28 POLSKA
possible disadvantage. (The name of the spruce tree is supposed to derive from
the Polish words z Prus 'from Prussia'.) The western part astride the delta of the
Vistula, including the district of Warmia (Ermeland), overlapped with
Pomerania and, as 'Royal Prussia', was joined to the Polish Kingdom from 1466
to 1772. The eastern part, ruled from Koenigsberg, remained in the control of
the Teutonic Order until 1525, and as 'Ducal Prussia', was a Polish fief until
- For much of its existence it was remote, unproductive and undesirable.
Under the House of Hohenzollern, it formed one of the two elements of the state
of Brandenburg-Prussia, and from 1700 of their 'Kingdom in Prussia'. The pop-
ulation consisted very largely of German colonists and germanized Baits. In
modern times, the southern region of Mazury (Mazuria) formed a transitional
area adjoining the anciently Polish Mazowsze.
Podlasie (Podlasia), too, is a threshold province. Heavily glaciated and
wooded, it includes the vast forest of Bialowieza, and divides central Poland
from Byelorussia and Lithuania. The southern area, between the Vistula and the
Bug, is cattle country. The northern reaches in the Kurpie wilderness were
sparsely settled by hunters and fishermen. The urban centres included Biatystok,
Grodno, Bielsk, and Lukow.
Polesie (Polesia), popularly known as the Pripet Marshes, was a province
where time stood still. Swamps mingled with oak groves and lush meadows.
Social and economic development was as slow as the current of the Pripet,
which falls less than 200 feet in over three hundred miles. It is fine duck-shooting
country, where primitive people lived for centuries beyond the ken of the out-
side world. Its one town of note, Pinsk, became almost ninety per cent Jewish.
Wolyn (Volhynia) and Podole (Podolia) were essentially rural provinces.
Volhynia is crossed by a great strip of loess, on which wheat and maize grow
with alacrity, Podolia by a high plateau reminiscent of the treeless steppes to the
east. Towns and hamlets sought shelter from the cold east wind in deeply eroded
valleys. The district of Pokucie on the Dniester boasts orchards and vineyards.
Traditionally these were areas where the Ruthenian peasantry was dominated
by great Polish landowners. They were joined piecemeal to the Kingdom of
Poland between 1430 and 1569.
In the south-east, lay Rus Czerwona (Red Ruthenia), with its city of Lwow
(Lviv, Leopol, Lemberg). Incorporated into the Kingdom in 1340, it never lost
its marcher character. The fervent loyalism of the Polish element reflected their
constant insecurity in face of Tartar raids, Turkish invasions, and a restive
Ruthenian peasantry. The gentle landscapes stand in marked contrast to its dis-
turbed history.
Ukraina (Ukraine) straddled the middle Dnieper. As its name suggests, it lay
'on the edge' of Christendom, and of fixed settlement. In the early centuries its
phenomenal natural wealth and matchless soil could not be developed for fear
of constant wars and incursions. In 1569, when it passed to the Polish Kingdom,
it was divided into the palatinates of Kiev, Braclaw, and Czernihow, and
merged into the virtually unadministered expanses of the Dzikie Pola (Wild