Балкански имигранти у Пољској XVI века. Случај браће Дукађиновича, власника града Уланова на Подољу

The migrations from the Balkan region to Polish lands in the 15th and 16th centuries have been rarely studied in historiography. These migrations were considered a phenomenon of lesser importance, though some researchers of the past initiated their study on the margins of treaties of a wider scope; however, this issue remained among the categories of rare examples. In addition, any broader research was hampered by the specificity of information in sources – this information is scarce and, as a rule, rather generalised and scattered across numerous editions of sources and manuscripts, stored in Polish archives. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the destiny of representatives of the family indicated in the title – the Dukagjini, who arrived in the 16th century most probably from Albania to the area of Podolia, which at the time belonged to the Polish Kingdom. The author focuses particularly on the place of origin of these immigrants, the causes and probable direction of their migration movement, as well as economic initiatives in the new homeland. Also highlighted are the difficulties that they must have faced in Podolia, which eventually resulted in the failure of the endeavour of brothers Dukagjini. Besides, the key objective of this paper is the author’s intention to underscore potential possibilities, unused so far, of undertaking comprehensive researches of migrations of representatives of various Balkan ethnic groups towards the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian state, both in the late Middle Ages and the early modern times. In this context, the postulate of the development of separate monographs on this issue is put forward.