Branches of Mathematics

Pure mathematics

• Algebra
• Calculus
• Geometry
• Topology
• Trignometry
• Combinatorics
• Logic
• Number theory

Applied mathematics

• Dynamical systems and differential equations
• Mathematical physics
• Computing
• Information theory and signal processing
• Probability and statistics
• Game theory
• Operations research

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• 
  

• 
  Argentina
  Argentina ⁱ/ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is a country in South America, the continent's second largest by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations.
  Argentina's continental area is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. Argentine claims over Antarctica, as well as overlapping claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom, are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. Argentina also claims the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as British Overseas Territories.
  A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index. Within Latin America, Argentina has the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita and the highest in purchasing power terms. Analysts have argued that the country has a "foundation for future growth due to its market size, levels of foreign direct investment, and percentage of high-tech exports as share of total manufactured goods", and it is classed by investors as middle emerging economy. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.
  
  wn.com/Argentina
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  Belarus
  Belarus (ⁱ/bɛləˈruːs/ bel-ə-ROOSS; Belarusian: Беларусь, Russian pronunciation: [bʲɛlaˈrusʲ] Russian: Беларусь, Белоруссия, Belarus', Belorussiya), officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno (Hrodna), Gomel (Homiel), Mogilev (Mahilyow) and Vitebsk (Vitsebsk). Over forty percent of its 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) is forested, and its strongest economic sectors are agriculture and manufacturing.
  Until the 20th century, the lands of modern-day Belarus belonged to several countries, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Belarus became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). The borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were incorporated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland. The nation and its territory were devastated in World War II, during which Belarus lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. In 1945 the Belorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR.
  
  wn.com/Belarus
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  Bełchatów County
  Bełchatów County (Polish: powiat bełchatowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Bełchatów, which lies 47 kilometres (29 mi) south of the regional capital Łódź. The only other town in the county is Zelów, lying 16 km (10 mi) north-west of Bełchatów.
  The county covers an area of 969.21 square kilometres (374.2 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 112,640, out of which the population of Bełchatów is 62,062, that of Zelów is 8,173, and the rural population is 42,405.
  Bełchatów County is bordered by Pabianice County to the north, Piotrków County to the east, Radomsko County to the south, Pajęczno County to the south-west, Wieluń County to the west and Łask County to the north-west.
  The county is subdivided into eight gminas (one urban, one urban-rural and six rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  wn.com/Bełchatów_County
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  Białystok
  Białystok ([bʲaˈwɨstɔk] ( listen)) (Belarusian: Беласток, Biełastok) is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Located in the North Podlasie Lowland (pl:Nizina Północnopodlaska) on the banks of the Biała River, Białystok ranks second in terms of population density, eleventh in population, and thirteenth in area, of the cities of Poland. It has historically attracted migrants from elsewhere in Poland and beyond, particularly from Central and Eastern Europe. This is facilitated by the fact that the nearby border with Belarus is also the eastern border of the European Union, as well as the Schengen Area. The city and its adjacent municipalities constitute Metropolitan Białystok. The city has a Warm Summer Continental climate, characterized by warm summers and long frosty winters. Forests are an important part of Białystok's character, and occupy around 1,756 ha (4,340 acres) (17.2% of the administrative area of the city) which places it as the fifth most "wooded" city in Poland.
  
  wn.com/Białystok
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  Bohemia
  Bohemia (Czech: Čechy;German:  Böhmen (help·info); Polish: Czechy; French: Bohême; Latin: Bohemia) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague. In a broader meaning, it often refers to the entire Czech territory, including Moravia and Czech Silesia, especially in historical contexts, such as the Kingdom of Bohemia.
  Bohemia has an area of 52,065 km² and today is home to approximately 6 million of the Czech Republic's 10.3 million inhabitants. It is bordered by Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, the historical region of Moravia to the east, and Austria to the south. Bohemia's borders are marked with mountain ranges such as the Bohemian Forest, the Ore Mountains, and the Krkonoše (Giant Mountains), the highest within the Sudeten mountain range.
  In the 2nd century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy, with various peoples including the Boii. The Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia (194 BC) and the Battle of Mutina (193 BC). After this, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps.
  
  wn.com/Bohemia
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  Brzeziny County
  Brzeziny County (Polish: powiat brzeziński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It was created in 2002 out of the north-eastern part of Łódź East County. Its administrative seat and only town is Brzeziny, which lies 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of the regional capital Łódź.
  The county covers an area of 358.51 square kilometres (138.4 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 30,600, out of which the population of Brzeziny is 12,373 and the rural population is 18,227.
  Brzeziny County is bordered by Łowicz County to the north, Skierniewice County to the east, Tomaszów Mazowiecki County to the south-east, Łódź East County to the south and west, and Zgierz County to the north-west.
  The county is subdivided into five gminas (one urban and four rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Brzeziny_County
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  Bydgoszcz
  Bydgoszcz [ˈbɨdɡɔʂt​͡ʂ] ( listen) (German: Bromberg ( listen), Latin: Bydgostia) is a city located in northern Poland, on the Brda and Vistula rivers. With a city population of 358,029 (June 2009), and an urban agglomeration with more than 460,000 inhabitants, Bydgoszcz is the 8th-largest city in Poland. It has been the seat of Bydgoszcz County and the co-capital, with Toruń, of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. Prior to this, between 1947 and 1998, it was the capital of the Bydgoszcz Voivodeship, and before that, of the Pomeranian Voivodeship between 1945 and 1947.
  Bydgoszcz is part of the metroplex Bydgoszcz-Toruń, which totals over 850,000 inhabitants. Bydgoszcz is the seat of Casimir the Great University, University of Technology and Life Sciences and a conservatory, as well as a Collegium Medicum of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Bydgoszcz hosts the Filharmonia Pomorska concert hall, the Opera Nova opera house, and the Bydgoszcz Ignacy Jan Paderewski Airport. Due to its location between the Vistula and Odra rivers, and the water course of the Bydgoszcz Canal, the city forms part of a water system connected via the Noteć, Warta, Odra, and Elbe with the Rhine and Rotterdam. Bydgoszcz was a candidate for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2016.
  
  wn.com/Bydgoszcz
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  China
  China (ⁱ/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
  The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
  
  wn.com/China
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  Congress of Vienna
  The Congress of Vienna (German: Wiener Kongress) was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman 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, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.
  This objective resulted in the redrawing of the continent's political map, establishing the boundaries of France, the Duchy of Warsaw, the Netherlands, the states of the Rhine, the German province of Saxony, and various Italian territories, and the creation of spheres of influence through which Austria, Britain, France and Russia brokered local and regional problems. The Congress of Vienna was the first of a series of international meetings that came to be known as the Concert of Europe, which was an attempt to forge a peaceful balance of power in Europe, and served as a model for later organizations such as the League of Nations and United Nations.
  
  wn.com/Congress_of_Vienna
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  Congress Poland
  The Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie [kruˈlɛstfɔ ˈpɔlskʲɛ]; Russian: Королевство Польское, Царство Польское, Korolevstvo Polskoye, Tsarstvo Polskoye, Russian pronunciation: [ˈtsarstʋə ˈpolʲskəje], translation: Tsardom of Poland), informally known as Congress Poland (Polish: Królestwo Kongresowe [kruˈlɛstfɔ kɔnɡrɛˈsɔvɛ] or Russian Poland), created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire. It was gradually politically integrated into Russia over the course of the 19th century, made an official part of the Russian Empire in 1867, and finally replaced during the Great War by the Central Powers in 1915 with the theoretically existing Regency Kingdom of Poland.
  Though officially the Kingdom of Poland was a state with considerable political autonomy guaranteed by a liberal constitution, its rulers, the Russian Emperors, generally disregarded any restrictions on their power. Thus effectively it was little more than a puppet state of the Russian Empire. The autonomy was severely curtailed following uprisings in 1830–31 and 1863, as the country became governed by namestniks, and later divided into guberniya (provinces). Thus from the start, Polish autonomy remained little more than fiction.
  
  wn.com/Congress_Poland
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  Cornell University
  Cornell University ( /kɔrˈnɛl/ kor-NEL) is a private Ivy League research university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was intended to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's motto, a popular 1865 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."
  The university is broadly organized into seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions at its main Ithaca campus, with each college and division defining its own admission standards and academic programs in near autonomy. The university also administers two satellite medical campuses, one in New York City and one in Education City, Qatar. Cornell is one of two private land grant universities, and its seven undergraduate colleges include three private, state-supported statutory or contract colleges. As a land grant college, it also operates a cooperative extension outreach program in every county of New York.
  
  wn.com/Cornell_University
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  Częstochowa
  Częstochowa [t​͡ʂɛ̃stɔˈxɔva] ( listen) is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants (June 2009). It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (administrative division) since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship (1975–1998). However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not of Silesia, and before 1795 (see: Partitions of Poland), it belonged to the Kraków Voivodeship.
  The town is known for the famous Pauline monastery of Jasna Góra, which is the home of the Black Madonna painting (Polish: Jasnogórski Cudowny obraz Najświętszej Maryi Panny Niepokalanie Poczętej), a shrine to the Virgin Mary. Every year, millions of pilgrims from all over the world come to Częstochowa to see it. The city was became home to the Frankism religion in the late 18th and 19th Century. There is also a Lusatian culture excavation site and museum in the city and ruins of a medieval castle in Olsztyn, approximately 25 kilometres (ca. 16 mi) from the city centre.
  
  wn.com/Częstochowa
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  Duchy of Warsaw
  The Duchy of Warsaw (Polish: Księstwo Warszawskie; French: Duché de Varsovie; German: Herzogtum Warschau; Russian: Варшавское герцогство, Varshavskoye gertsogstvo) 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 Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia, the duchy was occupied by Prussian and Russian troops until 1815, when it was formally partitioned between the two countries at the Congress of Vienna.
  The duchy is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
  The area of the duchy had already been liberated by a popular uprising that had escalated from anti-conscription rioting in 1806. One of the first tasks for the new government included providing food to the French army fighting the Russians in East Prussia.
  The Duchy of Warsaw was officially created by French Emperor Napoleon I, as part of the Treaty of Tilsit with Prussia. Its creation met the support of both local republicans in partitioned Poland, and the large Polish diaspora in France, who openly supported Napoleon as the only man capable of restoring Polish sovereignty after the Partitions of Poland of late 18th century. Although it was created as a satellite state (and was only a duchy, rather than a kingdom), it was commonly hoped and believed that with time the nation would be able to regain its former status, not to mention its former borders.
  
  wn.com/Duchy_of_Warsaw
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  Finland
  Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027
  Finland ⁱ/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
  Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.
  
  wn.com/Finland
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  France
  France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).
  Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
  
  wn.com/France
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  Gdańsk
  Gdańsk ( /ɡəˈdænsk/ or /ɡəˈdɑːnsk/; Polish: [ˈɡdaɲsk]; German: Danzig, pronounced [ˈdantsɪç]) is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the center of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.
  The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population of over 800,000. Gdańsk itself has a population of 455,830 (June 2010), making it the largest city in the Pomerania region of Northern Poland.
  Gdańsk is Poland's principal seaport as well as the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is also historically the largest city of the Kashubian region. The city is close to the former late medieval/modern boundary between West Slavic and Germanic lands and it has a complex political history with periods of Polish rule, periods of German rule, and extensive self-rule, with two spells as a free city. It has been part of modern Poland since 1945.
  
  wn.com/Gdańsk
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  General Government
  The General Government (German: Generalgouvernement, Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo, Ukrainian: Генеральна губернія) 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 (Großdeutsches Reich) between 1939–1945. Following Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the former Polish eastern voivodeships (districts) of Kresy (earlier invaded by the Red Army in Nazi–Soviet pact) were added to the General Government by a decree issued by Adolf Hitler.
  In terms of international and civil law, all of these acts were illegal from their inception, according to section III of the Fourth Hague Convention (1907) accepted by Germany. The area was not a puppet state; its rulers had no goal of collaborating with Poles throughout the war, regardless of their political orientation. The Nazi authorities made a determined effort to avoid even mentioning the name "Poland" in government correspondence. The only exception to this were the German-backed banknotes and coins (called 'zloty' and 'grosz') printed in 1940 in which the word was used for propaganda purposes. The government and administration of the General Government was composed entirely of Germans, with the intent that the area was eventually to become an ethnic German province. According to Heim ins Reich initiative the only locals remaining were to be those of German descent.
  
  wn.com/General_Government
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  Germany
  Germany (ⁱ/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km² and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
  A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
  
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  Gmina Andrespol
  Gmina Andrespol is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Łódź East County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the village of Andrespol, which lies approximately 14 kilometres (9 mi) south-east of the regional capital Łódź.
  The gmina covers an area of 23.77 square kilometres (9.2 sq mi), and as of 2010 its total population is 12,151
  Gmina Andrespol contains the villages and settlements of Andrespol, Bedoń Przykościelny, Bedoń-Wieś, Janówka, Justynów, Kraszew, Nowy Bedoń, Stróża and Wiśniowa Góra.
  Gmina Andrespol is bordered by the city of Łódź and by the gminas of Brójce, Brzeziny, Koluszki and Nowosolna.
  
  
  
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  Gmina Brójce
  Gmina Brójce is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Łódź East County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the village of Brójce, which lies approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) south-east of the regional capital Łódź.
  The gmina covers an area of 69.55 square kilometres (26.9 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 5,399.
  Gmina Brójce contains the villages and settlements of Brójce, Budy Wandalińskie, Bukowiec, Giemzów, Giemzówek, Karpin, Kotliny, Kurowice, Leśne Odpadki, Pałczew, Posada, Przypusta, Stefanów, Wardzyn, Wola Rakowa and Wygoda.
  Gmina Brójce is bordered by the city of Łódź and by the gminas of Andrespol, Będków, Czarnocin, Koluszki, Rokiciny, Rzgów and Tuszyn.
  
  
  
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  Gmina Koluszki
  Gmina Koluszki is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Łódź East County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the town of Koluszki, which lies approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi) east of the regional capital Łódź.
  The gmina covers an area of 157.18 square kilometres (60.7 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 22,985 (out of which the population of Koluszki amounts to 13,407, and the population of the rural part of the gmina is 9,578).
  Apart from the town of Koluszki, Gmina Koluszki contains the villages and settlements of Będzelin, Borowa, Długie, Erazmów, Felicjanów, Gałków Duży, Gałków Mały, Gałkówek-Parcela, Jeziorko, Kaletnik, Katarzynów, Kazimierzów, Leosin, Lisowice, Nowy Redzeń, Przanowice, Regny, Różyca, Słotwiny, Stary Redzeń, Stefanów, Świny, Turobowice, Wierzchy, Żakowice, Zielona Góra and Zygmuntów.
  Gmina Koluszki is bordered by the gminas of Andrespol, Brójce, Brzeziny, Budziszewice, Jeżów, Rogów, Rokiciny, Ujazd and Żelechlinek.
  
  
  
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  Gmina Nowosolna
  Gmina Nowosolna is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Łódź East County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It has its seat in the former village of Nowosolna, although this is now part of the Widzew district of Łódź, and is therefore not part of the territory of the gmina.
  The gmina covers an area of 53.98 square kilometres (20.8 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 3,788.
  The gmina contains part of the protected area called Łódź Hills Landscape Park.
  Gmina Nowosolna contains the villages and settlements of Boginia, Borchówka, Borki, Byszewy, Dąbrowa, Dąbrówka, Głogowiec, Grabina, Janów, Kalonka, Kopanka, Ksawerów, Lipiny, Moskwa, Natolin, Niecki, Nowe Skoszewy, Plichtów, Stare Skoszewy, Teolin, Wiączyń Dolny and Wódka.
  Gmina Nowosolna is bordered by the city of Łódź and by the gminas of Andrespol, Brzeziny and Stryków.
  
  
  Coordinates: 51°48′35″N 19°38′28″E / 51.80972°N 19.64111°E / 51.80972; 19.64111
  
  wn.com/Gmina_Nowosolna
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  Gmina Tuszyn
  Gmina Tuszyn is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Łódź East County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the town of Tuszyn, which lies approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the regional capital Łódź.
  The gmina covers an area of 128.87 square kilometres (49.8 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 11,690 (out of which the population of Tuszyn amounts to 7,178, and the population of the rural part of the gmina is 4,512).
  Apart from the town of Tuszyn, Gmina Tuszyn contains the villages and settlements of Bądzyń, Dylew, Garbów, Garbówek, Głuchów, Gołygów, Górki Duże, Górki Małe, Jutroszew, Kruszów, Mąkoszyn, Modlica, Rydzynki, Syski, Szczukwin, Tuszynek Majoracki, Wodzin Majoracki, Wodzin Prywatny, Wodzinek, Wola Kazubowa, Żeromin and Zofiówka.
  Gmina Tuszyn is bordered by the gminas of Brójce, Czarnocin, Dłutów, Grabica, Moszczenica, Pabianice and Rzgów.
  
  
  
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  Hungary
  Hungary ⁱ/ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)) is a country, which is located in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The country's capital, and largest city, is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, also known as Magyar, which is part of the Finno-Ugric group and is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe.
  Following a Celt (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (AD 9 - c. 430) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian prince Árpád, whose great-grandson Saint Stephen I was crowned with a crown sent by the pope from Rome in 1000 AD. The Kingdom of Hungary lasted for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centres of the Western world. After about 150 years of partial Ottoman occupation (1541–1699), Hungary was integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy, and later constituted half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (1867–1918).
  
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  Israel
  Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
  Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or  /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
  Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.^{[neutrality is disputed]} Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
  
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  Ivanovo
  Ivanovo (Russian: Ива́ново; IPA: [ɪˈvanəvə]) is a city and the administrative center of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. Population: 409,277 (2010 Census preliminary results); 431,721 (2002 Census); 481,042 (1989 Census).
  Ivanovo has traditionally been called the textile capital of Russia. Since most textile workers are women, it has also been known as the "City of Brides". Probably the most famous of the city's female natives was the postmodern French writer Nathalie Sarraute.
  It is home to Ivanovo Severny, which is one of the largest military airlift bases in Russia. Civilian air services are provided at Ivanovo Yuzhny Airport.
  Ivanovo has several educational institutions: Ivanovo State University, Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology, Ivanovo Medical Academy, Ivanovo Architectural Academy, Ivanovo State Power University(ISPU).
  Ivanovo was created by merging the old flax-processing village Ivanovo (first documented in 1561) with the industrial Voznesensky Posad in 1871. Until 1932, its official name was Ivanovo-Voznesensk. Because of its textile manufacturing industry, Ivanovo earned the sobriquet of the "Russian Manchester" during the 19th century.
  
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  Kaliningrad
  Kaliningrad (Russian: Калинингра́д; Polish: Królewiec; Lithuanian: Karaliaučius; German: Königsberg; Czech: Královec) is a seaport city and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. The territory, the northern part of the former East Prussia, borders on NATO and EU members Poland and Lithuania, and is geographically separated from the rest of Russia.
  Originally named Königsberg in German, the town was founded in 1255 by the order of the Teutonic Knights in honour of the Czech king Přemysl Otakar II and was part of Prussia and then of Germany until 1945, but was largely destroyed during World War II. Its ruins were occupied by the Red Army in 1945 and its German population forced out. It was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 in honor of Mikhail Kalinin.
  According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, its population was 431,491—an increase from 430,003 recorded in the 2002 Census. Its ethnic composition is 77.9% Russians, 8.0% Belarusians, 7.3% Ukrainians, 1.9% Lithuanians, 0.6% Germans, and 0.5% Poles.
  
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  Katowice
  Katowice (Polish: [katɔˈvʲit​͡sɛ] ( listen); German: Kattowitz) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers (tributaries of the Oder and the Vistula respectively). Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about 50 km (31 mi) north of the Silesian Beskids (part of the Carpathian Mountains) and about 100 km (62 mi) southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.
  It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2.2 million to 3.5 million. Katowice is the center of science, culture, industry, business and transportation in southern Poland. It is the main city in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region and of the 2.7 millionconurbation, the Katowice urban area, within a Silesian metropolitan area populated by 4,676,983 people.
  Katowice has been the capital of the Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1999. Previously, it was the capital of the Katowice Voivodeship, before then, of the Silesian Voivodeship and before then Province of Upper Silesia in Germany.
  
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  Kielce
  Kielce [ˈkʲɛlt​͡sɛ] ( listen) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants (June 2009). It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Voivodeship) since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939, 1945–1998). The city is located in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), at the banks of Silnica river, in northern part of the historical Polish province of Lesser Poland. Once an important centre of limestone mining, Kielce is now a centre of trade and commerce, with Kielce Trade Fairs (Targi Kieleckie) ranking third among Central and Eastern Europe trade fairs centres.
  The area of Kielce has been inhabited since at least the 5th century BC. Until the 6th or 7th century the banks of the Silnica were inhabited by Kelts. They were driven out by a Slavic tribe of Vistulans who started hunting in the nearby huge forests and had settled most of the area now known as Małopolska and present-day Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. The lands of Wiślanie were at first subdued by Bohemia, however they soon came under the control of the Piast dynasty and became a part of Poland. According to a local legend, Mieszko, son of Boleslaus II of Poland dreamt he was attacked by a band of brigands in a forest. In the dream he saw a vision of Saint Adalbert who drew a winding line which turned into a stream. When Mieszko woke up, he found the Silnica River whose waters helped him regain strength. He also discovered huge white tusks of an unknown animal. Mieszko announced he would build a town and a church to St. Adalbert at that site. According to this legend, the town's name Kielce commemorates the mysterious tusks (kieł in Polish).
  
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  Koluszki
  Koluszki [kɔˈluʂkʲi] is a town, and a major railway junction, in Central Poland, in Łódź Voivodeship, about 20 km east of Łódź. Population: 13,331 (2004). The junction in Koluszki serves trains that go from Warsaw to Łódź , Wrocław, Częstochowa and Katowice. Also, it is connected with Radom and Lublin by an eastbound line.
  The town is first mentioned in 1399. During the 14th and 15th century, it prospered along the trade route between Danzig and Russia. By 1790, there was a gristing mill, sawmill, brewery, and inn. Under the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the settlement was annexed by Prussia. It returned to Congress Poland following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On September 2, 1846, the town was first connected to the emerging Polish railways as part of the mainline between Warsaw and Kraków. Following the development of Łódź as an industrial center, Koluszki served as the junction for its rail. By 1900, about half of the town worked for the railway in some capacity and the town developed around the railway and bus stations. The town suffered during both world wars. Under the Nazi occupation during the Second World War, Koluszki was annexed to Germany and was the site of a Jewish ghetto. Most of the Jews were later murdered at Treblinka.
  
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  Kraków
  Kraków (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkrakuf] ( listen)) also Cracow, or Krakow (English /ˈkrækaʊ/), is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) 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 is one of Poland's most important economic hubs. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1569; the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1596; the Grand Duchy of Kraków from 1846 to 1918; and Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1999. It is now the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.
  The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre of Slavonic Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. The city has a population of approximately 760,000 whereas about 8 million people live within a 100 km radius of its main square.
  
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  Kutno County
  Kutno County (Polish: powiat kutnowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Kutno, which lies 51 kilometres (32 mi) north of the regional capital Łódź. The county also contains the towns of Żychlin, lying 18 km (11 mi) east of Kutno, and Krośniewice, 14 km (9 mi) west of Kutno.
  The county covers an area of 886.29 square kilometres (342.2 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 104,124, out of which the population of Kutno is 47,557, that of Żychlin is 8,880, that of Krośniewice is 4,647, and the rural population is 43,040.
  Kutno County is bordered by Włocławek County and Gostynin County to the north, Łowicz County to the east, Łęczyca County to the south, and Koło County to the west.
  The county is subdivided into 11 gminas (one urban, two urban-rural and eight rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
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  Limerick
  Limerick ( /ˈlɪmrɪk/; Irish: Luimneach [ˈl̪imʲɨnʲəx]) is a city in the Mid-West or Shannon Region of Ireland. It is the fifth most populous city on the island of Ireland and when taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest urban area in the Republic of Ireland, with a population of 91,454. Limerick is also the second-largest city in the province of Munster, an area that constitutes the midwest and southwest of Ireland. The city is built on several curves and islands of the River Shannon, which spreads into an estuary shortly downriver from Limerick. Road infrastructure features four main crossing points near the city centre (an additional river tunnel to the west of the three bridges opened in July 2010). Limerick is one of the constituent cities of the Cork-Limerick-Galway corridor, which has a population of 1 million.
  Luimneach originally referred to the general area along the banks of the Shannon Estuary known as Loch Luimnigh. The earliest settlement in the city, Inis Sibhtonn, was the original name for King's Island during the pre-Viking and Viking eras. This island was also called Inis an Ghaill Duibh, The Dark(haired) Foreigner's Island. The name is recorded in Viking sources as Hlymrekr.
  
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  Lithuania
  Lithuania (ⁱ/ˌlɪθuːˈeɪniə/ or /ˌlɪθjuːˈeɪniə/; Lithuanian: Lietuva), officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublika) is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and a Russian exclave (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 3.2 million as of 2011, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The Lithuanians are a Baltic people, and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages (together with Latvian) in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.
  For centuries, the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea was inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, who was crowned as King of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the first Lithuanian state, on 6 July 1253. During the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe: present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772 to 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.
  
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  Los Angeles
  Los Angeles (ⁱ/lɒs ˈændʒələs/ loss-AN-jə-ləs; Spanish: [los ˈaŋxeles], which is written Los Ángeles; British pronounciation /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz/ loss-AN-jə-leez) with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km²), and is located in Southern California. Often known by its initials L.A., the city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos".
  
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  Lublin
  Coordinates: 51°14′N 22°34′E / 51.233°N 22.567°E / 51.233; 22.567
  Lublin [ˈlublʲin] ( listen) (Ukrainian: Люблін, Liublin, Yiddish: לובלין Lublin) is the ninth largest city in Poland, and the second largest city of Lesser Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship (province) with a population of 350,392 (June 2009). Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River. Lublin was a candidate for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2016. Lublin is situated around 170 km (105 miles) away from the capital, Warsaw.
  The first permanent settlements on the Lublin site were established in the early Middle Ages, though archeological finds indicate a long, earlier presence of various cultures in the general area. The earliest, most significant settlement began in the 6th century, on a hill located in the suburb of Czwartek (in Polish Thursday, most likely in reference to the market day of the settlement). It is likely that the surrounding hills, notably the site of the present day Old Town, were also settled at around this time. In the 10th and 11th centuries the Czwartek settlement developed into an important trade centre. The location of Lublin at the eastern borders of the Polish lands gave it a military significance. The first fortification on the site may have been built as early as the 8th century, possibly on the Castle Hill. Certainly at the end of the 10th century a significant fortification existed there. As the castle grew, the Old Town hill adjacent to it became the main focus of settlement, and the Czwartek settlement declined in relative importance. The castle became the seat of a Castellan, first mentioned in historical sources from 1224, but quite possibly present from the start of the 12th, or even 10th century. The oldest historical document mentioning Lublin dates from 1198, so the name must have come into general use some time earlier.
  
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  Lviv
  Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів L’viv, IPA: [lʲwiu̯] ( listen); Polish: Lwów, pronounced [lvuf]; Russian: Львов, L'vov; German: Lemberg and Yiddish Lemberg, לעמבערג; Latin: Leopolis; see also other names) is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically had also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center; as Poles and Jews comprised a demographic majority of the city for a period leading up to the outbreak of World War II, the Holocaust, and Polish population transfers (1944–1946) that followed. The historical heart of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived World War II and ensuing Soviet presence largely unscathed. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as the Lviv University and the Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also a home to many world-class cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra and the famous Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the city centre in September 2006.
  
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  Lyon
  Coordinates: 45°45′35″N 4°50′32″E / 45.7597°N 4.8422°E / 45.7597; 4.8422
  Lyon (French pronunciation: [ljɔ̃] ( listen), locally: [lijɔ̃]; Occitan: Lion [liˈu]; Arpitan: Liyon [ʎjɔ̃]; English: /liːˈɒn/), traditionally spelt Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located approximately 470 km (292 mi) from Paris, 320 km (199 mi) from Marseille, 420 km (261 mi) from Strasbourg, 160 km (99 mi) from Geneva, 280 km (174 mi) from Turin. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais.
  The city of Lyon has 483,181 inhabitants. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the largest conurbation in France outside Paris with a population estimated to be 1,422,331; its overall metropolitan area was estimated to have a population of 2,118,132. Its urban region represents half of the Rhône-Alpes region population with 2.9 million inhabitants. Lyon is the capital of this region, as well as the capital of the smaller Rhône département.
  
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  Manchester
  Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233
  Manchester ⁱ/ˈmæntʃɛstər/ is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England with an estimated population of 498,800 in 2010. Manchester lies within one of the United Kingdom's largest urban areas; the Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2.2 million. The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian and the local authority is Manchester City Council.
  Manchester is situated in the south-central part of North West England, fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south and the Pennines to the north and east. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established in c. 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically, most of the city was a part of Lancashire, although areas south of the River Mersey were in Cheshire. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but it began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. An early 19th-century factory building boom transformed Manchester from a township into a major mill town and borough that was granted city status in 1853. In 1894 the Manchester Ship Canal was built, creating the Port of Manchester.
  
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  Mexico
  Mexico (ⁱ/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish:  Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
  In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
  
  wn.com/Mexico
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  Minsk
  Coordinates: 53°54′N 27°34′E / 53.9°N 27.567°E / 53.9; 27.567
  Minsk (Russian: Минск, [mʲinsk]; Belarusian: Мінск, pronounced [minsk]) is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus; it is also the administrative centre of Minsk Region (voblast) and Minsk raion (district). It has a population of 1,836,808 inhabitants (2009).
  The earliest historic references to Minsk date to the 11th century (1067), when it was noted as a provincial city within the principality of Polotsk. The settlement developed on the rivers. In 1242, Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It received town privileges in 1499.
  From 1569, it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodship in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of a region annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919–1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union.
  
  wn.com/Minsk
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  Murcia
  Murcia (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmurθja]), a major city in south-eastern Spain, is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country, with a population of 442,573 inhabitants in 2009 (about one third of the total population of the Region). The population of the metropolitan area was 689,591 in 2010. It is located on the Segura River, in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, noted by a mild climate with hot summers, tepid winters and scarce precipitation.
  Murcia was founded by the emir of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman II in 825 AD with the name Mursiya مورسيا and is now mainly a services city and a university town. Highlights for visitors include the Cathedral of Murcia and a number of baroque buildings, renowned local cuisine, Holy Week processions, works of art by the famous Murcia sculptor Francisco Salzillo, and the Fiestas de Primavera (Spring Festival).
  The city, as the capital of the comarca Huerta de Murcia is called Europe’s orchard due to its long agricultural tradition and as a fruits, vegetables and flowers producer and exporter.
  
  wn.com/Murcia
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  Odessa
  Odessa (Russian: Одесса, pronounced [ɐˈdʲesːə]) or Odesa (Ukrainian: Одеса, pronounced [ɔˈdɛsɑ]) is the third largest city in Ukraine, with a population of 1,003,705. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast.
  The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement, was founded by Hacı I Giray, the Khan of Crimea, in 1240 and originally named after him as "Hacıbey"^{[citation needed]}. After a period of Lithuanian control, it passed into the domain of the Ottoman Sultan in 1529 and remained in Ottoman hands until the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1792. The city of Odessa was founded by a decree of the Empress Catherine the Great in 1794. From 1819 to 1858 Odessa was a free port. During the Soviet period it was the most important port of trade in the Soviet Union and a Soviet naval base. On 1 January 2000 the Quarantine Pier of Odessa trade sea port was declared a free port and free economic zone for a term of 25 years.
  
  wn.com/Odessa
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  Olsztyn
  Olsztyn [ˈɔlʂtɨn] ( listen) (German: Allenstein ( listen); Old Polish: Holstin; Old Prussian: Alnāsteini; Lithuanian: Olštynas) is a city on the Łyna River in northeastern Poland. Olsztyn has been the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in the Olsztyn Voivodeship (and in other units in 1945–75 and 1975–98). The city has county status.
  In 1346 the old Prussian Warmian forest in the vicinity was cleared and a place was selected on the Alle, now Łyna River, for a new settlement. The Teutonic Knights began the construction of Ordensburg castle in 1347 as a stronghold against the Old Prussians, and the settlement of Allenstein was first mentioned the following year. The German name Allenstein meant a castle on the Alle River. It became known in Polish transliteration as Olsztyn. The settlement received municipal rights from Johannes von Leysen on 31 October 1353, and the castle was completed in 1397. Allenstein was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland during the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War in 1410 and in 1414 during the Hunger War, but was returned to the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights after hostilities ended.
  
  wn.com/Olsztyn
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  Opoczno County
  Opoczno County (Polish: powiat opoczyński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, south-east Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Opoczno, which lies 72 kilometres (45 mi) south-east of the regional capital Łódź. The only other town in the county is Drzewica, lying 15 km (9 mi) north-east of Opoczno.
  The county covers an area of 1,038.77 square kilometres (401.1 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 78,659, out of which the population of Opoczno is 22,708, that of Drzewica is 3,945, and the rural population is 52,006.
  Opoczno County is bordered by Przysucha County to the east, Końskie County to the south, Piotrków County to the west and Tomaszów Mazowiecki County to the north-west.
  The county is subdivided into eight gminas (two urban-rural and six rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  wn.com/Opoczno_County
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  Pabianice County
  Pabianice County (Polish: powiat pabianicki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Pabianice, which lies 16 kilometres (10 mi) south of the regional capital Łódź. The only other town in the county is Konstantynów Łódzki, lying 12 km (7 mi) north of Pabianice.
  The county covers an area of 490.77 square kilometres (189.5 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 119,008, out of which the population of Pabianice is 70,445, that of Konstantynów Łódzki is 17,564, and the rural population is 30,999.
  Pabianice County is bordered by Zgierz County to the north, the city of Łódź and Łódź East County to the east, Piotrków County to the south-east, Bełchatów County to the south, Łask County to the west, and Poddębice County to the north-west.
  The county is subdivided into seven gminas (two urban and five rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  wn.com/Pabianice_County
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  Pajęczno County
  Pajęczno County (Polish: powiat pajęczański) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Pajęczno, which lies 78 kilometres (48 mi) south-west of the regional capital Łódź. The only other town in the county is Działoszyn, lying 10 km (6 mi) west of Pajęczno.
  The county covers an area of 804.14 square kilometres (310.5 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 53,395, out of which the population of Pajęczno is 6,674, that of Działoszyn is 6,276, and the rural population is 40,445.
  Pajęczno County is bordered by Bełchatów County to the north-east, Radomsko County to the east, Częstochowa County and Kłobuck County to the south, and Wieluń County to the west.
  The county is subdivided into eight gminas (two urban-rural and six rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  wn.com/Pajęczno_County
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  Piotrkowska Street
  Piotrkowska Street (in Polish: Ulica Piotrkowska), the main artery of Łódź, Poland, is one of the longest commercial thoroughfares in Europe, with a length of 4.9 km. It is one of the major tourist attractions of the city. It runs longitudinally in the straight line between the Liberty Square (Plac Wolności) and the Independence Square (Plac Niepodleglości). From the very beginning this street was the central axis, around which the city grew bigger, and its development spontaneously gave the present shape to its centre. At first the city was mainly the highway, but later it changed into the city's showcase, the leisure and shopping centre, where the life of growing industrial agglomeration could be observed. The street deteriorated remarkably after the World War II. Only after 1990 was it revitalized step by step and changed into a kind of pedestrian precinct. It has a function similar to a market square of old towns in other cities. Nowadays the buildings, town-planning, institutions, restaurants, clubs and pubs situated next to this street, create its specific atmosphere, which is said to have a "cult" character reaching even outside of Łódź.
  
  wn.com/Piotrkowska_Street
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  Piotrków County
  Piotrków County (Polish: powiat piotrkowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the city of Piotrków Trybunalski, although the city is not part of the county (it constitutes a separate city county). The only towns in Piotrków County are Sulejów, which lies 15 km (9 mi) east of Piotrków Trybunalski, and Wolbórz (classed as a town since 1 January 2011).
  The county covers an area of 1,429.12 square kilometres (551.8 sq mi). In 2006, its total population was 90,227, made up of 6,387 in Sulejów and a rural population of 83,840.
  Apart from the city of Piotrków Trybunalski, Piotrków County is also bordered by Łódź East County to the north, Tomaszów Mazowiecki County and Opoczno County to the east, Radomsko County to the south, Bełchatów County to the west, and Pabianice County to the north-west.
  
  wn.com/Piotrków_County
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  Piotrków Trybunalski
  Piotrków Trybunalski [ˈpʲɔtrkuf trɨbuˈnalskʲi] (also known by alternative names) is a city in central Poland with 80,738 inhabitants (2005). It is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), and previously was the capital of Piotrków Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Piotrków County.
  According to tradition, but not confirmed by historical sources, Piotrków was founded by Piotr Włostowic, a powerful 12th century magnate from Silesia. The name of the city comes from the Polish version of the name Peter (Piotr), in a diminutive form (Piotrek, or "Pete"). The town has been known in Yiddish as פּעטריקעװ or Petrikev, in German as Petrikau, and in Russian as Петроков or Petrokov.
  Piotrków Trybunalski is situated in the middle-west part (Piotrków Uplands) of the Łódź Uplands. The population of the city is approximately 80,000 and its area is nearly 68 km². The scenery of the Piotrków region and its geological structure were formed during the glaciation of 180,000–128,000 years ago. There are hardly any forests across the Piotrków Plains.
  
  wn.com/Piotrków_Trybunalski
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  Poddębice County
  Poddębice County (Polish: powiat poddębicki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Poddębice, which lies 37 kilometres (23 mi) west of the regional capital Łódź. The only other town in the county is Uniejów, lying 14 km (9 mi) north-west of Poddębice.
  The county covers an area of 880.91 square kilometres (340.1 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 42,195, out of which the population of Poddębice is 7,875, that of Uniejów is 2,916, and the rural population is 31,404.
  Poddębice County is bordered by Łęczyca County to the north-east, Zgierz County to the east, Pabianice County to the south-east, Łask County, Zduńska Wola County and Sieradz County to the south, Turek County to the west, and Koło County to the north-west.
  The county is subdivided into six gminas (two urban-rural and four rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  wn.com/Poddębice_County
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  Poland
  Poland ⁱ/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), 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. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.
  
  wn.com/Poland
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  Portugal
  Portugal ⁱ/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
  The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.
  
  wn.com/Portugal
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  Poznań
  Poznań [ˈpɔznaɲ] ( listen) (Latin: Posnania; German: Posen; Yiddish: פוזנא or פּױזן Poyzn) is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be the first capital of the kingdom of Poland.
  Poznań is now Poland's fifth largest city. It is the historical capital of the Wielkopolska ("Greater Poland") region, and is currently the administrative capital of the province called Greater Poland Voivodeship.
  Poznań is an important centre of trade, industry, and education, and hosts regular international trade fairs. It was the host city for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2008, a key stage in the creation of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Poznań was a candidate city for European Capital of Culture in 2016. Poznań is currently bidding to host the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. The local football team has been responsible for the spread of the eponymous goal celebration to Manchester City and to a lesser extent throughout the United Kingdom. Poznań is one of the host cities for UEFA Euro 2012.
  
  wn.com/Poznań
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  Radogoszcz prison
  Radogoszcz prison was a prison in Lodz, which was used by the occupation authorities during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
  The physical building dates from the early 1930s, when Samuel Abbe built a factory on Zgierska Street in Lodz, Poland. It was 4 storey factory building with an adjoining 1 storey factory floor. One month before the Nazi occupation, in August 1939, the Polish Army took control of the building.
  Radogoszcz was used as a Nazi Police Prison from November 1939. It was used to house prisoners for the many German groups such as the Gestapo, SS, and newly formed local Police. The first murders of Radogoszcz prisoners took place soon after it was opened, when Polish intelligentsia (that had been arrested earlier) were taken from the prison and murdered in local woods, probably as part of the Intelligenzaktion (see Intelligenzaktion Litzmannstadt and Intelligenzaktion Burgerbraukeller). This took place in November 1939. As the factory was never intended for habitation, a local charity was formed to build simple kitchens and baths. The charity was prevented from aiding the prisoners after January 1940. A number of prominent Polish-German factory owners were on this committee.
  
  wn.com/Radogoszcz_prison
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  Radom
  Radom [ˈradɔm] ( listen) is a city in central Poland with 223,397 inhabitants (December 31, 2009). It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the capital of Radom Voivodeship (1975–1998); 100 km south of Poland's capital, Warsaw. In spite of being part of the Masovian Voivodeship, the city historically belongs to Lesser Poland.
  It is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest and best-attended air show in Poland, held during the last weekend of August. "Radom" is also the popular unofficial name for a semiautomatic 9 mm Para pistol of Polish design (the Model 35/ViS-35) designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc and Jan Skrzypinski (hence the designation "ViS"), under Director Kazimierz Ołdakowski, which had been in production from 1935 to 1945 at the national arsenal located in the city. The Łucznik Arms Factory (still located in Radom) continues to produces modern military firearms such as assault rifles.
  The original settlement dates back to 8th–9th century. It was an early mediaeval town in the valley of the Mleczna River (approximately on the location of present-day Old Town). Around the 2nd half of 10th century, it turned into a fortified town called Piotrówka.
  
  wn.com/Radom
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  Radomsko County
  Radomsko County (Polish: powiat radomszczański) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Radomsko, which lies 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of the regional capital Łódź. The county also contains the towns of Przedbórz, lying 31 km (19 mi) east of Radomsko, and Kamieńsk, 16 km (10 mi) north of Radomsko.
  The county covers an area of 1,442.78 square kilometres (557.1 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 118,856, out of which the population of Radomsko is 49,152, that of Przedbórz is 3,758, that of Kamieńsk is 2,858, and the rural population is 63,088.
  Radomsko County is bordered by Bełchatów County and Piotrków County to the north, Końskie County and Włoszczowa County to the east, Częstochowa County to the south-west, and Pajęczno County to the west.
  The county is subdivided into 14 gminas (one urban, two urban-rural and 11 rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  wn.com/Radomsko_County
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  Rawa County
  Rawa County (Polish: powiat rawski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Rawa Mazowiecka, which lies 54 kilometres (34 mi) east of the regional capital Łódź. The only other town in the county is Biała Rawska, lying 17 km (11 mi) east of Rawa Mazowiecka.
  The county covers an area of 646.6 square kilometres (249.7 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 49,443, out of which the population of Rawa Mazowiecka is 17,643, that of Biała Rawska is 3,182, and the rural population is 28,618.
  Rawa County is bordered by Skierniewice County and Żyrardów County to the north, Grójec County to the east, and Tomaszów Mazowiecki County to the south.
  The county is subdivided into six gminas (one urban, one urban-rural and four rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  wn.com/Rawa_County
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  Russia
  Russia ⁱ/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
  
  wn.com/Russia
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  Russian Empire
  The Russian Empire (Pre-reform Russian orthography: Россійская Имперія, Modern Russian: Российская Империя, translit: Rossiyskaya Imperiya) 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 short-lived Russian Republic, which was succeeded by the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest empires in world history, surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires: at one point in 1866, it stretched from eastern Europe across Asia and into North America.
  At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea on the south, from the Baltic Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean and into North America on the east. With 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third largest population of the world at the time, after Qing China and the British Empire. Like all empires, it represented a large disparity in economic, ethnic and religious positions. Its government, ruled by the Emperor, was the last absolute monarchy in Europe at the time of its demise.
  
  wn.com/Russian_Empire
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  Rustavi
  Rustavi (Georgian: რუსთავი) is a city in the southeast of Georgia, in the province of Kvemo Kartli, situated 25 km (15.53 mi) southeast of the capital Tbilisi. It stands on the Mtkvari River at 41°32′N 45°00′E / 41.533°N 45°E / 41.533; 45. It has a population of 116,384 (2002 census) and is dominated by the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant.
  The history of Rustavi has two phases: an early history from ancient times until the city was destroyed in the 13th century, and modern history from the Soviet era to the present.
  Rustavi is one of the ancient towns of Georgia. The foundation of Rustavi is dated from time immemorial. Leonti Mroveli connects this process with the name of the glorious ancestor of Georgian people. As Leonti writes in his works "The description of the Kingdom of Georgia" Rustavi was called as Bostan-Kalaki. It was situated on the river Mtkvari (Kura) and founded by the wife of Kartlos. She built a castle to the east of the mountain Iagluji.
  The historian Leonti Mroveli, who described the lives of the first Georgian kings, mentions the town Rustavi among those castles, which protested the troops of Alexander the Great.
  
  wn.com/Rustavi
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  Rzeszów
  Rzeszów [ˈʐɛʂuf] ( listen) (Ukrainian: Ряшiв, Riashiv; Russian: Ряшев; German: Reichshof; Latin: Resovia; Yiddish: ריישע-rayshe) is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley. The city, which was granted a town charter in 1354, has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship since 1999, and is also the seat of Rzeszów County.
  Rzeszów is served by an international airport, is a member of Eurocities, and is home to a number of higher education schools, company headquarters, and foreign consulates.
  First humans appeared in the area of Rzeszów in late Paleolithic Age, as archeologists found a tool made in that period, discovered on site Rzeszów 25. In the mid-6th century BC, ancient farmers came to the area of the city, most likely through the Moravian Gate. Later on, Rzeszów was a settlement of the Lusatian culture, which then was replaced with the Przeworsk culture.
  In the 5th century, first Slavs appeared in the area, which is confirmed by numerous archeological findings. Most probably, Rzeszów was then inhabited by the Vistulans. Some time between 11th and 13th century, the town was annexed by the Ruthenians, and Polish princes of the Piast dynasty confirmed it in 1264, when in Tarnów, there was a meeting of Prince Bolesław V the Chaste, and Prince Daniel of Galicia, during which both sides agreed that the border would go between Rzeszów and Czudec (Rzeszów belonged to Red Ruthenia, while Czudec and Strzyżów to Lesser Poland).
  
  wn.com/Rzeszów
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  Saxony
  The Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈzaksən]; Upper Sorbian: Swobodny stat Sakska) is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with (18,413 square kilometres (7,109 sq mi), and the sixth most-populous (4.3 million) of Germany's sixteen states.
  Located in the middle of an erstwhile German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, a republic from 1918 to 1952 and then again from 1990.
  The area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and the Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.
  Sachsen is divided into three Direktionsbezirke — Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipzig — which are subdivided into 10 districts:
  
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  Sieradz County
  Sieradz County (Polish: powiat sieradzki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Sieradz, which lies 54 kilometres (34 mi) west of the regional capital Łódź. The county contains three other towns: Złoczew, lying 23 km (14 mi) south-west of Sieradz, Warta, lying 14 km (9 mi) north-west of Sieradz, and Błaszki, 23 km (14 mi) west of Sieradz.
  The county covers an area of 1,491.04 square kilometres (575.7 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 121,013, out of which the population of Sieradz is 44,045, that of Złoczew is 3,403, that of Warta is 3,388, that of Błaszki is 2,179, and the rural population is 67,998.
  Sieradz County is bordered by Turek County and Poddębice County to the north, Zduńska Wola County and Łask County to the east, Wieluń County to the south, Wieruszów County to the south-west, and Ostrzeszów County and Kalisz County to the west.
  
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  Skierniewice
  Skierniewice [skʲɛrɲɛˈvʲit​͡sɛ] is a town in central Poland with 49,132 inhabitants (2007), situated in the Łódź Voivodship (since 1999), previously capital of Skierniewice Voivodship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Skierniewice County. The town is situated almost exactly half-way between Łódź and Warsaw.
  Skierniewice gained municipal rights in 1457. It has a famous railway station that used to be a part of historical Warsaw-Vienna Railway. On September 15, 1884 it was the setting for the meeting of the Three Emperors' League.
  Famous people connected with Skierniewice region:
  Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Piotrkow/Skierniewice constituency in 2005
  Gera, Châtelaillon-Plage, Purgstall an der Erlauf, Náměšť na Hané, Levice, Szentes
  Coordinates: 51°58′N 20°09′E / 51.967°N 20.15°E / 51.967; 20.15
  
  
  
  wn.com/Skierniewice
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  Skierniewice County
  Skierniewice County (Polish: powiat skierniewicki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the city of Skierniewice, although the city is not part of the county (it constitutes a separate city county). In fact there are no towns within the county.
  The county covers an area of 756.12 square kilometres (291.9 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 37,779.
  Apart from the city of Skierniewice, Skierniewice County is also bordered by Sochaczew County to the north, Żyrardów County to the east, Rawa County and Tomaszów Mazowiecki County to the south, Brzeziny County to the west, and Łowicz County to the north-west.
  The county is subdivided into nine gminas. These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Skierniewice_County
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  Spain
  Spain (ⁱ/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
  Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
  
  wn.com/Spain
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  Sweden
  Sweden (ⁱ/ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish:  Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), 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 Øresund.
  At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.4 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) with the population mostly concentrated to the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas. Sweden's capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city.
  Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th century. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, practicing "non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime". However, Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.
  
  wn.com/Sweden
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  Szczecin
  Szczecin ([ˈʂt​͡ʂɛt​͡ɕin] ( listen); German: Stettin [ʃtɛˈtiːn] ( listen)}), is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. In the vicinity of the Baltic Sea, it is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland. As of June 2011 the population was 407,811.
  Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin borders with the town of Police.
  The city's beginnings were as an 8th century Slavic Pomeranian stronghold, built at the site of today's castle. In the 12th century, when Szczecin had become one of Pomerania's main urban centres, it lost its independence to Piast Poland, Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark. At the same time, the Griffin dynasty established themselves as local rulers, the population was converted to Christianity, and German settlers arrived. The native Slavic population was assimilated and sometimes discriminated against in the following centuries. In 1237/43, the town was built anew and granted vast autonomy rights, and it joined the Hanseatic League.
  
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  Szeged
  Szeged (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈsɛɡɛd] ( listen); German: Szegedin; Romanian: Seghedin; Serbo-Croatian: Segedin, Сегедин; see also other alternative names) is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary.
  The famous Open Air Plays of Seged (first held in 1931) are one of the main attractions; they are held every summer. Seged celebrates the Day of the city on May 21.
  The name Seged might come from an old Hungarian word for corner (szeg), pointing to the turn of the river Tisza that flows through the city. Others say it derives from the Hungarian word sziget which means 'island'. Others still contend that szeg means 'dark blond' (sötétszőkés) – a reference to the color of the water where the rivers Tisza and Maros merge.
  The city has its own name in a number of foreign languages: Serbo-Croatian, Segedin (Сегедин); Romanian, Seghedin; Bulgarian, Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian, Сегед (Seged); German, Szegedin / Segedin; Italian, Seghedino; Latin, Partiscum; Latvian, Segeda; Lithuanian, Segedas; Polish, Segedyn; Slovak, Segedín; Turkish, Segedin.
  
  wn.com/Szeged
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  Tampere
  Tampere (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtɑmpere] ( listen); Swedish: Tammerfors [tamərˈfɔrs] or [tamərˈfɔʂ]) is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of 215,315, growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in Finland, after the Greater Helsinki municipalities of Helsinki and Espoo. In 2007, the entire Pirkanmaa region had around 470,000 residents, of which 230,000 were employed, and a turnover of 25 billion euros.
  Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock".
  
  wn.com/Tampere
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  Tel Aviv
  Tel Aviv, officially Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ‎‎; Arabic: تل أبيب‎), is the second most populous city in Israel. It has a population of 404,400 within city limits, on a land area of 52 km² (20 sq mi). The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in central-west Israel. In 2010, it was the largest and most populous city in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area of 3,325,700 residents, known as Gush Dan. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim.
  Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Community of Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ‎‎ Yafo; Arabic: يافا‎ Yāfā), on the outskirts of the ancient port city. The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings.
  
  wn.com/Tel_Aviv
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  Tianjin
   Tianjin (help·info) (Chinese: 天津; pinyin: Tiānjīn; Mandarin pronunciation: [tʰjɛ́ntɕín]; Tianjinese: /tʰiɛn˨˩tɕin˨˩/~[tʰjɛ̃̀ɦɪ̀ŋ]; Postal map spelling: Tientsin) is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government. Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea.
  As a dual-core city, Tianjin is divided into the old city and the Binhai New Area. Binhai New Area is a new growth pole in China, and it maintains an annual growth rate of nearly 30% of the GDP. As of the end of 2010, 285 Fortune Global 500 companies have established branch offices in Binhai. It is a base of China's advanced industry, financial reform, and innovation.
  In terms of urban population, it is the sixth-largest city of the People's Republic of China, and its urban land area (Binhai New Area is not included) ranks fifth in the nation after Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Guangzhou. Tianjin's urban area is located along the Hai River, which connects to the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers via the Grand Canal in Tianjin. Tianjin was once home to foreign concessions in the late Qing Dynasty and early Kuomintang (KMT) era. The municipality incorporates the coastal region of Tanggu, home to the Binhai New Area and the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA).
  
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  Toruń
  Toruń [ˈtɔruɲ] ( listen) (German: Thorn ( listen), Kashubian: Torń, Latin: Thorunium, see also: other names) is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
  In 1997 the medieval part of the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2007 the Old Town in Toruń was added to the list of Seven Wonders of Poland. National Geographic Polska rated the old town market and the Gothic town hall as one of the "30 Most Beautiful Places in the World." In 2010 Forbes magazine ranked Toruń as number one of the "Polish Cities Attractive for Business".^{[citation needed]} In 2009 it was listed as one of the "Best Cities to Live in Poland", in a ranking published by Przekrój.^{[citation needed]}
  Previously it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–98) and the Pomeranian Voivodeship (1921–45). Since 1999, Toruń has been a seat of the self-government of the Kujawy-Pomerania Province and, as such, is one of its two capitals (together with Bydgoszcz). The cities and neighboring counties form the Bydgoszcz-Toruń bi-polar metropolitan area. In September 2004, Bydgoszcz Medical School joined Toruń's Nicolaus Copernicus University as its Collegium Medicum.
  
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  Ukraine
  Ukraine (ⁱ/juːˈkreɪn/ yew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]; Russian: Украина; Crimean Tatar: Ukraina) is a country in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the Russian Federation to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after the Russian Federation.
  According to a popular and well established theory, the medieval state of Kievan Rus was established by the Varangians in the 9th century as the first historically recorded East Slavic state which emerged as a powerful nation in the Middle Ages until it disintegrated in the 12th century. By the middle of the 14th century, Ukrainian territories were under the rule of three external powers—the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Great Northern War (1700–1721) Ukraine was divided between a number of regional powers and, by the 19th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. A chaotic period of incessant warfare ensued, with several internationally recognized attempts at independence from 1917 to 1921, following World War I and the Russian Civil War. Ukraine emerged from its own civil war, and on December 30, 1922 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian SSR's territory was enlarged westward during the civil war shortly before, and after World War II, and further south in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
  
  wn.com/Ukraine
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  United States
  The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
  
  wn.com/United_States
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  University of Łódź
  The University of Łódź was founded May 24, 1945 in Łódź, Poland, as a continuation of educational institutions functioning in Łódź in the interwar period - the Teacher Training Institute (1921-1928), the Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (1924-1928) and a division of the Free Polish University (1928-1939).
  Currently it has more than 47 000 students and 3827 teachers.
  Its international cooperation includes 385 partner institutions from all over the world.
  A range of BA, MA, and postgraduate courses held in English as a language of instruction are currently offered both to Polish and overseas students.
  As a result of widespread cooperation with a number of foreign universities all over the world such as Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Université François – Rabelais (Tours), University of Texas in Austin, Westfälische Wilhelms – Universität Münster, University of Michigan, University of Baltimore, the R. H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, Central Ostrobothnia University (Kokkola, Finland), and the Towson University students of the University of Łódź can graduate with dual diplomas.
  
  wn.com/University_of_Łódź
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  Vilnius
  Vilnius ([ˈvʲɪlʲnʲʊs] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 554,060 (838, 852 together with Vilnius County) as of 2011. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County. The first known written record of Vilnius as the Lithuanian capital is known from Gediminas' letters in 1323. Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies.
  The name of the city originated from the Vilnia River. The city has also been known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include: Polish: Wilno, Belarusian: Вiльнюс, Вiльня, German: Wilna, Latvian: Viļņa, Russian: Вильнюс, Yiddish: ווילנע (Vilne). An older Russian name was Вильна / Вильно (Vilna/Vilno), although Вильнюс (Vilnius) is now used. The names Wilno, Wilna and Vilna have also been used in older English, German, French and Italian language publications. The name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew.
  
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  Warsaw
  Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa [varˈʂava] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres (190 mi) 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 populous city proper in the European Union. The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres (199.6 sq mi), while the city's agglomeration covers 6,100.43 square kilometres (2,355.39 sq mi).
  Warsaw is an Alpha- global city, a major international tourist destination and an important economic hub in Central Europe. It is also known as the "phoenix city" because it has survived many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered from World War II, during which 80% of its buildings were destroyed. On 9 November 1940 the city was awarded Poland's highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari, for the Siege of Warsaw (1939).
  
  wn.com/Warsaw
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  Warsaw Uprising
  Coordinates: 52°13′48″N 21°00′39″E / 52.23°N 21.01083°E / 52.23; 21.01083
  The Warsaw Uprising (Polish: powstanie warszawskie) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa), 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. Controversially, the Soviet advance stopped short, enabling the Germans to regroup and literally demolish the city in crushing the Polish resistance, which fought for 63 days with little outside support.
  The uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide plan, Operation Tempest, when the Soviet Army approached Warsaw. The main Polish objectives were to drive the German occupiers from the city and help with the larger fight against Germany and the Axis powers. Secondary political objectives were to liberate Warsaw before the Soviets, to underscore Polish sovereignty by empowering the Polish Underground State before the Soviet-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation could assume control. Also, short-term causes included the threat of a German round-up of able-bodied Poles, and Moscow radio calling for the Uprising to begin.
  
  wn.com/Warsaw_Uprising
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  Wieluń County
  Wieluń County (Polish: powiat wieluński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is Wieluń, which lies 88 kilometres (55 mi) south-west of the regional capital Łódź.
  The county covers an area of 927.69 square kilometres (358.2 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 78,260, out of which the population of Wieluń is 24,347 and the rural population is 53,913.
  Wieluń County is bordered by Sieradz County to the north, Łask County to the north-east, Bełchatów County and Pajęczno County to the east, Kłobuck County to the south-east, Olesno County to the south, and Wieruszów County to the west.
  The county is subdivided into 10 gminas (one urban-rural and nine rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  
  
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  Wieruszów County
  Wieruszów County (Polish: powiat wieruszowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is Wieruszów, which lies 106 kilometres (66 mi) south-west of the regional capital Łódź.
  The county covers an area of 576.22 square kilometres (222.5 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 42,336, out of which the population of Wieruszów is 8,759 and the rural population is 33,577.
  During the German Invasion of Poland in 1939, German soldiers conducted a number of massacres in the area. In the village of Wieszanów on 1 September 1939, 17 women and children (as young as 2 years old) were murdered en masse after two men were murdered by German soldiers. Women and children tried to hide themselves in cellars but were discovered by soldiers. Despite pleading to be allowed to get out, they were forced to stay as Germans threw down several grenades, murdering 14 women and children on the spot and wounding 3 of them.. Several local men were later kidnapped and sent to German concentration camps. At least two were executed already on their way to the camps. A day later the same Germans who committed the murder came back and burned down 20 homes along with the livestock.
  
  wn.com/Wieruszów_County
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  Wrocław
  Wrocław ( /ˈvrɒtswəf/; Polish pronunciation: [ˈvrɔt​͡swaf] ( listen); German: Breslau [ˈbʁɛslaʊ̯] ( listen); Czech: Vratislav), situated on the River Oder (Polish: Odra), in Lower Silesia. It is the largest city in western Poland.
  Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia, and today is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, and has been part of Poland since 1945 as a result of border changes after World War II. According to official figures for 2010, its population is 632,996, making it the fourth largest city in Poland.
  Wrocław is one of the hosts of UEFA Euro 2012, and has been selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2016. In 2017, Wrocław will host the World Games, a competition in 37 non-olympic sport disciplines.
  The city's name was first recorded, in Latin, in the form "Wrotizlava", in the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg, which mentions it as a seat of a newly installed bishopric in the context of the Congress of Gniezno. The first municipal seal stated Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie. A simplified name is given, in 1175, as Wrezlaw, Prezla or Breslaw. The Czech spelling was used in Latin documents as Wratislavia or Vratislavia. At that time, Prezla was used in Middle High German, which became Preßlau. In the middle of the 14th century the Early New High German (and later New High German) form of the name Breslau began to replace its earlier versions.
  
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  Włocławek
  Włocławek [vwɔt​͡sˈwavɛk] ( listen) (German: Leslau from 1939–45) is a town in northern Poland on the Vistula (Wisła) and Zgłowiączka rivers, with a population of 117,785 (June 2009). It is situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and until 1999 was the capital of Włocławek Voivodeship.
  Historians have given a number of years for the establishment of the town since the 16th century. Part of the confusion is the various attribution of the city's namesake as Władysław II the Exile, his grandfather Władysław I Herman, or Vladislav II of Bohemia.
  An assistant to the Archbishop of Gniezno is mentioned residing in the town in 1123 and the Diocese of Włocławek (Latin: Vladislaviensis) in Kuyavia was first mentioned in a bull issued by Pope Eugene III in 1148. The first bishop of Włocławek, whose name appears in the bull, was Warner, and he was followed by an Italian named Onoldius. The diocese was also recorded as "Włocławek and Pomerania" (Vladislaviensis et Pomeraniae).
  Włocławek received its town rights in 1255. In the 14th and 15th century, the city was destroyed or captured several times by German knights, who called it Leslau^{[citation needed]}. Peace arrived with the Treaty of Thorn in 1466 and the city prospered from its involvement in the Polish grain trade. In 1657, a Swedish invasion during the Second Northern War partially destroyed the city. After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, Włocławek fell to Prussia. The Congress of Vienna restored it to Congress Poland, but it was occupied by Russia in 1831. The city was again destroyed during the German offensive during the First World War.
  
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  Yad Vashem
  Yad Vashem (Hebrew: יד ושם‎‎ ("Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority") is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
  The origin of the name is from a Biblical verse: "And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (Yad Vashem) that shall not be cut off".
  Located in the western region of Mount Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem is a 180-dunam (180,000 m²) complex containing the Holocaust History Museum; memorial sites, such as the Children's Memorial and the Hall of Remembrance; The Museum of Holocaust Art; sculptures, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Communities, a synagogue, archives, a research institute, library, publishing house and an educational center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. Yad Vashem honors non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk, as the "Righteous among the Nations".
  
  wn.com/Yad_Vashem
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  Zduńska Wola County
  Zduńska Wola County (Polish: powiat zduńskowolski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Zduńska Wola, which lies 41 kilometres (25 mi) south-west of the regional capital Łódź. The only other town in the county is Szadek, lying 12 km (7 mi) north of Zduńska Wola.
  The county covers an area of 369.19 square kilometres (142.5 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 67,704, out of which the population of Zduńska Wola is 44,370, that of Szadek is 2,007, and the rural population is 21,327.
  Zduńska Wola County is bordered by Poddębice County to the north, Łask County to the east and Sieradz County to the west.
  The county is subdivided into four gminas (one urban, one urban-rural and two rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Zduńska_Wola_County
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  Zgierz County
  Zgierz County (Polish: powiat zgierski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Zgierz, which lies 9 kilometres (6 mi) north-west of the regional capital Łódź. The county contains four other towns: Ozorków, lying 16 km (10 mi) north-west of Zgierz, Aleksandrów Łódzki, lying 9 km (6 mi) south-west of Zgierz, Głowno, lying 24 km (15 mi) north-east of Zgierz, and Stryków, 15 km (9 mi) north-east of Zgierz.
  The county covers an area of 853.71 square kilometres (329.6 sq mi). As of 2007 its total population is 161,012, out of which the population of Zgierz is 58,164, that of Ozorków is 20,445, that of Aleksandrów Łódzki is 20,635, that of Głowno is 14,989, that of Stryków is 3,575, and the rural population is 43,204.
  Zgierz County is bordered by Łowicz County to the north-east, Brzeziny County to the east, the city of Łódź, Łódź East County and Pabianice County to the south, Poddębice County to the west, and Łęczyca County to the north-west.
  
  wn.com/Zgierz_County
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  Örebro
  Örebro [œrəˈbruː] is a city, the seat of Örebro Municipality and the capital of Örebro County in Sweden with 107,038 inhabitants in 2010.
  Örebro received its Royal Charter and city privileges not later than 1404.
  Örebro literally means a bridge over gravel banks, which is how the geography looks, with the stream Svartån draining into the lake Hjälmaren. The location became a natural seat of commerce in the (Scandinavian) medieval time, and is mentioned in print in the 13th century. Old buildings from the early days include the foundations of the city church, a building which has undergone several modifications. The natural center of the city is otherwise the magnificent Örebro Castle, situated on an islet in the Svartån, and dividing the town into a northern and a southern part. This castle was constructed during the stewardship of Birger Jarl during the early 13th century and then modified and enlarged during the reign of King Gustav Vasa in the 1560s.
  Notable events in Örebro's history include the national diet meeting at Örebro in 1810, where Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected crown prince of Sweden.
  
  wn.com/Örebro
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  Łask County
  Łask County (Polish: powiat łaski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is Łask, which lies 32 kilometres (20 mi) south-west of the regional capital Łódź.
  The county covers an area of 617.38 square kilometres (238.4 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 50,874, out of which the population of Łask is 18,684 and the rural population is 32,190.
  Łask County is bordered by Poddębice County to the north, Pabianice County to the east, Bełchatów County to the south-east, Wieluń County to the south-west, and Sieradz County and Zduńska Wola County to the west.
  The county is subdivided into five gminas (one urban-rural and four rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Łask_County
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  Łowicz County
  Łowicz County (Polish: powiat łowicki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is Łowicz, which lies 48 kilometres (30 mi) north-east of the regional capital Łódź.
  The county covers an area of 987.13 square kilometres (381.1 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 82,338, out of which the population of Łowicz is 30,204 and the rural population is 52,134.
  Łowicz County is bordered by Sochaczew County to the north-east, Skierniewice County to the south-east, Brzeziny County to the south, Zgierz County to the south-west, Łęczyca County and Kutno County to the west, and Gostynin County to the north-west.
  The county is subdivided into 10 gminas (one urban and nine rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Łowicz_County
• 
  Łódź
  Łódź ([wut​͡ɕ] ( listen); Yiddish: לאדז', Lodzh) is the third-largest city in Poland. Located in the central part of the country, it had a population of 742,387 in December 2009. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is approximately 135 kilometres (84 mi) south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canting: depicting a boat, it alludes to the city's name which translates literally as "boat".
  Łódź first appears in the written record in a 1332 document giving the village of Łodzia to the bishops of Włocławek. In 1423 King Władysław Jagiełło granted city rights to the village of Łódź. From then until the 18th century the town remained a small settlement on a trade route between Masovia and Silesia. In the 16th century the town had fewer than 800 inhabitants, mostly working on the nearby grain farms.
  With the second partition of Poland in 1793, Łódź became part of the Kingdom of Prussia's province of South Prussia, and was known in German as Lodsch. In 1798 the Prussians nationalised the town, and it lost its status as a town of the bishops of Kuyavia. In 1806 Łódź joined the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw and in 1810 it had 190 inhabitants. In the 1815 Congress of Vienna treaty it became part of Congress Poland, a client state of the Russian Empire.
  
  wn.com/Łódź
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  Łódź East County
  Łódź East County (Polish: powiat łódzki wschodni) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the city of Łódź, although the city is not part of the county (it constitutes a separate city county). The county consists of areas to the east and south of the city, and contains three towns: Koluszki, which lies 24 km (15 mi) east of Łódź, Tuszyn, 20 km (12 mi) south of Łódź, and Rzgów, 14 km (9 mi) south of Łódź.
  The county covers an area of 499.32 square kilometres (192.8 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 64,574, out of which the population of Koluszki is 13,407, that of Tuszyn is 7,178, that of Rzgów is 3,338, and the rural population is 40,651.
  Until 2002 the county also included the areas which now form Brzeziny County.
  Apart from the city of Łódź, Łódź East County is also bordered by Zgierz County to the north, Brzeziny County to the north-east, Tomaszów Mazowiecki County to the south-east, Piotrków County to the south and Pabianice County to the west.
  
  wn.com/Łódź_East_County
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  Łódź Voivodeship
  Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Łódź Province, or by its Polish name of województwo łódzkie [vɔjɛˈvut​͡stfɔ ˈwut​͡skʲɛ] or simply Łódzkie) is a province (voivodeship) in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź Voivodeship (1975–1999) and the Sieradz, Piotrków Trybunalski and Skierniewice Voivodeships and part of Płock Voivodeship, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź, pronounced [wut​͡ɕ].
  Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian to the north and east, Świętokrzyskie to the south-east, Silesian to the south, Opole to the south-west, Greater Poland to the west, and Kuyavian-Pomeranian for a short stretch to the north. Its territory belongs to three historical provinces of Poland – Masovia (in the east), Greater Poland (in the west) and Lesser Poland (in the southeast, around Opoczno).
  The voivodeship contains 44 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2006):
  
  wn.com/Łódź_Voivodeship
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  Łęczyca County
  Łęczyca County (Polish: powiat łęczycki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is Łęczyca, which lies 35 kilometres (22 mi) north-west of the regional capital Łódź.
  The county covers an area of 774 square kilometres (298.8 sq mi). As of 2006 its total population is 53,435, out of which the population of Łęczyca is 15,423 and the rural population is 38,012.
  Łęczyca County is bordered by Kutno County to the north, Łowicz County to the east, Zgierz County to the south-east, Poddębice County to the south-west and Koło County to the west.
  The county is subdivided into eight gminas (one urban and seven rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Łęczyca_County

• 
  Aharon Katzir
  Aharon Katzir (Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky) (Hebrew: אהרן קציר‎) (1914 – 30 May 1972) was an Israeli pioneer in the study of the electrochemistry of biopolymers. He was killed in the Lod Airport Massacre in 1972.
  Born 1914 in Łódź, Poland, he moved to Palestine in 1925, where he taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. There, he adopted his Hebrew surname Katzir.
  He was murdered in a terrorist attack at Ben Gurion International Airport in 1972 in which 26 people were killed and 80 injured. His younger brother, Ephraim Katzir, became the President of Israel in 1973.
  In 2005, he was voted the 177th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Aharon_Katzir
• Aleksander Bardini
  Aleksander Bardini (17 November 1913 – 30 July 1995) was a Polish-Jewish theatre and opera director, actor, notable professor at the State Theatre School in Warsaw. He appeared in 30 films between 1937 and 1994.
  
  wn.com/Aleksander_Bardini
• Alexandre Tansman
  Alexandre Tansman (12 June 1897 – 15 November 1986) was a Polish-born composer and virtuoso pianist. He spent his early years in his native Poland, but lived in France for most of his life. His music is primarily neoclassical, drawing on his Polish and Jewish heritage as well as his French musical influences.
  Tansman was born and raised in the Polish city of Łódź during the era when Poland did not exist as an independent state, being part of Tsarist Russia.
  The composer wrote the following about his childhood and heritage in a 1980 letter to an American researcher:
  Though he began his musical studies at the Łódź Conservatory, his doctoral study was in law at the University of Warsaw. Shortly after completing his studies, Tansman moved to Paris, where his musical ideas were accepted and encouraged by mentors and musical influences Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel, as opposed to the more conservative musical climate in his native Poland. While in Paris, Tansman associated with a crowd of foreign-born musicians known as the École de Paris; though Honegger and Milhaud tried to persuade him to join Les Six, he declined, stating a need for creative independence. (Tansman later wrote a biography of Stravinsky that was extremely well received.)
  
  wn.com/Alexandre_Tansman
• 
  Andrzej Bartkowiak
  Andrzej Bartkowiak, A.S.C. (born 1950 in Łódź, Poland) is a Polish cinematographer and director.
  In the early 1980s, Bartkowiak was cinematographer on three films that received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture: The Verdict, Terms of Endearment, and Prizzi's Honor.
  As cinematographer he has collaborated with several film directors such as Sidney Lumet, Joel Schumacher and Roger Donaldson.
  Bartkowiak's made his directorial debut with Romeo Must Die a martial-arts action film starring Jet Li, which was a hugh hit at the box-office, a year later he made the action-comedy film Exit Wounds starring Steven Seagal, the film was a sleeper hit in theaters. Cradle 2 the Grave was poorly received by critics, however it considered a moderate success at the box-office.
  Bartkowiak also directed the science fiction-horror video game adaptaion Doom, which was a disappointment at box-office and received negative reviews.
  later he teamed up with Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment and Capcom to direct Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which bombed at the box-office and universally panned by critics.
  
  wn.com/Andrzej_Bartkowiak
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  Andrzej Munk
  Andrzej Munk (16 October 1921 – 20 September 1961) was a Polish film director, screenplay writer and camera operator and was one of the most influential artists of the Polish Film School.
  Andrzej Munk was born in Kraków. Shortly before World War II (in June 1939), he graduated from his local gymnasium. During the German occupation of Poland he moved to Warsaw, where he was forced to hide because of his partially Jewish ancestry. Using a false name, he worked as a construction worker. In 1944 Munk took part in the Warsaw Uprising. After the capitulation, he managed to leave the city and return to Kraków and later Kasprowy Wierch, where he started working as a janitor at the ropeway station.
  After the war, Munk returned to Warsaw and joined the reopened Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. Because of poor health he left the university and later studied law at Warsaw University. Finally he moved to Łódź, where he joined the Łódź Film and Theatre School. He graduated in 1951 and started working as a cameraman for the Polska Kronika Filmowa (Polish Film Chronicle). In this period Munk finished several short films and documents. In 1948 he joined the PZPR, but in 1952 was expelled for "blameworthy behaviour".
  
  wn.com/Andrzej_Munk
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  Andrzej Sapkowski
  Andrzej Sapkowski, born 21 June 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy writer. He is best known for his best-selling book series The Witcher.
  Sapkowski studied economics, and before turning to writing, he had worked as a senior sales representative for a foreign trade company. His first short story, The Witcher (Wiedźmin), was published in Fantastyka, Poland's leading fantasy literary magazine, in 1986 and was enormously successful both with readers and critics. Sapkowski has created a cycle of tales based on the world of The Witcher, comprising three collections of short stories and five novels. This cycle and his many other works have made him one of the best-known fantasy authors in Poland in the 1990s.
  The main character of The Witcher (alternative translations: The Hexer and Spellmaker) is Geralt, a mutant assassin who has been trained since childhood to hunt down and destroy monsters. Geralt exists in a morally ambiguous universe, yet manages to maintain his own coherent code of ethics. At the same time cynical and noble, Geralt has been compared to Raymond Chandler's signature character Philip Marlowe. The world in which these adventures take place is heavily influenced by Slavic mythology.
  
  wn.com/Andrzej_Sapkowski
• Andrzej Sontag
  Andrzej Sontag (born 26 April 1952) is a retired triple jumper from Poland.
  He was born in Lublin and represented the club AZS Lublin. He won a bronze medal at the 1974 European Championships, and finished eighth at the 1976 European Indoor Championships. He competed at the 1976 Olympic Games without reaching the final.
  He became Polish indoor champion in 1976. His personal best jump was 16.96 metres, achieved in 1975.
  He is now Director of the Lodz Region for the Polish Department of Culture, Education and Sport.
  
  wn.com/Andrzej_Sontag
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  Andrzej Wajda
  Andrzej Wajda (Polish pronunciation: [ˈandʐɛj ˈvajda]; born 6 March 1926) is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School" (active c. 1955 to 1963). He is known especially for a trilogy of war films: A Generation (1954), Kanał (1956) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958).
  Four of his films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: The Promised Land (1975),The Maids of Wilko (1979), Man of Iron (1981), and Katyń (2007).
  Wajda was born in Suwałki, Poland, the son of Aniela (née Biaxowas), a school teacher, and Jakub Wajda, an army officer. Wajda' father was murdered by the Soviets in 1940 in what came to be known as the Katyn massacre. In 1942 he joined the Polish resistance and served in the Armia Krajowa. After the war, he studied to be a painter at Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts before entering the Łódź Film School.
  After Wajda's apprenticeship to director Aleksander Ford, Wajda was given the opportunity to direct his own film. With A Generation (1955), the first-time director poured out his disillusionment over jingoism, using as his alter ego a young, James Dean-style antihero played by Zbigniew Cybulski, 22-year-old Roman Polanski also featured. At the same time Andrzej Wajda began his work as a director in theatre, including such as Michael V. Gazzo's Hatful of Rain (1959), Hamlet (1960), and Two for the Seesaw (1963) by William Gibson. Wajda made two more increasingly accomplished films, which developed further the anti-war theme of A Generation: Kanał (1956) [Silver Palm at Cannes Festival in 1957, ex equo with Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Ashes and Diamonds (1958), again with Cybulski.
  
  wn.com/Andrzej_Wajda
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  Antoni Bohdziewicz
  Antoni Bohdziewicz (September 11, 1906 – October 20, 1970) was a Polish screenplay writer and director, best known for his 1956 adaptation of Zemsta by Aleksander Fredro.
  Bohdziewicz was born in the city of Wilno, then part of the Russian Empire. In 1928, he graduated from the Technical Faculty of the Warsaw University of Technology and was simultaneously studying at the Faculty of Humanities of the Stefan Batory University (now Vilnius University). In 1928, he became a speaker at the newly-established branch of the Polish Radio in his native town. In 1931 however he obtained a state scholarship and left for France. In Paris he joined the prestigious Ecole Technique de Photographie et de Cinématographie, where he also made his first documentaries.
  In 1935, he returned to Poland and worked as a journalist and cameraman for the state-owned Polska Agencja Telegraficzna Film Chronicle (PAT), the most popular newsreel in Poland. He also worked as a journalist and columnist for the "Pion" weekly. In late 1930s he made numerous documentaries for the PAT agency, as well as for the SAF film studio. In 1939, he began working on his first feature film Zazdrość i medycyna, based on a novel by Michał Choromański. However, the shooting was interrupted by the outbreak of the Invasion of Poland (1939).
  
  wn.com/Antoni_Bohdziewicz
• Arnold Rutkowski
  Arnold Rutkowski is a Polish opera singer who has sung leading tenor roles both in his native country and abroad. He is best known for his performances as Don Josè in Carmen, Rodolfo in La bohème, Alfredo Germont in La traviata, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, and Lt. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.
  Rutkowski was born in Łódź where he received his vocal education the city's Music Academy (1999-2005). While still a student, he made his professional debut as Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Rønne Theater in Bornholm, Denmark and after graduation sang in Verdi's Un giorno di regno at St. Moritz. From 2006 to 2008 he broadened his repertoire of leading tenor roles in performances at Wrocław Opera House and the Grand Theatre, Warsaw as Rodolfo (La bohème), Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), Don José (Carmen), Alfredo Germont (La traviata), and Stefan (The Haunted Manor).
  
  wn.com/Arnold_Rutkowski
• 
  Arthur Greiser
  Arthur Greiser (22 January 1897 – 21 July 1946) was a Nazi German politician, SS-Obergruppenführer and Reichsstatthalter ("Imperial Governor") of the German-occupied territory of Wartheland. He was one of the persons primarily responsible for organizing the Holocaust in Poland and numerous other crimes against humanity. Arrested by the Americans in 1945, he was tried, convicted and executed by hanging in Poland in 1946.
  Born in Schroda, Province of Posen, Imperial Germany, Greiser was the son of a minor local Gerichtsvollzieher (Bailiff). In 1903, he was enrolled at the Königlich-Humanistische Gymnasium (Royal Humanities College) in Hohensalza and is believed to have learnt to speak Polish fluently. In August 1914, he joined the Reichsmarine. After front line service in Flanders, in the Spring of 1917 he became a naval aviator. He served as a pilot on the Western Front. He earned the Iron Cross (First and Second Class), the Cross of Honour 1914–1918 Combatants medal, and a Wound Badge Black Class in 1914.
  
  wn.com/Arthur_Greiser
• 
  Arthur Rubinstein
  Arthur Rubinstein (January 28, 1887 – December 20, 1982) was a Polish-American classical pianist who received international acclaim for his performances of the music written by a variety of composers; many regard him as the greatest Chopin interpreter of his time. He is widely considered one of the greatest classical pianists of the twentieth century.
  Rubinstein was born in Łódź, Congress Poland (part of the Russian Empire for the entire time Rubinstein resided there) on January 28, 1887, to a family of assimilated Jews. He was the youngest of eight children, and his father was a wealthy factory owner.
  Rubinstein's birth name was Artur Rubinstein, although in English-speaking countries, he preferred to be known as Arthur Rubinstein. However, his United States impresario Sol Hurok insisted he be billed as Artur, and records were released in the West under both versions of his name.
  At the age of two, Rubinstein demonstrated perfect pitch and a fascination with the piano, watching his elder sister's piano lessons. By the age of four, he was recognised as a child prodigy. Rubinstein first studied piano in Warsaw. His early piano training came from Karl Heinrich Barth.
  
  wn.com/Arthur_Rubinstein
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  Arthur Szyk
  Arthur Szyk (June 16, 1894 – September 13, 1951) was a graphic artist, book illustrator, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew. From 1921, he lived and created his works mainly in France and Poland, and in 1937 he moved to the United Kingdom. In 1940 he settled permanently in the United States, where he was granted American citizenship in 1948.
  Arthur Szyk became a renowned graphic artist and book illustrator as early as the interwar period – his works were exhibited and published not only in Poland, but also in France, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United States. However, he gained real popularity through his war caricatures, in which, after the outbreak of World War II, he depicted the leaders of the Axis powers – mainly Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito. After the war, he also devoted himself to political issues, this time supporting the creation of Israel.
  
  wn.com/Arthur_Szyk
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  Artur Brauner
  Artur "Atze" Brauner (born Abraham Brauner 1 August 1918) is a Polish film producer and entrepreneur. He was born to a Jewish family in Łódź, Poland. With his parents and four siblings, he fled to the Soviet Union and survived the Holocaust. Following the war, he and his brother, Wolf Brauner emigrated to Berlin; his parents and three of his siblings emigrated to Israel. Twelve of his relatives were killed at Babi Yar, just a portion of the 49 who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
  As a young man he saw Fritz Lang's film The Testament of Dr. Mabuse that affected him greatly, making him interested in film. In September 1946 he founded the Central Cinema Company or CCC Films in the American sector of Berlin. He prouduced Sag' die Wahrheit, one of the first films produced in Germany after the war, followed by Morituri, which was a commercial failure and threw him into debt. Brauner realised that to produce critically successful films he had to make up their losses by producing critically derided films that were appreciated by the public. He lured back many Germans who had experience in Hollywood such as Robert Siodmak, Lil Dagover and later Fritz Lang who started a revival of Dr. Mabuse.
  
  wn.com/Artur_Brauner
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  Cezary Grabarczyk
  Cezary Stanisław Grabarczyk [t​͡sɛˈzarɨ ɡraˈbart​͡ʂɨk] ( listen) (born April 26, 1960) is a Polish politician.
  He was elected to the Sejm on September 25, 2005, getting 13,775 votes in the 11th Sieradz district. He stood for election as a candidate on the Platforma Obywatelska list. Again elected to the Sejm in the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, in which he received 44,610 votes in the Łódź district.
  Following the 2007 parliamentary election, Grabarczyk has been Minister of Infrastructure since November 2007, under Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Cezary_Grabarczyk
• 
  Congress Poland
  The Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie [kruˈlɛstfɔ ˈpɔlskʲɛ]; Russian: Королевство Польское, Царство Польское, Korolevstvo Polskoye, Tsarstvo Polskoye, Russian pronunciation: [ˈtsarstʋə ˈpolʲskəje], translation: Tsardom of Poland), informally known as Congress Poland (Polish: Królestwo Kongresowe [kruˈlɛstfɔ kɔnɡrɛˈsɔvɛ] or Russian Poland), created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire. It was gradually politically integrated into Russia over the course of the 19th century, made an official part of the Russian Empire in 1867, and finally replaced during the Great War by the Central Powers in 1915 with the theoretically existing Regency Kingdom of Poland.
  Though officially the Kingdom of Poland was a state with considerable political autonomy guaranteed by a liberal constitution, its rulers, the Russian Emperors, generally disregarded any restrictions on their power. Thus effectively it was little more than a puppet state of the Russian Empire. The autonomy was severely curtailed following uprisings in 1830–31 and 1863, as the country became governed by namestniks, and later divided into guberniya (provinces). Thus from the start, Polish autonomy remained little more than fiction.
  
  wn.com/Congress_Poland
• Daniel Amit
  Daniel J. Amit (Lodz, Poland, 1938 – Jerusalem, November 4, 2007) was an Israeli physicist and pacifist.
  Amit started his scientific activity in particle physics, obtaining a PhD from Brandeis University. He was then active, in the 1970s, in statistical mechanics. In the 1980s he moved on to a more interdisciplinary research including neurosciences. He was professor at The Racah Institute of Physics of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and professor of Neural Networks in the Department of Physics of the Sapienza University of Rome. Was a leading figure and among founders of the modern theory of neural networks.
  Amit was widely known for his engagement for peace, especially between Israel and Palestine.
  Amit was naturalized as an Italian citizen in 1999. He took his life in his Jerusalem home on November 4, 2007.
  
  wn.com/Daniel_Amit
• 
  Daniel Libeskind
  Daniel Libeskind, (born May 12, 1946) is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. His buildings include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, the extension to the Denver Art Museum in the United States, the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin, the Imperial War Museum North in Greater Manchester, England, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück, Germany, the Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Wohl Centre at the Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel. His portfolio also includes several residential projects. Libeskind's work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Bauhaus Archives, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou. On February 27, 2003, Libeskind won the competition to be the master plan architect for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan.
  
  wn.com/Daniel_Libeskind
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  David Lynch
  David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, comic book artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery, and meticulous sound design. The surreal, and in many cases violent, elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they "disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences.
  Born to a middle class family in Missoula, Montana, Lynch spent his childhood traveling around the United States, before going on to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films. Deciding to devote himself more fully to this medium, he moved to Los Angeles, where he produced his first motion picture, the surrealist horror Eraserhead (1977). After Eraserhead became a cult classic on the midnight movie circuit, Lynch was employed to direct The Elephant Man (1980), from which he gained mainstream success. Then being employed by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, he proceeded to make two films: the science-fiction epic Dune (1984), which proved to be a critical and commercial failure, and then a neo-noir crime film, Blue Velvet (1986), which was highly critically acclaimed.
  
  wn.com/David_Lynch
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  Grażyna Bacewicz
  Grażyna Bacewicz (Polish pronunciation: [ɡraˈʐɨna baˈt͡sɛvit͡ʂ]; 5 February 1909 – 17 January 1969) was a Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century.
  Bacewicz was born in Łódź. Her father and her brother Vytautas, also a composer, identified as Lithuanian and used the last name Bacevičius; her other brother Kiejstut identified as Polish. Her father, Vincas Bacevičius, gave Grażyna her first piano and violin lessons.^{[citation needed]} In 1928 she began studying at the Warsaw Conservatory, where she studied violin with Józef Jarzębski and piano with Józef Turczyński, and composition with Kazimierz Sikorski, graduating in 1932 as a violinist and composer (Thomas 2001). She continued her education in Paris, having been granted a stipend by Ignacy Jan Paderewski to attend the École Normale de Musique^{[citation needed]}, and studied there in 1932-33 with Nadia Boulanger (composition) and André Touret (violin). She returned briefly to Poland to teach in Łódź, but returned to Paris in 1934 in order to study with the Hungarian violinist Carl Flesch (Thomas 2001).
  
  wn.com/Grażyna_Bacewicz
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  Hanna Zdanowska
  Hanna Elżbieta Zdanowska (born March 29, 1959) is a Polish politician. Zdanowska is a member of the Civic Platform and the current mayor of Łódź as of December 13, 2010.
  Zdanowska was born on March 29, 1959 in Łódź, Poland and she attended the Technical University of Łódź.
  
  wn.com/Hanna_Zdanowska
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  Harry Turtledove
  Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction.
  Turtledove was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in nearby Gardena. His paternal grandparents, Romanian immigrants, first settled in Winnipeg, Canada, before making their permanent home on the US West Coast. After dropping out during his freshman year at Caltech, he attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977^{[citation needed]}. His dissertation was entitled The Immediate Successors of Justinian: A Study of the Persian Problem and of Continuity and Change in Internal Secular Affairs in the Later Roman Empire During the Reigns of Justin II and Tiberius II Constantine (AD 565–582)^{[citation needed]}.
  In 1979, Turtledove published his first two novels, Wereblood and Werenight, under the pseudonym "Eric G. Iverson." Turtledove later explained that his editor at Belmont Tower did not think people would believe the author's real name was "Turtledove" and came up with something more Nordic. He continued to use the "Iverson" name until 1985, when he published his "Herbig-Haro" and "And So to Bed" under his real name. Another early pseudonym was "Mark Gordian." Turtledove has recently begun publishing historical novels under the pseudonym "H.N. Turteltaub" (Turteltaube means turtle dove in German). He published three books as Dan Chernenko (the Scepter of Mercy series).
  
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  Israel Joshua Singer
  Israel Joshua Singer (Yiddish: ישראל יהושע זינגער; November 30, 1893, Biłgoraj, Poland - February 10, 1944 New York) was a Yiddish novelist. He was born Yisroel Yehoyshue Zinger, the son of Pinchas Mendl Zinger, a rabbi and author of rabbinic commentaries, and Basheva Zylberman. He was the brother of Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer and novelist Esther Kreitman.
  Singer contributed to the European Yiddish press from 1916; and in 1921, after Abe Cahan noticed his story "Pearls", Singer became a correspondent for the leading American Yiddish newspaper The Forward. His short story, Liuk, appeared in 1924, illuminating the ideological confusion of the Bolshevik Revolution. He wrote his first novel, Steel and Iron, in 1927. In 1934 he emigrated to the United States. He died in New York City in 1944.
  His memoir Of a World That is No More appeared posthumously in 1946. His other works include:
  In the introduction to A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg note that Singer's books are organized "in a way that satisfies the usual Western expectations as to literary structure. His novels resemble the kind of family chronicle popular in Europe several decades ago [that is, the turn of the century]".
  
  wn.com/Israel_Joshua_Singer
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  Izrael Poznański
  Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański (b. 1833 in Aleksandrów; d. 1900 in Łódź, Poland) was a textile magnate and philanthropist in Łódź, and the husband of Elenora Hertz Poznański.
  One of the most eminent entrepreneurs in the Russian-dominated part of Poland, Poznański was the son of a Jewish merchant of Kowal, who built up a textile empire and became, next to Karl/Karol Scheibler, the most important manufacturer of Łódź, a 'multicultural' city mainly populated by Poles (Catholic and Jewish) and Germans. The bourgeoisie of these groups was described in Reymont's novel about Łódź The Promised Land (Ziemia Obiecana), later filmed by Andrzej Wajda.
  Since 1989, the city of Łódź has rediscovered its industrial heritage, a unique ensemble of architecture, preserved despite two World Wars. The sites linked to Poznański's memory are among the most prominent of the city: the huge factory buildings in Ogrodowa Street; the nearby Poznański Palace, today a museum (including an exhibition about Arthur Rubinstein, another 'Lodschermensch'); and Poznański's marble tomb in the Jewish cemetery, the biggest Israelite graveyard in Europe. Although Poznański was devout to the belief of his ancestors, it must be noted that the generous style of his grave monument is scarcely compatible with Jewish tradition, as that religion forbids any luxury for funerals and tombs. (From Findagrave - copied by the author.)
  
  wn.com/Izrael_Poznański
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  Jack Tramiel
  Jack Tramiel (Polish: Idek Trzmiel, Trzmiel means "bumblebee"; December 13, 1928 – April 8, 2012) was a Polish-born American businessman, best known for founding Commodore International, the manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga, and other Commodore models of home computers.
  Tramiel was born as Idek Trzmiel in Łódź, Poland, into a Jewish family.
  After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 his family was transported by German occupiers to the Jewish ghetto in Łódź, where he worked in a garment factory. When the ghettos were liquidated his family was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was examined by Dr. Mengele and selected for a work party, after which he and his father were sent to the labor camp Ahlem near Hanover, while his mother remained at Auschwitz. Like many other inmates, his father was reported to have died of typhus in the work camp; however, Tramiel believed he was killed by an injection of gasoline. Tramiel was rescued from the labor camp in April 1945 by the 84th Infantry Division.
  
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  Jacob Bronowski
  Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man, and the accompanying book.
  Jacob Bronowski was born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, in 1908. His family moved to Germany during the First World War, and then to England in 1920. Although, according to Bronowski, he knew only two English words on arriving in Great Britain, he gained admission to the Central Foundation Boys' School in London and went on to study at the University of Cambridge and graduated as the senior wrangler.
  As a mathematics student at Jesus College, Cambridge, Bronowski co-edited—with William Empson—the literary periodical Experiment, which first appeared in 1928. Bronowski would pursue this sort of dual activity, in both the mathematical and literary worlds, throughout his professional life. He was also a strong chess player, earning a half-blue while at Cambridge and composing numerous chess problems for the British Chess Magazine between 1926 and 1970. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1935, writing a dissertation in algebraic geometry. For a time in the 1930s he lived near Laura Riding and Robert Graves in Majorca. From 1934 to 1942 he taught mathematics at the University College of Hull. Beginning in this period, the British secret service MI5 kept Bronowski under surveillance believing he was a security risk, which is thought to have restricted his access to senior posts in the UK.
  
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  Jan Henryk Dąbrowski
  Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjan ˈxɛnrɨk dɔmˈbrɔfskʲi]; also known as Jean Henri Dombrowski or Johann Heinrich Dombrowski; 29 August 1755 – 6 July 1818) was a Polish general and national hero.
  Dąbrowski was born to Jan Michal Dąbrowski and Sophie née von Lettow in Pierzchów, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth He grew up in Hoyerswerda, Electorate of Saxony, where his father served as a Colonel in the Saxon army. He joined the Royal Saxon Horse Guards in 1770 and served as Adjutant general of King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony from 1788 to 1791.
  Following the appeal of the Polish Four-Year Sejm to all Poles serving abroad to join the Polish army, he returned to Poland in 1791. As a cavalryman educated in a Dresden military school he was asked to reform the Polish cavalry. Under Poniatowski, he took part in the campaign of 1792 against the Russians. He was in Poland in 1794 when the Kościuszko Insurrection erupted. He took an active part in the uprising, defending Warsaw and leading an army corps in support of a rising in Greater Poland. His courage was commended by Tadeusz Kościuszko himself, the Supreme Commander of the National Armed Forces, who promoted him to the rank of general. Not only Kościuszko appreciated him; after the collapse of the uprising, he was offered commissions in the Russian and Prussian armies, but chose to fight for Poland.
  
  wn.com/Jan_Henryk_Dąbrowski
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  Jan Karski
  Jan Karski (24 April 1914 – 13 July 2000) was a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter and later professor at Georgetown University. In 1942 and 1943 Karski reported to the Polish government in exile and the Western Allies on the situation in German-occupied Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the secretive German-Nazi extermination camps.
  Jan Karski was born as Jan Kozielewski on 24 April 1914 in Łódź. He was raised a Catholic and remained one throughout his life. He grew up in a multi-cultural neighbourhood where the majority of the population was then Jewish.
  After graduating from a local school Kozielewski joined the Jan Kazimierz University of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) and graduated from the Legal and Diplomatic departments in 1935. During his compulsory military training he served in the NCO school for mounted artillery officers in Włodzimierz Wołyński. He completed his education between 1936 and 1938 in different diplomatic posts in Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and went on to join the Diplomatic Service. After a short period of resident scholarship, in January 1939 he started work in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With the outbreak of World War II Kozielewski was mobilized and served in a small artillery detachment in eastern Poland. Taken prisoner by the Red Army, he successfully concealed his true rank by pretending to be an ordinary soldier and was handed over to the Germans during an exchange of Polish prisoners of war, in effect escaping the Katyn massacre.
  
  wn.com/Jan_Karski
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  Jan Kowalewski
  Lt. Col. Jan Kowalewski (23 October 1892, Łódź – 31 October 1965, London) was a Polish cryptologist, intelligence officer, engineer, journalist, military commander, and creator and first head of the Polish Cipher Bureau. He recruited a large staff of cryptologists who broke Soviet military codes and ciphers during the Polish-Soviet War, enabling Poland to weather the war and achieve victory in the 1920 Battle of Warsaw.
  Jan Kowalewski was born 1892 in Łódź, Congress Poland, under rule of the Russian Empire. After graduating from a local trade school, between 1909 and 1913 he studied at the University of Liège in Belgium, where he graduated from the faculty of chemistry.
  He returned to Poland in 1913, only to be mobilized for the Russian Army the following year, at the outbreak of World War I. He fought in various formations on the Belarusian and Romanian fronts as an officer of the Engineering and Signal Corps, and in December 1918 he was allowed to join the Polish unit formed under command of Gen. Lucjan Żeligowski out of Poles living in Russia. As chief of intelligence of the Polish 4th Rifle Division he crossed the Romanian border with the Division and reached Poland in May 1919.
  
  wn.com/Jan_Kowalewski
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  Janusz Morgenstern
  Janusz "Kuba" Morgenstern (16 November 1922 – 6 September 2011) was a Polish film director and producer.
  Janusz Morgenstern was born in 1922 to a Jewish family in the village of Mikulińce near Tarnopol (then Poland, now Ukraine), to Dawid Morgenstern and Estera (née Druks).
  He debuted as a director with the film Goodbye, See You Tomorrow (1960). His other films include Jowita (1967), We Have to Kill this Love (1972), W-Hour (1979), Lesser of Two Evils (2009). TV series directed by Morgenstern included: Stake Larger than Life (1967–1968), Columbuses (1970) and Polish Roads (1976). He died in Warsaw, Poland.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Janusz_Morgenstern
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  Jarosław Jagiełło
  Jarosław Jagiełło (born May 15, 1971 in Łódź) is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 13727 votes in 9 Łódź district, candidating from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość list.
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/Jarosław_Jagiełło
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  Jerzy Kosinski
  Jerzy Kosiński (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjɛʐɨ kɔˈɕiɲskʲi]; June 14, 1933 – May 3, 1991), born Józef Lewinkopf, was an award-winning Polish American novelist, and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N.
  He was known for various novels, among them The Painted Bird (1965) and Being There (1971). Being There was adapted as an Academy Award-winning film in 1979.
  Kosiński, who was Jewish, was born Józef Lewinkopf in Łódź, Poland. As a child during World War II, he lived in central Poland under a false identity, Jerzy Kosiński, which his father gave to him. A Roman Catholic priest issued him a forged baptismal certificate. The Kosiński family survived the Holocaust thanks to local villagers who offered assistance to Jewish Poles, often at great personal risk (the penalty for assisting Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland was death). Kosiński's father received help not only from Polish town leaders and churchmen, but also from individuals such as Marianna Pasiowa, a member of the Polish underground network helping Jews evade capture. The family lived openly in Dąbrowa Rzeczycka near Stalowa Wola, and attended church in nearby Wola Rzeczycka, obtaining support from villagers in Kępa Rzeczycka. They were sheltered temporarily by a Catholic family in Rzeczyca Okrągła. The young Jerzy even served as an altar boy in a local church.
  
  wn.com/Jerzy_Kosinski
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  Jerzy Kropiwnicki
  Jerzy Janusz Kropiwnicki (born July 5, 1945 in Częstochowa) is a Polish right-wing politician, member of Law and Justice party.
  He was leader of small party Christian-National Union (Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe, ZChN). He was a president of the city of Łódź from 2002 until 2010. On November 2006 he was reelected for the office of president of the city of Łódź, but was ousted by referendum in January 2010, in which 96 percent of voters (turnout 22.2 percent) voted against him.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Jerzy_Kropiwnicki
• Jerzy Toeplitz
  Jerzy Toeplitz AO (24 November 1909 – 25 July 1995) was born in 1909 in Kharkiv (at that time in Russia). He was educated in Warsaw. After World War II he was the co-founder of the Polish Film School, and later took up an appointment in Australia for the Film and TV School.
  Between 1948 and 1972 he was Vice-President of the International Film and Television Council (USA). He was also an author and published a number of books which have been translated into many languages. Toeplitz also, for almost 30 years (1948–1971), was the president of the International Federation of Films Archives (FIAF), where he accomplished a very important role, overall in the Cold War conjuncture, especially into a very big crisis of the FIAF's history (perhaps the worst), when Henri Langlois (one of the Cinemathèquè Française's founders) left the FIAF. Toeplitz's job was a very important differential (typical of his generation) because he was a cinema's teacher and a leader of an educational project in the Polish city of Łódź (a reference into the period). This school had a decisive impact on the modern cinema in Poland.
  
  wn.com/Jerzy_Toeplitz
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  Joanna Skrzydlewska
  Joanna Skrzydlewska (born 17 February 1977 in Łódź) is a Polish politician. She was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 11822 votes in 9 Łódź district, candidating from Platforma Obywatelska list.
  She is a member of the Skrzydlewski family that own the Lodz's largest florist and funeral home chains. Her Father, Witolda Skrzydlewski, was the subject of a documentary called Skin Hunters, where he was one of two funeral home operators accused of paying for information from paramedics so as to profit from patients death. The other funeral home owner has been convicted and an investigation is ongoing regarding her fathers involvement, if any.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Joanna_Skrzydlewska
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  Jogaila
  Jogaila, later  Władysław II Jagiełło (help·info) (ca. 1362 – 1 June 1434) was Grand Duke of Lithuania (1377–1434), king consort of Kingdom of Poland (1386–1399), and sole King of Poland (1399–1434). He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis. In 1386 in Kraków he was baptized as Władysław, married the young queen regnant Jadwiga of Poland, and was crowned King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło. In 1387 he converted Lithuania to Christianity. His own reign in Poland started in 1399, upon death of Queen Jadwiga, and lasted a further thirty-five years and laid the foundation for the centuries-long Polish–Lithuanian union. Władysław II was the founder of the Jagiellon dynasty that bears his name, while pagan Jogaila was an heir to the already established house of Gediminids in Grand Duchy of Lithuania; the royal dynasty ruled both states until 1572, and became one of the most influential dynasties in the late medieval and early modern Central and Eastern Europe.
  Jogaila was the last pagan ruler of medieval Lithuania. After he became King of Poland, as a result of Union of Krewo, the newly formed Polish-Lithuanian union confronted the growing power of the Teutonic Knights. The allied victory at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, followed by the Peace of Thorn (1411), secured the Polish and Lithuanian borders and marked the emergence of the Polish–Lithuanian alliance as a significant force in Europe. The reign of Władysław II Jagiełło extended Polish frontiers and is often considered the beginning of Poland's Golden Age.
  
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• Josef Joffe
  Josef Joffe (born March 15, 1944) is publisher-editor (German: Herausgeber) of Die Zeit, a weekly German newspaper. His second career has been in academia. Appointed Senior Fellow of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in 2007 (a faculty position), he is also the Marc and Anita Abramowitz Fellow in International Relations at the Hoover Institution and a courtesy professor of political science at Stanford University. Since 1999, he has been an associate of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.
  Joffe was born into a Jewish family in Łódż, Polandand grew up in West Berlin, where he attended elementary school and gymnasium. He then came to the United States in 1961 as an exchange student, attending East Grand Rapids High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1965, obtained a postgraduate Certificate of Advanced European Studies from the College of Europe in 1966 and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He received a Ph.D in government from Harvard University in 1975.
  
  wn.com/Josef_Joffe
• Josef Olechowski
  Josef Olechowski was born to a noble Polish Catholic family on March 6, 1898 in Łódź, Poland (at that time part of the Russian Empire) to Marcin Olechowski and Baroness Josephina von Plötzke and died on September 29, 1984 in Toronto, Canada.
  He was a Polish patriot, lawyer, veteran of the 1919-21 Polish-Soviet war, Polish intelligence and secret service case officer 1929-38 (in charge of counter espionage against the Soviets) and politician. He was elected to the Polish senate in 1938.
  Upon the invasion by Germany on September 1, 1939, Olechowski was charged with moving a large part of Poland's gold reserves to the safety of Hungary. Having done that, he returned to Poland to help with the fight against the German and (later)Soviet invasions.
  Captured by the Soviet NKVD in January 1940 (together with his wife and daughter), he was sent to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. His wife and daughter were sent directly to imprisonment in Siberia. His son remained in Warsaw in the Polish underground and was eventually captured by the Gestapo for aiding the inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto. Released, for unknown reasons, he was later re-captured during the Warsaw Uprising and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.
  
  wn.com/Josef_Olechowski
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  Joseph Rotblat
  Sir Joseph Rotblat,KCMG, CBE, FRS (born Józef Rotblat on 4 November 1908, died 31 August 2005), was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.
  His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty. A signatory of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, he was secretary general of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from its founding until 1973. In conjunction with the Pugwash Conferences, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament.
  Józef Rotblat was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, on November 4, 1908, as one of seven children (two not surviving childbirth). His father Zygmunt built up and ran a nationwide horse-drawn carriage business, owned land and bred horses. Józef's early years were spent in what was a prosperous household but circumstances changed at the outbreak of World War I. Borders were closed and horses requisitioned, leading to the failure of the business and poverty of their family.
  
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  Joseph Roth
  Joseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth (September 2, 1894 – May 27, 1939), was an Austrian-Jewish journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March (1932) about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job (1930) as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' (1927; translated into English as The Wandering Jews), a fragmented account about the Jewish migrations from eastern to western Europe in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In the 21st century, publications in English of Radetzky March and of collections of his journalism from Berlin and Paris created a revival of interest in the author. Roth committed suicide through alcohol abuse in 1939.
  Born to a Jewish family, Roth grew up in Brody, a small town near Lemberg (later annexed by the Soviet Union and called Lvov and now annexed by Ukraine and renamed Lviv) in East-Galicia, part of the easternmost reaches of what was then Austro-Hungarian empire. Jewish culture played an important role in the life of the town, which had one of the biggest Jewish populations in Europe. Roth grew up with his mother and her relatives; he never saw his father, who disappeared before he was born.
  
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  Julian Tuwim
  Julian Tuwim (Polish: Julian Tuwim; September 13, 1894 – December 27, 1953) (the surname comes from the Hebrew "טובים", "tovim", "good"), known also under the pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics, was a Polish poet of Jewish parents, born in Łódź, Congress Poland (then, part of the Russian Empire). He was educated in Łódź and in Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at the Warsaw University. In 1919 Tuwim co-founded the Skamander group of experimental poets with Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. He was a major figure in Polish literature, known especially for his contribution to children's literature. He was the recipient of a prestigious Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1935.
  Tuwim was born in Łódź, into a family of assimilated Jews. His parents Izydor and Adela, provided Julian with a comfortable middle class upbringing. He was not a particularly diligent student and had to repeat the sixth grade. In 1905 the family had to flee from Łódź to Breslau in order to escape possible repercussions following Izydor's involvement in the Revolution of 1905.
  
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  Juliusz Rómmel
  Juliusz Karol Wilhelm Józef Rómmel (German: Julius Karl Wilhelm Josef Freiherr von Rummel;^{[citation needed]} born 3 June 1881 in Grodno - died 8 September 1967 in Warsaw) was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, he gained great fame for achieving a decisive victory in the Battle of Komarów, the largest cavalry engagement of the 20th century. A commander of two Polish armies during the Polish Defensive War of 1939, Rómmel was one of the most controversial of the generals to serve during that conflict. He was also a distant relative of the future German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
  Rómmel graduated from the Konstantin's Artillery School in St. Petersburg in 1903. He served in the Russian Army and reached the rank of colonel. During the Great War, he served as the commanding officer of the 1st Artillery Brigade. In 1917, he was transferred to the Polish II Corps being formed in the area of Ukraine and became one of its organizers. During the Russian Civil War, he commanded the Polish Light Brigade, a part of General Zeligowski's 4th Rifle Division. Interned by Austria-Hungary, in 1918 he joined the Polish Army.
  
  wn.com/Juliusz_Rómmel
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  Jurek Becker
  Jurek Becker (September 30, 1937 – March 14, 1997) was a Polish-born German writer, film-author and GDR dissident. His most famous novel is Jacob the Liar, which has been made into two films. He lived in Łódź during World War II for about two years and survived the Holocaust.
  Jurek Becker was born in 1937 and lived in the Łódź Ghetto as a child. When he was five, he was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and later to Sachsenhausen. His mother died in the Holocaust, but his father survived; father and son were reunited after the war and settled together in East Berlin.
  After completing his national service in the East German army in the 1950s, during which time he became firm friends with the actor Manfred Krug, Becker studied philosophy in East Berlin but was expelled for expressing non-conformist views. In the 1960s he wrote film scripts, one of which, Jakob der Lügner (Jacob the Liar), he turned into a novel when the film production was halted. It was made into a film by the East German film company DEFA in 1974 and in 1975 became the only East German film ever to be nominated for an Academy Award (in the foreign-language film category), though it did not win. A 1998 remake, starring Robin Williams in the title role, had limited success. By the mid-1970s differences of opinion with the GDR authorities were becoming apparent, and Becker was one of the original twelve signatories of the petition against the expulsion of writer and singer Wolf Biermann in November 1976. In 1977 he moved from East to West Berlin, though somewhat unusually he retained his East German citizenship. He continued to publish novels and short stories, some on Jewish themes, others not.
  
  wn.com/Jurek_Becker
• Józef Hecht
  Józef Hecht (1891–1951), more commonly known as Joseph Hecht, was a Polish painter, engraver and printmaker. Trained in classical engraving techniques, Hecht had a profound influence on 20th century printmaking.
  Born in Łódź, Poland, in 1891, Hecht studied at the Art Academy of Kraków from 1909 to 1914. On completion of his studies in Kraków, Hecht visited museums throughout Europe. The outbreak of World War I found him in Berlin. Due to the fact that he had done his studies in the Austrian zone in Poland and thanks to prizes obtained at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Hecht was given the option of going to neutral Norway, where he lived from 1914 to 1919. Immediately following the armistice, Hecht traveled to Italy and two years later, to Paris where he maintained his studio until his death. At this time Hecht became a member of the Salon d'Automne, thereby gaining an entrée into the Parisian art world and a chance to exhibit his work on a regular basis. At his Paris studio, he taught burin engraving, a classic copper engraving technique, to a number of prominent artists, including British surrealist painter and printmaker Stanley William Hayter, South African-born British painter and printmaker Dolf Rieser and many others who worked with Hayter during this time.
  
  wn.com/Józef_Hecht
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  Karl Dedecius
  Karl Dedecius (* May 20, 1921 in Łódź) is a German translator of Polish and Russian literature.
  Dedecius was born to German parents in the city of Łódź, Poland, then a multicultural city, which at that time had recently once again become a part of the Second Polish Republic. Dedecius attended the Polish Stefan-Żeromski High School, where he received his high-school degree (Matura). After the German invasion of Poland in the Second World War, Dedecius was first drafted into the Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst) and then into the German Army. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Stalingrad and became a prisoner of war. During his time as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union, he taught himself Russian. Dedecius wrote, „I lay in my sick-bed, and the nurses brought me books by Lermontov, for instance. For one year, I learned the Cyrillic Alphabet and Russian by reading Lermontov and Pushkin. Eventually, the guards asked me to write love-letters for them, because I wrote like Pushkin“.
  
  wn.com/Karl_Dedecius
• Karl Dominik
  Karl Dominik (Chinese name: Kaier, 凯洱, pinyin: Kǎiěr, lit. "Triumphant River", born March 2, 1980) is a Western Chinese speaking actor based in China. Originally from Poland he studied acting in Canada in 1996, and started his acting career in China in 2006.
  He created an organization to help actors create a community and share information and knowledge, the Shanghai Actors Association. Also many other more focused interest groups were formed through this vessel, such as the East West Theater Company of Shanghai.
  As of September 6, 2009 the Shanghai Actors Association has been shelved due to focusing on other projects such as his talent agency: Constellation Talent Agency. It strives to offer a professional, comprehensive, equal opportunity solution for those in need of foreign talent in China.
  
  wn.com/Karl_Dominik
• Karl Litzmann
  Karl Litzmann (January 22, 1850, Neuglobsow, Brandenburg - May 28, 1936, Neuglobsow) was a German World War I infantry general and later a Nazi official. He is best known for his victory in Battle of Łódź (1914). He earned the nickname "the Lion of Brzeziny" following a military victory there.
  After the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, the towns of Łódź and Brzeziny were renamed in honour of Karl Litzmann. On 11 April 1940 Łódź was officially retitled Litzmannstadt, while Brzeziny later became Löwenstadt (lion city). After World War II the towns reverted to their Polish names.
  Karl Litzmann was an Honorary Citizen of Neuruppin. The honorary citizenship was withdrawn in 2007.
  He was the father of Karl-Siegmund Litzmann and grandfather to Walter Lehweß-Litzmann.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Karl_Litzmann
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  Katarzyna Kobro
  Katarzyna Kobro (26 Jan 1898, Moscow - 21 Feb 1951, Łódź) was a Polish sculptor.
  
  wn.com/Katarzyna_Kobro
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  Kazimierz Brandys
  Kazimierz Brandys (27 October 1916 – 11 March 2000) was a Polish essayist and writer of film scripts.
  Brandys was born in Łódź. He was the brother of the writer Marian Brandys and husband of the translator Maria Zenowicz. He completed a law degree at the University of Warsaw. He was first published in 1935 as a theatrical critic, in the literary monthly ""Kuźnia Młodych". Between 1945 and 1950 he was a member of the editorial board of the weekly "Kuźnica". In 1946 he joined the Polish communist party. Beginning in 1956 he was the spokesperson for the party's program of "renewal" and "moral cleansing". Between 1956 and 1960 he was on the editorial board of the weekly "Nowa Kultura". In 1966 he left the communist party as a protest against repressions against Leszek Kołakowski. In 1970 and 1971 he taught Slovene at the Sorbonne. In 1976 he signed the Letter of 59, a protest against changes to the constitution of the People's Republic of Poland. Between 1977 and 1980 he was on the editorial board of "Zapis". After 1978 he lived outside of Poland. He died in 2000, in Paris.
  
  wn.com/Kazimierz_Brandys
• Kazimierz Karabasz
  Kazimierz Karabasz (Polish pronunciation: [kaˈʑimjɛʂ kaˈrabaʂ]; born May 6, 1930 in Bydgoszcz, Poland) is a Polish documentary filmmaker.
  Although his work is now rarely seen, his most famous film, a 10-minute documentary short entitled Muzykanci, can be found as an extra on the Criterion Collection edition of Krzysztof Kieslowski's film The Double Life of Véronique. Kieslowski, whom Karabasz mentored, chose Muzykanci as one of his personal top ten films of all-time in a 1992 poll conducted by the film magazine Sight & Sound [1].
  
  wn.com/Kazimierz_Karabasz
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  Leon Schiller
  Leon Schiller de Schildenfeld (April 14, 1887 - March 25, 1954) was a Polish theater and film director, critic and theoretician. He was also a composer and wrote theater and radio screenplays.
  He was born in Kraków (Krakau), Austria-Hungary, to a family of Austrian origin that had been ennobled by Empress Maria Theresa.
  Schiller became famous for his 1934 staging of Adam Mickiewicz's Dziady at Warsaw's Teatr Polski (Polish Theater). This was also presented in Lwów (now Lviv; 1932), Wilno (now Vilnius; 1933) and Sofia, Bulgaria (1937).
  Schiller graduated from Kraków's Jagiellonian University in philosophy and Polish literature. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
  He debuted as a singer in Kraków's Zielony Balonik (Green Balloon) cabaret (1906) and as a theater director in Warsaw's Polish Theater (Teatr Polski, 1917).
  He collaborated with the following Warsaw theaters:
  He also collaborated with theaters in Łódź and Lwów (now Lviv).
  From 1930 to 1932, he was artistic and drama director of Warsaw's Wielki (Great), Rozmaitości (Variety), and Mały (Little) Theaters.
  
  wn.com/Leon_Schiller
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  Marcin Gortat
  Marcin Gortat, pronounced "MAHR-cheen GOR-taht" (born February 17, 1984 in Łódź), also known as the Polish Hammer, is a Polish professional basketball player who plays the center position for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. The 6'11", 240 pound power forward/center is the son of boxer Janusz Gortat. He was a second-round draft choice of the Phoenix Suns in the 2005 NBA Draft and was traded for future cash considerations to the Orlando Magic. Gortat started his career in ŁKS Łódź, then he played 3 seasons in RheinEnergie Cologne in Germany's Basketball Bundesliga. RheinEnergie Cologne won the domestic championship in 2006.
  In his youth, Marcin was frequent in athletics such as high jump and football. His father Janusz Gortat was a Polish boxer and a bronze medalist in light heavyweight during the Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976 Olympics, and the mother Alicja Gortat was a representative of the Polish national team in volleyball. He has an older brother Robert, who is also a boxer. Gortat grew up in Łódź together with his brother Filip. He graduated from Technical School in Łódź, Poland. Apart from Polish, he is fluent in English, German and Serbian.
  
  wn.com/Marcin_Gortat
• Marek Saganowski
  Marek Mirosław Saganowski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈmarɛk miˈrɔswaf saɡaˈnɔfski]; born 31 October 1978 in Łódź) is a Polish football player who plays as a striker for ŁKS Łódź.
  Saganowski was born in Łódź, Poland and began his career in 1994 with his local club ŁKS Łódź, playing there for six seasons, with brief loan spells at Feyenoord in 1996 and with Hamburger SV in early 1997. Neither of these loan spells was a particular success and he returned to ŁKS in the summer of 1997 to rebuild his career. In 1997–98 he made 22 appearances for ŁKS Łódź, but his career was interrupted by a serious motor-cycle accident in 1998 following which he was unable to walk. He slowly recovered from the injuries, and returned to playing for ŁKS Łódź, although his goal-scoring abilities did not recover initially.
  He moved to Wisła Płock in 2000 and then to Odra Wodzisław the following year. He switched to Legia Warszawa in January 2003 where he returned to form, scoring 41 goals in 67 games. In 2005 he moved to Portugal's Vitoria Guimaraes where he notched 12 goals in his one season there.
  
  wn.com/Marek_Saganowski
• Max Factor
  Max Factor & Company is a cosmetics company, founded during 1909 by Maksymilian Faktorowicz (1877 – August 30, 1938), Max Factor, a Jewish cosmetician from Poland, Łódź. Max Factor & Company was a related, two-family, multi-generational international cosmetics company before its sale in 1973 for $500 million dollars. Presently, the Max Factor name is a popular brand of Procter & Gamble Co., which purchased the company in 1991.
  After immigrating to the United States in 1904 Max Factor moved his family and business to Los Angeles, California, seeing an opportunity to provide made-to-order wigs and theatrical make-up to the growing film industry. Besides selling his own make-up products he soon became the West Coast distributor of both Leichner and Minor, two leading theatrical make-up manufacturers.
  During the early years of movie-making, greasepaint in stick form, although the accepted make-up for use on the stage, could not be applied thinly enough, nor where did colors work satisfactorily on the screen. Factor began experimenting with various compounds in an effort to develop a suitable make-up for the new film medium. By 1914 he had perfected the first cosmetic specifically created for motion picture use — a thinner greasepaint in cream form, packaged in a jar, and created in 12 precisely-graduated shades. Unlike theatrical cosmetics, it would not crack or cake. It was worn for the first time by actor Henry B. Walthall, who served as the model for screen tests.
  
  wn.com/Max_Factor
• Mendel Grossman
  Mordka Mendel Grossman (born 27 June 1913 in Staszów, Poland, died 30 April 1945 during the so-called forced death march), artistic graphic, photographer, worker in the Statistical Department of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.
  He was born in a Jewish Hasidic family as a son of Szmul Dawid Grossman and Haya. After the First World War his family settled in Lodz. In early youth he (as a kid) began to draw portraits, as well as scenes from Jewish life. He started to make photographies, at first as an amateur, then as a professional. Pictures were colored by himself with use of the aniline paints. In the 1930s he connected with the Jewish Theater in Łódź, picturing scenes of all the performed plays, as well as actors and actresses. He knew also numerous writers, poets, musicians and painters.
  The Nazis put him in the Łódź Ghetto in 1939; there he found work as a photographer, making identification cards and documenting the work that his fellow inmates did in the ghetto. The Ghetto Government thought that these photographs would convince the Nazis to treat them better because they were diligent. Grossman also hid a camera in his coat during the day and took photographs of the living conditions of the ghetto. He took these photographs at great risk to his life, not only because the Gestapo suspected him, but also because of his weak heart. Some of his photographs assisted people to identify the graves of their loved ones. M. Grossman's negatives are now the prepared documentation of the Holocaust. Grossman distributed many of his photographs; those he was unable to distribute, he tried to hide. In August 1944, shortly before the final liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, he hid ca. 10.000 negatives, showing scenes from the Ghetto.
  
  wn.com/Mendel_Grossman
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  Mikhail Katukov
  Marshal of Armoured Troops Mikhail Efimovich Katukov (September 17, 1900 - June 8, 1976) (Russian: Михаил Ефимович Катуков) served as a commander of armored troops in the Red Army during and following World War II. He is viewed as one of the most talented Soviet armor commanders.^{[citation needed]}
  Mikhail Efimovich Katukov entered the Red Army as a private in 1919. He served during the Russian Civil War, and later served as a tank formation commander before the war. In 1935 he graduated from the Stalin Military Academy.
  His most notable command during the German-Soviet War was that of 1st Guards Tank Army which he commanded during the Battle of Kursk, Operation Bagration, the Vistula Oder Operation, and the Battle of Berlin. He also commanded 1st Guards Tank Brigade during the Battle of Moscow, and 3rd Mechanised Corps during Operation Mars.
  In the defense of Moscow in 1941, it was Katukov's 4th Tank Brigade, part of the 1st Guards Rifle Corps, that checked the advance of Guderian's Panzergruppe 2 near Tula. To honor this achievement it became the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.
  
  wn.com/Mikhail_Katukov
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  Mirosław Drzewiecki
  Mirosław Drzewiecki (Polish pronunciation: [miˈrɔswav dʐɛˈvʲɛtskʲi]) (born July 8, 1956 in Łódź) is a Polish politician, representing Platforma Obywatelska. He graduated from Emilia Sczaniecka High School in Łódź, followed by his 5-year stint at the University of Łódź Department of Law, where he obtained his M.A. title. In 1989 he established his own business, which dealt with upholstery and embroidery. Then he became the owner of several restaurants. Currently, he is one of the richest people in Poland, ranked by a weekly Wprost among the Top 100 richest Poles. He is the former Minister of Sport and Tourism. He took over the Ministry following the 2007 parliamentary election, and held the office from November 2007 to October 2009.
  In 1996 his figure evoked many controversies because his embroidery firm has falsified trade marks of Adidas and Nike. But the most important controversy linked to Drzewiecki is the so-called Gambling Scandal. In result of this scandal he left the office of Minister of Sport and Tourism and several other prominenet members of the Civic Platform were indicted or persecuted. Because of this scandal he was temporarily suspended from the Civic Platform membership and testified in front of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission.
  
  wn.com/Mirosław_Drzewiecki
• Natan Spigel
  Natan Spigel (also: Nathan, Szpigiel/Spiegel/Szpigel) (1886–1942) was a Jewish artist painter born in Poland. Spigel was a key member of the influential Expressionist group, Jung Idysz. He showed throughout Europe until his internment in Radomsko ghetto in 1939. Natan was murdered in Treblinka in 1942, and only about 20 of his works survived World War II.
  Natan Spigel was born into an orthodox Jewish family in Lodz, now in Poland, in 1886 (or 1900). He studied art as a young man and then in 1920 traveled to Rome on sponsorship, where he continued his studies with Henryk Glicenstein. His first major success, in Paris, was the invitation to show in the 1924 Salon d'Automne, although his first public exhibition was in Lodz in 1921. He was invited to exhibit in London at the Ben Uri Gallery in 1930 and also, at a joint exhibition with Jacob Epstein. In Poland Natan Spigel was regularly exhibiting his work, with shows in Lodz, Cracow and Warsaw (1921, 1928 & 1937).
  Spigel considered himself a Jewish painter, and his painting reflected this focus, depicting scenes of Jewish life in Poland, as well as portraits and still-life, in both watercolours and oils. A particularly distinctive feature of some of his watercolours was his use of varnish to give age and contrast. Spigel was a key member of the Expressionist group, Jung Idysz. He was also a member of ‘Start’, a group of mainly Jewish, Lodz artists, who exhibited across Poland throughout the 20’s and 30’s. By the 1930s his work was in collections in Poland, London, and Israel.
  
  wn.com/Natan_Spigel
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  Paul Kletzki
  Paul Kletzki (21 March 1900 – 5 March 1973) was a Polish conductor and composer.
  Born Paweł Klecki in Łódź, Poland, he later adopted the German spelling Paul Kletzki. He joined its Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of fifteen. After serving in the First World War, he studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw before moving to Berlin in 1921 to continue his studies. During the 1920s his compositions were championed by Arturo Toscanini; and Wilhelm Furtwängler, who permitted Kletzki to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1925. Because he was Jewish, he left Nazi Germany in 1933 and moved to Italy, however due to the anti-semitism of the Italian Fascist regime he moved to the Soviet Union in 1936. He later went to live in Switzerland.
  Kletzki's most notable work is his Third Symphony, completed in October 1939, with the subtitle 'In memoriam'. It is an elegiac work interpreted as a moving monument to the victims of Nazism. Other works include two string quartets, a Sinfonietta for strings, a Fantasy for piano, and a sonata for violin and piano. From 1942 onwards Kletzki wrote no more compositions; he argued that Nazism had destroyed his spirit and his will to compose. During the Holocaust a number of Kletzki's family were murdered by the Nazis including his parents and his sister.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Kletzki
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  Piotr Fronczewski
  Piotr Fronczewski (born June 8, 1946 in Łódź, Poland), is a Polish actor and singer.
  As a fictional character Franek Kimono he issued a disco LP in 1983 which was meant to be a musical joke but turned out to be a great success. Fronczewski started his acting career playing in the theater. He also performed in cabarets. His daughters - Kasia and Magda Fronczewskie were very popular child-singers in late 1980s and early 1990s.
  From his TV and movie work, he's probably best known as Mr Kleks, the main character of a series of movies based on books written by Jan Brzechwa and illustrated by Craig Bonner. He also voiced Robert "Bob" Parr/Mr. Incredible in the Polish dub of The Incredibles.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Piotr_Fronczewski
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  Piotr Krzywicki
  Piotr Krzywicki (born October 22, 1964, Poddębice - died December 9, 2009, Łódź) was a Polish politician. From 1998-2001, he served on the he served on Łódź's city council.
  He was elected to the Sejm on September 25, 2005, winning 19944 votes in Łódź's 9th district, representing the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość Party until November 5, 2007, when he switched political parties, joining Polish Plus, where he would remain until his death in 2009.
  Krzywicki graduated from law school at the University of Łódź. He was also a member of Sejm 2001-2005.
  He died on 9 December 2009, aged 45, from pancreatic cancer.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Piotr_Krzywicki
• Piotr Sobociński
  Piotr Sobociński (Polish pronunciation: [ˈpjɔtr sɔbɔˈt͡ɕiɲskʲi]; February 3, 1958 – March 26, 2001) was one of the most respected cinematographers ever to come from Poland, picking up where his father, legendary Polish cinematographer, Witold Sobociński, left off. He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Three Colours: Red in 1994.
  Born in 1958, in Łódź, Poland, as a youngster, Sobociński felt lead in his father's footsteps. He studied at the National Film School in Łódź and earned his degrees in 1987.
  He worked with noted Polish director, Krzysztof Kieślowski in many films, starting with The Decalogue (Dekalog) (1988) and culminating with his final film, Three Colours: Red (1994), for which Sobociński won his first award 'The Silver Frog Award' at Camerimage, Poland’s International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography and an Oscar nomination also in 1994. In the following year, he won the Golden Frog award for The Seventh Room, and in 1997 he received a Golden Frog nomination for Marvin’s Room.
  
  wn.com/Piotr_Sobociński
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  Roman Polanski
  Roman Polanski (born 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers." Polanski's films have inspired diverse directors, including the Coen brothers,Atom Egoyan,Darren Aronofsky,Park Chan-wook,Abel Ferrara, and Wes Craven.
  Born in Paris to Polish parents, he moved with his family back to Poland in 1937, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Holocaust and was educated in Poland and became a director of both art house and commercial films. Polanski's first feature-length film, Knife in the Water (1962), made in Poland, was nominated for a United States Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but was beaten by Federico Fellini's 8½. He has since received five more Oscar nominations, along with two Baftas, four Césars, a Golden Globe Award and the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival in France. In the United Kingdom he directed three films, beginning with Repulsion (1965). In 1968 he moved to the United States, and cemented his status by directing the Oscar-winning horror film Rosemary's Baby (1968).
  
  wn.com/Roman_Polanski
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  Romani people
  The Romani are an ethnic group living mostly in Europe, who trace their origins to the Indian Subcontinent. Romani are widely known in the English-speaking world by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies).
  They are known collectively in the Romani language as Romane or Rromane (depending on the dialect concerned) and also as Romany, Romanies, Romanis, Roma or Roms.
  Romani are widely dispersed, with their largest concentrated populations in Europe, especially the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe and Anatolia, followed by the Kale of Iberia and Southern France.
  The Americas are also home to large numbers of Romani. There are an estimated one million Roma in the United States; 800,000 in Brazil, to which Kale were deported by the government of Portugal during the colonial era; and in more recent migrations, Romani have also moved to other parts of the New World.
  The Romani language is divided into several dialects, which add up to an estimated number of speakers larger than two million. The total number of Romani people is at least twice as large (several times as large according to high estimates). Many Romani are native speakers of the language current in their country of residence, or of mixed languages combining the two.
  
  wn.com/Romani_people
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  Russian Civil War
  The Russian Civil War (25 October 1917 – October 1922) was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire fought between the Bolshevik Red Army and the White Army, the loosely allied anti-Bolshevik forces. Many foreign armies warred against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces and the pro-German armies. The Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine and the army led by Aleksandr Kolchak in Siberia in 1919. The remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in the Crimea and were evacuated in the autumn of 1920. A number of independent countries – Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland – emerged from the war.
  After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established during the February Revolution of 1917.
  In the wake of the October Revolution, the old Russian Imperial Army had been demobilized; the volunteer-based Red Guard was the Bolsheviks' main military force, augmented by an armed military component of the Cheka, the Bolshevik state security apparatus. In January, after significant reverses in combat, War Commissar Leon Trotsky headed the reorganization of the Red Guard into a Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, in order to create a more professional fighting force. Political commissars were appointed to each unit of the army to maintain morale and ensure loyalty.
  
  wn.com/Russian_Civil_War
• Sabina Citron
  Sabina Citron (born in 1928) is a Holocaust survivor. She is a founder and spokesman of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association, charged a Nazi propagandist with incitement to racial hatred against the Jewish people, and prevailed in a civil law suit for libel against Imre Finta. She is also the author of The Indictment.
  Citron was born in Lodz, Poland. She performed forced labor in an ammunition factory during World War II. Later during the Holocaust, she was incarcerated in Auschwitz concentration camp, where her oldest brother died. The majority of her extended family was killed during the Holocaust. She moved to Israel in 1948, later immigrated to Toronto, Canada, and now lives in Jerusalem, Israel.
  Citron became a founder and spokesman of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association. In 1983 Citron charged Nazi propagandist Ernst Zündel, a Holocaust denier and pamphleteer, under the Criminal Code of Canada with incitement to racial hatred against the Jewish people. The case was taken over by the Crown, and Zündel was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in jail. She also prevailed in a civil law suit for libel against former Nazi Imre Finta, after he accused her of being a liar for saying that he had committed war crimes.
  
  wn.com/Sabina_Citron
• Skin Hunters
  The "Skin Hunters" ("Łowcy skór" in Polish) is the media nickname for four hospital casualty workers from the Polish city of Łódź, who were convicted of murdering at least five patients and selling information regarding their deaths to funeral homes. They were apprehended in 2002. Their descriptive designation was coined by a newspaper article which first brought the story to the public's attention.
  On January 20, 2007 four employees from a hospital casualty department in Łódź were sentenced. The perpetrators were shown to have killed mostly elderly patients using the muscle relaxant pancuronium (brand name Pavulon). The four workers then sold information about the deceased patients to funeral homes, so they could contact the relatives before other funeral homes could. They exacted bribes ranging from 12,000 to over 70,000 zloty.
  The killers are:
  Their sentences were upheld by the Łódź Appeal Court in June 2008. Further appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court of Poland on October 27, 2009.
  
  wn.com/Skin_Hunters
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  Solomon Perel
  Solomon Perel (also Shlomo Perel or Solly Perel) is an author and motivational speaker. He was born 20 April, 1925 in Peine, Lower Saxony, Germany to a German Jewish family. He escaped persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an ethnic German. His life story is told in the 1990 film Europa Europa loosely based on his autobiography Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon (I Was Hitler Youth Salomon).
  The Perels were harshly persecuted like so many other German Jews when the Nazis came to power, and Solomon's father eventually moved the family to Łódź, Poland in 1935 after their shoe shop was deliberately pillaged by German Nazi vandals.
  When the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, Solomon and his brother Isaak attempted to escape to the Soviet-occupied part of Poland. Solomon succeeded and was placed in a Komsomol-run orphanage in Grodno whilst his brother was unable to join him remaining in Nazi-occupied Poland.
  Solomon fled from the orphanage when Germany invaded the Soviet Union and was captured by a German army unit. Since he was a native German and spoke the language perfectly, Solomon was able to convince his captors that he was a Volksdeutscher (an ethnic German living outside Germany) and was subsequently accepted into his captors' unit as a Russian-German interpreter. He played a key role in the capture of Joseph Stalin's son, a Red Army officer, and thereafter became endeared to his German army unit. As a circumcised German Jew, Perel was constantly in danger of being discovered by his military unit, and attempted on several occasions to flee back to the Soviets, each time without success.
  
  wn.com/Solomon_Perel
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  Stanislaus Kostka
  Stanisław Kostka S.J. (28 October 1550– 15 August 1568) was a Polish novice of the Society of Jesus. In the Catholic Church as Saint Stanislaus Kostka.
  He was born at Rostkowo, Przasnysz County, Poland, on 28 October 1550; died at Rome during the night of 14–15 August 1568. He entered the Society of Jesus in Rome on his 17th birthday (28 October 1567), and is said to have foretold his death a few days before it occurred.
  His father, Jan (John) Kostka, was a senator of the Kingdom of Poland and Lord of Zakroczym; his mother was Małgorzata Kryska from Drobni (Margaret de Drobniy Kryska), the sister and niece of the voivodes of Masovia and the aunt of the celebrated Chancellor of Poland, Feliks Kryski (Felix Kryski)(Szczęsny Kryski). He was the second of seven children. His older brother Paweł (Paul) survived to be present at beatification ceremony of Stanislaus in 1605. At home, the two brothers were taught with firmness, even severity; its results were their piety, modesty, temperance, and submission.
  
  wn.com/Stanislaus_Kostka
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  Stanisław Staszic
  Stanisław Wawrzyniec Staszic [staˈniswaf ˈstaʂit​͡s] (6 November 1755 – 20 January 1826) was a leading figure in the Polish Enlightenment — Catholic priest, philosopher, geologist, writer, poet, translator and statesman.
  He is remembered for his political writings during the "Great (Four-Year) Sejm" (1788–92) and for his support of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, adopted by that Sejm.
  A physiocrat, monist, pan-Slavist (after 1815) and laissez-fairist, he supported many reforms.
  He co-founded the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning (precursor to the Polish Academy of Sciences), of which he became president.
  He served as a member of the State Council of the Duchy of Warsaw and as minister of trade and industry in Congress Poland.
  Stanisław Staszic was born into a burgher family in the town of Piła on 6 November 1755, the youngest of four siblings. His father, Wawrzyniec Staszic, was mayor of Piła and a royal secretary.
  Staszic attended secondary school at Wałcz. He graduated from a Jesuit school at Poznań in 1778 and was ordained a Catholic priest (he took lesser holy orders in 1774, and higher orders about 1778-79). Between 1779 and 1781 he continued his theological studies in France at the College de France.
  
  wn.com/Stanisław_Staszic
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  Stefan Rozental
  Stefan Rozental (born 1903 in Łódź, Poland, died 1994 in Copenhagen, Denmark), was a nuclear physicist, specialising in quantum mechanics. Trapped outside Poland when World War I started, he and his parents ended up in Denmark and spent four years from 1915 there before they returned to their native Poland in 1919 after the war. He received his PhD from the University of Kraków in 1928.
  He later held an assistant position with Werner Heisenberg in Leipzig between 1929 and 1934 and lectured in Kraków between 1934 and 1938. Due to the rising Antisemitism in Poland he emigrated to Denmark and arrived in Copenhagen in March 1938 where Niels Bohr admitted him to his institute. From 1940, after Hendrik Anthony Kramers (from 1916) and Léon Rosenfeld (from 1934), he was Niels Bohr's personal assistant for almost fifteen years, whom he assisted even into the early sixties after both returned to Copenhagen in 1945.
  Biographical Informationen from on the web site of the Niels Bohr Institute:
  
  
  
  wn.com/Stefan_Rozental
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  Tadeusz Mazowiecki
  Tadeusz Mazowiecki [taˈdɛuʂ mazɔˈvʲɛt​͡skʲi] ( listen) (born April 18, 1927 in Płock) is a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.
  Mazowiecki comes from a Polish noble family, which uses the Dołęga coat of arms. He has a secondary education - he was a pupil at the Marshal Stanisław Małachowski Lyceum (class 1946), and then went on to read law at Warsaw University. However, he never graduated. From 1945 to 1955, Mazowiecki was a member of the Communist-controlled Catholic PAX Association from which he was later expelled for being the leader of the so-called internal opposition. Between 1953 and 1955, he was the editor-in-chief of the Catholic Wrocław Weekly (WTK - Wrocławski Tygodnik Katolicki). Under Stalinism in Poland he was involved in the defamation of the Bishop of Kielce Czesław Kaczmarek, groundlessly accused by the Communists of being an American and Vatican spy.
  
  wn.com/Tadeusz_Mazowiecki
• Tadeusz Miciński
  Tadeusz Micinski (9 November 1873 in Łódź – February 1918 in Cherykaw Raion, Belarus) was an influential Polish poet, gnostic and playwright, and was a forerunner of Expressionism and Surrealism. He is one of the writers of the Young Poland period (Neoromanticism movement). His writings are strong influenced by Dark Romanticism and Romantic gothic fiction. He was called by many a wizard poet and a worshipper of mysteries.
  He studied philosophy at the University of Kraków, and was heavily influenced by Polish messianism. His work consisted of both philosophical and mystical themes, the most well-known is the collection of poems W mroku gwiazd (In the Twilight of the Stars), released in 1902, and a 1906 play, Kniaź Patiomkin (Prince Potemkin).
  In 1918 he was killed by rebellious villagemen in Belarus.
  He was friends with the writer and painter Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and the composer Karol Szymanowski, who composed music dedicated to him.
  There is a street named by Tadeusz Miciński on Łódź settlement Teofilów
  
  wn.com/Tadeusz_Miciński
• Wanda Jakubowska
  Wanda Jakubowska (10 October 1907 in Warsaw – 25 February 1998 in Warsaw) was a Polish film director. During World War II, she was a prisoner in Auschwitz. After the war, she made movie Ostatni etap (The Last Stage) in 1947. The film was partly shot on location at Auschwitz concentration camp. The film is based on director Wanda Jakubowska's personal experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz. She claimed that what helped her to survive Auschwitz was constantly thinking about the documentation of her experiences.
  
  wn.com/Wanda_Jakubowska
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  Wojciech Olejniczak
  Wojciech Michał Olejniczak [ˈvɔjt​͡ɕɛx ɔlɛjˈɲit​͡ʂak] ( listen) (born 10 April 1974 in Łowicz, Poland) is a Polish leftist politician and member of the European Parliament.
  He was the chairman of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) from 29 May 2005, to 31 May 2008 (the first chairman of that party that was not a member of Polish United Workers' Party) and the vice-speaker of Sejm since 26 October 2005. From 2 July 2003, to 31 May 2005, Olejniczak was the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
  He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 31,471 votes in the 11th Sieradz district, running on the SLD list. He was also a member of Sejm 2001–2005. He was reelected on 21 October 2007 getting 51,865 votes in the 9th Łódź district.
  On 7 June 2009 he was elected Member of European Parliament from Warsaw constituency, gaining 72,854 votes.
  He achieved notoriety in Poland for a speech made during the ECOSY Congress in Warsaw, Poland, which displayed his poor command of the English language. This inspired an internet meme on the basis of his speech.
  
  wn.com/Wojciech_Olejniczak
• Władysław Pasikowski
  Władysław Pasikowski (Polish pronunciation: [vwaˈdɨswaf paɕiˈkɔfskʲi]; born June 14, 1959 in Łódź, Poland) is a Polish film director and screenwriter.
  He made his debut film, Kroll in 1991, who was honored at the Polish Film Festival prize for his debut and the Special Jury Prize. The biggest commercial success, popularity and earned him two Dogs. Revolves mainly action films. Pasikowski is also the author of novels of science fiction I, Gelerth, which in 1993 was nominated for the Prize. Janusz A. Zajdel.
  Films:
  
  
  
  wn.com/Władysław_Pasikowski
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  Władysław Reymont
  Władysław Stanisław Reymont (Kobiele Wielkie, May 7, 1867 – December 5, 1925, Warsaw) was a Polish novelist and the 1924 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel Chłopi (The Peasants).
  Reymont's baptism certificate lists his original surname as Stanisław Władysław Rejment. The change of name from "Rejment" to "Reymont" was made by the author himself during his publishing debut, as it was supposed to protect him, in the Russian part of Poland, from any potential trouble for having already published in Galicia a work not allowed under the Tsar's censorship. Kazimierz Wyka, an enthusiast of Reymont's work, believes that the correction could also have been meant to remove any association with the word rejmentować, which in some local Polish dialects means "to swear".
  Reymont was born in the village of Kobiele Wielkie, near Radomsko as one of nine children to Józef Rejment, an organist. He spent his childhood in Tuszyn near Łódź, to which his father had moved in order to work at a richer church parish. Reymont was defiantly stubborn; after a few years of education in the local school he was sent by his father to Warsaw into the care of his eldest sister and her husband to teach him his vocation. In 1885, after passing his examinations and presenting "a tail-coat, well-made", he was given the title of journeyman tailor – his only formal certificate of education.
  
  wn.com/Władysław_Reymont
• Zbigniew Nienacki
  Zbigniew Nienacki (January 1, 1929 in Łódź – September 23, 1994 in Morąg) was a pen name of Polish writer, Zbigniew Tomasz Nowicki.
  His works consist of adventure stories aimed at teenagers as well as adult novels. He achieved his greatest acclaim for his Pan Samochodzik series, a sequence of historical detective stories centering around a museum employee and his fantastic automobile (samochodzik means a little car in Polish). The works Uwodziciel, Raz w roku w Skiroławkach, Wielki Las, and Dagome Iudex contain erotic themes, especially erotic fantasies, that caused some controversy in Poland, especially Raz w roku w Skirolawkach was strongly criticised by the Communist Poland's media. Series Dagome Iudex is, outside erotica, is an attempt to weave Polish Piast history and Slavic, Norse and folk traditions into the historical adult novel, where main character is every bit like Machiavelli's Prince.
  Aside from being forcibly relocated during World War II and his brief studies in cinematography in Moscow, he spent most of his life until 1967 in Łódź. In 1967 he moved to Masuria (Polish: Mazury), a lake filled region in northeastern Poland, where he remained until his death. Mazury are sometimes the setting for Pan Samochodzik and feature in some of his other works.
  
  wn.com/Zbigniew_Nienacki
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  Zbigniew Rybczyński
  Zbigniew Rybczyński (Polish pronunciation: [ˈzbiɡɲɛf rɨpˈt͡ʂɨɲskʲi]; born January 27, 1949) is a Polish filmmaker who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United States and internationally. He was also a teacher of cinematography, and digital cinematography. Currently he is a researcher of blue and greenscreen compositing technology at Ultimatte Corporation.
  Rybczyński was born in Łódź, Poland. He studied cinematography at the then world-famous Łódź Film School (PWSFTviT). He began his professional career working as a cinematographer for young directors of his generation. His films from that period include: The Talk (Rozmowa- TV) and Gropingly (Po Omacku) by Piotr Andrejew, Videocassette (Wideokaseta) by Filip Bajon, Wanda Gościmińska włókniarka by Wojciech Wiszniewski and a feature movie by Grzegorz Królikiewicz Dancing Hawk (Tańczący Jastrząb).
  Rybczyński was also active in an avant-garde group "Warsztat Formy Filmowej", and had cooperated with "Se-Ma-For" Studios in Łódź, where he authored a series of short films, including: Plamuz 1973, Zupa 1974, Nowa książka 1975 and Tango 1980. Tango was his big success, winning the Oscar Award for Best Animated Short in 1982.
  
  wn.com/Zbigniew_Rybczyński
• Zew Wawa Morejno
  Zew Wawa Morejno (February 28, 1916 – March 19, 2011) was a Polish and American rabbi.
  Morejno was born into a hasidic family in Warsaw. He studied at rabbinical schools in Baranovichi, Mir, Belarus and in Kamieniec Litewski. In 1939 he became a rabbi in Zuprany. He survived the German occupation of Poland, serving as a rabbi in the ghettoes of Ashmyany and Vilnius, and later (1943–44) he was imprisoned in Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.
  During the years 1945 and 1946, he served as dean and founder of The Advanced Rabbinical School Netzach Israel in Łódź. From 1948, he served as the Chief Rabbi of Łódź. In 1952, he was removed from this position by the Communist leadership of Łódź over a dispute regarding Jewish cemetery rights in the city.
  In 1956, reinstalled as Chief Rabbi of Łódź, he also became the director of the Main Religious Council and the Chief Rabbi of Poland. Shortly, however, he was again removed.
  Prosecuted throughout the 1960s by the Communist party for protesting the destruction of Jewish cemeteries in Poland and for the widespread resurgence of political antisemitism culminating in the mass expulsion of Polish Jews in 1968 (March 1968 events), after the Six Day War. As the last rabbi of Communist Poland, in 1973 he emigrated to the United States where he became a rabbi in the Hasidic Ger community in Brooklyn, New York. He died in New York on March 19, 2011.
  
  wn.com/Zew_Wawa_Morejno