Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-21
POLAND RE-ENACTS
f.,f-
PAST TRAGEDY ROLE
+sn4n
Hating of Reds Recalls Bull
7,ts
wark Against Turks March.
Across Europe.
BY Webster

Toiand. whose history is tragedy
ana whose people have been caleb
enildren Of the sun" plays no nepa
roie when she seeks to stop the on!
siaushts or the bolsheviki. for il was.
sue VINO once stayed the march, of
~. YIN across Europe. iiuist
cati nus .act Is recalled in communal
cation TO the National Geographic 01r
eie,y winch sums up Poland's sah
ana eventful history as follows: nv
IN SIZE she outranked nearly ewerE
hation OF the continent. Russia alomrs
OF the European nations is larger
tnan Poland was at her greatest5fa
population she stood at the forefrhNt
OF Europe; only Russia and GermAnT
had greater populations before ths
war than are to he found in the lands
mat once were Poland: for unparti
TONED Poland had an area of 2S2 (f,o
square miles, and the lands thatIonce
lay within her boundaries support "a
900 "''0''v.r,
OF Immense Area ,1tsI
IN area she was as large as tbs
former German empire. Switzerland,
Belgium. Holland and Denmark toI
gether. larger than Great Britain
Italy and Greece combined: larger
than Austria Hungary and Seryia in.
one. Within what were her bounda rfes
there dwells a present popula tfor,
larger than the combined populations
of Great Britain and Belgium: larger
than those of France, Belgium ana
Holland. together, and matching that,
of the old Austria Hungary. ol,u,
POLAND was three times partitioned,
and these partitionings were read
justed between the petitioners by the
congress of Vienna in 1915. Where the.
original partitions had given Russia,
$4,000 square miles, Prussia $4,000
square miles, and Austria 45,0QA
square miles, the reapportionmentf.of
the Vienna congress gave Russia 2a0s-r
500, Prussia $500 and Austria $1,000,
square miles. Much of the land which
Russia secured, and particularly
Kiev, had been identified with Russia
generations before. 80,
POLAND. in the days of her greatest,
area, extended from a point within
fifty miles of Berlin, on the west,tto
the meridian of the sea of Azov on
the east; on the north il reacfed
nearly to the Gulf of Finland and
on the south down to the khanate OF
Crimea.
Russian Poland Territory. s9od
What we now know as Russians
Poland is that neck of territory
stretching westward between the
Prussias and Galicia. This territory
has an area almost exactly equal to
that of New York, yet, in spite or
the fact that its extreme southern
boundary lies north of the latitude
of Winnipeg. it's population is as great
as those of New York and New Jersey
combined.
Russian Poland in this limited
sense. consists of a great plain. song
what undulating. with an average,
elevation of about 400 feet. slopipg
upward toward the highlands Of
Galicia on the south and toward the.
swelling ground parallelng the Baltic
on the north. 1t joins the lowlande
of western Germany with the great
plain of western Russia. Its rivers
are slow and sluggish, with their
mouths often but a few dozen feet
below their sources and seldom more
than a few hundred feet below. Their
another, and the frequent inundations
of these basins have covered them
with d very rich alluvial soil.
Russian Poland usually has win
ter somewhat similar to that of New
England. There is an even cold. with
not a great deal of snow, but often
with razor-edged winds from the
northward. The rivers of this region
usually freeze over about the middle
of December. and the Nistula is under
ice for approximately eighty days
during the average winter. $50
in the eighteenth century, when
the city of Warsaw, next to Paris.
was the most brilliant city in EHtl
rope. this fiat plain was unusually.
rich in herds and geese fiocks, though
almost bare of manufactures ,eas