Short answers, pulled from the story.
Poland is a country in Central Europe that extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south. It borders Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.
The native name Polska derives from the Polans, a West Slavic tribe that inhabited the Warta River basin between the 6th and 8th centuries. The tribe's name comes from the Proto-Slavic noun pole, meaning field, which alludes to the flat landscape of Greater Poland.
Poland adopted Christianity in 966 when Mieszko I, ruler of the Polans, accepted Western Christianity under the Roman Catholic Church. Bolesław I the Brave was crowned the first King of Poland around 1025 with permission from Pope John XIX.
Poland was partitioned by Prussia, Russia, and Austria in three stages in 1772, 1793, and 1795. On the 24th of October 1795 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned a third time and ceased to exist as a territorial entity, ending its independent existence for 123 years.
Poland lost around 6 million citizens in the Second World War, more than one-sixth of its pre-war population and the highest percentage of any country in the war. Half of them were Polish Jews, and about 90% of the deaths were non-military in nature.
Labour turmoil in 1980 produced the independent trade union Solidarity, which by 1989 triumphed in Poland's first partially free elections since the war. Poland became the first communist country to re-establish itself as a liberal democracy, and Solidarity candidate Lech Wałęsa won the presidency in 1990.
Poland's highest point is the northwestern summit of Rysy at 2,500 metres in elevation, located in the Tatra Mountains along the country's southern border. The lowest point sits 2.2 metres below sea level at Marzęcino on the Vistula Fens.