| Polish Minority In The Soviet Union |
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| polonia | |
| ethnic groups in russia | |
| history of the soviet union and soviet russia | |
| history of poland 1918–1939 | |
| history of poland 1939–1945 | |
| history of poland 1945–1989 | |
| polish-soviet relations | |
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HISTORY OF POLES IN THE SOVIET UNION 1917-1920 Poles were revolutionaries and victims of the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War . Marian Lutosławski and his brother Józef , the father of the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski , were murdered in Moscow in 1918.> 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 Polish-Soviet revolutionaries include Konstantin Rokossovsky , Julian Marchlewski , Karol Świerczewski and Felix Dzerzhinsky , founder of the Cheka secret police which would later turn into the NKVD . There were Polish units in the Red Army and a Polish Communist government-in-exile.> 1921-1938 Polish communities were inherited from Imperial Russia after the creation of the Soviet Union. After World War I , Poland became an independent country, and its secession was finalized by the Peace Of Riga in 1921 at the end of the Polish-Soviet War , which left significant territories populated by Poles within the Soviet Union. Initially, the Poles were given 2 Polish Autonomous District s, one in Belarus and one in Ukraine . The first one was named Dzierzynszczyzna , after Felix Dzierżyński ; the second was named Marchlewszczyzna after Julian Marchlewski . Following the Collectivization of agriculture under Joseph Stalin , both autonomies were abolished and their populations were subsequently murdered or deported to Kazakhstan in 1934-1938.> Many people starved during the deportation and after, since the deported were moved to sparsely populated areas, unprepared for migration, lacking basic facilities and infrastructure. The survivors were under supervision of the NKVD/GPU, cruelly punished for any sign of discontent.> In addition to the deportation of the Poles (the first recorded deportation of a whole ethnic group in the USSR, see Polish Operation Of The NKVD ), the Polish Communist Party was also decimated following the Great Purge and was eventually abolished in 1938.> Another decimated group of Poles was Roman-Catholic clergy, who opposed the forced atheization.> A number of Poles fled to Poland during this time, among them Igor Newerly and Tadeusz Borowski . 1939-1947 During World War II , the Soviet Union occupied vast Areas Of Eastern Poland (so called '' Kresy ''), and another 5.2-6.5 million Poles (from the total population of about 13,5 million of these territories) were added.> Some claim that as many as 1.7 million of Poles were later deported to far away territories of USSR, such as Siberia. Other historians give a much lower estimation, about half a million Poles murdered and deported.> On March 30 2004 , the head of the Archival Service of Russia n Foreign Intelligence Service , general Vasili Khristoforov gave final exact numbers of deported Poles. According to him, in 1940 exactly 297,280 Poles were deported, in June 1941 another 40,000. This numbers don't include P.O.W.s, prisoners, small groups, people who voluntarily moved into the SU, men drafted into stroybats.> The following is case of direct executions of Poles during the 1939-1941 occupation:
After World War II most Poles from ''Kresy'' were expelled into Poland, but officially 1.3 million stayed in the USSR.> Some of them were motivated by the traditional Polish belief that one day they would become again lawful owners of the land they lived on. Some of them were kept forcefully in. There are reasons to believe that those expelled were more happy than those who stayed.> 1947-1991 The Polish minority was one of the few whose numbers decreased over time, according to official statistics. They also belonged to the least educated ethnic group, which allegedly was caused by ethnic persecutions.> After 1989, Poles who survived in Kazakhstan started to emigrate due to national tensions, mainly to Russia and, supported by immigration society, to Poland. The number remaining is between 50 000 and 100 000.> After the Collapse Of The Soviet Union in 1991 , the following post-Soviet countries have significant Polish minorities: >
LIST OF PROMINENT SOVIET POLES SEE ALSO REFERENCED EXTERNAL LINKS |
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