Compilers and translators note:

Koneczny never wrote a work on this subject, but he did plan to write a book entitled The Turanian Civilization. This is indicated by the fact that in his archives, there is an envelope on which he wrote For the Turanian civilization containing paper clippings pertinent to the topic. He referred to the Turanian civilization in most of his works. Koneczny was of the opinion that a specific civilization of vast proportions had emerged in northern Asia and that it had had an enormous impact on the countries bordering Europe from the eastern side and also on the Far East. In many respects this Asian, basically Mongolian influence was of far greater import in these regions than the Byzantine. To deeply understand Russia, Turkey, Central Asia and the bordering states, Belarus and Ukraine, their specific social ethos based on the arbitrary self-will of the rulers has to be noted. It derives not from Byzantium but from Mongolia.

The present volume is an attempt to collect what Koneczny wrote about the civilizational development of Russia and other cultures of the same Turanian civilization. He wrote primarily about the Muscovy culture, but also about the Mongolian (Uyghur), Tatar (Kipchak), Cossack and Ottoman (Turkish) cultures of that civilization. He usually compared the Turkish culture with the Arabic civilization, which he considered to be superior to the Turanian. Thus this book is composed of excerpts drawn from other works of Koneczny. Those that are from the three volumes of The History of Russia and To Defend the Latin Civilization! are translations from Polish, while the rest are drawn from the English editions of other works of Koneczny.

Most references to sources have been left out. They are available in the original works of Koneczny.

As in my earlier translations of Konecznys works, I have added some explanations expanding information that was specifically addressed to Polish readers or that pertains to some text prior to the excerpt. These are given in square brackets [ ].

As previously the Latin, French and German quotations are given in the original with a translation in square brackets. Russian texts were usually in a Latin alphabet transliteration perfectly understandable to Polish readers. An English transliteration would be meaningless, thus the text is given in the original Russian with an English translation in square brackets.

Maciej Giertych