We, and most other
folks with roots in Malopolska or southeast Poland, are descendants of a West Slavic tribe known
as the Wislanie.
There are three
branches to Slavic ethnicity: West Slavs (living today in Poland and
the former Czechoslovakia), East Slavs (living today in European Russia)
and South Slavs (living today in the Balkans).
Tribes belonging to
the West Slavs faced a greater variety of destinies than the others.
Two tribes, including the Wends, disappeared altogether or nearly did so into a
relentlessly expanding Germanic nation. Two tribes held their ground; the
Czechs and Moravians became the Czech kingdom, while the Slovaks spent centuries subservient to the Kingdom of Hungary. The Wislanie are one of several major West Slavic tribes that
amalgamated into the Polish nation. Beside the Wislanie, the others
included the Polanie, Mazovians, Kujavians, Pomorzanie, Mazurians, and Silesians.
There
is some truth to the old fable of three primeval Slavic brothers (Lech,
Czech, and Rus) who went their own ways to find their own destinies. It
appears that all Slavs in Europe probably originated in the general area
of Poland (either between the Odra and Bug Rivers or the Pripet Marshes)
and spread in all directions from there with vastly varying degrees of
success. |