The Polish Government has presented a leading historian from the University of Aberdeen with an award honouring his work on the country's history.
Professor Robert Frost received first prize in the Polish Foreign Ministry’s inaugural competition for the best book promoting knowledge of Polish history published in a foreign language in 2015 -2016.
His book - The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania volume 1, The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569 - had previously received the Pro Historia Polonorum prize by the Polish Historical Association, a top literary prize.
As the only English language study of its kind, and the only study in any language since 1919, the book demonstrates the importance of the Polish-Lithuanian union for an understanding of the politics not just of modern Poland, but also of Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, and of the later formation of the Germanic states.
Commenting on his latest award, which comes with a €10,000 prize, Professor Frost said: “It is always challenging and a little presumptuous to write the history of foreign countries, so it is therefore extremely gratifying when the historians of those countries find something interesting in what one has written. This prize is truly a great honour.”