Artykuł podkreśla znaczenie wielkich posiadłości ziemskich w ramach systemu polityczno-ustrojowego
i społeczno-gospodarczego Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów. Zwrócono również uwagę
na utrzymujące się przez stulecia antropogeniczne formy przestrzenne, będące efektem szczególnie
silnego oddziaływania wielkich posiadłości na kształt życia społeczno-gospodarczego. Wpływ
ten można dziś dostrzec w sposobie zagospodarowania przestrzeni oraz w formach i przebiegu
licznych zjawiskach o charakterze politycznym, kulturowym i gospodarczym w Polsce oraz u jej
wschodnich sąsiadów.
The heritage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of Both Nations exerts until
today an influence on the shape of the geographical environment of Poland and her
eastern neighbours, this fact often not being noticed. A particularly strong imprint on the
development of spatial structures results from the existence and functioning of the large
feudal property. In the period of the Commonwealth, given the far-reaching decentralisation
of authority in the country, such large landed properties enjoyed broad
judicial and administrative, as well as economic autonomy. Their position and separate
character were in many cases strengthened through the status of principality, entail or
county. Under several aspects they reminded of the duchies existing at more or less the
same time in the German Reich.
Liquidation of the Commonwealth in 1795 brought limitations to the autonomy of
the landed estates within the framework of the occupying powers, Russia, Prussia and
Austria. They continued, though, to fulfil important administrative, cultural and
economic functions. Until peasants were affranchised the landed estates had been the
primary organiser of economic life and local administration on rural areas. After the
affranchising acts the estates shrunk to the manor farms, employing farmhands, but they
still played an essential socio-economic role. Their importance was particularly high
under the Prussian occupation, where affranchising had limited dimensions, leaving in
the hands of the manor farm owners a significant part of the estate from before (the
Prussian way toward the capitalism in farming). In the course of introduction of the
socialist system after the World War II, the majority of the landed estates and manor farms were transformed into the state farms, which dominated the landscape of the
Polish countryside in many areas of the country. In view of the earlier situation in
Prussia, this concerned in a particular manner the western part of the country. At the
same time, the peasant family farms functioned, belonging to the successors of the
affranchised peasants. Within the framework of the socialist system this sector was
subject, as well, to supervision of the state administration and was included in the
mechanisms of the socialist economy (e.g. obligatory supplies). Lack of civic tradition,
which was especially perceptible on the areas of the former Russian occupation, and
was, generally, a far-reaching consequence of the feudal serfdom, was definitely
conducive to the introduction of this socialist variety of paternalism. It cannot be
excluded that the heritage of feudalism was one of the more important factors facilitating
the strengthening of the communist rule in Poland and in the neighbouring countries.
The continuity of tradition of the separate socio-economic development of the
individual landed estates exerted also influence on the development of characteristic
cultural features, leading, in particular, to appearance of the distinct ethnographic
groups, and to the development of a separate local and regional awareness. The
autonomy of the owners of large estates in terms of religion in the times of the
Commonwealth, brought about the differentiated denominational landscape on certain
areas. The most striking reflection of these processes is constituted by the community of
the Reformed Evangelicals, persisting until today, which developed in the northern part
of Lithuania, in the Birże estate of the Protestant line of Radziwiłł family.
The administrative separation of the large estates, functioning in many cases in an
unchanged territorial form for several centuries, shaped also other elements of the
contemporary socio-economic landscape. In the 19th century the landed estates and their
internal divisions became the basis for development of the modern territorialadministrative
division of the country. The traces of these organisational solutions can
still be perceived today, first of all in the form of the courses of boundaries of villages,
municipalities and counties. Sometimes the existence of the large scale estates (like, e.g.,
the Zamoyski Entail) influenced the territorial shape of the present-day administrative
provinces.
The thus described role and significance of the large landed estates allows for
considering them as an essential and characteristic element of the political and systemic,
as well as socio-economic, order of the Commonwealth, exerting an influence through
the consequences of its existence also on the contemporary forms of geographical
environment.