A poll released on the eve of Poland's independence day shows that 35 percent of the country do not consider Poland free.

A telephone poll prepared for the 91st anniversary of Poland becoming an independent state in 1918 after 123 years of partitions, shows that 35 percent of Poles consider the country to not be entirely free, while 64 percent hold the opposite opinion.

“The several hundred respondents who expressed doubt about Poland's freedom is surprisingly high,” says Dr. Norbert Maliszewski, a social psychologist at the University of Warsaw who attributes the number to a deeply ingrained history and the knowledge that Poland was not a free country for over 100 years.

When asked what factors threaten Polish freedom today, 73 percent of those polled cited membership in the European Union.

The poll was taken of a random telephone sampling of 500 people on 7-8 November by GfK Polinia for the daily Rzeczpospolita. (mmj)