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Located in the heart of Europe, Poland's low-lying plains extend from the Baltic shore in the north to the Tatra Mountains on its southern border with Slovakia. Since the collapse of communism, Poland has undergone massive social, economic, and political change. Opting for a radical form of economic "shock therapy" in the early 1990s to kick-start the switch to a market economy, it experienced rapid growth. One of the ten countries that joined the EU in the 2004 enlargement, Poland had already been accepted as a member of NATO five years earlier.