Administrative division of the People's Republic of Poland

Administrative division of Polish People's Republic was subject to several reforms. The first of those established administrative division over the Polish territories that had shifted significantly westwardly. The Polish People's Republic administrative division was reformed in: 1946, 1950, 1957 and 1975. The 1975 division survived the fall of communism in 1990 and was replaced only in 1999 by the most current administrative division of Poland, which closely resembles the 1945-75 scheme but with different names (the Communists tended to simply name the voivodeships after their capitals, whereas the current ones use more historical names) and changes in the borders in certain areas.

After World War II, Poland lost 77,000 km² of eastern regions (Kresy), gaining instead the smaller but much more industrialized so-called "Regained Territories" east of the Oder-Neisse line.

The Polish People's Republic was divided into several voivodeships (the Polish unit of administrative division). After World War II, the new administrative divisions were based on the pre-war ones. The areas in the East that were not annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. Newly acquired territories in the west and north were organised into the voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław, Olsztyn and partially joined to Gdańsk, Katowice and Poznań voivodeships. Two cities were granted voivodeship status: Warsaw and Łódź.

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