congress poland had a population of about 4.25 million around 1830. in the russian partition, the pale of settlement resulted in resettlement of many russian jews to the western fringes of russian empire, which now included part of poland. this further increased the sizable community of polish jews. by 1914, about 31 million people inhabited the territories that would become the second polish republic, the first world war saw the population of those territories drop to 26 million.