Abstract
Drawing on ethnographic and archival materials, this paper examines the ethnic politics of the Second Polish Republic by taking into account the experiences of the Lemko-Rusyn population, a minority East Slavic group inhabiting the peripheral mountainous area in southern Poland. It illustrates the changing policies towards Lemko-Rusyns and discusses the different responses of the local population to these policies, demonstrating the inadequacy of categories imposed from above as well as manifold motivations behind people's political views, choices of national identification, and religious conversions. In so doing, the article has three main objectives. First, in line with recent critical scholarship on nationalism in the Second Polish Republic, it attempts to problematize the – frequently exaggerated – difference between ‘federational’ and ‘assimilationist’ conceptions, exposing the discriminatory nature of interwar minority politics, as experienced locally. Second, moving beyond the interwar period, the article presents the long-term consequences of the interwar policies and the events of the Second World War, including a series of ethnic cleansings that took place in the aftermath of the war as well as present-day discourses on and policies towards ethnic and national minorities. And third, in discussing state actors' agency in the domain of minority policies, it calls for a more thorough recognition of the agency of the people who are the target of those policies. The article considers all these issues by presenting a history of a Lemko-Rusyn locality and its inhabitants, as recorded in school records, state reports, and oral histories.
Highlights
Drawing on ethnographic and archival materials, this paper examines the ethnic politics of the Second Polish Republic by taking into account the experiences of the LemkoRusyn population, a minority East Slavic group inhabiting the peripheral mountainous area in southern Poland
In discussing state actors’ agency in the domain of minority policies, it calls for a more thorough recognition of the agency of the people who are the target of those policies
Greek Catholic clergy, Rusyn peasants, and Polish soldiers are all important protagonists in the wider story about how ethnic identities in this region are negotiated, constructed, and politicized
Summary
Drawing on ethnographic and archival materials, this paper examines the ethnic politics of the Second Polish Republic by taking into account the experiences of the LemkoRusyn population, a minority East Slavic group inhabiting the peripheral mountainous area in southern Poland. The aim here is to state the existence of a ‘multiplicity of voices’, but to emphasize that the local population – the target of state policies – shaped those dynamics, using labels and categories that fitted their own agendas For this purpose, the article puts into dialogue archival material and accounts gathered during ethnographic fieldwork in 2008 and 2009.7 Second, I call for a more thorough focus on the Second Polish Republic’s ethnic policies, and especially their long-term implications – from ethnic cleansings that took place in the aftermath of World War II, to the present-day treatment of ethnic and national minorities.[8] In line with recent critical scholarship on nationalism during the Second Polish Republic,[9] I problematize the frequently exaggerated differences between ‘federational’ and ‘assimilationist’ conceptions, or between ‘state’ and ‘national’ assimilation,[10] a distinction which is partly responsible for present-day idealized images of the interwar era. This article contributes to a broader historiography on minority politics and national indifference in interwar Europe.[11]
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