ABSTRACT
Situated in the centre of Europe between Germany and Russia, Poland’s geographical position has contributed to an especially turbulent history in modern times. The loss of national independence and partition by three powerful neighbours from 1795-1918, partial modernisation during the interwar period and Nazi occupation and genocide during the Second World War culminated in massive population transfers and boundary changes at its end. Postwar Poland, now ethnically homogeneous and overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, then underwent the Soviet form of socio-economic transformation under conditions of limited sovereignty. Communist rule was, however, profoundly affected by repeated social and political challenges; these were both evolutionary and open, as in the crises of 1956,1968,1970 and 1976, with the emergence of Solidarity in 1980-81. Since 1989 Poland has been building a new democratic system and has rejoined the world capitalist economy and the European framework of integration and mutual security concerns. Poland contributed enormously to the downfall of communism. Its experience produced a wide-ranging political and academic literature on communist reform, collapse and successor development. The chances for the continued survival of the country’s special cultural and national features in an age of triumphant democratic capitalism, European-ism and globalisation will be examined in this volume.
