West Poland (Freedom Ascendant)



West Poland (Polish: Zachodnia Polska) is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Poland (Polish: Republika Federalna Polski), in the period between its creation on May 23, 1949 to Polish reunification on September 1, 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Poland and Warsaw-Pact-aligned East Poland were divided by the Inner Polish border. After 1961, East Warsaw was physically separated from West Warsaw as well as from West Poland by the Warsaw Wall. This situation ended when East Poland was dissolved and its 10 states joined the 20 states of the Federal Republic of Poland along with the reunified city-state of Warsaw. With the reunification of West and East Poland, the Federal Republic of Poland, enlarged now to 21 (slightly altered) states, became known simply as "Poland." This period is referred to as the Lublin Republic (Rzeczpospolita Lubelska) by historians, as that is where the Allies and Polish represenetatives unified the three occupation zones.