Polish communities in Eastern Europe

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Ethnic Poles outside of the borders of present-day Poland:

1. Before WW2:

South Kresy* - 2,249,703 Poles**** (1931 Polish census)
North Kresy** - 1,663,888 Poles*** (1931 Polish census)
Soviet Belarus - 97,498 Poles (1926 Soviet census)
Soviet Ukraine - 476,435 Poles (1926 Soviet census)
Lithuania - 202,026 Poles (1923 votes for Polish Party)
Latvia - 59,374 Poles (1930 Latvian census)
Estonia - 1,608 Poles (1934 Estonian census)
Soviet Russia - 197,827 Poles (1926 Soviet census)
Czech Silesia - 200,000 Poles (1939 Polish data)

*Today Western Ukraine, before WW2 this area was part of Poland.
**Today Western Belarus & South Lithuania, in Poland before WW2.

***This 1,663,888 included, by religion: 1,358,029 Roman Catholic Poles, 281,331 Orthodox & Greek Catholic Poles, 9,011 Jewish Poles, 15,517 other Poles. Non-Polish Roman Catholics were 154,449. The number of Orthodox and Greek Catholic Poles could be artificially inflated (same in South Kresy).

****Of whom 1,765,765 Roman Catholic Poles (other Poles were not counted by Piotr Eberhardt):

See also: https://konsnard.wordpress.com/2011...na-czesci-kresow-obecnie-w-granicach-ukrainy/

Total: ca. 5.1 million (or 4.4 million if counting only Roman Catholic Poles)

2. After WW2:

Belarus - 538,881 Poles (1959 Soviet census)
Ukraine - 363,297 Poles (1959 Soviet census)
Lithuania - 230,107 Poles (1959 Soviet census)
Latvia - 59,774 Poles (1959 Soviet census)
Estonia - 2,256 Poles (1959 Soviet census)
Rest of the USSR - 185,967 (1959 census)
Czechoslovakia - 66,540 Poles (1961 census)

Total: ca. 1.5 million (according to unofficial estimates, more stayed there)

 

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Here is a map of the areas in question:
2 = South Kresy (now Western Ukraine)
1a = North Kresy (now Western Belarus)
1b = North Kresy (now South Lithuania)
1.2 = Soviet Belarus (now East Belarus)
2.2 = Soviet Ukraine (Central-East Ukraine)
1.3 = pre-WW2 Lithuania + Memelland
1.4 = Latvia as well as Estonia
3 = Soviet Russia (rest of the USSR)

Czech Silesia (areas west of Olza River):
https://polona.pl/item/wojewodztwo-slaskie-podzialka-1-400-000,MTM4ODcwOTc/0/#info:metadata

 

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Ethnic structure of some Kresy cities before WW2 and today:

^^^
Lvov was the 3rd largest city of Poland in 1931, after Warsaw & Łódź:

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasta_w_II_Rzeczypospolitej

Polish garrison of Lwów, under Gen. Władysław Langner, surrendered to the Soviet Red Army on 22.09.1939 afternoon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Władysław_Langner

The city was defended against Germans (since 12.09.39) & later against the Soviets with Germans (since 18/19.09.39):

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1938 film with English subtitles about the Jewish community of Lwów:

 

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About 15% of citizens of Poland today (ca. 6 million people) declare full or partial Eastern ancestry.

Distribution in modern Poland (by region) of Poles with ancestry from former Polish Eastern Lands:

Sources: a 2012 survey by CBOS, 1950 census and Leszek Kosiński's publications from the 1960s.

 

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Check my new map of Polish people in the 19th century:

Link to map in size 10,000 x 9,512 pixels: https://i.postimg.cc/7DQkdrV5/Poles-XIX-final-small.png

 

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Here is the final version of the map with some corrections compared to the version above:

https://i.postimg.cc/xY9BxZCF/Poles-XIX-final-small-2.png

 

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A few more updates, here is the final version - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Poles_XIX_final.png