The
Polish minority in Ukraine officially numbers (according to the 2001 census) about 144,130. The history of Polish settlement in current territory of Ukraine dates back to 1030–31. The colonization of present Ukraine by large numbers of Poles became more common after the
Union of Lublin in 1569 when most of the Ukrainian lands were incorporated into the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
History since the 1930s
Before
World War II , there were hundreds of thousands of Poles living in current territory of Ukraine. In the
Ukrainian SSR east of the
Zbruch river, in
1926 there were 476.435 Poles, which was 1.6% of total population of Soviet Ukraine. In current western Ukraine, which was then part of the
Second Polish Republic, the population of Poles ranged from 17% in the
Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939) to 58% in the
Lwów Voivodeship. Altogether, Poles in these lands made around 35% of total population.
This large population of Polish settlers dramatically decreased in the 1930s and 1940s as a result of
Soviet mass deportation of the Poles in Ukraine to
Siberia and other eastern regions of the
USSR as well as a campaign of ethnic cleansing, carried out by Ukrainian nationalists in western part of the country (see:
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia). There was a
Polish Autonomous District, located near
Zhytomyr, created in 1926, but it was disbanded in 1935 and its Polish inhabitants were either murdered or deported to
Kazakhstan.
That number has been steadily decreasing over the past half a century; the censuses of
Soviet Ukraine gave the following numbers: 1959 – 363,000; 1970 – 295,000; 1979 – 258,000 and 1989 – 219,000. This decline can be explained due to policies of
Sovietization, which aimed to destroy
Polish culture on Soviet Ukraine. The situation of Polish minority has improved when
Ukraine regained independence, policy of Sovietization ended and various Polish non-governmental organizations were allowed to operate.
As most Poles from the
Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union have been repatriated to Poland (primarily
Regained Territories), there were actually relatively few Poles left on the former southeastern territories of the
Second Polish Republic incorporated into Soviet Union. Most Poles who remained in Ukraine were and are concentrated in
Zhytomyr Oblast (about 49,000) and
Khmelnytskyi Oblast (about 20,000). There are also many in
Lviv Oblast.
On
October 13,
1990 Poland and Ukraine agreed to the "Declaration on the foundations and general directions in the development of Polish–Ukrainian relations". Article 3 of this declaration said that neither country has any territorial claims against the other, and will not bring any in the future. Both countries promised to respect the rights of national minorities in the land and to improve the situation of minorities in their countries. This declaration re-affirmed the historic and ethnic ties between Poland and Ukraine, containing a reference to "the
ethnic and
cultural kinship of the Polish and Ukrainian peoples". Under the "Declaration of rights of nationalities of Ukraine" (approved
November 7,
1991) Poles, as minorities, were guaranteed political, economic, social, and cultural rights. The Polish minority in Ukraine were and have been active supporters of Ukrainian independence; they supported
Viktor Yushchenko over
Viktor Yanukovych virtually as a bloc in the disputed
2004 election.
See also
Footnotes
