1990s To Present: Main Articles: and

guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow
democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections
organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer
of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a
new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As
elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed
resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.
Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of
the pre-war eastern regions of Poland [116] (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed
to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within
the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in
Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged
integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.
The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19
February 1947. The Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa) was officially
proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław
Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding
some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar
situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution
of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered
to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.[117]
Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity"
("Solidarność"), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition
of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989
had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the
end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the
presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and
parties across Europe.
1990s to present
Main articles: History of Poland (1989–present) and 2004 enlargement of the European Union
Poland became a member state of the European Union on 1 May 2004.
A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the
country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other
post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, [118] but it
became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by
1995 thanks largely to its booming economy. [119][120]
Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of
speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class),
as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a
member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join
the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1
May 2004.
Flowers in front of the Presidential Palace following the death of Poland's top government officials in a
plane crash over Smolensk in Russia, 10 April 2010
Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other
member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of
movement within most of the EU.[121] In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now
constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become
increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in
reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet
Union.
In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors,

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guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow

Poland became a member state of the European Union on 1 May 2004.

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