Poland | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

A legislative body, Sejm, comprised of a Senate and Chamber of Deputies, was formed and gained power in conducting the affairs of the royal state. The Senate, for example, had the authority to reprimand the king if he broke the laws, and at least theoretically, all Polish kings were elected by the nobility.

Decline, partition, and rebirth. Poland's gradual decline in the next two centuries ended with the partition of the country between Russia, Austria, and Prussia in 1772, 1793, and 1795. It regained its independence as a sovereign state after World War I in 1918, only to be partitioned again for a fourth time between Nazi Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the opening days of World War II (1939–1945). After the war, in which Poland suffered colossal losses—6 million civilians, half a million soldiers, and 38 percent of its overall national assets—a communist regime of the Soviet type was established. After a fraudulent campaign in 1947, Boleslaw Bierut (1892–1956), a citizen of the USSR, was elected president of Poland and in 1949 Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky (1896–1968) assumed the post of a minister of defense and commander in chief of the Polish military.

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