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

Dzieje Polski za Piastów, by Feliks Koneczny. 1902, 1997

Territories East of the Elbe River Were Not Originally German. They Were Slavic. Upper Dniester Was Not “Eternally Ukrainian”

Title: THE DEEDS OF POLAND DURING THE TIME OF THE PIAST DYNASTY. This work, originally published in 1902, surveys the first few centuries of Poland’s existence as a nation-state.

There are chapters on Poland in prehistoric times, the reigns of Mieszko I and Boleslaw the Great, a few interim centuries, and the reign of Casimir the Great.

This work describes the Slavic tribes that became Poland. Accounts such as that of Popiel, Wanda, the monster Krak, etc., are deemed to be completely legendary in origin.

TERRITORIES OF PRESENT-DAY POLAND WERE NOT “ORIGINALLY” ETHNICALLY GERMAN

Scholar Feliks Koneczny rejects the premise that the territories between the Odra (Oder) and Wisla (Vistula) had been originally inhabited by Germanic tribes. In fact, he points out that the Romans used the term “Germania” in reference to the geographic locality of northwest and north-central Europe, and without any of the modern connotations of ethnicity. (p. 10). Thus, “Germania” east of the Laba (Elbe) River, during Roman times and long thereafter, was populated by Slavic tribes.

POLAND AND UKRAINE

The term “Rus” (Ukraine) is believed to be of Scandinavian origin. (p. 44). Koneczny rejects the contentions of Ukrainian nationalists, who argue that the Dniester River had been eternally Ukrainian in population. (p. 35, 40, 45). He notes that the Dniester River had been a major highway for commerce with Byzantium, and that its upper to central reaches had been settled by Lyakhs (proto-Poles). When the chronicler Nestor around 1100 had described how Vladimir had taken these lands of Przemysl and Czerwien from the Lyakhs, he was referring to the region of the Upper San and Upper Dniester Rivers. Later, Boleslaw the Great regained them for Poland. (p. 83).

UKRAINE AS PART OF POLAND’S FIRST REPUBLIC BENEFITS UKRAINIANS

Konieczny rejects the notion that the annexation of the Ukraine by Casimir the Great had been an imperialistic move. He comments: “The action of Casimir the Great was not one of conquest, but one that was the greatest favor to Rus (Ukraine), as it freed them from the Mongolian yoke, and returned them to Europe, thus making them accessible to the forces of civilization.” (p. 354).