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History of the Orchid Pavilion
Editor|History of the Orchid Pavilion
As early as 1924, a critic of state policy wrote that even if the main policy of the state towards minorities was clear – that is, Polonization through schooling – it was carried out in a chaotic way.
While the discriminatory shifts of the late 2030s illustrate the overall evolution of Pisudesky's camp, some scholars believe that Pisudsky's attachment to the idea of federalism and state assimilation is legendary and not reflected in his correspondence or statements.
It is also not enough to say that the state first discriminated against Ukrainians, and then incited anti-Ukrainian sentiments among the Lemko-Rusyns, discriminating against the Lemko-Rusyns.
On the contrary, the authorities skillfully used the internal conflict between Russians to promote assimilation.
The conversion policy towards Orthodox and Greek Catholicism is the best example of a divide-and-rule strategy.
Archival material shows that the Polish authorities have detailed information about the situation on the ground and are able to manipulate local conflicts, especially as a result of the army's increasing involvement in politics against minorities.
However, pre-war discrimination is far from the events that took place in Lemkivshchyna during and after World War II.
During the war, the German occupiers took advantage of Ukraine's desire for an independent state to pit the Ukrainians against the Poles.
Despite the safer identity of Ukrainians, many Lemko-Rushin continued to choose Poles, Ken Katten.98 Many were repressed and sent to labor camps and concentration camps.
The local population set up their own underground organization, fought the Germans, assisted Polish partisans in smuggling people and information into Slovakia.
Locals who identified as Ukrainians and Ukrainians brought to the area became heads of police and local administrations.
They served until the arrival of the Soviet army, which, as mentioned in the introductory story, began to punish people with a pro-Ukrainian attitude or those who supported the Ukrainian rebels (UPA).
In 1944-1946, about 60-70% of the pre-war population was transferred to the USSR.
To avoid resettlement, the Lemko-Rusyn people have adopted different strategies, such as obtaining Roman Catholic birth certificates, obtaining "certificates of loyalty" from Polish neighbors and local authorities, or writing letters to state authorities.
An overview of the reports of local authorities at the time shows that the Polish authorities generally supported Lemko-Rusyns.
They stressed that the cooperation of Lemkos played an important role during the war, that the UPA forced Lemkos to support them, and that their stay in the region was vital to the local economy.
This does not mean that the Lemko people who remain in the region will continue to be Lemco.
Other local administrators will say that deprived of the Eastern Christian Church, the Lemko people will "dissolve/melt into politics", so only the Lemko people suspected of supporting the United Awami Alliance should be expelled while others will be assimilated.
Despite such reports and petitions, resettlement activities continue.
In Lena, 45 Greek Catholics and Orthodox Christians joined the Roman Catholic Church; However, even that doesn't mean they can stay.
After the war, the Polish communist government decided to resettle the remaining Lemko and Ukrainians on the so-called "reconquest territories", which were previously German.
The official view that resettlement is necessary to eliminate Ukrainian partisans allegedly supported by locals – is now refuted by most historians, who emphasize that the official goal is to integrate Lemko and Ukrainians into Polish society.
The actual lack of support for the UPA by the Lemko people is not only manifested in academics, but also reported by members of the Alliance for Progress.
Others point out that after joining the Communist Party, many Lemkos fought the UPA as militias, or noted that different regions of Lemkivshchyna had different levels of support.
To "justify" Lemko's resettlement - after all, shortly before the war, they were described by scholars as "loyal citizens" and "apolitical people" - a representative of the Polish government wrote to the Polish Academy of Sciences demanding a statement on the origin of Lemko.
The expertise gained shows that the Lemko are a disloyal, opportunistic and passive group that has nothing to do with the Polish nation, who never voted for the Poles and did not risk their lives under Nazi occupation.
Following the publication of the report, brutal deportations took place, including the so-called "Operation Vistula" between April and August 1947, which led to the resettlement of some 140,000-150,000 people, including 40,000-60,000 from the Lemko region.
The dispersal of the Lemke was thought to favor their assimilation.
However, those who settled in the new territories faced many difficulties, both from the authorities who discriminated against them, and from the Poles, who themselves were expelled from Ukraine and Belarus.
At the same time, Polish settlers were taken to the abandoned village of Lemko.
While the resettled Lemkos were able to officially return to their lands after 1956, authorities and Polish settlers continued to create obstacles.
In total, about 2,000 Lemko returned between 1956 and 1958, and another 3,000 in the following decades.
In Leśna, only 6 families were able to stay in the village in 1947.
At the end of the 50s of the 20th century, about 40 families returned, and today the village is inhabited by Poles and Lemkes.
A series of resettlements – to and from the "Lemko Land" – have once again changed the identity of Ukrainians and Lemko-Rusyns.
Lemko's memoirs and oral histories clearly show that life in western Poland could foster both tendencies.
For some, distinguishing oneself from "Ukrainians" is a way to be accepted by the population of Poland and to distance themselves from the views of Communist propaganda, in which Ukrainians are members of the "UPA band."
Others see Ukrainian identity and Ukrainian organizations as the only means of preserving their Lemko-Rusyn traditions.
As before, the way of identifying with oneself is highly contextualized and influenced by clergy, elites, and activists.
Among the Lemko who returned to Lerna in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century and worked hard to establish relations with Polish settlers - many of whom already occupied their old homes and fields - there was more bluntness.
In hindsight, they described relations with the Poles as "keeping up with the times" and admitted "ups and downs."
While they stressed that some conflicts and quarrels do not necessarily have an ethnic or religious background, Pietro's view was widely shared that "when Poles like us, they call us 'Lemkos' and when they don't, they call us 'Ukrainians'".
Such comments reveal the special weight and persistence of anti-Ukrainian bias.
It is worth mentioning the words of Andrzej Sulima-Kamiński, who asked in 1985 why Poles continue to consider Ukrainians as "Cossacks" and "UPA members" and compare them with "quiet Russians, Lemkos, Hutsurs and other "odd people of ethnology".
As a result of the transformation of 1989, the complex matrix of national identities has changed again, raising hopes for recognition of minority rights and compensation for years of discrimination under communist rule.
In 2005, after several years of intense debate, Poland introduced new legislation to regulate minority rights, defining "Ukrainians" as minorities and "Lemkos" as minorities.
Unsurprisingly, both Ukrainians and Lemkos questioned the distinction.
Ukrainians say that the Lemko identity is an invention, they are actually Ukrainians.
In contrast, the Lemkos only protested that they were designated as an ethnic group, which seemed to give them a lower status than Ukrainians.
Moreover, according to the most recent national census (from 2002 to 2011), the number of Ukrainians and Lemkes is much smaller than earlier research hypothesized – the product of assimilationist tendencies and a persistent fear of claiming non-Polish identity.
In recent decades, there has been another Cappado-Rushin movement in Poland, and contacts between the Lemko-Rusyns living in Poland and abroad have increased.
New associations have emerged, carrying out a series of cultural and educational activities that would have repercussions even greater if not for the divisions within the Lemko-Rusyn community.
Lemko-Rusyn's identity remains a playing field between those who claim to accept Ukrainian identity as the only way to preserve Lemko's traditions and promote closer cooperation within the transnational Carpatho-Rusyn community.
As mentioned earlier, they continue to be influenced by Polish state policy, Polish academic literature, and increasingly by the interest in "ethnographic curiosities" in Polish society.
More than 70 years after the end of World War II, the Petro house has an elegant agro-tourism hut, and Polish city dwellers eagerly come to Leśna to discover the "Lemko culture" and spend time in the "multicultural village".
Some of them fell in love with the area and decided to build a "Lemco style" wooden house, denouncing the locals' preference for modern stone architecture.
Lemko-Rusyns may blink when they read the name "traditional Lemko dish" at a local restaurant, but the economic aspect of this particular identity politics is crucial.
The local government is also using the "Lemko culture" as a means of attracting funding, as it is economically beneficial in EU policy to promote minority languages and improve the bilingual image of schools.
Despite the irony, all of this seems to further support Hann's point that "the case of the Lemke family highlights the plasticity and ultimate contingency of collective identity in all its forms".
Many studies on nationalism and state-building emphasize the process of "creating" or "imagining" national communities, using ethnic communities as the basis for state projects, thereby essentializing the identity of ethnic groups and presenting their original characteristics.
The case of Lemko-Rusyns reminds us that ethnic groups are no easier to "imagine" or "create" than nations.
In this article, I follow other scholars who have discussed the "Lemko problem" and emphasize the process of "creating" rather than "creating" a race.
The case of Lemko-Rusyns takes us to examine a range of factors that influence collective identity, including the geographic location of the area where they once lived.
It is often observed that the isolation of Rusyn villages hinders (or at least slows down) the development of collective identity, while subjecting them to the expansion of ideas of different peoples.
Letters, official documents and oral histories reflect the variety of reactions to these views.
If we want to fully illustrate these reactions, we need to consider that they are not related to the "past of the former state (ist)", but, as Agnjeska Harumba convincingly indicates, as consciously chosen forms of national identification.
Prefer this term to state indifference, and I agree with Halumba that this identity "is national, in the sense that they all take the various meanings of the state as a fact of the social world, but refuse to follow at least some of them, and also refuse to abide by the rules of the state."
This research not only provides a broader reflection on "ethnic formation", but also contributes to the study of minority policy in Poland.
Therefore, I stressed the importance of paying more thorough attention to the policies and ideologies of the Polish regime, which challenged the generally idealized view of the Second Republic.
This case provides an important example of Poland's policy of "colonization" or "civilization" – a theme that is more prominent in Polish literary studies than in the social sciences and historical reflections.
bibliography
[1] Paul R. Magosi, Minority Problems in the Second Polish Republic