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The population of Poland totals about 38 million. However,
there are many Poles living abroad, the largest concentration
of which is in Chicago. The first Polish state was established
in the 10 th century by Mieszko I, under whom the Poles received
Christianity. In 1386 Queen Jadwiga married Wladyslaw II Jagiello,
the Grand Duke of Lithuania. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
flourished during the Renaissance and Reformation, especially
under the greatest king of this period, Sigismund Augustus
II. In 1772 Prussia, Russia, and Austria annexed parts of
Poland. Only in 1918 did Poland emerge as an independent state.
After World War II Poland was included in the Soviet bloc.
In 1989, after more than 40 years of Communist rule, the workers'
movement Solidarity was legalized. In the 1990s Poland gradually
embraced free-market economics and western-style democracy.
In spite of its turbulent history, Poland has developed within
the cultural sphere of the Slavia Romana . The earliest writings
in Polish date from the 15 th century, though Poles were writing
in Latin at an earlier date. The fathers of Polish literature
are Nicholas Rey (1505-69) and Jan Kochanowski (1530-84);
the greatest Polish Romantics are Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz
Slowacki, Zygmunt Krasinski, and Cyprian Norwid. The writers
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Wladyslaw Reymont, Czeslaw Milosz, and
Wislawa Szymborska have all been awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature. Stanislaw Lem has achieved world-wide fame for
his science-fiction novels and stories. Poland's greatest
scientist and scholar is Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) and
its greatest composer is Frederic Chopin; later composers
include Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutoslawski, and Krzysztof
Penderecki. In the 20 th century Poland has given the world
the distinguished pianists Ignacy Paderewski, Leopold Godowsky,
Artur Rubinstein, and Witold Malcuzynski; the harpsichordist
Wanda Landowska, and the violinist Henryk Szeryng. Andrzej
Wajda, Roman Polanski, and Krzysztof Zanussi are famous film
directors, and Jerzy Grotowski was (1933-1999) was a well-known
stage director.
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