THE POLISH LAND 27the countryside, before the recent advent of modern industry, natural advan-
tages created severe over-population. In the long period of Austrian domina-
tion, Malopolska formed the western half of Galicia.
Mazowsze (Mazovia) on the middle Vistula has always been relatively back-
ward. Gravelly soils, morainic deposits, and poor drainage have inhibited agri-
culture, leaving wide expanses of heath and scrubland. The province has no
natural resources of note, and its poverty-stricken nobles and peasantry tradi-
tionally provided large numbers of emigrants and colonists. Its chief city,
Warsaw, was raised to distinction for reasons of convenience, not achievement.
Mazovia did not form an integral part of the Kingdom of Poland until 1529.
Kujawy (Cuiavia), linking Mazowsze with Wielkopolska, is flat terrain clut-
tered with glacial remains. Spidery lakes fill the morainic depressions. Some of
the soils, of the so-called 'black marsh' variety, are productive. Poland's oldest
town Kruszwica, huddles on the bank of Goplo, one of its largest lakes.
Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) grew up on the canals and roads of the east—west
throughway.
This Polish heartland is ringed by a circle of provinces whose associations
with the centre have been somewhat elastic.
Slask (Silesia, Schlesien), in the valley of the Odra, has a markedly indepen-
dent personality. By the early twentieth century, its ancient connection with
Poland, severed in 1339, had almost been effaced through incorporation in
Bohemia and Austria, and from 1740 in Prussia. Lower Silesia, bounded in the
west by the Sudety mountains, is rural, farming country. Upper Silesia lies on a
high bleak plateau richer in minerals than in scenic attractions. Until 1945,
Wroclaw (Breslau) and the industrial towns round Katowice (Kattowitz) had a
strong German character. In the southern districts, the peasantry, and in due
course the proletariat, were Slavs, who as often as not considered themselves
Silesian rather than Polish.
Pomorze (Pomerania, Pommern) can boast similar Slav origins, though it,
too, has spent most of its career in the German orbit. The German name of
Pommern, though derived from the Slav Pomorze, meaning 'By the Sea', does
not refer to exactly the same area.* In Polish usage, all of Western Pomerania
lies to the east of the Odra. The area further to the east, centred on Danzig, has
been variously called Pomerellen (Little Pomerania) and Eastern Pomerania, as
well as Royal Prussia, and West Prussia. The damp, inhospitable coastline shel-
tered small communities of fishermen. The interior, swathed in woods of pine
and beech, is pleasant to look at but hard to work. The chief cities, Szczecin
(Stettin) and Gdansk (Danzig), were distinctly German in flavour until their
reincorporation into Poland in 1945.
Prusy (Borussia, Prussia, Preussen) was the poorest province of all. A land
of dark forests and dark lakes on the bleak Baltic shore, it suffered from every
* German usage prefered the terms Vorpommern (Hither Pomerania) to the west of the
Odra: and Hinterpommern (Farther Pomerania) or Slavinia to the east.