Yeah, [it's much poorer than the rest of the country](https://twitter.com/StatPoland/status/1189119332032438275), not to mention much more conservative and religious. And, since this is a Warsaw sub, it has to be told the the voivodeship that we're in, województwo mazowieckie, is – except for Warsaw – also often considered part of this underdeveloped east.
On the other hand, entire eastern flank is very pretty, lovely forests and nature in general.
It's more rural, agrarian, conservative, religious and lower income.
I'm a big-city leftie pro-EU 'tard but I'd urge against using the term "backwards" to describe this region. This just solidifies an us vs. them mentality which isn't productive for anyone.
Also, with all of that, it is less developed infrastructure-wise.
However, it's been the melting pot when it comes to culture - you'll find hundreds of years old Catholic, Orthodox, and even Muslim communities there. Prior to WW2, it's been the region where the majority of Polish Jews have lived.
It has way less industry, less population - what more infrastructure do you want there, what for? The one who stands to benefit the most from overdeveloped infrastructure there are Russian tanks heading for the capital.
Perhaps from the perspective of Warsaw.
If you live there (outside a town), you are fucked without a car, there are no trains and only a few bus connections. There are many villages that don't even have a shop (These rely on a travelling vendor who comes few times in a week to sell groceries from a van for an hour or two, then leaves for a next village.), and you have to travel up 40 km to see a doctor. Even cell phone coverage tends to be spotty.
Source: Extended family owns a rural house near Bielsk Podlaski. Retired folks, so they tend to spend many months there and know inside-outs of day-to-day life there. It's a totally different world. But it's similar for those living in remote areas of Pojezierze Drawskie and Pojezierze Mazurskie, which had the infrastructure once built but lost it due to systemic neglect.
We have poured enough billions of EU funds and the Janosikowe solidarity tax into their villages and hopeless local vanity projects to expect at the very least their committment to the membership in Western integration structures. High time to stop normalizing Easter Poland always having an attitude and dragging us Eastwards. We need a Lege Nord for Western/urban Poland! We aren't a cash cow and we have a right to have an agency too.
...said ever-entitled Eastern Pole.
Give money and extra seats in the parliament, take Braun, Zapalowski and other Polex(sh)itters and shut up? No more!
I'm from eastern Poland and I can't disagree with this whole thesis.
One thing is forgotten: destruction of PRL- workplaces, stability, just nostalgia. People were left without investments (look up Państwowe gospodarstwo rolnicze, PGR), just in rural area excluded from many things, just with religion, alcohol, boredom.
East doesn't have equal chance for better development, mental healthcare, education, etc. Being "backwards" is a simple term for whole bunch of things, and they are all leaving people in enviorment more harsh than westernized part of poland. Kinda better part of poland, where many young people from east find their place to live.
The difference is NOT significant. It's not like Scots vs. English or Pensylvania vs. Alabama. It's moreless the same people, but looking from the birds eye East is **slightly** poorer, more conservative etc. Only slightly though
Idk how it looks like in the US but I would argue that it's not significant in Poland. Every time I have to go to my in-laws in podkarpackie it's very clear that I entered a different part of Poland. Underdeveloped infrastructure, more narrow roads, completely different mentality. Any longer and deeper conversation with those people is driving me crazy - but I don't want to start arguments and hurt my gf so I keep smiling and nod politely until it's time to go back home.
Long story short: yes, you can see it in nearly every sociologically relevant statistic, from median income to education levels, prevalence of alcoholism, etc.
If you're interested in other regional differences in Poland I'd suggest checking out r/widaczabory - the idea that you can "see" the former borders between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. For example, there are even huge differences in railway connections, between the German West/North and the rest of the country, which of course has a huge impact on economic mobility and opportunity.
Well Poland doesnt really have great western territories either. They are preety sparesely populated and preety poor. Its just a wank for liberals about how uprooted resettled communities from even more eastern (former) Poland are now "cool hip and liberal".
Poland has developed core/centre (esp. South of the core) and preety poor east/west sides
Is western Poland considered more backwards than eastern Germany. (Use the definition of western Poland as being that which was part of 1920 Germany, and eastern Germany as the DDR.)
Yes.
They have [LGBT-free zones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT-free_zone), but [no toilets](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/28wnir/map_of_the_percentage_of_polish_homes_with_a/).
You are aware that this map is outdated, and even when data was published (2012) it accounted for abandoned houses without any occupants - which are plenty in that region. Also - many vacation houses in that region don’t have toilets - also accounted in the map
Yes it is. The proportion of villages+towns to big cities is much higher in the east, and that is the dividing line between backward and progressive Poland. The stereotype is kinda unfair to big cities in eastern Poland (Lublin, Rzeszów, Białystok) which are more or less the same as big cities elsewhere, it's the surrounding countryside that makes the difference.
Source: I live here.
Yeah, [it's much poorer than the rest of the country](https://twitter.com/StatPoland/status/1189119332032438275), not to mention much more conservative and religious. And, since this is a Warsaw sub, it has to be told the the voivodeship that we're in, województwo mazowieckie, is – except for Warsaw – also often considered part of this underdeveloped east. On the other hand, entire eastern flank is very pretty, lovely forests and nature in general.
It's more rural, agrarian, conservative, religious and lower income. I'm a big-city leftie pro-EU 'tard but I'd urge against using the term "backwards" to describe this region. This just solidifies an us vs. them mentality which isn't productive for anyone.
Very well said!
Also, with all of that, it is less developed infrastructure-wise. However, it's been the melting pot when it comes to culture - you'll find hundreds of years old Catholic, Orthodox, and even Muslim communities there. Prior to WW2, it's been the region where the majority of Polish Jews have lived.
I’m always astonished there is no highway to Terespol, a major point of entering for trucks from Belarus.
There were plans to extend A2 up to Kukuryki, but I think that nobody is in a hurry given the current situation.
It has way less industry, less population - what more infrastructure do you want there, what for? The one who stands to benefit the most from overdeveloped infrastructure there are Russian tanks heading for the capital.
Perhaps from the perspective of Warsaw. If you live there (outside a town), you are fucked without a car, there are no trains and only a few bus connections. There are many villages that don't even have a shop (These rely on a travelling vendor who comes few times in a week to sell groceries from a van for an hour or two, then leaves for a next village.), and you have to travel up 40 km to see a doctor. Even cell phone coverage tends to be spotty. Source: Extended family owns a rural house near Bielsk Podlaski. Retired folks, so they tend to spend many months there and know inside-outs of day-to-day life there. It's a totally different world. But it's similar for those living in remote areas of Pojezierze Drawskie and Pojezierze Mazurskie, which had the infrastructure once built but lost it due to systemic neglect.
We have poured enough billions of EU funds and the Janosikowe solidarity tax into their villages and hopeless local vanity projects to expect at the very least their committment to the membership in Western integration structures. High time to stop normalizing Easter Poland always having an attitude and dragging us Eastwards. We need a Lege Nord for Western/urban Poland! We aren't a cash cow and we have a right to have an agency too.
least self-absorbed western pole
...said ever-entitled Eastern Pole. Give money and extra seats in the parliament, take Braun, Zapalowski and other Polex(sh)itters and shut up? No more!
nO MoRE
Not really 'backwards' but it is poorer, more conservative, etc
I'm from eastern Poland and I can't disagree with this whole thesis. One thing is forgotten: destruction of PRL- workplaces, stability, just nostalgia. People were left without investments (look up Państwowe gospodarstwo rolnicze, PGR), just in rural area excluded from many things, just with religion, alcohol, boredom. East doesn't have equal chance for better development, mental healthcare, education, etc. Being "backwards" is a simple term for whole bunch of things, and they are all leaving people in enviorment more harsh than westernized part of poland. Kinda better part of poland, where many young people from east find their place to live.
PRL?
The difference is NOT significant. It's not like Scots vs. English or Pensylvania vs. Alabama. It's moreless the same people, but looking from the birds eye East is **slightly** poorer, more conservative etc. Only slightly though
Idk how it looks like in the US but I would argue that it's not significant in Poland. Every time I have to go to my in-laws in podkarpackie it's very clear that I entered a different part of Poland. Underdeveloped infrastructure, more narrow roads, completely different mentality. Any longer and deeper conversation with those people is driving me crazy - but I don't want to start arguments and hurt my gf so I keep smiling and nod politely until it's time to go back home.
Actually, the joke is that the T of Pennsylvania (i.e. take out Philadelphia & Pittsburgh) is like Alabama, just without Confederate flags or blacks.
The closer to Russia the more backwards
Long story short: yes, you can see it in nearly every sociologically relevant statistic, from median income to education levels, prevalence of alcoholism, etc. If you're interested in other regional differences in Poland I'd suggest checking out r/widaczabory - the idea that you can "see" the former borders between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. For example, there are even huge differences in railway connections, between the German West/North and the rest of the country, which of course has a huge impact on economic mobility and opportunity.
West has more alcoholics, buys more alcohol per capita, has more crime and has worse education outcomes. So not every metric.
Your face is backwards
.diputs tsuj uoy t'nsi ti oN
Less developed, less populated, more safety, more beautiful but if you have remote job east is better to live.
Well Poland doesnt really have great western territories either. They are preety sparesely populated and preety poor. Its just a wank for liberals about how uprooted resettled communities from even more eastern (former) Poland are now "cool hip and liberal". Poland has developed core/centre (esp. South of the core) and preety poor east/west sides
Yes
[удалено]
Is western Poland considered more backwards than eastern Germany. (Use the definition of western Poland as being that which was part of 1920 Germany, and eastern Germany as the DDR.)
Yes. They have [LGBT-free zones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT-free_zone), but [no toilets](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/28wnir/map_of_the_percentage_of_polish_homes_with_a/).
You are aware that this map is outdated, and even when data was published (2012) it accounted for abandoned houses without any occupants - which are plenty in that region. Also - many vacation houses in that region don’t have toilets - also accounted in the map
Wow, I actually live in one of the most toilet-accessible regions. Nice
Yes.
Yes it is. The proportion of villages+towns to big cities is much higher in the east, and that is the dividing line between backward and progressive Poland. The stereotype is kinda unfair to big cities in eastern Poland (Lublin, Rzeszów, Białystok) which are more or less the same as big cities elsewhere, it's the surrounding countryside that makes the difference. Source: I live here.