Zaolzie w polityce rządu i opinii społeczeństwa polskiego (1925-1937)

Immediately after the dicision of the Ambasador’s Council of July 28, 1920,concerning the division of the Cieszyn Silesia, it became clear thet the said delimitation did not win the acceptance of any serious political forces in Poland. The Polish state’s difficult international situation, however, made the Polish authorities abandon the idea of resolving the Zaolzie question by force. Fruitless negotiations were, at the same time, conducted to obtain the cossion of at least a part of the disputed territory in Poland’s favour and various diplomatic interventions were undertaken to improve the situation of the Polish population inhabiting the Zaolzie Silesia. In spite of the low efficiency of such initiatives, in 1925 the political relation between Poland and Czechoslovakia were normalised and a liquidation agreement was signed, which led to a normalisation of mutual relations in the divided area. The actions of the Polish Republic in relation to the Zaolzie were influenced by various factors that were difficult to harmonise. One of them was the necessity to subjugate the Zaolzie question to the atate’s general interests, which included an acceptance of the Versailles status quo, and attempts to find a platform of co-operation with Czechoslovakia in view of the growing German threat. Another factor was the desire to maintain the Polish national character of the Zaolzie motivated by the reluctance to give up that territory in an unequivocal way. The expectation of a cooperation with Czechoslovakia in the international context led to the policy of letting bygones be bygones. The democratic nature of the Chechoslovak state afforded a possibility of making the defence of the Polish national rights the responsibility of the Polish deputies in the parliament in Prague. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs tried then to persuade the leaders of the Polish community in the Zaolzie to assume a more activistic attitude. At the same time, the Polish Consul in Moravska Ostrava supported financially the institutions of the Polish national life nad tried to resist the assimilating policy of the Czech authorities. This tactics brought, up to a point, some results, but it did not prevent all attempts at an assimilation on the part of influential Czech organisations and bussiness circles, neither did it safeguard the conditions of the national life in the Zaolzie so as to obviate the need for the steady flow of the Polish financial aid without which the Polish educational and cultural institutions would not survive. In the late 1920s and early 1930s a rapprochement between Warsaw and Prague seemed to substantiate the hopes for a betterment of the situation of the Poles in the Zaolzie. In the wake of such hopes there appeared Polish-Czechoslovak societies and Czechoslovak-Polish clubs. These clubs reised high expectations in the consular centre in Moravska Ostrava, which hoped that they would help to break down the barriers between the Polish and Czech population and to obtain the support of influential Czech circles for the postulates of the Polish minority. The most committed members of the clubs (just like all, with no exceptions, Polish cosuits in Moravska Ostrava) were treated, however, with great suspicion and aversion by the Czech nationalist circles, as well as by the personalities representing the views of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The most far-reaching initiative, that is the idea of calling a reconciliation conference concerning the matters of the Cieszyn Silesia in 1932, ended in a fiasco. Such factors as the way the 1930 sensus was carried out, the obvious deterioration of the living standards at the time of the Great Depression, and the attitude of the persons responsible for the Czech foreign policy who insisted on all Polish citizens leaving Czechoslovakia before “equitable” negotiations with Poland could begin, signalled the end of the period in which a positive and active conduct of the Polish population could seem an efficient antidote to the growing pressure for assimilation. The political events of 1933 changed the perception of the chances for a cooperation between Poland and Czechoslovakia, both of them being situated between Germany and the Soviet Union, which, in early 1934, made the representatives of the Polish Republic change their policy in the Zaolzie. From then, on the support of the Polish authorities and society for the Polish minority was emphasised, also a pressure was being exerted on the Czechoslovak government by means of an organised press campaign in Poland. The Czechoslovak government, however, did not yield under pressure, and assumed an intransigent attitude, taking this opportunity to get rid of a certain number of the Poles in the Zaolzie. The assimilation of the local Poles both of a natural kind and enforced by political and economic pressure seemed to the Czech authorities to be the best way to pacify this important borderline region. The tactics to which the Polish side resorted did not then lead to an improvement of the situation of the ethnic Poles in Czechoslovakia, it had, however, a different result, namely it aroused the national feelings and kindled the hopes for the Polish state’s stronger support for the minority aspirations. In Poland, on the other hand, the internal situation in Poland’s southern neighbour state, beginning with the elections of 1935, started to be looked at from the perspective of the apparently imminent crisis. In view of this, while the idea of an intensive propaganda camping was abandoned, the Czech policy in relation to the ethnic minorities was carefully watched, and the internal integration of the Polish community in the Zaolzie was strongly supported

Polacy i Ukraińcy na Wołyniu do 1939 roku

Wołyń to kraina leżąca na wschód od Bugu — w dorzeczu Prypeci, między Polesiem na północy a Podolem na południu. Po zawarciu Unii Lubelskiej województwo wołyńskie ze stolicą w Łucku stało się częścią Korony Królestwa Polskiego. Granice administracyjne, w jakich pozostawał Wołyń, zmieniały się znacznie na przestrzeni wieków. W Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów w skład województwa wołyńskiego wchodziły powiaty łucki, włodzimierski i krzemieniecki. Po rozbiorach gubernia wołyńska w granicach Imperium Rosyjskiego objęła większość ziem dawnego województwa uszczuplonego jednak o obszar, który na południu zajęła Austria. W skład guberni weszła także część ziemi chełmskiej i dawnego województwa brzesko‑litewskiego oraz dwa powiaty dawnego województwa kijowskiego: żytomierski i owrucki, okrojone jednak poważnie na wschodzie. Losy zmagań polsko‑bolszewickich z lat 1919—1920 przesądziły o ukształtowaniu się granicy wschodniej Rzeczypospolitej. Przyłączenie części Wołynia do Polski postanowiono w układzie zawartym przez Semena Petlurę i Józefa Piłsudskiego w przededniu wyprawy kijowskiej. Jednak wobec rozwoju sytuacji wojennej to nie przedstawiciele niepodległej Ukrainy Semena Petlury (Ukraińskiej Republiki Ludowej), a delegaci Rosji Sowieckiej i sowieckiej Ukrainy stali się ostatecznie sygnatariuszami traktatu pokojowego. Granica nakreślona w preliminariach pokojowych i formalnie zatwierdzona w traktacie ryskim przecinała gubernię wołyńską, dzieląc ją na połowę. Obszar leżący między Bugiem a Zbruczem, o powierzchni niespełna 36 tys. km², wchodził w skład Rzeczypospolitej jako województwo wołyńskie. Tworzyły je powiaty włodzimierski, kowelski, łucki, rówieński, dubieński, krzemieniecki, horochowski, kostopolski, zdołbudowski, sarneński i lubomelski

. Śląsk i Ślązacy na łamach polskiej prasy w Wilnie w okresie Litwy Środkowej

Postanowienie konferencji paryskiej z 28 czerwca 1919 roku o plebiscycie w sprawie przynależności Górnego Śląska odbiło się silnym echem na całym terytorium odradzającego się państwa polskiego. Informacje o losach różnych części postulowanego terytorium traktowane były jako istotne dla wszystkich Polaków, ponad politycznymi podziałami. Dotyczyło to również tych ziem, na których bieżące wydarzenia, w tym działania zbrojne, oddalały perspektywę wcielenia do Polski. Po zawarciu traktatu wersalskiego także wileńskie pisma różnych opcji politycznych zajmowały się wydarzeniami na odległym Śląsku[..

Społeczeństwo województwa śląskiego wobec problemu Zaolzia w latach 1922-1938

Die Teilung des Teschener Schlesiens zwischen Polen und die Tschechoslowakei empfing die polnische Bevölkerung als eine mit dem ethnographischen Prinzip im Widerspruch stehende Entscheidung. Die Autorin forscht nach der Antwort auf Frage: Welche Meinungen über das streitige Gebiet, das der Tschechoslowakei zugefallen war, äußerten die Einwohner Schlesiens in den Jahren 1922—1938? Diese Woiwodschaft, die an die Tschechoslowakei grenzte und den polnischen Teil des Teschen-Gebiets umfaßte, wurde zum Zufluchtsort für Flüchtlinge aus dem Olsa-Gebiet, organisierte Hilfe für die dort gebliebenen Polen. Dies wurde von den Woiwodschaftsbehörden und durch das Interesse der schlesischen Presse gefördert, die häufig zur finanziellen Unterstützung des kulturellen und nationalen Lebens der Polen jenseits der Olsa aufrief. Die Zeitungen brachten die Mißbilligung gegenüber der Entnationalisierung der polnischen Minderheit, wonach die tschechischen Behörden strebten, zum Ausdruck. Eine neue Feindheitswelle gegen die Tschechoslowakei und Forderungen nach Genugtuung für Polen jenseits der Olsa tauchten 1934 auf. Diesmal trat die Oppositionspresse dagegen auf. Trotzdem unterstützten alle wichtigsten politischen Gruppierungen in Schlesien im Herbst 1938 die Forderung, das Teschen-Gebiet an Polen anzuschließen

Podróże do Wilna i początki wileńskiej turystyki w drugiej połowie XIX wieku i w początkach XX stulecia (do 1914 roku) w świetle bedekerów i relacji

In the 19th century Vilnius, as the seat of the governor, and administrative and trade center (especially during the annual fairs), was visited by the inhabitants of the surrounding lands. The city was the target of religious pilgrimages to The Gate of Dawn and Calvary near Vilnius. Youths who wanted to learn and study also came there. Newcomers took the opportunity to visit places connected with the history of the pagan Lithuania, the monuments from the time when Vilnius was one of the two capitals of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and to see souvenirs connected with Lithuanian magnates and with the lives of the eminent Romantic poets: Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki. In the 1850s, the first Vilnius travel guides written by Adam Honory Kirkor were published. They were used by travelers, who could travel by train since the early 186Os. Travel guides of the nineteenth century show the picture of the city and ancient hotels, restaurants and public transport. From the reports of the people who visited Vilnius at that time we learn about how travel conditions were changing, how everyday life of the city inhabitants looked like and how tourists and citizens were spending their free time in Vilnius

Stosunki narodowościowe na Wileńszczyźnie w latach 1920-1939

During the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century the territories of the former Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie experienced the process of shaping modem nationalistic movements. At the end of the 19th century, the area of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belorussian language borderline was located in the Vilnius region, whereas Vilnius itself was an important centre of the Polish and Jewish culture. The majority of the population of the Lithuanian language started to identify themselves with the Lithuanian nation. Active, though not numerous, Belorussian elites appeared, and it was not only the representatives of noble families and Christian intelligentsia in Vilnius, but also the majority of the plebs around Vilnius that identified themselves with the Polish culture and nationality. The Vilnius region was to a large extent inhabited by the representatives of other ethnicreligious groups, such as Jews, Russians (old-rites and Orthodox ones), Tatars and Karaims. A multicoloured world of different languages, cultures, beliefs the Vilnius region constituted in the first half of the 20th century fascinates with its wealthness, variety and contrasts. In the final period of the World War I (between 1919—1920), the Belorussians tried to realize the conception of the „West Belorussia” in the territories of the Vilnius region whereas the Lithuanians fought for Vilnius as the capital of their ethnographic country. The Polish population — strongly diversified — hesitated between the conception of an organic inclusion of the Vilnius region into the Polish nation and an attempt to build the cantonal structure in which the capital city of Vilnius would be the centre of the linguistically Polish segment of the Lithuanian country at the same time, connected with the federation bonds with Poland. Although in 1922 the Vilnius region found itself within the scope of the Polish nation, some of the nationalities did not agree with the role of an ethnic minority for a longer period of time. After the inclusion of the Vilnius territory to Poland, the relations with small ethnicreligious groups turned out positive. They received the new possibilities of development. The acceptance of their independence was treated as the evidence of the Polish policy of tolerance towards different beliefs and languages. What was important was the fact that the very communities, in view of their number and disperse, could not be irredentistic in nature. Sometimes their elites became assimilated (Tatars) or the principle of loyalty towards each national authority was a constantly practised means of saving identity (Karaims). The activity of the Lithuanian organizations aimed at consolidating communities, separating them from any Polish influences, reinforcing the national awareness and treating the affiliation to the Polish nation as a temporary state. Under the influence of Kovno, people avoided the participation in the life of the Polish nation, for example, restraining themselves from the participation in the parliamentary elections. In such a situation, the local relations between the Polish and Lithuanian population were tense, too. They led to conflicts within the church or school context. However, many Polish-Lithuanian bonds, deriving from a longlasting neighborhood, family relations, similar mentality and economic conditions, did not disappear totally. The leaders of such a diversified Jewish community initially approved of supporting the Lithuanian aspiration. It was connected with the assumption that the Lithuanian country which, in comparison to Poland, promised the Jews the cultural-national autonomy, would provide the Jewish population with broad national laws and considerable influence on its life. The elites of the Jewish community finally accepted the inclusion of the Vilnius territory to the Polish nation. A compromise was established, consisting in the introduction of the principle of financing Jewish education and charity institutions from the Vilnius budget proportionally to the percentage of their inhabitants. At the same time, the admirable development of culture in jidish language eliminated the factor of reluctance, strong on the Polish side right after the war, namely the fear of a Russification role of the Jewish community in Vilnius. The attitude of the Belorussian activists was not homogeneous. Some of them were in favour of supporting Lithuanian aspirations, counting on the promised autonomy or even a Lithuanian-Belorussian nation. As the second step to the independence, some of them engaged in an attempt to free the Belorussian territories from the Soviet ruling. After the inclusion of the Vilnius region into Poland, they demanded the autonomy for the area inhabited by the population of the Belorussian language, and soon, some of the Belorussian elites accepted the postulate of the separation of the “West Belorussia” from the Polish country. The lack of political and economic stability in the period of parliamentary democracy delayed the precision of the Polish programme within the scope of the ethnic policy. It was only after the acceptance of laws in 1925 and the creation of the Vilnius voivodship at the end of the very year that contributed to the creation of the basis of the relations between Poland and its institutions and nationalities inhabiting this voivodship. In the period preceding the outbreak of the World War II, the action of reinforcing Polishness in the borderlands, and aiming at the elimination of the factors accused of hostility towards the country affected the relations between the voivodship administration and a part of the Polish society and ethnic minorities. Lithuanians and Belorussians were practically devoid of their own schooling and structure of the national-educational organizations. In spite of some improvement in the very relations, starting from 1938, the very last period constituted a burden overloading the Polish-Belorussian and Polish-Lithuanian relations on the eve of the World War II

Razem czy osobno? : narody zamieszkujące Wileńszczyznę wobec perspektywy samostanowienia po I wojnie światowej (do początku 1920 roku)

The occupation politics of German authorities during the World War I led to a revival of national movements in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the final period of war the aspirations of the elites from particular ethnic groups aiming at building their own state organisms became the source of the conflict. The object of rivalry was Vilnius and Wileńszczyzna. The Lithuanians aimed at building the nation based on the domination of culture and the Lithuanian language with the capital in Vilnius. They were against the federation with Poland. They received support of the part of Jewish politicians for the price of the promise to introduce the national- -cultural autonomy, although the Jews from Vilnius were in favour of the conception of the ethnic, not national state. The Polish community was divided. The minority constituted the advocates of the reference to tradition of a multinational Lithuanian state in which different languages would be justified and the restoration of the relationship of Poland and Lithuania would constitute a protection of the laws of the Polish culture and would create a potential able to resist danger on the part of Russia. In the Polish camp the idea of incorporating Wileńszczyzna with Vilnius into Poland dominated. The Belorussian elites were in the most difficult situation, wanting to build the nation covering both the part of Wileńszczyzna and Minsk. Unshaped national awareness of Belorussian masses and lack of a broader class of intelligentsia forced the Belorussian activists to search for the external support on the part of Russia, Poland and Lithuania. However, each of the neighbouring countries had territorial businesses which collided with Belorussian aspirations. The advocates of Piłsudski, editing “Nasz Kraj”in 1919 in Vilnius regarded a multinational Lithuania combined with Poland by means of federation as the only chance to unite contradictory programmes. They did not manage though to reconcile either Lithuanians or Belorussians or even the majority of the Polish society in Vilnius for the very conception

Białoruski i rosyjski ruch antysowiecki na Litwie Środkowej w świetle materiałów policji z lat 1921-1922

The article, by Joanna Januszewska-Jurkiewicz, treats already of the 20th c. It takes the reader to the North East of the Polish Second Republic. After the end of the Polish-Soviet war and the delimitation of Poland’s eastern border by the treaty of Riga, the Russian and Ukrainian monarchists, inhabiting the borderland near the city of Vilno, did not cease to strive for political changes and for a revision of state borders. The article is based on the Vilno Archive, and the so called police sources, and it shows the backstage of Poland’s secret service becoming interested in these developments. While the Polish side favoured them on the sly, it could not support them officially, for a provocation, such as the invasion of the independent part of Lithuania with the capital in Kovno, could end up in Poland’s compromising herself. This is why a group of former officers, connected with Joseph Balachowicz, a brother of Stanislaus Bulak-Balachowicz. The article shows also the complications of the „Byelorussian cause” after the First World War

Epilog wspólnoty polsko-białoruskiej : organizatorzy i przywódcy antybolszewickiego oporu na pograniczu polsko-białoruskim w latach 1920-1922

On the basis of the area inhabited by the population of Belorussian the author of the article shows the problem of a multilevel national identity. She presents an “overlap” of the three levels of identification: a Polish political community of the Republic of Poland, a Lithuanian historio-political tradition of Lithuanian statehood and Belorussian, that is a regional and ethnic at the same time. An image of politicians, soldiers and culture creators (among others Antoni Lewicki, Stanisława and Józef Bułak-Bałachowicz as well as Wiaczesław Adamowicz) deriving after the end of the World War I from the tradition of a Polish — Belorussian dualism and perceiving a Polish-Belorussian cooperation as a chance of an effective defense against Russian imperialism and Bolshevik aspirations

Wilnianin na Górnym Śląsku. Wizyta Józefa Piłsudskiego w województwie śląskim w 1922 roku

Włączeniu części Górnego Śląska w granice państwa polskiego towarzyszyły oficjalne uroczystości powitalne z udziałem przedstawicieli władz państwowych i wojskowych II Rzeczypospolitej. 20 czerwca 1922 roku na czele oddziałów Wojska Polskiego przybył do Katowic gen. Stanisław Szeptycki, a 16 lipca nastąpiła uroczystość podpisania dokumentu stwierdzającego połączenie Górnego Śląska z Polską. Przyjechała na nią liczna, 150-osobowa delegacja z przedstawicielem Naczelnika Państwa w osobie ministra spraw wewnętrznych Antoniego Kamińskiego, z marszałkiem Sejmu Wojciechem Trąmpczyńskim oraz kilkudziesięcioma posłami. W skład delegacji weszli też przedstawiciele rządu: minister pracy i opieki społecznej Ludwik Darowski i minister przemysłu i handlu Stefan Ossowski1. W kolejnym miesiącu na Śląsk zawitał Naczelnik Państwa Józef Piłsudski.[...