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Poland Ukrainians and Belarusians
Before World War II, the Ukrainian population,
concentrated
in the far southeast along the Carpathian Mountains,
constituted
13.8 percent of interwar Poland's total, making the
Ukrainians by
far the largest ethnic minority. Postwar border changes
and
resettlement removed most of that ethnic group, whose
persistent
demands for autonomy in the 1930s had become a serious
worry for
the postwar communist government. In 1947 most remaining
Ukrainians were resettled from their traditional centers
in
Rzeszów and Lublin districts in southeastern Poland to
northern
territory gained from Germany in the peace settlement.
State
propaganda designed to further isolate the Ukrainians
reminded
Poles of wartime atrocities committed by Ukrainians. In
1991 some
130,000 Ukrainians remained in the resettlement regions,
while
the rest of the Ukrainian population was widely dispersed
and
assimilated.
Beginning in 1989, Ukrainians in Poland sought redress
for
the abuses they had endured under communist regimes. The
Union of
Ukrainians in Poland demanded that the postcommunist
government
condemn the postwar deportation policy and compensate
Ukrainians
and their churches for state confiscation of property in
the
resettlement period. In 1992 all such claims awaited
approval by
parliament. Property claims by the Greek Catholic Church
aroused
controversy for two reasons. First, the Polish Catholic
Church
had occupied many former Greek Catholic churches and
refused to
return or share them. Second, conflicting claims between
Greek
Catholic Ukrainians and the Ukrainians of the Polish
Autocephalous Orthodox Church threatened the minority with
a
major rift along religious lines
(see Other Churches
, this
ch.).
In 1992 estimates of the Ukrainian population in Poland
ranged from 200,000 to 700,000. Of that number, roughly
one-third
belonged to the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, a
branch of
the Greek Orthodox Church. The remainder belonged to the
Greek
Catholic Church, which recognizes the authority of the
Vatican.
Orthodox Ukrainians are especially visible in Poland
because they
compose nearly the entire population of the Polish
Orthodox
Church. Because of the importance of religion in Polish
society,
the relations of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland with
the two
major minority religions influence the status of Ukrainian
communities in areas other than religion. In the communist
era,
the government attempted to minimize the danger of
Ukrainian
nationalism by shifting its support as the two Ukrainian
churches
sought recognition. The Ukrainian Social and Cultural
Society,
founded in 1956, published a weekly newspaper in Ukrainian
and
supported several schools in Warsaw, with the purpose of
preventing the assimilation of Ukrainians into Polish
society.
The size of the Belarusian population also was disputed
in
the early 1990s. In 1991 the official figure was 250,000,
but
minority spokesmen claimed as many as 500,000 people.
Although
concentrated in a smaller area (nearly all live in the
Bialystok
District adjoining the Belarusian border), the
Belarusianminority
has been less assertive of its national identity than have
been
the Ukrainians. Bialystok is one of Poland's least
prosperous and
most sparsely populated regions. Mainly composed of
peasants, the
minority includes few educated citizens, and the group has
received little support from Belarus itself. Therefore,
low
national self-awareness has led to easy assimilation into
Polish
society. The Belarusian Social and Cultural Society,
founded in
1956 as the minority's official mouthpiece in Poland,
remained
under the control of former communists in 1991 because of
Belarusian distrust of Solidarity's ties with the Polish
Catholic
Church. Since 1989, however, some new ethnic organizations
have
appeared. A weekly newspaper is published in Belarusian,
and a
few new student, political, and social organizations have
brought
a modest revival of Belarusian ethnic community in the
early
postcommunist years.
Data as of October 1992
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