X PREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITION OF VOLUME I
the peoples of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; from 1772 to 1918, with the
peoples of the Russian, German, and Austrian Empires; and over the entire span
of recorded history to the Final Solution of 1941-4 with the Askenazy Jews. In
strong contrast to conditions which prevailed for centuries prior to the Second
World War, the present situation, where the limits of the Polish People's
Republic are virtually coterminous with the homeland of a homogeneous and
nationally-conscious Polish nation, is unprecedented. It represents a radical
break with the past.
A volume which aims to occupy a neutral position on the national question,
is unlikely to win the acclaim of its Polish readers. Equally, it goes without say-
ing that the political authorities in Warsaw will fail to praise a work that tries
to treat Poland's relationship with each of her neighbours in an even-handed
manner. The ideologists of the regime will be unable to approve an account
which rejects the organic nature of the historical process. More importantly, the
great majority of Poles, irrespective of their political persuasions, will be disap-
pointed to read a work which fails to confirm their most cherished beliefs. For
them, Polish History is a cause, an ideal, a political instrument. For the inde-
pendent historian, it is merely an object of study. Whatever his private feelings,
the historian cannot assume that Poland has any special moral worth, or supe-
rior mission, or even any absolute right to exist. He must simply describe how
it arose; how it has changed; what it has contributed to European civilization;
and what it has meant to different people at different times. For my part, I see
Poland as an immensely complex phenomenon — both land, and state, and
nation, and culture: a community in constant flux, forever transmuting its com-
position, its view of itself, and its raison d'etre: in short, a puzzle with no clear
solution. As one of my audience so bitterly complained when I once tried to
explain this point of view to a seminar at Harvard University: 'You make it
sound as if Polish History were normal'.
For British and American readers, of course, an impartial 'History of Poland'
needs no apology. A country which has occupied such a central place in
European affairs, which has supplied some of Britain and America's most
prominent ethnic minorities, and which has endured more than its share of
Europe's troubles, has regularly escaped the due attention of historical scholars.
Polish affairs, like those of many countries beyond the frontier of power
and prestige, have usually been reduced to an intermittent flow of news items -
inadequately researched, briefly mentioned at moments of crisis, and quickly
forgotten. They have usually been presented to the English-speaking world,
either by Germans or Russians seeking to justify their malpractices, or by Poles
and Jews pleading their special causes. They have been shrouded behind the
veils of political interest, national pride, and linguistic obscurity, and have
rarely been revealed in the flesh. Polish History books, written by Polish schol-
ars for a Polish audience, make strange reading when translated into English.
Large composite works such as the Cambridge History of Poland of 1941-
launched by W. F. Reddaway,^1 or the History of Poland edited by Stefan