Poles in Suceava County during Nicolae Ceausescu’s nationalist-communist regime. Contributions

Abstract

This study was carried out on the basis of the original documents discovered during the research carried out in the Archives of the National Council for the Study of Security Archives in Bucharest (ACNSAS), Romania. The analysis of these documents shows us the fact that the Poles from Suceava county (Romania) were monitored by the Securitate during the nationalist-communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Officially, Romania and Poland were allies within the political-military alliance called the Warsaw Treaty Organization. The totalitarian regime led by Nicolae Ceaușescu was extremely conservative and restrictive towards the groups of cohabiting nationalities (national minorities), repressing and discouraging any form of expression of ethnic-national and religious identity. The Poles were no exception to the measures adopted by the regime, although the Hungarians were especially targeted by the policies of the communist regime in Romania. The documents analyzed in the present study reflect the official position of the regime towards the Polish community in Suceava County, as well as the efforts made by the diplomats of the Republic of Poland accredited in Romania to stimulate the efforts of their compatriots to preserve their language, traditions and school without the process of ethnic homogenization. In this case, the Roman Catholic Church, the school, the teachers of Polish ethnicity were the opinion leaders of the Polish communities in Solonețu Nou, Pleșa and Poiana Micului.