Population Transformations in the Klaipeda Region in the 20th CenturyThe Klaipeda Region is now an integral part of Lithuania. This was not, however, always the case; the region has a strong German history. (Its historical German name was Memelland, while in Lithuanian it was called Klaipedos Krastas.) Until 1525, the Klaipeda Region belonged to the Teutonic Order, but later changed hands several times. Initially, it belonged to the Duchy of Prussia (until 1701; and until 1657 was dependent as a fief of Poland), was later controlled by the Kingdom of Prussia (until 1871), and then finally became part of the German Empire (until 1919). For Germans, the province was a historical part of Eastern Prussia until 1945. For Lithuanians, the Klaipeda Region, as well as the area located along the north-eastern part of East Prussia on the south bank of the Neman River, was known as Little Lithuania (Lithuania Minor). The Lithuanians considered this territory to be their own ethnic land, which was wrongfully subjected to gradual Germanization. Before World War II this area was inhabited by Protestants who spoke Lithuanian or German. The 1920 census lists the territory’s population at 150,700, of which 71,000 declared German to be their first language, while 67,000 declared Lithuanian.The article first discusses the historical and political background of events in the Klaipeda Region in the first half of the 20th century. Next the author analyzes in a dynamic approach the demographic and ethnic structure of the population. His attention is later focused on the period of World War II when the province was incorporated into the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. In the Soviet period, a major part of the local population was expelled to Germany, while the remaining residents were identified as either Lithuanians or Russians such that the province was no longer dominated by the Protestant and German speaking population. The final part of the article deals with the present demographic and ethnic situation. As a result of the postwar political and economic migrations, a majority of the people in the province now identify themselves as Lithuanian and Catholic. Lithuania, owing to the port of Klaipeda, has now an unrestricted access to sea.
W artykule przedstawiono i porównano ze sobą dwa projekty granic politycznych potencjalnego państwa polskiego. Pierwszy z nich to wizja autorstwa Oskara Żebrowskiego powstała w Paryżu w 1847 r., drugi zaś zaprojektował Czesław Jankowski w 1914 r. Oba przedstawiały oryginalne koncepcje hipotetycznych przyszłych granic Polski, zostały zilustrowane mapami, opisane i zinterpretowane. Wizja Żebrowskiego nawiązywała do zaszłości historycznych, Jankowskiego zaś oparta była o kryteria etniczne, wyznaczył on przyszłe granice Polski, biorąc pod uwagę migracje, umiejscowienie ludności i zasięg języka polskiego. Oba projekty różniły się znacznie położeniem i kształtem granic, co wynikało z odmiennego podejścia autorów. Analiza obu map i porównanie z rzeczywistymi powojennymi granicami Polski umożliwia weryfikację dokładności i realizmu każdej z koncepcji.
Population Changes in LatgaleLatgale is one of the four provinces of Latvian State. It is located in the east part of Latvia that borders with Belarus and Russia. The first part of this article presents Latgale’s history since the 13th century. Latgale was part of Poland (Polish Inflants, 1561–1772), and later of Russian Empire (1772–1916). The Russian census of 1897 shows that it was inhabited by various nations: Latvians, Russians, Jews, Poles and Belarusians.The next part of the article deals with the demographic situation in the interwar period, when Latgale was an integral part of the sovereign Latvian state. Later, together with whole Latvia, it was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940; next it was occupied by Nazi Germany, and again incorporated to the Stalin’s Soviet Union. As it became part of Latvian Soviet Republic, it was subjected to planned Russification and Sovietization policies to eliminate its national and confessional diversity. There was then a mass influx of the Russian people, while the local Latvian population was marginalized. These changes are presented in the text on the basis of the Soviet censuses of 1959 and 1989. The author also discusses relations between Russian and Latvian populations, as well as the number and distribution of the population of Polish origin, who traditionally concentrated in Daugavpils and its vicinity.The last part of the article deals with the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the regaining of independence by Latvia. The nationality evolution is presented on the basis of statistical data from 2000 and 2009. The present Latvian authorities aim at strengthening the national character of the state and limiting the significance of its numerous Russian minority. The information on the current condition of the local Polish population closes the text.
Nationality Problems of Transcarpathia The article discusses ethnic diversity and the changes which took place in Transcarpathia in the 20th century. First, the author presents the historical background for a statistical-demographic analysis. He points to the peripheral location of the region and the fact that it often changed its political affiliation. Thus, for a period of almost a thousand years the province was included within the borders of Hungary; between 1919 and 1939 it became part of Czechoslovakia, and after a four-day long period of independence (14–18 March 1939) it was again incorporated into Hungary between 1939 and 1945. After World War II it was part of a Soviet republic, and since 1991 it has been included in the independent state of Ukraine. Each of these periods brought far-reaching demographic and ethnic consequences. The population of Transcarpathia consisted of Slavic people of Ruthenian origin, mostly Greek Catholics. The inhabitants of the province were subjected to Hungarian, Ukrainian, and Russian influences and believed in different options, such as pro-Ukrainian, pro-Russian, or separatist, i.e. Ruthenian. These issues are discussed in detail in the article and thoroughly interpreted by the author. He also points to the fact that the territory of Transcarpathia was inhabited by numerous ethnic minorities. The Hungarian minority has always been the most important, both in the past and in the present; today it is concentrated in the south of the province. In the past, Jews and Germans also constituted sizeable minorities, while Romanians and Slovaks were always of marginal significance there. The final part of the article presents the scale of the separatist tendencies which may have dangerous political consequences in the future.
This article pursues an analysis seeking to explain how political borders and administrative boundaries took shape in the Polish state that came back into being at the end of the First World War. This was a continuing period of instability from a military point of view, given the ongoing war with Bolshevik Russia (which continued through to 1920). The further investigation of this subject matter is assisted by the presentation here of cartography in the form of 8 original maps coming into being at that historic time. The first map dates from early 1919 – as first elections to the Legislative Sejm were pending. It thus shows constituencies (electoral districts) which at that time coincided with the country’s (county-level) units of administration. The presentation of this little-known (in essence now-forgotten) cartographic configuration offers a starting point for the further consideration of the political borders and administrative division that took shape in the newly-reborn Poland. Further historical maps included in the text thus show the Polish state with borders as variously construed, in what were a mixture of both authors’ concepts as to how these ought to look and borders actually existing at the given time and adjusted to the political situation of the given moment. These were thus limits set by military action, in the context of the armed conflicts that broke out with the polities neighbouring with Poland. The map included last in the text came out in 1921. It presents Poland’s political and administrative layout in the wake of the entry into force of the Treaty of Versailles, as well as in line with the provisions of the Treaty of Riga definitively setting the course of Poland’s eastern border. Also marked out on it is the internal division of the country into units at voivodeship level, as had been decided upon by the authorities of the independent Polish state. In essence, it was the political and administrative borders and boundaries established at that time that would persist unchanged through to 1938.
We wstępnej części artykułu przedstawiono początki kształtowania się granic politycznych i administracyjnych w odrodzonym po I wojnie światowej państwie polskim. W celu określenia ich zasięgu geograficznego dołączono do tekstu osiem oryginalnych map wykreślonych i opublikowanych w latach 1918–1921. Zostały one opisane i skomentowane od strony geograficznej. Mapy te tłumaczą wiele kwestii politycznych, a zwłaszcza ukazują uwarunkowania i skutki konfliktów militarnych, które prowadziło państwo polskie ze swoimi sąsiadami. Wytyczone wówczas granice polityczno-administracyjne trwały w zasadzie do 1938 r.
The author presents Karmannyj Atlas Mira (Pocket Atlas of the World) which was published in Leningrad in 1940. It shows political borders existing in Polish territory at that time. Those borders resulted from the Soviet-German agreement reached in August and September 1939 in Moscow (the Molotov−Ribbentrop pact). On the maps in the Atlas the territories of central Poland are described as “Oblast Gosudarstvennych Interesov Germanii” (Area of the National Interest of Germany). The maps were reprinted in the article in the original version and underwent a historical, political and geographical analysis.
This paper presents the reasons for, and the historical-political conditions underpinning, the liquidation and division of East Prussia after World War II. It is recalled here that, even before the War, Polish scholars, including quite a number of leading Polish geographers, had aimed to have such a political design implemented. The period of the War itself saw respective proposals drawn up in various detailed variants. The very first two of these were presented on April 2nd, 1940, in Paris by Division III of the Head Office of the Polish Army Commander (at that time General Władysław Sikorski). The subsequent proposal for the course of the border was as finalised by October 17th, 1940 in London, by the Bureau for Political Studies of the Polish Government-in-Exile. The three variants are presented and commented upon in the article, as well as shown in Fig. 1. They did not gain any high political status, unlike the decision on the division of East Prussia taken personally by Joseph Stalin in July1944, during a meeting with the Polish Delegation. This concept for the course of the border is also shown in Fig. 1. The defeat of Nazi Germany and the occupation of this German border province by the Red army made it possible for effect to be given to an already-formulated territorial postulate. The decisions of the three powers, taken in Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, are also presented and commented upon. The final part of the paper then presents the procedures by which the borderline was delineated, and determined in practice, as this resulted in the ultimate division of East Prussia into Polish and Soviet parts. In particular, attention is paid to the boundary negotiations relevant to that, which took place throughout 1945. Over the longer term, the boundary in fact proved unstable, with individual localities changing their political affiliations from one state to the other. All this of course happened under strong pressure from the Soviet side that effectively left the Polish party helpless. The border that was finally established, largely in the form of a straight line running East-West, in fact persists through to the present day, and now separates Poland from the Kaliningrad District of the Russian Federation.
This article presents the political and geopolitical views of Tomas Masaryk, who was not only an outstanding statesman, the founder of the Czechoslovak state and its fourterm President, but also a prominent scholar. He dealt mainly with philosophy, and his work in this domain is commonly known. On the other hand, his achievements in geopolitics have much less attention paid to them by the respective literature. This article thus recalls this thrust to Masaryk’s work, and also provides an interpretation thereof. As Masaryk’s creative output on geopolitical issues is quite ample, the issues touched upon in the article only constitute a selection, based primarily on the criterion of importance from the geographical point of view. The first of these issues is associated with the concept of Masaryk’s so-called “Czechoslovakism”. He was of the opinion that Czechs and Slovaks are essentially a single nation, with the only slight difference relating to the shape of the literary language. He was thus convinced that these peoples ought to live in one state, a concept gaining positive implementation after World War I. Another subject selected by the author is the territorial programme elaborated by Masaryk for the Czechoslovak state. His postulates considered at the Peace Conference in Paris are recalled and made subject to further analysis in this paper. A subsequent part deals with the work of Masaryk in the theoretical domain, vis-à-vis his interest in the emergence of states and development of nations, as well the relationship between the two. In turn, most clearly geographical in character are his considerations regarding Central Europe and the place of Czechoslovakia therein – issues also taken up in this article, in which a final part sees Masaryk’s attitude to Poland and Poles also commented upon.
The paper presents the changes in the political and administrative boundaries of the German state, which took place during the 20th century. The starting point is constituted by the political pattern having developed after the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, this pattern lasting until the World War I. Then, the territorial consequences are considered of the decisions, taken at the Versailles Peace Conference. After the presentation of the situation existing during the inter-war period, the political transformations are shown of the annexation politics of the Nazi Germany. The final part of the paper is devoted to the territorial effects that the Potsdam Treaty brought for the defeated Germany.
The paper presents the changes in the political and administrative boundaries of the German state, which took place during the 20th century. The starting point is constituted by the political pattern having developed after the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, this pattern lasting until the World War I. Then, the territorial consequences are considered of the decisions, taken at the Versailles Peace Conference. After the presentation of the situation existing during the inter-war period, the political transformations are shown of the annexation politics of the Nazi Germany. The final part of the paper is devoted to the territorial effects that the Potsdam Treaty brought for the defeated Germany.
Ethnic Transformations on the Latvian Territory in the 20th Century and at the Beginning of the 21st Century This paper presents demographic and ethnic transformations in the territory of Latvia. First, information is provided on the origins of the population of Latvian nationality. Then, ethnic composition of the population inhabiting the present-day Latvian territory at the end of the 19th century is characterised. The basis for the respective statistical analysis is constituted by the results of the Russian census of 1897. This census showed, side by side with the Latvian population, also important German, Russian, Jewish, and Polish minorities. The subsequent part of the paper is devoted to the ethnic situation in the interwar period. Here, the census carried out in 1935 is the main source of information. Essential demographic transformations took place during World War II. The paper accounts for the war losses, which in ethnic terms had a selective character. Latvian Jews were exterminated, while the remaining groups also suffered great losses. Then, the paper takes up the subject of the demographic-ethnic situation during the post-war Soviet occupation and the existence of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. In this period, numerous migrants from the farther-off territories of the Soviet Union moved to Latvia, these Russian-speaking migrants being primarily of Russian nationality. This resulted in the essential shift in the ethnic composition of the population in Latvia. The effects are reflected in the data from the Soviet censuses of 1959 and 1989. The results of these censuses are subject to interpretation in the paper. The last part of the article is devoted to ethnic changes in the sovereign Latvian state. Statistical and substantive analysis was carried out using the census data of the year 2000, and the estimated data from the year 2014. The contemporary ethnic structure of the entire country and in individual provinces was established. Przemiany narodowościowe na ziemi łotewskiej w XX i na początku XXI wieku W artykule przedstawiono przemiany demograficzno-etniczne na ziemi łotewskiej. We wstępie podano informacje o rodowodzie ludności narodowości łotewskiej. Następnie zaprezentowano i scharakteryzowano skład narodowościowy na współczesnym terytorium państwa łotewskiego w końcu XIX wieku. Podstawą analizy statystycznej były rezultaty spisu rosyjskiego z 1897 roku. Ujawnił on oprócz Łotyszy liczną mniejszość niemiecką, rosyjską, żydowską i polską. Kolejna część publikacji poświęcona jest sytuacji narodowościowej w okresie międzywojennym w niepodległym państwie łotewskim. Wykorzystano tu głównie spis przeprowadzony w 1935 roku. Poważne przeobrażenia demograficzne miały miejsce w latach II wojny światowej. Określono straty wojenne, które miały charakter selektywny w ujęciu narodowościowym. Przyniosły one eksterminację łotewskich Żydów oraz duże straty wśród pozostałych grup etnicznych. Dalsza część artykułu dotyczy sytuacji demograficzno-narodowościowej w okresie powojennej okupacji sowieckiej i istnienia Łotewskiej SRS. W tym czasie napłynęło na terytorium Łotwy wielu migrantów z głębi ZSRR. Była to ludność rosyjskojęzyczna, głównie narodowości rosyjskiej. Doprowadziło to do istotnej zmiany składu narodowościowego kraju. Odnotowały to spisy sowieckie z lat 1959 i 1989. Ich wyniki poddano interpretacji. Ostatnia część artykułu poświęcona jest zmianom narodowościowym zachodzącym już w suwerennym państwie łotewskim. Przeprowadzono analizę statystyczną i merytoryczną, korzystając z danych spisowych z 2000 roku oraz danych szacunkowych z 2014 roku. Określono współczesną strukturę narodowościową w skali całego kraju i wybranych prowincji.
W artykule opisano i skomentowano w ujęciu statycznym i dynamicznym przemiany demograficzno-etniczne zachodzące w Rosyjskiej SSR oraz Federacji Rosyjskiej. Przedstawiono liczebność i rozmieszczenie geograficzne poszczególnych narodowości zamieszkujących terytorium współczesnej Federacji Rosyjskiej. Podstawą analizy statystycznej, a następnie merytorycznej były trzy spisy ludności (1959, 1989, 2010). Porównanie danych z tych trzech przekrojów czasowych dało możliwość określenia stanu i przeobrażeń narodowościowych w ostatnich dekadach XX w. oraz w pierwszym dziesięcioleciu XXI w. Skoncentrowano uwagę na sytuacji etnicznej w Autonomicznych Republikach i Okręgach Narodowościowych.
Zarys treści.Przedstawiono dokonania twórcze i konceptualne Milana Hodžy, wybitnego polityka i myśliciela słowackiego, działającego w pierwszej połowie XX w. na rzecz utworzenia a następnie umocnienia dualistycznego państwa czechosłowackiego.Był orędownikiem federacji narodów
This article presents the historical and political conditioning leading to the establishment of the contemporary Polish-German border along the 'Oder-Neisse Line' (formed by the rivers known in Poland as the Odra and Nysa Luzycka). It is recalled how - at the moment a Polish state first came into being in the 10th century - its western border also followed a course more or less coinciding with these same two rivers. In subsequent centuries, the political limits of the Polish and German spheres of influence shifted markedly to the east. However, as a result of the drastic reverse suffered by Nazi Germany, the western border of Poland was re-set at the Oder-Neisse Line. Consideration is given to both the causes and consequences of this far-reaching geopolitical decision taken at the Potsdam Conference by the victorious Three Powers of the USSR, UK and USA.
In this article, a map published and popularized in Moscow at the end of 1914 is presented and analyzed from a cartographic and factual perspective. Drawn up on the initiative of the highest Russian authorities, the map presents the post-World War One political system in Europe as envisaged by the author. He believed that, in the aftermath of a victorious war for Russia, the significant shifts of political boundaries in Europe which are shown on the map would take place. The cartographic document in question thus constitutes interesting historic evidence attesting to the expansionist ambitions of the Russian Empire of that time.
Zarys treści. Przedstawiono dokonania wybitnego geografa niemieckiego Friedricha Ratzla. Po zarysowaniu jego drogi zyciowej omowiono dorobek naukowy, ktory sklada sie z kilkudziesieciu ksiąz ek oraz kilkuset artykulow. Byl on tworcą nowoczesnej antropogeografii oraz geopolityki, zatem zaprezentowano osiągniecia tworcze na polu tych dwoch dyscyplin naukowych. Dzialalnośc badawcza Ratzla nie tylko wplynela na rozwoj geografii, lecz rowniez odegrala istotną role polityczną.
