The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733-1795

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733-1795 PDF Author: Richard Butterwick
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030025220X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
A major new assessment of the "vanished kingdom" of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth--one which recognizes its achievements before its destruction Richard Butterwick tells the compelling story of the last decades of one of Europe's largest and least understood polities: the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Drawing on the latest research, Butterwick vividly portrays the turbulence the Commonwealth experienced. Far from seeing it as a failed state, he shows the ways in which it overcame the stranglehold of Russia and briefly regained its sovereignty, the crowning success of which took place on 3 May 1791--the passing of the first Constitution of modern Europe.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733-1795

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733-1795 PDF Author: Richard Butterwick
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030025220X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
A major new assessment of the "vanished kingdom" of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth--one which recognizes its achievements before its destruction Richard Butterwick tells the compelling story of the last decades of one of Europe's largest and least understood polities: the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Drawing on the latest research, Butterwick vividly portrays the turbulence the Commonwealth experienced. Far from seeing it as a failed state, he shows the ways in which it overcame the stranglehold of Russia and briefly regained its sovereignty, the crowning success of which took place on 3 May 1791--the passing of the first Constitution of modern Europe.

The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386-1795

The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386-1795 PDF Author: Daniel Z. Stone
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295803622
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
For four centuries, the Polish�Lithuanian state encompassed a major geographic region comparable to present-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, and Romania. Governed by a constitutional monarchy that offered the numerous nobility extensive civil and political rights, it enjoyed unusual domestic tranquility, for its military strength kept most enemies at bay until the mid-seventeenth century and the country generally avoided civil wars. Selling grain and timber to western Europe helped make it exceptionally wealthy for much of the period. The Polish�Lithuanian State, 1386�1795 is the first account in English devoted specifically to this important era. It takes a regional rather than a national approach, considering the internal development of the Ukrainian, Jewish, Lithuanian, and Prussian German nations that coexisted with the Poles in this multinational state. Presenting Jewish history also clarifies urban history, because Jews lived in the unincorporated "private cities" and suburbs, which historians have overlooked in favor of incorporated "royal cities." In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the private cities and suburbs often thrived while the inner cities decayed. The book also traces the institutional development of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland�Lithuania, one of the few European states to escape bloody religious conflict during the Reformation and Counter Reformation. Both seasoned historians and general readers will appreciate the many excellent brief biographies that advance the narrative and illuminate the subject matter of this comprehensive and absorbing volume.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733-1795

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733-1795 PDF Author: Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300255836
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania

The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania PDF Author: Robert I. Frost
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192568140
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 650

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Book Description
The history of eastern European is dominated by the story of the rise of the Russian empire, yet Russia only emerged as a major power after 1700. For 300 years the greatest power in Eastern Europe was the union between the kingdom of Poland and the grand duchy of Lithuania, one of the longest-lasting political unions in European history. Yet because it ended in the late-eighteenth century in what are misleadingly termed the Partitions of Poland, it barely features in standard accounts of European history. The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union 1385-1569 tells the story of the formation of a consensual, decentralised, multinational, and religiously plural state built from below as much as above, that was founded by peaceful negotiation, not war and conquest. From its inception in 1385-6, a vision of political union was developed that proved attractive to Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, and Germans, a union which was extended to include Prussia in the 1450s and Livonia in the 1560s. Despite the often bitter disagreements over the nature of the union, these were nevertheless overcome by a republican vision of a union of peoples in one political community of citizens under an elected monarch. Robert Frost challenges interpretations of the union informed by the idea that the emergence of the sovereign nation state represents the essence of political modernity, and presents the Polish-Lithuanian union as a case study of a composite state. The modern history of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus cannot be understood without an understanding of the legacy of the Polish-Lithuanian union. This volume is the first detailed study of the making of that union ever published in English.

The Last King Of Poland

The Last King Of Poland PDF Author: Adam Zamoyski
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1474615201
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
A superb study of one of the most important, romantic and dynamic figures of European history. 'A fine book ... the web of political intrigue unfolds like an appetising detective novel' Scotsman The last king of Poland owed his throne largely to his youthful romance with the future Catherine the Great of Russia. But Stanislaw Augustus was nobody's pawn. He was an ambitious, highly intelligent and complex character, a dashing figure in the finest eighteenth-century tradition. A great believer in art and education, he spent fortunes on cultural projects, and finding that he was blocked politically by Catherine, he put his energies into a programme of social and artistic regeneration. He transformed the mood of his country and brought it to a new phase of reform and independence. Poland's neighbours, however, viewed this beacon of liberty in their midst with alarm, and as they invaded and partitioned it, Stanislaw saw the destruction of his life's work, and ultimately was forced to abdicate, a broken man, deceived and disillusioned.

The Polish Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1788-1792

The Polish Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1788-1792 PDF Author: Richard Butterwick
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199250332
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
The Polish Revolution cast off the Russian hegemony that had kept the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth impotent for most of the eighteenth century. Before being overthrown by the armies of Catherine the Great, the Four Years' Parliament of 1788-92 passed wide-ranging reforms, culminating in Europe's first written constitution on 3 May 1791. In some respects its policies towards the Catholic Church of both rites (Latin and Ruthenian) were more radical than those of Joseph II, and comparable to some of those adopted in the early stages of the French Revolution. Policies included taxation of the Catholic clergy at more than double the rate of the lay nobility, the confiscation of episcopal estates, the equalization of dioceses, and controversial concessions to Orthodoxy. But the monastic clergy escaped almost unscathed. A method of explaining political decisions in a republican polity is developed in order to show how and why the Commonwealth went to the verge of schism with Rome in 1789-90, before drawing back. Pope Pius VI could then bless the 'mild revolution' of 3 May 1791, which Poland's clergy and monarch presented to the nobility as a miracle of Divine Providence. The stresses would be eclipsed by dechristianization in France, the dismemberment of the Commonwealth, and subsequent incarnations of unity between the Catholic Church and the Polish nation. Probing both 'high politics' and political culture', Richard Butterwick draws on diplomatic and political correspondence, speeches, pamphlets, sermons, pastoral letters, proclamations, records of local assemblies, and other sources to explore a volatile relationship between altar, throne, and nobility at the end of Europe's Ancien Régime.

The Crimean Khanate and Poland-Lithuania

The Crimean Khanate and Poland-Lithuania PDF Author: Dariusz Kolodziejczyk
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004191909
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1135

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Book Description
Drawing on rich source material in several languages and three scripts (Arabic, Cyrillic, and Latin), this book presents a broad picture of international relations in early modern Eastern Europe, at the crossing point of Genghisid, Islamic, Orthodox, and Latin traditions.

Jozef Pilsudski

Jozef Pilsudski PDF Author: Joshua D. Zimmerman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674275853
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
The story of the enigmatic Jozef Pilsudski, the founding father of modern Poland: a brilliant military leader and high-minded statesman who betrayed his own democratic vision by seizing power in a military coup. In the story of modern Poland, no one stands taller than Jozef Pilsudski. From the age of sixteen he devoted his life to reestablishing the Polish state that had ceased to exist in 1795. Ahead of World War I, he created a clandestine military corps to fight Russia, which held most Polish territory. After the war, his dream of an independent Poland realized, he took the helm of its newly democratic political order. When he died in 1935, he was buried alongside Polish kings. Yet Pilsudski was a complicated figure. Passionately devoted to the idea of democracy, he ceded power on constitutional terms, only to retake it a few years later in a coup when he believed his opponents aimed to dismantle the democratic system. Joshua Zimmerman’s authoritative biography examines a national hero in the thick of a changing Europe, and the legacy that still divides supporters and detractors. The Poland that Pilsudski envisioned was modern, democratic, and pluralistic. Domestically, he championed equality for Jews. Internationally, he positioned Poland as a bulwark against Bolshevism. But in 1926 he seized power violently, then ruled as a strongman for nearly a decade, imprisoning opponents and eroding legislative power. In Zimmerman’s telling, Pilsudski’s faith in the young democracy was shattered after its first elected president was assassinated. Unnerved by Poles brutally turning on one another, the father of the nation came to doubt his fellow citizens’ democratic commitments and thereby betrayed his own. It is a legacy that dogs today’s Poland, caught on the tortured edge between self-government and authoritarianism.

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg PDF Author:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472847881
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A fascinating study of the devastating new form of warfare that redrew the map of Europe in the opening year of World War II, bringing about the military collapse and capitulation of seven modern industrialized nations. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany launched the invasion of Poland, employing a new type of offensive warfare: Blitzkrieg. So named by Allied observers because of the shock and rapidity of its effects, this new approach was based on speed, manoeuvrability and concentration of firepower. The strategy saw startling success as the panzer divisions, supported by Stuka dive-bombers, spread terror and mayhem, reaching Warsaw in just one week. Aided by the intervention of the Soviet Union in the east, the campaign was over in a mere 36 days. This astonishing feat was followed by Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and then Norway in 1940, the first joint air-sea-land campaign in the history of warfare. Even more striking an achievement was the swift and conclusive defeat of France during May–June 1940. Refusing to let its forces dash themselves against the fortifications of the Maginot Line, Germany instead sent its divisions through neutral Belgium and northern France in Fall Gelb ('Case Yellow'), destroying Allied resistance and pursuing the remnant of the British and French forces to Dunkirk in an audacious and devastatingly effective assault. During the course of Fall Rot ('Case Red') over the following 20 days, German forces pressed the attack and by 25 June had forced France's leaders into a humiliating capitulation. Illustrated throughout with detailed maps, artwork and contemporary photographs, Blitzkrieg: The Invasion of Poland to the Fall of France tells the story of these first breakneck attacks, examining the armed forces, leaders, technology, planning and execution in each campaign as well as the challenges faced by the Germans in the pursuit of this new and deadly form of warfare.

Polish Migrants in European Film 1918–2017

Polish Migrants in European Film 1918–2017 PDF Author: Kris Van Heuckelom
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030042189
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This study explores the representation of international migration on screen and how it has gained prominence and salience in European filmmaking over the past 100 years. Using Polish migration as a key example due to its long-standing cultural resonance across the continent, this book moves beyond a director-oriented approach and beyond the dominant focus on postcolonial migrant cinemas. It succeeds in being both transnational and longitudinal by including a diverse corpus of more than 150 films from some twenty different countries, of which Roman Polański’s The Tenant, Jean-Luc Godard’s Passion and Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Trois couleurs: Blanc are the best-known examples. Engaging with contemporary debates on modernisation and Europeanisation, the author proposes the notion of “close Otherness” to delineate the liminal position of fictional characters with a Polish background. Polish Migrants in European Film 1918-2017 takes the reader through a wide range of genres, from interwar musicals to Cold War defection films; from communist-era exile right up to the contemporary moment. It is suitable for scholars interested in European or Slavic studies, as well as anyone who is interested in topics such as identity construction, ethnic representation, East-West cultural exchanges and transnationalism.