FOOTNOTES:
[72] A substantial account of the tribes speaking these three languages was given as early as 731 by the Venerable Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica.
[73] [Translation.] “Art. V. His Majesty the Emperor of Austria transfers to His Majesty the King of Prussia all the rights which he acquired by the Vienna Treaty of Peace of 30th October, 1864, over the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig, with the condition that the populations of the Northern Districts of Schleswig shall be ceded to Denmark if, by a free vote, they express a wish to be united to Denmark.” E. Herstlet: The Map of Europe by Treaty, London, 1875, Vol. 3, p. 1722.
[74] A later treaty signed by Austria and Prussia at Vienna on Oct. 11, 1878, suppressed the referendum clause, which had never been viewed with favor by the German government.
[75] M. R. Waultrin: Le rapprochement dano-allemand et la question du Schleswig, Ann. Sci. Polit., May 15, and July 15, 1903.
[76] L. Gasselin: La question du Schleswig-Holstein, Paris, 1909.
[77] L. Gasselin: op. cit., p. 206.
[78] Scandinavia and the Scandinavians, New York, 1915, p. 30.
[79] Op. cit., p. 143.
[80] Op. cit., p. 147.
[81] Op. cit., p. 148.
[82] Op. cit., p. 150.
[83] A. Rambaud: Histoire de la Russie, Paris, 1914, p. 21.
[84] Atlas de Finlande, Carte 46, Helsingfors, 1911.
[85] K. B. Wiklund: Språken i Finland, 1880-1900, Ymer, 1905, No. 2, pp. 132-149.
[86] R. Saxen: Répartition des langues, Fennia, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1910-1911, Helsingfors, 1911.
[87] A. Rambaud: Histoire de la Russie depuis les origines jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, 1914, p. 21.
[88] Rambaud: op. cit.
[89] The Russian census of 1897 showed 3,094,469.
[90] About 50,000 Letts belong to the Greek Church.
[91] H. Rosen: Die ethnographische Verhältnisse in den baltischen Provinzen und in Litauen, Pet. Mitt., Sept. 1915, pp. 329-333.
[92] Russian census of 1897.
[93] W. Z. Ripley: The Races of Europe, New York, 1899.
[94] Statisko Årsbok för Finland 1914, Helsingfors, 1915, pp. 45-46.
[95] Bidrag till Finlands Officiella Statistik, VI, Befolkningsstatistik, 45, Finlands Folkmängd den 31 December, 1910 (enligt Församlingarnas Kyrkoböcker), Helsingfors, 1915, p. 127.
[96] Bidrag till Finlands Officiella Statistik, VI, Befolkningsstatistik, 45, Finlands Folkmängd den 31 December, 1910 (enligt Församlingarnas Krykoböcker), Helsingfors, 1915, pp. 124-125.
[CHAPTER VI]
THE AREA OF POLISH SPEECH
South of the Baltic shores the unbroken expanse now peopled by Germans merges insensibly into the western part of the great Russian plain. This extensive lowland is featureless and provides no natural barriers between the two empires it connects. The area of Polish speech alone intervenes as a buffer product of the basin of the middle Vistula. The region is a silt-covered lowland, the bed of a former glacial lake. It has been peopled by Slavs for over a thousand years. Upon its open stretches there was no lack of food and no reason therefore for migration. The development of Poland rests primarily on this physical foundation. Added advantages of good land and water communication with the rest of the continent contributed powerfully to the spread of Polish power, which at one time extended from Baltic shores to the Black sea.
In the ninth century the Slavic tribes of the Polish and western Russian regions differed but slightly in language and customs. Dialects spoken in the upper Vistula basin and in the upper Dnieper valley presented a degree of affinity which has disappeared from the Russian and Polish languages as spoken in our time. Differences between the two groups increased as they came respectively under eastern and western influences. Intercourse between the western group and the Slavs settled in the upper Elbe region produced a Polish contingent, while contact of the eastern body with Tatars created the main Russian group. Religious differences helped to widen the breach between these two branches of the Slavic family. The western body was naturally inclined to follow the counsels emanating from the Vatican. The eastern looked to Byzantium for spiritual guidance. These were strictly geographical relations. Eventual divergence into separate nationalities originated in the conflicts of religious views and material interests among the leading members in each group.
Fig. 38—Sketch map of eastern Europe showing the areal classification of Russians into Little Russians (dotted area), Great Russians (diagonally ruled) and White Russians (cross-ruled area). The black dots indicate Masurian localities. The dotted circles show Hungarian cities peopled by Ruthenians.
The Polish language is spoken at present within a quadrilateral the angles of which are found at the Jablunka pass in the Carpathians,[97] Wissek north of the Netze near the Posen boundary, Suwalki in the eastern Masurian region and Sanok on the San. A northern extension is appended to this linguistic region in the form of a narrow band which detaches itself from the main mass above Bromberg and reaches the Baltic coast west of Danzig. In sum, the valley of the Vistula, from the Carpathians to the Baltic, constitutes the field of Polish humanity and institutions. In spite of the remoteness of the period when they first occupied the land, these children of the plains never attempted to scale mountainous slopes. The solid wall of the western Carpathians, between Jablunka and Sanok, with its abrupt slopes facing the north, forms the southern boundary of the country.
This region, in the midst of the diversity of surface of the European continent, has produced a distinct language in the varied stock of European vernaculars. Nevertheless there is no similarity of physical type among individuals speaking Polish. Marked anthropological differences are found between the Poles of Russian Poland and of Galicia.[98] They correspond to the classification of northern Slavs into two main groups, the northernmost of which comprises the Poles of Russian Poland, together with White and Great Russians. Traces of Finnish intermixture can still be detected among them, in spite of the process of Slavicization which they have undergone. The Poles of Galicia, on the other hand, like the Ruthenians and Little Russians, reveal mingling of the autochthonous populations with Asiatic and Mongoloid invaders of Europe.[99]
Delimitation of the area of the Polish speech is more easily made in theory than on the field. The transition to alien languages is rarely well defined. Such detailed work as has been undertaken in western Europe, where the predominant language in small villages and hamlets is often determined, does not exist for eastern sections of the continent. The zeal of German and Russian agents of nationalist propaganda aggravates the problem. Within Galicia the boundary line passes west of Sanok and Radymno.[100] Its southern extension skirts the foothills through Rymanow, Dukla, Zmigrod and Grybow. Thence to Jablunka pass it merges with the political boundary.
In its western section the physical boundary coincides for all practical purposes with the ethnographic line of division. The Gorales mountaineers have never aspired to cross the divide of the Beskid mountains. The result is that the gentler slopes of the southern side are peopled altogether by Slovaks, while habit and custom have prevented the Podhalians, or Polish shepherds inhabiting the high valley of the Tatra, from leading their flocks to the southern grazing slopes which form part of the Hungarian domain.[101]
Copyright by Brown Bros.
Fig. 39—This view is representative of the open steppeland of Ukraine in southwestern Russia.
Changes in the aspect of the land resulting from human activity provide an easily observable boundary between the territory inhabited by Poles and that occupied by Ruthenians. The former, proceeding from the Vistulian lowland, are now scattered over a territory in which deforestation and large areas of tilled soil bespeak prolonged occupancy. The latter, coming from the Pontic steppes, reached the Carpathian slopes much later than their western neighbors. Consequently only 20 per cent of the surface of the western Carpathians is now available as prairie and pasture land, whereas the percentage of grazing land in the eastern section of the mountain chain is twice as much.[102] The area of plowed land in the western region covers between 40 and 50 per cent of the surface. In the east it barely varies between 5 and 10 per cent. Again the Polish section is practically clear of the forests, which cover, in contrast, from 50 to 60 per cent of the eastern Carpathians. Similar differences can be noted in the valleys up to an altitude of about 2,300 feet. Within them the proportion of plowed land constitutes 88 per cent of the surface in the Polish section while in the Ruthenian valleys the proportion of plowed land does not exceed 15 per cent.
On the southwestern border a number of localities in the Teschen country are claimed alike by Czechs and Poles. The increasing use of Polish and German, however, tends to invalidate the claims of Bohemians.[103] A transition zone between Czech and Polish exists here and is characterized by a local dialect of mixed language. In the western Beskid mountains Polish and Moravian are divided at the Jablunka pass. The ancient duchies of Teschen, Auschwitz and Zator were situated in this region and at the southern end of the long Slavo-Germanic borderland. The two last-named duchies were incorporated with Poland in the fifteenth century. German language and customs disappeared from their territory soon after this fusion.
This important district is in every aspect a zone of transition. Its climate becomes alternately continental or oceanic according to the prevalence of winds from east or west. The change occurs sometimes in a few weeks. Occasionally it is sudden and atmospheric conditions have been known to have changed completely from one stage to the other in the course of a single day.[104] During periods of oceanic climate, the temperature often rises above 0° C. Snows melt and spring temperature prevails during January and February. Again sometimes the east wind brings all the signs of winter in April. In summer western breezes bring rain and dryness prevails when eastern winds blow. As a result of this semi-continental climate wheat crops on the Polish side are from three to six weeks later than on the Moravian side.
German immigrants invaded this region in the eighth century. Their language held its own until the fourteenth, after which it is represented only by linguistic islands dotting here and there the sea of Slavs. It is, however, still possible to distinguish settlements of German origin from the old Polish villages. The latter are situated on high ground or well-protected sites. They are generally characterized by the existence of a central open space and the random distribution of houses and lanes. The German villages, on the other hand, are found at the heads of valleys and usually occupy a rectangular site spreading over the two banks of a river. Each habitation has its own land appurtenance extending rearwards towards the valley slopes. The roads follow natural depressions. Taken as a whole, these German villages are admirably molded on the relief of the surface.
The western linguistic boundary of Poland extends through the German provinces of Silesia and Posen. Here a gradual replacement of the language by German since the sixteenth century is noticeable. At that time the Oder constituted the dividing line, south of the point of the confluence of the Nissa between Brieg and Oppeln. As late as 1790 the population of Breslau was largely Polish. Today over 75 per cent of the inhabitants of the city and the neighboring towns and villages are Germans. The district north and south constitutes in fact an area of linguistic reclamation.
The westernmost extension of Polish occurs in Posen, at the base of the provincial projection into Brandenburg. Around Bomst the percentage of Polish inhabitants is as high as 75 per cent. The line extends northwards to Birnbaum, after which it assumes a northeasterly direction. In spite of this occidental reach, however, the area of Polish speech within German boundaries is broken in numerous places by German enclaves of varying size.[105]
In western Prussia, the Poles form compact inclusions in the German mass and attain the Baltic shores, where they occupy the entire western coast of the Gulf of Danzig. From Oliva and Danzig the line extends to Dirschau (Tezew) and crosses the Vistula about six miles below the city. It then strikes east and turns southwards towards Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) and Graudenz. Proceeding due east from here, the boundary passes south of Eylau, the southern territory of the Masurian lakes, and on into Russian territory, until Suwalki is reached. The eastern frontier begins at this point and is prolonged southwards, according to Slav authorities, through Augustow, Bielostok,[106] Surash, Bielsk, Sarnaki, Krsanostaw and Tomaschow.
The advance of the area of Polish speech, in the form of a tongue of land, to the Baltic coast, is a proof of intimate dependence between Polish nationality and the basin of the Vistula. This northernmost section of the territory in which Polish is spoken, lies entirely within Prussian territory. Centuries of Teutonic influence failed, however, to eradicate completely Slavic language or customs in the valley of the great river. Between Thorn and Danzig, on the left bank of the Vistula, it is estimated that 650,000 Poles are scattered. On the right, the Prussian districts of Lobau, Strassburg and Briesen are centers of intense Polish life and culture. The city of Danzig itself, with a Polish element of only 10 per cent, still gives strong evidence of its Polish institutions. Its monuments are memorials of Poland’s history, and many of its families bear Polish names even though their members use German as a vernacular.
Originally a free town, Danzig owes its predominant German population to the inflow of traders of this nationality who have swarmed within its walls since the sixteenth century. The city, standing like a sentinel at the mouth of the Vistula, is in every sense a creation of the river. Traffic from Poland’s innermost districts flows towards the country’s great waterway to be finally landed on the wharves of Danzig. Prior to the partition of Poland, the city was nominally a dependency of that country, but its inhabitants had been granted special trading privileges as well as the right of governing themselves. The city’s commercial relations were highly favored by such a régime and business men from the surrounding country were not slow to realize the exceptional advantages which settlement in the city afforded. By the end of the seventeenth century its population consisted largely of German merchants and their dependents. Frederick II with characteristic far-sightedness realized the extent to which this seaport, together with the river city of Thorn, controlled the traffic between Brandenburg and old Prussia. He did not succeed however in annexing the two cities to his dominions, for it is only since 1815 that they have formed part of Prussian territory.
The American Geographical Society of New York
Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe, 1917, Pl. IV
View larger image here
THE AREA OF POLISH SPEECH
The struggle for predominance between Poles and Germans along Poland’s western boundary is fully nine centuries old. In the sixteenth century, Slavonic tribes had become widely distributed between the Oder and Elbe, in the course of westerly expansions which correspond to south and west migrations of Teutonic peoples.[107] Place names bestowed by the early Germans in the district between these two rivers have practically disappeared under the layer of Slavic appellations conferred between the second and fourth centuries.[108] The period between 800 and 1300 witnessed the inception of a slow and powerful Germanic drive directed towards the east. Convents and lay feudal establishments participated in this historical movement. Repeated German aggressions brought about the earliest union of all Polish tribes into one nation at the beginning of the eleventh century. It proved, however, of little avail before the fighting prowess of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, who, by the first half of the thirteenth century, had succeeded in adding all Wend territory to Teutonic dominions. This early and northerly phase of the “Drang nach Osten” brought the Germans to the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Their advance was rendered possible in part by the presence of Tatar hordes menacing southern Poland. Teutonic progress was also facilitated by the defenseless condition which marks an open plain. Between the Oder and the Vistula the slightly undulating lowland is continuous and devoid of barriers to communication which the interposition of uplifted or uninhabitable stretches of territory might have provided.
Polish history has been affected both favorably and adversely by this lack of natural bulwarks. The former extension of Polish sovereignty to the shores of the Baltic and Black seas, and to within 50 miles of Berlin and the central plateau of Russia, was a result of easy travel on a plain. This advantage was more than offset by the evident facility with which alien races were able to swarm into the vast featureless expanse forming Polish territory. The dismemberment of the country is in part the result of the inability of the Poles to resort to the protection of a natural fortress, where a prolonged stand against the aggression of foes might have been made.
At the end of the tenth century the entire Polish plain acknowledged the rule of Boleslas the Great, a prince of the Piast dynasty. Kiev then paid a yearly tribute to the Polish crown. A period of internal division follows Boleslas’s rule, but in the beginning of the fourteenth century Poland was once more united under the scepter of King Ladislas. From 1386 to 1772, a period of almost four centuries, Polish frontiers remained remarkably stable. Their fluctuations were slight when compared to the changes which occurred in other European countries during the same period.
At one period of its history Poland was barred from its Baltic sea frontier in the north. In the fourteenth century the invasion of the Teutonic Knights temporarily out off the country from the sea; but apart from this interruption Poland has always had access to the sea to which the drainage of the land naturally led. Under the first members of the Piast dynasty the Poles had control of the Baltic coast.[109] When, in the thirteenth century, the Poles called upon the Knights of the Teutonic Order for assistance in subjugating Prussia, the two parties agreed to equal division of the conquered territory. The successes of the Teutonic Knights, however, emboldened their leaders to claim more land for their share. A state of war ensued between the two former allies until by the treaty of Thorn, in 1466, the Teutonic Knights acknowledged Polish sovereignty. This brought Pomerelia, or Prussian Pomerania, within Polish territory. In 1525 the Prussian districts east of the Vistula became part of the duchy of Albert of Brandenburg and were thus surrounded entirely by Polish territory; but that part of Prussia which extends west of the Vistula remained an integral portion of Poland until 1772.
In the fighting which marked the relations between Poland and Turkey in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Poles succeeded in extending their southern frontiers to within a hundred miles of the Black Sea and in carrying their sphere of influence to the sea itself. The occupation of Kaminiec by the Turks was short-lived. In general Poland’s frontier on the side of the ancient Rumanian principalities remained unchanged during the last four centuries of the country’s sovereign existence.
In the fifteenth century, Poland was the dominating Slavic state. In 1386 it had been united to Lithuania by Wladislas Jagellon, the first prince of the famous dynasty bearing his name. The country at that time was protected from Turkish attacks by Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania. Russia was its rival for the possession of Lithuania; Austria for that of Hungary and Bohemia. Prussia and Livonia were also claimed by Poland from the Order of the Teutonic Knights. The weakness of the country lay in the jealousy of the two peoples of diverse speech from which its ruling body was drawn. The Jagellons were Lithuanian princes. They favored the claims of their countrymen, who preferred the laws of their native land to the Polish legislation which was being forced on them. The Poles likewise had their grievances against the Lithuanians. During the rule of Casimir IV he was frequently taken to task by his countrymen for spending “summer, fall and winter in Lithuania.”
Poland’s easterly expansion with its prolonged and finally disastrous conflicts with Russia began after the battle of Grunwald in 1410. Although the Poles then inflicted a decisive defeat on the Teutonic Knights, the western provinces they had lost could not be regained. In the eastern field the basin of the Dnieper merged without abrupt transition into that of the Vistula, just as the basin of the Oder on the west formed the western continuation of the Baltic plain. Four centuries of struggle with Russia ensued until the Muscovite Empire absorbed the greater portion of Poland.
The German element is slowly spreading eastward throughout the eastern provinces of Prussia which once formed part of the kingdom of Poland. Emigration of Poles to central and western Germany partly accounts for the German gain. From the larger cities of eastern Germany and more especially from Posen, Bromberg and Danzig, a steady stream of emigrants make their way towards the industrial centers of the west, where they find higher wages and generally improved economic conditions. The German government favors this expatriation of its Slav subjects. None of the vexations to which the Poles are subjected by government officials on their native plains are tolerated in the occidental provinces of the Empire. The result is that notable colonies of Poles have sprung up in the vicinity of industrial centers like Düsseldorf or Arnsberg, in the Munster district and the Rhine provinces. From a racial standpoint, these Poles are practically indistinguishable from Teutonic types. Their presence in Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia is no menace to German unity. They are easily assimilated; the second generation, speaking only German, forgets its antecedents and becomes submerged in the mass of the native population. Slav settlements are particularly numerous and dense along the Rhine-Herne canal between Duisburg and Dortmund.[110] They abound in the coal-producing Emscher valley, where their inhabitants form one-fifth of the population. The Polish settlers favor the flatlands and occupy them in preference to hilly regions. They do not confine their work to mining, but provide labor for the industrial plants clustered around the coal-fields. In the beginning of 1911 the number of Polish miners in the 19 mining districts of the “circle” of Dortmund exceeded that of any other nationality.
The heavy preponderance of Poles in certain administrative divisions of eastern Germany has, nevertheless, been unimpaired by the Polish emigration. In the province of Posen the German-speaking inhabitants still constitute the minority. As a rule Germans emigrate more readily than Poles or Masurians in East Prussia.[111] In the city of Posen, Polish nationality was asserting itself with increasing vigor year by year, before the European war. The percentage of Poles grew from about 51 in 1890 to 56 in 1900. Ten years later it exceeded 57. Correspondingly the German percentage fell from 50 in 1890 to under 42 in 1910.
Posen, of all German provinces, contains the largest number of Poles. 62 per cent of its 2,100,000 inhabitants belong to this nationality. Within provincial boundaries the process of Germanizing the people has been carried on most actively in the district of Bromberg. The reason is obvious. The region is the connecting link between Germany proper and the province of Old Prussia, which forms an enclave of German speech within the territory of the Polish language. The effort to connect the ancient cradle of Prussia with the motherland is apparent in the figures which reveal the percentage of Poles in the intermediary land. The district of Bromberg numbers 53 per cent of Poles in a population of 750,000. In the provincial district of Posen, however, the percentage of Poles attains 68 for a population of 1,350,000.
The German element of the province is confined mainly to the cities, the country being peopled largely by Poles. Often the proportion of this native population attains as high a figure as 91 per cent and it is rare to find it below 75 per cent. Apart from the German administration of the province, Posen thus remains Polish to the core. Its nobility and landed gentry consist mostly of Poles who have strenuously opposed German encroachments by abstaining from commercial or financial intercourse with their rulers. They founded their own banks, in order to be independent of German institutions; and by means of native agricultural associations they came to the aid of Polish farmers, who were thus saved from having recourse to German colonization banks chartered for the purpose of buying out Polish landowners. The influence of the Polish element is best shown by the fact that eleven Polish representatives are delegated by its population to the Reichstag, out of a body of fifteen sent by the province.
We thus see that the Poles scattered in the eastern section of Germany constitute the largest foreign-speaking element in the Empire’s population. Their number is estimated by Niederle at 3,450,000. German census returns for 1900 give 3,086,489. The percentage of Jews in German Poland is high, particularly in the urban areas. The practice of census-takers is to classify them with the German or Polish population according to their vernacular. In Russia the last (1897) available census figures report the existence of 1,267,194 Jews[112] scattered throughout the Polish provinces. This represents 13.48 per cent of the population of Russian Poland. Here, as elsewhere, they are rarely engaged in agricultural pursuits but show a tendency to invade prosperous towns and cities.[113]
The Polish Jews, speaking a vernacular of their own, and conscious of the advantage derived from their number, live apart from the Poles, with whom they are generally at odds on economic questions. The presence of this racially alien element has often assisted Russian administrators in their policy of holding Polish urban populations well in hand by pitting one people against the other. Jewish parties wield considerable influence in the local politics of Polish cities. They are openly anti-Slavic and side with the German inhabitants, from whom they receive guidance regarding policy and conduct. The strength of the Polish vote was felt in the 1912 elections for the Duma when Lodz sent a Jewish representative to the national council, while in Warsaw where they form 38 per cent of the population they succeeded in forcing the election of a Polish socialist who in that same year had failed to obtain a majority of the city’s Polish votes.
The confinement of Jews within the pale of Poland dates from the time of the first partition, when an edict signed by Catherine II was proclaimed, forbidding them to emigrate from the annexed territory into Russia proper. Since then every succeeding Russian monarch maintained this policy of segregation until, at the time of Poland’s last partition, the ten governments into which the unfortunate nation was divided became the only territory in which the Jews were tolerated.
This arrangement was made largely because of the Jew’s well-known aptitude for commerce and through fear that the unsophisticated and large-hearted Russian mujik was no match for him. The state of Poland prior to its dismemberment made such measures imperative for the Russian government. The Poles were either landowners, tillers of the soil or soldiers. Few engaged in trade. The country’s commerce was in the hands of Germans or Jews. Poland’s weakness in the presence of foreign aggression was due to this state of economic inferiority, no less than to her lack of natural frontiers on the east and west.
The large proportion of the Jewish element in Poland may be traced ultimately to the very circumstances which impart distinctiveness to the Polish region. It was inevitable that the Jew should find cordial welcome in the broad drainage valley of the Vistula and its tributaries, tenanted by a landed nobility at the one end of the social scale and a retinue of serfs at the other. Between these two classes the Jew supplied a needed trading element and thrived. Polish kings accordingly adopted the policy of inviting and protecting Jews within their domains as early as in the fourteenth century, a time when the Jews were being expelled in hundreds from other nations. Emigration of the Jews from Germany during the period of Catholic persecution was particularly heavy. This movement helped to increase the number of Jews in Poland.
The position of the Jews in Poland varies, therefore, according to the circumstances which determined their immigration. They may be classed into two groups. The descendants of early settlers feel the welding influence of time and are united with the Poles by the bond of historical association and of common interests. The newcomers, mostly refugees from Russian cities, form an unassimilated nucleus whose tendencies and temper differ materially from the aims that actuate the native population, whether Polish or Jewish. Racial animosity in Poland is chiefly directed against these newcomers. It has reached an acute stage in recent years, owing to the strenuous efforts of Poles to control their country’s industry and commerce in face of the menace of German economic absorption.
In Galicia the Jews are competitors of the Poles. Full advantage has been taken by Austrian statesmen of the existence of a powerful clique of Jewish financiers in Vienna in order to obtain Jewish support against Slavic aspirations. Jewish capitalists were allowed to take part in the development of natural resources as well as to purchase large estates. At present fully 20 per cent of the larger private domains in Galicia are owned by Jews.[114] In the cities also the Jewish element has acquired considerable influence. This is especially observable in Lemberg and Cracow. The bulk of Galician Jews, however, are poor and uneducated. They have little sympathy with the ideals of the Christian element, from whom they hold aloof. In the social relations of the three main elements of the Galician population, Poles and Jews generally unite to exploit Ruthenians. The Jews apparently are unable to thrive on the Poles. In the Polish sections of Galicia they constitute only 7 per cent of the population, whereas in Ruthenian Galicia this proportion rises to 13 per cent.
German Poland, from Upper Silesia to the Gulf of Danzig, contains about 4,000,000 Poles. In Upper Silesia, they constitute 61 per cent of the population and number about 1,300,000. This majority has been maintained, in the face of aggressive Germanization, since the first half of the fourteenth century. The city of Posen contains 170,000 inhabitants, of whom 58 per cent are Poles. The farming districts of the province contain only about 10 per cent of Germans. Over 900,000 Poles live in East and West Prussia. In this section of Germany, they form a sufficiently compact body to be able to send representatives chosen from their own people to the Landstag and Reichstag. The western coast of the Gulf of Danzig and the banks of the lower Vistula are almost exclusively Polish. A solid wedge of Polish humanity is here interposed between the Germans of Pomerania and of East Prussia. This thorough isolation of an important body of Germans may become a thorny problem in any eventual settlement of Polish boundaries.
Upper Silesia is the best endowed section of Polish territory. The grayish soil which forms the surface of the Oder valley is eminently fitted for cereal and beet cultivation and the farmers of this soil are generally Poles. They often represent 90 per cent of the rural population.[115] In the cities and generally speaking in the industrial field they are laborers. Capital and the management of factories and of mines are in German hands.
The most interesting feature of the clash between Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia is found in the failure of the Germans in their efforts to force their language upon an alien people. Forty years ago, Polish noblemen were apt to blush at the thought of their Slavic origin in the presence of the German rulers of their land. But the vexations inflicted on them by Prussian administration, since the formation of the German Empire, have bred a spirit of defiance and revolt. As a result Silesian Poles were never so conscious of nationality as they are today. They band together in order to resist Germanization more effectively. Small tradesmen, petty farmers and professional men organize themselves into bodies to which individual interests are intrusted whenever German methods become intolerable. But the greatest asset of Polish nationality in this fight against annihilation is its high birth rate. This has also led to the emigration of Poles to the industrial districts of Westphalia, the coal districts of the Lens basin in France and to America. This flow of Poles comes mainly from the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, where sandy inert soils cannot accommodate rapidly increasing numbers.
In addition to drastic educational measures, compelling study of their language, the Germans have resorted to wholesale buying of Polish estates in the section of the kingdom of Poland which fell to the lot of Prussia when the country was partitioned. A colonization law (Ansiedelunggesetz), decreed on April 26, 1886, placed large funds at the disposal of the German government for the purchase of land owned by Poles and the establishment of colonies of German settlers.[116] The measure was artificial and proved valueless against economic conditions prevailing in the regions affected. A decrease in the percentage of the Polish population of the estates acquired by purchase was rarely brought about. The new settlers could rarely compete with natives. The most tangible result consisted in mere substitution of German for Polish ownership. On most of the large estates the mass of laborers and dependents remained Poles as they had been before. The breach between Poles and Germans was widened by the change of masters. Nevertheless, although results corresponding to the efforts and money expended were not obtained, the measure has contributed to the advance of Teutonism in northeastern Europe.[117]
The purpose of this colonization is to redeem Prussian soil from Polish ownership. The “Mittelstandskasse” of Breslau, and the Peasant’s Bank of Danzig, are financial institutions directly interested in this work of Germanization. These banks work hand in hand with the state. Results of this activity can be observed in East Prussia where the German element has acquired preponderance in 32 communes, through the intervention of German capital. A common practice of the German loan societies is to assume the liabilities of German farmers. In many cases the peasants have been provided with funds to carry on their agricultural operations. In Western Prussia 39 estates with about 14,000 inhabitants have passed into German hands.[118] Often it has been impossible to induce peasants from other parts of Germany to settle in the Polish provinces, and the state has resorted to the importation of German peasants from the old German settlements in Russia, Galicia and Bosnia.
German colonization in Polish provinces has been accompanied by increase and expansion of urban centers. The province of Posen, which now claims 151 cities,[119] is a typical instance. The colonists’ cities founded by Germans are readily recognized by their peculiar configuration. Almost all have been built on the same plan. A four-sided market-place generally constitutes the nucleus of the urban tract. Main avenues diverge from the angles of the central quadrilateral. Lateral streets extend parallel to the market sides and at right angles to the main arteries.
Against the tightening hold of the Germans on their land, the Poles can offer only limited resistance. But their counteracting efforts are not devoid of value. They have taken advantage of the high prices, consequent upon the sales of the land which the government has forced on them, to buy new estates. Thanks to the high rate of birth among Poles, the proportion of Poles living in German Poland to the rest of the population remains stationary, in spite of German immigration or Polish emigration. Coöperative associations of farmers, of traders or industrial operators, present a united front in all dealings of their members with Germans. In the field of education, children are taught Polish in spite of German opposition.[120] The patriotism and courage of the Polish press are maintained in face of German persecution. The return of Polish emigrants with a little capital, accumulated by toil in foreign lands, is likewise one of the factors which contribute to the preservation of the people in their homeland. Both from the western industrial districts of Germany and from overseas, many patriotic Poles return to the land of their fathers and settle upon small farms purchased with their savings.
From the east pressure corresponding to Teutonic battering, although exerted with less intensity, is applied by Russian endeavor to create national homogeneity. Of all the different members of the wide-spread Slavic race Poles and Russians are the most closely related by speech. But the affinity ends here, for the formidable barrier of religious differences hampers fusion of the two nationalities. Caught between the hammer of Teutonic reformation and the Slavic anvil of Russian orthodoxy, the Poles have remained stanch Catholics. Creed, in this case, has played a considerable part in the preservation of national spirit.
In Austria alone have the Poles been relatively free from persecution. Even there, in recent times, the Austrian policy of setting her subject peoples against each other had led to a display of favoritism towards the Ruthenian neighbors of the Poles. Both of these Slavic peoples inhabit Galicia principally. The province is the relic of the old duchy of Halitch, which had Lemberg for its capital. The name Galicia originated in Austria, at the time of the partition of Poland in 1772, and was applied to that part of the dismembered country which Austria annexed. The province is peopled at present by over three million Ruthenes.
Western Galicia, including the important cities of Cracow and Tarnow, as well as the Tatra massif, is peopled almost exclusively by about 2,750,000 Poles of whom 7 per cent are Polish-speaking Jews.[121] Eastern Galicia on the other hand is the home of only 1,400,000 Poles, but here the Ruthenians make up a solid mass of 3,200,000. In the cities, however, the Poles form overwhelming majorities, although their number dwindles to insignificance as the Russian frontier is approached. Lemberg, notably, contains a high proportion of Polish inhabitants.
But the fact of paramount importance in the condition of Austrian Poles is that in spite of their minority in the largest part of Galicia, they represent the dominating element in the Galician population. Vast estates and great industries are almost exclusively in their hands. They are also intellectual leaders and the liberal professions are practically entirely held by them. The Ruthenian’s lot throughout Galicia is that of the toiler, either in the field or in the factory. Descendants of Ruthenian noblemen have been absorbed by the Polish nobility, which has become the ruling class. This economic superiority, coupled to political advantages secured from the Austrian government by the Galician statutes of 1868, makes the lot of the Austrian Poles truly enviable in comparison with that of their German or even their Russian kinsmen. The province is ruled by a Diet composed of Poles and Ruthenians, each speaking his own tongue. The authority of this body, however, is strictly restricted to provincial affairs. Extra-provincial matters are under the direct control of Vienna.
The Ruthenian is therefore the Pole’s great rival in Galicia. Although the outward manifestation of this rivalry assumes the form of nationalistic outbursts, the conflict is, in the main, social and economic. The Ruthenian proletariat is at odds with its Polish rulers. It has begun to dream of redemption from the vassalage borne for centuries. Fortunately its endeavors are a source of improvement in the lot of both Ruthenian and Polish peasants. A glimpse of the power vested in the Ruthenian mass is thus afforded. As a people these Ruthenes constitute the westernmost group of the Little Russian division of the Slavic people. They inhabit the territory of the ancient kingdom of Ukraine and number some 30,000,000 souls. Southwestern Russia is peopled by them almost exclusively. They form from 76 to 99 per cent of the population of the following districts:[122]
1. The Ukraine of the right bank of the Dnieper, Podolia, Volhynia, Kiev and Kholm.
2. The Ukraine of the left bank of the Dnieper, Tchernihov, Poltava, Kharkov, southwestern Khursk and Voronezh, and the region of the Don Cosacks to the Sea of Azov.
3. The steppe of Ukraine lying on both sides of the Dnieper and comprising Katerynoslav, Kherson and the eastern parts of Bessarabia and Tauris.
4. North Caucasus, adjacent to the region of the Don Cosacks, comprising Kuban and the eastern parts of the Stavropolskoi and Terskaja governments.
In addition about 50,000 Ruthenians reside in Bukovina, while 700,000 occupy the sub-Carpathian districts of Hungary. About 2,000,000 are scattered in Siberian settlements. In Austria the Carpathian mountains split the main body of the Ruthenians into two sections, which occupy respectively Galicia and Hungary. In the latter kingdom they are distributed mainly in the northern and northeastern counties of Abanj, Bereg, Maramaros, Saros, Ung and Zemplin.
The Ruthenians claim to be the original Russians. The purity of the Slav type is better preserved among them than among any other group in Russia and they show less of the Asiatic strain. They represent the truly European Russians. Racial characteristics set them apart from the main body of Russians on the north and east of their land. Round-headedness is very pronounced among them and they tend to be tall and dark-complexioned. Dialectical differences between them and the Muscovites of the north and east also exist.
The Masurians of northeastern Germany are essentially an agricultural people who have succeeded in supporting themselves on exceedingly poor soil. They occupy the marshy belt of land which has become famous through the battles fought within and around its borders during the Great European War. It comprises the nine districts of Allenstein, Johannisburg, Loetzen, Lyck, Neidenburg, Oletzko, Ortelsburg, Osterode and Sensburg. A Masurian element constitutes the majority of the inhabitants of Augustov and Seiny, the two southernmost circles of the governments of Suwalki. The German element is strongly represented in the entire region. It forms a contingent of some 70,000 individuals in the governments of Kovno and Suwalki.[123] As far as can be ascertained, the earliest inhabitants of the land consisted of fishermen occupying lacustrine habitations resting on piles. Their villages are disposed around the hillocks to which they resorted for shelter from man and the elements in the early period of the settlement of the land. Locality names throughout the region are Polish, even in the settlements founded by the Knights of the Teutonic Order or the Hohenzollerns. Often a thin streak of Germanization has been imparted to names of villages by the addition of the prefix Neu or Klein.[124]
Fig. 40—A Wendish loghouse in the Spreewald where ancient Slavic colonies retain their language and customs although surrounded by Germans.
Within this marshy country, a Polish folk has maintained its own institutions ever since the consolidation of Poles into a distinct people within the drainage area of the Vistula. The only feature of Germanism which took hold in the land was the Protestant religion. The 300,000 Masurians, therefore, present the queer anomaly of a Protestant Polish group. Apart from this peculiarity they are as truly Poles as their land is part of the Vistula basin. With the revival of Polish ideals in recent years the growth of Protestantism in the region has been checked. It is interesting to note that the revulsion of religious feeling had its source in the province of Posen, in the full midst of Teutonic proselytism, and not, as might have been expected, in Russian Poland.
The Wends of Germany represent the only intact remnant of the Slav populations which once filled the country. The whole plain country of northern Germany extending from the Elbe to the Vistula had been inhabited by the Wends since early Christian times. The country between the Sale, upper Havel and Spree valleys was probably their original settling ground.[125] They now occupy Lusatia and are sometimes known as Lusatian Serbians. In the Middle Ages the name of Sorabes was given to them. The Germans first began to invade the region in the eleventh century. In the fourteenth, they attained numerical preponderance. The decline of the Slav communities which was accelerated by the Thirty Years’ War, begins about this time. The union of Lusatia with Bohemia helped the Slav cause for a while, but the treaty of Prague, in 1635, by which the country was awarded to Saxony crushed Slavic hopes. At present, the Slavic language has practically disappeared from the region, although the appearance and customs of the inhabitants are more Slav than German.
As late as the Middle Ages the Wends occupied an area considerably to the north of their present seat. The eastern valley of the Elbe, as well as Mecklenburg territory, was settled by them before 1160. Charters of this period such as that of the Schwerin bishopric of 1178, or of the cloister of Dargun of 1174, show Slavic place names exclusively. Among signs pointing to a pre-German spread of the Wendish element are the relics of Slavic family names and evidences of the old “Hakenhufen” division of the land in lots of 15 acres. This last proof appears irrefutable and points, upon application, to the former extension of the Wendish element to the very shores of the Baltic.[126] Germanization seems to have been thoroughly accomplished by the second half of the thirteenth century. But even today a great part of the area east of the Elbe must be regarded as a land of German-speaking Slavs.
Fig. 41—The area of Wend speech. The dotted patch shows that Kottbus is the center of the district in which the majority of the inhabitants (over 50 per cent) speak the Slav language. In the ruled area the percentage of Wends is less than 50.
Surrounded by Germans, the Wendish colony is doomed to disappear in spite of a literary renascence which helps to perpetuate national consciousness in its midst. According to statistics, the number of Wends is steadily declining. The progress of Germanization is particularly apparent in Lower Lusatia, which is part of the Prussian domain. It was estimated in 1885 that this people comprised about 176,000 souls. Later computations place this figure at about 156,000. The absence of an intellectual class among them, compulsory military service in German regiments and the use of the German language in church favor the progress of Teutonism.[127]
The want of linguistic unity among the Wends also tends to weaken their position. Idiomatic differences between the languages of Upper and Lower Lusatia are such as to prevent the natives of the respective districts from rendering themselves intelligible to one another. The literary language of Kottbus differs from that of Bautzen. Diversity of customs and institutions is also noticeable between the two groups. German ideas increase this cultural split, the divergence from Slavic institutions and thought thus becoming accentuated. Unlike the Masurians, and because of their isolation, the Wends cannot look to eventual incorporation with the Polish body. Their political destiny is therefore distinct from that of the Poles.
We have seen in this chapter that although conquered and divided Poland still lives. A compact mass of over 20,000,000 individuals speaking the same language is a force which cannot but make itself felt. This main body of Poles resides within its own linguistic boundaries. Smaller colonies are found outside these limits. The Polish inhabitants of Lithuania and Ukraine muster about 2,000,000. Vilna alone, the capital of Lithuania, has a population of 70,000 Poles out of a total of 170,000 inhabitants.[128] The Polish colonies of Ukraine, of the coal-fields of the Donetz, and of the Caucasus comprise wealthy landholders, manufacturers, bankers and merchants. These men though living outside the ethnographic boundaries of their people nevertheless exercise the weight of their influence on its behalf. Thus the three groups into which conquest has divided the Poles remain today in intimate contact in spite of the political boundaries which separate them. It is mainly in the economic field that binding ties have been established between the three, for the Poles of the three continental empires have made it a point to promote trade relations with one another. This was forging a new link to their pre-existing natural ties of kinship.
The problem of delimiting Polish national boundaries is complicated on the east and west, as has been stated, by the absence of prominent surface features. On both sides the lines of linguistic parting provide the only practicable demarcation. On the north and south, however, the Baltic and the Carpathians may be utilized advantageously as national frontiers. But the fate of the Polish region is strongly outlined by nature, for the entire basin of the Vistula is a regional unit. Any partitioning of this basin would probably be followed by political conflicts.
NOTE ON THE SLAVS
In the ninth century the Slavs occupied the eastern plains of Europe between the valleys of the Elbe and the Dnieper. Southward they spread to the northern foothills of the mountains of central Europe. Although subdivided into tribes bearing different names, there existed no essential differences among them as to language or custom. The pagan divinities worshiped in the drainage area of the Vistula were the gods of the inhabitants of the Dnieper valley. Tribal authority was exercised by a chief designated as Kniaz or Voivod throughout these lowlands. Intercourse between the various groups was constant. A vague political union is even discerned by some historians. The Poles and Ruthenians and, to a lesser extent, the Bohemians, are the best modern representatives of these original Slavs. All the eastern Slavs, however, have mixed more or less with Asiatic peoples.
Some light is thrown on the European origin of the peoples of Aryan speech by the growth of the Slavs. The Slavs of Europe now form by far the most important ethnic group of that continent. They comprise about 160,000,000 individuals out of a total of 400,000,000 inhabitants of Europe. Two-thirds of this Slavic element consists of Russians (66,000,000 Great Russians, 32,000,000 Little Russians, and about 8,000,000 White Russians).[129] Next to the Russians in numerical importance are the Poles (23,000,000). The Serbo-Croatian group can only muster half the Polish array. The Bohemians follow, 8,000,000 strong, while the Bulgarian group does not quite attain 6,000,000. Smaller groups are the 2,000,000 Slovenes, the 2,000,000 Slovaks and the less important enclave communities of German lands like the Wend in Lusatia.
The homeland of the primitive nucleus of this branch of the Indo-European family is restricted in the main to the plains extending from the northwestern corner of the Black Sea to the sandy delta of the Oder. The valleys of the great rivers in this lowland exerted the earliest separative influence which is known to have occurred in the primitive Slav group. Niederle distinguishes three main sub-groups which fit into the frame of eastern European hydrography.[130] A northwesterly branch attained the valleys of the Elbe, Sale and Sumava, and gave birth to the Bohemian and Polish factions. A central group, originally occupying the region of the upper Vistula, the Dniester and middle Danube, rounded the southern slopes of the Carpathians and, traveling up-stream on the Danube, eventually attained the valleys of the Save and Drave. The Slavs of southeastern Europe are descendants of this group. Originally pure Slavs, they are permeated with Asiatic blood owing to repeated invasions from the east. The third group was destined to form the substratum of Slavic Russia. It radiated from the basin of the Dnieper as far north as the Gulf of Finland and eastward to the valleys of the Oka, the Don and the Volga.
TABLE I
Former Polish Provinces Under German Rule at the Beginning of the European War[131]
| Province | Area in sq. mi. | Population 1910 | Period of loss to Poland |
| Pomerania, regencies of Strzalow (Stralsund), Szezecin (Stettin), and Koszalin (Köslin) | 11,751 | 1,716,921 | XIIIth century[132] |
| West Prussia, regencies of Gdansk (Dantzik) and Kwidzyn (Marienwerder) | 9,966 | 1,703,474 | 1772[133] |
| East Prussia, regencies of Krolewiec (Königsberg), Glombin (Gumbinnen) and Olsztyn (Allenstein) | 14,431 | 2,064,175 | 1656[134] |
| Posnania, regencies of Poznan (Posen) and Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) | 11,307 | 2,099,831 | 1815[135] |
| Regency of Frankfurt (Francfort-sur-l’Oder) | 7,487 | 1,233,189 | XIIIth century |
| Province of Silesia, regencies of Lignica (Liegnitz), Wroclaw (Breslau),[136] and Opole (Oppeln) | 15,731 | 5,225,962 | 1335 |
| Saxon District of Budziszyn (Bautzen)[137] | 963 | 443,549 | XIIIth century |
TABLE II
Polish Administrative Divisions under Austro-hungarian Rule at The Beginning of the European War
| Territory | Area in sq. mi. | Population | Period of loss to Poland |
| Marquisate of Moravia | 866 | 2,622,271 | XIth century |
| Duchy of Silesia[138] | 2,007 | 756,949 | — |
| Kingdom of Galicia with the Grand Duchy of Cracow[139] | 30,615 | 8,025,675 | 1772-1795 |
TABLE III
Polish Administrative Divisions Under Russian Rule at the Beginning Of the European War
| Territory | Area in sq. mi. | Population in 1910[140] | Period of loss to Poland | |
| Baltic Provinces: | ||||
| Gov’t of Esthonia | 7,897 | 471,400 | 1660 | |
| “ “ Livonia | 18,342 | 1,466,900 | 1660 | |
| “ “ Courland | 10,642 | 749,100 | 1795 | |
| Lithuania: | ||||
| Gov’t of Grodno | 15,081 | 1,974,400 | } | |
| “ “ Kovno | 15,853 | 1,796,700 | } | 1793-1795[141] |
| “ “ Vilna | 16,587 | 1,957,000 | } | |
| White Ruthenia: | ||||
| Gov’t of Smolensk | 21,757 | 1,988,700 | 1667 | |
| “ “ Minsk | 35,649 | 2,868,300 | } | |
| “ “ Mohilev | 18,738 | 2,261,500 | } | 1772-1793 |
| “ “ Witebsk | 17,615 | 1,850,700 | } | |
| Kingdom of Poland: | ||||
| Gov’t of Kalisz | 4,436 | 1,183,800 | } | |
| “ “ Kielce | 3,936 | 973,300 | } | |
| “ “ Lublin | 6,567 | 1,556,000 | } | |
| “ “ Lomza | 4,119 | 688,500 | } | |
| “ “ Piotrkow | 4,777 | 1,981,300 | } | 1815 by Congress of Vienna |
| “ “ Plock | 3,684 | 739,900 | } | |
| “ “ Radom | 4,817 | 1,112,200 | } | |
| “ “ Siedlce | 5,591 | 1,003,400 | } | |
| “ “ Suwalki | 4,895 | 681,300 | } | |
| “ “ Warsaw | 6,833 | 2,547,700 | } | |
| Ruthenia: | ||||
| Gov’t of Kiovie | 19,890 | 4,604,200 | } | |
| “ “ Podolia | 16,587 | 3,812,000 | } | 1793-1795[142] |
| “ “ Volhynia | 28,023 | 3,920,400 | } | |
TABLE IV
Distribution of Poles and Germans in Upper Silesia, According To 1910 German Census Figures[143]