The History of Scandinavia in the Polish Historiography, Remarks and Reflections

Abstract

The article outlines the achievements of the Polish historiography concerning the Nordic region, from the inter-war period to the present times. The problems dealt with are included in the two main trends of the Polish historical research concerning Scandinavian questions: the topics of Polish-Nordic relations of any kind, and the topics of the history of Scandinavia itself and of the Nordic region. The third trend, much weaker than the two others, comprises the comparative studies concerning the social history, the history of states and cultures. Still another trend, the edition of sources to the history of the Nordic region, is hardly to be found in Polish historiography.The article is also areview of the main centres of Scandinavian studies in Poland, both individual scholars, single historians functioning at departments of history at universi-ties, and institutional centres of Polish Scandinavian Studies, especially the ones which carry out research into the whole region in an interdisciplinary approach: into languages, literature, culture, politics, economy and history. Some emphasis has been put on the weaknesses of the Polish research concerning the Nordic region, especially the ones re-sulting from the inability to use original archival materials and sources.