Description

The Polish People's Republic (Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989, and the predecessor of the modern democratic Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million inhabitants near the end of its existence, it was the most populous state of the Eastern Bloc after the Soviet Union. Having a unitary Marxist–Leninist communist government imposed by the Soviet Union following World War II, it was also one of the main signatories of the Warsaw Pact. The name People's Republic was introduced and defined by the Constitution of 1952 which was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution. The state's name was the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska) between 1947 and 1952 in accordance with the temporary Constitution of 1947.