STUDIA POLONIJNE T. 39. LUBLIN 2018 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18290/sp.2018.6 MARIUSZ BORYSIEWICZ POLISH SETTLEMENT IN MANCHURIA (1898-1950) A BRIEF HISTORICAL SURVEY The Far East1, especially Manchuria as well as various parts of Siberia, was for a century and a half the scene of endless peregrinations and long sojourns of political exiles from Poland, whom Russian tyranny drove into these wildernesses2, and many of whom made significant contributions to the scientific, economic and social development of that part of Asia3. In course of time numerous Poles – partly Mariusz Borysiewicz, MA – doctoral candidate, Institute of History and Political Sciences, Faculty of Philologies and History, Pomeranian University in Słupsk; e-mail:
[email protected] 1 The Far East is a geographical term, which commonly refers to East Asia, including Nort- heast Asia, and the Russian Far East, that is a part of North Asia, not to mention Southeast Asia. Moreover, South Asia is often included for economic and cultural reasons (W.H.D. Adams, In the Far East: A Narrative of Exploration and Adventure in Cochin-China, Cambodia, Laos, and Siam, Edinburgh 1879, pp. 106-130). Nowadays, however, this expression can be described as archaic and Eurocentric. The phrase Far East came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the twelfth century, denoting the Far East as the most distant of the three eastern regions, beyond the Near East and the Middle East (O.P. Austin, Trading with the Far East, Yokohama 1920, pp. 6-8). Before the First World War, within European geopolitics the Near East referred to the relatively nearby lands of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East indicated northwestern South Asia and Central Asia, while the Far East meant countries along the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean (Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe [CAW: Central Military Archives], Oddział II Sztabu Głównego (General- nego) z lat 1921-1939 [OIISG: The Second Department of Polish General Staff, 1921-1939], file no.