THE POLISH LAND 31any particular moment, their loyalties were determined by the delicate balance
between their need for protection and their chances of acting with impunity.
Their true predicament could not be described by a line on a map. The further
one retreats from the modern state, the less the concept of fixed frontiers
applies. In relation to the realms of the medieval princes, it is entirely inappro-
priate.
A Tableau of Poland, therefore, is bound to be problematical. If one were
only to include those provinces which have been permanently associated in
some sort of common political entity, one would have nothing to describe. Yet
if one includes all the places which at some time or other have been blessed with
the Polish connection, one is sure to end up with half a continent.
Despite the superficial appearances of the standard physical map, the Polish
reaches of the European Plain are neither so flat nor so monotonous as to deny
the country any specific form and character. Nor is it true that Poland has no
natural features suitable for frontier demarcation. In the south, the mountain-
ous Carpathian chain, extended into the Beskids and Sudety, forms a barrier as
lofty and effective as the Bavarian Alps or the French Pyrenees. In the north, on
the Baltic coast, the sea is equally effective. In the west, the Odra (Oder) and
Lusatian Nyssa (Western Neisse) present a clear line of demarcation whose
advantages were noticed by geographers such as Pawowski, Romer, or
Nakowski long before politicians dreamed of using them in practice. The
Odra-Nyssa line closes the narrowest gap between the mountains and the sea,
and, with all its tributaries on the Polish side, is unusually uncomplicated. Only
in the east, where the marshes of Polesie provide only partial cover, is Poland
really open to all the winds that blow. The River Bug does little to shield Poland
from the two great upland pathways out of Russia — the northerly one along the
Minsk Heights as followed by the Warsaw—Moscow railway, and the more
southerly one on the ancient highway joining Cracow with Lwow and Kiev.
Even so, there are many countries in Europe, from Eire to Hungary and the two
Germanies, which have to make do with boundaries of much greater artificial-
ity.
Within these frontiers, three outstanding physical features emphasize the lat-
itudinal lines of Poland's structure. Firstly, the wedge-like shape of the continent
at the point where the Eurasian land mass narrows into the European peninsu-
lar inevitably funnels movement on to the east-west axis. At longitude 24° E
on the Bug, the European Plain is almost 800 miles wide. At 14° E on the Odra,
it is only 200 miles wide. Secondly, the glacial depressions or pradoliny — in par-
ticular the Grodno-Warsaw—Berlin Depression and the Torun-Eberswalde
Depression - provide natural passage ways parallel to the mountain and coastal
barriers. Thirdly, the great swathe of morainic lakes which stretch from the
Valdai Region all the way to the Odra and beyond, serve to hold Poland back