Port in the north-west, on the Oder River 55 km (34 miles) from the open sea. It rivals Gdansk as Poland's leading Baltic port and shipbuilding centre. Between 1720 and 1945 it was the main port for the German city of Berlin. Today some of its cargoes are destined for East Germany - about 10 km (6 miles) to the west.
Population 390 200
Lodz
The country's second largest city after the capital, Warsaw. It lies in central Poland, 121 km (75 miles) south-west of Warsaw. Founded in 1423, the town was turned by occupying Russians in the 19th century into polluted agglomeration of spinning, weaving, dyeing and clothing industries, with unsanitary housing, especially in the Jewish ghetto, which was razed by the Nazis in 1944. Today Lodz's modernized factories turn out textiles, clothing and chemicals, and electrical, engineering and photographic goods.
Population 848 500
Bialystok (Belostock)
Textile city in north-east Poland about 55 km (35 miles) from the Soviet border. It lay in the old Polish province of Podlasie, and is the site of the 'Podlasian Versailles' - an elegant Renaissance palace of 1728-58, which was built by the Branicki family and resembles the palace of the French kings near Paris.
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