Are Poland's pre-1939 or post-1945 borders better?

Its post-1945 borders bring it many miles west, into what was once territory of the German empire. This territory has, to this day, far higher levels of infrastructural and economic development. It lost sparsely populated and undeveloped land in the east for densely populated and much more developed land in the west. read more

Post-1945 Poland is a nation-state lacking irredentist claims against its neighbours and in turn lacking in irredentist claims against itself. That this is the case has nothing to do with the actual nature of the borders and everything to do with the policies of governments and peoples enclosed by these borders. read more

Also, though, Poland's post-1945 border also gave Poland the opportunity to build some other new ports in addition to Gdansk and Gdynia. After all, Poland's coastline was much longer in 1945 than it was back in 1939. read more

Much of the territory that Poland lost in the east in 1945 was poor and so was its infrastructure; Poland also had limited access to the sea before WWII. It is also worth noting that western Poland (present borders) is on the whole significantly more prosperous than most of eastern Poland. read more