The Programming and Development Policy of Backward Areas in National Economic Planning in Poland

In order to present the main problems of the underdeveloped regions and regional development policy in Poland during the past twenty years it is necessary to look first at the sources of the regional economic structure of Polish territories. The evolution of the present structure was influenced by various factors acting differently in three historical periods determined by changes in Poland’spolitical circumstances: (i)the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, when Polish territories belonged to Russia, Prussia and Austria, the three powers which had partitioned Poland among themselves;(ii)the twenty years between the two world wars, after Poland had regained her independence;(iii)the years after the Second World War and after the essential changes in territory as well as in the social and economic system.