POLAND

• KINGS UNTIL: 1795• AUGUSTUS III 1733-

63• STANISLAW PONIATOWSKI

1764-94• INDEPENDENCE

1918

• GOVERNMENT IN EXILE1939

• PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT1945

OF NATIONAL UNITY

• FIRST ELECTIONS 1947• COUNCIL OF STATE REPLACES

1952 THEOFFICE OF PRESIDENT.• GOMULKA 1956-

70 (MOST POWERFUL FIGURE)• GIEREK SUCCEDS GOMULKA

1981• UNTIL THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNIST

RULE,GENERAL JARUZELSKI WAS POLAND’S STRONG MAN

GOMULKA GIEREK KKOMOROWSKI

• DEVASTATING IMPACT ON POLAND• LOST ALMOST 18% OF THE TOTAL PRE-WAR

POLISH POPULATION• DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP WITH ITS EASTERN

NEIGHBOUR• THOUSANDS OF POLISH OFFICIALS MURDERED ON

STALIN’S ORDERS• 1944. 200,000 DIED- POLISH UNDERGROUND

HOME ARMY IN WARSAW-CRUSHED IN AN UPRISING

• FEB 1945-YALTA CONFERENCE-POLAND ABANDONED BY ROOSEVELT AND CHURCHILL TO THE SOVIET

• “THE BETRAYAL OF YALTA”.

• POST WAR: HARDLY ANY NATIVE POLISH COMMUNISTS LEFT

• CONQUERED BY GERMANY(AXIS) IN 1939

• CONQUERED BY SOVIET UNION (AXIS)IN 1944

• POLAND WENT STRAIGHT TO DICTATORSHIP

Casualties:Total Deaths: 5,600,000  Total Deaths % of Pop.: 16.1% Military Deaths: 240,000 Military Deaths % of Pop: 0.7% Civilian Deaths: 5,360,000 Civilian Deaths % of Pop.: 15.4% Jewish Holocaust Deaths: 3,000,000 Jewish Holocaust Deaths % of Jewish Pop.: 100%

• 6 MILLION PEOPLE, OVER 15% OF POLAND’S POPULATION PERISHED

• LEFT THE COUNTRY IN RUINS, INFLICTING INDELIBLE MATERIAL AND PSYCHIC SCARS.

• POLES LIVED UNDER SEVERE RESTRICTIONS ENFORCED WITH SAVAGE PUNISHMENT

• MAIN KILLING GROUND OF THE NAZI HOLOCAUST

ECONOMY

• NEW COMMUNIST LEADERS REORGANIZED THE ECONOMY

• FOLLOWED STALIN’S MODEL OF ECONOMY

• RESULT- PREDOMINANCE OF HEAVY INDUSTRY, LARGE ENTERPRISES, A TOPHEAVY CENTRALIZED BUREAUCRACY CONTROLLING EVERY ASPECT OF PRODUCTION

– IGNORED CONSUMER DEMAND AND WORKER JOB SATISFACTION

– POLAND’S ABUNDANT AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES REMAINED IN PRIVATE HANDS, OUT OF STATE CONTROL

– POLISH ECONOMY WAS ALSO ISOLATED FROM THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY BY THE POST WAR NATIONALIZATION OF THE FOREIGN TRADE

• FAILIURE OF CENTRAL STATE PLANING TO YIELD ECONOMIC GROWTH INSPIRED SOCIAL UNREST AND OFFICIAL POLICY REFORM IN THE 1970s AND THE EARLY 1980s

• REFORMATION WITH THE INSTALLATION OF A NON COMMUNIST GOVT-MID 1989

• INCLUDED PRIVATIZATION OF ALL PARTS OF THE POLISH ECONOMY AND A RAPID SHIFT FROM THE UNREALISTIC STATE PLANNING SYSTEM TO A WESTERN STYLE MARKET ECONOMY

• 1992- SIGNS OF ECONOMIC PROGRESS VERY UNEVEN

• CONSUMER GOODS- AVAILABLE, BUT

• CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF INEFFICIENT STATE ENTERPRISES LOWERED PRODUCTIVITY, UNEMPLOYMENT ROSE, HIGH INFLATION

• BORROWED FROM INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

• DEBT PARTIALLY FORGIVEN.

• A “SHOCK THERAPY” PROG –EARLY 1990s TRANSFORMED HER ECONOMY

• ONE OF THE MOST ROBUST IN CENTRAL EUROPE

• STIL FACES LINGERING CHALLENGES, HIGH INEMPLOYEMENT, UNDERDEVELOPED, & DILAPILATED INFRASTRUCTURE & A POOR RURAL UNDERCLASS

• JOINED NATO- 1999

• JOINED EU -2004

• TODAY- POLAND IS AN INCREASINGLY ACTIVE MEMBER OF EURO ATLANTIC ORGANISATIONS.

THANK YOU!