The year 966 is accepted as the founding date of Poland when the Piast ruler Mieszko I adopted Christianity.
The Piast dynasty continued to rule Poland until 1386, at which time Jagiełło, grand duke of Lithuania, married Jadwiga, the crown princess of the Piasts and thus founded the Jagiellon dynasty.
In the end of the 18th century a partition of Poland took place, the country was seized by Russia, Austria and Prussia. Finally in 1795 Poland was eradicated and replaced by the invaders sectors.
Following World War I (1914 – 18) and the Russian Revolution (1917), an independent Poland was reestablished by the Allies in 1918.
Poland’s uneasy coexistance with the Soviet Union( to the east) and Nazi Germany (to the west) ended in 1939 when they invaded and occupied Poland. In 1945 Poland’s boundaries were redrawn.
In August 1980 strikes led by Lech Wałęsa, (an elictrician), erupted at the Gdańsk shipyards and quickly spread to other cities.
After Solidarity’s overwhelming victory in elections in June 1989, Solidarity formed a coalition goverment with the communists (who converted to social democracy)
Since that time a wind of change has blown through Poland and Eastern europe. Poland transformed from communist state to a free- enterprise economy land.
Written by Magdalena Leśkow