X-Nico

39 unusual facts about Poland


Aniela Cukier

Her landscapes with views of Kazimierz Dolny, Wisniow, and Puck dominated her output and became popular, with some translated to woodcuts.

Bolesław Skarżyński

Bolesław Skarżyński (1901-1963) was a renowned Polish biologist.

Bydgoszcz Voivodeship

Bydgoszcz Voivodeship 1946-1975 was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1946–1975.

Campaign Against Homophobia

Campaign Against Homophobia (original name: Kampania Przeciw Homofobii, abbreviation: KPH) is a Polish LGBT organisation, which aims to promote legal and social equality for people outside the heteronorm.

Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Straße

Apart from being very close to the Oder river and the border crossing to Słubice, Poland, Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Straße is home to part of the Viadrina Museum in the Junker house and Museum for Junge Kunst.

Częstochowa Voivodeship

Though most of the current territory of the former Częstochowa Voivodeship belongs to the Silesian Voivodeship, it historically is part of Lesser Poland, apart from western areas, around Lubliniec and Olesno.

Elections in Poland

There were also elections in the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939), and the People's Republic of Poland, although most of the latter are considered to have been rigged.

The 1997 Constitution and the changed administrative divisions of 1999 required a revision of the electoral system, which was passed in April 2001.

Poland has a long history of elections dating several centuries, including the elections to Sejm from 1182 and the elective monarchy from 1569 to 1795.

The Senate (Senat) has 100 members elected for a four-year term via the first past-the-post system, with 100 single member constituencies.

The remaining one-third of the seats in the Sejm and all those in the Senate were freely contested; the majority of these were by candidates supported by Solidarity.

Great Sejm – or the Four-Years Sejm of 1798–1792, which voted for the May Constitution of Poland;

Frank Walus

Frank Walus (July 29, 1922 – August 17, 1994) was born in Poland, worked in Germany during World War II and emigrated to the USA in the mid-1940s.

Gdańsk Voivodeship

The name Gdańsk Voivodeship has been used twice to designate local governments in Poland.

Gdansk Voivodeship (2) was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1945–1975, superseded by the voivodeships of Gdansk (1), Elbląg and Słupsk (area of Lębork).

Gdańsk Voivodeship (1) was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–98, superseded by Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Isidor Barndt

Archpriest Isidor Barndt (1816-1891), a poet and world traveler from Neisse, Germany, a town in the former state of Silesia, now Nysa, Poland, promoted reunionism and wrote about similarities in faiths in order to overcome splits between Protestants and Catholics in late 19th century Germany.

Jim Parton

He now lives in Southern Poland where he is restoring a seventeenth-century former bishop's palace with his wife at Piotrowice Nyskie, near Nysa.

Kamnica

Kamnica, Poland, a village in the Miastko district of Bytów County, Pomeranian Voivodeship

Kazimierz Boratyński

Kazimierz Boratyński (born July 30, 1906 in Gródek - December 8, 1991 in Wrocław) was a Polish chemist.

Kokot

Kokot, Poland, a village in Gmina Kije, Pińczów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland

Left and Democrats

LiD did not manage to elect any of its members to the upper house Senate.

Although the coalition was initially conceived as a temporary electoral alliance for the 2006 local elections, cooperation between the parties continued, and on January 18, 2007, a Political Negotiating Committee headed by former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski was created, for the purpose of clarifying a common centre-left political program.

Mil Mi-3

It is also a Russian designation for the Polish-Soviet co-operation on larger helicopters based on the Mi-2 that could replace the Mi-4 from 1971.

Milewski

Milewski is a surname of Polish origin, most commonly associated with nobility.

Nestlé Waters North America

Poland Spring water is derived from multiple sources in the state of Maine, including Poland Spring and Garden Spring in Poland, Clear Spring in Hollis, Evergreen Spring in Fryeburg, Spruce Spring in Pierce Pond Township, and White Cedar Spring in Dallas Plantation.

Polish Solidarity Campaign

Britain's Polish Solidarity Campaign (PSC) was a campaign in solidarity with Solidarity (the Solidarność trade union) and other democratic forces in Poland.

Politics of Poland

The politics of Poland take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government of a multi-party system and the President is the head of state.

The judicial branch plays a minor role in politics, apart from the Constitutional Tribunal, which can annul laws that violate the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution.

The Senate (Senat) has 100 members elected for a four-year term in 40 multi-seat constituencies under a rare plurality bloc voting method where several candidates with the highest support are elected from each electorate.

Robert P. Pula

He was a polymathic poet, painter, pianistic composer, Polka historian, Polish culturalist, cartoonist, writer, editor, and teacher.

Setnica

Setnica, Poland, a settlement in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

SS-Oberabschnitt Weichsel

After 1940, Oberabschnitt Weichsel became heavily involved in commanding atrocity actions in Poland; as World War II progressed, the Oberabschnitt itself became nearly one and the same with the office of the SS and Police Leaders.

Stanisław Biniecki

Stanisław Biniecki (July 29, 1907 in Sławno - May 3, 1999) was a Polish chemist.

Szymon Syrski

Szymon Syrski (24 October 1824, Łubnie – 13 January 1882, Lwów) was a Polish zoologist.

Terrorfront

Terrorfront is the first and debut full-length album by Polish blackened death metal band Infernal War.

Urząd Ochrony Państwa

The UOP replaced the communist-era Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), I Departament People's Republic of Poland Ministry of Internal Affairs - intelligence, II Departament People's Republic of Poland Ministry of Internal Affairs - counter-intelligence, whose responsibilities had additionally included the suppression of opposition to the government prior to 1989.

Welfare in Poland

Constitution of Poland states that all citizens have the right to social security in case of being unable to find a job, reaching the retirement age, or suffering from inability to work due to illness or disability.

Yaakov Banai

Yaakov Banai (Tunkel) was born on March 20, 1920 in Baranovichi, Poland.


2012 Men's Junior European Volleyball Championship

The 2012 Men's Junior European Volleyball Championship is being held in Gdynia, Poland and Randers, Denmark from August 24 to September 2, 2012.

Ariel Jakubowski

Ariel Jakubowski (born September 7, 1977 in Człuchów) is a Polish footballer who currently plays for Polish side Wisła Płock.

ASELSAN

After exportation of such a system to Oman in 2008 for the Qurayyat-Sur motorway, Aselsan won in 2010 a tender worth 5.4 million to develop an electronic toll collection system and implement at 51 toll booths in Poland.

Augustus III of Poland

He spent less than three years of his thirty-year reign in Poland, where political feuding between the House of Czartoryski and the Potocki paralysed the Sejm (Liberum Veto), fostering internal political anarchy and weakening the Commonwealth.

Austeria

Austeria (aka The Inn) is a Polish feature film directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, produced by Zespół Filmowy "Kadr" and released in 1983.

Baltic pipeline

Baltic Pipe, a planned gas pipeline between Denmark and Poland

Bogatynia

Today Bogatynia is one of the richest towns per capita in Poland, due to its two principal enterprises: the Turów Coal Mine, a large open-pit on the grounds of the former Rybarzowice village (Reibersdorf), and the associated thermal power station, Elektrownia Turów, operated by the Polska Grupa Energetyczna, the third-largest of the country.

Byszewo

Byszewo, Kołobrzeg County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland)

Chraplewo

Chraplewo, Nowy Tomyśl County in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

Cryptocephalus virens

These beetles can be found in Southern and Central Europe from Italian Alps and Bavaria to Southern Poland, Russia, Turkey, East Palearctic ecozone and the Near East.

Czołowo

Czołowo, Poznań County in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

David Coffin

Coffin comes from a musical background: His father, Rev. William Sloane Coffin, studied to be a concert pianist with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, his grandfather was pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and his great-grandfather was Polish conductor Emil Mlynarski.

Ectaco

Within the next 2 years offices were opened in Germany (Berlin), Great Britain (London), the Czech Republic (Prague), Canada (Toronto), Poland (Warsaw) and Ukraine (Kiev).

Gołkowo

Gółkowo, Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

History of Poland in the Middle Ages

The first waves of Slavic migration settled the area of the upper Vistula River and elsewhere in the lands of present-day southeastern Poland and southern Masovia, coming from the upper and middle regions of the Dnieper River.

Interoute

Interoute's offices: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, plus a Network Operations Centre in Sofia and a Customer Service Centre in Prague and Luleå.

Jacek Rostowski

From 1989 to 1991 during Poland’s great economic transformation following the fall of communism, Vincent-Rostowski was an advisor to the Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Leszek Balcerowicz.

Jacob's Rescue

Jacob's Rescue is a 1994 children's book by Malka Drucker and Michael Halperin based on a true story that takes place in Warsaw, Poland during the holocaust.

Jakob Walter

In 1806, Walter and his brother were conscripted into the regiment of Romig and served in the campaign of 1806-1807 in Poland, as part of King Jérôme’s contribution to the Grande Armée.

Jastrzębniki

Jastrzębniki, Kalisz County in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

Jean de Reszke

He subsequently busied himself breeding racehorses in Poland and teaching singing in Paris and at Nice on the French Riviera.

Józef Młynarczyk

Młynarczyk gained 42 caps for Poland during seven years, the first arriving in 1979 whilst in the ranks of lowly Odra Opole.

Józef Stala

After studies at the Warsaw Theological Academy (now: Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw he earned at May 15, 1995 the Licentiate, at June 8, 1998 the Doctorate and in 2005 the Habilitation with his book: "Katecheza o małżeństwie i rodzinie w Polsce po Soborze Watykańskim II." (Religious education in the Families in Poland after the Second Vatican Council) at the Pontifical University of John Paul II.

Kazimierz Leski

Kazimierz Leski, nom de guerre Bradl (21 June 1912 — 27 May 2000), was a Polish engineer, co-designer of the Polish submarines ORP Sęp and ORP Orzeł, a fighter pilot, and an officer in World War II Home Army's intelligence and counter-intelligence.

La Caixa

At the end of 2007, La Caixa had 5,480 branches, of which 5,468 are located throughout Spain and two operating abroad (Warsaw, Poland and Bucharest, Romania), and 10 representative offices in Germany, Belgium, China, France, Italy, Morocco, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Law enforcement in Poland

In Poland, the national police service Policja is directly responsible to the central government, and whilst it operates with an organisational structure that allows voivodeship commands to exist, the regional authorities do not have any major say in law enforcement policy, and cannot affect the day-to-day operations of their local force.

Lomno

Łomno, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, a village in the Starachowice County in southeastern Poland

Łężek

Łężek, Sławno County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland)

Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski

Two Canadians, who were aware of the unfortunate history of Poland during World War II, were successful in their bid and brought the items to Canada.

National Democracy

In 1928 the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe) was founded, as a successor party to the Popular National Union.

Piaskowo

Piaskowo, Gmina Szamotuły in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

Podstolice

Podstolice, Chodzież County in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

Poland Spring

Despite the name, the water does not come from the country of Poland but from derived multiple sources in the state of Maine, including Poland Spring and Garden Spring in Poland, Clear Spring in Hollis, Evergreen Spring in Fryeburg, Spruce Spring in Pierce Pond Township, and White Cedar Spring in Dallas Plantation, Bradbury Spring in Kingfield.

Polish Central Archives of Historical Records

Central Archives of Historical Records (Polish: Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych) in Warsaw is one of the four national archives of Poland.

Prochy

Prochy, Wąbrzeźno County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-central Poland)

Raszyn radio transmitter

The longwave transmitter Raszyn is a longwave broadcasting transmitter near Raszyn, Poland.

Sękowo

Sękowo, Szamotuły County in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

Sławnikowice, Lower Silesian Voivodeship

Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus was born in Kieslingswalde (now Sławnikowice in western Poland).

Słupy

Słupy, Nakło County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-central Poland)

Śmiłowo

Śmiłowo, Piła County in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)

Stanisław Rehman

Stanisław Rehman (1838–1899), was a city councillor in Kraków, Poland.

Stanowice

Stanowice, Góra County in Lower Silesian Voivodeship (south-west Poland)

Stefan Constantinescu

The exhibition incorporates a cardboard installation with a series of video works by Hungarian artist Péter Forgács, Poland’s Zuzanna Janin, UK-based collaborators Karen Mirza and Brad Butler, Lithuanian Deimantas Narkevičius and Switzerland’sYves Netzhammer, sound-work by Liliana Moro, a sculpture by Via Lewandowski and Constantinescu's own film My Beautiful Dacia.

Troszyn

Troszyn, Kamień County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland)

Trzęsacz

Trzęsacz, Choszczno County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland)

Weinfeld

Yocheved Weinfeld (born 1947), a Poland-born Israeli female painter

Witold Gerutto

Witold Gerutto (1 October 1912 in Harbin, China – 13 October 1973 in Konstancin) was a Polish shot putter and decathlete who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Zbigniew Małkowski

He has since returned to Poland to continue playing his football at a lower level, with OKS 1945 Olsztyn, his first senior club.

Zgorzałe

In Zgorzałe there is the first street in Poland named Lech Wałęsa Street (2009).

Zielin

Zielin, Gryfino County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland)