A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present
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THE PRICE OF FREEDOM 2nd Edition THE PRICE OF FREEDOM 2nd Edition A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the present Piotr S.Wandycz London and New York First published 1992 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 First published in paperback 1993 Second edition first published 2001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 1992, 2001 Piotr S.Wandycz All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Libtrary Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-41740-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-72564-6 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-25490-6 (Hbk) ISBN 0-415-25491-4 (Print Edition) (Pbk) In memoriam Oscar Halecki and Hugh Seton-Watson CONTENTS List of maps vi List of tables vii Preface to the Second Edition viii Preface x A guide to pronunciation xiii INTRODUCTION: WHAT’S IN A NAME? 1 1 THE MEDIEVAL HERITAGE 17 2 THE CHALLENGE OF THE MODERN AGE 44 3 THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CRISIS 70 4 ENLIGHTENED ABSOLUTISM OR ENLIGHTENED LIBERTY? 95 5 THE AGE OF LIBERAL NATIONALISM 122 6 FROM COMPROMISE TO INDEPENDENCE 150 7 THE DIFFICULT INDEPENDENCE 181 8 THE HARD ROAD TO FREEDOM 213 Notes 248 Chronological tables 251 Bibliography 273 Index 289 MAPS 1 East Central Europe in the late fifteenth century 11 2 East Central Europe, c. 1648 12 3 East Central Europe in the late eighteenth century 13 4 East Central Europe in the late nineteenth century 14 5 East Central Europe after the First World War 15 6 East Central Europe after the Second World War 16 TABLES 1.1 Population estimates, c. 1000 18 1.2 Population estimates, before 1348–50 32 2.1 Population estimates, c. 1500 54 6.1 Shares in percentage of gross value of industrial production 155 6.2 Percentages of value of total production 158 7.1 Population and agriculture in interwar East Central Europe 186 7.2 Foreign trade in dollars per capita 189 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION This book came out almost a decade ago. During these years Polish, Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Czech translations followed, each of them permitting small changes and corrections. In the year 2000 the consequences of the fall of communism in East Central Europe can be ascertained and evaluated better than in 1992, especially as new sources become available. This necessitated a rewriting of the last section, bringing up to date the chronological tables and the list of readings, and making small revisions in the text. The ongoing debate about the terminology (East Central, Central or Eastern Europe) has been enriched by new interpretations and trends. The name “East Central Europe” became more widespread in literature, and in some instances has been used to include the present day Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, indeed Latvia and Estonia, i.e. those countries which have become independent of Russia. A good example of this approach is represented by the Institute of East Central Europe (Instytut Europy środkowo-wschodniej) in Lublin. Under its auspices a huge collective two-volume history of East Central Europe in Polish has appeared in 2000 under the general editorship of Jerzy Kłoczowski—the authors are: N.Aleksiun, D.Beauvois, E.Ducreux, J.Kłoczowski, J.Samsonowicz, P. Wandycz. The French version, to be published by the Presses Universitaires de France in the collection “Nouvelle Clio”, will follow shortly. In turn the appellation “Central Europe” has been favored by some Czech circles which insist that the Czech lands have always been westward oriented. Prague, they point out, lies farther to the west than Vienna and roughly at the same longitude as Berlin. Hence, the term Central Europe is the only appropriate one. The use of this name has also been noticeable in political discourse, particularly after Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary became parts of NATO, and are in the process of being admitted to the European Union. Still another trend is noticeable. For those who justified a separate treatment of this region because of its inclusion into the Soviet Bloc, the disappearance of the latter renders such a regional approach no longer warranted. Finally, there is a tendency to treat all these terms as artificial concepts which exist only in the minds of those who apply them. Just as there is talk of a nation as an “imagined community” (Benedict Anderson), and a book has been written about the ix “invention” of Eastern Europe in the Age of Enlightenment, there is only one step to a denial of the existence of regional identities, whatever name one gives to them. All these discussions, however intellectually stimulating they are, have not altered the basic approach adopted in this book. Admitting freely a certain arbitrariness in singling out a particular part of Europe, this author still believes that the historical evolution of this area and the issue of its peripheral or semi- peripheral character justify a regional approach. If anything, the recent course of events (for instance the emergence of the Visegrád group) has brought out more clearly the distinctiveness of the countries surveyed in this volume, and emphasized the contrast between them and the Balkans, not to mention Russia. PREFACE This book is a survey and an attempted synthesis of the modern history of East Central Europe. A regional approach is meant to take the reader beyond national histories that can be, and sometimes are, parochial, isolated, and self-centered. A comparative regional history seeks to overcome this drawback by bringing out similarities and differences and putting national histories on a larger canvas. Providing a necessary minimum of factual information—in the text, chronological tables, and the index—this study concentrates on broad currents and fundamental issues. Frequently, satisfying answers cannot be provided to questions that are raised; controversies are noted but not resolved. Serving as an introduction to the complex problems of the past and present, this book will achieve its object if it whets the reader’s appetite, and encourages him or her to reject clichés and to probe deeper the region’s complexities. The term “East Central Europe” is used here to denote Bohemia/ Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. In presenting the histories of these countries the emphasis is on states, even though there were breaks of continuity in statehood. While the three states were historically multinational, the stress is on the state or ruling nation, while the other nationalities are treated in relation to it. The multi-ethnicity and the changing state borders have resulted in vexing linguistic problems that are likely to baffle the reader. The names of towns, for instance, differ greatly depending on a given period. How is one to realize that Pozsony (Hungarian), Pressburg (German), and Bratislava (Slovak) are one and the same city? Which form should one use throughout this book in order not to be accused of anachronism or partiality? Is the Lithuanian Vilnius, Polish Wilno, or Russian Vilna more appropriate? The Saxon towns in Transylvania with their German, Romanian, and Hungarian names, that do not even sound or look alike, present a particularly annoying problem. There is often no solution and inconsistencies are unavoidable. An attempt was made here to follow at least certain rules. If an anglicized or English form exists it is used. Thus, we have Cracow not Kraków, Prague not Praha. The official state language of the time is also respected as far as possible. This means that for the sixteenth and early seventeenth century in Bohemia, Czech and then German names would be used; xi for Hungary, Hungarian and Latin; for Croatia, Croat and Latin; for Lithuania, Polish, Belorussian/ Ukrainian, and Latin. If the German name of a given town or place is used less frequently than it might be warranted by the above rule, it is because the German name has often become a symbol of deliberate germanization. Admittedly there are problems, the usage of Danzig or Gdańsk being one of them. In a sense the issue boils down to the question of continuity or lack of continuity in East Central European history. If breaches were more characteristic, continuity was more fundamental. Then there is also the question of roots. To give but one example: Slovakia did not exist as an entity, administrative or otherwise, throughout most of its history. It corresponded merely to a number of counties in Upper Hungary where Slovaks lived. Yet to ignore the Slovak roots by refusing to use the term Slovakia prior to the twentieth century seems unacceptable. Names of rulers are generally given in the anglicized form or its English version. Thus John not Jan, Stephen not István, Wenceslas not Václav. Only such names as Bolesław for which there is no English equivalent appear in their original form. First names of all other individuals are written in their native form and spelling, diacritical marks included. Yet certain problems still remain, notably with Croat-Hungarian or Polish-Lithuanian historic figures such as Zrinski/Zrínyi or Jogaila/Jagiełło.