Warsaw

:For other uses, see Warsaw (disambiguation) and Warszawa (disambiguation).

History

The first fortified settlements on the site of today's Warsaw were Bródno (9th/10th century) and Jazdów (12th/13th century). After Jazdów was raided in 1281 by Boleslaus II, the Duke of P?ock, a new similar settlement was lodged on the grounds of a small fishing village called Warszowa. In the beginning of the 14th century it became one of the seats of the Dukes of Masovia, in 1413 becoming the capital of Masovia. Upon the extinction of the local ducal line, the duchy was reincorporated into the Polish Crown in 1526. In 1529 Warsaw for the first time became the seat of the General Sejm, permanent since 1569. In 1572 Warsaw gave its name to the Warsaw Confederacy, an agreement by the Polish gentry to tolerate different religious faiths in the Kingdom of Poland.

Related Topics:
Bródno - 9th - 10th - Jazdów - 12th - 13th - 1281 - Boleslaus II - P?ock - 14th - Dukes of Masovia - 1413 - Polish Crown - 1526 - 1529 - General Sejm - 1569 - 1572 - Warsaw Confederacy - Polish gentry

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Due to its central location between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's capitals of Vilna and Cracow, Warsaw became the capital of Poland in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved the capital from Cracow. Warsaw remained the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia to become the capital of the province of New East Prussia. Liberated by Napoleon's army in 1807, Warsaw was made the capital of the newly created Duchy of Warsaw. Following the decisions of the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Warsaw became the center of the Polish Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with the Imperial Russia.

Related Topics:
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - Vilna - Cracow - Poland - 1596 - Sigismund III Vasa - 1795 - Kingdom of Prussia - New East Prussia - Napoleon - 1807 - Duchy of Warsaw - Congress of Vienna - 1815 - Polish Kingdom - Imperial Russia

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Following the repeated violations of the Polish constitution by the Russians, the 1830 November Uprising broke out. However, the Polish-Russian war of 1831 ended in the uprising's defeat and in the curtailment of the Kingdom's autonomy.

Related Topics:
Russia - 1830 - November Uprising - 1831

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On 27 February 1861 a Warsaw crowd protesting the Russian rule over Poland was fired upon by the Russian troops. Five people were killed.

Related Topics:
27 February - 1861

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Warsaw become the capital of the newly independent Poland again in 1918.

Related Topics:
Poland - 1918

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Warsaw flourished in the late nineteenth century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875?1892), a Russian-born general appointed by Tsar Alexander III. Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley and his son, William Heerlein Lindley, as well as the expansion and modernization of trams, street lighting and gas works.

Related Topics:
Sokrates Starynkiewicz - 1875 - 1892 - Alexander III - William Lindley - William Heerlein Lindley - Trams - Street lighting - Gas works

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In the course of the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920, the huge Battle of Warsaw was fought on the Eastern outskirts of the city in which the capital of Poland was successfully defended and the Red Army defeated.

Related Topics:
Polish-Bolshevik War - 1920 - Battle of Warsaw - Red Army

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Warsaw is notable among Europe's capital cities not for its size, age, or beauty, but for its indestructibility. It is a phoenix that has risen repeatedly from the ashes. Having suffered dreadful damage during the Swedish and Prussian wars of 1655?1656, it was again assaulted in 1794, when the Russian army massacred the population of the right-bank suburb of Praga. Its most remarkable act of survival, though, was its rebirth following its almost complete destruction during the Second World War.

Related Topics:
Europe - Phoenix - Swedish - Prussian - 1655 - 1656 - 1794 - Russia - Second World War

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The Second World War began when Germany invaded western Poland on 1 September 1939. On 17 September eastern Poland was invaded by the USSR. Poland capitulated after 6 weeks of fighting. Western Poland was incorporated into the German Reich, eastern Poland into the USSR, while central Poland, including Warsaw, came under the rule of the General Government, a Nazi colonial administration. In the course of the September Campaign, Warsaw was severely bombed, and in the course of the Siege of Warsaw approximately 10 to 15% of its buildings were destroyed.

Related Topics:
Second World War - Germany - 1 September - 1939 - 17 September - USSR - Reich - General Government - Nazi - September Campaign - Severely bombed - Siege of Warsaw

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Warsaw became an occupied city under the control of the Nazi SS. All higher education institutions were immediately closed and Warsaw's entire Jewish population ? several hundred thousand, some 30% of the city ? herded into the Warsaw Ghetto. When the order came to liquidate the Ghetto as part of Hitler's "final solution", Jewish fighters launched the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered, the Ghetto held out for almost a month. When the fighting ended, the survivors were massacred.

Related Topics:
SS - Warsaw Ghetto - Hitler - Final solution - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

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During 1943 and 1944 the tide of the war turned, as the USSR, which had been at war with Germany since 1941, inflicted a number of severe defeats on the German army. By July 1944 the Soviets were deep into the Polish territory, pursuing the Germans toward Warsaw. Knowing that Stalin was hostile to the idea of an independent Poland, the Polish government-in-exile based in London gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize the control of Warsaw from the Nazis just before the Soviets arrive. Thus, on 1 August 1944, as the Soviet army was nearing the city very fast, the Home Army and the general population started the Warsaw Uprising.

Related Topics:
1943 - 1944 - USSR - 1941 - Soviet - Stalin - Polish government-in-exile - London - Home Army - 1 August - Home Army - Warsaw Uprising

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Despite Stalin's hostility towards Poland, the Poles had expected that the Soviet troops would assist them against their common German enemy. However, after the Red Army captured the right-bank Warsaw, the Soviet offensive was stopped, while the Germans went on to ruthlessly suppress the uprising. Although the insurgency, planned to last 48 hours, held out for 63 days, eventually the Home Army fighters were forced to capitulate. They were transported to the POW camps in Germany, while the entire civilian population was expelled. Hitler, ignoring the negotiated terms of the capitulation, ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground, and the library and museum collections burned. When on 17 January 1945 the Soviets crossed Vistula and entered the left-bank Warsaw, 85% of the city had been destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle. The surviving Home Army fighters were rounded up by the NKVD and either killed or deported to Siberia.

Related Topics:
Poles - POW - 17 January - 1945 - NKVD

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After the war, Boleslaw Bierut's puppet regime set up by Stalin made Warsaw the capital of the communist People's Republic of Poland, and the city was resettled and rebuilt. A lot of plattenbaus (housing projects) can be found in Warsaw. Few of the inhabitants of the pre-war Poland returned: Hundreds of thousands were dead, thousands more in exile from the new regime. Nonetheless, the city resumed its role as the capital of Poland and the country's center of political and economic life. Many of the historic streets, buildings, and churches were restored to their original form. In 1980, the historic Old Town of Warsaw was inscribed onto UNESCO's World Heritage list.

Related Topics:
Boleslaw Bierut - Puppet regime - Communist - People's Republic of Poland - Plattenbau - Housing project - 1980 - UNESCO - World Heritage

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In 1995 the Warsaw Metro finally opened, and with the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004, Warsaw is currently experiencing the biggest economic boom of its history.

Related Topics:
1995 - Warsaw Metro - European Union - 2004

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Famous people

Famous people born, living or working in Warsaw:

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• Eugeniusz Bodo (1899?1943?), singer and actor
• Zbigniew Brzezi?ski (b. 1928), political scientist, advisor to the US president Jimmy Carter
• Frédéric Chopin, (1810?1849), the greatest Polish composer
• Maria Sk?odowska-Curie, (1867?1934), pioneer researcher into radioactivity, two-time Nobel Prize winner
• Lucyna ?wierczakiewiczowa (1829?1901), the first Polish cookbook author
• Witold Gombrowicz (1904?1969), novelist and drama writer
• Agnieszka Holland (b. 1948), internationally acclaimed film director
• Jacek Kaczmarski, (1957?2004), songwriter, poet and author
• Lech Kaczy?ski, (b. 1949), politician, Solidarity activist
• Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski (b. 1932), writer and journalist
• Krzysztof Kie?lowski (1941?1996), internationally acclaimed film director
• Krzysztof Komeda, (1931?1969), free jazz pioneer, composer
• Ryszard Kukli?ski (1930?2004), a CIA spy during the Cold War
• Kazimierz Kuratowski (1896?1980), mathematician
• Janusz Kusoci?ski (1907?1940), athlete, champion at the 1932 Summer Olympics
• Tamara de Lempicka (1898?1980), painter
• Witold Lutos?awski, (1913?1994), composer
• Benoît Mandelbrot (b. 1924), mathematician and creator of Mandelbrot set
• W?adys?aw Reymont (1867?1925), writer and novelist, Nobel Prize winner
• Wac?aw Sierpi?ski (1882?1969), mathematician
• Stefan Starzy?ski (1893?1943?), heroic mayor of Warsaw 1934?1939, murdered by the Nazis
• Stanis?aw Staszic (1755?1826) clergyman, writer, publicist, translator, philosopher and Enlightenment activist;
• W?adys?aw Szpilman, (1911?2000), composer and author of The Pianist
• Stanis?aw Ignacy Witkiewicz aka Witkacy (1885?1939), writer and painter
• Janusz A. Zajdel (1938?1995), science-fiction writer