Poland

Poland (officially the Slavic Union of Poland and Ukraine) is a middle European country bordering Prussia, Lithuania, Belarus, the Russian Republic, Volgograd, Romania, and Hungary. It lies on the coast of the Baltic Sea, a feature which it uses to trade with countries across the world through it's robust cargo fleet. The population is almost entirely composed of Slavic nations and is strongly Christian, although this Christianity was recently weakened by many atheistic immigrants. The goverment is democratic, led by a president, senate and a deputy chamber. Poland is a successful exporter of many products including military hardware, which is mostly license-built Eastern European equipment or a designs native to the country.

In the Great War (1914 - 1922)
At the start of the war, Poland was still occupied by Prussia, Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire. The people were recruited into armies of all three states, however all three of them had equally bad reputation with the Polish which later ended in mass desertions. Many of these soldiers joined resistance movements engaging supply lines of both sides in guerrilla warfare, forcing the fighting to move south to areas where the rebels had less influence.

When the Russians withdrawn from the war, Austria and Prussia realized the need of keeping troops on the eastern front has disappeared. A ceasefire between the Triple Alliance and the Polish rebels was quickly signed, allowing the Prussians to finally move the needed troops to the western front. In Poland, the war ended save for an occasional skirmish between a local German minority of some town and the Polish.

However, the people of Poland did not sit idly afterwards. Partial rebuilding begun and preparations for declaring independence were already on their way.

Reconstitution (1922 - 1940)
In 1922, the Polish finally declared Poland to be an independent state. At this time, the rebels were reformed into a regular standing army. Prussia and Austria objected this move, but they were no longer in a situation to spare any troops at the western front, and the Russian Empire no longer held interest in Poland.

After the war, Poland found itself in a surprisingly good situation. The destruction on it's territory was limited, especially when compared to it's former masters, Prussia and Austria. Finding itself safe, Poland started to be an economically strong country. In 1926, the Gdynia seaport was built to support oversea trade. Clever inviting of investors made the harbor a thriving city three years later, with 4 million tons of cargo transferred per year. The first SS Olza class ship was laid down at this time, marking the beginning of the giant trading fleet Poland would build in the future.

In 1934, Germany traded parts of it's eastern territory for Poland's economic help. This helped both Germany to restore it's former strength and Poland to spread it's influence. The old Polish seaport Gdansk was retrieved with the territory, allowing Poland to further extend it's sea trades. However, this was a very unpopular move in Germany and resulted in cooling the former good relations of the countries.

Golden Age (1940 - 1960)
Over time, Poland continued to grow and gain influence. In 1945, it was one of the more economically prosperous countries in Europe, and while Spain was still far ahead, Poland essentially became a crossroad of most European and Asian trades. Gdynia's capacity was 12 million tons per year and together with Gdansk was generating over 60% revenue of the whole Polish economy. At that time, Gdynia was the biggest Polish city, dwarfing even the capital Warsaw.

At that time, Poland finally started manipulating the countries around itself. Many separatists movements, especially those in Austria, were funded by Polish governments. Bohemia and Moravia were the most developed Austrian territories, but the govermental influence was weak in there. The effort sparked no succes and the separatist movements were later discovered, leading to Austria completely antagonizing Poland for a long time.

The economic crisis (1960 - 1970)
In the 1960', a gradual drop in sea trades came. Both Asia and America were losing the will to continue the intensive trades of the past. This was a hard blow to the Polish economy. While continental trades remained mostly unaffected, the sea based system crashed down in recessions and Poland lost much of it's importance. The Polish attention turned mostly inwards as the Poles were seeking someone to lead them out of the crisis.

At that time, many people were convinced the country should move towards communism. Seeing the events in China, the goverment started modernising it's army by ordering a large batch of military equipment from the Czarist Russia. However, the majority of people was still pro-democratic and instead preffered to reform the country. The communist beliefs diminished over time and defnitiely died in 1969 together with the last communist party.

The Immigration Incident (1970 - 1975)
In early 1972, something unbelivable has happened. The Slovaks from the Austrian Slovakia territory who have been constantly harrased by Hungrarians finally had enough, but the Austrian goverment has forbid them any counteraction. The resulting uprising was at first aimed against the Hungrarians but quickly turned against Austria as well. The goverment failed to put the rebellion down and it spread to the Czech territories like wildfire. Taking advantage of this, Poland quickly threatened Austria with a war if something was to happen to the rebels and invited them to move into Poland. In the next few months, over 7 millions of Czechs and Slovaks crossed the border between Austria and Poland in a massive immigration wave, something unforeseen even by the Polish. As Austria could no longer maintain it's northernmost territories, they were given to Poland in exchange for the Liberec Treaty, stating that the remaining population of the Slovakia, Bohemia and Moravia is Austrian property and Poland will not interfere in any way in the future.

The sudden influx of so many people caused numerous problems in the country. The state has undergone strong reshaping at that point, including a name change to the "Panslavic Republic" as a welcoming gesture to the immigrants as well as a general change of political direction to a more neutral one. The Czechs and Slovaks now mostly reside in southern Poland and the territories gained from Austria.

Recent history (1975 - today)
By 1975, Poland had mostly solved the civic issues caused by the Immigration Incident and turned it's attention outwards once again, however the country remained silent until the next year.

In June 1976, Poland restarted it's sea trades, working with democratic countries all over the world once again. At about the same time, the country's name was changed back to "Poland" in a public referendum. Three armor divisions were sent to the New England Republic to help protect their borders against a possible USSA invasion.

Later that month, the BWP-2 infantry fighting vehicle was readied for production and it was decided existing BMP-1 personnel carriers should be refitted to the new standard, however that order was postponed until 1977 and later aborted entirely. Poland agreed to make up the European Hegemony together with England and Spain, however British prime minister Francis Drake greeted the event with an anti-communistic speech. The strictly neutral Poland immediately refused that attitude, leading Spain to sever it's relations to the country and the preventing the European Hegemony to form at all.

In July, a joint military training with Ukraine was agreed on. Before this could happen, appearance of two traitors of Hungrarian origin ended in a dogfight between Polish and Ukrainian aircraft, wich the Ukrainians easily won due to their superior airforce. This sparked a short political conflict between the two countries.

This weak moment was utilized by Hungrary who used it to invade Ukraine. On their way, the Hungrarians were intercepted by Polish forces, wich eventually led to defeat of the Hungrarians at the Battle of Uzhorod. However, the Polish did too suffer high casualties, wich once again prompted the country to start modernising the army to avoid such situations in the future. The invasion caused a wave of civil strikes through the country and made it willingly join Poland in exchange for protection.

Later that year, the Russian Republic acquired and threatened to use the infamous VX gas. Poland was quick to react and sent a military force the Republic to surrender and avoid using the gas. Before any serious confrontation could happen, the Moscow Pact was signed, but as the Ressurection movement appeared, part of the troops stayed in Russia to keep the protests peaceful.

With the seperation of the Armenian state from Turkey the nation sold the Armenian rebels weapons and gave some military assistance in their independence war from the Ottoman Empire.

Goverment and politics
Poland is a republic, led by it's president Anatol Plawgo and prime minister Konrad Smarz. The goverment is also comprised of the Senate (with 88 senators) and Deputy Chamber (with 200 members). The State's Democratic Party (SDP) is currently the lead party in the country, winning with 46% of votes in the last elections. The second party in terms of importance is the Conservative Christian Union (CChU) with 33% of votes. The two parties mostly share interests and goals, making the goverment extremely stable in position. The rest of the votes is distributed among minor parties, most of wich were gained by the Red Party (RP). Despite it's name, the party is not communistic, but pro-ecologic, deriving their name from the color of blood.

In terms of foreign policies, Poland is extremely liberal, according to the state's motto. Unlike many capitalistic countries, Poland does not persecute communism. However, agressive or expansionistic actions are frowned upon and Poland actively engages in deterring such behaviour. The only exception to this is self-defense, in wich case Poland is willing to go very far to prevent an possible attack on it or it's allies.

Economy
Poland's economy is a mixed one, directed both by state and the private sector. It is fueled by relatively abundant natural resources, highly developed infrastructure and international trade, mostly by sea routes. The private sector is estimated to compose cca 78 percent of total state economy, with the biggest private contributor being the Bocian Wywoz company with it's large trading fleet housed in the Gdynia harbor.

Energy is mostly provided by lignite-powered powerplants, with hydroelectric dams taking the second place. This is a target of critique of many, especially the Red Party, who demand to replace the heat powerplants with more hydroelectric plants and windmills.

Military
Main page: Polish Armed Forces

After the Great War, Poland lived in fear of Germany attacking in hopes of getting it's former territories back. For that reason, Polish army was left fairly strong to be able to combat any invasion on it's territory. While the German threat faded over the year, Austria raised to replace it's place and the Polish forces seen a renaissance. After the Immigration Incident, the Armed Forces started a two year program to gain the ability to operate far from Polish territories, as the Polish political direction slowly shifted towards the world.