Correction. What Poland (and all the Warsaw pact countries) had is a tradition of misallocation and waste of resources towards ventures that had nothing to do whatsoever with what consumers and the population at large needed or wanted.
Hello PJ,
Below is the list of Nobel Laureates from Poland.
Wisława Szymborska, Literature, 1996
Józef Rotblat*, Peace, 1995
Lech Wałęsa, Peace, 1983
Czesław Miłosz, Literature, 1980
Isaac Bashevis Singer*, Literature, 1978
Tadeus Reichstein*, Physiology or Medicine, 1950
Władysław Reymont, Literature, 1924
Marie Skłodowska-Curie, Physics, 1903 and Chemistry, 1911
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Literature, 1905
As far as my knowledge goes marie Curie is the only one who has recieved a Noble Prize twice. A good feat for a country that has a history of 950 years. The Communist part of Polish History was heaped onto Poland and was not by choice. They did make a choice to overthrow the communist regime, which basically wasted their resources. So i think we must give credit to Poland for scientific progress it made despite upheavels. If I do a little research i think i could quote many other things Poles have done which go unquoted or unnoticed.
I hope you agree that the communist part is not what Poland is about, and consequently communism did not survive in Poland.
Regards,
Mash