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Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэяй. Польскі рух на беларускіх і літоўскіх землях. 1864–1917 г. / Пад рэд. С. Куль-Сяльверставай. – Гродна: ГрДУ, 2001. – 322 с. (2004). Pp.24, 28.), an additional distinction between the Polonization ( pl, polonizacja) and self-Polonization ( pl, polszczenie się) has been being made, however, most modern Polish researchers don't use the term ''polszczenie się''. is the acquisition or imposition of elements of
Polish culture The culture of Poland ( pl, Kultura Polski ) is the product of its geography and distinct historical evolution, which is closely connected to an intricate thousand-year history. Polish culture forms an important part of western civilization and ...
, in particular the
Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
. This happened in some historic periods among non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially under the influence of
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. Like other examples of
cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural assi ...
, Polonization could be either voluntary or forced. It was most visible in cases of territories where the Polish language or culture were dominant or where their adoption could result in increased prestige or social status, as was the case with the nobilities of
Ruthenia Ruthenia or , uk, Рутенія, translit=Rutenia or uk, Русь, translit=Rus, label=none, pl, Ruś, be, Рутэнія, Русь, russian: Рутения, Русь is an exonym, originally used in Medieval Latin as one of several terms ...
and
Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
. To a certain extent, political authorities have administratively promoted Polonization, particularly during the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
and in the period following World War II. Polonization can be seen as an example of cultural assimilation. Such a view is widely considered applicable to the times of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
(1569–1795) when the Ruthenian and Lithuanian upper classes were drawn towards the more
Westernized Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econo ...
Polish culture and the political and financial benefits of such a transition, as well as, sometimes, by the administrative pressure exerted on their own cultural institutions, primarily the
Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...
. Conversion to the
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
(and to a lesser extent, Protestant) faith was often the single most important part of the process. For Ruthenians of that time, being Polish culturally and Roman Catholic by religion was almost the same. This diminishing of the Orthodox Church was the part most resented by the Belarusian and Ukrainian masses. In contrast, the Lithuanians, who were mostly Catholic, were in danger of losing their cultural identity as a nation, but that was not realised by the wide masses of Lithuanians until the Lithuanian national renaissance in the middle of the 19th century. On the other hand, the Polonization policies of the
Polish government The Government of Poland takes the form of a Unitary state, unitary Parliamentary republic, parliamentary Representative democracy, representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Poland, President is the head of state and the Prime ...
in the interwar years of the 20th century were again twofold. Some of them were similar to the mostly forcible
assimilationist Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural assi ...
policies implemented by other European powers that have aspired to regional dominance (e.g.,
Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...
,
Russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
), while others resembled policies carried out by countries aiming at increasing the role of their native language and culture in their own societies (e.g.,
Magyarization Magyarization ( , also ''Hungarization'', ''Hungarianization''; hu, magyarosítás), after "Magyar"—the Hungarian autonym—was an assimilation or acculturation process by which non-Hungarian nationals living in Austro-Hungarian Transleithan ...
,
Rumanization Romanianization is the series of policies aimed toward ethnic assimilation implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th and 21st century. The most noteworthy policies were those aimed at the Hungarian minority in Romania, Jews and as ...
,
Ukrainization Ukrainization (also spelled Ukrainisation), sometimes referred to as Ukrainianization (or Ukrainianisation) is a policy or practice of increasing the usage and facilitating the development of the Ukrainian language and promoting other elements of ...
). For Poles, it was a process of rebuilding Polish national identity and reclaiming Polish heritage, including the fields of education, religion, infrastructure and administration, that suffered under the prolonged foreign occupation by the neighboring empires of
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
, and
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. However, as a third of recreated Poland's population was ethnically non-Polish and many felt their own nationhood aspirations thwarted specifically by Poland, large segments of this population resisted to varying extents the policies intended to assimilate them. Part of the country's leadership emphasized the need for the ethnic and cultural homogeneity of the state in the long term. However, the promotion of the Polish language in administration, public life and especially education, were perceived by some as an attempt at forcible homogenization. In areas inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians for example, actions of the Polish authorities seen as aiming at restricting the influence of the Orthodox and the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , native_name_lang = uk , caption_background = , image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG , imagewidth = , type = Particular church (sui iuris) , alt = , caption = St. George's C ...
caused additional resentment, and were considered to be closely tied to religious Polonization.


Medieval Poland

Between the 12th and the 14th centuries many towns in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
adopted the so-called
Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...
that promoted the towns' development and
trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
. The rights were usually granted by the king on the occasion of the arrival of migrants. Some integrated with the larger community, such as merchants who settled there, especially
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
and
Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
. They adopted most aspects of Polish culture but kept their Orthodox faith. Since the Middle Ages, Polish culture, influenced by the West, in turn radiated East, beginning the long process of
cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural assi ...
. Michael J. Mikoś, ''Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to the End of the Eighteenth Century. A Bilingual Anthology'', Warsaw: Constans, 1999
Introductory chapters.


Polish–Lithuanian Union (1385–1795)


Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Poles reached Lithuania long before the union of the two countries. In a letter to the German Franciscans, Grand Duke Gediminas asked them to send monks who spoke Samogitian, Ruthenian or Polish. Other sources mention Polish slave carers and educators of children. This indicates the presence of Poles, probably prisoners of war or their descendants. Polish influence increased considerably after the
Union of Krewo In a strict sense, the Union of Krewo or Act of Krėva (also spelled Union of Krevo, Act of Kreva; be, Крэўская унія, translit=Kreŭskaja unija; pl, unia w Krewie; lt, Krėvos sutartis) comprised a set of prenuptial promises made ...
(1386). The Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila was offered the Polish crown and became
Władysław II Jagiełło Jogaila (; 1 June 1434), later Władysław II Jagiełło ()He is known under a number of names: lt, Jogaila Algirdaitis; pl, Władysław II Jagiełło; be, Jahajła (Ягайла). See also: Names and titles of Władysław II Jagiełło. w ...
(reigned 1386–1434). This marked the beginning of the gradual, voluntary Polonization of the Lithuanian nobility. Jagiełło built many churches in
pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
Lithuanian land and provided them generously with estates, gave out the lands and positions to the Catholics, settled the cities and villages and granted the biggest cities and towns
Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...
in their Polish variant. Lithuanian nobles were granted privileges modeled on those held by the Polish nobility. 47 families of Lithuanian families were adopted by 45 Polish families and endowed with Polish coats of arms. Lithuania adopted Polish political solutions and institutions. The offices of voivodes and castellans appeared, the country was divided onto
voivodeship A voivodeship is the area administered by a voivode (Governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieval ...
s and
powiat A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powia ...
s. There was also a representation of the nobility, called Sejm, following the Polish model. However, unlike the Polish Sejm, the magnates had the deciding vote, and the petty and middle nobility only approved the decisions of the magnate's council. Since the late 15th century marriages between Lithuanian and Polish magnates became more frequent. This brought the Lithuanians even closer to Polish culture. The first such marriage was the one between and the daughter of
Alekna Sudimantaitis Alekna Sudimantaitis ( be, Алехна Судзімонтавіч, pl, Olechno Sudymuntowicz; died in 1490/1491) was an influential Lithuanian noble of Trąby coat of arms, Grand Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1478–1490) and Voivod ...
in 1478. Polish influence intensified in the period preceding the Union of Lublin. The royal court took steps to make the political and economic system of Lithuania more similar to Poland. An important step was the introduction of the hide system (
Volok Reform Volok may refer to: * Volok (unit), a unit of land measurement * Volok Reform, land reform in the 16th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania People with the surname * Bill Volok (1910–1991), American football player * Ilia Volok (born 1965), Russian ...
– pl, reforma włóczna), based on the Polish model. The reform was introduced by specialists from Poland, mainly from Mazovia, headed by . ''Włóka'' was a Polish measure of land (in Ruthenian ''volok''), and in Lithuania it became the basis for land measurement. At the same time, Polish measures of area and distance were introduced, as well as a model of farming based on the
folwark ''Folwark''; german: Vorwerk; uk, Фільварок; ''Filwarok''; be, Фальварак; ''Falwarak''; lt, Palivarkas is a Polish word for a primarily serfdom-based farm and agricultural enterprise (a type of ''latifundium''), often very ...
and
three-field system The three-field system is a regime of crop rotation in which a field is planted with one set of crops one year, a different set in the second year, and left fallow in the third year. A set of crops is ''rotated'' from one field to another. The tec ...
. During the Reformation, voices were raised that Latin should be the language of the Lithuanians, due to the alleged proximity of the two languages and the legendary origin of the Lithuanian nobility from the Romans. However, this intention failed and Latin never reached the same position as in the Polish Crown. Instead, Polish quickly took the place of the official language. At the beginning of the 17th century instructions and resolutions of
sejmik A sejmik (, diminutive of ''sejm'', occasionally translated as a ''dietine''; lt, seimelis) was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania. The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of Pol ...
s were written down in Polish. In the period 1620–1630, the Polish language supplanted Ruthenian in the books of the
Lithuanian Metrica The Lithuanian Metrica or the Metrica of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ( la, Acta Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, lt, Lietuvos Metrika, pl, Metryka Litewska, or ''Metryka Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego''; be, Літоўская Метрыка, uk, ...
. When in 1697 the Sejm of the Commonwealth passed a resolution to replace
Ruthenian language Ruthenian ( Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly th ...
by Polish in all official actions, it only approved the long-standing status quo. In addition to Polish, Latin was also used in the documents of the Lithuanian chancellery referring to the Catholic Church, cities under Magdeburg Law,
Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
and foreigners. Already at the beginning of the 16th century Polish became the first language of the Lithuanian magnates. In the following century it was adopted by the Lithuanian nobility in general. Even the nobility of Žemaitija used the Polish language already in the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century the Polish language was adopted by the entire nobility of the Grand Duchy – Lithuanian, Ruthenian, German and Tatar. The Polish language also penetrated other social strata: the clergy, the townspeople, and even the peasants. Linguistic Polonization did not always mean full Polonization in the state or ethnic sense. The Lithuanian nobility felt united with the Polish nobility as part of one political nation of the Commonwealth, enjoying privileges, freedom and equality. In this sense, they often referred to themselves as "Polish nobility" or outright "Poles". At the same time, separatism and the defense of Lithuanian national separateness within the federation state were very strong. The Lithuanian nobility was strongly attached to the laws, traditions and symbols of the Grand Duchy. Moreover, the Lithuanian separateness was also defended by the members of ethnically Polish families settling in Lithuania.


Church and education

The spread of Polish culture was channelled through the Catholic Church. A large part of the Lithuanian clergy were Poles, either of Polish descent or from Polish families settled in Lithuania. Of the 123 known canons of Vilnius, only slightly more than half (66) were ethnic Lithuanians, most of the others were of Polish origin. The role of the church was important because it had a monopoly on teaching. By 1550, 11 schools were established in Samogitian diocese and 85 in Vilnius diocese. In 1528 the diocese of Vilnius decreed that the language of instruction of religious texts should be Polish and Lithuanian. Latin was taught exclusively in Polish, so children who did not know this language were taught Polish first. Lithuanians went to Kraków to study, in 1409 professor of theology founded a dormitory for students from Grand Duchy Overall 366 Lithuanian students studied in Kraków between 1430 and 1560. In the 16th century students from Lithuania were coming to Kraków already considerably Polonized. In 1513, Lithuanian students were accused of mocking the plain Polish speech of their colleagues from Mazovia before the university court. Polish had the advantage over Ruthenian and Lithuanian that its vocabulary, being influenced by Latin, allowed more abstract thoughts to be expressed. Moreover, its proximity to the Ruthenian language made its adoption all the more natural. The Reformation, on the one hand, accelerated the development of literatures in Lithuanian, on the other hand, it contributed to an even faster spread of the Polish language. The Calvinist magnate
Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł (4 February 1515 – 28 May 1565), nicknamed ''The Black'' (Polish: ''Czarny''), was a Polish-Lithuanian noble who held several administrative positions within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Voivode of Vilnius, Gr ...
published in
Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...
a Polish translation of the Bible for the use of Lithuanian Calvinists.


Royal court

The second important channel for the spread of Polish language and culture was the royal and grand ducal court. After 1447, only for short periods there was a separate grand ducal court in Vilnius. But even then the Polish influence was strong. Already Grand Duke Vytautas employed Polish secretaries to run his Latin chancellery. The Krakow court was dominated by Poles who travelled with the king to Lithuania. The Lithuanian nobles who joined the court were therefore greatly influenced by Polish culture. Casimir Jagiellon was the last grand duke to know Lithuanian. From the time of Zygmunt August, correspondence with the Lithuanian elite was conducted almost exclusively in Polish, since the knowledge of Latin in Lithuania was too weak.


Ruthenian lands

Jogaila successor
Władysław III of Varna Władysław is a Polish given male name, cognate with Vladislav. The feminine form is Władysława, archaic forms are Włodzisław (male) and Włodzisława (female), and Wladislaw is a variation. These names may refer to: Famous people Mononym * W ...
, who reigned in 1434–1444, expanded the nobles privileges to all Ruthenian nobles irrespective of their religion, and in 1443 signed a bull equalizing the Orthodox church in rights with the Roman Catholicism thus alleviating the relationship with the Orthodox clergy. These policies continued under the next king
Casimir IV Jagiellon Casimir IV (in full Casimir IV Andrew Jagiellon; pl, Kazimierz IV Andrzej Jagiellończyk ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447, until his death. He was one of the ...
. Still, the mostly cultural expansion of the Polish influence continued since the Ruthenian nobility were attracted by both the glamour of the Western culture and the Polish political order where the
magnates The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...
became the unrestricted rulers of the lands and serfs in their vast estates. In the 1569
Union of Lublin The Union of Lublin ( pl, Unia lubelska; lt, Liublino unija) was signed on 1 July 1569 in Lublin, Poland, and created a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in Europe at the time. It replaced the pe ...
, the Ukrainian territories controlled by the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
were transferred to the
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includ ...
., and thus found themselves under the direct influence of the
Polish culture The culture of Poland ( pl, Kultura Polski ) is the product of its geography and distinct historical evolution, which is closely connected to an intricate thousand-year history. Polish culture forms an important part of western civilization and ...
and
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
. Ukrainian lands of Kyiv and Braclav voivodeship were rather sparsely populated and attracted a lot of settlers, mostly from Volhynia, but also from central Poland. One of the reasons was that serfdom wasn't introduced there. Among the settlers was also a petty nobility. Ruthenian, just like Lithuanian, nobility was attracted by the Polish culture, which at that time flourished. Many of them adopted the Polish language and customs, even converted to Roman Catholicism. Even for those who remained faithful to the Orthodox Church and Ruthenian language, Polish political identity became very important, as they were inspiring to be part of ''szlachta'' – a ruling, privileged elite. It was at that time when the concept of ''gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus'' (a Poles of a Rus' religion) was born. It all resulted in the almost complete abandonment of Ruthenian culture, traditions and the
Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...
by the Ruthenian higher class. The creation of the Greek Catholic Church, following the
Union of Brest The Union of Brest (; ; ; ) was the 1595–96 decision of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church eparchies (dioceses) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to break relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church and to enter into communion with, and place i ...
which sought to break the relations between Orthodox clergy in the Commonwealth and the Patriarchate in Moscow, put the Ruthenian people under stronger influence of Polish culture.Staff writer, ''
Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
'' (2006)
"Poland, history of: Wladyslaw IV Vasa".
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This was accompanied by the spread of the Roman Catholic Church in the Ruthenian lands. Dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church were established as early as the 14th and 15th centuries by the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. After the Union of Lublin Jesuit schools were established by Ruthenian magnates. Some Ruthenian magnates like
Sanguszko 150px, Paweł Karol Sanguszko 150px, Dymitr Sanguszko 150px, Roman Sanguszko 150px, Janusz Sanguszko 150px, Hieronim Sanguszko 150px, Barbara Sanguszko née Dunin 150px, Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko 150px, Władysław Hieronim Sanguszko 150p ...
,
Wiśniowiecki The House of Wiśniowiecki ( uk, Вишневе́цькі, ''Vyshnevetski''; lt, Višnioveckiai}) was a Polish-Lithuanian princely family of Ruthenian-Lithuanian origin, notable in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. They we ...
and Kisiel, resisted the cultural Polonization for several generations, with the
Ostrogski The House of Ostrogski ( pl, Ostrogscy, lt, Ostrogiškiai, ua, Острозькі - ''Ostroz'ki'') was one of the more prominent families in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The fa ...
family being one of the most prominent examples. Remaining generally loyal to the Polish state, the magnates, like Ostrogskis, stood by the religion of their forefathers, and supported the Orthodox Church generously by opening schools, printing books in Ruthenian language (the first four printed
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...
books in the world were published in Cracow, in 1491 Michael J. Mikoś, ''Polish Renaissance Literature: An Anthology''. Ed. Michael J. Mikoś. Columbus, Ohio/Bloomington, Indiana: Slavica Publishers. 1995.
"Renaissance Literary Background."
) and giving generously to the Orthodox churches' construction. However, their resistance was gradually waning with each subsequent generation as more and more of the Ruthenian elite turned towards Polish language and Catholicism. Still, with most of the educational system getting Polonized and the most generously funded institutions being to the west of Ruthenia, the Ruthenian indigenous culture further deteriorated. In the Polish Ruthenia the language of the administrative paperwork started to gradually shift towards Polish. By the 16th century the language of administrative paperwork in Ruthenia was a peculiar mix of the older
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
with the
Ruthenian language Ruthenian ( Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly th ...
of the commoners and the
Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
. With the Polish influence in the mix gradually increasing it soon became mostly like the Polish language superimposed on the Ruthenian phonetics. The total confluence of Ruthenia and Poland was seen coming. As the Eastern Rite
Greek-Catholic The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...
Church originally created to accommodate the Ruthenian, initially Orthodox, nobility, ended up unnecessary to them as they converted directly into the
Latin Rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...
Catholicism en masse, the Church largely became an hierarchy without followers. The Greek Catholic Church was then used as a tool aimed to split even the peasantry from their Ruthenian roots, still mostly unsuccessfully. The commoners, deprived of their native protectors, sought protection through the
Cossacks The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...
, who, being fiercely Orthodox, tended also to easily turn to violence against those they perceived as their enemies, particularly the Polish state and what they saw as its representatives, the Poles and generally the
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
s, as well as the Jews."
Nikolay Kostomarov Mykola Ivanovych Kostomarov or Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Костома́ров, ; uk, Микола Іванович Костомаров, ; May 16, 1817, vil. Yurasovka, Voronezh Governorate, R ...
,
Russian History in Biographies of its main figures.
' "Little Russian Hetman Zinoviy-Bogdan Khmelnytsky."


Royal Prussia

Since Teutonic times the language of the Prussian elite and administration has been German. This did not change after the incorporation into the kingdom of Poland. It was only from the beginning of the 16th century that the role of the Polish language began to increase. Since 1527 there have been complaints from representatives of large cities that some council members use Polish, although they know German. In 1555, a canon of Gniezno delivered a speech to the Prussian Sejm in Polish, without the help of an interpreter. In the second half of the 16th century, royal decrees were issued in Polish, debates in the Landtag were held in Polish. Great Prussian families polonised their names: the Baysen to Bażyński; the Zehmen to Cema; the Dameraw to Działyński, and the Mortangen to Mortęski, the Kleinfelds to Krupocki.


Partitions (1795–1918)

Polonization also occurred during times when a Polish state didn't exist, despite the empires that partition Poland applied the policies aimed at reversing the past gains of Polonization or aimed at replacing Polish identity and eradication of Polish national group.The Prussian-Polish Situation: An experiment in Assimilation
by
W.I. Thomas William Isaac Thomas (August 13, 1863 – December 5, 1947) was an American sociologist, understood today as a key figure behind the theory of symbolic interactionism. Collaborating with Polish sociologist Florian Znaniecki, Thomas developed and ...
.
Various authors, ''The Treaty of Versailles: a reassessment after 75 years'', Cambridge University Press, 1998,
Google Print, p.314
/ref>
Roland Sussex Roland (Roly) Denis Sussex OAM is Emeritus Professor of Applied Language Studies at the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Sussex hosts a talkback program on language and li ...
, Paul Cubberley, ''The Slavic Languages'', Cambridge University Press, 2007,
Google Print, p.92
/ref> The Polonization took place in the early years of the
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n partition, where, as a reaction to the persecution of Roman Catholicism during the
Kulturkampf (, 'culture struggle') was the conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiastic ...
, German Catholics living in areas with a Polish majority voluntarily integrated themselves within Polish society, affecting approximately 100,000 Germans in the eastern provinces of Prussia. According to some scholars the biggest successes in Polonization of the non-Polish lands of former Commonwealth were achieved after the Partitions, in times of persecution of Polishness (noted by
Leon Wasilewski Leon Wasilewski (1870–1936) was an activist of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), a coworker of Józef Piłsudski, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, designer of much of Second Polish Republic policy towards Eastern Europe, historian and fa ...
(1917),
Mitrofan Dovnar-Zapolsky Mitrofan Viktorovich Dovnar-Zapol'skiy ( be, Мітрафан Віктаравіч Доўнар-Запольскі, russian: link=no, Митрофан Викторович Довнар-Запольский; , Rechytsa, Minsk Governorate – 30 Sep ...
(1926). Paradoxically, the substantial eastward movement of the Polish ethnic territory (over these lands) and growth of the Polish ethnic regions were taking place exactly in the period of the strongest Russian attack on everything Polish in Lithuania and Belarus. The general outline of causes for that is considered to include the activities of the
Roman-Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
and the cultural influence exacted by the big cities (
Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...
,
Kovno Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
) on these lands, the activities of the Vilna educational district in 19th century–1820s, the activities of the local administration, still controlled by the local Polish or already Polonized nobility up to the 1863–1864
January uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...
,(Smalyanchuk 2001), p.28, (Dovnar 1926), pp.303–315,319–320,328–331,388–389. secret (Polish) schools in second half nineteenth to the beginning of the 20th century (''tajne komplety'') and the influence of the land estates. Following the demise of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the end of the 18th century, the Polonization trends initially continued in Lithuania, Belarus and Polish-dominated parts of Ukraine as the initially liberal policies of the Empire gave the Polish elite significant concessions in the local affairs. Dovnar-Zapolsky notesДовнар-Запольский М. В. (
Mitrofan Dovnar-Zapolsky Mitrofan Viktorovich Dovnar-Zapol'skiy ( be, Мітрафан Віктаравіч Доўнар-Запольскі, russian: link=no, Митрофан Викторович Довнар-Запольский; , Rechytsa, Minsk Governorate – 30 Sep ...
) История Белоруссии. – 2-е изд. – Мн.: Беларусь, 2005. – 680 с. ,
that the Polonization actually intensified under the liberal rule of
Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
, particularly due to the efforts of Polish intellectuals who led the
Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...
which was organized in 1802–1803 from the Academy in Vilna (''Schola Princeps Vilnensis''), vastly expanded and given the highest ''Imperial'' status under the new name Vilna Imperial University (''Imperatoria Universitas Vilnensis''). By the Emperor's order, the Vilna education district overseen by Adam Czartoryski, a personal friend of Alexander, was greatly expanded to include the vast territories in the West of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
stretching to Kiev in south-east and much of the Polish territory and the development of the University, which had no rival in the whole district, received the highest priority of the Imperial authorities which granted it significant freedom and autonomy.
Tomas Venclova Tomas Venclova (born 11 September 1937) is a Lithuanian poet, prose writer, scholar, philologist and translator of literature. He is one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. In 1977, following his dissident activities, ...

Four Centuries of Enlightenment. A Historic View of the University of Vilnius, 1579–1979
''Lituanus'', Volume 27, No.1 – Summer 1981
With the effort of Polish intellectuals who served the rectors of the University, Hieronim Strojnowski,
Jan Śniadecki Jan Śniadecki (29 August 1756 – 9 November 1830) was a Polish mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Life Born in Żnin, Śniadecki studied at Kraków Jagellonian University and in Paris. He ...
, Szymon Malewski, as well as Czartoryski who oversaw them, the University became the center of Polish patriotism and culture; and as the only University of the district the center attracted the young nobility of all ethnicities from this extensive region.Rev. Stasys Yla
The Clash of Nationalities at the University of Vilnius
''Lituanus'', Volume 27, No.1 – Summer 1981
With time, the traditional
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
was fully eliminated from the University and by 1816 it was fully replaced by Polish and Russian. This change both affected and reflected a profound change in the Belarusian and Lithuanian secondary schools systems where Latin was also traditionally used as the University was the main source of the teachers for these schools. Additionally, the University was responsible for the textbooks selection and only Polish textbooks were approved for printing and usage. Dovnar-Zapolsky notes that "the 1800s–1810s had seen the unprecedented prosperity of the Polish culture and language in the former Great Duchy of Lithuania lands" and "this era has seen the effective completion of the Polonization of the smallest nobility, with further reduction of the areal of use of the contemporary
Belarusian language Belarusian ( be, беларуская мова, biełaruskaja mova, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language. It is the native language of many Belarusians and one of the two official state languages in Belarus. Additionally, it is spoken in some p ...
.Dovnar-Zapolsky, pp.290–298. also noting that the Polonization trend had been complemented with the (covert) anti-Russian and anti-Eastern Orthodox trends.Dovnar-Zapolsky, pp.293–296. The results of these trends are best reflected in the ethnic censuses in previously non-Polish territories. Following the Polish
November uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...
aimed at breaking away from Russia, the Imperial policies finally changed abruptly. The University was forcibly closed in 1832 and the following years were characterized by the policies aimed at the assimilationist solution of the "Polish question", a trend that was further strengthened following another unsuccessful
uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
(1863). In the 19th century, the mostly unchallenged Polonization trend of the previous centuries had been met staunchly by then " anti-Polish"
Russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
policy, with temporary successes on both sides, like Polonization rises in mid-1850s and in 1880s and Russification strengthenings in 1830s and in 1860s.Dovnar-Zapolsky, pp.303–315,319–320,328–331. Any Polonization of the east and west territories (Russian and German partitions) occurred in the situation were Poles had steadily diminishing influence on the government. Partition of Poland posed a genuine threat to the continuation of Polish language-culture in those regions. As Polonization was centered around Polish culture, policies aimed at weakening and destroying it had a significant impact on weakening Polonization of those regions. This was particularly visible in Russian-occupied Poland, where the Polish culture fared worst, as Russian administration gradually became strongly anti-Polish. After a brief and relatively liberal early period in the early 19th century, where Poland was allowed to retain some autonomy as the
Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its o ...
,
Harold Nicolson Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster, and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West. Early lif ...
, ''The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812–1822 '', Grove Press, 2001,
Google Print, p.171
/ref> the situation for Polish culture steadily worsened.


Lithuanian and Belarusian lands

A complicated linguistic situation developed on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Polish speakers used a "Kresy" variant of Polish ( Northern Borderlands dialect) that retained archaic Polish features as well as many remnants of Belarusian and some features of Lithuanian. Linguists distinguish between official language, used in the Church and cultural activities, and colloquial language, closer to the speech of the common people. Inhabitants of a significant part of the
Vilnius region Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time. The territory ...
used a variant of the Belarusian language, which was influenced mainly by Polish, but also by Lithuanian, Russian and Jewish. This language was referred to as "simple speech" ( pl, mowa prosta), and was treated by many as a dialect variety of Polish. In fact, it was a kind of "mixed language" serving as an interdialect of the cultural borderland. This language became a gateway to the progressive Slavization of the Lithuanian population. The knowledge of Slavonic intedialect made it easier for Lithuanians to communicate with their Slavic neighbors, who spoke Polish, Russian, or Belarusian. The attractiveness and cultural prestige of the Polish language and its common use in church caused the process to continue and lead to the full adoption of the Polish language. Among the Belarusian population, the usage of Polish was limited to official relations, while at home, the local language was still spoken. As a result, the Lithuanian language retreated under the pressure of Polish faster than Belarusian. This led to the formation of a compact Polish language area between the Lithuanian and Belarusian language areas, with Vilnius as the center. After some time, especially in the Vilnius region, ignorance of the Polish language was considered a lack of cultural savvy. In ceremonial situations it was advisable to use Polish. This gradually limited the use of simple speech to everyday life situations, and gave rise to a sense of contempt for it and Belarusian as the language of work, cursing, but also more emotional and impetuous. In the Belarusian territories, the Polonization processes were intensified by the struggle of the Russian authorities against the Catholic Churches. The liquidation of the
Uniate Church The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...
and forced conversions to Orthodoxy provoked resistance among the local community. The Russian authorities opposed the Catholic Church, called the "Polish faith", to the Orthodox Church, called the "Russian faith". As a result referring to oneself as a "Pole" was the same as referring to oneself as a "Catholic." After Latin, Polish was considered the second language of worship, so attempts to replace it with Russian or local languages were resisted by local population. The spread of Polish language and culture, and eventually Polish national consciousness, was fostered not only by its prevalence among the upper classes, but also among the impoverished, declassed nobility. Their representatives regarded the nobility's traditions, inextricably linked with Polishness, as a marker of prestige, so they cultivated their attachment to the Polish national tradition. And due to the lack of an impassable property and cultural barrier, they exerted influence on the surrounding peasantry. Paradoxically, this was fostered by the anti-Polish and anti-
szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...
Russian policy, which gave relief to peasants for the purchase of land. As a result, the property gap between the petty gentry and the peasantry decreased, which resulted in the appearance of mixed marriages, which in turn led to the spread of Polish culture among the peasants. The emergence of the Lithuanian national movement in the 1880s slowed down the process of Polonization of the ethnically Lithuanian population, but also cemented a sense of national identity among a significant portion of the Polish-speaking Lithuanian population. The feeling of a two-tier Lithuanian-Polish national identity, present throughout the period, had to give way to a clear national declaration. Previously, every inhabitant of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been considered a Lithuanian, but in the face of the emergence of the Lithuanian national movement, which considered only those who spoke Lithuanian as Lithuanians, Polish-speaking residents of Lithuania more and more often declared themselves as Poles. The dispute over the auxiliary language of services (Polish or Lithuanian) in the churches on the eastern border of ethnic Lithuania, which heated up from the end of the nineteenth century, influenced the formation of Polish consciousness and the adoption of the Polish language among those believers whose ancestors had abandoned Lithuanian for plain speech.


Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)

By the times of
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
(1918–1939) much of Poland's previous territory, which were historically mixed Ruthenian and Polish, had Ukrainian and Belorussian majorities.Prof.
Anna M. Cienciala Anna Maria Cienciala (November 8, 1929 – December 24, 2014) was a Polish-American historian and author. She specialized in modern Polish and Russian history. Graduating with a history doctorate in 1962, she taught at two Canadian universities f ...
(2004)
THE REBIRTH OF POLAND
. University of Kansas, lecture notes. Last accessed on 2 June 2006. Quote:"there were large Polish minorities in what is today western Belarus, western Ukraine and central Ukraine. According to the Polish Census of 1931, Poles made up 5,600,000 of the total population of eastern Poland which stood at 13,021,000.* In Lithuania, Poles had majorities in the Vilnius . Wilno, Rus. Vilnaand Suwałki areas, as well as significant numbers in and around Kaunas .Kowno"
Following the post-
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
rebirth of the Polish statehood, these lands again became disputed but the Poles were more successful than the nascent
West Ukrainian People's Republic The West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) or West Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR), known for part of its existence as the Western Oblast of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was a short-lived polity that controlled most of Eastern Gali ...
in the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918. Approximately one third of the new state's population was non-Catholic,  including a large number of Russian Jews who immigrated to Poland following a wave of Ukrainian pogroms which continued until 1921. The issue of non-Polish minorities was a subject of intense debate within the Polish leadership. Two ideas of Polish policy clashed at the time: a more tolerant and less assimilationist approach advocated by
Józef Piłsudski ), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) , death_date = , death_place = Warsaw, Poland , constituency = , party = None (formerly PPS) , spouse = , children = Wan ...
,
Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( , ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), or Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's ...
in his introduction to Wacław Jędrzejewicz's "Pilsudski A Life For Poland" wrote: ''Pilsudski's vision of Poland, paradoxically, was never attained. He contributed immensely to the creation of a modern Polish state, to the preservation of Poland from the Soviet invasion, yet he failed to create the kind of multinational commonwealth, based on principles of social justice and ethnic tolerance, to which he aspired in his youth. One may wonder how relevant was his image of such a Poland in the age of nationalism...''. Quoted fro
members.lycos.co.uk
.
and an assimilationist approach advocated by
Roman Dmowski Roman Stanisław Dmowski (Polish: , 9 August 1864 – 2 January 1939) was a Polish politician, statesman, and co-founder and chief ideologue of the National Democracy (abbreviated "ND": in Polish, "''Endecja''") political movement. He saw th ...
and Stanisław Grabski. Linguistic assimilation was considered by National Democrats to be a major factor for "unifying the state." For example, Grabski as Polish Minister for Religion and Public Education in 1923 and 1925–1926, wrote that "Poland may be preserved only as a state of Polish people. If it were a state of Poles, Jews, Germans, Rusyns, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Russians, it would lose its independence again"; and that "it is impossible to make a nation out of those who have no 'national self-identification,' who call themselves 'local' (''
tutejszy Local (Polish: ''Tutejszy'', ; be, Тутэйшы, translit=Tutejšy; uk, Тутешній, translit=Tuteshniy; lt, Tuteišiai; lv, Tuteiši; russian: Tуземный, translit=Tuzemnyj) was a self-identification of Eastern European rural popula ...
'')." Grabski also said that "the transformation of the state territory of the Republic into a Polish national territory is a necessary condition of maintaining our frontiers."Quoted in: Rogers Brubaker, ''Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe'', Cambridge University Press, 1996,
Google Print, p.100
In internal politics, Piłsudski's reign marked a much-needed stabilization and improvement in the situation of
ethnic minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
, which formed almost a third of the population of the Second Republic. Piłsudski replaced the National-Democratic "ethnic-assimilation" with a "state-assimilation" policy: citizens were judged by their loyalty to the state, not by their ethnicity. The years 1926–1935 ( Piłsudski died in 1935) were favourably viewed by many
Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lo ...
, whose situation improved especially under the cabinet of Piłsudski's appointee
Kazimierz Bartel Kazimierz Władysław Bartel (; en, Casimir Bartel; 3 March 1882 – 26 July 1941) was a Polish mathematician, freemason, scholar, diplomat and politician who served as 15th, 17th and 19th Prime Minister of Poland three times between 1926 ...
.Feigue Cieplinski, ''Poles and Jews: The Quest For Self-Determination 1919–1934'', Binghamton Journal of History, Fall 2002, Last accessed on 2 June 2006. However a combination of various reasons, from the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, through the Piłsudski's need for support from parties for the parliament's election to the vicious spiral of terrorist attacks by
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ( uk, Організація українських націоналістів, Orhanizatsiya ukrayins'kykh natsionalistiv, abbreviated OUN) was a Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization estab ...
and government pacifications meant that the situation continued to degenerate, despite Piłsudski's efforts. However, Polonization also created a new educated class among the non-Polish minorities, a class of intellectuals aware of the importance of schooling, press, literature and theatre, who became instrumental in the development of their own ethnic identities.


Polonization in Eastern Borderlands (Kresy)

The territories of
Western Belarus Western Belorussia or Western Belarus ( be, Заходняя Беларусь, translit=Zachodniaja Bielaruś; pl, Zachodnia Białoruś; russian: Западная Белоруссия, translit=Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of mod ...
, western
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
and the
Vilnius region Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time. The territory ...
, were incorporated into interwar Poland in 1921 at the
Treaty of Riga The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga ( pl, Traktat Ryski), was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War. ...
in which the Polish eastern frontiers had been first defined following the
Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921) * russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...
of 1919–1921. At the same time, the government of the new Polish state, with pressure from the Allies agreed to grant political autonomy to Galicia, but not Volhynia.


West Belarus

The Treaty of Riga signed between sovereign Poland and the
Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
representing the
Soviet Ukraine The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
without any participation from Belarusian side assigned almost half of the modern-day
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
(the western half of
Soviet Belarus The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
) to the
Polish Second Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...
. The government of the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
according to the text of the Riga treaty was also acting "on behalf of
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
" formed in the course of war.Photocopy of Polish text of the Riga Treaty made on March 18, 1921
Additionally, in accordance with the Treaty, the Soviet Russia received three regions from the newly formed Soviet Belarus, which were reassigned back by the Bolsheviks in 1924 and 1926.''Europa World Year'', Book 1, Taylor & Francis Group, Page 713
/ref> Protests by the exiled government of the
Belarusian Democratic Republic The Belarusian People's Republic (BNR; be, Беларуская Народная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Narodnaja Respublika, ), or Belarusian Democratic Republic, was a state proclaimed by the Council of the Belarusian Democratic R ...
proclaimed in 1918 were ignored by Poland and the Soviets. According to
Per Anders Rudling Per Anders Rudling (born 11 April 1974 in Karlstad)The Algemeiner Per Anders Rudling.''The Algemeiner'' Jewish & Israel News. Articles by Per Anders Rudling. Retrieved 30 May 2014. is a Swedish-American historian, In response to the Canadian-Ukrai ...
, the Belarusian language was essentially pushed out of the schools in Polish
West Belarus Western Belorussia or Western Belarus ( be, Заходняя Беларусь, translit=Zachodniaja Bielaruś; pl, Zachodnia Białoruś; russian: Западная Белоруссия, translit=Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of mod ...
in violation of the Minorities' Treaty between Poland and the Western powers of 1919. The Polish author Marek Wierzbicki brings this in connection with the fact that the first textbook of Belarusian grammar was written no earlier than 1918.Stosunki polsko-białoruskie.
Bialorus.pl, Białystok, Poland. Retrieved from the Internet Archive on 9 September 2015.
Following the intentions of the majority of the Polish society, the Polish government introduced harsh policies of polonization and assimilation of Belarusians in West Belarus. The Polish official
Leopold Skulski Leopold Skulski ; (15 November 1878, Zamość – Brest, 11 June 1940) served as prime minister of Poland for six months from 13 December 1919 until 9 June 1920 in the interim Legislative Sejm during the formation of sovereign Second Polish Rep ...
, an advocate of polonization policies, is being quoted as saying in the
Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
in late 1930s: "''I assure you that in some ten years you won't be able to find a single thnicBelarusian n West Belarus'".
Władysław Studnicki Władysław Gizbert-Studnicki, a Polish politician and publicist, was born on 15 November 1867 in Dünaburg, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire (current Latvia), into a Polish szlachta family of the Kresy region. Both his parents fought in t ...
, an influential Polish official at the administration of the Kresy region, openly stated that Poland needed the Eastern regions as an object for
colonization Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
. There widespread cases of discrimination of the
Belarusian language Belarusian ( be, беларуская мова, biełaruskaja mova, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language. It is the native language of many Belarusians and one of the two official state languages in Belarus. Additionally, it is spoken in some p ...
, it was forbidden for usage in state institutions.
Orthodox Christians Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churc ...
also faced discrimination in interwar Poland. This discrimination was also targeting assimilation of Eastern Orthodox Belarusians. The Polish authorities were imposing
Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
in Orthodox church services and ceremonies, initiated the creation of ''Polish Orthodox Societies'' in various parts of West Belarus (
Slonim Slonim ( be, Сло́нім, russian: Сло́ним, lt, Slanimas, lv, Sloņima, pl, Słonim, yi, סלאָנים, ''Slonim'') is a city in Grodno Region, Belarus, capital of the Slonimski rajon. It is located at the junction of the Ščar ...
, Bielastok,
Vaŭkavysk Vawkavysk ( be, Ваўкавы́ск, ; russian: Волковы́ск; pl, Wołkowysk; lt, Valkaviskas; yi, וואלקאוויסק; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#V, names in other languages) is one of the oldest towns in ...
,
Navahrudak Novogrudok ( be, Навагрудак, Navahrudak; lt, Naugardukas; pl, Nowogródek; russian: Новогрудок, Novogrudok; yi, נאַוואַראַדאָק, Novhardok, Navaradok) is a town in the Grodno Region, Belarus. In the Middle A ...
). Belarusian Roman Catholic priests like Fr. Vincent Hadleŭski who promoted Belarusian language in the church and Belarusian national awareness were also under serious pressure by the Polish regime and the leadership of the Catholic Church in Poland. The Polish Catholic Church issued documents to priests prohibiting the usage of the
Belarusian language Belarusian ( be, беларуская мова, biełaruskaja mova, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language. It is the native language of many Belarusians and one of the two official state languages in Belarus. Additionally, it is spoken in some p ...
rather than
Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
in Churches and Catholic Sunday Schools in West Belarus. A 1921 Warsaw-published instruction of the Polish Catholic Church criticized the priests introducing the Belarusian language in religious life: “''They want to switch from the rich Polish language to a language that the people themselves call simple and shabby''”. Before 1921, there were 514 Belarusian language schools in West Belarus.  In 1928, there were only 69 schools which was just 3% of all existing schools in West Belarus at that moment. All of them were phased out by the Polish educational authorities by 1939.Матэрыялы для падрыхтоýкі да абавязковага экзамену за курс сярэняй школы: Стан культуры у Заходняй Беларусі у 1920–я-1930-я гг: характэрныя рысы і асаблівасці
/ref> The Polish officials openly prevented the creation of Belarusian schools and were imposing Polish language in school education in West Belarus. The Polish officials often treated any Belarusian demanding schooling in Belarusian language as a Soviet spy and any Belarusian social activity as a product of a communist plot. The Belarusian civil society resisted polonization and mass closure of Belarusian schools. The Belarusian Schools Society ( be, Таварыства беларускай школы), led by
Branisłaŭ Taraškievič Branislaw Adamavich Tarashkyevich, russian: Бронисла́в Ада́мович Тарашке́вич, lt, Bronislavas Taraškevičius, pl, Bronisław Adamowicz Taraszkiewicz (20 January 1892 – 29 November 1938) was a Belarusian public fi ...
and other activists, was the main organization promoting education in Belarusian language in West Belarus in 1921–1937.


=Resistance to polonization in West Belarus

= Compared to the (larger) Ukrainian minority living in Poland, Belarusians were much less politically aware and active. Nevertheless, according to Belarusian historians, the policies by the Polish government against the population of West Belarus increasingly provoked protests and armed resistance. In the 1920s, Belarusian partisan units arose in many areas of West Belarus, mostly unorganized but sometimes led by activists of Belarusian left wing parties. In the spring of 1922, several thousands Belarusian partisans issued a demand to the Polish government to stop the violence, to liberate
political prisoners A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...
and to grant autonomy to West Belarus. Protests were held in various regions of West Belarus until mid 1930s. The largest Belarusian political organization, the ''
Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union The Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union or the Hramada ( be, Беларуская Сялянска-Работніцкая Грамада ( Lacinka: ''Biełaruskaja Sialanska-Rabotnickaja Hramada''), pl, Białoruska Włościańsko-Robotnicza H ...
'' (or, the Hramada), which demanded a stop to the polonization and autonomy for West Belarus, grew more radicalized by the time. It received logistical help from the Soviet Union, and financial aid from the
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
. By 1927 ''Hramada'' was controlled entirely by agents from Moscow. It was banned by the Polish authorities, and further opposition to the Polish government was met with state-imposed sanctions once the connection between ''Hramada'' and the more radical pro-Soviet
Communist Party of Western Belarus The Communist Party of Western Belorussia ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Białorusi, KPZB; be, Камуністычная партыя Заходняй Беларусі, КПЗБ) was a banned political party in the Interwar Poland, active i ...
was discovered. The Polish policy was met with armed resistance.''An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires''. Edited by James S. Olson. Page 9

/ref>


West Ukraine

Territories of Galicia (Central Europe), Galicia and
Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...
had different backgrounds, different recent histories and different dominant religions. Until the First World War, Galicia with its large Ukrainian
Greek Catholic The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...
population in the east (around Lviv), and Polish
Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in the west (around Kraków), was controlled by the
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
. On the other hand, the Ukrainians of Volhynia, formerly of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(around Rivne), were largely Orthodox by religion, and were influenced by strong
Russophile Russophilia (literally love of Russia or Russians) is admiration and fondness of Russia (including the era of the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire), History of Russia, Russian history and Russian culture. The antonym is Anti-Russian se ...
trends. Both "Polish officials and Ukrainian activists alike, distinguished between Galician and Volhynian Ukrainians" in their political aims. There was a much stronger national self-perception among the Galician Ukrainians increasingly influenced by OUN (Ukrainian nationalists).


= Religion

= While the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , native_name_lang = uk , caption_background = , image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG , imagewidth = , type = Particular church (sui iuris) , alt = , caption = St. George's C ...
(UGCC), which functioned in communion with the
Latin Rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...
Catholicism, could have hoped to receive a better treatment in Poland where the leadership saw Catholicism as one of the main tools to unify the nation – the Poles under Stanisław Grabski saw the restless Galician Ukrainians as less reliable than the Orthodox Volhynian Ukrainians, seen as better candidates for gradual assimilation. That's why the Polish policy in Ukraine initially aimed at keeping Greek Catholic Galicians from further influencing Orthodox Volhynians by drawing the so-called "Sokalski line".
Timothy Snyder Timothy David Snyder (born August 18, 1969) is an American historian specializing in the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe. He is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute f ...
, ''The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999'', Yale University Press,
No preview available. Google Books, p.144
See instead
PDF copy (5,887 KB), last accessed: 25 February 2011.
Due to the region's history the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church attained a strong Ukrainian national character, and the Polish authorities sought to weaken it in various ways. In 1924, following a visit with the Ukrainian Catholic believers in North America and western Europe, the head of the UGCC was initially denied reentry to Lviv for a considerable amount of time. Polish priests led by their bishops began to undertake missionary work among Eastern Rite faithful, and the administrative restrictions were placed on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. With respect to the Orthodox Ukrainian population in eastern Poland, the
Polish government The Government of Poland takes the form of a Unitary state, unitary Parliamentary republic, parliamentary Representative democracy, representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Poland, President is the head of state and the Prime ...
initially issued a decree defending the rights of the Orthodox minorities. In practice, this often failed, as the
Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, also eager to strengthen their position, had official representation in the
Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
and the courts. Any accusation was strong enough for a particular church to be confiscated and handed over to the Roman Catholic Church. The goal of the two so called " revindication campaigns" was to deprive the Orthodox of those churches that had been Greek Catholic before Orthodoxy was imposed by the tsarist Russian government. 190 Orthodox churches were destroyed, some of the destroyed churches were abandoned,Manus I. Midlarsky, "The Impact of External Threat on States and Domestic Societie" n:''Dissolving Boundaries'', Blackwell Publishers, 2003,
Google Print, p. 15.
/ref> and 150 more were forcibly transformed into Roman Catholic (not Greek Catholic) churches. Such actions were condemned by the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, who claimed that these acts would "destroy in the souls of our non-united Orthodox brothers the very thought of any possible reunion."


= Education

= The Polish administration closed many of the popular
Prosvita Prosvita ( uk, просвіта, 'enlightenment') is a society for preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and education among population that created in the nineteenth century in the Austria-Hungary Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. By the ...
Society reading rooms, an action which, combined with the devastation brought about during the war years, produced a marked decline in the number of reading rooms, from 2,879 in 1914 to only 843 in 1923. As for the educational system, the provincial school administration from the Austrian era, which was based in L'viv and had separate Ukrainian representation, was abolished in January 1921. All decisions were subsequently to be made in Warsaw and to be implemented by administrators in local school districts. Ukrainians now found themselves within six different school districts (L'viv, Volhynia, Polissia, Cracow, Lublin, and Bialystok), although at least initially the Ukrainian school system, especially at the elementary level, was left undisturbed.Paul Robert Magocsi. ''A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples''.
University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university calen ...
. 2010
In 1924, the government of Prime Minister
Władysław Grabski Władysław Dominik Grabski (; 7 July 1874 – 1 March 1938) was a Polish National Democratic politician, economist and historian. He was the main author of the currency reform in the Second Polish Republic and served as Prime Minister of Poland ...
passed a law (known as the lex Grabski), over the objections of Ukrainian parliamentary representatives, which set up bilingual Ukrainian and Polish schools. The result was a rapid decline in the number of unilingual Ukrainian schools together with a sharp increase in Polish-Ukrainian bilingual schools in Galicia and Polish schools in Volhynia (1,459 in 1938). Since Ukrainians in Poland had only limited control over the formal education of their children, the
Plast The Plast National Scout Organization of Ukraine ( uk, Пласт Національна Скаутська Організація України, ''Plast Natsionalna Skautska Orhanizatsiia Ukrayiny''), commonly called Ukrainian Plast or simply P ...
scouting movement took up the challenge of inculcating youth with a Ukrainian national identity. Plast scouts came into being on the eve of World War I on Ukrainian lands in both the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian empires, but it was during the interwar years in western Ukraine (in particular Galicia and Transcarpathia) that they had their greatest success. By 1930, the organization had over 6,000 male and female members in branches affiliated with secondary schools in Galicia and with Prosvita societies in western Volhynia. Concerned by Plast's general popularity and the fact that many of its 'graduates' after age eighteen joined clandestine Ukrainian nationalist organizations, Poland's authorities increased restrictions on the movement until banning it entirely after 1930. It nonetheless continued to operate underground or through other organizations for the rest of the decade. The principle of "numerus clausus" had been introduced following which the Ukrainians were discriminated when entering the
Lviv University The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
(not more than 15% of the applicants' total number, the Poles enjoying not less than the 50% quota at the same time).Brief history of L'viv University


= Land reform

= The land reform designed to favour the Poles in
Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...
,Snyder,
op cit ''Op. cit.'' is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ' or ''opere citato'', meaning "the work cited" or ''in the cited work'', respectively. Overview The abbreviation is used in an endnote or footnote to refer the reader to a cited work, standing ...

Google Print, p.146
/ref> where the land question was especially severe, and brought the alienation from the Polish state of even the Orthodox Volhynian population who tended to be much less radical than the Greek Catholic Galicians. Traditionally, Volhynian Ukrainian peasants had benefited from rights of use in the commons, which in Volhynia meant the right to collect wood from forests owned by nobles. When all land was treated as private property with defined owners, such traditional rights could not be enforced. Forests were cleared, and the lumber sold abroad. Volhynian peasants lost access to what had been a common ''good'', without profiting from its commercialization and sale. By 1938 nearly two million acres (some 800,000 hectares) had been redistributed within Ukrainian-inhabited areas. The redistribution did not necessarily help the local Ukrainian population, however. For instance, as early as 1920, 39 percent of the newly allotted land in Volhynia and Polissia (771,000 acres 12,000 hectares had been awarded as political patronage to veterans of Poland's 'war for independence,' and in eastern Galicia much land (494,000 acres 00,000 hectares had been given to land-hungry Polish peasants from the western provinces of the country. This meant that by the 1930s the number of Poles living within contiguous Ukrainian ethnographic territory had increased by about 300,000.


Lithuanian lands

During the
interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
of the 20th century (1920–1939), Lithuanian–Polish relations were characterized by mutual enmity. As a consequence of the conflict over the city of
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
, and the
Polish–Lithuanian War The Polish–Lithuanian War (in Polish historiography, Polish–Lithuanian Conflict) was an undeclared war between newly-independent Lithuania and Poland following World War I, which happened mainly, but not only, in the Vilnius and Suwałki reg ...
, both governments – in the era of nationalism which was sweeping through Europe – treated their respective minorities harshly. In 1920, after the staged mutiny of
Lucjan Żeligowski Lucjan Żeligowski (; 17 October 1865 – 9 July 1947) was a Polish-Lithuanian general, politician, military commander and veteran of World War I, the Polish-Soviet War and World War II. He is mostly remembered for his role in Żeligowski's M ...
, Lithuanian cultural activities in Polish controlled territories were limited and the closure of Lithuanian newspapers and the arrest of their editors occurred. 33 Lithuanian and Belarusian cultural activists were formally expelled from Vilnius on 23 January 1922 and deported to Lithuania. In 1927, as tensions between Lithuania and Poland increased, 48 additional Lithuanian schools were closed and another 11 Lithuanian activists were deported.Żołędowski, Cezary (2003). ''Białorusini i Litwini w Polsce, Polacy na Białorusi i Litwie'' (in Polish). Warszawa: ASPRA-JR. , p. 114. Following Piłsudski's death in 1935, the
Lithuanian minority in Poland The Lithuanian minority in Poland consists of 8,000 people (according to the Polish census of 2011) living chiefly in the Podlaskie Voivodeship (mainly in Gmina Puńsk), in the north-eastern part of Poland. The Lithuanian embassy in Poland notes t ...
again became an object of Polonization policies with greater intensity. 266 Lithuanian schools were closed after 1936 and almost all Lithuanian organizations were banned. Further Polonization ensued as the government encouraged settlement of Polish army veterans in the disputed regions. About 400 Lithuanian reading rooms and libraries were closed in Poland between 1936 and 1938.Makowski, Bronisław (1986). ''Litwini w Polsce 1920–1939'' (in Polish). Warszawa: PWN. , pp. 244–303. Following the 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania, Lithuania re-established diplomatic relations with Poland and efforts to Polonize Lithuanians living in Poland decreased somewhat.


Post–World War II

During
Operation Vistula Operation Vistula ( pl, Akcja Wisła; uk, Опера́ція «Ві́сла») was a codename for the 1947 forced resettlement of 150,000 Ukrainians (Boykos and Lemkos) from the south-eastern provinces of post-war Poland, to the Recovered Te ...
of 1947, the Soviet-controlled Polish communist authorities removed the support base for the still active in that area
Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( uk, Українська повстанська армія, УПА, translit=Ukrayins'ka povstans'ka armiia, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World ...
by forcibly resettling about 141,000 civilians residing around Bieszczady and
Low Beskids The Low Beskids ( sk, Nízke Beskydy) or Central Beskids ( pl, Beskidy Środkowe; cs, Centrální Beskydy; uk, Центральні Бескиди) are a mountain range in southeastern Poland and northeastern Slovakia. They constitute a middle ...
to northern areas of the so-called
Recovered Territories The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands ( pl, Ziemie Odzyskane), also known as Western Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Zachodnie), and previously as Western and Northern Territories ( pl, Ziemie Zachodnie i Północne), Postulated Territories ( pl, Z ...
awarded by the Allies to Poland in the post-war settlement. The farmers received financial help from the Polish government and took over homes and farms left behind by the displaced Germans, in most cases improving their living conditions due to the increased size of the newly reassigned properties, brick buildings, and running water. Dr Zbigniew Palski from IPN explains that identical operation was performed in Ukraine by the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
at exactly the same time. It was dubbed Operation West. Both operations were coordinated from Moscow; however, there was a shocking difference between their outcomes. While Operation Vistula was underway in south-western Poland, the Soviet NKVD deported over 114,000 mostly women and children from
West Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian ...
to
Kazakh SSR ; kk, Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы) *1991: Republic of Kazakhstan (russian: Республика Казахстан; kk, Қазақстан Республикасы) , linking_name = the ...
and
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
during the parallel Operation West. Only 19,000 men were among the Soviet deportees, most of them sent to coal mines and stone quarries in the north. None of the families deported by the NKVD received any farms or empty homes to live in. They were instantaneously forced into extreme poverty and hunger. Dr Zbigniew Palski informs also that during Operation Vistula none of the three conditions of the
United Nations Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...
of 26 June 1945 about the possible struggle toward their own self-determination among the Polish deportees was broken at the time. Other international laws were already in effect.


References


External links


Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures: Poland's Heritage



Założenia programowe głównych obozów politycznych wobec szkolnictwa dla ludności białoruskiej w II Rzeczypospolitej


Further reading

* * * *
Tomasz Kamusella Tomasz Kamusella FRHistS (born 24 December 1967) is a Polish scholar pursuing interdisciplinary research in language politics, nationalism and ethnicity. Education Kamusella was educated at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of P ...
. 2013. Germanization, Polonization, and Russification in the Partitioned Lands of Poland–Lithuania (pp 815–838). ''Nationalities Papers''. Vol 41, No 5. * Litwin Henryk
''Central European Superpower''
''BUM Magazine'', 2016. * * * * * {{Cultural assimilation, sp=ize Polish culture History of Lithuania (1569–1795) Ruthenians in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Western Belorussia (1918–1939) Belarusian language History of the Lithuanian language Lithuania–Poland relations Social history of Ukraine History of Eastern Europe Cultural assimilation Slavicization Rusyn history