ABSTRACT
Poland lies at the physical center of the European continent. Its population is 38.3 million, and the total area is 120,727 mi.2 (312,683 km2). Its capital is Warsaw. Its current frontiers, stretching for 2198 mi. (3538 km), were drawn in 1945 and presently border six countries in the west. Poland borders Germany along the Oder and Lusatian Neiss rivers. In the south, the borders mainly follow the watershed of the Sudeten, Beskid, and Carphatian mountain ranges, which separate Poland from the Czech and Slovak Republics. In the northeast and east, Poland borders Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. e Baltic coast forms the northern frontier. From the standpoint of nationality, Poland is a country that is almost uniform. ere are relatively few ethnic minorities, about 1.5 million in all, mainly Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Germans Czechs, Slovakians, Lithuanians, Jews, and Gypsies.
