Census data in Poland may appear biased
Though the Polish mass media do not mention the Ukrainian minority very often, the recently completed general census in Poland draw attention to the national minorities’ problem. The census of 2002 is to present the situation in this country on the eve of its entering the European Union and is first general census after 1946 in course of which questions on nationality and spoken language, which were to be defined by respondents themselves, were put. Even before the census started, opinions were heard that it will be impossible to get unbiased data on the precise number of national minorities, since people, unwilling to run into trouble, will not give sincere answers on their national identity. Reality surpassed all apprehensions.
Jacek Kuron, renowned Polish dissident who repeatedly ran for president and was probably the only Pole to call for tolerance to Lviv city authorities’ decision on the Polish Young Eagles Cemetery, claimed that during the census people were forced to declare themselves Poles. An official memorandum of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland lists a number of violations: interviewers filling out Polish nationality in the questionnaires by themselves, demanding from respondents to prove their non- Polish origin, attempting to persuade Lemky that their spoken language is not Ukrainian but Lemky, filling out the nationality column in pencil or ignoring this question at all (in part, they “forgot” to ask a renowned politician and active worker of the Ukrainian movement in Poland Miroslaw Czech about his national identity; according to Gazeta Wyborcza, he learnt about the fact that such question was included in the questionnaire only from the Internet). Similar violations were registered in respect to other national groups.
How can such position of the institutions responsible for conducting the census be explained? Evidently, the pressure of historical prejudice plays its role here. It is common knowledge that in the structure of the interwar Poland’s population between 1921 and 1939, which included also Western Galicia, Lviv, and Volyn, national minorities made up around 35%. The biggest minority were Ukrainians (14%, or around five million), followed by Jews (2.7 million) and Belorussians (990,000). At that time Ukrainians inhabited a clearly defined territory, having their own parties, schools, and press. The relations between the Ukrainian ethnic community and Polish government in that period were at least ambiguous, since most Ukrainians did not perceive Poland as their country, because it appeared after the Riga peace treaty of 1921 by dividing Ukrainian lands between Poland and Soviet Russia.
Radical changes in the national structure of the whole Central Europe took place during World War II and in the initial post-war years. First the Nazis annihilated the Jews almost completely (it was on Polish territory that the biggest death camps like Treblinka and Auschwitz were situated), then, starting from 1946, by an agreement between Stalin and Polish Communist authorities, the “population exchanges” began.
As a result, in the censuses of 1950, 1960, 1978, and 1988 in Poland there was simply no question on nationality included. In 1976 a document of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party claimed that Poland is a “mononational country,” while 120 settlements were renamed in 1977 in the former Ukrainian ethnic territory. In addition, through textbooks and cinema a xenophobic image of Banderite Ukrainians was fostered.
There is no official data on the number of Ukrainians and other national groups presently living in Poland. Scholarly papers point out that the whole number of national minorities in Poland is around 600,000, with 200,000 to 300,000 of them being Ukrainians, around 200,000 – Belorussians, and 20,000 to 30,000 Slovakians.
A characteristic of the Ukrainian minority in Poland is its territorial dispersion resulting from the Wisla operation. This causes lack of its political representation. According to the Newsweek Polska weekly, the Belarusians and Ukrainians of Polissia traditionally vote for the ruling SLD (Democratic Left Union) party, which, obtaining due to this six places in Seim and two in Senate only in Polissia, did not keep any of its pre-election promises. Among those promises were creating an institute of commissioner on the rights of national minorities and equalizing the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in rights with the Catholic one.
Modern Poland, unlike its Communist predecessor, officially observes international requirements and standards for protecting rights of national minorities. The state guarantees equality to all its citizens and their right for developing national self-identity, language, and education. It continues to finance publishing the newspaper of Polish Ukrainians Nashe Slovo [Our Word], conducting folklore festivals, etc. There are over eighty schools with the Ukrainian language of instruction in Poland (a condition for their existence is presence of seven children wishing to study Ukrainian in primary school and fourteen in secondary one).
The attitude toward Ukrainians in Polish society is quite different. Vivid evidence for this is the problem of commemorating UPA soldiers in Poland. There are few dozen monuments to them in the country, the terms for erecting which were an immediate connection with a burial place and bilingual inscriptions “not hurting the feelings” of Polish citizens. However, even under such conditions history does not pass into history. Several years ago burial places were discovered near Lesno primarily mistaken for graves of Poles killed by Bolsheviks. When they were identified as Ukrainian burial places, a scandal arose, in course of which slogans were heard, Ukrainians, go to Ukraine.
Another heavy blow for the Ukrainian community in Poland was dismantling an ancient dome of a Greek Catholic church in Przemysl, now Catholic St. Teresa Church. Contrary to the authorities’ assurance that the dome would not be destroyed, it was demolished under the pretext of its insecure technical condition.
Regardless to the efforts from Polish authorities and intellectuals, which are not completely unsuccessful, the Poles demonstrate the least tolerance towards the Ukrainians, Gypsies, and Jews. Simultaneously, their attitude toward the Slovak and Czech minorities is positive, while toward Lithuanians and Germans – neutral to positive.
For all that, Poland is not the single exception from a general tendency. National question and minorities problem remain a sore point for all Central European states: suffice it to recall the so-called Benes decrees problem causing conflicts in Czech Republic’s relations with Germany and Austria or a problem caused by passing the law On Foreign Hungarians in Hungary.
