Page 73 - The Baltic Capitals & St. Petersburg

National Holidays: Poland

In addition to the holidays listed below, 05/01 Labor Day/May Day
Poland celebrates a number of national
05/03 Constitution Day
holidays that follow a lunar calendar, such
L^ 0L^_P] ?Z ʭYO Z`_ TQ dZ` bTWW MP _]LaPWTYR 08/15 Assumption of Mary
during these holidays, please visit www.
timeanddate.com/holidays. 11/01 All Saints’ Day
01/01 New Year’s Day 11/11 Independence Day

01/06 Epiphany 12/25 Christmas Day
12/26 Boxing Day

Historical Overview of Poland
Polish history can be traced back to the Piast dynasty, a medieval monarchy which brought
Christianity to the region in 966 AD. During a time of territorial expansion known as the
Jagiellonian dynasty period, Poland developed close relations with the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, and formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569.

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century when war struck. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth weakened to the point that it
was eventually completely dissolved by surrounding forces including the Russian Empire, the
Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy. Because of this dark period, Poland
no longer existed as an independent nation.

It wasn’t until 1918 that an independent Polish state came back into existence. The end of
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powers were conquered. But, it still was not an easy road for Poland. The Second Republic
only lasted a little more than twenty years before it was again destroyed, this time by Nazi
Germany during the onset of World War II. The Nazi occupation targeted Polish citizens as one
of the groups that needed to be exterminated.

Despite the gruesome killing of millions of Polish people, the government continues to
function behind the scenes and actually ended up serving a major role in the Allied victory and
the end of World War II. With the defeat of Nazi Germany and the advancement of the Soviet
Red Army, Poland became a Soviet satellite country.

The shift from communism towards the Poland we know today took some time. It wouldn’t be
until the late 1980’s that worker’s revolts and an overwhelming drive for social reforms would
begin steering the country away from Soviet rule. Eventually, the resulting modern Polish
state transitioned relatively peacefully from communism to capitalism.

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