Leszek Balcerowicz was the country's first Finance Minister after the fall of communism and initiated Poland's free market reforms.

CNN: Poland's economy booming 20 years after free elections

When customs barriers fall, there will be a blast of new competition from places like Poland.

ECONOMIST: Romania and the European Union

In the fall of 1941, in Nazi-occupied Belarus (just east of Poland), where Jews were being executed by the thousands, four brothers from a large farming family named Bielski went into the forest along with a few other people determined to survive.

NEWYORKER: Defiance