movement of Labor
People (PPS-RLP), and the Polish Raison d'Etat (PRS).
General parliamentary elections are scheduled for September of 2001. Poland's
next presidential election is scheduled for October 8, 2000.
NATIONAL SECURITY Poland maintains a sizable armed force currently numbering about 198,000
troops divided among an army of 138,500, an air and defense force of 43,000, and
a navy of 16,500. The Ministry of Defense has announced that the armed forces of
Poland will number 150,000 by 2006. Poland relies on military conscription for
the majority of its personal strength. All males (with some exceptions) are
subject to a 12-month term of military service.
The Polish military continues to restructure and to modernize its equipment.
The Polish Defense Ministry General Staff and the Land Forces staff have
recently reorganized the latter into a NATO-compatible J/G-1 through J/G-6
structure. Budget constraints hamper such priority defense acquisitions as a
multi-role fighter, improved communications systems, and an attack helicopter.
Poland continues to be a regional leader in support and participation in the
NATO Partnership for Peace Program and has actively engaged most of its
neighbors and other regional actors to build stable foundations for future
European security arrangements. Poland continues its long record of strong
support for UN Peacekeeping Operations by maintaining a unit in Southern
Lebanon, a battalion in NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR), and by providing and
actually deploying the KFOR strategic reserve to Kosovo.
Principal Government Officials Poland maintains an embassy in the United States at 2640 16th St. NW,
Washington, DC 20009 (tel. 2022343800/3801/3802); the consular annex is at
2224 Wyoming Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 2022343800). Poland has
consulates in Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles.
ECONOMY The United States and other Western countries have supported the growth of a
free enterprise economy by reducing Poland's enormous foreign debt burden,
providing economic aid, and lowering trade barriers. Poland will graduate from
USAID assistance in 2000.
Agriculture Privatization within the food processing sector is the most advanced in the
food concentrate, brewery, and confectionery industries and the weakest in the
grain milling, sugar refining, and potato processing industries. Poland net
exports confectionery, processed fruit and vegetables, meat, and dairy products.
Processors often rely on imports to supplement domestic supplies of wheat, feed
grains, vegetable oil, and protein meals, which are generally insufficient to
meet domestic demand. However, Poland is the leading producer in Europe of
potatoes and rye and is one of the ten-largest producers of sugarbeets. Poland
also is a significant producer of rapeseed, grains, hogs, and cattle. Attempts
to increase domestic feed grain production are hampered by the short growing
season, poor soil, and the small size of farms.
Pressure to restructure the agriculture sector is intensifying as Poland
prepares to accede to the European Union, which is unwilling to subsidize the
vast number of subsistence farms that do not produce for the market. The changes
in agriculture are likely to strain Poland's social fabric, tearing at the heart
of the traditional, family-based small farm as the younger generation drifts
toward the cities.
Industry Poland's industrial base suffered greatly during World War II, and many
resources were directed toward reconstruction. The communist economic system
imposed in the late 1940s created large and unwieldy economic structures
operated under a tight central command. In part, because of this systemic
rigidity, the economy performed poorly even in comparison with other economies
in central Europe.
In 1989, the Mazowiecki government began a comprehensive reform program to
replace the centralized command economy with a marketoriented system. Many
largescale stateowned industrial enterprises, particularly in the mining and
steel sectors, have remained resistant to the change and downsizing required to
survive in an open market economy.
In the past years, the percentage of those employed in Polish industry has
declined. Some possible reasons for this are that the mining industry has been
experiencing internal conflicts. There also has been somewhat of an attempt to
restructure agriculture.
Economic Reform Program The sweeping economic reforms introduced in 1989 removed price controls,
eliminated most subsidies to industry, opened markets to international
competition, and imposed strict budgetary and monetary discipline. These reforms
have achieved positive results in reducing inflationfrom almost 600% in 1990
to an estimated 7.3% in 1999and in bringing budget deficits under control.
Poland's GDP grew by 4.1% in 1999 and is estimated to grow by over 5.1% in 2000.
As a result of Poland's growth and investmentfriendly climate, foreign
investment flows are now increasing at record levels. However, the restructuring
of industry to adapt to the new conditions of a market economy, a necessary
accompaniment to macroeconomic stabilization, has often proceeded more slowly
than expected. In certain sectors, such as coal and steel, stateowned
enterprises continue to operate at a loss. Efforts to privatize them have
encountered many snags, including worker apprehensions about large job losses
and management fears of bankruptcy. Government budget deficits have been brought
under control, but spending cuts in areas such as education, health care,
infrastructure, and public safety were necessary to reduce the deficit.
Meanwhile, the burden on the budget for subsidies to the Social Insurance Fund
has mushroomed, especially due to the massive number of workers retiring early
since 1989.
Poland became a full member of NATO in March 1999 and has set an objective of
joining the European Union in 2003. The Polish economy continues to grow, and
new investment continues to be strong. Government reforms are making progress in
many areas. A growing middle class and rapidly developing distribution networks
are turning Poland into a more attractive market for small and medium exporters.
With a population of 39 million, Poland's market potential is huge. Many
European firms have recognized this potential and are beginning to expand
operations and sales in Poland, and there is a high level of direct American
investment.
Foreign Trade Poland faced a growing trade and current account deficit in 1996, despite
nearly $7 billion in unrecorded cross-border exports (mostly to Germany but also
to the Ukraine, Belarus, and the Czech Republic). Much of this trade consists of
imports of capital goods needed for industrial retooling and for manufacturing
inputs, rather than imports for consumption. Therefore, a deficit is expected,
and even positive at this point. Poland, a member of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), has been steadily lowering tariffs in line with its WTO and
EU commitments.
Opportunities for trade and investment continue to exist across virtually all
sectors of Poland. The American Chamber of Commerce in Poland, founded in 1991
with seven members, now has more than 300 members. Constant economic growth, the
size of the Polish market, and a high level of political stability are the top
reasons the U.S. and other foreign companies do business in Poland. Most believe
that Poland is the best market in central and eastern Europe for their products
and investments.
FOREIGN RELATIONS Poland also has forged ahead on its economic integration with the West.
Poland became an associate member of the European Union (EU) and its defensive
arm, the Western European Union (WEU) in 1994. In 1996 Poland achieved full OECD
membership and submitted preliminary documentation for full EU membership.
Poland is negotiating for early entry into join the European Union.
Changes since 1989 have redrawn the map of central Europe, and Poland has had
to forge relationships with seven new neighbors. Poland has actively pursued
good relations with all its neighbors, signing friendship treaties replacing
links severed by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The Poles have forged special
relationships with Lithuania and particularly Ukraine in an effort to firmly
anchor these states to the West.
U.S.POLISH RELATIONS In 1974 Gierek was the first Polish leader to visit the United States. This
action, among others, demonstrated both sides wish to facilitate better
relations.
The birth of Solidarity in 1980 raised the hope that progress would be made
in Poland's external relations as well as in its domestic development. During
this time, the U.S. provided $765 million in agricultural assistance. Human
rights and individual freedom issues, however, were not improved upon, and the
U.S. revoked Poland's most-favored-nation (MFN) status in response to the Polish
Government's decision to ban solidarity. MFN status was reinstated in 1987, and
diplomatic relations were upgraded.
The United States and Poland have enjoyed warm bilateral relations since
1989. Every post1989 Polish government has been a strong supporter of
continued American military and economic presence in Europe and has identified
membership in NATO, the European Union and other Western security and economic
structures as Poland's principal foreign policy priority. Poland became a member
of the OECD in November 1996 and served successfully as the Chairman in Office
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1998. It
has done a superb job as the formal protector of American interests in Iraq
since the Gulf War and cooperates closely with American diplomacy on such issues
as nuclear proliferation, human rights, regional cooperation in central and
eastern Europe, and United Nations reform.
Principal U.S. Embassy Officials The street address and international mailing address of the U.S. embassy in
Poland is Aleje Ujazdowskie 29/31, 00540 Warsaw, Poland; tel: 48-22-628-3041;
fax 48-22-628-8298. The Consulate General in Krakow is at Ulica Stolarska 9,
31043 Krakow, Poland; tel: 48-12-211-400, 216-767, 226-040 or 229-764; fax:
48-12-218292; and a Consular Agency in Poznan is at Ulica Paderewskiego 8,
61708 Poznan, Poland; tel: 48-61-518516; fax: 48-61-518966.
TRAVEL AND BUSINESS INFORMATION Emergency information concerning Americans traveling abroad may be obtained from the Office of Overseas Citizens Services at (202) 647-5225. For after-hours emergencies, Sundays and holidays, call 202-647-4000. Passport information can be obtained by calling the National Passport Information Center's automated system ($.35 per minute) or live operators 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (EST) Monday-Friday ($1.05 per minute). The number is 1-900-225-5674 (TDD: 1-900-225-7778). Major credit card users (for a flat rate of $4.95) may call 1-888-362-8668 (TDD: 1-888-498-3648). It also is available on the internet. Travelers can check the latest health information with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. A hotline at 877-FYI-TRIP (877-394-8747) and a web site at http://www.cdc.gov/travel/index.htm give the most recent health advisories, immunization recommendations or requirements, and advice on food and drinking water safety for regions and countries. A booklet entitled Health Information for International Travel (HHS publication number CDC-95-8280) is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, tel. (202) 512-1800. Information on travel conditions, visa requirements, currency and customs regulations, legal holidays, and other items of interest to travelers also may be obtained before your departure from a country's embassy and/or consulates in the U.S. (for this country, see "Principal Government Officials" listing in this publication). U.S. citizens who are long-term visitors or traveling in dangerous areas are encouraged to register at the U.S. embassy upon arrival in a country (see "Principal U.S. Embassy Officials" listing in this publication). This may help family members contact you in case of an emergency. |
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