Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

History of Poland, by George Slocombe. 1981

Broad-Based Polish History Through the Start of WWII. Especially Good on King John Sobieski and His Victory at Vienna. Major Challenges Facing the Newly-Resurrected Polish State (1918-on)

This book is very “meaty”. Having read numerous works on the history of Poland, I focus on a few items that I consider distinctive in this book.

THE ANTIQUITY OF POLAND

Slocombe believes that the Slavs already inhabited the region of present-day Poland as early as the first century A. D. (p. 9). They may have even lived in this area one thousand years earlier. (p. 10). For recent scientific evidence that supports ancient Slavic presence, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/ancient-slavic-european-presence-mielnik-sikorska/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/ancient-polish-european-presence-juras/

DEFYING A RULER WHO IS IN THE WRONG

The author compares the martyrdoms of Saint Stanislaus and Thomas a Becket. Both paid with their lives for bearing witness against the immorality of a monarch. (p. 38).

KING JOHN SOBIESKI’S VICTORY: TEMPORARY AUSTRIAN GRATITUDE

George Slocombe assesses King Sobieski’s victory as one that had long-term consequences, (quote) He had saved Europe from the Turk. The Ottoman power never recovered from the crushing blow he dealt it under the walls of Vienna; and the Turkish dominion, having now reached the extreme of its limits in Europe, entered upon its gradual decline. (unquote). (p. 172).

The inhabitants of Vienna gave unstinting credit to King John Sobieski. The author quips, (quote) “As he passed through the camp and the ruins of the town,” reads the stirring chronicle, “He was surrounded by the inhabitants, who hailed him with the titles of Father and Deliverer, struggled to kiss his feet, to touch his garment or his horse, and testified their gratitude by marks of affection which rose almost to adoration.” At the Cathedral of St. Stephen, a service of thanksgiving was held, and a discourse preached from the opposite text: “There was a man sent form God whose name was John.” The Viennese forgot their own monarch in their generous haste to pay honor to the Polish King; and to this fact, and to a very natural pique, must be attributed the sour behavior of Leopold. (unquote). (pp. 168-169).

[Unfortunately, this Austrian gratitude was soon to fade, and Austria became one of the partitioning powers. Later, a very disproportionate fraction of Nazis was Austrians.]

POLAND’S DECLINE BEFORE THE PARTITIONS

Slocombe places the decline of Polish religious tolerance, in the century or so before the Partitions, in perspective. Although the Partitioning Powers used Poland’s treatment of her minorities as an excuse for launching the First Partition, Slocombe points out that Poland’s treatment of Russians and Germans, living within her borders, was little different from England’s treatment of Jews and Roman Catholics at the time. (p. 229).

Now consider the infamous Conference of Targowica. The author does not consider it a completely treasonous act, in which the nobles knowingly and willingly betrayed Poland. Rather, he sees it one in which they had been deceived by Catherine the Great, who had guaranteed the integrity of Poland. (p. 234).

Slocombe assesses the May 3, 1791 Constitution as one that included some reforms of the lot of peasants. (p. 223). This contradicts those who portray the Constitution as doing nothing for peasants.

THE 1830 AND 1863 POLISH UPRISINGS: RATIONAL ACTS, NOT ROMANTIC ADVENTURES

Slocombe describes a strategy for the November 1830 Insurrection that may have succeeded, (quote) One man, by name Chrzanowski, advocated bold measures. He urged that there was a good Polish army and an abundance of money in the treasury. It was advisable, therefore, to march on Lithuania, induce the Lithuanians to take up the cause of a free Poland, capture Wilna [Wilno, Vilnius], and give the Russians no time to organize a systematic campaign. (unquote). (p. 279). Instead, the Polish leadership pursued a more passive, defensive strategy, contributing to defeat.

Instead of seeing the January 1863 Insurrection as some kind of romantic adventure, Slocombe portrays it as a reaction against increasingly unbearable Russian rule. He comments, (quote) The risings of 1863 were not organized with any eye to combination; they broke out here and there among a freedom-loving people exasperated beyond all tolerance by a relentless regime of cruel oppression and denationalization. Each was crushed in turn with revolting brutality. (unquote). (p. 284).

RESURRECTED POLAND: CHALLENGES APPRECIATED

As Poland was in the process of shaking off 123 years of Partition and foreign rule in 1918, she faced almost insurmountable hurdles. Slocombe remarks on some of them, (quote) The collapse of these despotisms had liberated Poland. But the very duration, subtlety, and harshness of the rule of the oppressor had left the new State crippled at birth, inexperienced in popular government, in administration, in the problems of industry, social reform, finance, and political economy. The land had been overrun for four years by three armies, and the two years after the war had been years of struggle, unsettlement, famine, disease, and invasion. An administration had to be created out of the ruins of three imperial bureaucracies which had governed Poland. (unquote). (p. 323).