Polish minority in Russia

Last updated
Poles in Russia
Moscow, Catholic Church in Presnya.jpg
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary in Moscow was built from 1899–1911 by Polish architect Tomasz Bohdanowicz-Dworzecki. It holds Polish-language services.
Total population
47,125 (2010)
Regions with significant populations
Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, Omsk Oblast, Moscow Oblast, Republic of Karelia, Sverdlovsk Oblast
Religion
Majority Roman Catholicism
Minority Eastern Orthodox Church
Related ethnic groups
Polish diaspora

There are currently more than 47,000 ethnic Poles living in the Russian Federation. This includes native Poles as well as those forcibly deported during and after World War II. When including all of the countries of the former Soviet Union, the total number of Poles is estimated at up to 3 million.

Contents

History

1652, Smolensk Boyars from Polish-Lithuanian Commonweath

Zainsk, Kazan governate, was originally a fort occupied by Chelny strelsty, archers and servicemen, and 81 Polish Cossask prisoners from Smolensk area after the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. [1]

1654, Polotsk Gentry from Polish-Lithuanian Commonweath

In 1654 the Poles were taken from Polotsk, 141 people from the Polish small gentry were evacuated to Tiinsk together with the Cossacks, who, before that, "universal servants of Polish kings carried serfdom". Another party of the Polish gentry was settled in the settlement of Old Kuvak [Старой Куваке] and Old Pismyanka [Старой Письмянке] of the future Bugulma district [Бугульминского уезда], Kazan governate. They became part of the Simbirsk Line. Polish gentry until 1830 were considered available soldiers for conscription or draft.

1768 – The Bar Confederation and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish students in Russian exile Zeslanie Studentow - Malczewski.jpg
Polish students in Russian exile

Many Poles were exiled to Siberia, starting with the 18th-century opponents of the Russian Empire's increasing influence in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (most notably the members of the Bar Confederation). [2]

Tsarist Russia until 1917

Christmas Eve in Siberia by Jacek Malczewski (1892) Malczewski wigilia na syberii.jpg
Christmas Eve in Siberia by Jacek Malczewski (1892)
Speakers of Polish in the Russian Empire by region according to the 1897 Imperial Russian census Polish language in the Russian Empire (1897).svg
Speakers of Polish in the Russian Empire by region according to the 1897 Imperial Russian census

After the change in Russian penal law in 1847, exile and penal labor ( katorga ) became common penalties to the participants of national uprisings within the Russian Empire. This led to increasing number of Poles being sent to Siberia for katorga, they were known as Sybiraks. Some of them remained there, forming a Polish minority in Siberia. Most of them came from the participants and supporters of the 19th century November Uprising and January Uprising, [3] [4] the participants of the 1905–1907 unrest [4] to the hundreds of thousands of people deported in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. [4]

Originally, 148 Polish exiles were stationed in the Orenburg province, but by the beginning of June 1864, 278 people had been sent to the Orenburg governate to take up residence under the supervision of the police, and by mid-1865, 506 people. In addition, 831 people were identified for establishment on the state lands of the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk districts, of which 754 people were allocated to Ufa. [5]

There were about 20,000 Poles living in Siberia around the 1860s. [4] An unsuccessful uprising of Polish political exiles in Siberia broke out in 1866. [4]

In the late 19th century there was also a limited number of Polish voluntary settlers, attracted by the economic development of the region. [4] Polish migrants and exiles, many of whom were forbidden to move away from the region even after finishing serving their sentence, formed a vibrant Polish minority there. [4] Hundreds of Poles took part in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. [4] Notable Polish scholars studied in Siberia, among them Aleksander Czekanowski, Jan Czerski, Benedykt Dybowski, Wiktor Godlewski, Sergiusz Jastrzebski, Edward Piekarski, Bronisław Piłsudski, Wacław Sieroszewski, Mikołaj Witkowski and others. [4]

In the Soviet Union

The Polish church in Steindamm was demolished by the Soviet administration in Kaliningrad in 1950. PolnischeKirche.jpg
The Polish church in Steindamm was demolished by the Soviet administration in Kaliningrad in 1950.

Millions of Poles lived within the Russian Empire as the Russian Revolution of 1917 started followed by the Russian Civil War. While some Poles associated with the communist movement, the majority of the Polish population saw cooperation with Bolshevik forces as betrayal and treachery of Polish national interests. [6] Marian Lutosławski and his brother Józef, the father of the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski, were murdered in Moscow in 1918 as "counter-revolutionaries". [7] Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz lived through the Russian Revolution in St. Petersburg, which had a profound effect on his works, many of which displayed themes of the horrors of social revolution. Famous revolutionaries with Polish origins include Konstantin Rokossovsky, Julian Marchlewski, Karol Świerczewski and Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka secret police which would later turn into the NKVD. However, according to their ideology they did not identify as Poles or with Poland, and members of the communist party viewed themselves as Soviet citizens without any national sentiments. The Soviet Union also organized Polish units in the Red Army and a Polish Communist government-in-exile.

In modern Russia

There were 73,000 Polish nationals living in Russia according to the 2002 Russian census. [8] This includes autochthonous Poles as well as those forcibly deported during and after World War II; the total number of Poles in what was the former Soviet Union is estimated at up to 3 million. [9] The number of Polish people in Russia was 47,125 in 2010.

Notable people of Polish-Russian descent

Painter Kazimir Malevich was a prominent Polish-Russian artist. Self-Portrait (1908 or 1910-1911).jpg
Painter Kazimir Malevich was a prominent Polish-Russian artist.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Civil War</span> Multi-party war in the former Russian Empire (1917–1922)

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the social-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Dzerzhinsky</span> Soviet revolutionary and politician (1877–1926)

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka and the OGPU, establishing state security organs for the Bolshevik regime. He was a key architect of the Red Terror and de-Cossackization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic</span> Soviet republic from 1920 to 1991

The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Byelorussia, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and afterwards as one of fifteen constituent republics of the USSR from 1922 to 1991, with its own legislation from 1990 to 1991. The republic was ruled by the Communist Party of Byelorussia. Other names included White Russia or White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Polish minority in the Soviet Union are Polish diaspora who used to reside near or within the borders of the Soviet Union before its dissolution. Some of them continued to live in the post-Soviet states, most notably in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, the areas historically associated with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katorga</span> System of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union

Katorga was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of Soviet Union–related articles</span>

An index of articles related to the former nation known as the Soviet Union. It covers the Soviet revolutionary period until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This list includes topics, events, persons and other items of national significance within the Soviet Union. It does not include places within the Soviet Union, unless the place is associated with an event of national significance. This index also does not contain items related to Soviet Military History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Józef Unszlicht</span> Polish and Russian activist (1879–1938)

Józef Unszlicht or Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht was a Polish and Russian revolutionary activist, a Soviet government official and one of the founders of the Cheka.

<i>Polish Operation</i> of the NKVD 1937–38 Soviet ethnic cleansing of Poles

The Polish Operation of the NKVD in 1937–1938 was an anti-Polish mass-ethnic cleansing operation of the NKVD carried out in the Soviet Union against Poles during the period of the Great Purge. It was ordered by the Politburo of the Communist Party against so-called "Polish spies" and customarily interpreted by NKVD officials as relating to 'absolutely all Poles'. It resulted in the sentencing of 139,835 people, and summary executions of 111,091 Poles living in or near the Soviet Union. The operation was implemented according to NKVD Order No. 00485 signed by Nikolai Yezhov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of Estonia</span> Estonian branch of the Soviet communist party

The Communist Party of Estonia was a regional branch of the Soviet communist party which in 1920–1940 operated illegally in Estonia and, after the 1940 occupation and annexation of the country by the Soviet Union, was formally re-merged into the USSR's All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) and operated as part of the CPSU until 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sybirak</span> Polish people exiled to Siberia

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusians in Russia</span> Major ethnic group in Russia

Belarusians are a major ethnic group in Russia. At the census of 2010, 521,443 Russian citizens indicated Belarusian ancestry. Major Belarusian groups live in the regions of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Karelia and Siberia. Most Belarusians in Russia are migrants from modern Belarus or their descendants, while a minor part of Belarusians in Russia are indigenous.

Anarchism in Russia developed out of the populist and nihilist movements' dissatisfaction with the government reforms of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Varvara Yakovleva (politician)</span> Russian Bolshevik politician

Varvara Nikolaevna Yakovleva was a prominent Bolshevik party member and Soviet government official who later supported Leon Trotsky's attempt to democratize the party. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1938 for membership in a "diversionary terrorist organization." She was later shot in the Oryol Central Prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanisław Bobiński</span>

Stanisław Feliks Bobiński was a Soviet communist politician, journalist and military commander of Polish origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polish population transfers (1944–1946)</span> Post WWII resettlement

The Polish population transfers in 1944–1946 from the eastern half of prewar Poland, were the forced migrations of Poles toward the end and in the aftermath of World War II. These were the result of a Soviet Union policy that had been ratified by the main Allies of World War II. Similarly, the Soviet Union had enforced policies between 1939 and 1941 which targeted and expelled ethnic Poles residing in the Soviet zone of occupation following the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland. The second wave of expulsions resulted from the retaking of Poland from the Wehrmacht by the Red Army. The USSR took over territory for its western republics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yemelyan Yaroslavsky</span> Russian revolutionary, Communist Party functionary, journalist and historian (1878–1943)

Yemelyan Mikhailovich Yaroslavsky was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Communist Party functionary, journalist and historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gleb Bokii</span> Soviet secret police official (1879–1937)

Gleb Ivanovich Bokii was a Soviet Communist political activist, revolutionary, and paranormal investigator in the Russian Empire. Following the October Revolution of 1917, Bokii became a leading member of the Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, and later of the OGPU and NKVD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flight of Poles from the USSR</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Beloborodov</span> Soviet revolutionary, politician, and regicide (1891–1938)

Alexander Georgiyevich Beloborodov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, party figure and statesman best known for his role as one of the chief regicides of Nicholas II and his family.

An index of articles related to the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War period (1905–1922). It covers articles on topics, events, and persons related to the revolutionary era, from the 1905 Russian Revolution until the end of the Russian Civil War. The See also section includes other lists related to Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union, including an index of articles about the Soviet Union (1922–1991) which is the next article in this series, and Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War.

References

  1. "Описание района". zainsk.tatarstan.ru.
  2. Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN   0-19-820171-0, Google Print, p.664
  3. (in English)Dennis J. Dunn (2004). The Catholic Church and Russia: Popes, Patriarchs, Tsars, and Commissars. London: Ashgate Publishing. p. 57. ISBN   0-7546-3610-0.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN   0-313-26007-9, Google Print, 538
  5. "Польские политические ссыльные 1863 года в Оренбургской губернии". Вестник Костромского Государственного Университета. 22 (4): 22–26. 16 June 2019 via eLibrary.ru.
  6. J. M. Kupczak "Stosunek władz bolszewickich do polskiej ludności na Ukrainie (1921–1939)Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie 1 (1997) Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego , 1997 page 47–62" IPN Bulletin 11(34) 2003
  7. "::4lomza.pl:: Regionalny Portal". Mpd.4lomza.pl. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
  8. "Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года". Perepis2002.ru. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
  9. Gil Loescher (8 August 1996). Beyond charity: international cooperation and the global refugee crisis. Oxford University Press. pp. 119–. ISBN   978-0-19-510294-9 . Retrieved 5 February 2012.