Russia and Poland Throughout History

Today, we cover the long, and difficult relationship between Poland and Russia. If you'd like to support the podcast with a small monthly donation, click this link - https://www.buzzsprout.com/385372/support

Transcript

Episode 261 – Russia and Poland Throughout History

Last time, we covered the thirteen lovers of Catherine the Great. Today, we cover a topic that significantly influenced the history of two countries, Poland and Russia. 

This is a topic I've been interested in exploring since I finished up the ruler's side of the podcast, as Poland and Russia's histories are intricately intertwined in a very unique way. Of course, the natural connection is via their shared borders, borders that have ebbed and flowed back and forth for centuries.

I’ve gone beyond my existing library of Russian history to purchase a few books on the history of Poland. They include History of Poland: A Captivating Guide to Polish History by Captivating History and Poland: A History by Adam Zamoysky. Of course, I will also rely on my extensive library of Russian history, but I wanted to guard against a purely Russian viewpoint of the relationship between the two countries. On the Russian side, I’m leaning on The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture by James H. Billington, Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine by Anna Reid, and The Slavs in European History and Civilization by Francis Dvornik.

To be honest, the history of Poland and Russia can be summed up by one word, conflict. The two countries, in whatever iteration they existed at the time, seemed to be at each other’s throats. Whether it be the time of Kyivian Rus, Muscovy, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, or even today in modern Russia, there was either an ongoing conflict or some tension between the two nations.

There was one significant cause of much of this tension, pre-Soviet times, and that was the struggle between the Catholic and Orthodox Church. The Roman Catholics, led by the Pope, viewed Russia as a fertile ground for expansion. The Orthodox Church, for their part, viewed that as a threat to their claim as the third seat of Christianity after the fall of Rome and Constantinople.

Poland focused on their relationship with Rome for many of the same reasons as Moscow did with Constantinople. Aside from religious differences, which led to the schism of 1054, trade was one of the main motives. This was more of a factor for Russia than for Poland as Constantinople, for many of the earlier centuries of those two nations' existence, was the dominant financial center of Europe. 

These relationships would bring them into conflict, oftentimes to a significant detriment to both parties. The first known dispute happened between Kievan Rus and Bolesław I, the first King of Poland. Boleslaw’s daughter was married to the Grand Prince of Kyiv, Sviatopolk. When Sviatopolk was ousted as Veliki Kniaz of Kyiv in 1019, Boleslaw intervened. Unfortunately, he never successfully returned Sviatopolk to the throne of Kyiv. Still, he did take a large area of Kyivian territory, namely the region between the Bug and San rivers to the east of Poland. 

After Boleslaw died in 1025, his two sons, Miezko and Bezprym, vied for the throne of Poland. With the conflict between the two raged, Yaroslav I of Kyiv decided to regain the lands Boleslaw took. Under Yaroslav, the Kyivian Rus gained power, so much so that Miezko II's son, Casmir I, also known as Casmir the Restorer, married one of Yaroslav's sisters, Maria Dobroniega. Casmir’s alliance with the Rus, along with aid provided by Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, gave the Polish ruler the strength to gain back lands lost to Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia. 

The Poles would intervene in the internecine fighting between three sons of Yaroslav I on behalf of Iziaslav as he was married to Casmir’s sister Gertrude. They would help Iziaslav twice, once in 1069 and again in 1076. Iziaslav became the first King of Rus in 1075 when the Pope sent him a crown. He retook Kyiv again in 1076 but soon died in an internecine war against Princes Oleg Sviatoslavich and Boris Vyacheslavich. His son Yaropolk would ascend to the Rus throne in 1078 with his father's death. 

There would be little conflict between Poland and the land of the Rus for quite some time. When the Mongols, led by Batu Khan, raced through Russia, Hungary, and Poland in 1241, they retreated from Poland and Hungary upon hearing of the death of Khan Ugedey. While they would continue to hold on to the Russian territories, they would only harass the Poles for the next three centuries.

What would happen in Poland is that they would solidify their Catholic roots, having almost no interactions with the Russian Orthodox Church. While the Russians were dealing with their Mongol overlords, the Poles dealt with German encroachment onto their territories. The Mongol threat was actually good for the Poles as it brought together the many independent duchies into a single kingdom. 

Poland's people were also spared several catastrophic events that hit Europe in the 14th century. First, there was a minor ice age. It started in 1274, but in 1300, warm summers stopped being dependable in Northern Europe, and in 1315 when rains and the Great Famine of 1315–1317 occurred. Poland was actually quite warm during this period, so much so that it became a kind of breadbasket for the rest of Europe.

The Black Plague of 1346 to 1353 was the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. The Poles suffered far less from the plague than their neighbors to the west. During this period, people began to blame the Jews for the plague, forcing them to leave their homes or be killed. Poland welcomed the Jewish immigrants with open arms, which is one of the reasons why Poland had such a large Jewish population before World War II.

Thirdly, the Hundred Years' War ravaged western Europe between 1357 and 1453. This devastated a large swath of rich agricultural land. Financially, western Europe was devastated by the war while Poland flourished.

During that time, Kyiv had been devastated by both internal warfare between the many Princes of the land of the Rus and the invasion of the Mongols. With the Tatars weakening over the years due to fighting between the khanates, the Poles began to fill in the void in what is now Ukraine. However, there was another powerhouse that was growing in the area, and that was Lithuania. 

With enemies to the west and the Russians beginning to emerge from the Mongol yoke, the Lithuanians, whose population quadrupled in the 14th century, along with the Poles, needed allies, so they decided to join together in 1370. Their combination would be memorialized by the Union of Lublin in 1569.

With the power of the Mongols dwindling over Muscovy, Ivan III set his eyes on Novgorod. Novgorod had always been kind of a renegade region, but Ivan was having none of that. Ivan was furious when he heard that they had asked the Lithuanians, and by nature the Poles as well, for protection from Muscovy. Ivan took the field against Novgorod in 1470, and after his generals had twice defeated the forces of the republic – at the Battle of Shelon River and on the Northern Dvina, both in the summer of 1471 – the Novgorodians were forced to sue for peace, agreeing to abandon their overtures to Lithuania and to cede a considerable portion of their northern territories, while paying a war indemnity of 15,500 rubles. 

Despite their defeat, the Novgorodians once again called on the Lithuanian-Polish union to protect them. In 1477, Ivan, having been fed up with his northern neighbors, attacked Novgorod. Under Casimir IV, King of Poland and Grand Prince of Lithuania, the Lithuanians and Poles abandoned Novgorod, leaving them alone and in dire straits. They ultimately recognized Ivan's direct rule over the city and surrounding lands in a document signed and sealed by Archbishop Feofil of Novgorod on January 15, 1478. Ivan's destroyed the Novgorod assembly and dispossessed Novgorod of more than four-fifths of its land, keeping half for himself and giving the other half to his allies.

Other lands that had been allied in one way or another with either the Poles or the Lithuanians would be brought under the umbrella of Muscovy. The rival republic of Pskov owed the continuance of its own political existence to the readiness with which it assisted Ivan against its ancient enemy. The other principalities were eventually absorbed by conquest, purchase, or marriage contract: The Principality of Yaroslavl in 1463, Rostov in 1474, Tver in 1485, and Vyatka in 1489.

After Ivan III died in 1505, his son Vasili III continued his expansionist ways. He would take advantage of the difficult position of Sigismund of Poland to capture Smolensk, the great eastern fortress of Lithuania, in 1514. This was accomplished chiefly through the aid of the rebel Lithuanian Prince Mikhail Glinski, who provided him with artillery and engineers.

When Vasili died in 1533, his three-year-old son Ivan IV was his successor. When he came of age, he would set his eyes on more territory precipitating the Livonian Wars. This conflict, which raged on between 1558 and 1583, was due to the Russian invasion of Old Livonia. This caused a prolonged series of military conflicts in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible unsuccessfully fought for control of the region of present-day Estonia and Latvia. The Tsardom of Russia faced a varying coalition of the Dano-Norwegian Realm, the Kingdom of Sweden, and the Union, later Commonwealth of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland.

When in 1576, Stephen Báthory became King of Poland as well as Grand Duke of Lithuania, his bold leadership turned the tide of the war with his successes between 1578 and 1581. This included the joint Swedish–Polish–Lithuanian offensive at the Battle of Wenden. That was followed by an extended campaign through Russia, culminating in the long and difficult Siege of Pskov. Finally, under the 1582 Truce of Jam Zapolski, which ended the war between Russia and Poland–Lithuania, Russia lost all of its former holdings in Livonia and Polotsk to Poland–Lithuania.

Moving forward in time, after the death of Boris Godunov in 1605, Russia was plunged into the Time of Troubles. This period was one where Poland would intervene in Russian affairs, almost toppling the country and changing the course of history. The Poles would support the claim to the throne of Russia of the first False Dmitri. 

When this False Dmitri presented himself to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, they saw an opportunity to not only extinguish the threat from the east but as a chance to convert the people of Russia from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. According to historian Chester Dunning, "King Sigismund, Polish Catholic leaders, and the Jesuits soon took great interest in reports that Dmitri was considering conversion to Catholicism. They dreamed, among other things, of converting all of Russia and then using the Russians against Sweden."

Dmitri would take control of Moscow in July 1605 following the death of Tsar Boris Godunov. But, unfortunately, he wouldn't last very long. The False Dmitry I quickly became unpopular since many in Russia saw him as a tool of the Poles. On May 17, 1606, Dmitry was killed by armed mobs during an uprising in Moscow after he was ousted from the Kremlin. Many of his Polish advisors were also killed or imprisoned during the rebellion.

As we know, this was not the only False Dmitri the Russians would encounter. On October 29, 1607, the second false Dmitri was joined by a group of Polish lords, with 1800 mercenaries, followed by another group of Polish lords and mercenaries in November. This Dmitri would set up camp in Tushino, a town just north of Moscow at the time. In September 1609, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland invaded Russia and began the Siege of Smolensk, which lasted from 1609-1611. Finally, in late December 1609, the false Dmitrii fled for Kaluga. Dunning states, "The 'tsar's' departure caused the entire Tushino camp to break up in disarray." 

The threat from Poland still existed even without a False Dmitri. On February 4, 1610, a group of Russian lords formally in the Tushino court signed a treaty with Sigismund III, hoping to end the civil war and restore order. However, the Polish army under Sigismund would continue attacking Russian territory. Sigismund believed that he had a good chance of taking control of Russia, going so far as to arrest other potential claimants to the throne. This stirred up anti-Catholic and anti-Polish sentiment throughout Russia, infuriating the pro-Polish boyars.

Popular discontent had increased by early 1611, and many sought to end the Polish occupation. Polish and German mercenaries suppressed riots in Moscow from March 19-21, 1611, massacring 7,000 people and setting the city on fire. By January 1612, the Russians began to turn the tide against the Polish invaders, taking city after city until they reached Moscow on September 1st. The Battle of Moscow began. The Russians were able to oust the last of the Polish soldiers by October 27th. 

The Khmelnytsky Uprising, also known as the Cossack–Polish War, was another conflict that bound Russia to Poland. This revolt against Polish authority began in 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which led to the creation of a Cossack Hetmanate in Ukraine. This is also a period known as the Deluge in Poland, which was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. As a result, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth would lose 1/3rd of its population during this period. 

One of the conflicts was the Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667, also called the Thirteen Years' War and the First Northern War, which was a significant conflict between the Tsardom of Russia led by Tsar Alexis and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. While winning a number of battles early on, the economy of Poland was so devastated by the war that they could no longer hold out. This war was an awful outcome for the Polish nation. While Poland had regained some of its lost territories, in the long term, it significantly weakened and left Poland increasingly vulnerable to Russian incursions. The country found itself unable to prevent the future Partitions of Poland, in which Russia took a significant part.

The next time that Russia and Poland would get into the mix together was not as enemies but as allies. This conflict was known as The Great Northern War, and it would pit the two countries against a common foe, Sweden, under King Charles XII. 

After a violent election, Augustus the Strong had won the Polish crown by military force. This made him vulnerable as he had as many enemies as he did allies. The Swedes saw Augustus as a rival and wanted him off the throne. Charles XII wanted a strong and independent Poland as a bulwark against his other enemies, including Russia. When Poland's barons could not oust Augustus, Sweden decided to invade. 

The Swedish invasion of Poland and its subsequent five years of war allowed the Russians to rearm themselves, improve their military prowess, and prepare to fight Charles and the Swedes again after losing their earlier confrontations. The invasion began in 1701 and lasted until 1706. The decisive Swedish victory allowed Charles XII to concentrate on chasing the Russians out of eastern Poland. He invaded Saxony and enforced the peace of Altranstädt on September 14, 1706, in which Augustus renounced his claims to the Polish throne. The following year Charles began his invasion of Russia.

The War of the Polish Succession, which raged on between 1733–1735, was a battle over who would take the Polish throne after the death of Augustus II. Would it be Stanislaus I, who was backed by France, Spain, and two other allies, or Augustus III, who had the support of Russia, the Hapsburgs, Prussia, and the Holy Roman Empire? In the end, under Empress Anna, the Russian side prevailed.

The war proved disastrous for Polish independence and reaffirmed that the affairs of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including the election of the King himself, would be controlled by the other great powers of Europe. After August III, there would only be one more king of Poland, Stanislas II August, himself a puppet of the Russians, and ultimately Poland would be divided up by its neighbors and cease to exist as a sovereign state by the end of the 18th century.

In 1764, Catherine placed Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, her former lover, on the Polish throne. This would begin the three Partitions of Poland, which started in 1772 and would end in 1795, all overseen by Catherine the Great. The two other nations that participated in the partition were Prussia and Austria. As a result, Poland would lose two-thirds of its population, with many intellectuals and wealthy citizens fleeing the country. This would be called the Fourth Partition by Polish historians. 

Because of the partitions, Poland fought alongside Napoleon when he invaded eastern Europe and Russia. As a result, the Russian-dominated Congress Kingdom of Poland was created, and a period of Russification of many of the institutions of Poland began after the Treaty of the Congress of Vienna was signed in 1815. Poland would not be independent for over a hundred years, gaining that status after World War I. However, it would only last for 20 years. 

In 1939, after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Russia acquired 51.6% of the former Polish territory. This partition of Poland was especially devastating as around 6 million Polish citizens—nearly 21.4% of Poland's population—died between 1939 and 1945 due to the occupation. Half of the people were ethnic Poles, while the other half were Jewish. 

The extermination of 3 million Jews by the Germans was one of the great tragedies of human history. While the Germans participated in most of the killing done during this split occupation, the Russians were pretty brutal themselves. They arrested and imprisoned about 500,000 Poles during 1939–1941, including former officials, officers, and natural "enemies of the people" like the clergy, but also noblemen and intellectuals. The Soviets also executed about 65,000 Poles. 

One of the most notorious events was the massacre in the Katyn Forest in 1943. The NKVD systematically executed 21,768 Poles, including 14,471 former Polish officers, political leaders, government officials, and intellectuals. Naturally, they would blame this on the Nazis, hoping to cover up the atrocity. In 1940 and the first half of 1941, the Soviets deported more than 1,200,000 Poles, most in four mass deportations. 

After 1945, the Soviet Union gained control of all of Poland. Potsdam Conference in July–August 1945, the three major Allies ratified the colossal westerly shift of the Polish frontier and approved its new territory between the Oder–Neisse line and Curzon Line, which resulted in the Polish borders shrinking. 

It would take until 1989 for the Polish nation to free itself of Soviet hegemony, and until 1991, with the collapse of the USSR, to thoroughly shake the shackles off. Today, Poland's relationship with Russia is tenuous again as it is a member of NATO, which causes a great deal of consternation in Moscow. Poland is now a liberal-based democracy. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Join me next time when we begin a two-part series on the operations of the Soviet secret police, the KGB, in Europe and the United States. 

So, until next time, Dasvidania eh Spasiba za Vineyamineya.