"The Peasants " by Ladislas Reymont, Knopf 1927 is a book recommended for details of the everyday lives of Galician farmers. I assume it covers both Germans and Poles. The following comments about the book and the Germans of Poland was posted by Catherine Havemeier on the Polish Border Surnames list. "My grandparents came from West Prussia in the 1880's. "The Peasants" concerns, I believe, the area under Austrian control. After reading the book I realized that it repeated many of the things my Busia had told us except for circumstances of life under the strict order the Prussians kept. "The Peasants" deals with farm life almost exclusively. The Poles in Austrian Poland had it much better off in many ways. The Austrians were Catholic; the Prussians were not. The Prussians (Germans) tried to Germanize the Poles. My Busia said that the taxes imposed on her father, who owned a small inn, forced him to sell at a loss to Germans and come to the US. The Prussians under Bismarck were determined to settle more and more of their people in the former Polish lands. They imposed German as the language of the schools and forced all males to serve a term in the Prussian army. They established state control over the church. They made the Poles second class citizens, and so, many emigrated. My grandfather, on leave from the army, came to the US. My Busia was always worried that the Germans would make them go back, even though they became US citizens, and so she would not say too much about the past. The best account of the story of the three sections (Prussian, Russian, and Austrian) is told in "The Lands of Partitioned Poland" by Piotr S. Wandycz, University of Washington Press. If I can help with information, please let me know. I have a pretty good library. Catherine Havemeier in Lancaster, PA"

KarenHob@aol.com wrote: > "The Peasants " by Ladislas Reymont, Knopf 1927 > > is a book recommended for details of the everyday lives of Galician > farmers. I assume it covers both Germans and Poles. The village from Reymont's novel is not in Galicia -- it's in central Poland, under Russian occupation. This is clear from a few scenes and references in the book: conscription/draft scene, references to a Russian prison, the issue of a Russian school. Out of curiosity, what makes people think the village is in Galicia? -Margaret Mikulska silvagen@gmail.com