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Summary

or as railway junctions and railwaymen’s towns (e.g. Starosielce, Łapy, and, to some extent, Ełk).

The new administrative division favoured those towns which came to be the centres of Russian governorships (Suwałki, Łomża — see Table 7). Finally, in the area adjoining the frontier, garrison functions played an important role (e.g. Augustów and Zambrów). The remaining towns were merely minor centres of commerce and handicrafts, some of them, like Ciechanowiec, Sokoły and Olecko, known for their fairs.

By 1914 no towin i n the voivodship, except Białystock with its 80 000 inhabitants, had a population above 20 000 (Tables 6, 8—11 and Figs. 5—9).

The First World War caused great destruction, resulting in a fali in the population of a great many towns (Tables 12 and 13, Fig. 10). Political changes and administrative reforms handicapped the towns which previously had served as capitals of governorships, but they nevertheless remained important local centres (Table 17, Fig. 12).

Theh textile industry, destroyed during the War, did not regain its former importance, even though Białystok as the Capital of the newly created voivodship continued to ic-rease to above 100,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, the post-war creation and extension of the wood industry generated new industrial centres (e.g. Hajnówka and Białowieża). During the inter-war period some importance also began to attach to the centres of holiday-making and tourism (Augustów, Milejczyce). Nevertheless, the network of towns was still dominated by the smali local centres.

The Voiwodship of Białystok stayed morę feebly industrialised than the rest of Poland (Table 14). This contributed to over half the towns experiencing a population growth less than that reąuired by the excess of births over deaths, inducating a net migration outwards (Table 18).

The three powiats which then formed part of East Prussia were also marked by a lower than average proportion of non-agricultural functions (Table 1*6). East Prussia was generally in diffisulties between the wars, due to isolation from the economic centres of the Reich and to the loss of its function as com-mercial intermediary. This affected its towns (Table 15), the development of which depended upon a special financial assistance (the so-called „Osthilfe”), or else on military investments (e. g. Gołdap).

The effects of the Second World War were cosiderably morę serious than those of the First. The urban population losses, bigger proportionately than the decline im the Voivodship as a whole (Table 22), were primarily due to the Nazi extermination of their Jewish inmetes, who had constituted nearly 40°/o cf the urban population (Table 20), and to the German reflux from the towns in the three powiats of former East Prussia.

Materiał loses have also serious (Table 21). The resultant decrease in population, experienced in all the towns (Table 23 and Fig. 13), was accompanied by undesirable changes in the employment structure (Table 24).

The post-war reoons/truction of the towns destroyed (particularly Białystok), and the extension of industrial centres (e. g. Czarna Wieś, Hajnówka, Ełk and Zambrów, where a new textile factory has been founded), have led to a rapid increase in the urban population, which now both absolutely and relatively exceeds the pre-war figures (Table 25 and 26; Figs. 14 and 15). Nevertheless, only a smali number of towns and other settlements have yet reached their all-time maximum popula-