ZANIM TA LISTA WYDARTZEN W POLSCE ZNIKNIE ALBO BEDZIE PRZEROBIONA

Z BBC:

Poland timeline

A chronology of key events:

966 - Duke Mieszko I, the historically recognised founder of the
Polish state, adopts Catholic Christianity.

1025 - Boleslaw I proclaims the Kingdom of Poland.

1569 - Poland signs Union of Lublin with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
to establish the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a major power in
Europe unusual for its powerful parliament of noblemen and its elected
kings.

1772 - The Commonwealth is subjected to the first of three major
partitions by its neighbours Prussia, Russia and Austria following an
anti-Russian revolt.

1791-1793 - A programme of political and social reform culminates in
the 3 May Constitution in 1791, which promises civil rights to the
urban and peasant population of the Commonwealth. Russia invades to
prevent radical change, and the three neighbouring powers carry out a
second partition in 1793.

Independence lost

1794-1795 - Reformers lead an armed uprising against the partitioning
powers. Following its failure the Commonwealth is finally partitioned
among Prussia, Russia and Austria. Independent Poland disappears from
the map of Europe.

1807 - Napoleon creates the Duchy of Warsaw as a client state to rally
Polish support for his cause.

1815 - The Congress of Vienna creates a rump Kingdom of Poland, ruled
by Russia.

1830-1831 - Military revolt in protest at Russian erosion of the
Kingdom's political autonomy and civil liberties.

1863-1864 - Another revolt against Russian rule is defeated and the
Kingdom annexed to Russia.

1864-1914 - The Polish national movement in Russia, Prussia and
Austria focuses on strengthening the grassroots through education,
culture and political parties.

Independence restored

1918 - Independent Polish state restored after the end of World War I.
Marshal Jozef Pilsudski becomes head of state.

POLAND'S LAST COMMUNIST BOSS
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Ex-strongman General Jaruzelski may yet be punished
Declared martial law in 1981 crackdown on Solidarity trade union
movement
Poles argue over whether he spared them a Soviet invasion or prolonged
communism
His talks with Solidarity led eventually to own resignation and end of
communism

Crackdown remembered

1920 - Soviet Red Army offensive repulsed.

1926 - Pilsudski stages a military coup. There follow nine years of
autocratic rule.

1932 - Poland concludes non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.

1934 - Poland signs similar 10-year pact with Nazi Germany.

1935 - Pilsudski dies. The military regime continues.

Invasion and subjugation

1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland. Beginning of World War II as the
United Kingdom declares war on Germany in response to the invasion.
The Soviet Union invades from the east. Germany and the Soviet Union
divide Poland between them and treat Polish citizens with extreme
brutality. Germany begins systematic persecution of the large Jewish
population.

1940 - Soviet secret police carry out systematic massacre of about
22,000 Polish army officers, professionals and civil servants mainly
in a forest near Katyn in Russia's Smolensk Region. The Soviet Union
attributed the crime to the Nazis until acknowledging responsibility
in the late 1980s.

1941 - Germans start to build concentration camps in Poland. Their
names - Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek - become synonymous with the
Holocaust.

NAZI OCCUPATION
A Nazi SS inspects a group of Jewish workers in April 1943 in the
Warsaw ghetto
Many thousands of Jews perished in the Warsaw Ghetto

Remembering ghetto fighters
Poles mark 1944 Warsaw uprising

1943 - Warsaw ghetto uprising against German attempts to transport the
remaining Jewish inhabitants to concentration camps. Resistance lasts
nearly four weeks before the ghetto is burned down. The Germans
announce the capture of more than 50,000 Jews.

1944 - Polish resistance forces take control of Warsaw in August. The
Germans recapture the city in October and burn it to the ground.

1945 - Soviet forces capture Warsaw in January. All German forces are
driven from Poland by March. Poland's borders are set by the post-war
Potsdam conference; Poland loses territory to the Soviet Union but
gains some from Germany.

Communist rule

1947 - Poland becomes a Communist People's Republic after Soviet-run
elections, under the Stalinist leadership of Boleslaw Bierut.

1955 - Poland joins the Soviet-run Warsaw Pact military alliance.

LECH WALESA
Solidarity founder Lech Walesa
Founder of Solidarity union and first popularly-elected president

Analysis: Solidarity's legacy
2000: Lech Walesa, Poland's humiliated hero
On This Day 1980: Shipyard Poles strike for their rights

1956 - More than 50 people killed in rioting in Poznan over demands
for greater freedom. Liberal Communist leader Wladislaw Gomulka takes
over.

1970 - Food price riots in Gdansk. The protests are suppressed,
hundreds are killed. Edward Gierek becomes party leader.

1970s - Poland enjoys relative economic prosperity based on foreign
loans. Successive US presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter visit Poland.

1978 - Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal of Krakow, elected Pope.

1980 - Disturbances at the shipyard in Gdansk lead to the emergence of
the Solidarity trade union under Lech Walesa.

1981 - Martial law imposed. Many of Solidarity's leaders, including
Walesa, are imprisoned.

1983 - Martial law lifted.

Success for Solidarity

1989 - Round-table talks between Solidarity, the Communists and the
Catholic Church. Partially free elections see widespread success for
Solidarity, which helps form coalition government.

Polish border guard on border crossing with Belarus
Poland tightened border controls ahead of EU membership

2004: Poland's journey to Brussels
2003: Poland says big Yes to EU
2004: Analysis - Eastern Europe reborn

1990 - Walesa elected president of Poland. Market reforms, including
large-scale privatisation, are launched.

1992 - Soviet troops start to leave Poland.

1993 - Reformed Communists enter coalition government. They pledge to
continue market reforms.

1994 - Poland joins Nato's Partnership for Peace programme.

1995 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Communist, narrowly beats Lech
Walesa to become president.

1997 - Polish parliament adopts a new constitution. General election
is won by the Solidarity grouping AWS. Jerzy Buzek forms a coalition
government.

Towards EU membership

1998 - The EU opens talks on Polish membership.

1999 - Poland joins Nato.

2000 - Aleksander Kwasniewski re-elected as president.

Polish troops
Polish combat troops joined the US-led coalition in Iraq

2003: Europe's new heavyweight
2004: Poland seeks Iraq reward

2001 - Poland permits citizens to apply to see the files kept on them
by the secret police during the communist era.

2001 October - New coalition between the Democratic Left Alliance
(SLD) and the Peasants' Party forms government with SLD leader Leszek
Miller as prime minister.

2002 December - EU summit in Copenhagen formally invites Poland to
join in 2004.

2003 March - Polish Peasant's Party ejected from ruling coalition over
failure to vote with government on tax. Leszek Miller carries on as PM
in minority government.

2003 June - Poles vote in referendum in favour of joining EU.

EU era dawns

2004 May - Poland is one of 10 new states to join the EU.

Prime Minister Miller resigns. Former finance minister Marek Belka
succeeds him.

2005 September - Conservative Law and Justice party comes first in
general elections.

Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw
Palace of Culture and Science: A Soviet relic in Warsaw

2005: Poles tolerate Stalinist palace

2005 October - Law and Justice candidate Lech Kaczynski wins
presidential election.

Minority government led by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz of Law and Justice
sworn in.

2006 May - Law and Justice Party reaches majority coalition agreement
with Self-Defence Party and League of Polish Families.

2006 July - Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz resigns as prime minister.
President Lech Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw, becomes premier.

2007 January - Recently-appointed Archbishop of Warsaw Stanislaw
Wielgus resigns over revelations about his co-operation with the
secret police under communist rule.

2007 April - Prosecutors bring charges against former communist leader
General Jaruzelski over his role in introducing martial law in 1981.

2007 October - Liberal, pro-EU Civic Platform party wins early general
election after coalition government collapses.

2008 February - The government forges an agreement with the US in
principle to host a controversial American missile defence system.

2008 September - Poland's last Communist leader, General Wojciech
Jaruzelski, goes on trial in connection with the imposition of martial
law in 1981.

2009 May - The IMF approves a one-year credit line for Poland of $20.6
billion to help it weather the global economic crisis.

2010 April - President Lech Kaczynski is killed in a plane crash while
on his way to a ceremony in Russia marking the 70th anniversary of the
Katyn massacre during World War II.

2010 July - Parliament Speaker and Acting President Bronislaw
Komorowski of the centre-right Civic Platform defeats former prime
minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in the second round of presidential
elections.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton oversees an amended agreement to
station a US missile defence shield base in Poland.