Poland launches campaign to raise awareness of Polish achievements

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has launched a campaign, titled “We Did It In Poland”, to promote awareness of Polish achievements in science and business, in particular among young Poles. One of the motivations behind the initiative was a recent poll showing 20% of Poles feel ashamed of their country, up from 14% in 2010.

“Pride in their country is felt mainly by representatives of the oldest generation, the so-called baby boomers,” says Olga Kozierowska, head of the Włączeni Plus foundation, which is running the campaign under the patronage of Poland’s current six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.

“The Gen Zs [those born between around 1997 and 2012], on whom the shaping of Poland’s image in the coming years will depend to the greatest extent, are the most likely of all generations to feel shame,” she added.

The campaign aims to draw attention to recent innovations that many people, including Poles themselves, may not realise originated in Poland.

They include mobile payment system BLIK, online booking service Booksy, PesaDART trains, and PayEye, the first company in the world to launch a commercial service allowing users to make payments by identifying themselves with their eye biometrics.

“We have great scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs who compete at a global level,” said the government’s minister for EU affairs, Adam Szłapka, at the launch.

“The campaign shows the modern side of our country and encourages us to speak loudly about Polish successes and feel proud of where Poland is today.”

The initiative aims to promote Poland’s achievements to audiences both abroad and domestically, with deputy EU affairs minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka noting that, “as research shows, not enough Poles know about” those achievements as well.

Polling published earlier this year by state research agency CBOS showed that 56% of Poles say they feel proud of their country, down from 60% in 2010. Meanwhile, 20% feel ashamed of it, up from 14% in 2010.

In 2023, a study by the Institute of Psychology at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), a major state research institute, divided Poles into five different categories based on their views on various issues. It found that 14% belonged to the category titled “Ashamed of Poland”, who do not identify with or like their own country.

Research commissioned by the “We Did It In Poland” campaign found that the most common reasons given by Poles for feeling national pride are historical figures such as Pope John Paul II (named by 11% of respondents) and Maria Skłodowska-Curie (10%), or Poland’s history in general (10%).

Only 4% of respondents cited inventions and 3% cited technological achievements. One in four respondents could not name a single reason to be proud of their country.

“Through this campaign, we want to present patriotism in a broader sense – one that goes beyond landscapes and history to also embrace innovation, achievements and everyday life,” says Kozierowska.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: We Did It In Poland (press materials)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.