Poznan [antikvár]

ON APRIL 17th, 1966, in the last year of the festive celebrations of the Millennium of the Polish State, at the great demonstration of the community of the Wielkopolska Region, Poznan and the Poznan Voivodship was awarded the highest state decoration - the Order of the Builders of People's Poland. The ceremony was performed by Wladyslaw Gomulka, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, who said: "May this decoration, awarded on the thousandth anniversary of the formation of a unified Polish state, be an expression of our remembrance of all our ancestors of the Wielkopolska Region who, with their work, knowledge and struggle, loyally served Poland and her people. May it be a tokén of recognition for all the inhabitants of Poznan and the Poznan Voivodship who have not and are not sparing selfless toil in the historic task of strengthening the might and security of the Motherland." * The name Poznan and Wielkopolska are most closely linked with the beginnings of the Polish state. It was here that the process of internál integration of the Polish lands and the Polish community was crowned with success under one political authority. Poznan, with Gniezno, the first and main ducal stronghold of the Polani, grew up on the right bank of the River Warta on the area known as Ostrów Tumski. Alongside Gniezno, it was one of the two equal capitals of the young Polish state, from where Mieszko and Boleslaw, the first historical rulers of Poland ruled the country. In addition, Poznan fulfilled a vitai military function in the defence of the western frontiers of the Polish state. It is no coincidence that the name of our town is first mentioned in connection with the news of the retreat of the Germán army from its outskirts in the year 1005.