Poland's Population and Changing Economy

Abstract

Few European countries have experienced political and economic changes on so great a scale a d in so short a time as Polan has since the S d World War. International boundary readjustments alone have demanded of the geographer a complete revaluation of the significance of such basic aspects as the size and location of the country. More than that, they have served to emphasize marked contrasts between the population problems of western, eastern and central Poland, which invite comparison with pre-war conditions. Territorial changes have also involved losses and additions to Polish natural resources that have conditioned the course of post? war economic development. But because of these boundary alterations, it is almost impossible to compare pre-war and post-war Poland statistically. Even if one con? siders only the areas common to the country in both 1939 and 1957, added difficulties arise through the readjustment of internal administrative divisions. There are now seventeen major districts, or wojewodztwa, each of which is under the administration of an established regional centre such as Bialystok or Poznan.1 In addition, Warsaw city and Lodz city are under separate administration from the surrounding districts which also bear their name. Though some wojewodztwa correspond quite closely in extent with their pre-war counterparts, as in the case of Lodz country and Warsaw country, others have undergone major changes. Some have even disappeared: the old pre-war province of Wilno is now in Russia, and what remains of Lwow province has been incorporated in the new wojewodztwa of Rzeszo in south-eastern Poland. On the other hand, some pre-war provinces have been considerably enlarged, as in the case of Katowice, now that almost the whole of the Upper Silesia area has fallen under Polish control. The occupation of former German provinces east of the Oder-Neisse has led to the establishment of entirely new administrative districts such as Szczecin. Poland has also experienced far-reaching changes in its economy since 1945, but these, along with those associated with boundaries, must be viewed against the back? ground of the tremendous population changes that have affected the country both during the war and after it. The pre-war population of Poland was about 35 million; at the present time it is over 27 million, a reduction that is a direct result of the boundary adjustments in the east2; and partly, too, as a consequence of war losses which came to the dreadful total of 6,028,000 dead,3 most of whom were civilians. The western extension of Poland to the Oder-Neisse has brought even more drastic popu? lation changes, not only in amount but in character. The former German provinces are now virtually empty of their pre-war population of over 9 million Germans. Many had fled or lost their lives before the Russian advance at the end of the war, and the rest were expelled as a result of the Potsdam agreement and the deliberate Polish policy of de-Germanizing the newly acquired lands.4 Into these territories Poles have