Adam Danek
Geographical Studies, Issue 156, 2019, pp. 121-138
https://doi.org/10.4467/20833113PG.19.006.10310The article reveals the significance of geopolitics in the political and academic achievements of Antoni Sujkowski, a Polish geographer of the generation which witnessed the rebirth of independent Poland in 1918. It describes the political activity of Sujkowski, the only geographer who served as minister in the government of the Second Polish Republic. The most attention is paid to his contribution to the controversy over proposals of the territory of Poland during the Paris peace conference in 1919, when he advocated the creation of “vast strategic Poland,” i. e. a federation of Poland and historical Lithuania (including Belarus). As an academic geopolitician Sujkowski is especially the author of The geography of lands of the old Poland. That was the first book in geohistory (or “geographical history”) of Poland, considering the influence of geographic environment on the historical development of the Polish state. The literature used in research includes works by Sujkowski, other geographical and geopolitical writings of his time (as primary sources), memoirs, contemporary biographies and studies in geopolitics, the history of Poland and Polish science in the first half of the twentieth century (as secondary sources).