Was Poland ever part of Russia? Was Poland a part of the USSR?

After enjoying a period of political hegemony during which it was one of the great powers of Europe, Poland was severely weakened by wars with its neighbours. It was divided into the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. Much of its land was taken by the Russian Empire.

For most of the history of the Russian Empire, eastern Poland was held by Russia and western Poland by Prussia, which went on to found the German Empire in the late 19th century. Some Polish territory was also controlled by the Habsburg empire based in Austria.

The partitioned and divided people were oppressed and repressed, though the Russian territory was more industrially developed than much of Russia itself. For much of the 19th century, the Russian tsar considered himself to also be the king of Poland.

Independence was finally gained in the aftermath of the collapse of the German and Russian Empires at the end of WWI and the failure of communist Russia to conquer Poland in a period of chaos beginning in 1917 and ending in the early 1920s.

Germany would briefly split Poland with Russia once again during the early years of WWII, and Poland fell under the influence of the Russians once again after the war. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, it has enjoyed full independence and aligned itself with the West.