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.
[Illustration:
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]
[Illustration:
_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.
[Illustration:
_The American Geographical Society of New York_
_Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe, 1917, Pl. IV_
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]
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
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]
Period of
Area in Population loss to
PROVINCE sq. mi. 1910 Poland
POMERANIA, regencies of Strzalow
(Stralsund), Szezecin (Stettin), XIIIth
and Koszalin (Köslin) 11,751 1,716,921 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 XIIIth
(Francfort-sur-l’Oder) 7,487 1,233,189 century
PROVINCE OF SILESIA,
regencies of Lignica
(Liegnitz), Wroclaw
(Breslau),[136] and
Opole (Oppeln) 15,731 5,225,962 1335
SAXON DISTRICT OF XIIIth
BUDZISZYN (Bautzen)[137] 963 443,549 century
TABLE II
POLISH ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS UNDER AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN RULE AT THE
BEGINNING OF THE EUROPEAN WAR
Area in Period of loss
TERRITORY sq. mi. Population 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
Area in Population in Period of loss
TERRITORY sq. mi. 1910[140] 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
“ “ Plock 3,684 739,900 } of Vienna
“ “ 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]
LOCALITY Population Germans Poles
Kreuzburg 51,906 24,363 24,487
Rosenberg 52,341 8,586 42,234
Oppeln (city) 33,907 27,128 5,371
Oppeln (district) 117,906 23,740 89,323
Gross-Strehlitz 73,383 12,616 58,102
Lublinitz 50,388 7,384 39,969
Gleiwitz (city) 66,981 49,543 9,843
Tost-Gleiwitz 80,515 16,408 61,509
Tarnowitz 77,583 20,969 51,859
Beuthen (city) 67,718 41,071 22,401
Königshütte (city) 72,641 39,276 24,687
Beuthen-Land 195,844 59,308 123,016
Hindenburg 139,810 63,875 81,567
Kattowitz (city) 43,173 36,891 5,766
Kattowitz (district) 216,807 65,763 140,592
Pless 122,897 16,464 105,744
Rybnik 131,630 24,872 102,430
Ratibor (city) 38,424 22,914 11,525
Ratibor (district) 118,923 13,316 56,765
Kosel 75,673 16,433 56,794
Leobschütz 82,635 69,901 5,178
Neustadt 97,537 51,489 43,787
Falkenberg 37,526 33,286 3,815
Neisse (city) 25,938 24,735 955
Neisse (district) 75,285 74,125 797
Grottkau 40,610 39,589 825
FOOTNOTES:
[97] L. Niederle: La race slave, Paris, 1911, pp. 71-74. A digest
in English of his conclusions will be found in _Ann. Rept. Smiths.
Inst._, 1910, Washington, 1911, pp. 599-612.
[98] J. Talko-Hryncewicz: Les Polonais du royaume de Pologne
d’après les données anthropologiques recueillies jusqu’à présent,
_Bull. Int. Acad. Sc. Cracovie, Classe des Sc. Math. et Nat. Bull.
Sc. Nat._, June 1912, pp. 574-582.
[99] Southern Poland was overrun by Mongolians during their third
invasion of Europe. The Asiatics were attacked near Szydlow on
March 18, 1241, by an army of Polish noblemen recruited from
Sandomir and Cracow. The defeat of the Christians enabled the
invaders to plunder the latter city, besides opening the way for
incursions farther north in the course of which they penetrated
into Silesia by way of Ratibor and marched toward Breslau. Near
Liegnitz an army of 30,000 Europeans was defeated on April 9th
of the same year. These disasters were invariably followed by a
westerly spread of the Tatar scourge. Traces of its passage can
still be detected among the Poles.
[100] The Poles constitute the majority of the population in many
cities of eastern or Russian Galicia. In Niederle’s list Bobrka,
Muszyna, Sanok, Lisko, Sambor, Peremysl, Rawaruska, Belz, Zolkiew,
Grodek, Ceshanow, Stryj, Kalusz, Stanislawoff, Kolomya, Tarnopol,
Husiatyn, Buczacz, Sokal and Trembowla are credited with over 50
per cent Poles in their population. The predominance of German in
the cities of Biala, Sczerzec, Dolina, Bolechow, Nadworna, Kossow,
Kuty, Zablotow and Brody is attributed by the same authority to the
Jewish element present.
[101] E. Reclus: Géogr. Univ., Vol. 3, Europe Centrale, Paris,
1878, p. 396.
[102] E. Romer: Esquisse climatique de l’ancienne Pologne, _Bul. de
la Soc. Vaud. des Sc. Nat._, 5^e Sér., Vol. 46, June, 1910, p. 231.
[103] J. Zemrich: Deutsche und Slaven in den österreichischen
Südetenländern, _Deutsche Erde_, Vol. 2, 1903, pp. 1-4.
[104] Limite des civilisations dans les Beskides occidentaux,
_Ann. de Géogr._, Vol. 17, 1908, Feb. 15, pp. 130-132. Cf. also
E. Hanslik: Kulturgrenze und Kulturzyklus in den polnischen
Westbeskiden, _Pet. Mitt._, Ergänzungsheft No. 158, 1907.
[105] P. Langhans: Nationalitätenkarte der Provinz Schlesien,
1:500,000. Sonderkarte No. 1 in _Deutsche Erde_, 1906; id.:
Nationalitätenkarte der Provinz Ostpreussen, 1:500,000. Sonderkarte
No. 1 in _Deutsche Erde_, 1907.
[106] L. Niederle: op. cit., p. 73; but cf. H. Praesent: Russisch
Polen, etc., _Pet. Mitt._, Vol. 60, Dec. 1914, p. 257.
[107] A. C. Haddon: The Wanderings of Peoples, Cambridge, 1912, p.
48.
[108] F. Curschmann: Die deutsche Ortsnamen in nordostdeutschen
Kolonialgebiet, _Forsch. z. deut. Landes- u. Volksk._, Vol. 19, No.
2, 1910, pp. 91-183.
[109] Marquis de Noailles: Les frontières de la Pologne, Paris,
1915, p. 21.
[110] K. Closterhalfen: Die Polen in niederrheinisch-westfälisch
Industriebezirk 1905, 1:200,000. Pl. 16 in _Deutsche Erde_, Vol.
10, 1911.
[111] A. Raahe: Die Abwanderungsbewegung in den östlichen Provinzen
Preussens. Einleitung und Teil I. Die Provinz Ost-Preussen. Berlin,
1910.
[112] N. Troïnitsky: Premier recensement général de la population
de l’empire de la Russie, 1897. Vols. 1 and 2, Petrograd, 1905.
[113] The Jews cluster especially in the eastern governments of
Warsaw, Lomsha and Siedlez, where their percentage varies between
15.6 and 16.4. This ratio is lower in the southern and western
administrative divisions. In Kalish it reaches only 7.2 per cent
and is reduced to 6.3 per cent in Petrokow. In the cities the Jews
constitute on an average slightly over a third of the population,
although here again they are more numerous in the east. Cf. D.
Aïtoff: Peuples et langues de la Russie, _Ann. de Géogr._, Vol. 15,
May 1909, pp. 9-25.
[114] G. Bienaimé: La Pologne économique, _Bull. Soc. de Géogr.
Comm. de Paris_, Vol. 37, Nos. 4-6, April-June, 1915, pp. 128-164.
[115] G. Bienaimé: op. cit., p. 139.
[116] A law passed in 1908 authorizes the State to acquire land
in the administrative circles in which German interests require
development of colonization. B. Auerbach: La germanisation de
la Pologne Prussienne. La loi d’expropriation, _Rev. Polit. et
Parlem._, Vol. 57, July 1908, pp. 109-125.
[117] P. Langhans: Nationalitätenkarte der Provinz Schlesien,
1:500,000. Sonderkarte No. 1 in _Deutsche Erde_, 1906. P.
Langhans: Nationalitätenkarte der Provinz Ostpreussen, 1:500,000.
Sonderkarte No. 2 in _Deutsche Erde_, 1907. Die Provinzen Posen und
Westpreussen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Ansiedlungsgüter
und Ansiedlung, Staatsdomänen und Staatsforsten nach dem Stande von
1 Januar 1911, _Deutsche Erde_, Vol. 10, Taf. 1, 1911.
[118] M. Loesener: Besitzfestigung in der Preussischen Ostmark.
_Deutsche Erde_, Vol. 10, 1911, pp. 3-8.
[119] Dalchow: Die Städte des Warthelandes, I. Teil, Ein Beitrag
zur Siedlungskunde und zur Landeskunde der Provinz Posen. Leipzig,
1910.
[120] After having been entirely banished from secondary schools,
Polish was excluded from elementary schools by a ministerial
decree, dated Sept. 7, 1887. Religious instruction alone could be
imparted in this language and even this privilege was removed in
1905.
[121] G. Bienaimé: loc. cit.
[122] B. Sands: The Ukraine, London, 1914, p. 8.
[123] H. Rosen: _Pet. Mitt._, Vol. 61, Sept. 1915, pp. 329-333.
[124] A. Weinrich: Bevölkerungsstatistische und
Siedlungsgeographie, Beiträge zur Kunde Ost-Masuriens, vornehmlich
der Kreise Oletzko und Lycke. Königsberg, 1911.
[125] L. Niederle: La race slave, Paris, 1916, p. 94.
[126] H. Witte: Wendische Bevölkerungsreste in Mecklenburg,
_Forsch. z. deut. Landes- u. Volksk._, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1907.
[127] Op. cit., pp. 96-97.
[128] Including 40 per cent of Jews.
[129] The Slavs are divided by religion into a main body of
about 110,000,000 individuals belonging to the Russian Orthodox
Church, about 37,000,000 Roman Catholics, 5,000,000 Raskolniks or
Sectarians, between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 Protestants and over
1,000,000 Mohammedans.
[130] La race slave, Paris, 1911, pp. 3-4.
[131] L. Strzembosz: Tableau des divisions administratives
actuelles de la Pologne, Paris, 1915.
[132] Not including the circles of Lembork (Lauenburg), (479 sq.
mi., 52,851 inhab.), Bytow (Bütow) (238 sq. mi., 28,151 inhab.),
and Drahim land (Draheim) (197 sq. mi., 18,500 inhab.), which were
lost in the first partition in 1772.
[133] Not including the circle of Susz (Rosenberg) (407 sq. mi.,
54,550 inhab.), and half of that of Kwidzyn (187 sq. mi., 34,213
inhab.), which together made part of ducal Prussia and were lost in
1656.
[134] Given in fief by the Polish kings to the Dukes of Brandenburg
and exonerated in 1656 from the oath of vassalage, except the
four circles of Braniewo (Braunsberg) (383 sq. mi., 54,613
inhab.), Liebark (Heilsberg) (427 sq. mi., 51,912 inhab.), Olsztyn
(Allenstein) (529 sq. mi., 90,996 inhab.) and Reszel (Rössel) (333
sq. mi., 50,472 inhab.), which together under the name of Duchy
of Warmie made part of Royal Prussia and were lost at the first
partition.
[135] Conferred on the king of Prussia under the name of Grand
Duchy of Posen at the time of the partition of the Duchy of Warsaw
by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
[136] Former appendages of a branch, extinguished in 1675, of the
royal Polish house of Piast.
[137] Part of the former marquisate of Lusace.
[138] Part of the former Polish Silesia, kept by Germany.
[139] The territory of Cracow, made into a republic in 1815 by the
Congress of Vienna, was annexed by Austria in 1846.
[140] Consisting of Poles and natives.
[141] The circle of Bialystok, occupied by the king of Prussia in
1795, was ceded to Russia by the treaty of Tilsit in 1807.
[142] The city of Kijow (Kiev) with its district (773 sq. mi.,
560,000 inhab.) was lost in 1686.
[143] R. Baumgarten: Deutsche und Polen in Oberschlesien, _Deutsche
Erde_, Vol. 13, No. 7, 1914-1915, pp. 175-179.