Przeobrażenia wsi, rolnictwa i Karpat Polskich po II wojnie światowej – próba syntezy

The territory of Poland changed its shape and size aft er the Second World War. The changes concerned also the Polish Carpathians, which benefi ted from small corrections of border in the Spisz Region, but lost large Carpathian areas situated east of the Lutowiska-Krościenko-Przemyśl axis. The economy in the region of newly formed border with the Soviet Union (corrected over the subsequent years) was devastated by numerous skirmishes and long lasting war activities, which also led to its depopulation. A systematic regress was happening in arable land use and particularly livestock production. The phenomenon was diffi cult to suppress because of growing depopulation and remodelling of land ownership. The mountain and sub-mountain regions, which used to be overpopulated and poor areas aft er the war became an example of mass emigration to the Western Territories. The immigrants moved mainly to the Upper and Lower Silesia. In the post-war years all activities in the Carpathian agriculture, like in the agriculture of whole Poland, focused on the reconstruction of material resources for production, particularly the demolished numbers and ruined quality of livestock. The end of the forties and beginning of the fi ft ies were not only the time of enormous eff orts of the farmers themselves trying to reconstruct and develop their farms, but also the period of problems posed by the state. New concept of agrarian policy became implemented since 1956 in result of political changes. Its main objective was strengthening production aspects and introducing mechanisms of so called indirect socialization. There was a signifi cant turning point concerning means of production supplies for agriculture, including particularly agricultural inputs, current assets, construction materials and farm machinery. Mechanisms of agriculture development adopted for the years 1956–1969 were slowly loosing their efficiency and finally failed unable to match the rate of agronomic production growth, which in view of developing consumer needs led to economic and political crisis. In result of and following stormy political events of 1970, the state started to implement new policy for agriculture and rural areas. In the eighties the mountain rural areas still retained their typically farming character. On one hand they made use of agricultural progress, modern technologies and machinery which reached farms according to the same rules as the other rural areas in Poland, whereas on the other still faced problems in farming caused by a defi ciency of agricultural inputs: mineral fertilizers, pesticides and feed concentrates but also defi cit of coal. The rule of administrative distribution of construction materials, farm machinery and other defi cit means of production was still in force. From economic point of view a turning point in the hitherto pursued policy was so called market facilitation of economy releasing prices for agronomic products. At that time agriculture once again got ahead of the other sectors adopting solutions matching market economy and avoiding the threat of collectivization of family farms. It relinquished great hope for improvement of economic situation in the country and on farms, even on the most dispersed ones, which are so numerous in the Carpathian Region.