History of Warsaw
Encyclopedia
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
is mostly synonymous with the history of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. First fortified settlements on area of today Warsaw were founded in the 9th century and for many centuries coincided with the development of what is today known as the Warsaw Old Town
Warsaw Old Town
Warsaw's Old Town is the oldest historic district of the city. It is bounded by Wybrzeże Gdańskie, along the bank of the Vistula, and by Grodzka, Mostowa and Podwale Streets. It is one of Warsaw's most prominent tourist attractions....
.
During this time the city has experienced numerous plagues, invasions, devastating fires and administrative restrictions on its growth. The most crucial of those events included the Deluge, the Great Northern War
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...
(1702, 1704, 1705), War of the Polish Succession
War of the Polish Succession
The War of the Polish Succession was a major European war for princes' possessions sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II, King of Poland that other European powers widened in pursuit of their own national interests...
, Warsaw Uprising (1794)
Warsaw Uprising (1794)
The Warsaw Uprising of 1794 was an armed Polish insurrection by the city's populace early in the Kościuszko Uprising. Supported by the Polish Army, it aimed to throw off Russian control of the Polish capital city...
, Battle of Praga and the Massacre of Praga inhabitants
Battle of Praga
The Battle of Praga or Battle of Warsaw of 1794 was a Russian assault of Praga, the easternmost suburb of Warsaw, during the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. It was followed by a massacre of the civilian population of Praga.-Eve of the battle:After the Battle of Maciejowice General Tadeusz Kościuszko...
, November Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
, January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Siege of Warsaw (1939)
Siege of Warsaw (1939)
The 1939 Battle of Warsaw was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland and the German Army...
and aerial bombardment
Bombing of Warsaw in World War II
The Bombing of Warsaw in World War II refers both to the Strategic bombing campaign of Warsaw by the Luftwaffe during the siege of Warsaw in the Invasion of Poland in 1939 and to the German bombing raids during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944....
, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
, Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
(which in the aftermath nearly reduced all of the city to rubble by German occupiers).
The city was a site of other significant but less destructive events. It was the site of election of Polish kings, meeting of Polish parliament (Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
), and events such as the Polish victory over the Bolsheviks at the Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
, during the Battle of Warsaw (1920)
Battle of Warsaw (1920)
The Battle of Warsaw sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, was the decisive battle of the Polish–Soviet War. That war began soon after the end of World War I in 1918 and lasted until the Treaty of Riga resulted in the end of the hostilities between Poland and Russia in 1921.The...
. Yet it has still grown to the multicultural capital of a modern European state and a major commercial and cultural centres of Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
.
Early history
The area covered by modern Warsaw had been inhabited for at least 1400 years. Several archaeological findings date back to the times of the Lusatian cultureLusatian culture
The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of today's Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany and parts of Ukraine...
.
Bródno
Bródno is a neighbourhood in the Warsaw's borough of Targówek, located on the eastern side of the Vistula river. It is inhabited by approximately 100 thousand people. Among the most notable landmarks are the Bródno Park and the Bródno cemetery, the largest cemetery in Warsaw and one of the largest...
(9th/10th century), Kamion (11th century) and Jazdów
Ujazdów Castle
Ujazdów Castle is a castle in the historic Ujazdów district, between Ujazdów Park and the Royal Baths Park , in Warsaw, Poland.-History:...
(12th/13th century). Bródno was a small settlement in the north-eastern part of today’s Warsaw, buried about 1040 during the uprising of Miecław – one of the Mazovian local princes. Kamion was established about 1065 close to the today’s Warszawa Wschodnia
Warsaw Wschodnia station
Warsaw Wschodnia is one of the most important railway stations in Warsaw, Poland. Its more official name is Warszawa Wschodnia Osobowa . It is located on the eastern side of the Vistula river, in Praga Północ district, on the Warsaw Cross-City Line...
station (today – Kamionek estate), Jazdów – before 1250 by the today’s Sejm. Jazdów was raided twice – in 1262 by Lithuanians, in 1281 by the Płock prince Bolesław II of Masovia. Then, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa, ca. 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) north of Jazdów – by the same prince Bolesław II. The Bolesław’s brother and successor, Konrad II, built a wooden castellan, which was buried – again by the Lithuanians. On this place, the prince ordered to built a brick church, which obtained the name of St. John and became a cathedral
St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw
St. John's Archcathedral in Warsaw is a Catholic church in Warsaw's Old Town, is the only one archcathedral in Warszawa, the other 3 are cathedrals in the Polish capital. St. John's stands immediately adjacent to Warsaw's Jesuit church, and is one of the oldest churches in the city and the main...
.
The first historical document attesting to the existence of a Warsaw castellan dates to 1313. Fuller information about the age of the city is contained in the court case against the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
which took place in Warsaw cathedral
St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw
St. John's Archcathedral in Warsaw is a Catholic church in Warsaw's Old Town, is the only one archcathedral in Warszawa, the other 3 are cathedrals in the Polish capital. St. John's stands immediately adjacent to Warsaw's Jesuit church, and is one of the oldest churches in the city and the main...
in 1339. In the beginning of the 14th century it became one of the seats of the Dukes of Masovia, becoming the capital of Masovia in 1413 (prince Janusz II). Fourteenth-century Warsaw's economy rested on crafts and trade. The townsmen, of uniform nationality at the time, were marked by a great disparity in their financial status. At the top were the rich patricians while the plebeians formed the lower strata.
In that time, in Warsaw lived about 4500 people. During the 15th century, the town became to spread – beyond the northern town wall a settlement came into existence, which was called New Town, whereas the already existing settlement was called Old Town. Those two towns had their own town charters and own governments. The aim of establishing a new town was to regulate the settling of new people who weren’t allowed to settle in Old Town (mainly Jews)
In 1515, during Muscovy-Lithuanian War fire incented probably by Russian agents burned great part of Old Warsaw. The differentiation and the growing social contrasts resulted in 1525 in the first revolt of the poor of Warsaw against the rich and the authority they exercised. As a result of this struggle the so-called third order was admitted to the city’s authorities and shared power with the bodies formed by the patricians: the council and the assessors. The story of Warsaw populace's struggle for social liberation dates from that first demonstration in 1525.
Upon the extinction of the local ducal line, the duchy was reincorporated into the Polish Crown
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1526 (according to the gossips, the last Mazovian prince Janusz III was poisoned on the orders of Polish Queen, Bona Sforza
Bona Sforza
Bona Sforza was a member of the powerful Milanese House of Sforza. In 1518, she became the second wife of Sigismund I the Old, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and became the Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania.She was the third child of Gian Galeazzo Sforza and his wife...
, King Sigismund I
Sigismund I the Old
Sigismund I of Poland , of the Jagiellon dynasty, reigned as King of Poland and also as the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until 1548...
).
1526-1700
In 1529, Warsaw for the first time became the seat of the General Sejm, permanent since 1569. By this reason, an Italian architect, Giovanni di Quadro, rebuilt the King’s Castle in the Renaissance style. The incorporation of Mazovia into the Polish Crown spelt fast economic development, which is demonstrated by a population growth: in that time there lived 20,000 people, whereas 100 years earlier only ca. 4500.
Jagiellon dynasty
The Jagiellonian dynasty was a royal dynasty originating from the Lithuanian House of Gediminas dynasty that reigned in Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century...
, Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus I was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548...
. On the Sejm’s seat in 1573, there was passed that from this moment on Polish kings would be elected by gentry. On the same seat, there was also passed so-called Warsaw Confederation
Warsaw Confederation
The Warsaw Confederation , an important development in the history of Poland and Lithuania that extended religious tolerance to nobility and free persons within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. , is considered the formal beginning of religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and...
which formally established religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The first “free election” (in Polish: wolna elekcja) was held in April and May of 1573 in Kamień (today’s Kamionek estate, close to the Wschodnia Station). The next elections, however (already in 1575, when Stephen Báthory
Stephen Báthory
Stephen Báthory may refer to several noblemen of Hungarian descent:* Stephen III Báthory , Palatine of Hungary* Stephen V Báthory , judge of the Royal Court and Prince of Transylvania...
became a Polish king), were held in another Warsovian suburb – at Wielka Wola (now that city's western, Wola
Wola
Wola is a district in western Warsaw, Poland, formerly the village of Wielka Wola, incorporated into Warsaw in 1916. An industrial area with traditions reaching back to the early 19th century, it is slowly changing into an office and residential district...
district). The stormiest elections were those of 1575 and 1587, when matters came to blows among the divided nobles. Following an election, the king-elect was obliged to sign pacta conventa
Pacta conventa (Poland)
Pacta conventa was a contractual agreement, from 1573 to 1764 entered into between the "Polish nation" and a newly-elected king upon his "free election" to the throne.The pacta conventa affirmed the king-elect's pledge to respect the laws of the...
(Latin: "agreed-upon agreements") - laundry lists of campaign promises, seldom fulfilled - with his noble electors. The agreements included "King Henry's Articles" (artykuły henrykowskie), first imposed on Prince Henri de Valois (in Polish, Henryk Walezy) at the outset of his brief reign (upon the death of his brother, French King Charles IX
Charles IX of France
Charles IX was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. His reign was dominated by the Wars of Religion. He is best known as king at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Childhood:...
, Henri de Valois fled Poland by night to claim the French throne).
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
and Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, as well as relatively closely to Gdańsk, from where Sweden was always threatening, Warsaw became the capital of the Commonwealth and at the same time of the Polish Crown
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599...
moved the court from Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. The King’s decision had been brought forward by the fire of Cracovian Wawel
Wawel
Wawel is an architectural complex erected over many centuries atop a limestone outcrop on the left bank of the Vistula River in Kraków, Poland, at an altitude of 228 metres above the sea level. It is a place of great significance to the Polish people. The Royal Castle with an armoury and the...
Castle. The royal architect, Santa Gucci, started to rebuilt the Warsovian Castle in the Baroque style, therefore the King live there only temporarily; but in 1611 moved here for good. At the time of the transformation of Warsaw from one of the main Polish towns into the country's capital, it already numbered some 14,000 inhabitants. The old walled city had 169 houses; the new Warsaw outside the walls numbered 204 houses, while the suburbs had as many as 320. In 1576, the first permanent bridge was built on Vistula; it was destroyed in 1603 by an ice floe and until 1775 did not exist any permanent connection between Warsaw and Praga on the Vistula’s right bank.
In the following years the town expanded towards the suburbs. Several private independent districts were established, the property of aristocrats and the gentry, which were ruled by their own laws. Such districts were called jurydyka. They were settled by craftsmen and tradesmen. One of these “jurydykas” was Praga, which granted a city charter in 1648. The peak of their development came in the wake of Warsaw's revival after the Swedish invasion which had seriously ravaged the city. Three times between 1655-1658 the city was under siege and three times it was taken and pillaged by the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
ian and Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n forces. They stole many valuable books, pictures, sculptures and other works of art - mainly, the Swedish troops. The mid-17th century architecture of the Old
Warsaw Old Town
Warsaw's Old Town is the oldest historic district of the city. It is bounded by Wybrzeże Gdańskie, along the bank of the Vistula, and by Grodzka, Mostowa and Podwale Streets. It is one of Warsaw's most prominent tourist attractions....
and New Towns
Warsaw New Town
Warsaw's New Town is a neighbourhood dating from the 15th century. It lies just north of the Old Town and is connected to it by ulica Freta , which begins at the Barbican...
survived until Nazi invasion. The style was late Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
with Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
ground floors preserved from the fire of 1607. In the 17th and early part of the 18th century, during the rule of the great nobles oligarchy, magnificent Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
residences rose all around Warsaw. In 1677, King John III Sobieski
John III Sobieski
John III Sobieski was one of the most notable monarchs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, from 1674 until his death King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Sobieski's 22-year-reign was marked by a period of the Commonwealth's stabilization, much needed after the turmoil of the Deluge and...
started to build his Baroque residence in Wilanów, a village ca. 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of Old Town.
1700-1795
Many political circumstances caused that after the King John III’s death the Polish Kingdom started to loose its political position. As a new king, the Saxon Prince-Elector Frederic Augustus was elected (1697), who took the name Augustus II
Augustus II the Strong
Frederick Augustus I or Augustus II the Strong was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania ....
. He took care rather of his mother country, Saxony, than of Poland, whereas the Polish gentry more and more intensively fought for his own rights than for the maintaining the kingdom’s position obtained in 17th century. Moreover, the rulers of the neighboring Russia (Peter I the Great
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
) and Sweden (Charles XII
Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...
) were gradually extending the territories of their states and strengthening their power. In 1700, the Great Northern War
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...
broke out between these two states; Augustus II recklessly joined it at the Peter I’s side. The weak Poland was only a battlefield for the two kings, therefore Warsaw was besieged several times – for the first time, in 1702, by the Swedish troops. The city suffered severely from the Swedish occupation. Under the Swedish influence, in June 1704 the Polish gentry dethroned Augustus II and at Wielka Wola elected a new king - a Poznań Voivod Stanisław Leszczyński, Swedish supporter. But already on September 1, 1704 Warsaw was retaken by Saxon Army of Augustus II after five days of a severe artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
bombardment. He loosed it after being defeated in the battle on 31 July 1705, which took place between today's Warszawa Zachodnia Station and Wielka Wola and where 2,000 of Swedish troops beat 10,000 Polish-Lithuanian-Saxon army. Only now Stanisław Leszczyński could be officially crowned, what happened in October. In 1707, by virtue of the peace treaty between Augustus II and Charles XII, Russian allied troops entered Warsaw. After two months, Russian forces were removed from Warsaw. Several times during that war the city was obliged to pay heavy contributions. Leszczyński reigned until 1709, when Russia defeated Sweden in the battle of Poltava
Battle of Poltava
The Battle of Poltava on 27 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld in one of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is widely believed to have been the beginning of Sweden's decline as a Great Power; the...
, forcing the Swedish army to leave Poland. Then, Augustus II once again became a Polish king. From 1713, the Russian and Saxon troops were permanently stationed in Warsaw, what was really oppressive for people; apart of this, Warsaw was hit by pest (1708), flood (1713) and poor crop.
Augustus II died in February 1733. In September, the Polish gentry again elected a king Stanisław Leszczyński, but it did not matched the political interests of Austria and Russia, which, one month later, forced to elect the Augustus II’s son – Augustus III. Various political sympathies and interests between Leszczyński, Augustus III, Russia, Sweden, Austria, Saxony and France led to the War of the Polish Succession
War of the Polish Succession
The War of the Polish Succession was a major European war for princes' possessions sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II, King of Poland that other European powers widened in pursuit of their own national interests...
, where Poland again was not more than a battlefield; Warsaw again suffered marches and occupations. As a result of the war, Augustus III became a king and Leszczyński had to escape to France. Despite the political weakness of the state, the Saxon realm was the time of development for Warsaw. The king brought many German architects, who rebuilt Warsaw in the style similar to this of Dresden. In 1747 the Załuski Library was established in Warsaw by Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski. It was considered to be the first Polish public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
and one of the largest libraries in the contemporary world. In all of Europe there were only two or three libraries, which could pride themselves on having such a book collection. The library initially had about 200,000 items, which grew to about 400,000 printed items, maps
MAPS
Maps is the plural of map, a visual representation of an area.As an acronym, MAPS may refer to:* Mail Abuse Prevention System, an organisation that provides anti-spam support...
and manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s by the end of the 1780s. It also accumulated a collection of art, scientific instruments, and plant and animal specimens.
In 1740 Stanisław Konarski, a catholic priest, founded Collegium Nobilium – the university for noblemen’s sons, which is considered as the predecessor of the University of Warsaw. In 1742, the City Committee was established, which was responsible for building of pavements and sewage system. But big parts of the city remained out of control of the city’s authorities. Only in 1760’s the whole city got under one administration – thanks to efforts of the future President Jan Dekert (in Poland, the mayors of bigger cities are called Presidents). In that time, Warsaw was divided into 7 districts.
.jpg)
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
of Poland held place. The Polish historians state that this was a necessary shock for the Polish gentry to “weak up” and start to think about the future of the country. That is the reason why the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
could spread in Poland so easily and along with it – new ideas of the country’s position improvement. In 1765, the King established Korpus Kadetów – the first secular school in Warsaw (despite of its name it was not a military school). In 1773, the first ministry of education on the world came into existence – Commission of National Education (Komisja Edukacji Narodowej). In 1775, a bridge on the Vistula was built, which existed until 1794.
This time marked a new and characteristic stage in the development of Warsaw. It turned into an early-capitalistic
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
principal city. The growth of political activity, development of progressive ideas, political and economic changes all this exercised an impact on the formation of the city whose architecture began to reflect the contemporary aspirations and trends. Factories developed, the number of workers increased, the class of merchants, industrialists and financiers expanded. At the same time there was a strong migration of peasants from the rural areas. In 1792, Warsaw had 115,000 inhabitants as compared with 24,000 in 1754. These changes brought about the development of the building trade. New noblemen's residences were put up, the middle class built its own houses which showed a marked social differentiation. The residences of the representatives of the wealthiest stratum the big merchants and bankers matched those of the magnates. A new type of city dwellings developed, catering to the needs and tastes of the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
. The artistic medium for all these buildings was that of antiquity, which, although its different social origin was not analyzed at the time, expressed the progressive ideas of the Enlightenment.
Great Sejm
The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm was a Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in Warsaw, beginning in 1788...
in Warsaw (called Great because of the duration of the session) passed the Constitution of May 3, 1791
Constitution of May 3, 1791
The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was adopted as a "Government Act" on that date by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Historian Norman Davies calls it "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other scholars also refer to it as the world's second oldest constitution...
, which historian Norman Davies
Norman Davies
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...
calls "the first constitution of its kind in Europe". It was adopted as a "Government Act" (Polish: Ustawa rządowa) on that date by the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
(parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was in effect for only a year. The Russian-Turkish war had finished and Empress Catherine could manage with Polish affairs. The result was the Second Partition of Poland
Second Partition of Poland
The 1793 Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the second of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the War in Defense of the Constitution and the Targowica Confederation of 1792...
of 1793, which evoked the 1794 Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising (1794)
The Warsaw Uprising of 1794 was an armed Polish insurrection by the city's populace early in the Kościuszko Uprising. Supported by the Polish Army, it aimed to throw off Russian control of the Polish capital city...
. It was an insurrection by the city's populace early in the Kościuszko Uprising
Kosciuszko Uprising
The Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1794...
. Supported by the Polish Army, it aimed to throw off Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n control of the Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
capital. It began April 17, 1794, soon after Tadeusz Kościuszko
Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish–Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus...
's victory at Racławice.
Battle of Maciejowice
The Battle of Maciejowice was fought on October 10, 1794, between Poland and the Russian Empire.The Poles were led by Tadeusz Kościuszko. Kościuszko with 6,200 men planned to prevent the linking of two larger Russian armies, 12,000 under Iwan Fersen and 12,500 under Alexander Suvorov...
General Tadeusz Kościuszko
Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish–Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus...
was captured by the Russians. The internal struggle for power in Warsaw and the demoralisation of the city's population prevented General Józef Zajączek
Józef Zajaczek
Prince Józef Zajączek , was a Polish general and politician.His first important military post was that of an aide-de-camp to hetman Franciszek Ksawery Branicki...
from finishing the fortifications surrounding the city both from the east and from the west. At the same time the Russians were making their way towards the city. The Russian forces reached the east outskirts of Warsaw on November 3, 1794. The heavy fighting lasted for four hours and resulted in a complete defeat of the Polish forces. Only a small part managed to evade encirclement and retreated to the other side of the river across a bridge; hundreds of soldiers and civilians fell from a bridge and drowned in the process. After the battle ended, the Russian troops, against the orders given by gen. Alexander Suvorov
Alexander Suvorov
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov , Count Suvorov of Rymnik, Prince in Italy, Count of the Holy Roman Empire , was the fourth and last generalissimo of the Russian Empire.One of the few great generals in history who never lost a battle along with the likes of Alexander...
before the battle, started to loot and burn the entire borough of Warsaw (allegedly in revenge for the slaughter or capture of over half the Russian Garrison in Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising (1794)
The Warsaw Uprising of 1794 was an armed Polish insurrection by the city's populace early in the Kościuszko Uprising. Supported by the Polish Army, it aimed to throw off Russian control of the Polish capital city...
in April 1794, when about 2,000 Russian soldiers died). Almost all of the area was pillaged, burnt to the ground and many inhabitants of the Praga
Praga
Praga is a historical borough of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It is located on the east bank of the river Vistula. First mentioned in 1432, until 1791 it formed a separate town with its own city charter.- History :...
district were murdered. The exact death toll of that day remains unknown, yet it is estimated up to 20,000 men, women and children were killed. In Polish history and tradition, these events are called “slaughter of Praga”. A British envoy, William Gardiner, wrote to the British Prime Minister that “the attack on the Praga’s lines of defense was accompanied by the most gruesome and totally unnecessary barbarousness”.
After the fall of Kościuszko Uprising, The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was finally divided between the three neighbors (the 3rd partition, 1795): Russia, Prussia and Austria. Warsaw found itself in the Prussian part and became the capital of the province South Prussia (Südpreussen).
There was one more result of the Great Sejm works – directly concerning Warsaw: on 21 April 1791 it passed the City Act, which cancelled jurydykas. Since this moment, Warsaw and its former jurydykas have constituted a homogeneous urban organism under one administration. As a memento of this event, April 21 is celebrated as the Warsaw Day.
1795-1914
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
to become the capital of the province of South Prussia
South Prussia
South Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1793 to 1807. It was created out of territory annexed in the Second Partition of Poland and included in 1793*the Poznań, Kalisz and Gniezno Voivodeships of Greater Poland;...
. Liberated by Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's army in 1806, Warsaw was made the capital of the newly created Duchy of Warsaw
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...
. Following the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
of 1815, Warsaw became the center of the Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with Imperial Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. In that time the Russian Emperor was liberal Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
, what affected also the fast development of Warsaw: the Royal University of Warsaw was established (1816), today’s main street of the city – Aleje Jerozolimskie – was marked out. In 1818, the Town Hall on the Old Town Market was pulled down, because it was too small for the city which had expanded after incorporation of the jurydykas. The city’s authorities moved to Jabłonowski’s Palace (by the Great Theater), where it stayed until World War II.
Following the repeated violations of the Polish constitution by the Russians (especially after the Alexander I’s death, when the conservative Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
assumed the power), the 1830 November Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
broke out. It started with the assault on Belvedere
Belweder
Belweder is a palace in Warsaw, a few kilometers south of the Royal Castle. The President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, resides at Belweder.-History:...
- the residence of Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia
Constantine Pavlovich was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I. He was the Tsesarevich of Russia throughout the reign of his elder brother Alexander I, but had secretly renounced his claim to the throne in 1823...
, the commander-in-chief of Polish army and de facto viceroy of the Congress Poland – as well as at the Arsenal. It led to an outbreak of the Polish-Russian war (1831), whose the greatest battle held place on 25 February 1831 in Grochów – a village which today is the northern part of the district Praga Południe. Because of the stalling of Polish commanders the war ended in the defeat and in the curtailment of the Kingdom's autonomy. The Emperor established the military administration in Warsaw. An estate of pretty manors on the north of New Town was eradicated and on this place the Citadel was built, where was a fortress and prison. The Sejm was suspended, the Polish army – dissolved and the University – closed.
With time, the Emperor’s severe attitude to Poland softened and Warsaw could develop again. In 1845, the first railway on the Congress Poland territory and the second in the Russian Empire was opened – the Warsaw-Vienna Railway
Warsaw-Vienna Railway
The Warsaw-Vienna Railway was a railway system which operated in Congress Poland, a part of the Russian Empire, from 1845 until 1912, when it was nationalized by the Russian government...
, to standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
; in 1862 – the Warsaw-Saint Petersburg Railway (to broad gauge
Russian gauge
In railway terminology, Russian gauge refers to railway track with a gauge between 1,520 mm and . In a narrow sense as defined by Russian Railways it refers to gauge....
). In 1875 and 1908, two railway bridges were built, whereas in 1864 – the first iron road bridge on stone supports: Most Kierbedzia – one of the most modern bridges in Europe of that time. Nowadays, the Śląsko-Dąbrowski bridge lies at the same supports. Only then the city’s authorities started to rebuilt Praga, which had been seriously destroyed during the Kościuszko’s and November Uprisings as well as the Napoleon’s war. In 1862, the University was opened again, in 1898 the Nicholas II’s Technical Institute (the Warsaw Technical University’s predecessor) was established.
Sokrates Starynkiewicz
Sokrates Starynkiewicz was a Russian general and the 19th President of Warsaw between 1875 and 1892. During his presidency he ordered the construction of municipal water works as well as the tramway and telephone network in Warsaw.-Biography:...
(1875–92), a Russian-born general appointed by Tsar Alexander III
Alexander III of Russia
Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov , historically remembered as Alexander III or Alexander the Peacemaker reigned as Emperor of Russia from until his death on .-Disposition:...
. Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley
William Lindley
William Lindley , was a famous English engineer who together with his sons designed water and sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe.-Life:...
and his son, William Heerlein Lindley
William Heerlein Lindley
Sir William Heerlein Lindley was a British civil engineer.One of three sons of the famous British engineer William Lindley, WH Lindley worked together with his father on a number of projects and was a respected engineer in his own right...
, as well as the expansion and modernization of horsecar
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
s, street light
Street light
A street light, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or walkway, which is turned on or lit at a certain time every night. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive photocells to turn them on at dusk, off at dawn, or activate...
ing and gas works
Gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is a factory for the manufacture of gas. The use of natural gas has made many redundant in the developed world, however they are often still used for storage.- Early gasworks :...
. Starynkiewicz also founded the Bródno Cemetery (1884) – even nowadays one of the biggest European cemeteries. As a remembrance of the great President, one of the Warsovian squares bears the name of Starynkiewicz – although he was the representative of the occupation authorities.
In 1904, the first power plant was built, which enabled to install electric lamps on the streets and – in 1908 – to open the first electric tram route. In 1914, the third bridge was opened – Most Józefa Poniatowskiego.
But the Warsaw development was accompanied by an intensive deprivation of the Polish national identity. The Russian authorities closed Polish schools and built more and more Orthodox temples. These acts met a strong opposition. On 27 February 1861 a Warsaw crowd protesting the Russian rule over Poland was fired upon by the Russian troops. Five people were killed. On 22 January 1863 a new uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
broke out. The Underground Polish National Government resided in Warsaw during January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
in 1863–4. However, this uprising was mainly in the character of guerilla, therefore Warsaw did not distinguish itself in it. But, as a penalty, President Kalikst Witkowski
Kalikst Witkowski
Kalikst Witkowski was the President of Warsaw....
, the Russian general and predecessor of Sokrates Starynkiewicz, constantly imposed tributes on Warsaw. The last serious riots took place in 1905 (after the St. Petersburg’s “bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1905)
Bloody Sunday was a massacre on in St. Petersburg, Russia, where unarmed, peaceful demonstrators marching to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II were gunned down by the Imperial Guard while approaching the city center and the Winter Palace from several gathering points. The shooting did not...
”), when the Cossacks and police fired to the people demonstrating in Warsaw.
In 1897 Warsaw was 56.5% Polish, 35.8% Jewish and 4.9% Russian.
World War I
On 1 August 1915 the German army entered Warsaw. The Russians, while retreating, demolished all of the Warsovian bridges – along with the Poniatowski Bridge, opened 18 months earlier – and took with themselves the equipment of the factories, what made the situation in Warsaw much more difficult. The German authorities, headed by gen. Hans von BeselerHans Hartwig von Beseler
Hans Hartwig von Beseler was a German Colonel General.- Biography :Beseler was born in Greifswald, Pomerania. His father, Georg Beseler, was a law professor at the University of Greifswald. He entered the Prussian Army in 1868, fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and had a successful...
, needed the Polish support in the war against Russia, therefore took steps proving its friendly attitude to Poles – for example, reintroduced the possibility to teach in Polish: in 1915 they opened the Technical University, Warsaw School of Economics and Warsaw University of Life Sciences.
However, the most important decision for a city development was to incorporate the suburbs. The Russian authority hadn't allowed to extend the Warsaw’s area, because it was forbidden to cross the double line of forts, surrounding the city. By this reason, at the beginning of World War I on the area of today's Śródmieście and the old part of Praga (ca. 33 square kilometres (13 sq mi) 750,000 people lived. In April 1916, the Warsaw territory extended to 115 square kilometres (44 sq mi).
In autumn of 1918, the revolution broke up in Germany. On 8 November, the German authorities left Warsaw. On 10 November Józef Piłsudski came at the Warsaw-Vienna Station. On 11 November the Regency Council passed him all military authority, whereas on 14 November – all civil authority. By this reason, the 11 November 1918 is celebrated as the beginning of the Poland’s independence. Warsaw became the capital of the Poland
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
.
1918-1939
The first years of independence were very difficult: war havoc, hyperinflation – and, the most dangerous event, the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920. In the course of this war, the huge Battle of WarsawBattle of Warsaw (1920)
The Battle of Warsaw sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, was the decisive battle of the Polish–Soviet War. That war began soon after the end of World War I in 1918 and lasted until the Treaty of Riga resulted in the end of the hostilities between Poland and Russia in 1921.The...
was fought on the Eastern outskirts of the city in which the capital was successfully defended and the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
defeated. Poland stopped on itself the full brunt of the Red Army and defeated an idea of the "export of the revolution
Export of revolution
Export of revolution is actions by a victorious revolutionary government of one country to promote similar revolutions in other countries, as a manifestation of revolutionary internationalism of certain kind, e.g., the Marxist proletarian internationalism....
." Communist time table was slowed 24 years and countries of the Central Europe were spared from communist rule for a quarter of a century. Western Europe, where revolutionary fever was boiling over on the streets, was spared a bloody fight for survival. Unfortunately, political and military significance of this victory was never fully appreciated by Europeans. According Lord d’Abernon
Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon
Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon, GCB, GCMG, PC, FRS was a British politician, diplomat, art collector and author.-Early life:...
: The history of contemporary civilization knows no event of greater importance than the Battle of Warsaw, 1920, and none of which the significance is less appreciated. To commemorate these events, the 15 August is celebrated in Poland as the Day of Polish Army. The war even more increased the hatred between Poles and Russians, what appeared with the demolition of almost all of the Orthodox temples – only two survived in Warsaw.
The political unrest of the 1920s came to two tragedies. At first, on 16 December 1922, in the gallery Zachęta
Zacheta
The Zachęta National Gallery of Art, short Zachęta, , is one of Poland's most notable institutions for contemporary art. Situated in the centre of Warsaw, the main aim of the gallery is to present and support primarily Polish contemporary art and artists...
, Eligiusz Niewiadomski
Eligiusz Niewiadomski
Eligiusz Niewiadomski was a Polish modernist painter and art critic who belonged to the right-wing National Democratic Party till 1904 and later continued supporting it. In 1922 he assassinated Poland's first President, Gabriel Narutowicz.-Life:Niewiadomski was born into a family of gentry descent...
, a painter with mental disorders, belonging to the right-wing National Democracy, assassinated the first President of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz
Gabriel Narutowicz
Gabriel Narutowicz was a Lithuanian-born professor of hydroelectric engineering at Switzerland's Zurich Polytechnic, and Poland's Minister of Public Works , Minister of Foreign Affairs , and the first president of the Second Polish Republic....
, who had been elected five days earlier by Sejm.
The next event was the May Coup d’Etat (1926). On 12 May, Marshall Józef Piłsudski, displeased with the situation in Poland and in particular with the appointment of a new government, arrived on Warsaw from his residence in Sulejówek (small town at the east of Warsaw) at the head of the faithful troops. On the Poniatowski Bridge, he talked a bit with the President Stanisław Wojciechowski, who was trying to convince him to give up the action – but unsuccessfully. The next day, the Piłsudski’s troops forcibly conquered Warsaw and forced the government and Wojciechowski to resign. During the coup, as a result of the street fighting almost 400 people died – but mostly they were the rubbernecks who wanted to watch the fighting. The May Coup started the 13-year period of sanation
Sanacja
Sanation was a Polish political movement that came to power after Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État. Sanation took its name from his watchword—the moral "sanation" of the Polish body politic...
- the authoritarian rules of Piłsudski’s camp. Although Piłsudski himself never accepted the office of President (but twice was Prime Minister), always played a preponderant role in Polish political life.
In 1925, there lived 1,000,000 people in Warsaw. In the next 5 years, the city’s wealth doubled thanks to a good economic situation on the world. It enabled to build new, broad streets as well as a new airport. The first, temporary airport was opened in 1921 in the park Pole Mokotowskie, the second – permanent – in Okęcie, where it operates till today. Besides, the city’s government worked out the planes of metro
Warsaw Metro
The Warsaw Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It consists of a single north-south line that links central Warsaw with its densely populated northern and southern suburbs. The first section was opened in 1995, then gradually extended until it...
(the realization was hampered by the outbreak of World War II) and opened the first radio station whose range covered almost all the Polish territory.
In 1934, the sanation
Sanacja
Sanation was a Polish political movement that came to power after Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État. Sanation took its name from his watchword—the moral "sanation" of the Polish body politic...
camp suspended the Warsaw’s government and appointed Stefan Starzyński
Stefan Starzynski
Stefan Starzyński was a Polish politician, economist, writer and statesman, President of Warsaw before and during the Siege of Warsaw in 1939.-Soldier:Starzyński was born on August 19, 1893 in Warsaw...
as President of Warsaw. He was a faithful supporter of “sanation” - at the beginning of his presidency consequently expelled all officials attached to his predecessor. But he was also an efficient official – stabilized the city’s budget, fought against corruption and bureaucracy, smartened up the city. However, the Poles remember him mainly due to his heroic behavior during September Campaign.
World War II
During the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, central Poland, including Warsaw, came under the rule of the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
, a Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
colonial administration. Germans planned destruction of the Polish capital
Planned destruction of Warsaw
The planned destruction of Warsaw refers to the largely realised plans by Nazi Germany to completely raze the city. The plan was put into full motion after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944...
before the start of war. On 20 June 1939 while Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was visiting an architectural bureau in Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
am Main, his attention was captured by a project of a future German town – "Neue deutsche Stadt Warschau". As early as 1939 Hitler approved of a plan known as the Pabst Plan
Pabst Plan
The Pabst Plan was a Nazi German urban plan to reconstruct the city of Warsaw as a Nazi model city. Named after its creator Friedrich Pabst, the Nazis' "Chief Architect for Warsaw", the plan assumed that Warsaw, the historical capital of Poland and a city of 1.5 million inhabitants, would be...
which envisaged changing Warsaw into a provincial German city. All higher education institutions were immediately closed. Since the first days the German authorities had arrested and executed the Poles or had taken them to the concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
. The executions were being carried out mainly in the forests around Warsaw (e.g. in Kampinos Forest
Kampinos Forest
Kampinos Forest is a large forest complex located to the west of Warsaw in Poland. It covers a large part of the ancient valley of Vistula, between Vistula and Bzura rivers. Once a gigantic forest covering 670 km² of central Poland, it currently covers roughly 240 km².Most of the...
or Kabaty
Kabaty
Kabaty is the southernmost neighborhood of the city of Warsaw, located in its Ursynów district. Until the late 1980s it was a small village located south of Warsaw, between Warsaw and the Kabaty Woods...
Woods), but later – publicly on streets (today, there’s a lot of small monuments in Warsaw, commemorating those crimes). Since the beginning of the occupation, the Nazis had organized so-called łapanka`s: it consisted in sudden and accurate surrounding of a chosen place (for example, a railway station) and arresting all of the people who by accident were there (passing by or living; in Polish “łapać” – to catch). Such actions were being carried out also in the other occupied European countries, but not on such scale as in Poland. The arrested people were being deported either to the concentration camps or on forced work to Germany. From 1943, a concentration camp existed also in Warsaw – KL Warschau
Warsaw concentration camp
The Warsaw concentration camp was an associated group of the German Nazi concentration camps, possibly including an extermination camp, located in German-occupied Warsaw, capital city of Poland...
. Until August 1944, about 200,000 Poles died in gas chambers.
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
. They herded ca. 500,000 people on the area of ca. 2.6 square kilometres (1 sq mi). The Jews were dying not only because of executions but also hunger (the daily food ration for one Jew was only 183 kcal). Since October 1941, every Jew who had left the Ghetto as well as the Pole who had been helping in any way the Jews (e.g. threw food over the Ghetto wall), had been punished with death.
When the order came to annihilate the Ghetto as part of Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's "Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
" on April 19, 1943, Jewish fighters launched the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
. Despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered, the Ghetto held out for almost a month. When the fighting ended, almost all survivors were massacred, only few managed to escape or hide. Almost all the leaders of the uprising committed suicide – including the principal, Mordechaj Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz was the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943.-Biography:Anielewicz was born into a poor family in the small town of Wyszków near Warsaw...
(only one survived – Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman was a Jewish-Polish political and social activist and cardiologist.Before World War II, he was a General Jewish Labour Bund activist. During the war he co-founded the Jewish Combat Organization. He took part in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, becoming its leader after the death of...
). The commander of Verbrennungs und Vernichtungskommando ("Burning and Destruction Detachments"), Jürgen Stroop, destroyed the Ghetto so completely that even the house walls did not remain and after the war Poles did not clean the ruins but “filled up” them with soil and smoothed, making small mounds, on which they could build houses. Nowadays it’s very well noticeable.
By July 1944, the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
was deep into Polish territory and pursuing the Germans toward Warsaw. Knowing that Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
was hostile to the idea of an independent Poland, the Polish government-in-exile in London gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK)
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
to try to seize the control of Warsaw from the Germans before the Red Army arrived. Thus, on 1 August 1944, as the Red Army was nearing the city, the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
began.
The armed struggle, planned to last 48 hours, went on for 63 days (till 2 October). Eventually the Home Army fighters and civilians assisting them were forced to capitulate. They were transported to the PoW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camps in Germany, while the entire civilian population was expelled.
The Nazis then essentially demolished Warsaw. Hitler, ignoring the agreed terms of the capitulation, ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground and the library and museum collections taken to Germany or burned. Monuments and government buildings were blown up by special German troops known as Verbrennungs und Vernichtungskommando ("Burning and Destruction Detachments"). About 85% of the city had been destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle. In the uprising, ca. 170,000 people died, from among which only 16,000 were insurgents. The civilians (ca. 650,000) were deported to the transit camp in Pruszków
Pruszków
Pruszków is a town in central Poland, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in Warszawa Voivodeship . Pruszków is the capital of Pruszków County, located along the western edge of the Warsaw urban area...
(Durchgangslager Pruszków).
On January 17, 1945 - after the beginning of the Vistula–Oder Offensive of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
- Soviet troops entered the ruins of the city of Warsaw, and liberated Warsaw's suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s from German occupation. The city was swiftly taken by the Soviet Army, which rapidly advanced towards Łódź, as German forces regrouped at a more westward position. In general, during the German occupation (1939–45) ca. 700,000 people died in Warsaw, i.e. more than all Americans and Brits. The material looses were about 45 billion dollars.
Those soldiers of the Home Army, who had survived the war, were arrested by the Soviet secret police (NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
), then either executed or deported to Siberia.
Modern times
In 1945, after the bombing, the revolts, the fighting, and the demolition had ended, most of Warsaw lay in ruins. Next to the remnants of Gothic architecture the ruins of splendid edifices from the time of Congress PolandCongress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
and ferroconcrete relics of prewar building jutted out of the rubble.
Functionalism (architecture)
Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
and supported by a Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
regime set up by the conquering Soviets, decided that Warsaw had to be renewed in modern style, with large free areas – so, they ordered to demolish still existing buildings or those which yet could be rebuilt. But not all of those crazy ideas came off – in 1953, the Old Town and the Royal Route
Royal Route, Warsaw
The Royal Route in Warsaw, Poland, is a former communication route that led southward from the city's Old Town. It now comprises a series of connecting Warsaw streets that feature a number of historic landmarks....
were reconstructed, in such a form like they had looked like before the war (what was possible mainly thanks to numerous pictures of the old Warsaw, painted for example by Canaletto
Bernardo Bellotto
Bernardo Bellotto was a Venitian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching famous for his vedutes of European cities . He was the pupil and nephew of Canaletto and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself as Bernardo Canaletto...
). On the other hand, due to the lack of the “original” residents, the houses were settled by “common people” which often did not know how to behave themselves or how to keep the houses properly. But the government did not make the decision about complicated and expensive rebuilding of the Royal Castle.
The rebuilding of the Old Town was an achievement on a global scale. In 1980, UNESCO appreciated the efforts and inscribed Old Town onto UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
's World Heritage
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
list.
The symbols of the new Warsaw were: the East-West Route Tunnel ("Trasa W-Z") – the tunnel under the Old Town (1949); the MDM estate (1952) – typical example of the architecture of socialist realism; Palace of Culture and Science (PKiN, 1955) – the symbol of Soviet rule, in that time the second tallest building in Europe, very similar to so-called "Seven Sisters
Seven Sisters (Moscow)
The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki , " high-rises"...
" in Moscow; the 10th-Anniversary Stadium (1955). Especially the construction of the MDM estate and PKiN demanded to demolish the existing buildings. But it must be emphasized that the today’s Warsaw has one of the best street nets in Europe (leaving aside a bad condition of the roads and badly planned crossroads) – what was possible only thanks to the earlier demolition of houses.
Rembertów
Rembertów is a district of the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Between 1939 and 1957 Rembertów was a separate town, after which it was incorporated as part of the borough of Praga Południe. Between 1994 and 2002 it formed a separate commune of Warszawa-Rembertów...
was incorporated. On the incorporated areas, the city’s government ordered to built mainly large prefabricated
Prefabrication
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located...
housing project
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
s, typical for Eastern Bloc cities.
The Soviet presence, symbolized by the Palace of Culture and Science, turned out to be very acute. The Stalinism lasted in Poland until 1956 – like in USSR. The leader (First Secretary) of the Polish Communist party, (PZPR
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
), Bolesław Bierut, suddenly died in Moscow during the 20th Congress of CPSU in March – probably from a hearth attack. Already in October, the new First Secretary, Władysław Gomułka, in a speech during a rally on the square in front of the PKiN supported the regime liberalization (so-called "thaw"). At first, Gomułka was very popular, because he also had been imprisoned in Stalinist prisons and as he had taken up the office of PZPR’s leader, he promised a lot – but the popularity passed pretty fast. Gomułka was gradually tightening the regime. In January 1968, he forbade to put on Dziady – the classical drama by Mickiewicz
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...
, full of anti-Russian allusions. That was "the last drop of bitterness": then students went out on the Warsaw streets and gathered by the monument to Mickiewicz to protest against censorship. The demonstrations spread throughout all the country, the protesting people were arrested by police. This time, the students were not supported by workers – but two years later, when in December 1970 the army fired at the protesting people in Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Gdynia
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
and Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
, those two social groups already cooperated with each other – and that was the end of Gomułka.
The successor of Gomułka was Edward Gierek
Edward Gierek
Edward Gierek was a Polish communist politician.He was born in Porąbka, outside of Sosnowiec. He lost his father to a mining accident in a pit at the age of four. His mother married again and emigrated to northern France, where he was raised. He joined the French Communist Party in 1931 and was...
. Comparing to the grey Gomułka-time, Gierek's rules looked pretty well – also for Warsaw. Already on the beginning Gierek agreed to rebuild the Royal Castle. Gomułka till the end of his life was against this idea for he was convinced that the Castle is a symbol of the bourgeoisie and feudalism. The rebuilding started in 1971, finished in 1974. In the same year, the building of Trasa Łazienkowska (Łazienkowska-route) was completed – the route and bridge connecting the region of Warszawa Zachodnia Station and the Grochów estate; the broad street on the right bank (Praga) has been named Aleja Stanów Zjednoczonych (The United States Avenue). The next important investments from the Gierek-times are: the Warszawa Centralna Station (1975 – nowadays the biggest station in Warsaw) and the broad, dual carriageway Warsaw-Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
, which even now is called "Gierkówka" (in a choice of the destination point, pretty significant was the fact that Gierek himself was born in Silesia – in Sosnowiec). But the prosperity of the Gierek-times was grounded on a very fragile foundation: Gierek took out lot of loans from abroad and did not know how to manage them efficiently, hence from time to time crises and workers' riots kept recurring. The first more serious was in 1976, when the workers from Radom
Radom
Radom is a city in central Poland with 223,397 inhabitants . It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship , having previously been the capital of Radom Voivodeship ; 100 km south of Poland's capital, Warsaw.It is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest and...
and Ursus were striking; that latter city bordered on Warsaw from west, there has been a big tractor factory. As a penalty, Ursus was incorporated into Warsaw as a part of the district Ochota; Warsaw expanded by 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi).
In the crisis of the 1980s and hard time of martial law
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
, John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
's visits to his native country in 1979 and 1983 brought support to the budding Solidarity movement and encouraged the growing anti-communist fervor there. In 1979, less than a year after becoming pope, John Paul celebrated Mass in Victory Square in Warsaw and ended his sermon with a call to "renew the face" of Poland: Let Thy Spirit descend! Let Thy Spirit descend and renew the face of the land! This land! These words were very meaningful for the Polish citizens who understood them as the incentive for the democratic changes.
From February to April 1989, the representatives of the Polish government and "Solidarity" were carried on the negotiations at the Round Table
Polish Round Table Agreement
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...
in the Namiestnikowski Palace
Presidential Palace, Warsaw
The Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, is the elegant classicist latest version of a building that has stood on the Krakowskie Przedmieście site since 1643. Over the years, it has been rebuilt and remodeled many times...
in Warsaw. The result was an agreement of the government to the participation of "Solidarity" in the Sejm elections, which were appointed at 4 June. "Solidarity" won all seats for which it could compete according to the Round Table Agreement. It was the beginning of big changes for all Europe.
After the political transformation, the Sejm passed an act, which reinstated the Warsaw city government (18 May 1990).
In 1995, the Warsaw Metro
Warsaw Metro
The Warsaw Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It consists of a single north-south line that links central Warsaw with its densely populated northern and southern suburbs. The first section was opened in 1995, then gradually extended until it...
opened. It had been built since 1983. With the entry of Poland into the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in 2004, Warsaw is currently experiencing the biggest economic boom of its history. An important stimulator of the economy is the European football championship, planned in Poland and Ukraine in 2012. 5 matches, including the opening match, are scheduled to take place in Warsaw.
See also
- Siege of Warsaw (1939)Siege of Warsaw (1939)The 1939 Battle of Warsaw was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland and the German Army...
- Siege (film)Siege (film)Siege is a 1940 documentary short about the Siege of Warsaw by the Wehrmacht at the start of World War II. It was shot by Julien Bryan, a Pennsylvanian photographer and cameraman who later established the International Film Foundation....
- Warsaw concentration campWarsaw concentration campThe Warsaw concentration camp was an associated group of the German Nazi concentration camps, possibly including an extermination camp, located in German-occupied Warsaw, capital city of Poland...
- Warsaw UprisingWarsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
- Warsaw PactWarsaw PactThe Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
- List of presidents of Warsaw
- Warsaw pogrom (1881)Warsaw pogrom (1881)The Warsaw pogrom was a pogrom that took place in Russian-controlled Warsaw on December 25–27, 1881, then part of Vistula Land in the Russian Empire.-Warsaw Pogrom:...
External links
- Historical Museum of Warsaw
- History of Warsaw
- Warsaw 1935 - virtual reconstruction of pre-War World II Warsaw
- Architecture of pre-war Warsaw
- The Virtual Jewish History Tour, Warsaw
- Jews in Warsaw (from Encyclopaedia JudaicaEncyclopaedia JudaicaThe Encyclopaedia Judaica is a 26-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people and their faith, Judaism. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, language, scripture, and religious teachings...
1971)