Kashubs

Kashubs

 

(self-designation, Kashebi), descendants of the ancient Pomors who live on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the northeastern regions of Poland. They speak the Kashubian dialect of Polish. In the early 14th century the lands of the Kashubs were seized by the Knights of the Teutonic Order. Eastern Pomor’e was reunited with Poland by the Treaty of Torun in 1466. Prussia gained control of the Kashubian lands in the first and second partitions of Poland (1772, 1793). They were returned to Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Kashubs have preserved their own culture despite long forced Germanization.

REFERENCES

Lavrovskii, P. “Etnograficheskii ocherk kashubov.” Filologicheskie zapiski, Voronezh, 1873, issues 4–5.
Bukowski, A. Regionalizm kaszubski, Poznan, 1950.