Electoral map of Poland

This post at the very entertaining Strange Maps blog blew my mind - an electoral map of Poland. The divide between PO and PiS voting in the 2007 legislative elections follows tightly the border of Imperial Germany.



Actually looking at the data is often enough stressed as an important and helpful first step when dealing with quantitative information. And electoral results displayed as maps ("Red state - blue state...") of course isn't exactly a new thing. Additionally, ever since John King showed off CNN's magical map on an hourly basis during the last presidential election I got a little tired of seeing the U.S. as a blue and red patchwork. But this electoral map of Poland is really quite interesting. Today's political cleavage echoes the turbulent past. Obviously the potential reasons for this effect are numerous: different political and economic structure, genocidal tyranny in the "Generalgouvernment"-part during the occupation, deportation and re-settlement of the western part after the Second World War. After all, some research reveals that this divide between "Poland A" and "Poland A" seems well known in the Polish public discourse.
Admittedly, I don't know too much about Polish electoral behavior, but it is still amazing to see how even after 45 years of Communist dictatorship and almost 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, this line hasn't disappeared.