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Rzeczpospolita




Rzeczpospolita ( word for " Republic " or " Commonwealth ", a Calque translation of the Latin expression '' Res Publica '' ("public affair").

The word ''rzeczpospolita'' has been used in Poland since at least 16th Century , originally to denote any Democratic state. The famous quote ( 1600 ) by Crown Chancellor Jan Zamoyski about the importance of education is an example of this usage:


''Takie będą rzeczypospolite, jakie ich młodzieży chowanie.''

("Republics will be such as the upbringing of their youth.")


Today, however, the word is used solely in reference to the Polish State . Any other republic is referred to as ''republika'' in modern Polish.

The official name of the present-day Polish State is ''Rzeczpospolita Polska'', which is usually translated into English as "Republic of Poland". However, such translation, when talking about the 16–18th century Poland, may be confusing since in those times the ''Rzeczpospolita'' was a Monarchy . For that period, ''Rzeczpospolita'' is rendered rather as "Commonwealth" (which is another English version of the Latin ''res publica''), as in " Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ".

The word ''Rzeczpospolita'' is also used as a name for three periods in Poland’s History :

Leaders of the currently ruling Law And Justice party have coined the term "Fourth ''Rzeczpospolita''" – a new Poland they vowed to create as a replacement for the current, allegedly too corrupt, Third ''Rzeczpospolita''.

Other expressions and names that use this term include:
  • ''Rzeczpospolita szlachecka'' – Nobles' Commonwealth / Republic , another name for the First ''Rzeczpospolita'';

  • ''Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów'' – Commonwealth of the Two Nations or Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ( 15691795 );

  • ''Rzeczpospolita Babińska'' – a 16th-century parody of the state, established in the village of Babin, where nobles were given "offices" according to their faults instead of merits;

  • ''Rzeczpospolita Krakowska'' – Republic of Kraków or Free City Of Kraków ( 18151846 );

  • ''Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa'' or ''PRL'' – People's Republic Of Poland , name coloquially applied to the whole period of communist rule in Poland, i.e. 19441989 , although officially used only between 1952 and 1989.



''Rzeczpospolita'' is sometimes abbreviated to ''Rzplita''. ''RP'' is a common abbreviation for ''Rzeczpospolita Polska'' (Republic of Poland).

The peoples that were once under Polish rule have borrowed this word from the Polish language. Lithuanian ''Žečpospolita'', Belarusian ''Рэч Паспалітая'' (''Rech Paspalitaya'') and Ukrainian ''Річ Посполита'' (''Rich Pospolyta'') are used only to refer to the pre- Partition Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.


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