Poland is a tiny landlocked country far east of Europe.
When you introduce yourself as a Pole outside of Europe, what you usually see on the face of the person you're talking to is a confused grimace. Then, if you’re lucky enough, questions about neighbouring Russia come along with other associations with a small country lost somewhere far in the east of Europe.
First of all, none of the above is true. Poland is not a tiny castaway state, lost somewhere in the middle of the Eastern European void. It is the 9th largest country in Europe (by area as well as by population), located right next to Germany with the Baltic Sea on the north and the Carpathian Mountains on the south. The only Russian territory it borders is Kaliningrad, which is an isolated enclave.
It’s good to be aware that Poles tend to be touchy on being pigeon-holed as Eastern Europeans. They regard Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russian as Eastern European and believe themselves to be right in the middle of Europe. While this opinion could be mocked as Polono-centric, the notion of Central Europe (in opposition to Eastern Europe) has become increasingly mainstream, and even if the concept remains fluid, an overwhelming majority of definitions include Poland.
Poland is a former Soviet Republic
This misconception, often bordering on a rock-solid conviction, is entirely wrong but there is some justification to its existence. Poland ended up under Soviet influence after World War II and lost most of its independence, but it never literally became a part of the Soviet Union.
The misunderstanding may be a result of the fact that the major military treaty of the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain was signed in Warsaw and therefore was commonly known as the Warsaw Pact (formal name: Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance). It founded an organisation very similar to NATO, led by the USSR and for states of the communist bloc only.
Polish dependence on the USSR varied throughout the Communist period but never made Poland share the fate of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine, who were involuntary absorbed by the Union.
The size of the country as well as its sustaining of a certain amount of independence were key factors to the peaceful Polish revolution of 1989 and the eventual toppling of the Communism and the USSR's dominance.