Poland

Poland is a country in Central Europe bordered by seven nations and the Baltic Sea. Warsaw is both its capital and largest city, Polish is the official language, and the country is governed as a republic. Its landscape consists largely of broad plains crossed by rivers, with forests and lakes in the north and the Carpathian and Sudeten mountain ranges along its southern border.

Poland emerged as a unified kingdom during the Middle Ages and later joined Lithuania to form one of Europe’s largest states. During the late eighteenth century, Poland was divided among Russia, Prussia, and Austria and disappeared from the map as an independent country until 1918. The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 began the Second World War in Europe, during which millions of Polish citizens were killed. After the war, Poland came under communist rule aligned with the Soviet Union. The Solidarity movement helped bring an end to communist government in 1989, and Poland joined the European Union in 2004.