РУССКО-ПОЛЬСКОЕ ПРОТИВОСТОЯНИЕ 19-НАЧАЛА 20 ВЕКОВ В ГЕОПОЛИТИЧЕСКОМ ИЗМЕРЕНИИ

The American geopolitician J. P. Ledonne proposed the key concepts of core area, frontier, proximate, intermediate, and ultimate, arguing that they might well be used to analyze the modern history of the territory that belonged to the former Commonwealth of Poland and was later annexed by the Russian Empire. Applying these key concepts, it could be said that the Russian Empire as a core area grew up and expanded her territory by annexations of the former Commonwealth and the northern area around the Black Sea. Taking into consideration the historical process from 1815 (the Congress of Vienna) to 1915, the tradition of ancient Kievan Rus was decisively transposed to another core area, that of Moscovite Russia. On the other hand, the core area for Poland was not the former Commonwealth, but the Kingdom of Poland, acknowledged by the Congress of Vienna, which comprised Mazovia, Wielkopolska, Malopolska, and Podlasie, and also covered regions of the Lithanian-Belorussian frontier, as well as other Polish islands scattered widely in Ukraine and the historical Lithuanian Grand Duchy. In particular, it should be pointed out that the influential and powerful privileged social stratum of szlachta in Mazovia and Warsaw made the Kingdom of Poland a Polish core area, and played a decisive role during the independence movements and the subsequent drive for socio-economic progress. On the eve of the First World War, Warsaw contained more than one million inhabitants and thus became the third city of the Empire, after Petersburg and Moscow. In Russia, Poland was generally regarded within the frontiers of 1772 as a core area, and this viewpoint remained alive for a long time. Compared with other nationalities in the Russian Empire, the Poles were the most powerful nationality. The proximate areas within the frontiers of 1772, such as the Lithuanian-Belorussian frontier, part of Augustow prefecture, and Chelm, referred to as the "petty-homeland" of Mickiewicz and Pilsudski, became thus firmly attached to Poland. Such areas had been scattered widely in the former Commonwealth of Poland, and largely coincided with the map of Polish insurrections. Concerning Ukraine, the Russian Empire, in order to de-polonize, gave strong support to the peasants in right bank Ukraine, supported the pro-Russian groups in Galicia in the Habsburg Empire, and then tried to organize the independent peasantry as a whole under the Hetman system of Cossack autonomy, because tsardom observed in Ukrainian patriotism a "Polish intrigue." One famous Pan-slavist, I.S.Aksakov, proposed to destroy the Polish core area from within, cut off the proximate areas, and combine it all with the Russian core area. In order to implement these policies, Imperial authority prohibited Poles from settling in Western Gubernias, and established a sanitary zone around Moscow and Petersburg. To prohibit Polish political prisoners from returning to their homeland, they were encouraged to settle well outside the territory of the former Commonwealth. Ironically, Poles were thus able to enlarge their settlement to the entire Russian Empire. In the 1880s the wave of Polish immigrants gradually increased between Lodz and Moscow, with attendant economic consequences. In the 1880-90s, Russian chauvinism impacted non-Russian citizens, including Poles. Nevertheless, Poles' activities in various fields contributed greatly to the industrialization of the entire Russian Empire, and as a result Imperial de-polonization policies ended unsuccessfully. Moreover, between the frontiers of these two core areas were born the modern nationalities of ≪Ukrainian≫, ≪Belorussian≫ and ≪Lithuanian≫, and the rivalry of these two core areas facilitated these new national formations. Throughout the 19th century the contrast between Russia and Poland could be regarded as "Europe versus Asia." In the 20th century this notion was replaced by the contrast "Civilizing versus Uncivilized," actively involving the Ukrainian and Belorussian intelligentsias in this debate. In this context the idea of "Central Eastern Europe" was born, intended, of course, to exclude Russia from European Civilization. Powerful Polish intellectuals energetically promoted this assertion in the name of Civilization, regarding Russia and her Imperial authority as emblematic of Asiatic barbarism.