Polnische Forschungen zur Geschichte der baltischen Länder : historische Entwicklung und aktuelle Tendenzen

Abstract

The relationship between Poland and the Baltic States is one of the least researched fields of Baltic history. This essay aims at introducing the contribution of Polish historiography to the historical research on the Baltic region. It mainly focuses on studies concerning the Baltic region in a narrower sense, namely the areas of Old Livonia and the Republics of Estonia and Latvia. The first part of this article traces the historic development of Polish historiography on the Baltic region, the second part gives an outline of more recent studies on the history of the Baltic States. The appendix provides a bibliography which lists the Polish contributions to the history of the Baltic States from the years 1989 to 2002 (as far as they can be determined), and, in special cases, also includes older works of historiographical relevance. In the studies of Polish historians on the history of the Baltic region, we can distinguish two different approaches. One treats Baltic history as part of a comprehensive history of the Baltic region, the other emphasizes the historic bonds to those areas of the present-day Baltic republics which, over centuries, had been linked to the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, similar to the national approach of German historiography. In its beginnings, before 1918, Polish research on the Baltic region was mainly focused on aspects of local and regional history. At the time of the Second Republic, we can observe a distinct degree of politicisation. In dissociation from and as a response to German historians, who tried to back up revisionist demands by means of historical arguments, the Baltic Institute (Instytut Baltycki) in Torun supported the research of Polish historians on Baltic history. After World War II, the historiographical interest in the Baltic region was very low; in the 1970s, the number of studies on the history of the Baltic States increased, and since 1989/90 research on the history of the Baltic States has intensified further. The major centre of Polish research on the Baltic region is the University of Torun; in the past years, however, other universities, e.g. the University of Szczecin, have gained a certain reputation, too.