 Monument to Polish exiles, insurgents of the Baikal Insurrection, in Rechka Mishikha, before 2023 destruction | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 170 [1] (2010, census) |
Poles in Buryatia form part of the Polish diaspora in Siberia. Polish presence in Buryatia dates back over 300 years. [2]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1926 | 1,241 | — |
| 1939 | 726 | −41.5% |
| 1959 | 391 | −46.1% |
| 1970 | 363 | −7.2% |
| 1979 | 388 | +6.9% |
| 1989 | 894 | +130.4% |
| 2002 | 249 | −72.1% |
| 2010 | 170 | −31.7% |
| Sources: [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [1] | ||
One of the first Poles in Buryatia was Nicefor Czernichowski. [2] In 1764, nine either Poles or people of Polish descent was registered in Udinsk. Following the Partitions of Poland, Russia deported many Poles, political prisoners, members of the secret Polish resistance and insurgents, as well as ordinary criminals, to katorga in Siberia, including Buryatia. [9] In 1859–1862, exiled Aleksander Zenowicz, was the mayor of Kyakhta. [10]
The Polish Baikal Insurrection of 1866 also took place in Buryatia. Polish insurgents disarmed Russian convoys at Vydrino, Pereyomnaya and Mishikha, and then gathered in Mysovsk, before they clashed with Russian troops at Mishikha on 28 June 1866. [11] One of the leaders of the insurrection, Leopold Eljaszewicz, still lived near Verkhneudinsk as of 1883. [12]
Some Poles came to Buryatia voluntarily, including physician Julian Talko-Hryncewicz , who settled in Kyakhta and also conducted ethnographic and archeological work in the region. [13] The exiled Włodzimierz Zalewski was a city councillor of Verkhneudinsk in 1906–1908, and was one of the initiators of the construction of a Catholic church in Verkhneudinsk, [14] the sole such church in Buryatia. The church was consecrated in 1909, and Poles served as the first parish priests. [15] Sizeable Polish communities were founded in Mysovsk, Tankhoi and Vydrino along the Trans-Siberian Railway. [16] Polish exiles also popularized playing the piano in Buryatia. [17]
In the 1920s, most Poles left Buryatia for Poland, which just regained independence after World War I. [18] According to the 1926 Soviet census, there were 1,241 Poles in the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, constituting the seventh largest ethnic group of the republic. [3] In 1937–1938, remaining Poles were, like in other parts of the USSR, targeted by the Polish Operation of the NKVD. [18]
The main cultural organization of Poles in Buryatia is the National and Cultural Autonomy of Poles "Hope", based in Ulan-Ude, founded in 1993. [1] [19] In 1996 it started publishing a Polish magazine Polaki w Burjatii in Ulan-Ude. [20]
The Polish exiles, insurgents of the Baikal Insurrection of 1866, were commemorated with a memorial in Rechka Mishikha in 2000, which was destroyed in 2023.
The Museum of History of Buryatia in Ulan-Ude contains works of Polish painter and exile to Siberia Leopold Niemirowski. [21]
Polish people, or Poles, are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Central Europe. The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland defines the Polish nation as comprising all the citizens of Poland, regardless of heritage or ethnicity. The majority of Poles adhere to Roman Catholicism.
The Polish diaspora comprises Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish as Polonia, the name for Poland in Latin and many Romance languages.
Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. It borders Irkutsk Oblast and Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world to the north, Zabaykalsky Krai to the east, Tuva to the west and Mongolia to the south. Its capital is the city of Ulan-Ude. It has an area of 351,300 square kilometers (135,600 sq mi) with a population of 978,588. It is home to the indigenous Buryats.
Tygodnik Powszechny is a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, published in Kraków, which focuses on social, cultural and political issues. It was established in 1945 under the auspices of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha. Jerzy Turowicz was its editor-in-chief until his death in 1999. He was succeeded by Adam Boniecki, a priest.
A sybirak is a person resettled to Siberia. Like its Russian counterpart sibiryák the word can refer to any dweller of Siberia, but it more specifically refers to Poles imprisoned or exiled to Siberia or even to those sent to the Russian Arctic or to Kazakhstan in the 1940s.
The Bykivnia graves are a National Historic Memorial next to the former village of Bykivnia within Kyiv woodland, Bykivnia Forest. During the Stalinist period in the Soviet Union, it was one of the unmarked mass grave sites where the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, disposed of thousands of executed "enemies of the Soviet state".
The Polish minority in Belarus numbers officially 288,000 according to 2019 census. However, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland the number is as high as 1,100,000. It forms the second largest ethnic minority in the country after the Russians, at around 3.1% of the total population. An estimated 205,200 Belarusian Poles live in large agglomerations and 82,493 in smaller settlements, with the number of women exceeding the number of men by 33,905. Some estimates by Polish non-governmental sources in the U.S. are higher, citing the previous poll held in 1989 under the Soviet authorities with 413,000 Poles recorded.
The Baikal Insurrection, also known as the Siberian Uprising, was a short-lived uprising of about 700 Polish political prisoners and exiles (Sybiracy) in Siberia, Russian Empire, that started on 24 June 1866 and lasted for a few days, until their defeat on 28 June.
Georgia–Poland relations refers to foreign relations between Georgia and Poland. Both nations enjoy close and historically friendly relations, rooted in similar experiences, solidarity and shared struggles against foreign imperialism, especially that of Russia.
The World Polonia Games are a multi-sport event held annually for the Polish diaspora (Polonia) and Polish minorities living outside of Poland. Held annually and alternating between summer and winter games each year, the games bring hundreds of participants from multiple countries worldwide, such as Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Poles in Kazakhstan form one portion of the Polish diaspora in the former Soviet Union. Slightly less than half of Kazakhstan's Poles live in the Karaganda region, with another 2,500 in Astana, 1,200 in Almaty, and the rest scattered throughout rural regions.
There is a long history of Poles in Azerbaijan. Although the current Polish population of the Republic of Azerbaijan is lower than in former times, the number of people with Polish descent in the capital city Baku is around 2,000 and several thousand self-identified Poles live in Azerbaijan. Poles as an ethnic group have lived in Azerbaijan for centuries. The Russian Empire included Azerbaijan and parts of Poland, thus it could deport members of opposition of Polish nationality there, which explains the presence of Poles in Azerbaijan.
The flight and forced displacement of Poles from all territories east of the Second Polish Republic (Kresy) pertains to the dramatic decrease of Polish presence on the territory of the post-war Soviet Union in the first half of the 20th century. The greatest migrations took place in waves between the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and in the aftermath of World War II in Europe.
Aleksander Szymkiewicz was a Polish architect who worked in the Russian Empire in the 1880s–1900s. He was a member of the City Council and municipal architect of Tbilisi from 1885 to 1891.
Karol Maliszewski is a Polish poet, prose writer, literary critic, and literary scholar. He is habilitated doctor - professor at the University of Wrocław.
Lucja Miller Rucinska was a Polish composer and pianist who lived in Ukraine for many years. She published and performed under the name Lucja Rucinska.
Poles in Armenia form a small population of a few hundred, and are part of the Polish diaspora of the Caucasus region, with first Poles coming to Armenia in the 16th century.
Poles in Georgia form a population estimated at 6,000, and are part of the Polish diaspora of the Caucasus region. Polish presence in Georgia dates back to the 18th century.
Poles in Uzbekistan form a small population, although historically the second most numerous Polish diaspora of Central Asia. Polish presence in Uzbekistan dates back to the 19th century.
Poles in Kyrgyzstan form a small population, part of the Polish diaspora in Central Asia. Polish presence in Kyrgyzstan dates back to the 19th century.