Inflanty polskie: zapomniana historia

• Lenkiški Infliantai: užmiršta istorija
• "Polish Inflanty": the forgotten history

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Istoriniai saitai; Kultūriniai saitai; Lenkija (Lenkijos karalystė. Kingdom of Poland. Poland); Livonija (Livonia); Livonija, Latgalija, Lietuvos Didžioji kunigaikštystė, Lenkija, istoriografija; Cultural links; Historical links; Livonia; Livonia, Latgalia, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland, historiography.

ENThe Polish Inflanty is a historical region of North-Central Europe which has not found its place in the Polish historiographic discourse; the region has been cast out of the framework, which is usually referred to as history of the Polish culture. For more than three centuries, from the incorporation of the entire Livonia in the Republic of Poland to the beginning of the 20th century, a curious local community was developing in the Baltic region, which identified itself with the Polish tradition and at the same time emphasised its distinction from both the Crown Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The part of Livonia, called Latgale (in Latvian) or Polish Inflanty (Inflanty Polskie - in Polish), gained more of the Polish spirit especially after the partitions of Poland, when national identity had become a way of defence against Russification and annihilation. In this work, Polish Inflanty is presented from two points of view; firstly, as an absent region, which has been politically inconvenient to all participants of the Baltic cultural mix and therefore pushed off towards non-existence, and secondly as a region attempting to be noticed, making it claims for existence and emphasising its own historical and cultural distinctness. This feeble and imperfect representation of the local culture has survived and is curiously reflected in the special status of modern Latgale, a province of Latvia, the geographical area of which is almost identical with the historical territory of Polish Inflanty. [From the publication]