130 FABRYKAPolski, did not come to fruition. But in 1859, the Dabrowa link was added to the
Vienna line, and in the following years Warsaw was joined with St. Petersburg,
Moscow, Kiev, and Danzig. By 1887, the Congress Kingdom had 1,302. miles of
track. Thereafter, railway building in Prussian Poland far outstripped that in the
other Partitions. By 1914, fifty lines led to the Russian frontier from Prussia and
Austria; only ten of them continued on the Russian side. What is more, with two
different gauges and three different braking systems, the rolling-stock from one
part of the Polish lands could not pass over the frontier into the other parts. As
a result, the Second Republic did not inherit a unified transport system.^11
The First World War brought both encouragement and distress to Polish
industry. On the one hand, the increased demands of the war economy boosted
production, and provided added employment, especially in Upper Silesia. On
the other hand, the scorched earth policy of the Russian army, which took the
country's entire rolling-stock with them when they retreated in 1915, and the
depredations of the German army, which dispatched complete Polish factories
to Germany, especially from Lodz, caused untold damage. The post-war slump
was catastrophically severe. In 1920, coal production was running at only 72 per
cent of pre-war levels; cotton at 44 per cent; pig-iron at 36 per cent; oil at 69 per
cent.^12
In the era of independence from 1918 to 1939, Polish industry did not begin to
solve its problems until the eve of the outbreak of war; and between 1939 and
1945, the economic catastrophes of 1914—18 were revisited on Poland with
added interest. Almost every sphere of economic life was left in a state of help-
less paralysis by the physical destruction of industrial plant, by the reduction
and dispersal of the labour force, and by the dismantling and deportation of
entire factories. Once the fighting stopped, however, it must be admitted that
the post-war government possessed several advantages over its pre-war pre-
decessors. The assets and resources of Poland's newly acquired Western
Territories were far superior to those abandoned in the east. The destruction of
antique equipment made room for modern re-equipment. The presence of mil-
lions of displaced persons, who could be settled wherever the planners wished,
created a unique opportunity for enlarging the urban proletariat, and for curing
rural overpopulation, at a stroke. Poland's 'Second Industrialization' could then
be launched under new management and in entirely new conditions.