A Country on the Move

Having faced adversity throughout history, the Polish people have shown enormous resilience time and again. Free and thriving today, Poland is still trying to find its place in the world

A century ago, Poland was so poor that the government decided to build a ship-port in Gdynia in order to help their people emigrate across the Atlantic. Until recently, “Polaks” were still the synonym of poor migrants. But in the last three decades, the situation has changed dramatically.

Twenty-five years ago, Poland was poorer than neighbouring Ukraine. But there was one important difference: It had a clear and ambitious plan to escape the geopolitical fate that still haunts Kyiv. Poland is a country whose population has travelled and in vast numbers, most recently to the UK where Poles became the second largest group of immigrants.

Over the last hundred years, the whole country has moved geographically, foregoing territories to the east and acquiring several to the west, but more importantly, it travelled mentally from an eastern to western identity.