About the Lecture: The extension of the Alps of Western and Central Europe, the Carpathian Mountains are the Central and East European part of what has been termed the mountainous spine of Europe. Since the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the vast mountain system had cut an arc through the Habsburg Monarchy until the latter too ceased to exist. In the interwar period of the twentieth century, much of the Carpathians became the sole defensible border of the newly established Second Polish Republic. Cognizant of its strategic importance, highly-placed Poles in the interwar government sought to shore up a border region inhabited mainly by disparate groups of indigenous highlanders, many of whom did not identify as Polish. This talk will examine the relationship between living conditions and nationality politics in the Hutsul region of the Eastern Carpathians. The peripheral, primeval, yet precarious lifeworld of the indigenous Hutsuls, together with select elements of their recent history, helped to shape official Polish responses to these fascinating highlanders, claimed by both Poles and Ukrainians. The fostering of tourism in the mountain region was designed not only to increase Hutsul material well-being but also to win over the nationally indifferent highland population to Polish statehood, essentially making Hutsuls loyal citizens of interwar Poland. Convinced that Hutsuls were merely highland Ukrainians, Poland’s Ukrainians were less sanguine about this initiative, which the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 rendered moot.
About the Speaker: Patrice M. Dabrowski is currently an Associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA), and editor of H-Poland. She is the author of three books: The Carpathians: Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine (2021), Poland: The First Thousand Years (2014; paperback edition, 2016; audiobook, 2022), and Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland (2004). In 2014 she was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. Dabrowski was the 2021 recipient of the Mary Zirin Prize, awarded annually by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies to an independent scholar. In 2022 her Carpathians book won two Polish awards: honorable mention for Pro Historia Polonorum, an award for the best Polish history book written by a non-Polish historian in the last five years (2017-2021) as well as honorable mention in the category “best foreign publication promoting Poland’s history” sponsored by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
This lecture is part of the CREECA lecture series. Following the lecture at 5:15, everyone is welcome to stay for a small reception, hosted by the Polish Heritage Club – Madison. Both the 4:00 pm lecture and the reception will be held in the AT&T Lounge of the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street.