Poland in the 10th – early 12th centuries: state and political development. Poland in the Middle Ages Medieval capital of Poland

The history of the Polish state goes back many centuries. Statehood began in the middle of the 10th century. Before this, on the territory of the lands that are now part of Poland and partly neighboring countries, processes of ethnogenesis took place, the formation of tribal unions, Christianity was adopted, and the beginning of the first dynasty was laid.

The historical development of Poland is characterized by periods of ups and downs, drama, and heroic deeds of rulers and national heroes. Until the end of the 18th century. The Polish kingdom was independent, then its territory was divided between several states. And only in the 19th century. The process of gradual restoration of independence and the return of ethnic lands began.

The modern history of Poland is created under the influence of various factors and events that influence the political, social, economic and social aspects of the life of the state and its population.

Name

The ethnonym “Poland” arose from the Latin Polonia, which was used to designate the lands of glades. This is the historical region of Greater Poland, where these tribes lived. Gradually the name spread to the entire kingdom. This happened at the end of the 10th – beginning of the 11th century, when Poland already existed as a separate state in Central Europe and pursued an independent foreign policy.

In the 16th century. After the signing of the Union of Lublin, the name “Rzeczpospolita Polska” appeared. This name is enshrined in the country's constitution, and this is what the Poles call their state. Official documents also use the names: Poland or Polska, Poland, Republic of Poland.

Capital

In 877, the capital of the Polish state became the city of Gniezno, founded by the Polan tribe. It was main city Greater Poland, which in the indicated year was conquered by tribes living in the Moravian region. They also conquered Lesser Poland. The center of statehood formation was Greater Poland with the city of Gniezno, where the residence of the rulers from the Piast dynasty was located. The first archbishopric of Poland was built here.

In the 14th century. there was a change in the capital city. Prince Władysław Łokietek was crowned in Krakow as king and ruler of Poland. At the beginning of the 17th century. Warsaw became the new residence of the rulers of Poland, which was turned into a de facto capital back in 1596.

The city of Poznań never served as the official capital of the state, but was one of the political and economic centers of the Kingdom, its strategic, important trade, commercial and transport city. As a result of this, Poznan constantly competed for the right to become the capital of Poland with Krakow and Warsaw.

Settlement of the territory

First settlements primitive people appeared on the territory of modern Poland during the Paleolithic period. Neanderthal sites were discovered in the southern regions of the country, in the upper reaches of the Oder and Vistula rivers. The Neanderthals were replaced by the Cro-Magnons, who settled on the shores of the Baltic.

In the Neolithic, agriculture and cattle breeding, the culture of band and cord pottery became widespread, on the basis of which the following archaeological cultures later developed:

• Predluzhitskaya.
• Tshinetskaya.
• Baltic.

The main role was played by the tribes – carriers of the Preslutian culture. During the Copper and Bronze Ages, the structure of primitive society became more complex, new products of labor and tools appeared, agriculture and metallurgy developed, and the first fortifications, called fortifications, were built.

At the end of the Bronze Age, the first skirmishes began between the tribes that populated the Oder, Vistula, and Baltic. Robberies became more frequent, which in the Iron Age led to larger clashes and the production of large quantities of weapons from iron and other metals. Weapons are found in numerous graves of nobles and warriors. The Lusatians began to be pressed by the nomads. At first these were the ancestors of the Germanic tribes, then the inhabitants of the coastal regions. They were replaced by the Celts, who were assimilated. At the turn of the centuries BC and AD, tribes of the early Slavs appeared in Poland, whose ancestors were the Lusatian and coastal tribes. The Slavs created the Yamnaya culture, which spread to the territories of the Oder and Vistula. There is little reliable information in the chronicles about the first Slavs. Greek and Roman authors call them Wends. They traded with Rome, hunted, collected amber, and made ceramic jewelry and weapons. In the first centuries of our era, the Germans came to the Vistula: Goths, Gepids, Burgundians, Vandals. Slavic tribes until the 3rd century. BC. constantly fought with the Germans, pushing them out of Poland.

Creation of the first state

The Proto-Slavic tribes were numerous, but the name of modern Poland and the people came from the Polans. Next to them lived other peoples who lived in Pomerania, Silesia, on the Vistula and Oder, where the largest political and commercial centers of the Slavs arose. The first cities were Krakow, Szczecin, Wolin, Gdansk, Gniezno, Plock, which arose as centers of tribal associations. Historians call such centers opoles - associations of dozens of settlements headed by the veche. It was a meeting of men at which important issues of the internal and external life of the tribe and the entire settlement were decided. In the center of the opole there were grods. They were ruled by princes with their own military squads, power limited by the veche. The prince imposed taxes on the population, decided which tribes to conquer and turn into slaves.

In the 70s 9th century The rulers of Great Moravia captured the principalities of Greater and Lesser Poland. This is how the first proto-state appeared, but it existed until 906, when it was captured by the Czech Republic.

An independent principality, which successfully freed itself from the rule of the Czechs, appeared in 966. It was created by Mieszko the First, a representative of the ancient Polish Piast dynasty. His state included the following lands:

• Gdansk and its surroundings,
• Pomerania, including Western Pomerania,
• Silesia,
• territories along the Vistula.

Mieszko was married to the daughter of the Czech ruler Boleslav the First, whose name was Dobrava. In 966, Mieszko was baptized in the city of Regensburg, which belonged to the Czechs. From that moment on, Christianity began to spread across Polish lands. To strengthen his role, in 968 Poland created its own bishopric, which was formally subordinate to the popes. Mieszko minted his own coins and pursued an active foreign policy. By breaking off relations with the Czech rulers, the first king of Poland acquired an enemy for the country, with whom the kingdom constantly competed.

Legacy of Mieszko the First

After the death of the first king, Poland began to actively develop. During the 11th century. the following changes have occurred:

• An archbishopric was created in the city of Gniezno.
• Bishoprics were opened in Krakow, Wroclaw, Kolobrzeg.
• The borders of the state have been expanded.
• Active construction of churches throughout the country in Byzantine and Gothic styles.
• Poland became dependent on the Holy Roman Empire.
• Conducted administrative reform, as a result of which the Piast kingdom was divided into provinces, and they into castellations, i.e. urban districts. There were regions that later became voivodeships.

Period of fragmentation

At the beginning of the 12th century. Poland, like many medieval states of that time, broke up into separate principalities. Political chaos and constant dynastic struggle began, in which vassals, the church, and princes took part. The situation was worsened by the attack of the Mongol-Tatars, who in the middle of the 13th century. They robbed and devastated almost the entire state. At this time, the raids of the Lithuanians, Prussians, Hungarians, and Teutons intensified. The latter colonized the Baltic coast, creating their own state. Because of him, Poland lost access to the Baltic for a long time.

The consequences of fragmentation were:

• The central government completely lost its influence and control in the kingdom.
• Poland was ruled by representatives of the highest aristocracy and minor nobles who tried to protect the borders of the state from external enemies.
• Most of the Polish lands were deserted, the population was killed or taken captive by the Mongol-Tatars. German colonists rushed to the empty lands.
• New cities began to appear in which Magdeburg Law became widespread.
• Polish peasants became dependent on the nobility, and German colonists were free.

The unification of the Polish lands was started by Władysław Łokietek, Prince of Kuyavia, crowned Władysław the First. He laid the foundations of a new kingdom, the development of which is associated with the reign of Casimir the Third the Great, son of Vladislav. His reign is considered one of the most successful in Europe of the 14th century, since he not only revived Poland and the national identity of the Poles, but carried out many reforms and military campaigns. Thanks to this, Poland turned into a leading player on the European continent; Hungary, France, East Prussia, Kievan Rus, and Wallachia took into account its policies.

Jagiellonian rise to power

Casimir the Great's successor was Louis of Hungary, or Louis the First. When he died, the nobles made his youngest daughter Jadwiga their queen, who was forced to marry the pagan Lithuanian prince Jogaila. He converted to Catholicism under the terms of the Union of Krevo, was crowned under the name of Vladislav II and became the founder of the Jagiellon dynasty.

Under him, Poland and Lithuania made the first attempt to unite within the framework of a political union into a state union.

Jagiello was a successful politician who laid the foundation for Poland's golden age. His heir, Casimir the Fourth, defeated the Teutonic Order, linked Poland with dynastic ties to Lithuania, and returned territories along the Baltic Sea.

In the 16th century. Poland began to compete and successfully compete with many European countries. In particular, the lands of the former Kievan and Galician Rus were captured, and Lithuania was finally annexed. The golden age of the Polish medieval state is characterized by the following manifestations:

• Adoption of the kingdom's first constitution.
• Approval of a bicameral parliament - Sejm and Senate.
• Creation of a strong army.
• Granting enormous privileges to the gentry and aristocracy.
• Active foreign policy.
• Successful defense of the external borders of the state.
• Neutralization of Brandenburg and Prussia.
• Creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included Poland and Lithuania.
• Strengthening the central power of the king, whose position became elective.
• Universities were founded that became outposts for the spread of Catholicism in Central and Eastern Europe.
• Signing of the Union of Brest.
• Intensification of the activities of the Jesuits, who taught Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Belarusians in their colleges and higher educational institutions.

King Sigismund II died childless, which caused the gradual weakening of the central apparatus of power. The Sejm received the right to choose the heir to the throne, and the powers of parliament expanded significantly. At the end of the 16th century, Poland gradually began to transform from a limited monarchy into an aristocratic parliamentary republic. Representatives to the executive authorities were appointed for life, and the king was forced to actively cooperate with parliament.

The end of the golden age came in the 17th century, when Cossack uprisings became constant, ending in a war for liberation from the influence of Poland. External threats began to come from Russia, Turkey, and East Prussia. Throughout the 17th century, Polish kings and armies fought with neighboring states:

• First East Prussia was lost.
• Then the Left Bank of Ukraine according to the Andrusovo truce.
• Russia has increased its influence in Warsaw.

Constant wars caused chaos and unrest in the kingdom itself. The magnates and aristocracy entered the service of the Moscow sovereigns, swearing allegiance to them. The Poles made attempts to participate in political life countries, but all attempts at uprisings ended in failure.

Three sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

During the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, the state was divided into several parts. The ruler did not offer resistance, since he was a protege of Russia.

The prerequisites for the first partition of Poland in 1772 were the Russian-Turkish war and mass uprisings in Poland. The lands of the kingdom at this time were divided between Austria, Russia and Prussia.

In the occupied lands, the elective monarchy and constitution were preserved, a state council was created, and the Jesuit order was dissolved. In 1791, a new constitution was adopted, Poland turned into a hereditary monarchy with an executive system, a parliament that was elected every two years.

The second partition occurred in 1793, the lands were divided between Prussia and Russia. Two years later, Austria also took part in the division of the territory, and since then the Kingdom of Poland has disappeared from the political map of Europe.

Dramatic 19th century

Large numbers of Polish nobility and aristocracy migrated to France and England. Here they developed plans to restore Poland's independence. The first attempt was made at the beginning of the 19th century, when Napoleon began his conquest of Europe. Legions of Poles were immediately formed in France and took part in Bonaparte’s campaigns.

In the Polish territories that were part of Prussia, Napoleon created the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. It existed from 1807 to 1815; in 1809, Polish lands taken from Austria were annexed to it. The Principality was home to 4.5 million Poles, subordinate to France.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna was held, which secured territorial changes also concerning Poland. Firstly, Krakow became a completely free city with republican rights. Austria, Russia, and Prussia provided him with patronage.

Secondly, the west of the Duchy of Warsaw was given to Prussia, whose rulers called this part of Poland the Grand Duchy of Poznań. Thirdly, the eastern part public education, created by Napoleon, was given to Russia. This is how the Kingdom of Poland arose.

The Poles within the above-mentioned states were a constant problem for the monarchs, as they raised uprisings, created their own parties, developed literature and language, Polish traditions and culture. Best position There were Poles in Austria, where the monarchs gave permission to create universities in Krakow and Lviv. The activities of several parties were officially permitted, and the Poles entered the Austrian parliament.

Poland in the 20th century.

Intellectuals in every part of the former kingdom seized every opportunity to launch a large-scale national revival. Such an opportunity presented itself in 1914, when the First World War broke out. The “Polish question” was one of the key ones in the policies of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany. The monarchies manipulated the desire of the Poles to revive their own state. The tragedy was that the Poles fought in different armies on the fronts of the First World War. There was no unity between political parties, between the aristocracy and the intelligentsia.

Despite disagreements and contradictions among Polish political circles and the monarchy, in 1918, by decision of the Entente countries, Poland was revived as an independent state. The country was recognized by the USA, Britain, and France. All power went to the regency council, headed by Józef Pilsudski. In 1919, he became president of the country, and elections to the Sejm were held.

According to the decisions of the Versailles Conference, the borders of Poland were approved, although the question of “eastern cresses” remained open for a long time. These are lands, the right to own which was disputed by the Ukrainian and Polish authorities. Only the Treaty of Riga, signed in 1921, temporarily solved this problem.

During the 1920–1930s. Piłsudski and his government tried to put the country in order. But the situation still remained unstable in all areas.

The president himself and his supporters successfully took advantage of this by carrying out a military coup in 1925. A sanitation regime was established in Poland, which existed until 1935, when Pilsudski died. Then there was a return to the presidential form of government, but the internal situation worsened all the time. Anti-Semitic policies intensified, the activities of the political party and the Sejm were limited. The government, realizing that a new war was brewing in Europe, tried to secure the borders. The policy of non-alignment provided for the refusal to join various military-political blocs and to sign non-aggression treaties with neighboring states. As history has shown, this did not save Poland.

On September 1, 1939, Germany occupied the country, western Ukraine and Belarus became part of the Soviet Union.

The Second World War was a national tragedy for Poland. The Third Reich considered Poles to be third-class citizens, sending them to hard work, exterminating them in concentration camps, killing them for espionage, and terrorist acts. Many cities, historical centers of Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Danzig, ports, and infrastructure were destroyed. The Germans, leaving Poland, blew up churches and businesses, robbed them, and took out objects of art, painting, and architecture by train.

The country was liberated from occupation by the Red Army, which allowed Stalin to include Poland in the zone of influence of the USSR. The communists came to power, persecuting everyone who was not ready or did not agree to accept the new realities.

Radical changes began in the 1980s, when the Solidarity party was created and cold war became an appearance rather than a reality in the countries of the socialist camp. This period of time was very difficult for the republic. Crisis phenomena have affected enterprises, mines, financial and economic systems, and government bodies. Constantly rising prices high level unemployment, strikes, demonstrations, inflation only complicated the situation and made any government reforms ineffective.

In 1989, Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa, won the elections to the Sejm. Radical changes began in Poland, affecting all spheres of public life. In many ways, the success of the reforms was determined by the support of the Catholic Church and the removal of communists from power.

Walesa was president until 1995, when he was outvoted by Aleksander Kwasniewski in the first round.

Modern Poland

The Poles chose Kwasniewski because they were tired of decades of shock therapy and political instability. The new president promised to bring the country into the EU and NATO. The presidential tenure of the new head of state was not simple, as evidenced by the constant changes in government. Nevertheless, a new constitution was adopted, reforms were carried out in the executive, legislative and judicial authorities, stabilization of the economy began, jobs appeared, the situation of workers in enterprises improved, mines and the market began to work again, and the list of goods that Poland exported abroad expanded.

Kwasniewski was again elected president in 2000, and this made it possible to continue the course of reforms begun in previous years. The head of state, like his government, focused on Western countries. The European vector was clearly visible in Poland's domestic and foreign policy. In 1999, the republic became a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, and five years later it was admitted to the EU.

In the 2010s. Poland established close ties with the countries of the region: Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, creating the Visegrad Four. Ukraine and Russia became separate areas that are strategically important for the country.

Poland today has become one of the key players in the EU, determining the vectors of the Union’s foreign policy in relation to the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The country participates in various regional organizations and associations and creates a system for protecting its own borders. Globalization processes have changed the labor market and economic conditions, as a result of which Poles began to leave en masse to work in Germany, Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavian countries. The ethnic structure of the population is also changing, which is associated with massive influxes of labor migrants from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Poland is also forced to accept refugees from Arab countries who are fleeing to the EU from wars in their states.

StoryPoland is an immense fairy tale. Forever caught between two powerful and aggressive neighbors, Poland has defended its freedom and sovereignty countless times over the past millennium. It has gone from being the largest country in Europe to disappearing completely from the world map, and has seen its population shattered in two world wars. However, it shows the amazing resilience of the Polish people, and that Poland not only recovered from each devastating blow, but also retained the energy to maintain its own culture.

History of Poland in ancient times

The lands of modern Poland have been inhabited since the Stone Age by numerous tribes from the east and west who called its fertile plains home. Archaeological finds from the Stone and Bronze Ages can be seen in many Polish museums, but the greatest example of the pre-Slavic peoples is presented in Biskupin. This fortified city was built by the Lusatian tribe about 2,700 years ago. The Celts, the Germanic tribes, and then the Baltic people, all of them established themselves in Poland. But this was all before the arrival of the Slavs, who began to shape the country into a nation.

Although the exact date of the arrival of the first Slavic tribes is unknown, historians believe that the Slavs began to settle in Poland between the 5th and 8th centuries. Beginning in the 8th century, smaller tribes began to unite, creating large conglomerates, thus establishing themselves more fully in the lands of the future Polish state. The name of the country comes from one of these tribes - Polanie(“people of the fields”) - settled on the banks of the Warta River near the modern city of Poznan. The leader of this tribe, the legendary Piast, in the 10th century managed to unite disparate groups from the surrounding areas into a single political bloc, and gave it the name Polska, later Wielkopolska, that is, Greater Poland. This was the case until the arrival of Piast's great-great-grandson, Duke Mieszko I, who united a large part of Poland under one dynasty.

First Polish state

After Mieszko I converted to Christianity, he did what previous Christian rulers did and began to conquer his neighbors. Soon, the entire coastal region of Pomerania (Pomerania) came under his sovereignty, along with Slask (Silesia) and the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. By the time of his death in 992, the Polish state had approximately the same borders as modern Poland, and the city of Gniezno was appointed its first capital. By that time, cities such as Gdansk, Szczecin, Poznan, Wroclaw and Krakow already existed. Mieszko's son, Boleslaw I the Brave, continued his father's work, expanding the borders of Poland east to Kyiv. His son, Mieszko II, was less successful in his conquests, and during his reign the country experienced wars in the north and a period of internal strife within the royal family. The administrative center of the country was moved from Greater Poland to the less vulnerable Lesser Poland Voivodeship, where by the mid-11th century Krakow was designated as the center of royal rule.

When the pagan Prussians attacked the central province of Masovia in 1226, the Masovian Duke Conrad called for help from the Teutonic Knights and German troops, who made their mark in history during the Crusades. Soon, the knights conquered the pagan tribes, but then “bit the hand that fed them,” beginning massive construction of castles on Polish territory, conquering the port city of Gdansk, and effectively occupying northern Poland, claiming it as their territory. They ruled from their largest castle of all on Malbork and, within a few decades, became the main military power of Europe.

Casimir III and reunification

Only in 1320 was the Polish crown restored and the state was reunified. This happened during the reign Casimir III the Great(1333-1370), when Poland gradually became a prosperous and strong state. Casimir the Great restored suzerainty over Mazovia, then captured vast territories of Ruthenia (today Ukraine) and Podolia, thereby significantly expanding the borders of the monarchy to the southeast.

Casimir the Great was also an enlightened and energetic ruler on the home front. By developing and implementing reforms, he laid strong legal, economic, commercial and educational foundations. He also passed a law providing benefits for Jews, thereby making Poland a safe home for the Jewish community for centuries to come. More than 70 new cities were created. In 1364, one of the first universities in Europe was established in Krakow, and castles and fortifications were erected to improve the country's defenses. There is a saying that Casimir the Great “found Poland built of wood, but left it built with stones.”

Jagiellonian Dynasty (1382-1572)

The end of the 14th century is remembered by Poland for the dynastic union with Lithuania, the so-called political marriage, which increased Poland's territory fivefold overnight and lasted for the next four centuries. The unification benefited both sides - Poland received a partner in the fight against the Tatars and Mongols, and Lithuania received help in the fight against the Teutonic Order. Under power Vladislav II Jagiello(1386-1434), the alliance defeated the knights and restored eastern Pomerania, part of Prussia and the port of Gdansk, and for the next 30 years the Polish Empire was largest state Europe, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Eastern Progress and the Golden Age of Poland

But it didn't last long. The threat of invasion became obvious towards the end of the 15th century - this time the main instigators were the Turks from the south, the Crimean Tatars from the east and the Muscovite kings from the north and east. Together or separately, they repeatedly invaded and raided the eastern and southern parts of Polish territories, and at one point penetrated as far as Krakow.

Despite this, the power of the Polish kingdom was firmly established and the country advanced both culturally and spiritually. The beginning of the 16th century brought the Renaissance to Poland, and during the reign Sigismund I the Old and his son Sigismund II Augustus art and science flourished. This was Poland's Golden Age, which produced great men such as Nicolaus Copernicus.

Most of Poland's population at this time was made up of Poles and Lithuanians, but included significant minorities from neighboring countries. Jews formed an important and growing part of society, and by the end of the 16th century Poland had a larger Jewish population than the rest of united Europe.

On the political front, Poland developed in the 16th century into a parliamentary monarchy with most privileges held by the szlachta (nobility, feudal nobility), who made up approximately 10% of the population. At the same time, the status of the peasants decreased, and they gradually fell into a state of virtual slavery.

Hoping to strengthen the monarchy, the Diet, convened in Lublin in 1569, united Poland and Lithuania into a single state, and made Warsaw the place of future meetings. Since there was no direct heir to the throne, the Sejm also established a system of succession based on voting by nobles in general elections, who must travel to Warsaw to vote. In the absence of serious Polish applicants, foreign candidates could also be considered.

Royal Republic (1573-1795)

From the very beginning, the experiment led to disastrous consequences. For every royal election, foreign powers promoted their candidates by cutting deals and bribing voters. During this period, no less than 11 kings ruled Poland, and only four of them were Poles by birth.

The first chosen king, Henri de Valois, retreated to his homeland to ascend the French throne after only a year on the Polish throne. His successor Stefan Batory(1576-1586), Prince of Transylvania, was a much wiser choice. Batory, together with his gifted commander and chancellor Jan Zamoyski, fought a number of successful battles against Tsar Ivan the Terrible and came close to concluding an alliance with Russia against the Ottoman Empire.

After Batory's premature death, the crown was offered to the Swede, Sigismund III Vasa(1587-1632), and during his reign Poland reached its maximum expansion (three times the size of modern Poland). Despite this, Sigismund is best remembered for moving the Polish capital from Krakow to Warsaw between 1596 and 1609.

The beginning of the 17th century was a turning point in the fate of Poland. The increasing political power of the Polish gentry undermined the authority of the Sejm. The country was divided into several huge private estates, and the nobles, upset by the ineffective government, resorted to armed rebellion.

Meanwhile, foreign invaders systematically divided up the land. Jan II Casimir Vasa(1648-68), the last of the Waza dynasty on the Polish throne, was unable to resist the aggressors - Russians, Tatars, Ukrainians, Cossacks, Turks and Swedes - who were approaching on all fronts. Swedish invasion in 1655-1660, known as the Flood, was particularly disastrous.

The last bright spot in the fall of the Royal Republic was the dominance John III Sobieski(1674-96), a brilliant commander who led several victorious battles against the Ottoman Empire. The most famous of these was the Battle of Vienna in 1683, in which he defeated the Turks.

The Rise of Russia

By the beginning of the 18th century, Poland was in decline, and Russia had become a powerful, expansive empire. The tsars systematically strengthened their power throughout the revolving country, and the rulers of Poland actually became puppets of the Russian regime. This became quite clear during the reign Stanisław August Poniatowski(1764-95), when Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, intervened directly in Polish affairs. The collapse of the Polish Empire was just around the corner.

Three sections

While Poland was languishing, Russia, Prussia and Austria were gaining strength. The late 18th century was a disastrous period for the country, with neighboring powers agreeing to partition Poland on no fewer than three separate occasions within a span of 23 years. The First Partition led to immediate reforms and a new, liberal constitution, and Poland remained relatively stable. Catherine the Great could no longer tolerate this dangerous democracy, and sent Russian troops to Poland. Despite fierce resistance, the reforms were reversed by force and the country was divided a second time.

Enter Tadeusha Kosciuszko, hero of the American Revolutionary War. With the help of patriotic forces, he launched an armed uprising in 1794. The campaign soon gained public support and the rebels scored some early victories, but Russian troops, stronger and better armed, defeated the Polish forces within a year. Resistance and unrest remained within Polish borders, which led the three occupying powers to a third and final partition. Poland disappeared from the map for the next 123 years.

Struggle for independence

Despite the partitions, Poland continued to exist as a spiritual and cultural community, and many secret nationalist societies were created. Since revolutionary France was perceived as the main ally in the struggle, some leaders fled to Paris and established their headquarters there.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna created the Congress of the Kingdom of Poland, but Russian oppression continued. In response, armed uprisings broke out, the most significant of which occurred in 1830 and 1863. There was also a rebellion against the Austrians in 1846.

In the 1870s, Russia dramatically increased its efforts to eradicate Polish culture, suppressing the Polish language in education, government and commerce, and replacing it with Russian. However, it was also a time of great industrialization in Poland, with cities such as Lodz experiencing an economic boom. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Poland's fortunes changed once again.

First World War (1914-18)

The First World War saw Poland's three occupying powers enter the war. On one side were the Central Powers, Austria-Hungary and Germany (including Prussia), on the other side were Russia and its Western allies. Most of the fighting was organized on Polish lands, resulting in huge losses of life and livelihood. Since no official Polish state existed, there was no Polish army to fight for the national cause. To make matters worse, some two million Poles were conscripted into the Russian, German or Austrian armies and were forced to fight each other.

Paradoxically, the war ultimately led to Polish independence. After October revolution in 1917, Russia plunged into civil war and no longer had the power to oversee Polish affairs. Final disintegration Austrian Empire in October 1918 and the withdrawal of the German army from Warsaw in November brought the right moment. Marshal Józef Pilsudski took control of Warsaw on November 11, 1918, declared Polish sovereignty and usurped power as head of state.

The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic

Poland began its new incarnation in a hopeless situation - the country and its economy lay in ruins, and about a million Poles died in the First World War. All state institutions- including an army that had not existed for more than a century - had to be built from scratch.

Treaty of Versailles in 1919 he awarded Poland western part Prussia, providing access to the Baltic Sea. The city of Gdansk, however, became the free city of Danzig. The rest of Poland's western border was drawn up through a series of plebiscites, which led Poland to acquire some significant industrial areas of Upper Silesia. The eastern borders were established when Polish forces defeated the Red Army during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-20.

When Poland's territorial struggle ended, the Second Republic covered almost 400,000 square meters. km and had a population of 26 million. One third of the population was of non-Polish ethnic origin, mainly Jews, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Germans.

After Piłsudski retired from political life in 1922, the country experienced four years of unstable government until the great commander seized power in a military coup in May 1926. Parliament was gradually reduced, but, despite the dictatorial regime, political repression had little influence on ordinary people. The economic situation was relatively stable, and cultural and intellectual life flourished.

On the international front, Poland's position in the 1930s was unenviable. In an attempt to normalize relations with its two inexorably hostile neighbors, Poland signed non-aggression pacts both with the Soviet Union and Germany. However, it soon became clear that the treaties did not provide any real security guarantees.

August 23, 1939, a non-aggression pact was signed in Moscow between Germany and the Soviet Union by foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov. This treaty contained a secret protocol defining the proposed division of Eastern Europe between the two great powers.

World War II (1939-45)

World War II began at dawn September 1, 1939 years since the massive German invasion of Poland. The fighting began in Gdańsk (then the free city of Danzig) when German forces encountered a stubborn handful of Polish partisans at Westerplatte. The battle lasted a week. At the same time, another German line stormed Warsaw, which eventually surrendered on 28 September. Despite valiant resistance, there was simply no hope of countering the overwhelming and well-armed German forces numerically; the last resistance groups were suppressed by early October. Hitler's policy was to destroy the Polish nation and Germanize the territory. Hundreds of thousands of Poles were sent to forced labor camps in Germany, while others, most notably the intelligentsia, were executed in an attempt to exterminate spiritual and intellectual leadership.

The Jews were to be eliminated completely. They were first separated and imprisoned in ghettos, and then sent to concentration camps scattered throughout the country. Almost the entire Jewish population of Poland (three million) and approximately one million Poles died in the camps. Resistance broke out in numerous ghettos and camps, the most famous of which was in Warsaw.

Within weeks of the Nazi invasion, the Soviet Union moved into Poland and claimed the eastern half of the country. Thus, Poland was again divided. Mass arrests, exiles and executions followed, and it is believed that between one and two million Poles were sent to Siberia, the Soviet Arctic and Kazakhstan in 1939–40. Just like the Nazis, the Soviet army set in motion a process of intellectual genocide.

Shortly after the outbreak of the war, a Polish government in exile was formed in France under the command of General Władysław Sikorski and then Stanisław Mikołajczyk. As the front line moved west, this established government was moved to London in June 1940.

The course of the war changed dramatically when Hitler launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union June 22, 1941. Soviet troops were driven out of Eastern Poland and all of Poland came under Nazi control. The Führer set up camp deep in Polish territory and remained there for more than three years.

Nationwide movement Resistance, concentrated in the cities, was put in place shortly after the end of the war to manage Polish educational, judicial and communications systems. Armed units were created by the government-in-exile in 1940, and they became the Home Army (AK; Home Army), which figured prominently in the Warsaw Uprising.

Surprisingly, given Soviet treatment of the Poles, Stalin turned to Poland for help in the war against German forces advancing east towards Moscow. The official Polish army was reformed at the end of 1941, but was largely under Soviet control.

Hitler's defeat at Stalingrad in 1943 marked the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front, and the Red Army successfully advanced westward. After Soviet troops liberated the Polish city of Lublin, the Polish Pro-Communist Committee for National Liberation (PCNL) was established on July 22, 1944, and took over the functions of the provisional government. A week later, the Red Army reached the outskirts of Warsaw.

Warsaw remained under Nazi occupation at the time. In a last-ditch attempt to create an independent Polish administration, the AK tried to gain control of the city before the arrival of Soviet troops with disastrous results. The Red Army continued its march west through Poland, reaching Berlin a few months later. On May 8, 1945, the Nazi Reich capitulated.

At the end of World War II, Poland lay in ruins. More than six million people, about 20% of the pre-war population, lost their lives, and of the three million Polish Jews in 1939, only 80-90 thousand survived the war. Its cities were little more than rubble, and only 15% of Warsaw's buildings survived. Many Poles who had seen war in foreign countries decided not to return to the new political order.

On Yalta Conference in February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin decided to leave Poland under Soviet control. They agreed that Poland's eastern border would roughly follow the 1939 Nazi-Soviet demarcation line. Six months later, Allied leaders established western border Poland along the rivers: Odra (Oder) and Nisa (Neisse); in effect the country has returned to its medieval borders.

Radical border changes were accompanied by population movements: Poles were moved into the newly defined Poland, while Germans, Ukrainians and Belarusians were resettled outside its borders. Eventually, 98% of Poland's population became ethnically Polish.

Once Poland formally came under Soviet control, Stalin began an intensive campaign of Sovietization. Military resistance leaders were accused of collaborating with the Nazis, and were shot or sentenced to arbitrary prison terms. A provisional Polish government was created in Moscow in June 1945 and then moved to Warsaw. General elections were postponed until 1947 to give the secret police time to arrest prominent Polish political figures. After falsified election results, the new Sejm elected Bolesław Bierut as president; Stanisław Mikolajczyk, accused of espionage, fled back to England.

In 1948, the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) was formed to monopolize power, and a Soviet-style constitution was adopted in 1952. The post of president was abolished and power was transferred to the first secretary of the Party Central Committee. Poland became part of the Warsaw Pact.

Stalinist fanaticism never gained as much influence in Poland as it did in neighboring countries, and soon after Stalin's death in 1953, all this disappeared. The powers of the secret police were reduced. The pressure was reduced and the Polish cultural values were resuscitated.

In June 1956, a massive industrial strike broke out in Poznan, demanding ‘bread and freedom’. The action was suppressed by force, and soon Wladyslaw Gomulka, a former political prisoner of the Stalin era, was appointed first secretary of the Party. At first he commanded public support, but later he showed a harsher and more authoritarian attitude, putting pressure on the church and intensifying the persecution of the intelligentsia. Ultimately there was an economic crisis that caused its downfall; when he announced an official price increase in 1970, a wave of mass strikes broke out in Gdańsk, Gdynia and Szczecin. Again, protests were suppressed by force, resulting in 44 deaths. The party, in order to save its face, removed Gomulka from office and replaced him with Edward Gierek.

Another attempt to raise prices in 1976 incited labor protests, and again workers walked off the job, this time in Radom and Warsaw. Caught in a downward spiral, Gierek took out more foreign loans, but in order to earn the hard currency on which to pay interest, he was forced to divert consumer goods from the domestic market and sell them abroad. By 1980, foreign debt reached US$21 billion and the economy slumped.

By then, the opposition had become a significant force, supported by numerous advisors from intellectual circles. When the government again announced food price increases in July 1980, the result was predictable: heated and well-organized strikes and riots spread like wildfire throughout the country. In August they paralyzed the largest ports, the Silesian coal mines and the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk.

Unlike most previous popular protests, the 1980 strikes were nonviolent; The strikers did not take to the streets, but remained in their factories.

Solidarity

August 31, 1980, after long, protracted negotiations at the Lenin shipyard, the government signed the Gdansk Agreement. This forced the ruling party to accept most of the strikers' demands, including the right of workers to organize independent trade unions and go on strike. In turn, the workers agreed to adhere to the constitution and accept the power of the Party as supreme.

Delegations of workers from all over the country convened and founded Solidarity(Solidarność), a nationwide independent and self-governing trade union. Lech Walesa, who led the strike in Gdansk, was elected chairman.

The ripple effect was not long in coming, causing hesitation in the government. Zirek was replaced by Stanislaw Kania, who in turn lost in October 1981 to General Wojciech Jaruzelski. However, the trade union's greatest influence was on Polish society. After 35 years of restraint, the Poles have embroiled themselves in a spontaneous and chaotic form of democracy. Comprehensive debate on the reform process was spearheaded by Solidarity, and an independent press flourished. Such taboo historical topics as the Stalin-Hitler Pact and the Katyn massacres could, for the first time, be discussed openly.

Not surprisingly, Solidarity's 10 million participants represented a wide range of views, from confrontational to conciliatory. By and large, it was Walesa's charismatic authority that kept the union on a moderate and balanced course.

The government, however, under pressure from Soviet and local hard-liners, was reluctant to introduce any significant reforms and systematically rejected Solidarity's proposals. This led to further discontent and, in the absence of other legal options, more strikes. Amid the fruitless debate, the economic crisis became more serious. Following failed negotiations in November 1981 between the government, Solidarity and the church, social tensions increased and led to a political stalemate.

Martial law and the collapse of communism

When General Jaruzelski unexpectedly appeared on television in the early hours of the morning December 13, 1981 To declare martial law, tanks were already on the streets, army checkpoints were set up on every corner, and paramilitary troops were stationed at possible hotspots. Power was transferred to the hands of the Military Council of National Salvation (WRON), a group of officers under the command of Jaruzelski himself.

Solidarity activities were suspended and all public meetings, demonstrations and strikes were prohibited. Several thousand people, including most of the Solidarity and Walesa leaders, were interned. The spontaneous demonstrations and strikes that followed were crushed, military rule effectively took effect across Poland within two weeks of its declaration, and life returned to the days before the creation of Solidarity.

In October 1982, the government officially dissolved Solidarity and released Walesa. In July 1984, a limited amnesty was announced and some members of the political opposition were released from prison. But, after each public protest, arrests continued, and only in 1986, all political prisoners were released.

Election Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in 1985 and its glasnost and perestroika programs provided an important impetus for democratic reform throughout Eastern Europe. By early 1989, Jaruzelski had softened his position and allowed the opposition to compete for seats in parliament.

Unfree elections were held in June 1989, in which Solidarity succeeded in winning an overwhelming majority of the votes of its supporters and was elected to the Senate, the upper house of parliament. The Communists, however, won 65% of the seats in the Sejm. Jaruzelski was placed in the presidency as a stabilizing guarantor of political change for both Moscow and the local communists, but a non-communist prime minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, was installed as a result of Walesa's personal pressure. This power-sharing agreement with the first non-communist prime minister in Eastern Europe since World War II paved the way for the domino-like collapse of communism throughout the Soviet bloc. In 1990 the Party historically dissolved itself.

The Free Market and the Times of Lech Wales

In January 1990, Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz introduced a package of reforms to replace the centrally planned communist system with market economy. His economic shock therapy allowed prices to float freely, subsidies were removed, money was tightened, and the currency was sharply devalued, making it fully convertible with Western currencies.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Within a few months, the economy seemed to have stabilized, food shortages were no longer in evidence, and stores were stocked with goods. On the other hand, prices have soared and unemployment rates have risen. An initial wave of optimism and patience turned to uncertainty and discontent, and austerity measures caused the government's popularity to decline.

In November 1990, Walesa won the first completely free presidential election, and Third Polish Republic. During his statutory five-year tenure, Poland witnessed no fewer than five governments and five prime ministers, each of whom struggled to get the newborn democracy on track.

Following his election, Walesa appointed Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, an economist and former adviser, as prime minister. His cabinet attempted to continue the strict economic policies introduced by the previous government, but was unable to maintain parliamentary support and resigned a year later. At least 70 parties contested the country's first free parliamentary elections in October 1991, which resulted in the installation of Prime Minister Jan Olszewski at the head of a centre-right coalition. Olszewski lasted only five months, and was replaced by Hannah Suchocka in June 1992. Suchocka was, in Poland, the first woman prime minister, and she was called the Polish Margaret Thatcher. Under her coalition rule, she was able to command a parliamentary majority, but divisions grew on many issues, and she lost the elections in June 1993.

Return of the communist regime

An impatient Walesa stepped in, dissolving parliament and calling general elections. His decision was a grave miscalculation. The pendulum swung and the elections led to a coalition of the Democratic Left (SLD) and the Polish Peasant Party (PSL).

The new government, led by PSL leader Waldemar Pawlak, continued with general market reform, but the economy began to slow. Continued tensions within the coalition led to a decline in her popularity, and her battles with the president brought further changes in February 1995, when Walesa threatened to dissolve parliament unless Pawlak was replaced. The fifth and final prime minister of Walesa's presidency was Józef Oleksy: another former Communist Party official.

Wales's presidential style and achievements have been repeatedly questioned by virtually all political parties and the majority of the electorate. His bizarre behavior and capricious use of power caused a decline in the success he had enjoyed in 1990 and led to his lowest-ever level of public support in 1995, when polls indicated that only 8% of the country would prefer him as president for another term. . Despite this, Walesa maneuvered energetically and came quite close to winning a second term.

The November 1995 elections were essentially a tight contest between the anti-communist people's figure, Lech Walesa, and the young, former communist technocrat and leader of the SLD, Aleksander Kwasniewski. Kwasniewski was ahead of Wales, but by a small margin of only 3.5%.

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, another former Communist party official, took over as prime minister. In reality, the post-communists have a stranglehold on power, controlling the presidency, government and parliament - the 'red triangle' - as Walesa warned. The center and right - almost half the political nation - have effectively lost control of the decision-making process. The Church favored by Walesa during his reign also suffered setbacks and warned believers against the dangers of "neopaganism" under the new regime.

Establishing balance

By 1997, the electorate clearly understood that things had gone too far. Parliamentary elections in September were won by an alliance of about 40 small Solidarity offshoot parties, collectively called the Electoral Action of Solidarity (AWS). The union formed a coalition with the centrist liberal Union of Freedom (UW), pushing ex-communists into opposition. Jerzy Buzek of AWS became prime minister, and the new government accelerated the privatization of the country.

President Kwasniewski's political style was in sharp contrast to his predecessor Walesa. Kwasniewski brought political calm during his reign and was able to successfully cooperate with the left and right wings of the political establishment. This won him a significant degree of popular support, and paved the way for another five-year term in office.

At least 13 people challenged the October 2000 presidential election, but none came close to Kwasniewski, who won with 54% of the popular vote. Centrist businessman Andrzej Olechowski came second with 17% support, while Walesa, trying his luck a third time, was defeated with just 1% of the vote.

On the way to Europe

On the international front, Poland was granted full NATO membership in March 1999, while at home parliamentary elections in September 2001 changed the political axis once again. The Union of Democratic Left (SLD) staged its second comeback, occupying 216 seats in the Diet. The party formed a coalition with the Polish Peasant Party (PSL), repeating the shaky alliance of 1993, and a former senior Communist Party official, Leszek Miller, took over as prime minister.

Poland's largest movement in the 21st century was joining the European Union May 1, 2004. The next day, Miller resigned amid a string of corruption scandals and unrest over high unemployment and low living standards. His replacement, the respected economist Marek Belka, lasted until the elections in September 2005, when the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and the liberal-conservative Civic Platform (PO) party took power. In total, they received 288 seats in the Sejm out of 460. PiS member Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was appointed prime minister, and a month later, another PiS member, Lech Kaczynski, took the presidential seat.

History of Poland today

Unsurprisingly, Marcinkiewicz did not last long and resigned in July 2006 over an alleged estrangement with PiS leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Yaroslav, the president's twin brother, was quickly appointed to this position. However, his dominance was short-lived - in early elections in October 2007, Yaroslav lost to the more liberal and EU-friendly Donald Tusk and his Civic Platform party.

President Kaczynski, his wife and dozens of senior officials were killed April 10, 2010 when their plane crashed in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. A total of 96 people died in the crash, including Poland's deputy foreign minister, 12 members of parliament, heads of the army and navy, and the president of the national bank. Bronislaw Komorowski, leader of the lower house of parliament, took on the role of acting president.

Kaczynski's twin brother and former prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, ran for president against Bronislaw Komorowski, who leads the Civic Platform party. Komorowski won the first and second rounds of elections and was recognized as president in July.

Despite countless reforms and coalitions, Poland is still wavering in political and economic interests. But given its turbulent past, the country has found some stability and enjoys self-rule and peace.

In previous decades, domestic science considered any state as a machine for suppressing one class by another. This is not to say that this is completely false. However, it is also true that the nature of the state is not limited to its repressive function. The state also acts as a powerful creative force in history. From the point of view of self-organization of society, the state is the most important step in curbing the spontaneous forces of social development, the most significant achievement of progress. Therefore, there is every reason to count down the actual historical existence of a particular people from the moment of the formation of statehood.

Genesis of Polish statehood
In the Polish past, the state entered the historical arena in the 9th – 10th centuries, but the first decades of its existence are not covered by sources that would describe the genesis of Polish statehood. In the second half of the 10th century, the state of the first dynasty of Polish rulers - the Piasts - appeared as an already established and fairly developed military-administrative machine. Primary source for recovery Polish history of this time - the Chronicle of Gallus Anonymus, written only at the beginning of the 12th century - conveys some echoes of the events and processes of the 9th - early 10th centuries. It shows that already in the 9th century there was a consolidation of the Wielkopolska “big tribe” of the glades, which began to conquer neighboring tribes. Simultaneously with the conquests, the construction of towns was underway, a permanent and fairly numerous squad was formed, and together with the squad, the tribal aristocracy became a special social group, whose source of existence was the tribute collected from the subject population.
The chronicle of Gallus Anonymus brings to us legends from which we learn about the legendary ancestor of the Polish rulers, the simple peasant Piast, who was elevated to the throne by God's providence, and about his three semi-legendary successors - Ziemovit, Leshke and Ziemomysl. They managed to subjugate not only Greater Poland, but also Mazovia, Kuyavia, part of Pomerania, and the lands of the Lendzians. Their residence was the city of Gniezno, which grew with the military successes of the Poles.

Organization of the Polish state in the 10th – 11th centuries.
The first monarch about whom more reliable data has been preserved was Mieszko I (about 960 - 992). Western European and Arab sources of the 10th century describe his state as a strong and branched organism, based on a network of cities, which ceased to be the center of tribes or opole, becoming the power base of the Polish prince, centers for collecting tribute and the residences of small squad garrisons led by princely governors. Over time, these towns turned into feudal castles. Under the heir of Meshko I, Boleslav the Brave (992-1025), according to Gall Anonymus, in some of the most major centers(Gniezno, Poznan, Wloclawek, Gdech), numerous squadrons were concentrated (in total more than 10 thousand knights and shield warriors). Such an army could only exist thanks to a system of centralized state exploitation of the dependent population, which consisted of the regular collection of tribute taxes. The entire territory subordinate to the prince was considered accordingly as his own possession (patronimium), a single economic domain, managed by representatives of the princely administration and divided into a number administrative districts(Greater Poland, Silesia, Krakow, Sandomierz, Masovian, Leczycko-Sieradz, Kuyavian and Pomeranian lands). At the grand ducal court, a system of government positions developed (chancellor, voivode, treasurer, chashniki, stewards, stable hands, etc.), which in its basic elements was reproduced at the level of local administration in the largest cities. The head of the district, the future castellan, with the help of his subordinates, collected taxes, organized a squad, and administered court on behalf of the prince. Like all early medieval rulers, the Polish monarch spends almost his entire life in the saddle, moving with his retinue from one land to another and thereby asserting his power and authority locally. After the adoption of Christianity in Poland in 966, a church administration began to take shape alongside the secular administration.
A characteristic feature of such a system of state organization is that it is the state, represented by the prince and his warriors, that acts as a feudal corporation that centrally exploits the country subject to the prince. Only gradually, as local representatives of the prince are endowed with immune privileges, the warrior from a representative of the state turns into a feudal lord who receives certain populated territories into private conditional ownership, for which he must serve the prince. The state organization, therefore, precedes the feudal one, and the entire social system can also be defined as a system of state feudalism.

Main milestones of political development
The main organizing principle of the political life of any early medieval society is war. Internal political changes and events most often appear as a consequence of military-political conflicts. Poland of the 10th and early 12th centuries is no exception.
The reign of Mieszko I (until 992) was marked by the territorial expansion of the Greater Poland state, which subjugated Silesia, Pomerania, and part of Lesser Poland. Other most important event this time - dictated largely by political considerations, the adoption of Christianity as the state religion in 966 and the symbolic transfer of Polish lands under the guardianship of the Roman throne. Another milestone in the reign of Mieszko I was the establishment of a system of military-state institutions of the Polish monarchy and the establishment of a system of centralized state exploitation of the population.
The reign of Boleslav the Brave (992 - 1025) was marked by the annexation of Krakow to his power in 999, the conclusion of a close military-political alliance with the Holy Emperor German Empire Otto III during the so-called Gniezno Congress of 1000. This union was accompanied by the creation of an independent Gniezno archdiocese, which guaranteed Poland ecclesiastical and political independence from the German church. The rapprochement with Germany gave way to a period of long wars with the successors of Otto III in 1002 - 1018. After the conclusion of the Peace of Bulyszyn with the Empire in 1018, Boleslav undertook a victorious campaign against Kievan Rus and annexed a number of cities in Galician Rus' to Poland (1018). The apogee of Bolesław's political activity was his coronation in 1025.
The reign of Mieszko II (1025 - 1034) saw a number of defeats: the crown and part of the acquired lands were lost, internal strife broke out in the country, forcing Mieszko II to flee Poland, the monarchy plunged into a political and social crisis.
The apogee of this crisis falls on the reign of Casimir I the Restorer (1034 - 1058): almost the entire territory of Poland in 1037 was swept by a popular uprising, directed both against feudalization, which was in full swing, and against the church that had taken root in the country. In Polish historiography it is sometimes called the social-pagan revolution. The consequences of this social explosion were catastrophic: the existing state-administrative and church systems were almost destroyed, which the Czech prince Břetislav took advantage of by undertaking a devastating campaign against Poland in 1038. Nevertheless, Casimir managed to defend the independence of the Polish principality, calm the country and restore the shaken social, state and church order.
The reign of Bolesław II the Bold or Generous (1058-1081) was marked by Poland's participation in the conflict between Pope Gregory VII and the German Emperor Henry IV, which brought Bolesław the royal crown in 1076. However, in 1079 he faced a feudal conspiracy led by his brother Władysław and, perhaps the Bishop of Krakow, Stanisław. Although Boleslav even decided to execute Stanislav, his strength was not enough to maintain power in the country, and he was forced to flee to Hungary in the same 1079.
The transfer of power to his brother Vladislav I Herman (1081-1102) meant the victory of the centrifugal forces of the feudal opposition over the central government. In fact, on behalf of Vladislav, the country was ruled by his governor Sieciekh, which meant Poland entered into a period of new political strife and feudal fragmentation.
The reign of Bolesław III Wrymouth (1102-1138) led to a temporary victory over opposition forces during the struggle against Sieciech and Bolesław's brother Zbigniew. This was largely the result of successful wars for the reunification and Christianization of Pomerania. In his will in 1138, Boleslav tried to prevent the disintegration of the country into separate principalities and appanages by introducing the rule of principate in the succession to the grand-ducal throne, that is, transferring supreme power to the eldest of four sons. However, this state act could no longer stop the inevitable processes of decentralization, and after the death of Boleslaw, Poland finally entered a period of feudal-political fragmentation.

Poland in the 10th – early 12th centuries: economic and social development

Population and internal colonization
The main Polish territory at this time covered about 250 thousand square meters. km. People lived on it at the turn of the 10th – 11th centuries. from 750 thousand to 1 million people. The population density was naturally uneven. The most densely populated areas were central Silesia, the center of Greater Poland, western Lesser Poland, Kuyavia and Pomerania. Forests covered vast areas at that time, and uninhabited areas were especially extensive on the borders between regions.
Grody, becoming the military-administrative centers of the Polish state, gradually acquired craft settlements and gave shelter to markets; the villages remained small, but still larger than before, uniting up to 10-15 households. Their location was still not stable, since the population was developing more and more new lands. Instead of a large family, a small family became the basic production and social unit, cultivating 8-9 hectares of land in two fields.
This internal colonization, as established in Lately historians, began relatively early - already in the 11th-12th centuries, that is, even before the so-called “German colonization” unfolded. On the one hand, the pioneers who burned and uprooted the forest were people or entire families who, for one reason or another, found themselves outside the community. During such spontaneous peasant colonization, an entire village could move to a new location. On the other hand, the monasteries used the dependent population for the organized development of new lands. When there were not enough workers to clear new arable land, secular feudal lords and the church invited settlers, granting them, unlike the rest of the dependent peasants, the status of “free guests”, hospitalists. They bore certain duties in favor of the owner of the land, but could leave him at any time, without, however, having any rights to the cultivated plot. The development of legal norms for “free guests” led to the fixation of the legal status of other peasants. We emphasize, however, that in the XI - XII centuries. all these processes were just unfolding, acquiring real scope only in the 13th – 14th centuries.

Agriculture
Agriculture and cattle breeding developed from the 10th century not only on peasant farms, but also on feudal estates. It is the latter that constitutes an innovation unknown to previous eras. Its purpose was to provide the Grand Duke’s squad with everything necessary and to ensure the collection of state rent-tax from the peasantry. The city and the princely estate were closely connected with each other. Estates of the 10th – 11th centuries. were exclusively princely, in the 12th century they began to pass into the hands of individual families of the emerging feudal class.
The main place in the princely, and later private feudal, patrimonial economy was occupied not by agriculture, but by livestock raising, which was carried out by some of the peasants living in the patrimonial estate. Along with this, special people were responsible for organizing hunting, which was not only sport and entertainment, but also an important help in supplying the squad with meat, especially corned beef on the eve of large campaigns. Another group of estate workers were artisans, who most often had their own plot of land. The private estates that arose after the princely ones were organized in a similar way, although on a smaller scale.
In traditional peasant farming, the slash-and-burn system was gradually introduced in the 10th – 12th centuries. gave way to stable arable farming, although on the periphery colonization was also accompanied by forest burning. The dominant land use system was two-field; only in the 12th century did it begin to be replaced by three-field (along with spring arable land and fallow winter fields). The only fertilization system was burning the stubble, which remained very high after harvesting, since only the spikelets were cut off with a sickle during the harvest. Manure was used only in vegetable gardens.
The main tool of labor remained a plow with an iron tip, sickles were iron, flails were wooden, and millstones were hand-made until the 12th century, when the first mills began to appear. Oxen were used as draft force, and from the 12th century - horses.
Millet remained the main grain crop, but rye also began to grow in importance next to it. Wheat was sown less frequently, mainly on good lands in southern Poland. Among other crops, barley was common, which was intended for making porridge and beer, already in the 11th century. replacing honey as the main intoxicating drink. They also sown peas, beans, lentils, turnips, carrots, and cucumbers from garden crops, and flax and hemp from industrial crops. The acculturation of fruit trees was just beginning, so they had hardly dabbled with fruits yet. Separate princely and church estates had vineyards, but the wine produced was of poor quality and served mainly for liturgical needs. According to G. Lovmiansky's calculations, 60% of a peasant family's food needs were covered by bread, cereals and other grain products, about 25% by meat, 10% by dairy products, the rest by honey, beer and vegetables.
Livestock farming in the peasant economy was represented by oxen, pigs (which were grazed in the forest), sheep, and cows. They also raised poultry. In the estates, primarily princely ones, specialized livestock farming played a major role, in which horse breeding occupied a special place. Cattle were bred to provide meat for the table of the lord and his squad. For a long time, the power and wealth of a feudal lord was measured not so much by the amount of land or dependent peasants, but by the number of herds and herds.
Along with agriculture and cattle breeding, the share of gathering in the village economy was still large. Apiaries and mead making became of great importance, since honey replaced both alcoholic beverages and sugar, and after the adoption of Christianity, the production of wax candles became an urgent need. For the use of beads and apiaries, a special tribute was paid to the landowner; beekeepers formed a privileged professional group. Beaver keepers enjoyed no less respect, because breeding and catching beavers also required special skills. Honey, wax and furs were a significant export trade item. Of course, fishing also retained its importance. As feudal relations developed, landowners sought to limit the rights of peasants to use forests, rivers and reservoirs.

Craft and trade
During the X – XII centuries. In the Polish lands, along with traditional household crafts, professional and specialized crafts were developing, gradually concentrating in the cities and large feudal estates that formed around the towns. In the 12th century, in Polish sources, we already find references to coal miners, carpenters, shipbuilders, coopers, tailors, etc. In the estates, villages were formed that specialized in one or another craft production - villages where blacksmiths or salt cooks, carpenters or leather workers, coopers lived or weavers. Traces of such settlements remain in the toponyms that have reached us: Solniki, Bovar, Kolodzheye, Shchitniki, Sanniki, etc. From the 12th century, mining also began to develop: for the extraction of lead, silver, and gold, primitive mines were created, where, apparently, princely slaves worked; iron ore was mined in shallow pits. In the north of Poland, the simplest salt pans arose; in the Malopolska villages of Bochnia and Wieliczka, rock salt began to be extracted from underground.
Gradually, cities became centers of craft and trade, but until the 12th century they still very little resembled the cities of the mature Middle Ages: legally they were completely dependent on the prince, in whose favor trade duties and craft taxes were collected. The townspeople were also required to perform labor (underwater) service. Although in the 12th century its own coin ousted foreign coins from circulation, the role of the city in intra-Polish and local trade was still very small, and foreign trade was monopolized by the feudal strata. The West Pomeranian cities (Wolin, Szczecin, Kolobrzeg) developed faster than others, the importance of Wroclaw and Krakow grew as intermediaries between Central Europe and the ancient Russian lands; Poznan and Gniezno are like links between Pomerania and southern Poland.
In general, until the 13th century, the Polish economy retained a deeply natural character, with an absolute predominance of the agricultural sector.

Social structure and social relations
In the X – XII centuries. in Poland there was a process of feudalization, that is, the emergence of a system of patrimonial land tenure and the formation of two main social groups of medieval society: the dependent peasantry and feudal lords. Contrary to what has prevailed for a long time in the domestic scientific literature According to the opinion, until the 12th century, Polish feudalism was based not on private large feudal estates, which until that time simply did not exist as any significant phenomenon, but on a centralized system of state exploitation of the dependent population. Accordingly, the warrior was a feudal lord only insofar as he remained a member of this military-political corporation. The feudal lord in the proper sense of the word was the state itself in the person of the Grand Duke. The peasants, in turn, retained personal freedom and an uncontested right to use the land as subjects of the sovereign. They were connected with the state by centrally collected rent, which also turned out to be a tax.
This early medieval system social relations, typical for most “barbarian” societies growing into feudalism, in the 11th – 12th centuries gave way to classical, “normal” feudalism. The essence of this process was that the state transferred the right to use part of the centralized rent to individual representatives of the military squad elite , distributing state lands with the peasants sitting on them as conditional holdings. Over time, these lands - through endowing them with tax, judicial and administrative immunity - were transformed from, so to speak, official residences into private feudal estates. The process of feudalization, therefore, did not occur from below (through the social differentiation of the community and the emergence of private ownership of land, on the basis of which the state later grew), and from above - through the distribution of state lands into first conditional and then unconditional ownership of members of the military-feudal druzhina corporation.
The first non-state feudal estates were the estates of the church. The largest of them was the patrimony of the head of the Polish Catholic Church, the Poznan (Gniezno) Archbishop, which, as can be seen from the papal bull of 1136, numbered about 150 settlements, 1000 peasant farms, and more than 6 thousand peasants. Of course, such a complex could not have developed in a jiffy, so we can assume that the first church estates began to appear soon after the adoption of Christianity by Meshka I. This does not mean that the church immediately acquired an independent material base. On the contrary, the clergy remained, until the 12th century, as dependent on the prince as his own warriors. Nevertheless, it is the clergy who, before others, acquire the status of an estate, that is, they are endowed with a number of rights and privileges that make them largely immune from princely arbitrariness and independent from the secular feudal nobility. XI – XII centuries became the time of the formation of the clergy as the first class group in the social structure of Polish medieval society.
The secular feudal estate developed in Poland later than the church one. This process only unfolded in the second half of the 11th – 12th centuries. and expands only with the establishment of a regime of feudal fragmentation. Therefore, the main criterion separating feudal lords from the rest of the population and one group of feudal lords from another is not land wealth. Mozhnovladstvo, the highest stratum among the military-squad aristocracy, is distinguished due to political-psychological, and not economic and social factors: it is based on the acquired military-political authority, prestige among the squad, closeness to the prince himself, the nature of the functions performed at court and in the squad, partly movable property, for example, the amount of cattle and horses belonging to one or another owner. These people appear in the sources as “the best people”, optimates. The roots of this group go back to the former tribal elite. In Poland, the first Piasts could be owned by military leaders, garrison commanders (castellans), and the prince's closest advisers.
Chivalry and nobiles make up the bulk of the military service environment. It is no longer at all similar to the squad of tribal times, since it is not consolidated either by kinship or by a single territory. The knight is completely dependent on the prince, who provides him with food, clothing, housing, equipment and even takes care of his marriage affairs. The military elite is concentrated around the prince himself, and the knights, who sat under the command of princely governors in local garrisons, differed little in their way of life from peasants or artisans. Next to the knights in the sources of the 12th century, we also encounter a third category of military service people - vladyks, that is, peasants called up from time to time for military service. This is a marginal group, which indicates the immaturity of class-class structures and which will later dissolve between the nobility and the peasantry. Starting from the 11th century, the process of militias settling on the earth as a result of princely land grants began, which created the preconditions for feudal fragmentation.
In general, neither sovereignty nor knighthood, even in the 12th century, had yet acquired the features and status of the medieval service nobility and feudal aristocracy, and had not yet constituted an estate. At the same time, they are no longer similar to the tribal aristocracy and warriors of tribal times. From this point of view, X - XII centuries. constitute a transitional period between the feudal and pre-feudal system.
Polish peasantry in the X – XII centuries. remained personally free, united in traditional communities, gminas. As the processes of feudalization unfolded, groups emerged from the homogeneous environment of the peasantry that became dependent on individual landowners. This process was reflected in the diversification of the terminology of sources relating to the peasantry. However, the predominance of forms of state feudalism and the need for internal colonization contributed to the preservation by the Polish peasantry of the traditional status of personally free subjects of the prince. In princely and church estates, along with peasants, one could also find landless serfs-slaves, whose role in the economy and their share in the social structure were not great.
As for the Polish burghers, in the 11th – 12th centuries. it is just beginning to emerge as a separate social group, since even specialized crafts remained the occupation of rural residents, and trade remained the monopoly of the squad. However, in the 12th century - especially in Silesia and Pomerania - mature forms of urban organization began to take shape and the burgher class began to act as a special layer in the social structure of society.
Thus, Poland X - XII centuries. was a society in which the division into social groups characteristic of mature feudalism had only just begun to emerge, and the processes of feudalization themselves were far from completed.

Culture of Poland in the X – XII centuries.

X – XII centuries - the time of Poland’s introduction to the Latin culture of the West, the stage, so to speak, of apprenticeship, when Polish society mastered the achievements of medieval Christian civilization before making its own original contribution to European culture. Naturally, the central process here was the gradual Christianization of the Polish population, since throughout the Middle Ages culture and religion were inseparably linked.

"Baptism" and Christianization of Poland
As in many other cases, for example, during the “baptism” of Rus', the immediate impetus for the proclamation of Christianity as the state religion was political circumstances. While fighting for Western Pomerania and facing the threat of German political and religious expansion, Mieszko I sought to find an ally in the Czech rulers and stand on an equal footing in political and diplomatic relations with Germany. The alliance with the Czech Republic was strengthened by a marriage with the Czech princess Dubrava, which was accompanied by the baptism of Mieszko I himself and his immediate circle. Apparently, the act of baptism itself took place not in Poland, but in Bavaria.
Mieszko I and other Polish rulers faced a difficult twofold task: to introduce Christianity into the practice of everyday life and into the consciousness of Polish society; to ensure the independence of the emerging Polish Church from the German hierarchy. The latter need was especially urgent, since Poland, as a field of activity for Christian missionaries, would have to fall into ecclesiastical and administrative dependence on the Magdeburg Archdiocese. The first Polish monarchs, however, managed to avoid this: at first, the clergy who arrived in Poland were headed by Bishop Jordan (Italian by birth), who arrived from the Czech Republic; later, in 1000, the Poznań archdiocese subordinate directly to Rome was created, headed by Gaudent, a representative of the Czech aristocracy and a Czech by birth. blood.
Of course, the network of parishes did not take shape right away. Initially, the main strongholds of Christianity became monasteries, which converted the local population to the new faith and were centers for training the Polish clergy. The Polish bishops, apparently, remained generals without an army for a long time, and the church itself was an actual part of the state apparatus, completely dependent on the prince. Only in the 12th century, after the reforms of the famous Pope Gregory VII spread to Poland, the clergy acquired class privileges and rights that gave the church independence from the state.
The uprising of 1037 testifies to the difficulty with which Christianity penetrated the popular strata. The Christianization of the bulk of the population, indeed, was a matter of more than one decade and, perhaps, even more than one century. Even among the druzhina-princely milieu, Christian norms and beliefs were not immediately established. Mieszko I himself, after the death of Dubrava, married a nun, Boleslav the Brave was married many times and had concubines; under Boleslav the Bold, teeth were knocked out for meat-eating during fasts; The churches themselves were initially very small and could only accommodate members of the elite during worship. Even such fundamental rites for Christianity as baptism, wedding and burial were performed very irregularly; if children were baptized, they did so several years after their birth; the dead continued to be burned, household items were placed in the graves, etc. The priests themselves were not much different from their parishioners: they were very often illiterate, had wives and children, plowed and hunted along with the peasants. Episcopal power remained nominal; Christianization was the concern of the state until the 12th century. At the same time, the process of transformation of religious customs and norms of behavior was underway, folk pagan culture was being replaced by Christian culture, new beliefs were fused with old ones, the annual cycle of Christian holidays and fasts was celebrated with increasing regularity. In a word, in the X - XII centuries. Polish culture was undergoing a process of deep internal transformation, becoming part of Western Christianity.

Education, enlightenment, art
The spread of education and books, as elsewhere in “barbarian” Europe, was closely connected with the establishment of Christianity. Therefore, the emergence of the first schools and libraries, of which there were no documentary traces left in the sources, should be attributed to the second half of the 10th century, although until the end of the 11th century the Polish clergy received education in most cases outside Poland. The first proper Polish school for the clergy is known from sources from the end of the 11th century. In the 12th century, schools existed at all cathedrals in Poland. There is no doubt that one of the schools existed before at the princely court. It is known about Mieszko II that he knew not only Greek, but also Latin; his daughter Gertrude spoke Latin. In the Krakow Cathedral at the beginning of the 12th century. there was a library of almost 50 volumes; one must think that similar libraries existed in Gniezno and Plock, where at the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th century. was the residence of the monarch.
The first monuments of Polish literature were, respectively, lives and chronicles created in monasteries and at the princely court. Hagiographic literature is represented by the life of the famous missionary St. Wojciech, created already in the 10th century and a story about the life and martyrdom of 5 other monks who took part in missionary work in Poland. The author of the last work and one of the editions of the life of St. Wojciech was Bruno from Querfurt. From the end of the 12th century. A handwritten tradition of the life of St. began to take shape. Stanisław, Bishop of Krakow, executed by Bolesław the Bold.
Secular literature of this time is represented by the chronicle of Gallus Anonymus, written at the beginning of the 12th century, by the first writers and the so-called. "Song of Maur" of the 12th century, glorifying the deeds of the commander of the Polish king Vladislav the Exile, the eldest son of Boleslav Wrymouth.
Of course, as in any society, Poland preserved throughout the Middle Ages the richest folklore traditions, which were reflected in a number of narrative sources of the 12th and subsequent centuries.
Polish architecture of the 11th - 12th centuries. It is represented mainly by church monuments of the Romanesque style, although traces of the first princely castles are also known, dating back to the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. In the Romanesque style, cathedrals were built or rebuilt in Gniezno, Poznan, Krakow and Plock, monastery churches in Tyniec, Kruszwice, the Church of St. Andrew in Krakow, temple in Strzelno. The most notable monument of art of this era is the bronze doors of the Gniezno Cathedral (second half of the 12th century), decorated with 18 sculptural scenes from the life of St. Wojciech. A number of other sculptural monuments of these centuries and many works of small sculpture and applied art are also known. In the 12th century, the traditions of book miniatures in Polish culture began to take shape.

During the 9th century, large tribal unions arose in Polish lands, uniting a number of tribal territories. Two such centers were of particular importance: Wislica-Krakow in Lesser (southern) Poland - the Principality of the Vistula, and Gniezno-Nozpań in Greater (northern) Poland - the Principality of Polans. At the end of the 9th century, Vislany came under the rule of Great Moravia, and then became dependent on the Czech Republic. This determined the leading role of the Principality of Polan in the process of unification of Polish lands. The peasant Piast, who founded the Piast dynasty, is considered the legendary ancestor of Polish rulers. The capital of the state was the city of Gniezno.

The formation of the early feudal Polish state was completed during the reign of Mieszko I (960-992) and his son Boleslaw I the Brave (992-1025). Through the efforts of these princes, Silesia, Pomerania, and Lesser Poland were annexed (including Krakow in 999). In 966, Poland adopted Christianity as the state religion, and then in 1000 an independent Polish archbishopric with its center in Gniezno arose. Bolesław in 1025 became the first king in the history of Poland. By the end of this reign, the state territory was about 250 thousand square meters. km with a population of about 1 million people.

After the death of Bolesław the Brave, the country experienced a political and economic crisis, which ultimately led to the largest anti-feudal uprising of 1037-1038. Taking advantage of the weakening of the Polish state, the Czech prince Brzstislav in 1038 launched a military campaign against Polynya and ravaged Gniezno. Krakow became the capital of the state. The centralization of the state intensified during the reign of Bolesław II the Bold, who received the royal crown in 1076. However, as a result of a conspiracy, he was removed from power and fled to Hungary. From that moment on, trends of political decentralization prevailed in Poland. Boleslav III Wrymouth (1102-1138), trying to prevent the collapse of the country, in his will in 1138 established a principate in the succession to the grand-ducal throne: the eldest received power and the most important lands, and the remaining sons, inheriting separate inheritances, were subordinate to him.

After the death of Boleslav, more precisely, after the expulsion in 1146 by the younger princes, supported by large feudal lords, of his eldest son Vladislav II, nicknamed the Exile from that time, feudal fragmentation finally set in. The Principate system finally fell into disrepair in the third decade of the 13th century. The state broke up into a number of independent appanage principalities. The princes granted court orders (positions) and land holdings with the population living in them to local feudal lords. Thus, feudal land ownership continued to develop, the dependence of the peasant population deepened, and the class organization of feudal society took shape.
Even during the period of fragmentation, however, the traditions of state unity were preserved. This was facilitated by such factors as the princes belonging to a single ruling dynasty, the presence of a common church organization, and a common (despite regional differences) system of customary law. Interest in unification was stimulated by the fight against the foreign policy danger from the Crusaders (Teutonic Order) and Brandenburg.

Specific fragmentation continued in Poland for a relatively short time - until the end of the 13th century. In 1314, Prince Władysław Lokstock united Greater and Lesser Poland, and in 1320 he became king of a single state that occupied about 106 thousand square meters. km. Outside the united kingdom remained Western Pomerania (became part of Brandenburg), Eastern Pomerania and Kuyavia (captured by the crusaders), Silesia (became part of the Czech Kingdom), Masovia (retained its own princely dynasty). Thus, Poland lost more than half of the state territory , lost access to the sea.The capital of the state again became Krakow, where the residence of the Polish kings was located, their coronation and burial took place.

Casimir III the Great (1333-1370), son of Loketko, managed to strengthen the state and ensured Poland a strong international position. Under him, a centralized administration system developed, which was locally represented by elders who were independent of the local nobility. The so-called “Statutes of Casimir the Great” (1347) were published, which marked the beginning of the unification and codification of Polish law. The introduction of a single coin and regular taxation, a monopoly on salt production made it possible to replenish the state treasury and ensure the financial independence of royal power. Casimir increased the state territory almost two and a half times. A Polish-Hungarian union was concluded, according to which the Polish throne passed after the death of Casimir to the Hungarian king Louis. In alliance with Hungary, Poland seized the lands of Galician Rus and thereby partially compensated for the loss of its ethnic territories. These events marked the beginning of Polish political and cultural expansion in the lands of the Eastern Slavs, which was one of the main factors in the state-political development of Poland in subsequent centuries.

According to Casimir's will, the Polish throne was occupied by the Hungarian king Louis of Anjou, who granted a number of privileges to the gentry (Košice Privilege, 1374). After the death of Louis in 1382, the Polish feudal lords decided to transfer the crown to Louis's youngest daughter Jadwiga, who was married to the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello. Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania concluded in 1385 in Krevo the so-called Krevo Union, which contributed to the rapprochement of the two states and the unification of their efforts in the fight against the crusaders. As a result, the Teutonic Order was defeated, first at the Battle of Grunwald (1410), and then during the Thirteen Years' War (1454-1466). Poland returned the lands of Eastern Pomerania with the cities of Gdansk and Torunsm. In 1569, the Union of Lublin was concluded between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and formed federal state Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ukrainian lands from the VKL were transferred to Poland. Unified authorities were created, but the principality retained a separate army, finances, judicial system, traditional state and zemstvo positions, its own laws (Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1588).

Polish state in the XIV-XV centuries. was a class monarchy. Unlike the early feudal period, when the state was seen as the private possession of the king (patrimonial monarchy), now the state was perceived as separate from the personality of the monarch. The sovereignty of the state, independent of the personality of the king, was embodied in the concept of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. In the absence of a king, the fate of the crown had to be decided by the “people”, i.e. feudal lords - nobility. The principle of the election of the king was established. The positions of the gentry class were strengthened, a national body of class representation - the Val Sejm - and local gentry sejmiks were formed. The formation of a system of gentry democracy began, which finally took shape in the 16th century. and was enshrined in the so-called Henry's articles (they were issued in 1573 by Henry of Valois, elected to the Polish throne after the death of Sigismund II Augustus, the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty). Thus, unlike other European states, Poland did not take the path of establishing an absolute monarchy. Royal power was weak.

In the 17th century the power of the gentry led to the weakening of the Polish state. From the middle of the 17th century. anarchist tendencies prevailed in political life. Under the cover of the institutions of gentry democracy, groups of magnates acted in their own selfish interests, disrupted sessions of Sejms, and created confederations for armed struggle against each other and the central government. During the reign of the last Polish king, Stanisław August Popiatowski, reforms were carried out aimed at strengthening the state. The so-called four-year Sejm adopted on May 3, 1791 the Constitution of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the first in the history of Europe. However, the intervention of foreign states did not allow the plan to be realized. In 1772, 1793 and 1795 Russia, Prussia and Austria carried out divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The national liberation uprising led by Tadeusz Kościuszko (1794) ended in defeat. The Polish state ceased to exist and was restored only in 1918.

The first reliable information about Poland dates back to the second half of the 10th century. Poland was already a relatively large state, created by the Piast dynasty by uniting several tribal principalities. The first historically reliable ruler of Poland was Mieszko I (reigned 960–992) from the Piast dynasty, whose possessions, Greater Poland, were located between the Odra and Vistula rivers. Under the reign of Mieszko I, who fought against German expansion to the east, the Poles were converted to Latin rite Christianity in 966. In 988 Mieszko annexed Silesia and Pomerania to his principality, and in 990 – Moravia. His eldest son Bolesław I the Brave (r. 992–1025) became one of Poland's most prominent rulers. He established his power in the territory from Odra and Nysa to the Dnieper and from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians. Having strengthened Poland's independence in the wars with the Holy Roman Empire, Bolesław took the title of king (1025). After the death of Bolesław, the strengthened feudal nobility opposed the central government, which led to the separation of Mazovia and Pomerania from Poland.

Feudal fragmentation

Bolesław III (r. 1102–1138) regained Pomerania, but after his death the territory of Poland was divided among his sons. The eldest - Władysław II - received power over the capital Krakow, Greater Poland and Pomerania. In the second half of the 12th century. Poland, like its neighbors Germany and Kievan Rus, fell apart. The collapse led to political chaos; The vassals soon refused to recognize the king's sovereignty and, with the help of the church, significantly limited his power.

Teutonic Knights

In the middle of the 13th century. The Mongol-Tatar invasion from the east devastated most of Poland. No less dangerous for the country were the continuous raids of pagan Lithuanians and Prussians from the north. To protect his possessions, Prince Konrad of Mazovia in 1226 invited Teutonic knights from the military-religious order of the Crusaders to the country. Within a short time, the Teutonic Knights conquered part of the Baltic lands, which later became known as East Prussia. This land was settled by German colonists. In 1308, the state created by the Teutonic Knights cut off Poland's access to the Baltic Sea.

Decline of central government

As a result of the fragmentation of Poland, the state's dependence on the highest aristocracy and the small nobility began to increase, whose support it needed to protect itself from external enemies. The extermination of the population by the Mongol-Tatars and Lithuanian tribes led to an influx of German settlers to the Polish lands, who either themselves created cities governed by the laws of Magdeburg Law, or received land as free peasants. In contrast, Polish peasants, like the peasants of almost all of Europe at that time, gradually began to fall into serfdom.

The reunification of most of Poland was carried out by Władysław Lokietok (Ladisław the Short) from Kuyavia, a principality in the north-central part of the country. In 1320 he was crowned Ladislaus I. However, the national revival was largely due to the successful reign of his son, Casimir III the Great (r. 1333–1370). Casimir strengthened royal power, reformed the administration, legal and monetary systems according to Western models, promulgated a set of laws called the Wislica Statutes (1347), eased the situation of the peasants and allowed Jews - victims of religious persecution in Poland - to settle in Poland. Western Europe. He failed to regain access to the Baltic Sea; he also lost Silesia (which went to the Czech Republic), but captured Galicia, Volhynia and Podolia in the east. In 1364 Casimir founded the first Polish university in Krakow - one of the oldest in Europe. Having no son, Casimir bequeathed the kingdom to his nephew Louis I the Great (Louis of Hungary), at that time one of the most influential monarchs in Europe. Under Louis (reigned 1370–1382), the Polish nobles (gentry) received the so-called. Koshitsky privilege (1374), according to which they were exempted from almost all taxes, having received the right not to pay taxes above a certain amount. In return, the nobles promised to transfer the throne to one of the daughters of King Louis.

Jagiellonian Dynasty

After Louis's death, the Poles turned to his youngest daughter Jadwiga with a request to become their queen. Jadwiga married Jagiello (Jogaila, or Jagiello), Grand Duke of Lithuania, who reigned in Poland as Władysław II (r. 1386–1434). Vladislav II converted to Christianity himself and converted the Lithuanian people to it, founding one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe. Vast territories of Poland and Lithuania were united into a powerful state union. Lithuania became the last pagan people in Europe to convert to Christianity, so the presence of the Teutonic Order of Crusaders here lost its meaning. However, the crusaders were no longer going to leave. In 1410, the Poles and Lithuanians defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald. In 1413 they approved the Polish-Lithuanian union in Gorodlo, and public institutions of the Polish model appeared in Lithuania. Casimir IV (r. 1447–1492) tried to limit the power of the nobles and the church, but was forced to confirm their privileges and the rights of the Diet, which included the higher clergy, aristocracy, and lesser nobility. In 1454 he granted the nobles the Neshawian Statutes, similar to the English Charter of Liberty. The Thirteen Years' War with the Teutonic Order (1454–1466) ended in victory for Poland, and according to the Treaty of Toruń on October 19, 1466, Pomerania and Gdansk were returned to Poland. The Order recognized itself as a vassal of Poland.

Golden Age of Poland

16th century became the golden age of Polish history. At this time, Poland was one of the largest countries in Europe, it dominated Eastern Europe, and its culture flourished. However, the emergence of a centralized Russian state that laid claim to the lands of the former Kievan Rus, the unification and strengthening of Brandenburg and Prussia in the west and north, and the threat of the warlike Ottoman Empire in the south posed a great danger to the country. In 1505 in Radom, King Alexander (reigned 1501–1506) was forced to adopt a constitution “nothing new” (Latin nihil novi), according to which the parliament received the right to an equal vote with the monarch in making government decisions and the right of veto on all issues, concerning the nobility. The parliament, according to this constitution, consisted of two chambers - the Sejm, in which the small nobility was represented, and the Senate, which represented the highest aristocracy and the highest clergy. Poland's long and open borders, as well as frequent wars, forced it to have a powerful, trained army in order to ensure the security of the kingdom. The monarchs lacked the funds necessary to maintain such an army. Therefore, they were forced to obtain parliamentary approval for any major expenditures. The aristocracy (mozhnovladstvo) and the small nobility (szlachta) demanded privileges for their loyalty. As a result, a system of “small-scale noble democracy” was formed in Poland, with a gradual expansion of the influence of the richest and most powerful magnates.

Rzeczpospolita

In 1525, Albrecht of Brandenburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, converted to Lutheranism, and the Polish king Sigismund I (r. 1506–1548) allowed him to transform the domains of the Teutonic Order into the hereditary Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. During the reign of Sigismund II Augustus (1548–1572), the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Poland reached its greatest power. Krakow has become one of the largest European centers humanities, architecture and art of the Renaissance, Polish poetry and prose, and for a number of years - the center of the Reformation. In 1561 Poland annexed Livonia, and on July 1, 1569, at the height of the Livonian War with Russia, the personal royal Polish-Lithuanian union was replaced by the Union of Lublin. The unified Polish-Lithuanian state began to be called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Polish for “common cause”). From this time on, the same king was to be elected by the aristocracy in Lithuania and Poland; there was one parliament (Sejm) and general laws; general money was introduced into circulation; Religious tolerance became common in both parts of the country. The last question was of particular importance, since significant territories conquered in the past by the Lithuanian princes were inhabited by Orthodox Christians.

Elected kings: the decline of the Polish state.

After the death of the childless Sigismund II, central power in the huge Polish-Lithuanian state began to weaken. At a stormy meeting of the Diet, a new king, Henry (Henrik) Valois (reigned 1573–1574; later became Henry III of France), was elected. At the same time, he was forced to accept the principle of “free election” (election of the king by the gentry), as well as the “pact of consent” to which each new monarch had to swear. The king's right to choose his heir was transferred to the Diet. The king was also prohibited from declaring war or increasing taxes without the consent of Parliament. He should have been neutral in religious matters, he should have married on the recommendation of the Senate. The council, consisting of 16 senators appointed by the Sejm, constantly gave him recommendations. If the king did not fulfill any of the articles, the people could refuse to obey him. Thus, Henryk's Articles changed the status of the state - Poland moved from a limited monarchy to an aristocratic parliamentary republic; the head of the executive branch, elected for life, did not have sufficient powers to govern the state.

Stefan Batory (ruled 1575–1586). The weakening of the supreme power in Poland, which had long and poorly defended borders, but aggressive neighbors whose power was based on centralization and military force, largely predetermined the future collapse of the Polish state. Henry of Valois ruled for only 13 months and then left for France, where he received the throne vacated by the death of his brother Charles IX. The Senate and the Sejm could not agree on the candidacy of the next king, and the gentry finally elected Prince Stefan Batory of Transylvania (reigned 1575–1586) as king, giving him a princess from the Jagiellonian dynasty as his wife. Batory strengthened Polish power over Gdansk, ousted Ivan the Terrible from the Baltic states and returned Livonia. Domestically, he gained the loyalty and assistance in the fight against the Ottoman Empire from the Cossacks, fugitive serfs who established a military republic on the vast plains of Ukraine - a kind of "border strip" stretching from southeastern Poland to the Black Sea along the Dnieper. Batory gave privileges to the Jews, who were allowed to have their own parliament. He reformed the judicial system, and in 1579 founded a university in Vilna (Vilnius), which became an outpost of Catholicism and European culture in the east.

Sigismund III Vase. A zealous Catholic, Sigismund III Vasa (reigned 1587–1632), son of Johan III of Sweden and Catherine, daughter of Sigismund I, decided to create a Polish-Swedish coalition to fight Russia and return Sweden to the fold of Catholicism. In 1592 he became king of Sweden.

To spread Catholicism among the Orthodox population, the Uniate Church was established at the Brest Council in 1596, which recognized the supremacy of the Pope, but continued to use Orthodox rituals. The opportunity to seize the Moscow throne after the suppression of the Rurik dynasty involved the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into a war with Russia. In 1610, Polish troops occupied Moscow. The vacant royal throne was offered by the Moscow boyars to Sigismund's son, Vladislav. However, Muscovites rebelled, and with the help of the people's militia under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky, the Poles were expelled from Moscow. Sigismund's attempts to introduce absolutism in Poland, which at that time already dominated the rest of Europe, led to the rebellion of the gentry and the loss of prestige of the king.

After the death of Albrecht II of Prussia in 1618, the Elector of Brandenburg became the ruler of the Duchy of Prussia. From that time on, Poland's possessions on the Baltic Sea coast turned into a corridor between two provinces of the same German state.

Decline

During the reign of Sigismund's son, Vladislav IV (1632–1648), Ukrainian Cossacks rebelled against Poland, wars with Russia and Turkey weakened the country, and the gentry received new privileges in the form of political rights and exemption from income taxes. Under the reign of Władysław's brother Jan Casimir (1648–1668), the Cossack freemen began to behave even more militantly, the Swedes occupied most of Poland, including the capital Warsaw, and the king, abandoned by his subjects, was forced to flee to Silesia. In 1657 Poland renounced sovereign rights to East Prussia. As a result of unsuccessful wars with Russia, Poland lost Kyiv and all areas east of the Dnieper under the Truce of Andrusovo (1667). The process of disintegration began in the country. The magnates, creating alliances with neighboring states, pursued their own goals; the rebellion of Prince Jerzy Lubomirski shook the foundations of the monarchy; The gentry continued to engage in defense of their own “freedoms,” which was suicidal for the state. From 1652, she began to abuse the harmful practice of the “liberum veto,” which allowed any deputy to block a decision he did not like, demand the dissolution of the Sejm and put forward any proposals that were to be considered by its next composition. Taking advantage of this, neighboring powers, through bribery and other means, repeatedly disrupted the implementation of decisions of the Sejm that were unfavorable to them. King Jan Casimir was broken and abdicated the Polish throne in 1668, at the height of internal anarchy and discord.

External intervention: prelude to partition

Mikhail Vishnevetsky (reigned 1669–1673) turned out to be an unprincipled and inactive monarch who played along with the Habsburgs and lost Podolia to the Turks. His successor, John III Sobieski (r. 1674–1696), fought successful wars with the Ottoman Empire, saved Vienna from the Turks (1683), but was forced to cede some lands to Russia under the "Eternal Peace" treaty in exchange for its promises of assistance in fight against Crimean Tatars and Turks. After Sobieski's death, the Polish throne in the new capital of Warsaw was occupied for 70 years by foreigners: Elector of Saxony Augustus II (reigned 1697–1704, 1709–1733) and his son Augustus III (1734–1763). Augustus II actually bribed the electors. Having united in an alliance with Peter I, he returned Podolia and Volhynia and stopped the grueling Polish-Turkish wars by concluding the Peace of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1699. The Polish king unsuccessfully tried to recapture the Baltic coast from King Charles XII of Sweden, who invaded Poland in 1701. and in 1703 he took Warsaw and Krakow. Augustus II was forced to cede the throne in 1704–1709 to Stanislav Leszczynski, who was supported by Sweden, but returned to the throne again when Peter I defeated Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava (1709). In 1733, the Poles, supported by the French, elected Stanislav king for the second time, but Russian troops again removed him from power.

Stanisław II: the last Polish king. Augustus III was nothing more than a Russian puppet; patriotic Poles tried with all their might to save the state. One of the factions of the Sejm, led by Prince Czartoryski, tried to abolish the harmful “liberum veto”, while the other, led by the powerful Potocki family, opposed any restriction of “freedoms”. In desperation, Czartoryski's party began to cooperate with the Russians, and in 1764 Catherine II, Empress of Russia, achieved the election of her favorite Stanisław August Poniatowski as King of Poland (1764–1795). Poniatowski turned out to be the last king Poland. Russian control became especially obvious under Prince N.V. Repnin, who, as ambassador to Poland, in 1767 forced the Polish Sejm to accept his demands for equality of faiths and the preservation of the “liberum veto”. This led in 1768 to a Catholic uprising (Bar Confederation) and even to a war between Russia and Turkey.

Partitions of Poland. First section

At the height of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768–1774, Prussia, Russia and Austria carried out the first partition of Poland. It was produced in 1772 and ratified by the Sejm under pressure from the occupiers in 1773. Poland ceded to Austria part of Pomerania and Kuyavia (excluding Gdansk and Torun) to Prussia; Galicia, Western Podolia and part of Lesser Poland; eastern Belarus and all lands north of the Western Dvina and east of the Dnieper went to Russia. The victors established a new constitution for Poland, which retained the "liberum veto" and an elective monarchy, and created a State Council of 36 elected members of the Sejm. The division of the country awakened social movement for reforms and national revival. In 1773 the Jesuit Order was dissolved and a commission was created public education, the purpose of which was to reorganize the system of schools and colleges. The four-year Sejm (1788–1792), led by enlightened patriots Stanislav Malachovsky, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kollontai, adopted a new constitution on May 3, 1791. Under this constitution, Poland became a hereditary monarchy with a ministerial executive system and a parliament elected every two years. The principle of “liberum veto” and other harmful practices were abolished; cities received administrative and judicial autonomy, as well as representation in parliament; peasants, the power of the gentry over whom remained, were considered as a class under state protection; measures were taken to prepare for the abolition of serfdom and the organization of a regular army. The normal work of parliament and reforms became possible only because Russia was involved in a protracted war with Sweden, and Turkey supported Poland. However, the magnates who formed the Targowitz Confederation opposed the constitution, at the call of which Russian and Prussian troops entered Poland.

Second and third sections

On January 23, 1793, Prussia and Russia carried out the second partition of Poland. Prussia captured Gdansk, Torun, Greater Poland and Mazovia, and Russia captured most of Lithuania and Belarus, almost all of Volyn and Podolia. The Poles fought but were defeated, the reforms of the Four Year Diet were repealed, and the rest of Poland became a puppet state. In 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko led a massive popular uprising that ended in defeat. The third partition of Poland, in which Austria participated, was carried out on October 24, 1795; after that, Poland as an independent state disappeared from the map of Europe.

Foreign rule. Grand Duchy of Warsaw

Although the Polish state ceased to exist, the Poles did not give up hope of restoring their independence. Each new generation fought, either by joining the opponents of the powers that divided Poland, or by starting uprisings. As soon as Napoleon I began his military campaigns against monarchical Europe, Polish legions were formed in France. Having defeated Prussia, Napoleon created in 1807 the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815) from the territories captured by Prussia during the second and third partitions. Two years later, the territories that became part of Austria after the third partition were added to it. Miniature Poland, politically dependent on France, had a territory of 160 thousand square meters. km and 4350 thousand inhabitants. The creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was considered by the Poles as the beginning of their complete liberation.

Territory that was part of Russia. After Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna (1815) approved the partitions of Poland with the following changes: Krakow was declared a free city-republic under the auspices of the three powers that divided Poland (1815–1848); the western part of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was transferred to Prussia and became known as the Grand Duchy of Poznan (1815–1846); its other part was declared a monarchy (the so-called Kingdom of Poland) and annexed to Russian Empire. In November 1830, the Poles rebelled against Russia, but were defeated. Emperor Nicholas I abolished the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland and began repression. In 1846 and 1848 the Poles tried to organize uprisings, but failed. In 1863, a second uprising broke out against Russia, and after two years of partisan warfare, the Poles were again defeated. With the development of capitalism in Russia, the Russification of Polish society intensified. The situation improved somewhat after the 1905 revolution in Russia. Polish deputies sat in all four Russian Dumas (1905–1917), seeking autonomy for Poland.

Territories controlled by Prussia. In the territory under Prussian rule, intensive Germanization of the former Polish regions was carried out, the farms of Polish peasants were expropriated, and Polish schools were closed. Russia helped Prussia suppress the Poznań uprising of 1848. In 1863, both powers concluded the Alvensleben Convention on mutual assistance in the fight against the Polish national movement. Despite all the efforts of the authorities, at the end of the 19th century. the Poles of Prussia still represented a strong, organized national community.

Polish lands within Austria

In the Austrian Polish lands the situation was somewhat better. After the Krakow Uprising of 1846, the regime was liberalized and Galicia received administrative local control; schools, institutions and courts used Polish; Jagiellonian (in Krakow) and Lviv universities became all-Polish cultural centers; by the beginning of the 20th century. Polish political parties(National Democratic, Polish Socialist and Peasant). In all three parts of divided Poland, Polish society actively opposed assimilation. The preservation of the Polish language and Polish culture became the main task of the struggle waged by the intelligentsia, primarily poets and writers, as well as the clergy of the Catholic Church.

World War I

New opportunities to achieve independence. The First World War divided the powers that liquidated Poland: Russia fought with Germany and Austria-Hungary. This situation opened up life-changing opportunities for the Poles, but also created new difficulties. First, the Poles had to fight in opposing armies; secondly, Poland became the arena of battles between the warring powers; thirdly, disagreements between Polish political groups intensified. Conservative national democrats led by Roman Dmowski (1864–1939) considered Germany the main enemy and wanted the Entente to win. Their goal was to unite all Polish lands under Russian control and obtain autonomy status. Radical elements led by the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), on the contrary, viewed the defeat of Russia as the most important condition for achieving Polish independence. They believed that the Poles should create their own armed forces. Several years before the outbreak of World War I, Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935), the radical leader of this group, began military training for Polish youth in Galicia. During the war he formed the Polish legions and fought on the side of Austria-Hungary.

Polish question

On August 14, 1914, Nicholas I, in an official declaration, promised after the war to unite the three parts of Poland into an autonomous state within the Russian Empire. However, in the fall of 1915, most of Russian Poland was occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary, and on November 5, 1916, the monarchs of the two powers announced a manifesto on the creation of an independent Polish Kingdom in the Russian part of Poland. On March 30, 1917, after the February Revolution in Russia, the Provisional Government of Prince Lvov recognized Poland's right to self-determination. On July 22, 1917, Pilsudski, who fought on the side of the Central Powers, was interned, and his legions were disbanded for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the emperors of Austria-Hungary and Germany. In France, with the support of the Entente powers, the Polish National Committee (PNC) was created in August 1917, led by Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski; The Polish army was also formed with commander-in-chief Józef Haller. On January 8, 1918, US President Wilson demanded the creation of an independent Polish state with access to the Baltic Sea. In June 1918, Poland was officially recognized as a country fighting on the side of the Entente. On October 6, during the period of disintegration and collapse of the Central Powers, the Council of Regency of Poland announced the creation of an independent Polish state, and on November 14 transferred full power to Pilsudski in the country. By this time, Germany had already capitulated, Austria-Hungary had collapsed, and there was a civil war in Russia.

State formation

The new country faced great difficulties. Cities and villages lay in ruins; there were no connections in the economy, which had been developing for a long time within three different states; Poland had neither its own currency nor government institutions; finally, its borders were not defined and agreed upon with its neighbors. Nevertheless, state building and economic recovery proceeded at a rapid pace. After the transition period, when the socialist cabinet was in power, on January 17, 1919, Paderewski was appointed prime minister, and Dmowski was appointed head of the Polish delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference. On January 26, 1919, elections to the Sejm were held, the new composition of which approved Pilsudski as head of state.

The question of boundaries

The western and northern borders of the country were determined at the Versailles Conference, by which Poland was given part of Pomerania and access to the Baltic Sea; Danzig (Gdansk) received the status of a “free city”. At the conference of ambassadors on July 28, 1920, the southern border was agreed upon. The city of Cieszyn and its suburb Cesky Cieszyn were divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Fierce disputes between Poland and Lithuania over Vilno (Vilnius), an ethnically Polish but historically Lithuanian city, ended with its occupation by the Poles on October 9, 1920; annexation to Poland was approved on February 10, 1922 by a democratically elected regional assembly.

On April 21, 1920, Piłsudski entered into an alliance with the Ukrainian leader Petliura and launched an offensive to liberate Ukraine from the Bolsheviks. On May 7, the Poles took Kyiv, but on June 8, pressed by the Red Army, they began to retreat. At the end of July, the Bolsheviks were on the outskirts of Warsaw. However, the Poles managed to defend the capital and push back the enemy; this ended the war. The subsequent Treaty of Riga (March 18, 1921) represented a territorial compromise for both sides and was officially recognized by a conference of ambassadors on March 15, 1923.

Foreign policy

The leaders of the new Polish Republic tried to secure their state by pursuing a policy of non-alignment. Poland did not join the Little Entente, which included Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. On January 25, 1932, a non-aggression pact was concluded with the USSR.

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933, Poland failed to establish allied relations with France, while Great Britain and France concluded a “pact of agreement and cooperation” with Germany and Italy. After this, on January 26, 1934, Poland and Germany concluded a non-aggression pact for a period of 10 years, and soon the validity of a similar agreement with the USSR was extended. In March 1936, after Germany's military occupation of the Rhineland, Poland again unsuccessfully tried to conclude an agreement with France and Belgium on Poland's support for them in the event of war with Germany. In October 1938, simultaneously with the annexation Hitler's Germany Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, Poland occupied the Czechoslovak part of the Cieszyn region. In March 1939, Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia and made territorial claims to Poland. On March 31, Great Britain and on April 13, France guaranteed the territorial integrity of Poland; In the summer of 1939, Franco-British-Soviet negotiations began in Moscow aimed at containing German expansion. In these negotiations, the Soviet Union demanded the right to occupy the eastern part of Poland and at the same time entered into secret negotiations with the Nazis. On August 23, 1939, a German-Soviet non-aggression pact was concluded, the secret protocols of which provided for the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR. Having ensured Soviet neutrality, Hitler freed his hands. On September 1, 1939, World War II began with an attack on Poland.