Poland

Poland is a 1983 historical fiction novel by James Michener. It obliquely follows three families (the Lubonskis, the Bukowskis, and the Luks) living in the eponymous country across a period spanning the premodern era to 1981. Written episodically, the book presents vignettes of familial struggles in times of unrest through Michener’s interpretive lens, which is informed by an extensive study of Polish history. The book eventuated from Michener’s experience as a paid documentary filmographer, after which he received funding to travel anywhere in the world, and chose Poland.

Poland begins in 1980s communist Poland, in the city of Bukowo. The minister of agriculture, Szymon Bukowski, attends a meeting at the home of Janko Buk, a leader of an informal but empowered group of farmers. Together they hope to remedy certain agricultural problems and discuss the possibility of forming a farmers’ union in Poland. Striking chords with the Solidarity movement occurring in the United States, this meeting is considered historic by news syndicates and broadcast to the US, Japan, Russia, and the rest of Western Europe. While the Bukowskis represent the prominent modern gentry, the Buks and Lubonskis are later introduced to represent, respectively, the proletariat and nobility.

The next snapshot occurs around the time of the Tatar invasion of Poland, between 1240 and 1241. It surveys a series of conflicts, including the battles of Tursko, the Battle of Legnica, the siege of Krakow, and the Mongols’ invasion of Poland. In the following century, the Teutonic Knights occupy Poland, catalyzing the Battle of Grunwald. These battles set the precedent for the strife that now characterizes Polish history. They also set up an enduring organizational model: With no true national borders and no cohesive government, Poland starts with a hired king, because its founding magnates want a departure from ideas of unquestioned monarchic lineage. Self-defense seems to be a founding principle of Poland, foreshadowing its later struggles to stay independent.



The novel then jumps forward to the seventeenth century, covering Sweden’s invasion of Poland and the ensuing Polish-Swedish wars. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a peaceful union of two separate nations, is dismantled during the Deluge, when surrounding unrest cascades into Polish political and social affairs. This century also includes the Ottoman Empire’s invasion and the Battle of Vienna.

With the eighteenth century comes the Golden Freedom period. Polish politics evolve, developing such concepts as liberum veto and Sejm, and inspiring political figures emerge to forge a stronger national identity. The time is also marked with strife, however, including the partitioning of Polish land and the Kosciuszko Uprising, in which contentious political models clash.

Next, at the end of the nineteenth century, Polish exiles live elsewhere in Europe after the partitioning is finalized and the Habsburg monarchy reaches full power. Germany, Russia, and Austria absorb all of Poland’s land.



The twentieth century is marked by Poland’s Reconstitution, in which the country subsumes its fractured borders into a more cohesive nation-state and reconciles with former adversaries. Later, in 1920, Poland helps defeat Russian communists in the Battle of Komarow, also known as Zamosc. This peace is short-lived, however; World War II bring another invasion of Poland, this time by the Nazi regime. After that, continued regional instability leaves Poland vulnerable to Soviet occupation. Despite the chaos, Poles resist, forming groups such as the Lesni, which attempt to fashion new, free societies in the forests.

The novel concludes with a return to 1981, where the story began. The tides seem to turn in Bukowski and Buk’s debate about Poland’s future, suggesting a future more informed by democratic principles. Though the book diagnoses Poland’s inherent, foundational weaknesses, many of which cost its culture, norms, and power structures critical evolutionary time, Poland also serves as a chronicle of past struggles from which the Polish people have gradually but surely learned, to point their way to a more stable and prosperous national future.