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The POLAND WIKIPORTAL
Featured article
The Order Virtuti Militari (Latin: "For Military Bravery") is Poland's highest military decoration for valour in the face of the enemy. Some foreign medals that are equivalent to the Virtuti Militari are the British Victoria Cross and the American Medal of Honor.
Awarded in five classes, the order was created in 1792 by King of Poland Stanisław August Poniatowski. However, soon after its introduction, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was destroyed in the partitions of Poland of 1795 and the partitioning powers abolished the decoration and prohibited its wearing. Since then, it has been reintroduced, renamed and banned several times, with its fate closely reflecting the vicissitudes of the Polish people. Throughout its existence, thousands of soldiers and officers, Polish and foreign, several cities and one ship have been awarded the Virtuti Militari for valor or outstanding leadership in war. Since 1989, there have been no new awards.
Did you know...
...that the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) discovered that the Earth revolves around the Sun?
... that of the ninety historic Synagogues of Kraków, Poland active before World War II, only the Remuh Synagogue still serves as a Jewish house of prayer?
...that a revolutionary semiconductor called the blue laser was constructed by a group of scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2001?
...that there is a Winnie the Pooh Street (Polish Ulica Kubusia Puchatka) in Warsaw and Bydgoszcz due to the character's popularity?
...that Polish mathematicians and cryptologists broke the Enigma cipher?
...that one-fourth of the world's white storks make their home in Poland, where they are believed to bring good fortune?
...that the first extra-solar planetary system was discovered by a Polish astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan?
...that one of the holiest symbols of Poland, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa according to a legend was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on the table-top of the Holy Family in Nazareth?
...that Poland's largest daily, the Gazeta Wyborcza (Electoral Gazette), got its name because it was originally set up to campaign for Solidarity in the 1989 democratic elections?
...that the common word for "hi" and "bye" in Poland is "cześć", which actually means "honor"?
...that Zamoyski Code failure in Poland in 1780 was a result of an alliance between the foreign interests of the Catholic Holy See and the Orthodox Russian Empire?
Categories
In the News
Wikinews Poland portal
- November 12: Russia rejects latest US proposal on missile defense
- October 24: Polish exercise book advertisement copies Wikipedia content, violates copyright
- September 7: Poland wins the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest
- August 15: United States and Poland sign missile-defence deal angering Russia
- July 13: Bronisław Geremek, former Polish Foreign Affairs Minister, dies at age 76
- July 12: Six die as bus carrying Polish tourists crashes in Serbia
- July 10: Poland announces Olympians for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
- July 10: Polish leaders discuss the anti-missile shield negotiations
- July 1: Half a million złoty vanish from the bank account of Lech Wałęsa
- June 30: Former Polish Foreign Minister discusses anti-missile shield in Washington, DC
Selected anniversaries
- February 4, 1746: birth of Tadeusz Kościuszko a Polish and an American general, national hero of both
- March 6, 1745: birth of Kazimierz Pulaski a Polish general and American national hero
- May 3, 1791: Constitution of May 3, world's second modern constitution, is passed
- May 5, 1846: birth of Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish Nobel Prize-winning novelist
- June 4, 1989: first partially free elections for the Sejm and free elections for the Senate after the Second World War in Poland
- August 1, 1944: Warsaw Uprising, aiming to liberate Polish capital of Warsaw from the German occupation, begins
- August 25, 1920: Battle of Warsaw ends signaling successful Polish defense of their capital in the Polish-Soviet War
- November 11, 1918: Independence Day of Poland, in commemoration of Józef Piłsudski's Proclamation of Independence in Warsaw during World War I
- December 5, 1867: birth of Józef Piłsudski, Marshal of Poland
Poems
by Wisława Szymborska
| After every war someone has to clean up. Things won't straighten themselves up, after all. |
Again we'll need bridges and new railway stations. Sleeves will go ragged from rolling them up. |
|
| Someone has to push the rubble to the sides of the road so the corpse-laden wagons can pass |
Someone, broom in hand, still recalls how it was. Someone listens and nods with unsevered head. Yet others milling about already find it dull. |
|
| Someone has to get mired in scum and ashes, sofa springs, splintered glass, and bloody rags. |
From behind the bush sometimes someone still unearths rust-eaten arguments and carries them to the garbage pile. |
|
| Someone must drag in a girder to prop up a wall, Someone must glaze a window, rehang a door. |
Those who knew what was going on here must give way to those who know little. And less than little. And finally as little as nothing. |
|
| Photogenic it's not, and takes years. All the cameras have left for another war. |
In the grass which has overgrown reasons and causes, someone must be stretched out blade of grass in his mouth gazing at the clouds. |
Cuisine
Pączki 
listen are traditional Polish doughnuts. A pączek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with jam or another sweet filling. A traditional filling is marmalade made from fried rose buds. Fresh pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing or bits of fried orange zest. Read more...
People
Stanisław Koniecpolski, (1590/1594 – 11 March 1646) was a Polish nobleman (szlachta), magnate, official (starost and castellan), voivode of Sandomierz from 1625, and Field and later Grand Crown hetman (second highest military commander, after the king) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Stanisław Koniecpolski lived a life that involved almost constant warfare, and during his military career he won many victories. Before he reached the age of 20, he had fought in the Dymitriads and the Moldavian Magnate Wars, where he was taken captive by the forces of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Cecora in 1620. After his release in 1623 he defeated Ottoman vassals the Tatars in 1624. With inferior forces he fought Swedish forces of Gustavus Adolphus to a stalemate in Prussia during the second phase of the Polish-Swedish War (1626-1629). He defeated a major Turkish invasion at Kamieniec Podolski in Ukraine in 1634, and during his life led many other successful campaigns against the rebellious Cossacks and invading Tatars. He is considered to be one of the most skilled and famous military commanders in the history of Poland and Lithuania.
Paintings
Józef Marian Chełmoński
1875, Oil on canvas, 119,7 x 156,5 cm
National Museum in Warsaw
Quotes
"Rex regnat sed non gubernat"
(The King reigns, but does not govern)
"I see the whole world open before me; the only place that remains sealed off is Poland, and suddenly I feel the atmosphere so close about me that at times it is difficult to breathe."
"Peace is a precious and a desirable thing. Our generation, bloodied in wars, certainly deserves peace. But peace, like almost all things of this world, has its price, a high but a measurable one. We in Poland do not know the concept of peace at any price. There is only one thing in the lives of men, nations and countries that is without price. That thing is honor"
Music
Bogurodzica (The Mother of God) is the oldest Polish religious hymn. It was written in the 10th-13th century, although its origin is not clear.
Polish knights sang it as an anthem before the Battle of Grunwald and during the battle with the Turkish army at Varna in 1444. Bogurodzica accompanied also the coronation ceremonies of the first Jagiellonian kings.
See also:
- Fryderyk Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 55, No. 1
listen (Provided courtesy of In the Hands)
Cinema
The Revenge (Polish: Zemsta), a film released in 2002, directed by Andrzej Wajda (pictured). The film is based on a perennially popular stage farce by the great Polish playwright and poet Aleksander Fredro. Written in a sharp, ironic style, 'The Revenge' portrays those national characteristics that in time brought on many of Poland's national tragedies. Written for the stage, Wajda has changed very little and transferred practically the entirety of the work to the screen.
Cast: Roman Polański as Papkin, Janusz Gajos as Cześnik Raptusiewicz, Andrzej Seweryn as Rejent Milczek, Katarzyna Figura as Podstolina, Daniel Olbrychski as Dyndalski.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 3 November 2008, at 09:20.
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