Wpływ reformy administracyjnej na tożsamość terytorialną mieszkańców północno-wschodniej Polski = The impact of administrative reform on the territorial identity of inhabitants of north-eastern Poland
Authors: Konopski Michał , Wiśniewski Rafał 
Published: February 2020

In the (late 16th – to late 18th – century) times of the First Republic of Poland, administrative division was mainly determined by Catholic Church structures and the borders of historical regions. In contrast, the period of the People’s Republic of Poland (in essence from World War II’s end through to 1989) saw primarily economic concepts of administrative division put in place. The onset of the era of Poland’s political transformation post-1989 thus minded scientists to attend to the need for a new territorial division underpinned by rational and objective assumptions. Regional identity- as a relevant aspect of historical conditioning - was certainly taken account of, as an important criterion vis-à-vis administrative division. R. Schattkowsky (1996), I. Geiss (1996) and T. Otremba (1997) all stressed the importance of historical conditioning to the transforming Central and Eastern European Countries. However, Poland’s latest administrative reform did not take much account of historical conditions as numerous borders of the (16) new voivodships were put in place. Lack of consistency can even be observed in the nomenclature of these newly-established administrative units, with a mixture of names deriving from historical regions and others simply referring to capital cities. In no way are the borders of the contemporary voivodships consistent with those of historical Polish regions (Miszczuk 2003; Zaborowski 2013; Nowak 2018.) The current administrative division of Poland is thus largely based upon imposed borders actually dividing previously-coherent regions. When set against those of the former regions, the borders of the new administrative units are seen to be characterised by a significant lack of harmony – all the more so given that the relict borders are still found to be apparent in public awareness, thanks to historical conditioning. In the (late 16th – to late 18th – century) times of the First Republic of Poland, administrative division was mainly determined by Catholic Church structures and the borders of historical regions. In contrast, the period of the People’s Republic of Poland (in essence from World War II’s end through to 1989) saw primarily economic concepts of administrative division put in place. The onset of the era of Poland’s political transformation post-1989 thus minded scientists to attend to the need for a new territorial division underpinned by rational and objective assumptions. Regional identity- as a relevant aspect of historical conditioning - was certainly taken account of, as an important criterion vis-à-vis administrative division. R. Schattkowsky (1996), I. Geiss (1996) and T. Otremba (1997) all stressed the importance of historical conditioning to the transforming Central and Eastern European Countries. However, Poland’s latest administrative reform did not take much account of historical conditions as numerous borders of the (16) new voivodships were put in place. Lack of consistency can even be observed in the nomenclature of these newly-established administrative units, with a mixture of names deriving from historical regions and others simply referring to capital cities. In no way are the borders of the contemporary voivodships consistent with those of historical Polish regions (Miszczuk 2003; Zaborowski 2013; Nowak 2018.) The current administrative division of Poland is thus largely based upon imposed borders actually dividing previously-coherent regions. When set against those of the former regions, the borders of the new administrative units are seen to be characterised by a significant lack of harmony – all the more so given that the relict borders are still found to be apparent in public awareness, thanks to historical conditioning.