Preface
Copyright Information || 1: The Geographical and Ethnographical Background
Having studied and taught Eastern European history for many years, I had of course
always tried to include the history of all the countries that lie east of Germany. But in
doing this I became more and more aware that three distinct fields of study have to be
treated and differentiated. Two of these, which are universally recognized, are familiar
to many scholars of various lands and are covered in numerous textbooks and historical
surveys.
These are the history of the Byzantine Empire in the Middle
Ages, which was later replaced by the Ottoman Empire, and the history of the Russian
Empire, which was created by Moscow in the course of the modern period. There remains,
however, the history of the numerous peoples which in both mediaeval and modern times have
lived between Germany and these empires, sometimes in independent states of their own,
sometimes submerged by their powerful neighbors.
The third field is equally as interesting and important as the
other two because of its internal diversity. In spite of such great variety, however, it
represents a clearly distinct unity which occupies a special place in the development of
mankind, as I attempted to show briefly in my recent book on The Limits and Divisions of
European History. Yet that whole region of Europe is neglected in the writing and teaching
of general and European history, as well as in the interpretation of the subject matter.
No textbook is available to the student which helps him to understand the past of that
large area as a whole, nor is there any synthesized survey at the disposal of the reader
who feels that a broad historical background is badly needed for grasping the implications
of contemporary events. Therefore, it remained difficult to realize the significance of
all the many peoples between Germany and Russia peoples whose collective population
exceeds that of either the Germans or even the Russians.
To fill such a gap within the compass of a single volume is no
easy task for an individual historian. Obliged to make a strict selection among countless
facts, he is unavoidably influenced by the chief directions of his own research work. And
even in the case of those facts which are incidentally mentioned in the outlines of world
history or in the histories of contiguous or neighboring regions, the task of coordinating
them into a picture which is inspired by an entirely different approach naturally raises
new and complex problems.
The origins of the whole story, in part prehistoric, have
received special attention in some valuable recent works. This was an additional reason
for treating these distant times, which remain filled with controversial issues, as
briefly as possible. Detailed discussion of the Middle Ages, from the tenth century
onward, and of the Renaissance, which is usually regarded as a typically Western
development, proved indispensable. This was in view of the vitality of the mediaeval
traditions for nations which were later to lose their freedom, and because of the cultural
community which the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance created between Western Europe
and what might be called since there is no better name East Central Europe.
The motivating ideas in describing the fairly well-known modern
centuries of European history from the point of view of the victims were these: That a
free East Central Europe is indispensable for any sound balance of power on the Continent,
and that the temporary disappearance of that whole region created a dangerous tension
between suppressed nationalisms and apparently well-established imperialisms which usually
were in dangerous rivalry with one another. Seen from the point of view of the nations of
East Central Europe, which were independent between the two world wars and which again
lost their freedom after the second, even contemporary history must appear in a different
light.
If throughout this book, which attempts to show how far Western
civilization expanded in the direction of the East, political history receives special
attention, it is because for students and readers at large a knowledge of the main
political events is a prerequisite framework and an indispensable basis for further study
in the cultural, social, or economic field.
In addition to the results of my own research, I have tried to
utilize all that I owe not only to my Polish professors and colleagues but also to the
leading historians of the other nations of East Central Europe. Among the latter are such
scholars as N. Iorga of Rumania, E. Lukinich of Hungary, V. Novotny of
Czechoslovakia, and F. Sisic of Yugoslavia, all of whom I have met at many international
congresses of the interwar period. And to these should also be added the representatives
of the Baltic Countries who, under the leadership of F. Balodis of Latvia, organized the
first conference of Baltic historians in 1937. I also gratefully acknowledge the
experience gained through long years of teaching at the universities of Cracow and Warsaw,
that of my early youth in the multinational Danubian Empire, and that of ten years spent
in American centers of learning where there is an ever-growing interest in all that has to
do with East Central Europe.
I am very much obliged to my publishers and to their expert
staff for the careful attention with which they prepared this volume for publication,
especially in dealing with the maps and the genealogical chart. Although the four maps
cannot, of course, take the place of a historical atlas, nevertheless they do illustrate
at least some of the basic interpretations of the text. Similarly, the genealogical table
could not include all members of the various dynasties, but for the first time their
relationship is presented on a single chart, thus stressing those matrimonial alliances
which explain the order of succession from the mediaeval origins to the threshold of
modern times.
This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my parents.
Finally, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my wife for her helpful cooperation,
particularly in preparing the index.
Oscar Halecki, New York City, January, 1952
