Middle Ages

The historical region of Mazovia (Mazowsze) in the beginning encompassed only the territories on the right bank of Vistula near Płock and had strong connections with Greater Poland (through Włocławek and Kruszwica). In the period of the rule of the first Polish monarchs of the Piast dynasty, Płock was one of their seats, and on the Cathedral Hill (Wzgórze Tumskie) they raised palatium. In the period 1037–1047 it was the capital of the independent, Mazovian state of Masław. Between 1079 and 1138 this city was de facto the capital of Poland. Since 1075 it has been the seat of the Diocese of Płock encompassing northern Mazovia; the south formed the archdeaconate of Czersk belonging to Poznań, and the Duchy of Łowicz was part of the Archdiocese of Gniezno (this division remained as long as until the Partitions of Poland).

During the 9th century Mazovia was perhaps inhabited by the tribe of Mazovians, and it was incorporated into the Polish state in the second half of 10th century under the Piast ruler Mieszko I. As a result of the fragmentation of Poland after the death of Polish monarch Bolesław III Wrymouth, in 1138 the Duchy of Mazovia was established, and during the 12th and 13th centuries it joined temporarily various adjacent lands and endured invasions of Prussians, Yotvingians, and Ruthenians. To protect its northern section Conrad I of Mazovia called in the Teutonic Knights in 1226 and granted them the Chełmno Land as a fief.

After the reunification of the Polish state by Władysław I in the early 14th century, Mazovia became its fief in 1351. In the second half of 15th century western Mazovia and in 1526/1529 the main part (with its capital in Warsaw) was incorporated into the Polish state. In the 15th century the eastern part of the region (Łomża) was settled, mainly by the yeomanry (drobna szlachta). Mazovia was considered underdeveloped in comparison with Greater Poland and Lesser Poland, with the lowest urban population.

Janusz III of Masovia, Stanisław and Anna of Masovia, 1520

Tombstone of Janusz III and his brother Stanisław in St. John's Archcathedral, Warsaw

Modern period

In the Early Modern Times Mazovia was known for exporting grain, timber, and fur. It was also distinct because there was no reformation here. Mazovia was divided into three voivodeships, each of them divided into lands (Polish: ziemie, Latin: terrae), each of them divided into counties (Polish: powiaty, Latin: districtus) and all three voivodeships formed part of the larger Greater Poland Province. The Polish-Lithuanian Union of Lublin (1569) established Mazovia as the central region of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with Warsaw rising to prominence as the seat of the state legislature (sejm). In 1596 King Sigismund III Vasa moved the Polish capital from Kraków to Warsaw. During the 17th and 18th centuries Swedish, Transylvanian, Saxon, and Russian invasions wreaked havoc on the region.

In 1793 western Mazovia, and two years later the rest of the region were annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second and Third Partitions of Poland, while the south-eastern portion was annexed by Austria. In 1807 it became part of the Duchy of Warsaw. In 1815 the region was incorporated into the Congress Kingdom of Poland, which was dependent on Russia. In the 19th century Mazovia was the site of large Polish uprisings (November Uprising and January Uprising) against Russian rule. In that era pre-partition Mazovia was divided among Warsaw, Płock and Augustów (the last one replaced later by Łomża).

Since 1918 Mazovia has been a part of the resurrected Poland, being roughly equivalent to the Warsaw Voivodeship. In 1920, Mazovia was invaded by Soviet Russia, but Poland secured its freedom in the victorious Battle of Warsaw.

World War II

Siege of Warsaw (1939)

During the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, Mazovia was invaded by the German Army, and the Einsatzgruppen IV and V followed to commit various crimes against Poles.^[5] The largest massacres were committed in Zambrów, Śladów and Zakroczym, in which over 200, over 300 and around 600 Polish prisoners of war and civilians were murdered, respectively.^[6][7] On 25–29 September, the Germans handed over north-eastern Mazovia with Łomża and Zambrów to the Soviet Union in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.^[8]

Under German occupation, the population was subjected to mass arrests, executions, expulsions and deportations to forced labour, concentration camps and Nazi ghettos, whereas under Soviet occupation the population was subjected to mass arrests, executions, deportation to forced labour in Siberia, Central Asia and the Far North. Numerous sites were looted. The Palmiry massacres carried out by Nazi Germany in the village of Palmiry near Warsaw, were one of the largest massacres of Poles committed during the Intelligenzaktion and AB-Aktion, whereas many Poles from north-eastern Mazovia were among the victims of the Soviet-perpetrated Katyn massacre. Despite such circumstances, the Polish resistance was organized and active in the region. Following the Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Germany also occupied north-eastern Mazovia.

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest German-established Jewish ghetto in occupied Europe, and other sizeable ghettos in the region were located in Otwock, Płońsk, Łomża and Płock, with the surviving Jews eventually deported by the occupiers to the Treblinka, Auschwitz and other extermination camps during the Holocaust.

In the winter of 1942–1943, the Germans buried some 300 kidnapped Polish children from another region of occupied Poland in the Łąck forests, after the children froze to death in a freight train.^[9] Since 1943, the Sicherheitspolizei also carried out deportations of Poles including teenage boys from Płock and Łomża to the Stutthof concentration camp.^[10]

Expelled Poles from Warsaw in Pruszków following the Warsaw Uprising of 1944

Germany operated several prisoner-of-war camps, including Oflag 73, Stalag 319, Stalag 324, Stalag 333 and Stalag 368 with several subcamps, for Polish, Italian, Soviet and Romanian POWs in the region.^[11]

The population of Warsaw decreased sharply as a result of executions, the extermination of the city's Jews, the deaths of some 200,000 inhabitants during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and the deportation of the city's left-bank population following the uprising. Some 40,000–50,000 Poles were murdered in the Wola massacre alone, one of the largest massacres of Poles. Shortly after the uprising, Adolf Hitler ordered German troops to destroy the city.

In 1944–1945, the region was occupied by the Soviet Red Army, and gradually restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

Recent history

The rebuilding of the Polish capital was the main task of the postwar period.^[12]

The Polish resistance remained active, with one of the last Polish anti-communist partisans, Stanisław Marchewka, killed by the communists in Jeziorko in 1957.^[13] Particularly large anti-communist protest occurred in the region in 1976.

During and following the Korean War, in 1951–1959, Poland admitted 200 North Korean orphans in Gołotczyzna and Otwock in Mazovia.^[14]

Those times Warsaw Voivodeship was still roughly similar to historical Mazovia and used to be informally called so, but in 1975 it was divided into several little voivodeships. However, in 1999 Mazovian Voivodeship was created as one of 16 administrative regions of Poland.

Mazovian dialect

The Mazovian language probably existed as a separate dialect until the 20th century.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} The ethnonym Mazur has given the name for a phonetic phenomenon known as mazurzenie (although it is common in the Lesser Polish dialect as well).

Local cuisine

There is no specific regional cuisine of Mazovia. Formerly, dairy foods dominated the peasant cuisine. Nobles used poultry, geese, chickens and ducks. The most separate Mazovian culinary regions are Kurpie and Łowicz, where traditional dishes survive to the present day. In Kurpie, traditional dishes are prepared with ingredients collected in the forest: berries, honey and mushrooms. There are several traditional Polish dishes like flaki (tripes), kluski (noodles and dumplings), which are prepared in different way than in other parts of Poland.^[20][21]