Demografia czasów „potopu”. Próba sondażu
Demography of the “Deluge” Period: An Exploratory Study

Summary/Abstract: The article attempts to verify and reassess the demographic losses caused by the period known as the “Deluge”, that is, the Polish- -Swedish War of 1655–1660. It has traditionally been assumed that these losses were extremely high, nearly comparable to those suffered by the German states during the Thirty Years’ War. To verify this view, the study draws exclusively on records of demographic events, particularly Roman Catholic and Protestant parish baptism registers from over 80 localities across the western part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (excluding Podlasie and Ruś Czerwona). The data were analysed within a broader chronological framework (1645–1669), which also encompasses other wars from 1648–1667 as well as epidemic and food crises. Changes in recorded baptisms (treated as equivalent to births) serve as an indicator of the demographic condition of urban and rural communities during this turbulent period, including the Deluge itself, and as a basis for estimating the relative population decline between the first half of the 1640s and the second half of the 1660s.

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