Zeitliche Tiefe und Begegnungsgeschichten: die imperial-kolonialen Werkzeuge des polnischen historischen Wissens über den Osten

ENThis paper argues that the Polish state’s centuries-long contacts with the East are to be understood as an important instrument for the legitimization of a Polish imperialcolonial self-image in the epoch of European high imperialism. In the period between 1880 and 1914, the Polish-language commercial weekly press analyzed in this paper produced a sizeable body of historical knowledge on the East. Two focal points can be identified: the origins of Lithuanian, Ukrainian and, to a lesser extent, Ottoman history, as well as the manifold Polish-Lithuanian, -Ukrainian and -Ottoman historical relations. These two bodies of knowledge have contributed to the construction of the East as an inferior other vis-á-vis Poland, as well as a feature of Polish claims to be an imperial-colonial power.