Lech (also called Lechus, Lachus, Lestus or Leszek) is the legendary father of all Poles (historically the Lechites), founder of Poland (historical name: Lechia) and its historical capital: Gniezno.
Legend of Lech, Czech and Rus
According to legend, three brothers named Lech, Czech and Rus were exploring the wilderness to find a place to settle. They came across a hill with an old oak and an eagle on top. Lech took the white eagle as his emblem and around the oak he built a stronghold, and because of the eagle nest, called in Polish a gniazdo, he called the stronghold Gniezdno, which in modern Polish is spelled Gniezno. The other brothers went further on to find a place for their people. Czech went to the South to create the Land of Czechs, and Rus went to the East to create Rus'.
It is to him that Poland owed the important acquisition of the greater part of Red Russia, or Galicia, which enabled her to secure her fair share of the northern and eastern trade.
Poland, as the next neighbour of Hungary, was more seriously affected than any other European power by this catastrophe, but her politicians differed as to the best way of facing it.
All the.more disquieting was the internal condition of the country, due mainly to the invasion of Poland by the Reformation, and the coincidence of this invasion with an internal revolution of a quasi-democratic character, which aimed at substituting the rule of the szlachta for the rule of the senate.
Independence for Poland was one of the 14 points enunciated by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Many Polish Americans enlisted in the military services to further this aim, and the United States worked at the postwar conference to ensure its implementation.
Poland was entering into an extended crisis that would change the course of its future development.
Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived near the middle of the 10th century.
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