Stalin once said that trying to introduce communism to Poland was like trying to saddle a cow. Although many Poles, both in Poland and in "exile", may feel that the saddle of capitalism is a better fit for the modern Polish state - allowing it more freedom to choose its own destiny - the transition is difficult and painful.
Warsavians need look no farther than their city skyline for a reminder of the profound changes in their society. Among the many new high-rise buildings dotted round the city is the shining glass of the Daewoo skyscraper, which distracts from the once visually dominant Palace of Culture in downtown Warsaw.
The latter Soviet-style neo-classical high-rise was a Stalinist gift to the Polish people during the heyday of communism. Its dour, vertical-stepped exterior is now adorned with colourful posters advertising the latest mobile phones and other symbols of burgeoning change.
If internal evidence of the shift to a market economy is needed, then the location of the Polish bourse in the headquarters of the former Communist Party is that; the one-time symbol of tyranny or privilege, depending on your orientation, is now a potent symbol of the new era.
Geography has always played an important part in Warsaw's, and Poland's, history. Located on the north-south axis of the Vistula river, which runs from southern Europe to the Baltic port of Gdansk (Danzig was the German name), Warsaw occupies an important leg on the ancient trading routes between east and west.
The Poles have, like no other "historic nation" in Europe, experienced both the benefits and ills of the ebb and flow of historic change, in this or any other century.
Its brief imperial grandeur, controlling an empire from the Baltic to the Black Sea, was taken apart with ruthless efficiency by the Habsburgs, Romanovs and Hohenzollerns until earlier this century.
The streets of Warsaw provide an indelible impression of these different epochs as they merge for the teeming populace of two million. Nestling strategically on the western banks of the majestic Vistula, the old centre of Warsaw is a twisted network of medieval cobbled streets and lanes leading to a fine square of burgher houses, now occupied by cafes, amber and silver jewellers and artists' galleries, and thronged with tourists for most of the year.
This historic centre and the incongruously named 15th-century New Town were systematically razed by Hitler's forces in 1944, in revenge for the unsuccessful (second) Warsaw uprising. The Poles painstakingly rebuilt it to its original grandeur over a 25-year period.
While visitors must constantly remind themselves of its recent reconstruction, Poles like to joke that it is "more authentic than the original".
Poland is also the country upon whose soil Anne Frank and the rich vein of seven centuries of European Jewry came to a destructive end.
Much has changed since 1981 when I last visited Poland, where my father was born in 1932. During my previous visit Polish history and culture were stifled by Cold War politics.
Capitalism is speeding up this process by opening up and throwing light on the once inaccessible. This is true of the people, who feel more comfortable about talking to Westerners. It is equally true of the many curious places, such as the fusion of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and neo-classical styles by northern European and Italian artisans in the churches and palaces. These styles were imported by the rulers of Poland, regal, ecclesiastical and aristocratic, throughout the ages.
Walking unfettered through the Catholic University of Lublin was remarkable. This was a hotbed of revolutionary thinking before and during the Solidarity movement and it was where the modern symbol of Polish resistance, Karol Wojtyla, when he was bishop of Krakow, once taught.
It was remarkable not only because the coffee in the student canteen was drinkable and the sandwiches edible, but also to see and hear the first generation of free Polish students. It will be their responsibility to take the country into the next stage of its development.
As in other recently-liberated central and eastern European countries, the dull looking Trabants and Skodas have been traded in for a shiny cohort of new Asian and European cars.
Now the Polish populace is indistinguishable from urban populations in other west European countries.
Internally, Poland has adopted Western social and political norms which it hopes will accelerate its accession to the EU, expected some time before 2005.
Externally, it has guaranteed its security, and borders, within the Western military alliance, NATO, shedding the last and most important vestige of its recent history, the Warsaw Pact.