Lech Z. Niekrasz Where are you, Prusai ? Lech Z. Niekrasz Where are you, Prusai ? The memory of the ancient Prusai have not passed with the wind and therefore it deserves our respect, so that history is not covered by falsehood. Lech Z. Niekrasz Where are you, Prusai ? Translated by Michael Kulczykowski Author Lech Z. Niekrasz Redaction Slawomir Klec Pilewski Graphics Slawomir Klec Pilewski Translation Michael Kulczykowski Cover: Oil painting by Wojciech Kossak from a private collection The Prusai: The Prus Society www.prusowie.pl contact [email protected] Editor Print and cover All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the Publishers and the Copyright owners. FOREWORD It is worthwhile spending a moment to consider the problem which emerged after the conclusion of the second world war. It concerns the naming of the part of the former territory of Prusia, which was incorporated into post-war Poland. In view of the unfortunate traditions of German Prussianism and the associated worst possible memories, nobody wished to call this territory Prussia although it was to a substantial degree still inhabited by the indigenous descendants of the ancient Prusai, who saw no need to leave the land of their forefathers and talked of themselves us “ We are not Germans but we are also not Poles, we are locals”. After the war Stalin carried out another successive crime by ordering the deportation to Germany tens of thousands the descendants of the Prus people from the territory annexed by the USSR, the so called Kaliningrad region. A similar fate awaited the inhabitants of the territory incorporated into the Peoples Poland with the only difference that because of the discrimination against them the “locals” felt obliged to leave their fatherland and emigrate to Germany. This was also a crime on the living body of the population. Accordingly these lands, on which the Prus peoples lived on for over a thousand years before the appearance of the Slavs on the territory of to-days Poland, now carry the names of Warmia and Masuria. It is meanwhile known that, as a result of the efforts undertaken by the Teutonic Order in the XIII century the victims of the invasions, which bore all the hallmarks of racial extermination, some 50% of the population of the then Prus lands perished, and the further 10% escaped the Teutonic sword by fleeing to neighbouring Poland or to Lithuania or Rus. The Teutonic Knights also placed their subject Prusai in the first line of battle in their wars of conquest, sometimes forcing them to carry out the most bloody work. From the year 1331 comes the information that during the battle of Plowce the Prusai refused to carry out the Knights orders to murder the Polish prisoners taken captive. According to available sources the Order forced 5 thousand lightly armed Prusai to appear in 1410 on the fields of Grunwald who did not show the required fighting spirit, and many of whom sympathised with the Polish Crown. Their help to King Vladislav Jagiello is still little known, who due to them disposed of information about the location of the Order’s forces and because of this could locate his Polish and Lithuanian armies in the most advantagous positions. The attention of Polish historians by passed the part played by the Prusai Culm Standard brigade, whose influence on the result of the battle of Grunwald was thought by the German historians to be reason for the defeat of the Teutonic Order. The pages of history do not dwell on the fact that after Grunwald Prusai knights captured the Knights castles to turn them over to the Crown. The Prusai had to pay a very high price for their part in the Thirteen Years War (1454-1466) where they also stood on the side of the Polish Crown. Their part in this was however dismissed by the Polish side. There were also incidents which indicated a negative attitude for the Prusai. An example of this was the attack by Piotr Dunin, 7 the commander of the Crown forces, on the cavalry unit of 60 horsemen sent to help the Polish King, which was forced to return. The Polish side helped in the bloody surpression of the Sambian revolt of Prusai peasantry in 1525, supporting the German side. Fatal in its result, not only for the Prusai but also for the Crown, was the policy of the Polish King towards the Teutonic Knights and their political descendants. The greatest mistake, after the bringing of the Order to Poland was the Prussian Homage which was paid to the Polish King Sigismund the Old from the last grand master of the Order, Albrecht von Hohenzollern in 1525. He stood at the head of a German enclave, or subjects de jure to the Polish Crown, the so-called Ducal Prussia. From this grew German Prussianism which grew to start the process of the partitions of the first Polish Commonwealth. The map from the 1965 Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, showing ancient Asia Minor at 200 B.C. with three places name Prusia. The then kingdom of Bitynia was ruled by king Prusias, and was convinced by the Carthaginians to go to war with the Romans. Defeated by them, he escaped north and the legend says that Prusias settled on the Baltic shore: if so, then they were the Ostrogoths, as the Visigoths remained in Asia until the end of Vth century, when they went for the conquest of Rome. To support them, the Ostrogoths left the Baltic shores. 8 Heavy losses were borne by the enslaved Prusai population as a result of the Swedish invasion of the XVII century. At the beginning of the XVIII it was decimated by an epidemic of the black death brought from Germany. The XIX brought the bloody in its results Napoleonic campaign. A great tragedy was brought by both the two world wars started by Germany in the XX century, not counting the post 1944 losses of the descedants of the Prusai. Kurps. In the year 1809, during the attack of The rhetorical question of whether the Austrians on the Duchy of Warsaw, the riflemen of the Kurp Battalions, headed by they could have survived in the colonel Zawadzki and Lt.Col. Szremer, situation which was created for them distinguished themselves on the river Bug. A over the course of centuries not only by force of these Kurps, made up from foresters of the Lomza department, formed a corps of Germany but also by Poland ? mounted riflemen. On small horses, in battle However, the names of Preusse and dress and long sabres, lances and rifles, these Preussen, having nothing in common people, at first sight unremarkable, but in accurate markmanship terrible, surprised the with the antique Prus, have survived as inhabitants of Warsaw. The Kurps were Prussian and Prussia. They are still used volunteers, unpaid, but only in receipt of food. to-day by Germans, not confessing to !B. Gemb. the perpatrated ethnic name stealing. There is not much interest in the Kurps, but these are the descendants of the Prusai, who sought freedom from the cruelty and persecution of the Teutonic Order, and who are known for their rich culture and folklore. Returning to the question started in the foreword as to geographical nomenclature, it has to be stated that the name Masuria is a false creation, and the Masurians, in contrast to the descendants of the enslaved original Prusai, were mostly the returning descendants of the Prusai setllers from northern Mazovia, although amongst them were many Poles, Lithuanians and Ruthenes. In the situation in which the Teutonic Knights called themselves Preusse, and on the conquered territories of the Prusai emerged the state of Preussen, it is no surprise that the slaves called this, though the original owners of the land were called Prusai. However, there remained after them many but disjointed antiques for which the most suitable place should be still waiting for its opening museum of Prusai Culture. And one other question which I would like to ask here, namely the pre-genesis of the Prusai, who up to now were denied to the indo-european family of nations. On the basis of the results of genetic testing on the living descendants of the Prusai, it can be stated that there is a link between them and proto-Celts, proto-Indoeuropeans and the proto-Ugro-finns. Historians divide the Prusai into tribes, but these were three ethnically seperate peoples with the possibility of an autochtonic fourth, which could have survived the end of the ice age. The division of the Prusai into tribes is a mistake, and it can only be assumed that this was a territorial division during the conquest. Recommending the study of this book, I hereby thank Mr Lech Niekrasz for his effort in undertaking the complicated theme of the Prusai and presenting it in a acceptable format. Slawomir Klec Pilewski 9 I. VISITORS FROM THE DISTANT PAST The traces lead to the Volga and the Dnieper Although the origins of the Prusai have always interested historians, nevertheless it has not been to-date possible to finalise the matter, and the discussions which still abound on the matter to this date prove that from the scientific point of view the matter is not definetly settled. An expert on the subject, Gerard Labuda is of the opinion that “the Prusai formed one of the language groups ethnically belonging to a wider circle of peoples to whom we give the name Balts; to this grouping also belonged the many Lithuanian and Latvian tribes.