In the presented source material, the author broadly interprets the contents of inventory of Strz... more In the presented source material, the author broadly interprets the contents of inventory of Strzyżów landed estate dating from 1654. The inventory accurately reflects the economic and demographic condition of this small urban centre shorthly before they were burnt down by Transilvanian soldiers during the "Deluge" in March of 1657.
The phenomena related to natural disasters and acts of war, bringing significant destruction and ... more The phenomena related to natural disasters and acts of war, bringing significant destruction and material losses, usually left an indelible mark in collective memory and identity of early modern era societies. This class of phenomena included a particular type of military-business activity of Tatar hordes, specifically long-range slave raids, which ravaged and weakened demographically the south-eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian state from the late 15th to the end of the 17th century. Since military operations conducted by Tatar hordes were asymmetric warfare profile, focusing on civilian communities, mostly in rural areas, they constituted an existential threat to the civilians living there. This stemmed from the impact of such unconventional military operations, which included catastrophic damages to buildings and economic infrastructure of attacked villages, as well as significant demographic losses, suffered by local populations. Thus, Tatar slave raids have left a permanent mark in the collective memory of victimized communities. The author utilizes a broad base of source materials dating back to 17th and 18th century, including narrative sources, visitation files of Latin Przemyśl diocese, treasury and tax sources, to focus on the transformation process of communicative (generational) memory into cultural memory. The latter began to memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework of symbolically objectified and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs. form around mid-18th century, when the last generation that directly witnessed Tatar pillage raids started dying out. Cultural memory is understood here — after German cultural studies scholar and Egyptologist Jan Assmann — as exteriorized and objectifi ed memory of the given community about its own traumatic past. It is transmitted through textual sources and oral tradition, often supported by various “places of memory” existing in the local landscape, both material and intangible with great symbolic potential, such as legends, folk tales and songs. It seems that figures of key importance in transforming local communicative memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework of symbolically objectifi ed and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs.
W niewoli. Doświadczenie jenieckie i jego konteksty na przestrzeni dziejów, red. M. Jarząbek, M. Stachura, P. Szlanta, Kraków, 2019
Tatar incursions into the south-eastern territory of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in early mode... more Tatar incursions into the south-eastern territory of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in early modern period had an extremely degrading effect on the functioning of the economy and demographic development of the areas affected by those slave hunting operations. However, as the military operations pursued by Tatar hordes were asymmetric, their impact was much broader, extending to multi-aspect socio-cultural processes which still await in-depth recognition by historical sciences. Some of these processes can be termed anomic, a social condition characterized by instability, desintegration and sense of anxiety. In the historical perspective, Tatar slave raids were the most traumatic experience, of existential significance, to the populations inhabiting the south-eastern provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, one of their consequences having been the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This disease entity must have affected a considerable portion of the several hundred thousand captives abducted from the Poland-Lithuania’s territory by Tatar warriors in the seventeenth century. Among the main stressors that triggered traumatic experiences in the attacked communities was the practice of inciting large-scale fires of the built-up areas and economic infrastructures of villages and smaller urban centres. The particularly devastating practice of taking captives was frequently combined with demonstrative killing of the dwellers of the settlements under attack. Based on seventeenth-century source material of varied origin, the author traces the manifestations of traumatic experiences, highlighting the testimonies of psychic disorders among the people who were subjected to traumatising and limit experiences. The latter typically included brutally violent attacks of Tatar troops and the immediately consequent captivity — and, in most of the cases, exhaustive transfer of the captives towards the Black Sea steppes and conclusive separation from their closest relatives.
Grodzisko i zamek w Czudcu na terenie dawnej ziemi sandomierskiej w świetle badań archeologicznych 2001-2010, 2017
Source-bibliographical analysis of the main precursors of colonization processes on the polish-ru... more Source-bibliographical analysis of the main precursors of colonization processes on the polish-ruthenian borderland in the middle section of river Wisłok at the turn of the early and late Middle Ages
Hortus bellicus. Studia z dziejów wojskowości nowożytnej. Prace ofiarowane Profesorowi Mirosławowi Nagielskiemu., Jun 22, 2017
Strategie przetrwania ludności ziem południowo-wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej podczas najazdów tatar... more Strategie przetrwania ludności ziem południowo-wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej podczas najazdów tatarskich w XVII wieku/Survival strategies of the inhabitants of the south-eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during Tatar raids in the seventeenth century.
The article presents basic defence strategies, both collective and individual ones, used by civilians during Tatar raids into the south-eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throughout the seventeenth century. The phenomenon of Tatar invasions into aforementioned parts of Poland-Lithuania in the early modern period was for the population of those territories an existential threat. The main reason was the strategy of asymmetric warfare used by Tatar troops. It meant that Tatar commanders avoided military clashes with enemy units while at the same time were giving high priority to attacks against civilian communities, regarded as the human cargo, and to destruction of buildings and economic infrastructure, mainly in rural areas. In response to this lengthy state of threat the people of the south-eastern lands of the Commonwealth developed different defence strategies, both on an individual and collective level, which were to protect their lives, freedom and properties. An analysis based on various sources has demonstrated that people attacked by Tatars used a suprisingly broad array of defence strategies. Interestingly, they included not only the hard military solution against the aggressors (fight), as it was presented until recently in the literature on this subject. Apart from the dominant defence reaction in the form of escape, there were also used more sophisticated "soft" methods to neutralise this type of military threat, such as, for example, negotiations with Tatars, persuasion and various forms of cooperation, mainly tactical one with the enemies. All this show a pragmatic approach of the threatened populations to the problems with their safety and security.
The present analysis of military operations carried out by Tatar Hordes in the sixteenth and seve... more The present analysis of military operations carried out by Tatar Hordes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has shown that these operations were basically shaped by asymmetric actions. Their main characteristics were secrecy of action up to the moment of attack, use of information-and-intelligence warfare struggle instruments, a total character of operations taken against civilians, their material resources and economic infrastructure, with use of terrorist tactics and means of psychological impact that aimed at intimidating the community under attack. The actions of Tatar Hordes were primarily focused on non-military aspects and took advantage not only of classic military tools but also a combination of political measures and instruments as well as those typical of economy, these including a variety of economic and demographic pressures. Pursuing asymmetric action was in the hands of the Giray (Gerey) dynasty one of the most important tools enabling them to effi ciently achieve their political goals in the international arena and to support the economic development of the Crimean Khanate through permanent transfers of slaves and tangible property of various sorts. Keywords: asymmetric warfare, Tatar military art of war in the early modern period, organised violence, war amongst the people, southeastern borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1 Beginning with the late 1990s, the problem of asymmetric threats and confl icts has been more and more often discussed in publications on political science and security studies. Not only has the term 'asym-metric warfare' itself become extremely popular among researchers
STRZYŻÓW AND CZUDEC: TWO SMALL CRAFTSMEN’S
AND TRADING URBAN CENTRES IN LESSER POLAND AGAINST
THE... more STRZYŻÓW AND CZUDEC: TWO SMALL CRAFTSMEN’S AND TRADING URBAN CENTRES IN LESSER POLAND AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE LOCATION PROCESSES AND SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
The article addresses the complex issues regarding in the growth and development of small Lesser Polish centres engaged in craftsmanship and commercial exchange in late medieval times. I present the “case study” of Strzyżów and Czudec, two old rural settlements in the border zone between the Kingdom of Poland and Halych Rus’ (the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia) which by the 14th – 15th centuries had developed into towns. I examine the factors which determined their transformation into small centres for craftsmanship and commercial exchange in this part of Lesser Poland. I have tried not to overlook the political and socio-economic processes in the late 14th- and early 15th-century Kingdom of Poland, as it expanded politically and its demographic and economic power rose at a rapid rate. On the other hand, I have also made an effort not to lose sight of the local conditions and pay due attention to the role of the Strzeżowski family, hereditary lords of the Strzyżów-Czudec manor estates in the area, in the creation and furtherance of good prospects of socio-economic development for both of these towns. It was displayed by the active support of the location processes, which has resulted in a rapid spatial development of Strzyżów and Czudec in the late medieval period.
An analysis of military operations conducted by Tatar hordes in the 16 th and 17 th centuries rev... more An analysis of military operations conducted by Tatar hordes in the 16 th and 17 th centuries reveals that they were basically shaped by asymmetric warfare. Their characteristic features were the secrecy of actions until the moment of attack, the use of instruments of information warfare and espionage, the total character of military operations directed against the civilians, their material resources and economic infrastructure involving terrorist tactics and psychological methods of in-fl uence aimed at intimidating assaulted communities. The actions of Tatar hordes basically focused on non-military environment with the use of not only classic military tools but also combinations of political and economic means in the form of various economical and demographic pressures. Conducting asymmetric military actions was, for the Giray dynasty, one of the most important tools for the successful achievement of their political goals as well as for supporting the economy of the Crimean Khanate through a stable transfers of slaves and supply of stolen material goods. Key words: asymmetric warfare, Tatar military art of war in early modern period, organized violence , war between people, southeastern borderline of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Słowa kluczowe: działania asymetryczne, tatarska sztuka wojenna w epoce nowożytnej, przemoc zorganizowana, wojna wśród społeczeństw, południowo-wschodnie pogranicze Rzeczypospolitej Począwszy od drugiej połowy lat 90. ubiegłego stulecia, w publikacjach z zakre-su politologii i studiów nad bezpieczeństwem coraz częściej podejmowane są za-gadnienia dotyczące zagrożeń i konfl iktów asymetrycznych, które obecnie należą do głównych problemów studiów strategicznych. Pojęcie " działania asymetryczne " (asymmetric warfare) nie tylko zrobiło niebywałą karierę w środowisku badaczy 1 Badania zostały sfi nansowane ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki, przyznanych w ra-mach fi nansowania stażu po uzyskaniu stopnia naukowego doktora na podstawie decyzji numer DEC-2014/12/S/HS3/00206.
Crisis by plundering. The civilizational and economic development in the border region of the Ott... more Crisis by plundering. The civilizational and economic development in the border region of the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The article addresses the issue of the Tatar military art of war in the early modern period in te... more The article addresses the issue of the Tatar military art of war in the early modern period in term sof its impact on the civilian population of the south-eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commowealth. This problem is presented in three aspects: economic, demographic and cultural. In the discussion regarding the socio-economic impact of the Tatar raids on the south-eastern lands of the Commonwealth, the author attempts to get beyond the reductionist framework approach that only considers an economic side, which has been used to analyze the topic in the past historiography. In this perspective it is important to underline of the determinants, which arise from the former dependence of the Ruthenian duchies from the Golden Horde in the late Middle Ages, hence the constant claims of the Crimean Khans to receive so-called customary gifts from the Polish authotities. Every lack of compliance by the Polish kings was an opportunity for the Girays to send military expeditions into the Polish-Lithuanian territory. During their well planned plundering missions Tatars exploited a specific military methods and strategies by using asymmetric warfare. This kind of warfare revers to such methods and solutions that could be considered as non-standard from the opponent’s perspective, as well as organizing and acting contrary to what the command of enemy forces may expect, in order to counteract the weakness of one’s own potential and, as finally result, to gain advantage over the enemy troops. It is worth noticing that Tatar warfare was characterized by double asymmetry, reffering not only to fundamental disproportions in the military potential, but also to the nature and choice of the primary targets of military operations, i.e. concentrating the operational effort in the civilian space. The cultural scope of Tatar hordes on sedentarny communieties in the south-eastern parts of the Commonwealth had a very wide spectrum. However, a common feature of these agricultural interferences resulting from frequent contact of the nomadic or semi-nomadic invaders with the sedentary peasant communities was the widespread fear of the latter. The fears were rooted in the obvious differences of the Tatars in terms not only of specific warfare but also civilizations, religion and mentality. The fear was a direct result of rapid intercultural interactions due in part to the differences of military approach and practices, such as setting fires in order to communicate with other Tatar detachments, but also exerting psychological pressure to set forth fear and panic among the targeted lands and their inhabitants. That experience of fear and feeling of uncertainty often accompanied that local civilians for a lifetime, and left a mark in their material and non material as well a multi-dimensional impact on the cultural heritage.
Universals or proclamations directed by kings and high central or local officials not only to the... more Universals or proclamations directed by kings and high central or local officials not only to the nobility but also to other social groups of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were a significant element of defensive preparations for the Tatar invasions of the 17th century. The name "uniwersał" (littera universalis) originates from a Latin adjective "universalis" (universal, general). The analysed universals proclaiming the danger or threat of warfare in Red Ruthenia in the 17th century might be divided into the warning and mobilization universals. Warning universals, which were dominant, were to inform the people living in the endangered areas about the threat of the Tatar assaults. Mobilization universals, on the other hand, were to inform the nobility about the place and time of general levy. Universals issued in the 17th by central authorities and by land officials were an important element of the defensive system of the south-eastern borderlands of the Commonwealth. The vital role of the universals was to inform and alert the whole population of enemy attack. It was extremely important due to the fact that on all terror and plunder military missions, which aimed to conquer Red Ruthenia region in the 17th century, the Tatar command resorted to asymmetric warfare. The idea was, for instance, to attack the so called soft targets - the villages and towns without a defensive system - as well as to avoid fighting with Polish forces. Since the universals were issued in the court chancelleries and proclaimed in the squares and city markets as well as in village churches, the ordinary people living in the endangered areas could better prepare for the attack.
Emergence of Local Cults of the Virgin Mary and Patron Saints in Red Ruthenia after Tatar Invasio... more Emergence of Local Cults of the Virgin Mary and Patron Saints in Red Ruthenia after Tatar Invasions as a Religious Discourse in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of Early Modern Period. From the late Middle Ages to the end of the XVIIth Century the collective memory of the population in south-eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was shaped by the traumatic events associated with the Tatar invasions. An important part of that collective memory was religious discourse which was closely interwined with contemporary philosophy of history and the idea of providentionalism. Durability and stability of this discourse in the historical and social perspective was a consequence of the cultural and religious alienation of the Tatars among the sendentary Christian communities and asymmetric warfare strategy used by Tatar Hordes. Religious discourse manifested itself on the one hand in rapidly growing Marian devotion, which resulted from the belief in the care of the Virgin Mary becoming over time more and more common in social consciouness, and on the other hand in the emergence of the cults of patron saints whose intercession was supposed to lead to supernatural interventions in defence of the faithful. In this way, religious discourse fulfilled a very important social role by strengthening psychological adaptation mechanism, which played a key role in the socialization of the communities affected by violence, mass terror and fear.
The present area of the south-eastern Poland (Podkarpackie
Voivodeship) belonged to these parts ... more The present area of the south-eastern Poland (Podkarpackie
Voivodeship) belonged to these parts of the Kingdom of
Poland, and from 1569 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
which for several centuries, from late Middle Ages to the end of
the 17th century, were affected by extremely destructive Tatar
invasions. For several centuries Tatar military expeditions to
the Polish and Lithuanian territories that aimed at robbing and
terrorising local population were an excellent tool used by the
Crimean Khanate, and also periodically by the rulers of the Ottoman
Empire who employed subordinate Nogai tribes, for forcing
the kings of Poland to pass special fees and levies, which
was guaranteed in Polish-Ottoman and Polish-Tatar peace treaties.
These fees, referred to as “gifts”, were a relic of the Mongol
and Tatar supremacy over Ruthenian territories in the times of
the Golden Horde.
A long-term threat of rapacious invasions of the Tatars from
Crimea and Budjak and their catastrophic economic and demographic
effects were not the only consequences of the military
activity of Tatar hordes on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. This multi-dimensional and periodically very
intensive impact of Tatar cavalry raids must have caused the
formation of a specific cultural discourse and collective memory
reproduction processes in communities that were threatened
existentially, exploited economically and drained demographically.
The strength and remarkable durability of the collective
memory of Tatar attacks is primarily a result of such factors as
distance and strangeness of aggressors in terms of civilization,
culture and religion, but the specific character of the activities
carried out by the Tatars was an even more important factor
that generated collective memory of the attacked community.
A characteristic feature of Tatar operations was the application
of asymmetric warfare consisting in concentration of operational
efforts in the civil sphere, which was reflected mostly in
conducting expropriating operations and taking the defenceless
people, mainly from rural areas, into captivity. Collective
memory related to the historical phenomenon of Tatar invasions
has been preserved in legends, songs, sayings, folk proverbs
and beliefs transmitted from generation to generation in
local communities (oral history) and in specific elements of religious
ceremonies. A characteristic feature of these traditional
records, despite their quite considerable diversity in form and
content, was the presence of the idea of providentialism, a belief
in particular care of God over the Commonwealth and the communities
of the faithful that were threatened by the attacks of
hostile forces.
The above-mentioned historiosophical vision was not only
popular among the nobility and bourgeoisie, but also among the
broad group of the peasant population, and slightly later penetrated
into their awareness by means of the parishes of the Catholic
as well as the Orthodox, and later the United Church. The
narrative structures of the legends frequently contain motives
of wonderful divine interventions, often associated with the devotion
to the Virgin Mary and supernatural meteorological phenomena
that saved lives and freedom of people and brought salvation
for cities and villages threatened with destruction. There
are also many legends with moral and educational content,
which refer to the figures of renegades who, during Tatar attacks,
betrayed and shared their knowledge with hostile troops
for various reasons. From the social point of view, an important
role of legends and folk stories related to Tatars was their therapeutic
and compensating role as well as an inscription of Tatar
threats into the existing system of terms and values.
It should be emphasized that collective memory of the Tatar
attacks was strengthened, consolidated and reproduced also due
to the symbolism present in iconography of sacral buildings and
in the local cultural landscape in the form of roadside shrines,
crosses and mounds. The product of synergistic connection of
influences of intangible and tangible memory carriers, which
interconnect by using a dialectically complicated intergenerational
communication network, was a creation of collective
memory, consolidated by means of official historical and religious
discourses that constitute its social frame. Durability as
well as catastrophic economic and demographic effects of Tatar
invasions caused the situation where the contacts between the
peasant population of the Commonwealth and the warriors
from Crimea and Budjak became a border experience and foundational
trauma that affected the formation of identity of local
communities as a confrontation of different values and lifestyles
originating from different civilization and cultural circles. For
this reason the centuries of nomad invasions, which were in fact
a dramatic, intercultural conflict and “the clash of civilizations”,
may be defined – following the concept of Pierre Nora – as one
of the central and symbolic “places of memory” (lieu de mémoire),
having a multi-dimensional impact on the Polish culture.
In the presented source material, the author broadly interprets the contents of inventory of Strz... more In the presented source material, the author broadly interprets the contents of inventory of Strzyżów landed estate dating from 1654. The inventory accurately reflects the economic and demographic condition of this small urban centre shorthly before they were burnt down by Transilvanian soldiers during the "Deluge" in March of 1657.
The phenomena related to natural disasters and acts of war, bringing significant destruction and ... more The phenomena related to natural disasters and acts of war, bringing significant destruction and material losses, usually left an indelible mark in collective memory and identity of early modern era societies. This class of phenomena included a particular type of military-business activity of Tatar hordes, specifically long-range slave raids, which ravaged and weakened demographically the south-eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian state from the late 15th to the end of the 17th century. Since military operations conducted by Tatar hordes were asymmetric warfare profile, focusing on civilian communities, mostly in rural areas, they constituted an existential threat to the civilians living there. This stemmed from the impact of such unconventional military operations, which included catastrophic damages to buildings and economic infrastructure of attacked villages, as well as significant demographic losses, suffered by local populations. Thus, Tatar slave raids have left a permanent mark in the collective memory of victimized communities. The author utilizes a broad base of source materials dating back to 17th and 18th century, including narrative sources, visitation files of Latin Przemyśl diocese, treasury and tax sources, to focus on the transformation process of communicative (generational) memory into cultural memory. The latter began to memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework of symbolically objectified and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs. form around mid-18th century, when the last generation that directly witnessed Tatar pillage raids started dying out. Cultural memory is understood here — after German cultural studies scholar and Egyptologist Jan Assmann — as exteriorized and objectifi ed memory of the given community about its own traumatic past. It is transmitted through textual sources and oral tradition, often supported by various “places of memory” existing in the local landscape, both material and intangible with great symbolic potential, such as legends, folk tales and songs. It seems that figures of key importance in transforming local communicative memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework of symbolically objectifi ed and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs.
W niewoli. Doświadczenie jenieckie i jego konteksty na przestrzeni dziejów, red. M. Jarząbek, M. Stachura, P. Szlanta, Kraków, 2019
Tatar incursions into the south-eastern territory of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in early mode... more Tatar incursions into the south-eastern territory of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in early modern period had an extremely degrading effect on the functioning of the economy and demographic development of the areas affected by those slave hunting operations. However, as the military operations pursued by Tatar hordes were asymmetric, their impact was much broader, extending to multi-aspect socio-cultural processes which still await in-depth recognition by historical sciences. Some of these processes can be termed anomic, a social condition characterized by instability, desintegration and sense of anxiety. In the historical perspective, Tatar slave raids were the most traumatic experience, of existential significance, to the populations inhabiting the south-eastern provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, one of their consequences having been the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This disease entity must have affected a considerable portion of the several hundred thousand captives abducted from the Poland-Lithuania’s territory by Tatar warriors in the seventeenth century. Among the main stressors that triggered traumatic experiences in the attacked communities was the practice of inciting large-scale fires of the built-up areas and economic infrastructures of villages and smaller urban centres. The particularly devastating practice of taking captives was frequently combined with demonstrative killing of the dwellers of the settlements under attack. Based on seventeenth-century source material of varied origin, the author traces the manifestations of traumatic experiences, highlighting the testimonies of psychic disorders among the people who were subjected to traumatising and limit experiences. The latter typically included brutally violent attacks of Tatar troops and the immediately consequent captivity — and, in most of the cases, exhaustive transfer of the captives towards the Black Sea steppes and conclusive separation from their closest relatives.
Grodzisko i zamek w Czudcu na terenie dawnej ziemi sandomierskiej w świetle badań archeologicznych 2001-2010, 2017
Source-bibliographical analysis of the main precursors of colonization processes on the polish-ru... more Source-bibliographical analysis of the main precursors of colonization processes on the polish-ruthenian borderland in the middle section of river Wisłok at the turn of the early and late Middle Ages
Hortus bellicus. Studia z dziejów wojskowości nowożytnej. Prace ofiarowane Profesorowi Mirosławowi Nagielskiemu., Jun 22, 2017
Strategie przetrwania ludności ziem południowo-wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej podczas najazdów tatar... more Strategie przetrwania ludności ziem południowo-wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej podczas najazdów tatarskich w XVII wieku/Survival strategies of the inhabitants of the south-eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during Tatar raids in the seventeenth century.
The article presents basic defence strategies, both collective and individual ones, used by civilians during Tatar raids into the south-eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throughout the seventeenth century. The phenomenon of Tatar invasions into aforementioned parts of Poland-Lithuania in the early modern period was for the population of those territories an existential threat. The main reason was the strategy of asymmetric warfare used by Tatar troops. It meant that Tatar commanders avoided military clashes with enemy units while at the same time were giving high priority to attacks against civilian communities, regarded as the human cargo, and to destruction of buildings and economic infrastructure, mainly in rural areas. In response to this lengthy state of threat the people of the south-eastern lands of the Commonwealth developed different defence strategies, both on an individual and collective level, which were to protect their lives, freedom and properties. An analysis based on various sources has demonstrated that people attacked by Tatars used a suprisingly broad array of defence strategies. Interestingly, they included not only the hard military solution against the aggressors (fight), as it was presented until recently in the literature on this subject. Apart from the dominant defence reaction in the form of escape, there were also used more sophisticated "soft" methods to neutralise this type of military threat, such as, for example, negotiations with Tatars, persuasion and various forms of cooperation, mainly tactical one with the enemies. All this show a pragmatic approach of the threatened populations to the problems with their safety and security.
The present analysis of military operations carried out by Tatar Hordes in the sixteenth and seve... more The present analysis of military operations carried out by Tatar Hordes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has shown that these operations were basically shaped by asymmetric actions. Their main characteristics were secrecy of action up to the moment of attack, use of information-and-intelligence warfare struggle instruments, a total character of operations taken against civilians, their material resources and economic infrastructure, with use of terrorist tactics and means of psychological impact that aimed at intimidating the community under attack. The actions of Tatar Hordes were primarily focused on non-military aspects and took advantage not only of classic military tools but also a combination of political measures and instruments as well as those typical of economy, these including a variety of economic and demographic pressures. Pursuing asymmetric action was in the hands of the Giray (Gerey) dynasty one of the most important tools enabling them to effi ciently achieve their political goals in the international arena and to support the economic development of the Crimean Khanate through permanent transfers of slaves and tangible property of various sorts. Keywords: asymmetric warfare, Tatar military art of war in the early modern period, organised violence, war amongst the people, southeastern borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1 Beginning with the late 1990s, the problem of asymmetric threats and confl icts has been more and more often discussed in publications on political science and security studies. Not only has the term 'asym-metric warfare' itself become extremely popular among researchers
STRZYŻÓW AND CZUDEC: TWO SMALL CRAFTSMEN’S
AND TRADING URBAN CENTRES IN LESSER POLAND AGAINST
THE... more STRZYŻÓW AND CZUDEC: TWO SMALL CRAFTSMEN’S AND TRADING URBAN CENTRES IN LESSER POLAND AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE LOCATION PROCESSES AND SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
The article addresses the complex issues regarding in the growth and development of small Lesser Polish centres engaged in craftsmanship and commercial exchange in late medieval times. I present the “case study” of Strzyżów and Czudec, two old rural settlements in the border zone between the Kingdom of Poland and Halych Rus’ (the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia) which by the 14th – 15th centuries had developed into towns. I examine the factors which determined their transformation into small centres for craftsmanship and commercial exchange in this part of Lesser Poland. I have tried not to overlook the political and socio-economic processes in the late 14th- and early 15th-century Kingdom of Poland, as it expanded politically and its demographic and economic power rose at a rapid rate. On the other hand, I have also made an effort not to lose sight of the local conditions and pay due attention to the role of the Strzeżowski family, hereditary lords of the Strzyżów-Czudec manor estates in the area, in the creation and furtherance of good prospects of socio-economic development for both of these towns. It was displayed by the active support of the location processes, which has resulted in a rapid spatial development of Strzyżów and Czudec in the late medieval period.
An analysis of military operations conducted by Tatar hordes in the 16 th and 17 th centuries rev... more An analysis of military operations conducted by Tatar hordes in the 16 th and 17 th centuries reveals that they were basically shaped by asymmetric warfare. Their characteristic features were the secrecy of actions until the moment of attack, the use of instruments of information warfare and espionage, the total character of military operations directed against the civilians, their material resources and economic infrastructure involving terrorist tactics and psychological methods of in-fl uence aimed at intimidating assaulted communities. The actions of Tatar hordes basically focused on non-military environment with the use of not only classic military tools but also combinations of political and economic means in the form of various economical and demographic pressures. Conducting asymmetric military actions was, for the Giray dynasty, one of the most important tools for the successful achievement of their political goals as well as for supporting the economy of the Crimean Khanate through a stable transfers of slaves and supply of stolen material goods. Key words: asymmetric warfare, Tatar military art of war in early modern period, organized violence , war between people, southeastern borderline of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Słowa kluczowe: działania asymetryczne, tatarska sztuka wojenna w epoce nowożytnej, przemoc zorganizowana, wojna wśród społeczeństw, południowo-wschodnie pogranicze Rzeczypospolitej Począwszy od drugiej połowy lat 90. ubiegłego stulecia, w publikacjach z zakre-su politologii i studiów nad bezpieczeństwem coraz częściej podejmowane są za-gadnienia dotyczące zagrożeń i konfl iktów asymetrycznych, które obecnie należą do głównych problemów studiów strategicznych. Pojęcie " działania asymetryczne " (asymmetric warfare) nie tylko zrobiło niebywałą karierę w środowisku badaczy 1 Badania zostały sfi nansowane ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki, przyznanych w ra-mach fi nansowania stażu po uzyskaniu stopnia naukowego doktora na podstawie decyzji numer DEC-2014/12/S/HS3/00206.
Crisis by plundering. The civilizational and economic development in the border region of the Ott... more Crisis by plundering. The civilizational and economic development in the border region of the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The article addresses the issue of the Tatar military art of war in the early modern period in te... more The article addresses the issue of the Tatar military art of war in the early modern period in term sof its impact on the civilian population of the south-eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commowealth. This problem is presented in three aspects: economic, demographic and cultural. In the discussion regarding the socio-economic impact of the Tatar raids on the south-eastern lands of the Commonwealth, the author attempts to get beyond the reductionist framework approach that only considers an economic side, which has been used to analyze the topic in the past historiography. In this perspective it is important to underline of the determinants, which arise from the former dependence of the Ruthenian duchies from the Golden Horde in the late Middle Ages, hence the constant claims of the Crimean Khans to receive so-called customary gifts from the Polish authotities. Every lack of compliance by the Polish kings was an opportunity for the Girays to send military expeditions into the Polish-Lithuanian territory. During their well planned plundering missions Tatars exploited a specific military methods and strategies by using asymmetric warfare. This kind of warfare revers to such methods and solutions that could be considered as non-standard from the opponent’s perspective, as well as organizing and acting contrary to what the command of enemy forces may expect, in order to counteract the weakness of one’s own potential and, as finally result, to gain advantage over the enemy troops. It is worth noticing that Tatar warfare was characterized by double asymmetry, reffering not only to fundamental disproportions in the military potential, but also to the nature and choice of the primary targets of military operations, i.e. concentrating the operational effort in the civilian space. The cultural scope of Tatar hordes on sedentarny communieties in the south-eastern parts of the Commonwealth had a very wide spectrum. However, a common feature of these agricultural interferences resulting from frequent contact of the nomadic or semi-nomadic invaders with the sedentary peasant communities was the widespread fear of the latter. The fears were rooted in the obvious differences of the Tatars in terms not only of specific warfare but also civilizations, religion and mentality. The fear was a direct result of rapid intercultural interactions due in part to the differences of military approach and practices, such as setting fires in order to communicate with other Tatar detachments, but also exerting psychological pressure to set forth fear and panic among the targeted lands and their inhabitants. That experience of fear and feeling of uncertainty often accompanied that local civilians for a lifetime, and left a mark in their material and non material as well a multi-dimensional impact on the cultural heritage.
Universals or proclamations directed by kings and high central or local officials not only to the... more Universals or proclamations directed by kings and high central or local officials not only to the nobility but also to other social groups of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were a significant element of defensive preparations for the Tatar invasions of the 17th century. The name "uniwersał" (littera universalis) originates from a Latin adjective "universalis" (universal, general). The analysed universals proclaiming the danger or threat of warfare in Red Ruthenia in the 17th century might be divided into the warning and mobilization universals. Warning universals, which were dominant, were to inform the people living in the endangered areas about the threat of the Tatar assaults. Mobilization universals, on the other hand, were to inform the nobility about the place and time of general levy. Universals issued in the 17th by central authorities and by land officials were an important element of the defensive system of the south-eastern borderlands of the Commonwealth. The vital role of the universals was to inform and alert the whole population of enemy attack. It was extremely important due to the fact that on all terror and plunder military missions, which aimed to conquer Red Ruthenia region in the 17th century, the Tatar command resorted to asymmetric warfare. The idea was, for instance, to attack the so called soft targets - the villages and towns without a defensive system - as well as to avoid fighting with Polish forces. Since the universals were issued in the court chancelleries and proclaimed in the squares and city markets as well as in village churches, the ordinary people living in the endangered areas could better prepare for the attack.
Emergence of Local Cults of the Virgin Mary and Patron Saints in Red Ruthenia after Tatar Invasio... more Emergence of Local Cults of the Virgin Mary and Patron Saints in Red Ruthenia after Tatar Invasions as a Religious Discourse in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of Early Modern Period. From the late Middle Ages to the end of the XVIIth Century the collective memory of the population in south-eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was shaped by the traumatic events associated with the Tatar invasions. An important part of that collective memory was religious discourse which was closely interwined with contemporary philosophy of history and the idea of providentionalism. Durability and stability of this discourse in the historical and social perspective was a consequence of the cultural and religious alienation of the Tatars among the sendentary Christian communities and asymmetric warfare strategy used by Tatar Hordes. Religious discourse manifested itself on the one hand in rapidly growing Marian devotion, which resulted from the belief in the care of the Virgin Mary becoming over time more and more common in social consciouness, and on the other hand in the emergence of the cults of patron saints whose intercession was supposed to lead to supernatural interventions in defence of the faithful. In this way, religious discourse fulfilled a very important social role by strengthening psychological adaptation mechanism, which played a key role in the socialization of the communities affected by violence, mass terror and fear.
The present area of the south-eastern Poland (Podkarpackie
Voivodeship) belonged to these parts ... more The present area of the south-eastern Poland (Podkarpackie
Voivodeship) belonged to these parts of the Kingdom of
Poland, and from 1569 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
which for several centuries, from late Middle Ages to the end of
the 17th century, were affected by extremely destructive Tatar
invasions. For several centuries Tatar military expeditions to
the Polish and Lithuanian territories that aimed at robbing and
terrorising local population were an excellent tool used by the
Crimean Khanate, and also periodically by the rulers of the Ottoman
Empire who employed subordinate Nogai tribes, for forcing
the kings of Poland to pass special fees and levies, which
was guaranteed in Polish-Ottoman and Polish-Tatar peace treaties.
These fees, referred to as “gifts”, were a relic of the Mongol
and Tatar supremacy over Ruthenian territories in the times of
the Golden Horde.
A long-term threat of rapacious invasions of the Tatars from
Crimea and Budjak and their catastrophic economic and demographic
effects were not the only consequences of the military
activity of Tatar hordes on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. This multi-dimensional and periodically very
intensive impact of Tatar cavalry raids must have caused the
formation of a specific cultural discourse and collective memory
reproduction processes in communities that were threatened
existentially, exploited economically and drained demographically.
The strength and remarkable durability of the collective
memory of Tatar attacks is primarily a result of such factors as
distance and strangeness of aggressors in terms of civilization,
culture and religion, but the specific character of the activities
carried out by the Tatars was an even more important factor
that generated collective memory of the attacked community.
A characteristic feature of Tatar operations was the application
of asymmetric warfare consisting in concentration of operational
efforts in the civil sphere, which was reflected mostly in
conducting expropriating operations and taking the defenceless
people, mainly from rural areas, into captivity. Collective
memory related to the historical phenomenon of Tatar invasions
has been preserved in legends, songs, sayings, folk proverbs
and beliefs transmitted from generation to generation in
local communities (oral history) and in specific elements of religious
ceremonies. A characteristic feature of these traditional
records, despite their quite considerable diversity in form and
content, was the presence of the idea of providentialism, a belief
in particular care of God over the Commonwealth and the communities
of the faithful that were threatened by the attacks of
hostile forces.
The above-mentioned historiosophical vision was not only
popular among the nobility and bourgeoisie, but also among the
broad group of the peasant population, and slightly later penetrated
into their awareness by means of the parishes of the Catholic
as well as the Orthodox, and later the United Church. The
narrative structures of the legends frequently contain motives
of wonderful divine interventions, often associated with the devotion
to the Virgin Mary and supernatural meteorological phenomena
that saved lives and freedom of people and brought salvation
for cities and villages threatened with destruction. There
are also many legends with moral and educational content,
which refer to the figures of renegades who, during Tatar attacks,
betrayed and shared their knowledge with hostile troops
for various reasons. From the social point of view, an important
role of legends and folk stories related to Tatars was their therapeutic
and compensating role as well as an inscription of Tatar
threats into the existing system of terms and values.
It should be emphasized that collective memory of the Tatar
attacks was strengthened, consolidated and reproduced also due
to the symbolism present in iconography of sacral buildings and
in the local cultural landscape in the form of roadside shrines,
crosses and mounds. The product of synergistic connection of
influences of intangible and tangible memory carriers, which
interconnect by using a dialectically complicated intergenerational
communication network, was a creation of collective
memory, consolidated by means of official historical and religious
discourses that constitute its social frame. Durability as
well as catastrophic economic and demographic effects of Tatar
invasions caused the situation where the contacts between the
peasant population of the Commonwealth and the warriors
from Crimea and Budjak became a border experience and foundational
trauma that affected the formation of identity of local
communities as a confrontation of different values and lifestyles
originating from different civilization and cultural circles. For
this reason the centuries of nomad invasions, which were in fact
a dramatic, intercultural conflict and “the clash of civilizations”,
may be defined – following the concept of Pierre Nora – as one
of the central and symbolic “places of memory” (lieu de mémoire),
having a multi-dimensional impact on the Polish culture.
On January 26, 1699 a peace treaty was signed in Karlowitz (Sremski Karlovci) confirming the prev... more On January 26, 1699 a peace treaty was signed in Karlowitz (Sremski Karlovci) confirming the previous arrangements between the representatives of the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This agreement ended the long Polish-Ottoman military conflict, that had begun in 1672. The treaty returned Podolia and Right-Bank Ukraine back to the Commonwealth while the castles in northern Moldavia which had been occupied by Polish troops (Suceava, Soroka, Neamt), were to return to the control of Sublime Porte. According to third article of the peace treaty, the above-mentioned provisions were to be finally implemented by May 15, 1699 including the evacuation of the Ottoman fortress in Camenice (Kamieniec Podolski). However, in the period of several months after the conclusion of the treaty, due to various unfavorable circumstances and unexpected events, there were serious delays in the implementation of the conditions of the peace agreement. The most important of these events were the unexpected slaving raid of the Nogay Tatars lead by nureddin Gazi Ghiray launched after the signing of peace treaty, the Ottoman authorities' deliberate use of formal deficiencies in the polish documents ratifying the treaty, which were brought to Adrianople in June by the envoy Stanisław Mateusz Rzewuski, and the misinterpretation of the provisions of the treaty by both sides and last but not least the logistical problems in the evacuation of the fortress in Camenice reported by its commander Kahraman Pasha. It took several long months to clarify all these controversial issues, until the last decade of September 1699. The materials presented here, including 48 letters from high-ranking Polish, Ottoman, Crimean Khanate and Moldavian officials, which concern this crucial period from March to September 1699 when Polish-Ottoman diplomatic relations were taking shape anew.
International Congress. Rethinking Ukraine and Europe: New Challenges for Historians, Vilnius, 15-17th September 2023, 2023
In response to the global change in the security environment in the post-Cold War world and the e... more In response to the global change in the security environment in the post-Cold War world and the emergence of an armed conflict model differing from the one that used to prevail, an absorbing global-scope debate on military affairs has been going on in social sciences and humanities for over thirty years now. Its main subject-matter is how and in what ways the war has been transforming in modern warfare-a fundamental issue in Political Science, International Relations (IR), Strategic Studies and Military History, associated with a broader transformation of the present-day security environment into an increasingly grey zone between the state of war and peace. These problems have become, since the early 1990s, the main axis of the new wars debate; somewhat later on, they became considered as part of another essential military discourse, referred to as the hybrid war debate. The main object of these fascinating series of debates that has involved scholars representing research fields and subfields such as History, Sociology, Political Science, IR, Strategic Studies, International Law and Cultural Anthropology, is the fundamental question of whether, and how, present-day wars are different from armed conflicts from the past. A prevailing yet much controversial view whereby
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Papers by Andrzej Gliwa
of the Polish-Lithuanian state from the late 15th to the end of the 17th century. Since military operations conducted by Tatar hordes were asymmetric warfare profile, focusing on civilian communities, mostly in rural areas, they constituted an existential threat to the civilians living there. This stemmed from the impact of such unconventional
military operations, which included catastrophic damages to buildings and economic infrastructure of attacked villages, as well as significant demographic losses, suffered by local populations. Thus, Tatar slave raids have left a permanent mark in the collective memory of victimized communities. The author utilizes a broad base of source materials dating back to 17th and 18th century, including narrative sources, visitation files of Latin Przemyśl diocese, treasury and tax sources, to focus on the transformation process of communicative (generational) memory into cultural memory. The latter began to memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most
often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework
of symbolically objectified and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs.
form around mid-18th century, when the last generation that directly witnessed Tatar pillage raids started dying out. Cultural memory is understood here — after German cultural studies scholar and Egyptologist Jan Assmann — as exteriorized and objectifi ed
memory of the given community about its own traumatic past. It is transmitted through textual sources and oral tradition, often supported by various “places of memory” existing in the local landscape, both material and intangible with great symbolic potential, such as legends, folk tales and songs. It seems that figures of key importance in transforming local communicative memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework of symbolically objectifi ed and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs.
The article presents basic defence strategies, both collective and individual ones, used by civilians during Tatar raids into the south-eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throughout the seventeenth century. The phenomenon of Tatar invasions into aforementioned parts of Poland-Lithuania in the early modern period was for the population of those territories an existential threat. The main reason was the strategy of asymmetric warfare used by Tatar troops. It meant that Tatar commanders avoided military clashes with enemy units while at the same time were giving high priority to attacks against civilian communities, regarded as the human cargo, and to destruction of buildings and economic infrastructure, mainly in rural areas. In response to this lengthy state of threat the people of the south-eastern lands of the Commonwealth developed different defence strategies, both on an individual and collective level, which were to protect their lives, freedom and properties. An analysis based on various sources has demonstrated that people attacked by Tatars used a suprisingly broad array of defence strategies. Interestingly, they included not only the hard military solution against the aggressors (fight), as it was presented until recently in the literature on this subject. Apart from the dominant defence reaction in the form of escape, there were also used more sophisticated "soft" methods to neutralise this type of military threat, such as, for example, negotiations with Tatars, persuasion and various forms of cooperation, mainly tactical one with the enemies. All this show a pragmatic approach of the threatened populations to the problems with their safety and security.
AND TRADING URBAN CENTRES IN LESSER POLAND AGAINST
THE BACKDROP OF THE LOCATION PROCESSES AND SPATIAL
DEVELOPMENT IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
The article addresses the complex issues regarding in the growth and
development of small Lesser Polish centres engaged in craftsmanship
and commercial exchange in late medieval times. I present the “case
study” of Strzyżów and Czudec, two old rural settlements in the border
zone between the Kingdom of Poland and Halych Rus’ (the Principality
of Galicia–Volhynia) which by the 14th – 15th centuries had developed
into towns. I examine the factors which determined their transformation
into small centres for craftsmanship and commercial exchange
in this part of Lesser Poland. I have tried not to overlook the political
and socio-economic processes in the late 14th- and early 15th-century
Kingdom of Poland, as it expanded politically and its demographic and
economic power rose at a rapid rate. On the other hand, I have also made an effort not to lose sight of the local conditions and pay due attention to the role of the Strzeżowski family, hereditary lords of the Strzyżów-Czudec manor estates in the area, in the creation and furtherance of good prospects of socio-economic development for both of these towns. It was displayed by the active support of the location processes, which has resulted in a rapid spatial development of Strzyżów and Czudec in the late medieval period.
Voivodeship) belonged to these parts of the Kingdom of
Poland, and from 1569 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
which for several centuries, from late Middle Ages to the end of
the 17th century, were affected by extremely destructive Tatar
invasions. For several centuries Tatar military expeditions to
the Polish and Lithuanian territories that aimed at robbing and
terrorising local population were an excellent tool used by the
Crimean Khanate, and also periodically by the rulers of the Ottoman
Empire who employed subordinate Nogai tribes, for forcing
the kings of Poland to pass special fees and levies, which
was guaranteed in Polish-Ottoman and Polish-Tatar peace treaties.
These fees, referred to as “gifts”, were a relic of the Mongol
and Tatar supremacy over Ruthenian territories in the times of
the Golden Horde.
A long-term threat of rapacious invasions of the Tatars from
Crimea and Budjak and their catastrophic economic and demographic
effects were not the only consequences of the military
activity of Tatar hordes on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. This multi-dimensional and periodically very
intensive impact of Tatar cavalry raids must have caused the
formation of a specific cultural discourse and collective memory
reproduction processes in communities that were threatened
existentially, exploited economically and drained demographically.
The strength and remarkable durability of the collective
memory of Tatar attacks is primarily a result of such factors as
distance and strangeness of aggressors in terms of civilization,
culture and religion, but the specific character of the activities
carried out by the Tatars was an even more important factor
that generated collective memory of the attacked community.
A characteristic feature of Tatar operations was the application
of asymmetric warfare consisting in concentration of operational
efforts in the civil sphere, which was reflected mostly in
conducting expropriating operations and taking the defenceless
people, mainly from rural areas, into captivity. Collective
memory related to the historical phenomenon of Tatar invasions
has been preserved in legends, songs, sayings, folk proverbs
and beliefs transmitted from generation to generation in
local communities (oral history) and in specific elements of religious
ceremonies. A characteristic feature of these traditional
records, despite their quite considerable diversity in form and
content, was the presence of the idea of providentialism, a belief
in particular care of God over the Commonwealth and the communities
of the faithful that were threatened by the attacks of
hostile forces.
The above-mentioned historiosophical vision was not only
popular among the nobility and bourgeoisie, but also among the
broad group of the peasant population, and slightly later penetrated
into their awareness by means of the parishes of the Catholic
as well as the Orthodox, and later the United Church. The
narrative structures of the legends frequently contain motives
of wonderful divine interventions, often associated with the devotion
to the Virgin Mary and supernatural meteorological phenomena
that saved lives and freedom of people and brought salvation
for cities and villages threatened with destruction. There
are also many legends with moral and educational content,
which refer to the figures of renegades who, during Tatar attacks,
betrayed and shared their knowledge with hostile troops
for various reasons. From the social point of view, an important
role of legends and folk stories related to Tatars was their therapeutic
and compensating role as well as an inscription of Tatar
threats into the existing system of terms and values.
It should be emphasized that collective memory of the Tatar
attacks was strengthened, consolidated and reproduced also due
to the symbolism present in iconography of sacral buildings and
in the local cultural landscape in the form of roadside shrines,
crosses and mounds. The product of synergistic connection of
influences of intangible and tangible memory carriers, which
interconnect by using a dialectically complicated intergenerational
communication network, was a creation of collective
memory, consolidated by means of official historical and religious
discourses that constitute its social frame. Durability as
well as catastrophic economic and demographic effects of Tatar
invasions caused the situation where the contacts between the
peasant population of the Commonwealth and the warriors
from Crimea and Budjak became a border experience and foundational
trauma that affected the formation of identity of local
communities as a confrontation of different values and lifestyles
originating from different civilization and cultural circles. For
this reason the centuries of nomad invasions, which were in fact
a dramatic, intercultural conflict and “the clash of civilizations”,
may be defined – following the concept of Pierre Nora – as one
of the central and symbolic “places of memory” (lieu de mémoire),
having a multi-dimensional impact on the Polish culture.
Books by Andrzej Gliwa
of the Polish-Lithuanian state from the late 15th to the end of the 17th century. Since military operations conducted by Tatar hordes were asymmetric warfare profile, focusing on civilian communities, mostly in rural areas, they constituted an existential threat to the civilians living there. This stemmed from the impact of such unconventional
military operations, which included catastrophic damages to buildings and economic infrastructure of attacked villages, as well as significant demographic losses, suffered by local populations. Thus, Tatar slave raids have left a permanent mark in the collective memory of victimized communities. The author utilizes a broad base of source materials dating back to 17th and 18th century, including narrative sources, visitation files of Latin Przemyśl diocese, treasury and tax sources, to focus on the transformation process of communicative (generational) memory into cultural memory. The latter began to memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most
often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework
of symbolically objectified and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs.
form around mid-18th century, when the last generation that directly witnessed Tatar pillage raids started dying out. Cultural memory is understood here — after German cultural studies scholar and Egyptologist Jan Assmann — as exteriorized and objectifi ed
memory of the given community about its own traumatic past. It is transmitted through textual sources and oral tradition, often supported by various “places of memory” existing in the local landscape, both material and intangible with great symbolic potential, such as legends, folk tales and songs. It seems that figures of key importance in transforming local communicative memories into cultural memory were the representatives of local intellectual elites, most often Catholic priests. Their activities, referring to the sacrum-profanum dichotomy and the providentialism idea, popular in the 17th–18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, indicate a socially conditioned process of forming a cultural memory within the framework of symbolically objectifi ed and highly structured narrative, relating directly to Christian religion, which on one hand transcended individual experience of the members of local community, and on the other, responded to current social and cultural needs.
The article presents basic defence strategies, both collective and individual ones, used by civilians during Tatar raids into the south-eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throughout the seventeenth century. The phenomenon of Tatar invasions into aforementioned parts of Poland-Lithuania in the early modern period was for the population of those territories an existential threat. The main reason was the strategy of asymmetric warfare used by Tatar troops. It meant that Tatar commanders avoided military clashes with enemy units while at the same time were giving high priority to attacks against civilian communities, regarded as the human cargo, and to destruction of buildings and economic infrastructure, mainly in rural areas. In response to this lengthy state of threat the people of the south-eastern lands of the Commonwealth developed different defence strategies, both on an individual and collective level, which were to protect their lives, freedom and properties. An analysis based on various sources has demonstrated that people attacked by Tatars used a suprisingly broad array of defence strategies. Interestingly, they included not only the hard military solution against the aggressors (fight), as it was presented until recently in the literature on this subject. Apart from the dominant defence reaction in the form of escape, there were also used more sophisticated "soft" methods to neutralise this type of military threat, such as, for example, negotiations with Tatars, persuasion and various forms of cooperation, mainly tactical one with the enemies. All this show a pragmatic approach of the threatened populations to the problems with their safety and security.
AND TRADING URBAN CENTRES IN LESSER POLAND AGAINST
THE BACKDROP OF THE LOCATION PROCESSES AND SPATIAL
DEVELOPMENT IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
The article addresses the complex issues regarding in the growth and
development of small Lesser Polish centres engaged in craftsmanship
and commercial exchange in late medieval times. I present the “case
study” of Strzyżów and Czudec, two old rural settlements in the border
zone between the Kingdom of Poland and Halych Rus’ (the Principality
of Galicia–Volhynia) which by the 14th – 15th centuries had developed
into towns. I examine the factors which determined their transformation
into small centres for craftsmanship and commercial exchange
in this part of Lesser Poland. I have tried not to overlook the political
and socio-economic processes in the late 14th- and early 15th-century
Kingdom of Poland, as it expanded politically and its demographic and
economic power rose at a rapid rate. On the other hand, I have also made an effort not to lose sight of the local conditions and pay due attention to the role of the Strzeżowski family, hereditary lords of the Strzyżów-Czudec manor estates in the area, in the creation and furtherance of good prospects of socio-economic development for both of these towns. It was displayed by the active support of the location processes, which has resulted in a rapid spatial development of Strzyżów and Czudec in the late medieval period.
Voivodeship) belonged to these parts of the Kingdom of
Poland, and from 1569 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
which for several centuries, from late Middle Ages to the end of
the 17th century, were affected by extremely destructive Tatar
invasions. For several centuries Tatar military expeditions to
the Polish and Lithuanian territories that aimed at robbing and
terrorising local population were an excellent tool used by the
Crimean Khanate, and also periodically by the rulers of the Ottoman
Empire who employed subordinate Nogai tribes, for forcing
the kings of Poland to pass special fees and levies, which
was guaranteed in Polish-Ottoman and Polish-Tatar peace treaties.
These fees, referred to as “gifts”, were a relic of the Mongol
and Tatar supremacy over Ruthenian territories in the times of
the Golden Horde.
A long-term threat of rapacious invasions of the Tatars from
Crimea and Budjak and their catastrophic economic and demographic
effects were not the only consequences of the military
activity of Tatar hordes on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. This multi-dimensional and periodically very
intensive impact of Tatar cavalry raids must have caused the
formation of a specific cultural discourse and collective memory
reproduction processes in communities that were threatened
existentially, exploited economically and drained demographically.
The strength and remarkable durability of the collective
memory of Tatar attacks is primarily a result of such factors as
distance and strangeness of aggressors in terms of civilization,
culture and religion, but the specific character of the activities
carried out by the Tatars was an even more important factor
that generated collective memory of the attacked community.
A characteristic feature of Tatar operations was the application
of asymmetric warfare consisting in concentration of operational
efforts in the civil sphere, which was reflected mostly in
conducting expropriating operations and taking the defenceless
people, mainly from rural areas, into captivity. Collective
memory related to the historical phenomenon of Tatar invasions
has been preserved in legends, songs, sayings, folk proverbs
and beliefs transmitted from generation to generation in
local communities (oral history) and in specific elements of religious
ceremonies. A characteristic feature of these traditional
records, despite their quite considerable diversity in form and
content, was the presence of the idea of providentialism, a belief
in particular care of God over the Commonwealth and the communities
of the faithful that were threatened by the attacks of
hostile forces.
The above-mentioned historiosophical vision was not only
popular among the nobility and bourgeoisie, but also among the
broad group of the peasant population, and slightly later penetrated
into their awareness by means of the parishes of the Catholic
as well as the Orthodox, and later the United Church. The
narrative structures of the legends frequently contain motives
of wonderful divine interventions, often associated with the devotion
to the Virgin Mary and supernatural meteorological phenomena
that saved lives and freedom of people and brought salvation
for cities and villages threatened with destruction. There
are also many legends with moral and educational content,
which refer to the figures of renegades who, during Tatar attacks,
betrayed and shared their knowledge with hostile troops
for various reasons. From the social point of view, an important
role of legends and folk stories related to Tatars was their therapeutic
and compensating role as well as an inscription of Tatar
threats into the existing system of terms and values.
It should be emphasized that collective memory of the Tatar
attacks was strengthened, consolidated and reproduced also due
to the symbolism present in iconography of sacral buildings and
in the local cultural landscape in the form of roadside shrines,
crosses and mounds. The product of synergistic connection of
influences of intangible and tangible memory carriers, which
interconnect by using a dialectically complicated intergenerational
communication network, was a creation of collective
memory, consolidated by means of official historical and religious
discourses that constitute its social frame. Durability as
well as catastrophic economic and demographic effects of Tatar
invasions caused the situation where the contacts between the
peasant population of the Commonwealth and the warriors
from Crimea and Budjak became a border experience and foundational
trauma that affected the formation of identity of local
communities as a confrontation of different values and lifestyles
originating from different civilization and cultural circles. For
this reason the centuries of nomad invasions, which were in fact
a dramatic, intercultural conflict and “the clash of civilizations”,
may be defined – following the concept of Pierre Nora – as one
of the central and symbolic “places of memory” (lieu de mémoire),
having a multi-dimensional impact on the Polish culture.