Abstract
On the example of Żuławy, the paper discusses questions connected with postwar migrations to the Polish Western and Northern Territories, and their consequences for agriculture. It focuses on issues related to the development of the region by new settlers and the changes taking place in the cultural and social landscape. The text highlights the region’s character and its economic conditions before 1945, and considers agricultural settlement and the agrarian and social structure after 1945. Post-war agriculture in the region is presented in the light of the cultural heritage described in scientific literature, the first settlers’ recollections written in the form of diaries in the early 1970s, and biographical accounts that the author recorded in Żuławy in 2018.
Highlights
Located in and around the Vistula river delta, the Żuławy region is characterised by the high utility value of its soil, which defines the area’s agricultural character
The situation in the region changed in the wake of World War II and the subsequent great migrations, when the Western and Northern Territories together with the Free City of Danzig were incorporated into Poland and new – mainly Polish – settlers were moved there, forcing the previous residents of German descent to leave Żuławy
The aim of the paper is to look at post-war agriculture in Żuławy in the context of heritage, including the region’s social and cultural landscape, and to consider the changes that have taken place as a result
Summary
Located in and around the Vistula river delta, the Żuławy region is characterised by the high utility value of its soil, which defines the area’s agricultural character. The issue of post-war migrations to the Western and Northern Territories was subject of research conducted by the Polish ethnologists and sociologists as early as in the 1950s It presented village and rural community in the context of studies on folk culture The researchers did not study the cultural heritage of the Żuławy region until 2008, when e.g. ethnologists from the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań, conducted over 400 questionnaire interviews with the native population and postwar settlers living mainly in rural areas.1 Their analysis has been presented in several publications which constitute a significant contribution to the knowledge of the situation after World War II in the region (Brzezińska 2011). The aim of the paper is to look at post-war agriculture in Żuławy in the context of heritage, including the region’s social and cultural landscape, and to consider the changes that have taken place as a result. The author analyses the period between 1945 and the early 1970s in rural Żuławy in detail because it is highlighted more strongly in both the narrative types.
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