Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T20:13:29.568Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

The Polish Borderlands and Nationality Problems

from REVIEW ESSAYS

Henry Rollet
Affiliation:
University of Warsaw
Antony Polonsky
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Daniel Beauvois, Le noble, le serf et le revizor: La noblesse polonaise entre le tsarisme et les masses ukrainiennes (1831-7863), Edition des Archives contemporaines, Montreux, 1895; pp. 365. Polish translation by Ewa and Krzysztof Rutkowscy, Polacy na Ukrainie (1831-1863), Biblioteka ‘Kultury’, 1987, pp. 296.

Daniel Beauvois (ed.) Les confins de l'ancienne Pologne, Presses Universitaire de Lille, 1988, pp. 282.

Iwo Werschler, Zdziejów obozu belwederskiego: Tadeusz Hołówko, ZJcie i działalność, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw, 1984, pp. 315.

Anna Garlicka, Polska-rugoslawia, 7934-1939, Ossolineum, Wrodaw, 1977, pp. 224.

Aleksandra Bergman, Sprawy bialoruskie w II Rzeczypospolitej, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw, 1984, pp. 287.

The history of the Polish borderlands (Kresy) and of the Second Republic's policy on nationalities has not ceased to be the subject of research and interesting publications, both within Poland and abroad. Few fail to note the failure of Polish attempts at assimilation or co-existence; a recent article in the Paris journal Kultura (no.51476, 1987, pp. 94-9) bears witness to this. Polish ‘self-criticism’ is severe. However, what no State seems to have understood is that the problem of national minorities was not a problem to which a solution need be sought: in this case an Endlösung was not far away. It was rather a question of accepting co-existence. It still needs two to do this, and in pre-war Poland there were many more than two partners and each had its extremists.

In his excellent book, based on work in local Soviet archives, Professor Daniel Beauvois reveals the responsibility of the Polish land-owning nobility between 1831 and 1863 in that part of the Ukraine annexed to the Russian empire (Volhynia, Podolia, the province of Kiev). Its behaviour during this period was such as to leave lasting resentment among the almost totally peasant Ukrainian population. The large landowners, who were both accomplices and victims of the Tsarist regime, brought the weight of their accumulated authority to bear on the serfs. The excesses committed by some of their members remained unpunished, through an exaggerated class solidarity which the Russian authorities exploited against them all. This would appear to be the sole area where real mutual support operated amongst the nobility, because the well-endowed refused help to members of the landless minor nobility.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Jews of Warsaw
, pp. 343 - 347
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×