HISTORIA WSPÓLNA CZY ROZDZIELNA. POLACY, LITWINI, BIAŁORUSINI, UKRAIŃCY W ICH DZIEJOWYM STOSUNKU (XV–XX W.)
Joint and Separate History. Relations Between Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians Throughout the Ages (15th–20th Centuries)

Author(s): Maria Barbara Topolska
Subject(s): History
Published by: Instytut Badań nad Dziedzictwem Kulturowym Europy
Summary/Abstract: The author of he book (Toruń 2015), whose opinions are still unpopularamong historians, proposes a more open approach to the disputable problemsof historiography of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. She supplementsher 40-year research with most recent literature, including works translatedinto Polish by 2014. Thus, she expects some changes in school and universitycurricula and in media messages concerning the closeness and strangeness ofthese nations. After all, the efforts in implanting Western civilization trendswere made together since the 15th century, and the trends became so commonin schools, education, literature, publishing, religion (both Catholic and GreekChurches), architecture and arts that from the beginning of the 17th centurythey even had a strong influence on the area of Russia, which used to havea different culture. The peak of the influence was in the 19th century, especiallyduring the partitions. Modern Polish-language education and literature wasdeveloped in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine (1803–1831). Well educated Polishand Polonized specialists living in Russia and all the continents played a veryimportant role in many areas.The tragedies of wars, border changes, emigrant and refugee flows in the20th century politicized the message of joint (until 1795) and separate (19th–21st c.) history. This has led to expressions of hostility and the development ofstereotypes among people and within the newly established states – heirs ofthe multicultural Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They still thrive today,in the face of another threat to the states from Russia with its ambitions to becomea world superpower.

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