Poland
In modern Poland, a voivode (wojewoda), appointed by the central government in Warsaw, is the governor of a voivodeship. Each voivodeship also has an elected assembly, called a sejmik, and an executive board elected by that assembly, headed by an official called the marszałek meaning marshal. For a summary of the respective competences of these authorities, see Voivodeships of Poland.
The office was created in the Kingdom of Poland under the Piast dynasty in 960 AD, and from the Crown of the Polish Kingdom spread to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after 1569, as an overseer of a voivodeship and its administration. In time, the office lost some of its importance — from "second after the ruler" to just one of several dozen important officials. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a voivode was one of the officials entitled to sit in the Senate of Poland.
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Famous quotes containing the word poland:
“It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its purest state.”
—Bronislaw Geremek (b. 1932)