The Republic of Poland is located in Central Europe at the Baltic Sea.
It borders on Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Russia, and has a sea border with Denmark and Sweden. 

The population of Poland is about 38.5 million and it has a surface of 322,575 square kilometres.
The capital of Poland is Warsaw. The country’s official language is Polish.
In 2006, Poland’s GDP reached 1,060,194.00 in PLN millions.

The largest cities of the country are Warsaw (population 1,697,600), Łódź (767,600), Kraków (756,600), Wrocław (635,900), Poznań (567,900), Gdańsk (458,100), Szczecin (411,100), Bydgoszcz (366,100), Lublin (355,000) and Katowice (317,000).
The highest point is Mount Rysy in the Tatra Mountains (2,499.1 m above sea level).
The lowest point is the Raczki Elbląskie depression in the region of Żuławy Wiślane (–1.8 m below sea level).

Poland is a parliamentary democracy. The president of the country is elected in general election every five years (since 2005 – Lech Kaczyński).
The Polish parliament consists of two chambers, namely  Sejm - theo lower chamber - and Senate - the upper chamber. The term of office of the parliament is four years. The latest parliamentary elections took place in October 2007. In November 2007, Donald Tusk was appointed Prime Minister.
Poland is divided into 16 administrative regions (in Polish: ‘województwa’, sometimes referred to as ‘voivodships’ or ‘provinces’). 

Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, United Nations, OECD, WTO, OSCE, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Central European Initiative and many other international organisations.

The beginnings of Poland as a state are dated 966 when Prince Mieszko I was baptised.
The 15th and 16th centuries are considered the golden age in the Polish history. These were the times of the rule of the Jagiellonian Dynasty.
From the end of the 14th century, Poland was closely connected politically with Lithuania in the form of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For many years, it was a powerful state as regards its economic and military status. It is widely believed that the constitution regulating the legal system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was signed on 3 May 1791, is the first such a modern document in Europe and the second in the world.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the state went through a serious internal and external crisis which resulted in the fact that Poland was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria and disappeared from the maps of Europe.
Poland regained independence in 1918. The development of the reborn country was stopped with the outbreak of the Second World War.
After the war, the communists took the power in Poland. The collapse of the communism is dated 4 June 1989 when the first partially free election was organised. In 1999, Poland joined the NATO and in 2004 it became a member state of the European Union.