The Third Republic

The Round Table and the June election 6 February, 5 April, 4 June, 24 August turning point

The government sits down with the opposition and agrees to a partly free election, expecting a controlled opening. Solidarity takes every Sejm seat it is allowed to contest and 99 of the 100 in the Senate, and on 24 August Tadeusz Mazowiecki becomes the Eastern Bloc’s first non-communist prime minister in more than forty years — and the bloc begins to come apart.

The December amendment 29 December constitution

The contract Sejm strikes the communist party’s leading role and the friendship with the USSR from the constitution, and the state is the Republic of Poland again. The eagle in the arms gets back its crown a few weeks later.

The border treaty with Germany 14 November treaty

In a treaty signed in Warsaw, newly unified Germany recognises the frontier on the Oder and the Lusatian Neisse. After forty-five years, Poland’s western border stops being an open question in international law.

The first popular presidential election 9 December turning point

Lech Wałęsa wins the first popular presidential election in Polish history. In December the last president in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, hands him the insignia of the Second Republic, and the government in exile comes to an end.

The first fully free Sejm election 27 October turning point

The first entirely free Sejm election since before the war, held with no threshold in the constituencies, returns members from twenty-nine lists. The fragmented parliament hastens a change in the electoral law.

The Warsaw Pact is dissolved 1 July treaty

In Prague the member states dissolve the Warsaw Pact; its military structures had already ceased on 31 March. Poland leaves the alliance it was bound into in 1955, eight years before it joins NATO.

The last Russian troops leave 17 September turning point

On 17 September, the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of 1939, Warsaw sees off the last unit of Russia’s Northern Group of Forces, whose train crosses the border the next morning. For the first time since 1944 no foreign army is stationed on Polish soil.

The Constitution of the Republic 2 April constitution

The first full constitution passed by a freely elected parliament since the March Constitution of 1921, and confirmed by referendum. It closes the provisional constitutional order that followed 1989.

Poland joins NATO 12 March treaty

Ten years after the Round Table, Poland joins the alliance its army had until recently been arrayed against. The first alliance since 1939 that Poland chose for itself.

The local government reform 1 January constitution

Sixteen voivodeships replace forty-nine, the counties come back, and local government gets part of the centre’s power and money. It is the administrative map in use today.

Poland joins the European Union 1 May treaty

Poland joins the Union alongside nine other states, in the largest enlargement in its history. The borders stay as they were drawn in 1945, but for the exchange of 1951 and minor adjustments, and they stop being barriers.

Poland joins the Schengen Area 21 December treaty

Checks disappear on the borders with Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania. Poland’s eastern border, the Union’s outer border since 2004, becomes the outer border of the Schengen Area.

The Smolensk air disaster 10 April loss

The plane carrying President Lech Kaczyński to the anniversary of the Katyń massacre crashes near Smolensk. All 96 on board are killed, among them the commanders of every branch of the armed forces, the governor of the central bank and the last president in exile; the dispute over the cause divides Polish politics for years afterwards.

Refugees from Ukraine 24 February turning point

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine millions of refugees cross into Poland within a few months, and more than a million stay. The country becomes the hub of military aid to Ukraine.

Solidarity underground social movement

Banned in October 1982, Solidarity works in secret: a Provisional Coordinating Commission, an underground press, Radio Solidarity, help for the persecuted. The country stays in crisis — meat rationed until 1989, inflation, emigration — until the strikes of 1988 force the regime to talk, and in April 1989 the union is legal again.

The Balcerowicz Plan reform

Shock therapy: overnight, free prices, a convertible złoty, an end to subsidies and a hard budget. Hyperinflation dies away within months and the shelves fill — and the collapse of state enterprises brings unemployment People’s Poland had never known, hardest in small towns and on the state farms.

The post-accession emigration resettlement

The United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden open their labour markets on accession day and Poles leave in large numbers: by 2007 more than two million are living abroad. It is the largest wave of emigration since before the war.

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic reaches Poland in March 2020: closed borders, schools and shops, remote learning and remote work. The state of epidemic was lifted in May 2022.