Poland — Past and Present
| Author | William J. Rose |
| Published date | 01 March 1947 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070204700200101 |
| Date | 01 March 1947 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Poland
-
Past
and
Present"
William
J.
Rose
T
he
restoration
to
the
Poles
of
their
rights
as
a
united
and
independent nation,
which
followed
as
a
consequence
of
the
first world
war,
was
a
long
overdue
act
of
common
justice.
For
a
century
their
country
had
been
partitioned
between
Lutheran
Germany
(in
which
Prussia
played
the
chief
part),
Orthodox
Russia,
and
Catholic
Austria;
and
during
this
time
an agreed
policy
of
assimilation
and
attrition
had been
attempted, in-
tensified
after
1862,
when
Bismarck
became
the
guiding
spirit
in
eastern
Europe.
During
four
generations
there
was
no
Polish
state
on
the
map,
yet
the
nation
lived
on,
in
spite
of
all
the
efforts
of
its
neighbours
to
destroy
it;
thanks
in
part
to
its
com-
mon
speech,
its
loyalty
to
century-old
traditions,
its adherence
to
Catholicism,
but,
perhaps
more
than
anything
else,
thanks
to
the
stubbornness
with
which
the peasants,
even though
un-
taught
and living in
primitive
conditions,
clung
to
the
soil
on
which
they
were
born
and
from
which
they
lived.
When
on
the
ruins
of
three
empires
liberation
came
at
the
end
of
1918,
there
began
the
task
of
settling the
frontiers
of
the
new
republic.
In
the
west, the
north,
and
the
south,
they
were
determined
by
the
Treaty
of
Versailles,
but
on
the
east
they
were only
settled
two
years
later
by
the
Treaty
of
Riga in
March,
1921.
As
it reappeared
on
the
map
of
Europe,
the
new
Poland
was
almost
exactly
two-thirds
the
size,
and
had
pre-
cisely
two-thirds
the
population
of
France.
In
other
words
the
area
was
about
150,000
square
miles
and
the
inhabitants
numbered
27,250,000.
Of
this
population
just
under
seventy
per
cent.
were
Poles,
the
balance
being
made
up
of
minorities;
of
which
by
far
the
largest
was
the
almost
solid
Ukrainian
element
in
the
south-
eastern
provinces,
numbering hardly
less
than
five
millions.
About
ten
per
cent.
of
the
population
was
Jewish
by
faith,
and
*Editor's
note:
This
historical
survey
is
one of a
series
of
background
studies
by well
known
authorities
on
various
trouble-spots around
the
world
which
International
Journal
will
publish
from time
to
time.
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