Introduction to the Original Edition

Abstract

his atlas is part of the multivolume History of East Central Europe published by the University of Washington Press, and for that reason it follows the basic guidelines of that series. The first of those guidelines concerns the geographical extent of what is called here East Central Europe. The series editors have defined East Central Europe as the lands between the linguistic frontier of the Germanand Italian-speaking peoples on the west and the political boundaries of the former Soviet Union on the east. The north-south parameters are the Baltic and Mediterranean seas. Whereas the geographic parameters have not changed, the political structure of the area defined by the series as East Central Europe has been altered substantially since work on the atlas began in 1987. At present, this area comprises the countries of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegov ina, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece. However, this atlas, like some of the other volumes in the series, has expanded the geographic scope to include, toward the west, the eastern part of Germany (historic Mecklenbur g, Brandenburg, Prussia, Saxony, and Lusatia), Bavaria, Austria, and northeastern Italy (historic Venetia), and toward the east, the lands of historic Poland-Lithuania (present-day Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine up to the Dnieper River), Moldova, and western Anatolia in Turkey. In strict geographic terms, this “expanded” version of East Central Europe encompasses roughly territory between 10°E and 30°E longitude. Since Europe is traditionally considered to lie within the longitudinal boundaries of 10°W (the western coasts of Ireland and Portugal) and 60°E (Ural Mountains), the territory covered in this atlas (10°E–30°E) is literally the central third of the European continent. Thus, while it would be more precise to call this territory Central Europe, the political divisions for most of the twentieth century have encouraged the popular rise of the term Eastern Europe, or the slightly more correct East Central Europe. The second of the series guidelines, concerning chronology, is easier to define. Coverage in this atlas, as well as the series in general, is roughly from about 400 c. e. (common era) to the present. The contents of the Historical Atlas of East Central Europe reflect both the geographical and chronological guidelines discussed above and the practical restraints imposed by the enormous cost of producing full-color maps. With those factors in mind, I was allowed to conceptualize the historical development of East Central Europe as one consisting of fifty problems or aspects. Those fifty problems developed into chapters, each having one full-page map or two half-page maps, as well as in some cases inset maps and/or facing-page maps. Each chapter also includes an explanatory text related primarily if not exclusively to the map(s) in the given chapter. The result is a total of eighty-nine maps: thirty-five full-page, twenty-eight half-page, nine inset, and seventeen facing-page maps. The order of maps is basically chronological. One goal is to show in a systematic fashion the political and administrative changes that have occurred in East Central Europe since 400 c. e. Hence there are several full-page maps showing the changing boundaries at certain key historical dates (Maps 5, 6, 10, 14, 18, 21, 24, 36, 38, 49, 56, 61) interspersed with half-or full-page maps that focus on similar changes within individual countries or specific areas (Maps 7, 8, 9, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 39–48). There are, of course, aspects other than political-administrative ones that warrant attention. These are addressed by thematic maps that deal with issues such as the economy (Maps 11, 12, 28, 57); ecclesiastical structures (Maps 13, 15, 16, 34, 35, 59, 60); education and culture (Maps 4a, 17, 31, 58); demography and ethnicity (Maps 20d, 27a, 29a, 29b, 30, 32, 33, 53, 54, 55); and military affairs (Maps 6a, 23, 37, 50, 51). In virtually every serious study of the countries that encompass East Central Europe there is an explanatory disclaimer regarding place names. More often than not, each town, city, and region has had more than one name in the course of its history. The variations may simply be a function of language or they may reflect a decision by ruling powers to have an entirely new name. An example of the first category is Warszawa (Polish), Warschau (German), Varshava (Russian), and Warsaw (English); an example of the second category is the city called Königsberg until 1945 and Ka liningrad since then. The problem is to avoid confusion by choosing a form that will respond to historical criteria as well as to the need for consistency. It should be stressed that the choice about names used in this atlas in no way reflects any sympathy for a particular political or national orientation, even though I am well aware that the decision to use a particular form might be viewed by certain readers as reflecting some kind of bias. It should also be stressed that early in the preparatory stages of this atlas I became painfully aware that it was impossible to make a choice about names that would fulfill both historical criteria and consistency. Given this unenviable choice, I chose consistency. This means that the main entry for the name of a town or city is the same on every map in this atlas, regardless of the historical period covered. As for the question of which form to use consistently, the criterion of present-day political boundaries is the determining factor. Thus the official language used within the boundaries of a present-day East Central European country is what determines the main entry of a town or city: Polish names within Poland, Slovak names within Slovakia, Romanian names within Romania, and so forth. This, moreover, is the principle adopted by the standard reference work, Webster’s New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, Mass., 1980), which serves as the guide for place names used in this atlas. T