Summary:

The paper endeavours to present different conditionings of the process of development of rural areas in Poland during the period between the wars, i.e. 1918–1939. The author shows the ethnic population structure, as well as the socio-economic factors in ten individual provinces which have their equivalents on the map of contemporary Poland. The provinces of Poland which currently form the integral parts of such countries as Lithuania, Byelorussia or the Ukraine have not been taken into consideration. The differentiation within the analysed rural area (at the level of provinces) with regard to: the technical and social infrastructure, the level of ruralisation and agrarian structure, as well as the source of income has been presented. Additionally, the ethnic conditionings of such territorial layout resulting in diversity and even the disparities of development of infrastructure in Poland between the First and the Second World Wars have been pointed out. The carried out research confirms the higher level of socio-economic development of the western provinces of Poland between the wars, in comparison with other provinces, especially in terms of infrastructure. This results from the people’s mentality based mainly on the higher level of discipline and good organisation inherited from the German neighbourhood. Concluding, one may say that the process of rural areas development is of multi-step character and requires the proper stage of management and organisation (ordering). Both of these elements are derivatives of the mentality shaping process which has through the ages conditioned the people’s positive and negative habits reflecting the diversified structure of the analysed areas.