MY POSTBOX: POLAND- Rzeczpospolita Polska

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

POLAND- Rzeczpospolita Polska

Poland (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres (120,733 sq mi), and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. Poland is bordered by the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast to the north, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.

Many animals that have since died out in other parts of Europe still survive in Poland, such as the wisent in the ancient woodland of the Białowieża Forest and in Podlaskie. Other such species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids, the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests, the moose in northern Poland, and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie. In the forests there are game animals, such as red deer, roe deer and wild boar. In eastern Poland there are a number of ancient woodlands, like Białowieża forest, that have never been cleared or disturbed much by people. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Masuria, Pomerania, Lubusz Land and Lower Silesia. Poland is the most important breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.

The public postal service in Poland is operated by Poczta Polska (the Polish Post). It was created on 18 October 1558, when King Sigismund II Augustus established a permanent postal route from Kraków to Venice. The service was dissolved during the foreign partitions in the 18th century. After regaining independence in 1918, Poland's postal system developed rapidly as new services were introduced including money transfers, payment of pensions, delivery of magazines, and air mail. The government-owned enterprise of Polish Post, Telegraph and Telephone (Polska Poczta, Telegraf i Telefon) was established in 1928.

The first Polish stamp was issued for the Congress Kingdom on 1 January 1860 . Austria occupied the southern part of Congress Poland; no special stamps were issued; Austrian stamps were made available. Austrian field post offices were set up which used postmarks with Polish town names. The area occupied by Germany was named "General Government Warsaw" (General-Gouvernement Warschau) and on 5 November 1916 was proclaimed a "Polish Kingdom" by both Germany and Austria. On 12 May 1915, five contemporary German stamps, overprinted "Russisch-Polen", by the Imperial Printing Works in Berlin, were first issued for use in the German occupied area. On 1 August 1916, after the fall of Warsaw and the complete occupation of central Poland, a set 11 stamps overprinted "Gen.-Gouv. Warschau" was issued. They remained in use until November 1918. These stamps only ensured delivery to the post office and not to the addressee. In addition to stamps, postal stationery items were also overprinted and made available. One postcard and one reply postcard were issued overprinted "Russisch-Polen". Three different postcards and two different reply postcards were issued with the "Gen.-Gouv. Warschau" overprint.