Poland as seen by Turkish child in 1987

In 1987 a kid from Istanbul could learn from geography lesson that one of most western Asian states is Poland and Romania. Polish neighbours are Soviet Union, large Czechoslovakia (must have conquered Hungary and north Serbia from Yugoslavia, and large part of no-man's land on the western and nothern border. Polish territory? Eastern Germany? Just in case, if something change, to have not to print new maps for children?


PS. Did Turkey respect Yalta and Potsdam conferences rules? Any idea?

This image comes from Illkokul Atlasi. Istanbul, 1987.

Straight talk
In 1987 Poland bordered
  • (to the west) the German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR)
  • (to the south) Czechoslovakia
  • (to the north-east and east) the Soviet Union
After the WWII Poland's borders were shifted westwards, pushing the eastern border to the Curzon Line. Meanwhile, the western border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line. Also Poland gained southern part of East Prussia, including Gdańsk (Danzig).
On this map Poland has the right eastern border, but western and northern borders are definitely pre-WWII.
My explanation: most of the West Germany maps from the 70's and 80's presented Polish western borders both official after-WWII and pre-WWII. Presented Turkish map shows strange combination of only pre-1939 western border BUT present-day eastern border.
Fact: Germany renounced all claims to territory east of the Oder-Neisse line and the recognition of the border was formalised in the German-Polish Border Treaty in 1990, after Germany's reunion.

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