ABSTRACT
The name 'Poland' originated in the Polanian tribe, one of the West Slavic tribes which lived on the lands between the Odra and Vistula rivers in the early Middle Ages. The leader of the Polanians, Duke Mieszko I of the Piast dynasty, united the lands which coincide roughly with Poland's present territory. The date of Mieszko's baptism, 966 (on the occasion of his marriage to a Czech princess), is celebrated as the symbolic date for the birth of the Polish state. This event started the recorded history of the Poles, linking them with European culture and Latin literacy. Millennium celebrations, held in 1966, witnessed a conflict between political (at that time, communist) authorities and the Catholic church, one side emphasising the significance of state organization, the other stressing the role of the Catholic religion in bringing about societal integration and national identification (Jasinska-Kania, 1982).
