Polnische Ukrainepolitik in Wolhynien 1921-1939

Abstract

With the Treaty of Riga, western Volhynia became part of newly founded Poland in 1921. The aim of Polish nationalities policy in Volhynia and the other Northeastern voivodes was the fixed and permanent integration of these regions into the Polish state. In view of existing external threats, this could only be achieved if the predominantly non-Polish population acknowledged the legitimacy of Polish state authority. The Second Republic failed to achieve this objective by the beginning of World War II. It had not been possible to generate loyalty towards the Polish state among the Ukrainian population of Volhynia. Moreover, it also proved impossible to prevent bitter ethnic conflicts between the ruling Polish minority and the Volhynian Ukrainians. The nationality policy strategies applied in an attempt to gain acceptance in the minority region of Volhynia and to assert claims to power can be summarised in three key words: assimilation, modernisation, repression. The civic and/or ethnically defined assimilation of the Ukrainian population remained the central concern of Polish nationality policy in Volhynia in the Second Republic. The state modernisation policy was given a supporting role in relation to the superordinate objective of assimilation. Even then, investments in modernisation and the increased influence of Polish culture fell short of expectations placed on them. When the Ukrainians’ drive for social, cultural and political emancipation began to have visible results in Volhynia, a policy of repression emerged as a frustrated reaction to failed attempts to promote assimilation. In the last years of the Second Republic the policy of repression ensured that ethnic antagonism in Volhynia became less visible from the outside than in neighbouring eastern Galician voivodships. It was, however, no less virulent. There existed few legal possibilities for the Ukrainians in Volhynia to publicly articulate, organise or represent Ukrainian interests in competition with the ruling Polish minority or in opposition to Polish policy. Whilst the dispute in eastern Galicia was by comparison, carried out quite openly, though the state favoured the Polish minority, in Volhynia civil forms of handling this conflict were lacking.