After the war, Suwałki was still a capital of the powiat. The heavily-damaged town recovered very slowly and Communism did not help the city's problems. This time came to an end in 1975, when Suwałki became the capital of a separate Suwałki Voivodeship. The number of people rose quickly and by the end of the 1970s there were over 36,000 people in the city.