Polish history
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Description
Book Introduction
Beyond ignorance and prejudice
A Millennium of History to Fully Understand Poland
There are few countries with as distorted a history as Poland.
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which partitioned and occupied Poland in the late 18th century, rewrote history to give the impression that Poland was a backward group that had never been a fully sovereign state.
Throughout the 19th century, the Poles, who fought to reverse this process and regain their independence, were seen in the West as troublemakers and obstacles to orderly progress.
In the 20th century, Poles, who had become victims of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, were seen as reactionary and backward, resisting dogmas like communism that were considered progressive.
But after two centuries of turmoil, Poland has emerged today as one of Europe's most dynamic nations.
This book is an attempt to return the full history of a country that has long embraced diverse cultural and religious traditions and pursued bold and pioneering constitutional experiments.
Tracing Poland's complex development over a thousand years from the Middle Ages to the present, it examines Poland's political, economic, and military struggles, as well as its diverse culture, art, and society, by era, vividly reviving key events and figures.
A Millennium of History to Fully Understand Poland
There are few countries with as distorted a history as Poland.
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which partitioned and occupied Poland in the late 18th century, rewrote history to give the impression that Poland was a backward group that had never been a fully sovereign state.
Throughout the 19th century, the Poles, who fought to reverse this process and regain their independence, were seen in the West as troublemakers and obstacles to orderly progress.
In the 20th century, Poles, who had become victims of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, were seen as reactionary and backward, resisting dogmas like communism that were considered progressive.
But after two centuries of turmoil, Poland has emerged today as one of Europe's most dynamic nations.
This book is an attempt to return the full history of a country that has long embraced diverse cultural and religious traditions and pursued bold and pioneering constitutional experiments.
Tracing Poland's complex development over a thousand years from the Middle Ages to the present, it examines Poland's political, economic, and military struggles, as well as its diverse culture, art, and society, by era, vividly reviving key events and figures.
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index
introduction
List of maps
List of genealogical charts
Chapter 1: People, Land, and Crowns
Chapter 2 Between East and West
Chapter 3: The Yagyewo Dynasty
Chapter 4: Religion and Politics
Chapter 5 Kingdoms and Republics
Chapter 6: Erasmus and His Times
Chapter 7 Democracy vs. Monarchy
Chapter 8: Warriors of God
Chapter 9: The Biblical Flood
Chapter 10: The Tyranny of the Seim
Chapter 11 Anarchy
Chapter 12 The Second Renaissance
Chapter 13: The Gentleman's Revolution
Chapter 14 Armed Struggle
Chapter 15 Rebellion
Chapter 16: The Polish Question
Chapter 17 Captivity
Chapter 18: Building a Nation-State
Chapter 19: Republic of Poland
Chapter 20 War
Chapter 21: The Price of Victory
Chapter 22 Trial and Error
Chapter 23: The Power of the Pope
Chapter 24 The Third Republic
Translator Boron: Poland in the 21st Century
Chronology
Translator's Note
Search
List of maps
List of genealogical charts
Chapter 1: People, Land, and Crowns
Chapter 2 Between East and West
Chapter 3: The Yagyewo Dynasty
Chapter 4: Religion and Politics
Chapter 5 Kingdoms and Republics
Chapter 6: Erasmus and His Times
Chapter 7 Democracy vs. Monarchy
Chapter 8: Warriors of God
Chapter 9: The Biblical Flood
Chapter 10: The Tyranny of the Seim
Chapter 11 Anarchy
Chapter 12 The Second Renaissance
Chapter 13: The Gentleman's Revolution
Chapter 14 Armed Struggle
Chapter 15 Rebellion
Chapter 16: The Polish Question
Chapter 17 Captivity
Chapter 18: Building a Nation-State
Chapter 19: Republic of Poland
Chapter 20 War
Chapter 21: The Price of Victory
Chapter 22 Trial and Error
Chapter 23: The Power of the Pope
Chapter 24 The Third Republic
Translator Boron: Poland in the 21st Century
Chronology
Translator's Note
Search
Into the book
Early modern Poland failed to build an efficient centralized state structure, and was, in return, conquered by neighboring states that were more successful in building such structures.
So, the history of Poland has been written up to this day as the history of a failed state.
Like a lens or filter that distorts objects, this failure has colored and distorted the historian's view of Polish history as a whole.
But historians are no longer the slaves of a few decades ago, who were forced to write the history of a nation that no longer existed for some purpose or goal.
There's a huge difference between writing about a company that went bankrupt and writing about a company that survived and prevailed.
Historians are no longer writing about failed states, but about societies that have built unique civilizations, once overshadowed by the success of competing models (now largely abandoned), but that come close to the ideals the world holds dear today.
---From the "Preface"
The allegiance clause was the ultimate guarantee of the entire system of checks and balances that was designed to prevent power from being concentrated in the hands of a few.
This also declared the basis of the relationship between the king and his subjects.
The ruler and the ruled were bound by a bilateral contract that imposed obligations on both sides, which both sides were obliged to respect.
The concept of a contract between a king and his subjects, which forms the cornerstone of the constitution, was almost unheard of in contemporary Europe, and only in England did the embryo of this idea appear.
The Habsburgs in Austria, the Bourbons in France, the Tudors in England, and all the other ruling dynasties of Europe sought to enforce domination over the individual through centralized government, ideological unity, and increasingly strict control.
Among the major countries, only Poland took the opposite path.
The Poles held the belief that no government was necessary, and that a strong government was even less desirable.
This was based on the conviction that one person had no right to force another to do anything, and that the quality of life was being diminished by unnecessary administrative redundancies.
It was neither new nor exceptional that these ideals were held by those who oppressed their own subjects, the peasants.
Even the founders of modern political thought in Greece and the fathers of the American Revolution applied this double standard, which was nothing short of hypocrisy, to reality.
---From "Chapter 5: The Kingdom and the Republic"
The rise of these tendencies and the modern Darwinian tendencies of nationalism among other peoples within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth territory presented Polish patriots with a dilemma.
Neither the confederation model nor even the recently refined state-based multinationalism could be applied here.
The best way forward was to make national core and language the foundation of the nation, like other European nations.
However, this meant rejecting the inclusiveness and tolerance of the national union and opting instead for exclusive ethnocentric conformity, which inevitably led to the rise of intolerant attitudes and the need to eliminate the presence of foreigners within the state.
It was this dilemma that shaped the political face of the new Polish nation.
---From "Chapter 18: Building a Nation-State"
The most heartbreaking aspect of Poland's experience after World War II was that it not only ended as a major loser, but also with its reputation severely damaged.
Before World War II, the Polish state and government were generally considered backward and authoritarian.
When some in the West were attracted to communism and the Soviet Union, Poland came across as an ideologically suspect country.
Poland's war effort was seen as futile and its leadership as incompetent.
Catholicism was not popular with Western intellectual circles and was not seen as something worth fighting for in Poland.
Moreover, the Polish state appeared to be a place where anti-Semitism rivaled that of Germany, especially among intellectuals and among French and American Jews.
The fact that the Jewish execution sites were located on Polish soil was presented as evidence of Polish collaboration in the Holocaust (four-fifths of the executed Jews were from Polish territories and thus were not attacked by the RAF).
The lack of sympathy from the outside world meant that Polish society had to bear its own hardships, and this had a profound impact on the development of literature and art.
So, the history of Poland has been written up to this day as the history of a failed state.
Like a lens or filter that distorts objects, this failure has colored and distorted the historian's view of Polish history as a whole.
But historians are no longer the slaves of a few decades ago, who were forced to write the history of a nation that no longer existed for some purpose or goal.
There's a huge difference between writing about a company that went bankrupt and writing about a company that survived and prevailed.
Historians are no longer writing about failed states, but about societies that have built unique civilizations, once overshadowed by the success of competing models (now largely abandoned), but that come close to the ideals the world holds dear today.
---From the "Preface"
The allegiance clause was the ultimate guarantee of the entire system of checks and balances that was designed to prevent power from being concentrated in the hands of a few.
This also declared the basis of the relationship between the king and his subjects.
The ruler and the ruled were bound by a bilateral contract that imposed obligations on both sides, which both sides were obliged to respect.
The concept of a contract between a king and his subjects, which forms the cornerstone of the constitution, was almost unheard of in contemporary Europe, and only in England did the embryo of this idea appear.
The Habsburgs in Austria, the Bourbons in France, the Tudors in England, and all the other ruling dynasties of Europe sought to enforce domination over the individual through centralized government, ideological unity, and increasingly strict control.
Among the major countries, only Poland took the opposite path.
The Poles held the belief that no government was necessary, and that a strong government was even less desirable.
This was based on the conviction that one person had no right to force another to do anything, and that the quality of life was being diminished by unnecessary administrative redundancies.
It was neither new nor exceptional that these ideals were held by those who oppressed their own subjects, the peasants.
Even the founders of modern political thought in Greece and the fathers of the American Revolution applied this double standard, which was nothing short of hypocrisy, to reality.
---From "Chapter 5: The Kingdom and the Republic"
The rise of these tendencies and the modern Darwinian tendencies of nationalism among other peoples within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth territory presented Polish patriots with a dilemma.
Neither the confederation model nor even the recently refined state-based multinationalism could be applied here.
The best way forward was to make national core and language the foundation of the nation, like other European nations.
However, this meant rejecting the inclusiveness and tolerance of the national union and opting instead for exclusive ethnocentric conformity, which inevitably led to the rise of intolerant attitudes and the need to eliminate the presence of foreigners within the state.
It was this dilemma that shaped the political face of the new Polish nation.
---From "Chapter 18: Building a Nation-State"
The most heartbreaking aspect of Poland's experience after World War II was that it not only ended as a major loser, but also with its reputation severely damaged.
Before World War II, the Polish state and government were generally considered backward and authoritarian.
When some in the West were attracted to communism and the Soviet Union, Poland came across as an ideologically suspect country.
Poland's war effort was seen as futile and its leadership as incompetent.
Catholicism was not popular with Western intellectual circles and was not seen as something worth fighting for in Poland.
Moreover, the Polish state appeared to be a place where anti-Semitism rivaled that of Germany, especially among intellectuals and among French and American Jews.
The fact that the Jewish execution sites were located on Polish soil was presented as evidence of Polish collaboration in the Holocaust (four-fifths of the executed Jews were from Polish territories and thus were not attacked by the RAF).
The lack of sympathy from the outside world meant that Polish society had to bear its own hardships, and this had a profound impact on the development of literature and art.
---From "Chapter 22 Trial and Error"
Publisher's Review
A nation that endured and overcame trials, not a nation that failed.
A Millennium of History to Fully Understand Poland
There are few countries with as distorted a history as Poland.
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which partitioned and occupied Poland in the late 18th century, rewrote history to give the impression that Poland was a backward group that had never been a fully sovereign state.
Throughout the 19th century, the Poles, who fought to reverse this process and regain their independence, were seen in the West as troublemakers and obstacles to orderly progress.
In the 20th century, Poles, who had become victims of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, were seen as reactionary and backward, resisting dogmas like communism that were considered progressive.
But after two centuries of turmoil, Poland has emerged today as one of Europe's most dynamic nations.
This book, "A History of Poland," is an attempt to return the true history of a country that has long embraced diverse cultural and religious traditions and pursued bold and pioneering constitutional experiments.
Tracing Poland's complex development over a thousand years, it examines its political, economic, and military struggles, as well as its diverse culture, art, and society, by era, vividly reviving key events and figures.
This book offers crucial insights for establishing appropriate relations with Poland, a rising European power, and for fully understanding the political landscape in the once-turbulent Central and Eastern European region.
Geopolitical fate caught between great powers
The book begins roughly in the 10th century, as Central and Eastern Europe was a periphery of Western European civilization, represented by the ancient Roman Empire, and there are few historical records from before that time.
Therefore, the thousand years covered by this book are the entire history of Poland.
Poland's geopolitical location has many similarities to Korea.
It is said that Korea is surrounded by four powers and is located at the point where continental and maritime powers meet. Poland, too, including Sweden before its division into three countries in the late 18th century, was surrounded by four powers to the east, west, south, and north, and was constantly in conflict.
Additionally, because it was located at the meeting point of the Germanic and East Slavic tribes, it was under constant pressure from both the east and the west, and the country was eventually destroyed by both powers.
However, these geopolitical aspects alone cannot fully explain Poland's long suffering.
If you think about it, there is no country that does not have competitors around it, and unlike Korea, which was inevitably intimidated by the great power called China until the modern era, Poland was once a great power with the largest territory in all of Europe.
If geopolitical peculiarities were the external cause of Poland's national crisis, the internal cause was Poland's unique political system and atmosphere, which had been formed since the Middle Ages and did not exist anywhere else in Europe.
This is the main point of this book.
The Polish parliament that 'elected' the king in the Middle Ages
While Western Europe, including medieval England and France, placed absolute value on royal power and centralized power, the Poles decentralized power.
Most ruling dynasties in Europe, including the Habsburgs in Austria, the Bourbons in France, and the Tudors in England, sought to enforce rule over the individual through centralized government, ideological unity, and increasingly strict control.
Among the major countries, only Poland took the opposite path.
The Poles held the belief that no government was necessary, and that a strong government was even less desirable.
At its center was the Sejm (parliament) of the 'Szlachta', representing the local population.
Even the king was elected by them, and the king thus elected had to swear to abide by the Acta Henriciana and the Pacta Conventa.
If the contents of these documents containing the king's duties were violated, the Polish subjects could renounce their allegiance to the king.
The concept of a contract between a king and his subjects, which forms the cornerstone of the constitution, was almost unheard of in contemporary Europe, and only in England did the embryo of this idea appear.
Division, extinction, and the confusion of identity
200 Years of Modern Persecution and Struggle
This aspect of the political body may seem very ideal from the perspective of modern democracy.
But it was so different from the times, and also contradictory.
The fact that the szlachta, which constituted the parliament, were mostly people who acted in their own interests rather than representing the local population, and that Poland had a weaker central focus compared to its neighbors, gradually suffocated it.
The Sejm increasingly became a stumbling block to the implementation and operation of national policies, and European commentators viewed it as the "tyranny of the Sejm" and Poland as "in a state of anarchy."
As a result, Poland lost its vitality as a political organism and was partitioned three times by its three neighboring countries (Prussia, Austria, and Russia), ultimately leading to its complete annihilation.
The Poles failed to build an efficient centralized state structure and were, in return, occupied by neighboring states that were more successful in building such structures.
The rise of these tendencies and the modern Darwinian tendencies of nationalism among other peoples within the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth territory presented Polish patriots with a dilemma.
The best way forward was to make national core and language the foundation of the nation, like other European nations.
However, this meant rejecting the inclusiveness and tolerance that the Union had envisioned, opting instead for exclusive, ethnocentric conformity, which inevitably led to the rise of intolerant attitudes and the need to eliminate the presence of foreigners within the nation.
It was this dilemma that shaped the political face of the new Polish nation.
The inhabitants who live here are reconstructed as a largely fictional people who think of their survival from a Darwinian perspective.
This began a struggle that would culminate in two world wars and the Cold War.
“What the world considers important today
“The history of a society that created a civilization close to the ideal”
The first edition of this book was published in 1987 under the title The Polish Way.
At that time, Poland's history was written as the history of a failed nation due to various distortions and prejudices.
However, in the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the historical perspective has moved away from the old framework of state-centered, nationalistic, and ideological struggles for domination, and Polish history and society are being reexamined.
This book also looked at Polish history from such a new perspective.
This book will be crucial for establishing appropriate relations with Poland, which has overcome adversity and is emerging as a new European power, and for fully understanding the political situation in Central and Eastern Europe, which is once again in turmoil, including the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Furthermore, Poland's uniquely decentralized political system, which was far ahead of its time, offers insights that broaden our horizons beyond a proper understanding of the country.
A Millennium of History to Fully Understand Poland
There are few countries with as distorted a history as Poland.
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which partitioned and occupied Poland in the late 18th century, rewrote history to give the impression that Poland was a backward group that had never been a fully sovereign state.
Throughout the 19th century, the Poles, who fought to reverse this process and regain their independence, were seen in the West as troublemakers and obstacles to orderly progress.
In the 20th century, Poles, who had become victims of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, were seen as reactionary and backward, resisting dogmas like communism that were considered progressive.
But after two centuries of turmoil, Poland has emerged today as one of Europe's most dynamic nations.
This book, "A History of Poland," is an attempt to return the true history of a country that has long embraced diverse cultural and religious traditions and pursued bold and pioneering constitutional experiments.
Tracing Poland's complex development over a thousand years, it examines its political, economic, and military struggles, as well as its diverse culture, art, and society, by era, vividly reviving key events and figures.
This book offers crucial insights for establishing appropriate relations with Poland, a rising European power, and for fully understanding the political landscape in the once-turbulent Central and Eastern European region.
Geopolitical fate caught between great powers
The book begins roughly in the 10th century, as Central and Eastern Europe was a periphery of Western European civilization, represented by the ancient Roman Empire, and there are few historical records from before that time.
Therefore, the thousand years covered by this book are the entire history of Poland.
Poland's geopolitical location has many similarities to Korea.
It is said that Korea is surrounded by four powers and is located at the point where continental and maritime powers meet. Poland, too, including Sweden before its division into three countries in the late 18th century, was surrounded by four powers to the east, west, south, and north, and was constantly in conflict.
Additionally, because it was located at the meeting point of the Germanic and East Slavic tribes, it was under constant pressure from both the east and the west, and the country was eventually destroyed by both powers.
However, these geopolitical aspects alone cannot fully explain Poland's long suffering.
If you think about it, there is no country that does not have competitors around it, and unlike Korea, which was inevitably intimidated by the great power called China until the modern era, Poland was once a great power with the largest territory in all of Europe.
If geopolitical peculiarities were the external cause of Poland's national crisis, the internal cause was Poland's unique political system and atmosphere, which had been formed since the Middle Ages and did not exist anywhere else in Europe.
This is the main point of this book.
The Polish parliament that 'elected' the king in the Middle Ages
While Western Europe, including medieval England and France, placed absolute value on royal power and centralized power, the Poles decentralized power.
Most ruling dynasties in Europe, including the Habsburgs in Austria, the Bourbons in France, and the Tudors in England, sought to enforce rule over the individual through centralized government, ideological unity, and increasingly strict control.
Among the major countries, only Poland took the opposite path.
The Poles held the belief that no government was necessary, and that a strong government was even less desirable.
At its center was the Sejm (parliament) of the 'Szlachta', representing the local population.
Even the king was elected by them, and the king thus elected had to swear to abide by the Acta Henriciana and the Pacta Conventa.
If the contents of these documents containing the king's duties were violated, the Polish subjects could renounce their allegiance to the king.
The concept of a contract between a king and his subjects, which forms the cornerstone of the constitution, was almost unheard of in contemporary Europe, and only in England did the embryo of this idea appear.
Division, extinction, and the confusion of identity
200 Years of Modern Persecution and Struggle
This aspect of the political body may seem very ideal from the perspective of modern democracy.
But it was so different from the times, and also contradictory.
The fact that the szlachta, which constituted the parliament, were mostly people who acted in their own interests rather than representing the local population, and that Poland had a weaker central focus compared to its neighbors, gradually suffocated it.
The Sejm increasingly became a stumbling block to the implementation and operation of national policies, and European commentators viewed it as the "tyranny of the Sejm" and Poland as "in a state of anarchy."
As a result, Poland lost its vitality as a political organism and was partitioned three times by its three neighboring countries (Prussia, Austria, and Russia), ultimately leading to its complete annihilation.
The Poles failed to build an efficient centralized state structure and were, in return, occupied by neighboring states that were more successful in building such structures.
The rise of these tendencies and the modern Darwinian tendencies of nationalism among other peoples within the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth territory presented Polish patriots with a dilemma.
The best way forward was to make national core and language the foundation of the nation, like other European nations.
However, this meant rejecting the inclusiveness and tolerance that the Union had envisioned, opting instead for exclusive, ethnocentric conformity, which inevitably led to the rise of intolerant attitudes and the need to eliminate the presence of foreigners within the nation.
It was this dilemma that shaped the political face of the new Polish nation.
The inhabitants who live here are reconstructed as a largely fictional people who think of their survival from a Darwinian perspective.
This began a struggle that would culminate in two world wars and the Cold War.
“What the world considers important today
“The history of a society that created a civilization close to the ideal”
The first edition of this book was published in 1987 under the title The Polish Way.
At that time, Poland's history was written as the history of a failed nation due to various distortions and prejudices.
However, in the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the historical perspective has moved away from the old framework of state-centered, nationalistic, and ideological struggles for domination, and Polish history and society are being reexamined.
This book also looked at Polish history from such a new perspective.
This book will be crucial for establishing appropriate relations with Poland, which has overcome adversity and is emerging as a new European power, and for fully understanding the political situation in Central and Eastern Europe, which is once again in turmoil, including the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Furthermore, Poland's uniquely decentralized political system, which was far ahead of its time, offers insights that broaden our horizons beyond a proper understanding of the country.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: December 28, 2024
- Page count, weight, size: 544 pages | 782g | 153*225*27mm
- ISBN13: 9791194263210
- ISBN10: 1194263216
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