On the western and eastern frontiers of the «Polish World» and on the Polish identity in the 13th–19th centuries

This article-essay tries to project problems of the current Grenzeforschungen on the issue of «western» and «eastern» identity frontiers (id est multisecular, civilizational and not political frontiers) of the «Polish world» in history of Central Europe. Looking for answer, we are brought to conclude, that two identity frontiers were present in history of the «Polish world». The first and the most weighty truly identitarian frontier was that, which divided (since 14th century on) culture of the Polish kingdom, Great duchy of Lithuania and Rzeczpospolita into realms in which either «Latin» or Byzantine-Orthodox traditions were dominating. The second (as to its importance and weight) was borderline between the «primary» West (Silesia and Western Pomerania found themselves in its confines), which was embodied in this region of the «Polish world» (since 12th – 13th centuries) by German, «primary» European culture, and the «secondary» West, represented by institutes of the Polish kingdom, which gradually, over the span of the 14th – 16th were borrowing civilizational experience of the «primary» Europe, but embarked on (in the 16th – 18th centuries) a very peculiar, «deviant» line of evolution.