Ebook: The making of central and Eastern Europe

The Making of Central and Eastern Europe is in some ways the continuation of my book Les Slaves, Byzance et Rome au /X* siecle, published in Paris in 1926 and in a second edition, with a new introduction in English by Peter Charanis, by Acad¬ emic International Press in 1970. This book was my main thesis presented to the University of Paris, with another work containing the edition of the Greek life of Gregory the Decapolite, to obtain the degree of Docteur ^s Lettres of the Sorbonne. When preparing this thesis I wanted to extend my research to the tenth century, but the late Professor Charles Diehl, who supervised my research, advised me to limit myself to the ninth century and to devote a special study to the tenth and eleventh centuries. The problems touched upon in the thesis led me to a more profound study of Constantine and Methodius, which was published in 1933 under the title Les Legendes de Constantin et de Methode vues de Byzance. Academic International Press reissued this work in 1969, with my own new introduction and notes to the text.
Upon the publication of my book The Photian Schism: History and Legend, printed by Cambridge University Press in 1948 (French edition, 1950; Italian edition, 1951) and reprinted in 1970, I closed my studies of the prob¬ lems of that important period in Slavic and Byzantine history. So it came about that I could start my research on the following period, characterized by the appearance of new factors in European history such as the rise of Germany and the birth of new Slavic states only in 1939, when on leave in London from Charles University.
The present work was written wholly during the war at the British Museum, sometimes in difficult circumstances. The Polish Research Centre in London under¬ took publication of the book in spite of obstacles to book printing in the post-war period, when it was difficult to find printers familiar with Slavic characters. This explains the many inaccuracies in the printing of Slavic names in the bibliography.
Scholarly books published during the post-war era very often escaped the attention of scholars in countries recovering from the war, and I am therefore very much indebted to Academic International Press for initiating this new edition of The Making of Central and Eastern Europe.
More than twenty years have passed since this work was first published. The number of new contributions touching the problems discussed in my book published in the interval has been enormous. In* my introduction to the present second edition, I will attempt to quote at least the main studies which concern these problems and which show new findings and offer new material for their study. Most of the further progress in the analysiis of these problems we owe to German scholars, whose contributions deserve both respect and esteem. I ,will endeavor as well to quote works by Slavic scholars, alt¬ hough it is difficult in the United States to find many post-war Polish and Czech publications, in many of which new views are expressed. Newer points of view notwithstanding, it appears necessary to change only a few of my conclusions. Often, however, the choice must be left to the reader! Many issues, as will be seen, are still far from a definite solution. While the main printing errors have been noted, specialists will easily discover and, I hope, will understand, the typographical errors in the Slavic names in the bibliography.