Polskie zmagania z handlem kobietami i dziećmi na przełomie XIX i XX wieku. Wybrane zagadnienia polityczne, prawne i społeczne

In the article, I analyse the ways in which peasants built their national identity within the Polish territories. The 16th century saw the emergence of the so‐called “noble democracy” founded upon the idea of “the Polish nation.” This “noble democracy,” constructed in opposition to the figure of king, was organized around the notion of civil liberty, the right to ownership and the right to decide about the state affairs. Yet, it put peasants outside of the framework of the nation. After the collapse of the state and the partitions, the founders of the modern idea of the nation within the Polish territories in the 19th century referred to that “(noble) democratic” tradition of the nation. To them, this gesture was an act of resistance against the politics of the states that had conducted the partitions. The tradition, however, became a dominant one. Peasants then build the national identity on the basis of the 16th‐century tradition which excluded them from the body of the nation, and I call this prothesis of identity.

The white slave trade belongs to crimes dominated by transnational organized crime activity. The white slave trade at the turn of 20th and 21st centuries constitutes the international issue. The crime is oriented to both the slave trade and the human organs trade. First kind of the trade is mainly related with the rapidly developing sexual services market and the demand for low-paid or unpaid work, so-called slave work. The illegal adoption of children is also related with the white slave trade. Second kind of the trade, namely the human organs trade is related on the one hand with the development and progress of medicine allowing the extensive transplantations, on the other hand with shortage of the human organs to transplant. The white slave trade crime at the beginning of 21st century constitutes the considerable threat to national security and international security, the threat rated among offences against public safety and order.

Leslie J. Harris’s The Rhetoric of White Slavery and the Making of National Identity is a brilliant and timely analysis of the white slavery controversy that dominated the turn of the twentieth-century United States, in which many citizens expressed fear that white women and girls were being deceived, trapped, and sold into prostitution. For Harris, “the controversy was not simply about protecting women and children; it was also about harnessing white womanhood to constitute national identity and belonging.” A scholar of rhetoric, Harris impressively argues this point through coining “the ‘mobile imagination,’” which “includes conceptions of who can move, how mobility occurs, and what meanings of mobility circulated.” The white slavery narrative’s valorization of white women’s reproduction, purity, and domesticity defined “moral” women as those who were passively in stasis—moved, but not mobile, “private, controlled, and protected.” Heavily racialized, white slavery rhetoric further illustrated mobile individuals in “wilderness settings,” such as “immigrants, Black Americans, and residents of colonized countries,” as barbaric, immoral threats to white women and “to the spatiotemporal status of the nation.” To elucidate this argument, Harris’s work then moves readers through space and time. It begins in the 1880s Northwoods of Wisconsin, where a sensational national controversy emerged: confounded by the presence of white women in the area, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and Wisconsin lawmakers erupted into debate as to whether they were “irredeemable whores or innocent victims” of prostitution. Chapter Two concentrates on the supposedly dangerous and depraved urban city—a rhetorical image which Harris asserts was rooted in nostalgia and fear “as the immigrant Other moved into the space.” White women in urban settings were warned to “avoid virtually all human connection,” solidifying the home as “the only safe place.” Chapter Five expands upon the white slavery narrative’s interaction with the immigrant Other through the lens of Yellow Peril, which vilified Chinatown as a threat to womanhood and nation and simultaneously magnified women’s suffrage efforts. Turning toward the national level, Chapters Three and Four reveal how efforts to combat white slavery manifested in public and discursive spaces. Wealthy reformers like John D. Rockefeller Jr., for instance, turned to “supposedly objective facts” to redeem both women and men engaged in the vice of prostitution, finding “a lack of proper domesticity” as a consistent cause. Yet these reformers consistently cast Black women as irredeemable counterparts and potential perpetrators of white slavery. Harris additionally analyzes the Mann Act, contending that it functioned to create a national community defined by its moral whiteness. The legislation, which secured funding for the founding of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), also worked to constrain Black mobility and institutionalize a legal alternative to lynchings as a means of enforcing racialized and gendered fears surrounding Black men. The final chapter examines how white slavery narratives in Europe recast the controversy as a transnational problem. Similar to the Mann Act, the international 1910 white slave treaty reinforced nations’ identity through the protection of white women and concurrently constituted empire through the exploitation and regulation of colonized women. Harris’s invention of the mobile imagination brings fresh insights to scholarship on religious nationalism. The Rhetoric of White Slavery and the Making of National Identity uncovers how narratives of chosenness were infused into the white slavery controversy and amplified by mobility. The chosen—redeemable white women—could be moved against their will and victimized by white slavery; at the same time, they had access to the potential for mobility (a marker of citizenship) but instead morally and responsibly chose stasis within the confines of the home. On the contrary, the unchosen—irredeemable women, white and otherwise—moved with unregulated and threatening agency; they were mobile, but their mobility did not constitute citizenship and instead required freedoms denied to protect the national project. The white slavery narrative’s elevation of the chosen as worthy of salvation reveals moral white womanhood as sacred. American religious historians may then ask about the role that certain Protestant eschatologies held within the controversy. Harris’s brief transnational turn also invites scholars to consider how American religious nationalism is informed by empire and opens space for a comparative analysis of the white slavery controversy. The breadth of Harris’s work, steering readers through the local, national, and transnational domains, positions it as an indispensable read for American Religious historians of varying approaches. The work is well-suited for both undergraduate and graduate classrooms, especially benefiting those with an interest in religion, nationalism, and race in the Progressive Era.

The article is divided into two parts. The Polish community in Prague in connection with the whole Polish national minority in the Czech Republic is described in the first part. Size of the community, its legal status and other issues are discussed. The second part is aimed at the problem of a young generation in the Prague Polish community. Final section composes four case studies of young adult (from 21 up to 30 years of age) members of the community. Their national identity is compared with identity elements of the mainstream fraction in the community. The analyses are based on a long term field research. Major institution of the Polish community in Prague is Klub Polski founded in 1887 and re-established after fifty years in 1991. Since it is the only organization regularly gathering Polish national minority in Prague, population in focus of my research is made up of members of Klub Polski or their relatives. Polish community strongly increased with Polish women coming during communist period to fulfil demand for factory labour. Characteristic feature of the Prague community today is thus a high percentage of persons possessing Polish citizenship. This distinguishes the community from the other “traditional” minorities and a rest of the whole Polish minority formed by Czech citizens. Large share of “foreigners” also contributes to their collective identity components. Somewhat autonomous position in the Czech society – “Polish national delegate” role – stems from non-identity-defence approach and high self-confidence of the Polish Prague community, backed with possessing a Polish passport by many. To the collective identity elements of the mainstream group belongs Klub Polski as the identification matrix that often substitutes for disrupted contact with Polish family circles and nation. Among other elements are patriotism and adherence to the Polish state since many members came as Polish citizens and remained so. Catholic religion, chiefly as a cultural background for some activities, and Polish language create the last ones described. Young generation nowadays means usually the second generation of the community. Polish youth has a very high assimilation rate since it comes, with few exceptions, already from nationally mixed families and rarely kept in touch with other children of Polish origin. Their parents mostly did not decide on children’s nationality for they did not see it necessary to preserve Polish identity. In the four case studies particular attention should be paid to differences and similarities between the younger and the older generation. Three of the young have quite similar approach to religion like their parents’ generation for example. Both the young and their parents share value of patriotism. Language is considered as a most significant (and most practical as well) element of national identity in accordance with opinion of their parents’ generation, even though their actual language ability is often lagging behind. The article left some questions to be answered however. To which extent are the intergenerational and interpersonal differences and similarities caused by inherited identity patterns from parents? To which extent it is coincidence caused by encounter of minority society with Czech majority population which influences both parents and their children? These problems as well as many others should be still analysed.

I. The paper has been based on literature, on empirical data included in studies and reports in particular. The basic factors that determine the development and the present state of the prison system in the Polish. People's Republic have been indicated. The aim has been to consider the desirable directions of further transformations of the prison system which would guarantee its development according to the principles of humanism and the rule of law. This is important also because amendments are presently discussed' i.a. of the Code of Execution of Penalties. II. Among the important factors that have determined the hitherto development of the prison system in the Polish People's Republic, the following have been mentioned. 1.Legal provisions in force, issued by authorities of different levels, and international documents which influence them to some degree. Attention has been drawn to the incoherence of legal provisions scattered in legal acts of various importance and the society's unacquaintance with them due to their not being published. Immediate tasks the authorities impose upon the machine of execution of penalty. Such activites are aimed at correcting the prison system and frequently have harmful effects (e.g. closing of secondary schools in the early seventies). Traditions of the prison system and the hitherto existing practice, particularly the one developed after World War II when a new political system was introduced in Poland. The traditions are both good and bad. Among the favourable ones, the estimation of the importance of education in the treatment of offenders can for instance be mentioned, among the bad ones-e.g. the tendency to use disciplinary methods of treatment or a certain isolation -of the prison system from the society. 4.Experiences of other countries, scientific views and conclusions from scientific research. The above-mentioned factors are treated in a selective way, i.e. some experiences are chosen for practical application according to the penal policy fulfilled at the moment. III. Among the factors that characterize the present state of the prison system, the following should be mentioned: During the last thirty years, the average yearly number of prisoners was about 90 thousand. The number of the imprisoned persons in Poland I very large as compared with the respective numbers in other countries (if those where such data are published are taken into account). At the same time, it should also be mentioned that the numbers of prisoners in the postwar period were by 50% larger on the average as compared with those before 1939, and that there is overpopulation in prisons as a rule, i.e. the number of inmates is larger than tire prison capacity. This situation is the result of the penal policy which is too repressive according to scientists and which leads to sentencing a considerable part of offenders to long prison terms. Among the basic categories of prisoners in the Polish People's Republic, the following should be mentioned: first offenders (over 40% of the total number of prisoners on the average); recidivists (somewhat of the total number of prisoners on the average); recidivist (somewhat less than 40% on the average); young adults aged under 20 (the group which has recently diminished: less than 10% of the total number of prisoners); women (less than 3%). It should also be mentioned that about 27% of all persons deprived of liberty in the recent years have been those remanded in custody. As regards other categories of prisoners, we lack precise, methodical information due to the lick of properly developed penitentiary diagnostics (this concerns e.g. prisoners-alcoholics, those with mental disorders etc.). However, there are estimations of the numbers of prisoners of these categories to be found in research studies. Moreover, also the material and organizational conditions in which the prison system functions are by no means good. Only a few prisons were built after the war. Many are old buildings, and some date from as long ago as the 18th century. They need repairs and modernization. In the country's present economic situation, development of the prison building cannot possibly be postulated. Irrespective of the lack of space in prisons, there are also other difficulties in providing the proper living conditions for the inmates. As far as the adequate basis for organization of the prisoners, leisure time is concerned, the state of prison libraries, and the universal radiophonic installations are favourable in comparison with the existing difficulties (lack of rooms and proper equipment). Also the prison. staff is an important element of the penitentiary system. The level of education of the staff keeps increasing. However the proportion of prisoners per one staff member is much less favourable than in many West-European countries. The basic means of penitentiary treatment in the Polish People’s Republic are: employment, education and cultural activities. For many years now, there has been nearly full employment of prisoners in Poland universal: the index of employment amounted to over 90% in the seventies and over 80% in the eighties. Among those not working, only a slight percentage were unemployed due to a lack of work. The reasons for being out of work were most frequently the so-called justified reasons such as e.g. poor health, awaiting transfer, etc. Among the employed prisoners, a considerable part were working in the conditions of freedom, outside prisons (in some years, there were over 45% of those who worked in these conditions). At the same time, the vast majority of them were employed against payment (over 8o%), though their wages were lower as a rule than those earned by outside workers in analogous professions. The weak points of the prisoners' The weak employment were: excessive trend towards its economization (i.e. gaining profits even at the cost of the resocializing treatment), and its insufficient use for the prisoners' better professional training and social readaptation. A considerable number of prisoners learn in elementary schools and in elementary vocational schools. Besides, a small number of prisoners learn 'in -secondary vocational schools and at various courses which, however, do not secure a certificate of a qualified worker as a rule. The results of the prisoners' education are most favourable if measured both by the marks at school and by the adjustment to living in the freedom conditions after release. All the studies carried out in Poland which took this problem into account show that the higher the education the prisoners have achieved, the less frequent their relapse into crime. However, the majority of prisoners who have had no profession fail to learn one during their prison sentence. The organization of the prisoners' leisure time has many faults: aside from reading books which are easily accessible, other forms were underdeveloped during the recent dozen or more years as compared with the needs, or revealed regress as compared with the sixties. IV. In the years 1980--1981, new factors emerged which favourably influenced the development of the prison system in Poland. Among them, the most marked trend towards a prison reform should be mentioned which was initiated by independent social movements, scientific centres and the prisoners them - selves (the surge of group protests and riots which on certain days inc1uded tens of thousands of inmates). In 1981, prison reform was started, among other things through the introduction of amendments into the so-called temporary prison rules (the most repressive provisions removed, such as those concerning the so-called fasting penalty or the absolute strict regime for recidivists), and through the admission by means of a separate legal act of universal accessibility of religious practices, including the admittance of chaplains into prisons. At the same time, the functioning of two associations was legalized the activity of which was to consist in coming to the prisoners' and their families' asistance. The associations started operating in l98l; however, they were suspended after the introduction of the martial law and then dissolved. At the same time, the campaign for social aid to prisoners convicted for acts committed or noncriminal motives was organized within the framework of charitable ministry of the Catholic Church. The problem of the prison reform is still a live issue in the Polish People's Republic; moreover, the reform is indispensable. However, its continuation will depend on the future general trends of the State’s policy. V. In the present article, postulates have also been formulated concerning the future amendments of the Code of Execution of Penalties. Here the most important of them: 1. The prisoners rights and duties should be defined precisely and included in a statute instead of in statutory instruments, thus making their informal changes impossible. It is necessary to introduce a separate status of offenders convicted for acts committed for ideological motives. It is indispensable to define in the legal provisions the minimum and untraversable standards of the prisoners material existence, and the index of the maximum capacity of prisons. It is desirable to abandon the formal classification of prisoners and the so-called regimes of execution of penalty the aim of which is first and foremost repression. Also the expansion of resocializing measures is important, as well as increase of the educational character of such penitentiary measures as e.g. employment. In order to give deprivation of liberty a more prosocial character, it is necessary to legalize and render possible the functioning of independent associations assisting the prisoners and their families.

The Transnational Illegal Market of Trafficking in Human Beings – Actors and Discourses: A Transatlantic Comparison

In 1912, the well-established Parisian painter Paul Chabas exhibited Matin e de Septembre (hereafter September Morn) a painting he had been working on over three summers at the prestigious Salon des Artistes Fran ais. Three years earlier, the forty-year-old Chabas had asked an eleven-year-old girl from the French Savoie to pose for him in Lake Annecy as the morning sun warmed its glacial waters. Over the past twenty years, images of children even hinting at voyeuristic pleasure have been regarded as suspect. Since most paedophiles have been found to possess such images, they are considered inextricably imbricated in the epidemic of child sexual abuse that James Kincaid calls 'the culture of child molesting'. Current child-abuse studies reveal that in the lack of an object, paedophiles may gratify themselves with fantasies triggered by an illustration, and then may be spurred on to seek real equivalents to the image. This connection drawn between child imagery and paedophilia is not new French physicians were documenting it as early as 1860. Amid comparable moral panic ignited by French natalists over the 'white slave trade' and girl-child pornography before the First World War, picturing the body before the age of sexual consent became the subject of vehement protest, extensive legislation, and vigorous prosecution. Yet, unlike the fate of Henson and Mapplethorpe's photography, art by 'official artists' that fetishised the child's body, as epitomised by Chabas, was, and arguably remains, untouchable. Why this happened and continues to happen is the subject of this paper. This article will question why the specious body-concealing gestures deployed by Chabas, together with his nature setting, appeared to inscribe this thirteen-year old as a naturally innocent 'moral girl'. It will question how these signifiers of innocence were able to function as misleading pretexts and, indeed, camouflaging covers for paedophilic eroticism. Drawing upon neurological and sexological discourses, it will also question why eroticism was heightened by the fetishisation of innocence. As there is a lack of a comparable strategy of dissimulation and fetishisation in Henson's 'N', the final question to be addressed will be whether this very absence lies at the heart of the Henson scandal. To unravel the conditions from which these questions arise, this article will, firstly, investigate the 'white slave trade', the child-pornography postcard trade, and pornography legislation in Belle poque Paris. Secondly, it will examine the natalist discourses on 'moral girls' and their healthy bodies, in relationship to Chabas' paintings of pubescent girls exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Fran ais and those by his contemporary, Francis Aubertin, at the Salon de la Soci t National des Beaux-Arts. Thirdly, it will trace the forensic, neurological, and sexological research into child sexual abuse and the sexual life of the child, together with the diverging discourses on children's fantasy. Fourthly, it will consider how the female child's identity became binarised by these debates into either a 'fille fatale' or a 'moral girl'. To address this, it will ascertain, with the aid of Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida and Henry Krips's scrutiny of fetishisation, which image may be closest to the pornography of 'filles fatales': Henson's photograph of 'N' or Chabas' so-called 'moral girl'.

The problem of the organization and functioning of German administration on the occupied territory of the Republic of Poland during World War II still has not been thoroughly described in Polish historiography. This is why this article first of all presents the basic “legal acts” of the German occupant which created the fundamental structural and organizational-territorial frameworks for each of the German administration structures (models) in Poland in 1939–1945. In general, there were three such models: the first one referred to the Polish territories annexed to the Third Reich in 1939; the second one was related to the German administration in the General Governorate. The third model was connected with the Polish territories annexed to the Soviet Union after 17th September 1939 and incorporated into German rule after 22nd June 1941. Simultaneously, the process of establishing the structures of the German occupation administration on the occupied Polish territories in the years 1939–1945 consisted of several phases. The first one comprised the period from 1st September to 25th October 1939. That was the time of the establishing of the German military government and annexing a part of the occupied Polish territory directly to the German Reich. The second phase lasted from 25th October 1939 to 22nd June 1941. It was characterized by the dissolution of the German military government on the occupied Polish territory and simultaneous establishing of the civilian administration structures of the German Governorate. The third phase covered the period from 22nd June 1941 to the end of World War II in 1945. Its main characteristics include the German-Soviet war and the total German control of the territory of the Second Polish Republic in 1941–1944. It must be emphasized that the German occupation administration pursued the aims and performed the tasks of the German Reich on the occupied territory of the Republic of Poland during World War II despite the fact that Polish citizens also worked in that administration, but to a very limited extent. The authorities of the Third Reich considered that administration to be one of the most important instruments for implementing of extermination and genocidal policy aimed at Polish nation that fell partially, and then in 1941 completely under German rule. And it was only due to the lack of time that the strategic aim of the occupation had not been accomplished, i.e. the total removal of Polish citizens from the occupied territory of the Republic of Poland.

The measure promoted as England's first law against sex trafficking, the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, journeyed through Parliament in 1912. Amid mounting extra-parliamentary protest over votes for women, workers' rights, and Home Rule for Ireland, the country's suffrage and socialist groups chose to engage with the somewhat ancillary Bill and the issue of trafficking (or ‘white slavery' as it was popularly known) through the powerful medium of their periodicals. They did so largely because they saw the value to their wider campaigns of using trafficking - a phenomenon often cast by reformers as involving the sexual exploitation of working-class women - to forge connections (or highlight disjunctures) between the suffragist and socialist movements. Ideas of race, national identity, and empire attached to configurations of ‘slavery' were central to their rhetoric, and to the links the groups made between trafficking and the political emancipation they sought. These ideas give a valuable insight into influential representations of trafficking in 1912 and the campaign against ‘white slavery' during what was a fundamental, transnational moment in the history of trafficking. They also illuminate suffragist and socialist rhetoric of the day, and the conflicting ideas of ‘Englishness’ therein. This article strives to unlock some of these insights.

Protection of constitutional identity in light of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Poland – a comparative study

The article addresses the problem of shaping the centuries-long relationship between Polish people and Ukrainians from Galicia, and discusses the factors influencing the process of shaping the national identity of the inhabitants of Lvov. The publication underlines the historical and ethnic backgrounds influencing the people living in Lvov region and in Lvov itself. The article also refers to the issue of identifying Lvov residents as Europeans. The author of the article also highlighted obstacles preventing the creation of solid foundation between the inhabitants of Lvov to build a common regional identity despite centuries of co-existence. The destabilizing elements were primarily claims to the same territory. Despite the complicated history, there is one common feature of the Lvov residents which has been preserved – as the author of the article points out – namely, their European identity. This belief has risen to the rank of myth. The article has made a synthetic analysis of the mutual relationship between Polish people and Ukrainians from the 15th century up to the present day, taking into account the influence of elements of collective memory. The current relations between the two nations are relatively well formed. After joining the EU, Poland acts as a Ukrainian supporter, regularly defending its interests. This, as well as the Orange Revolution, Euro 2012 and the Revolution of Dignity contributed to the untightened relations between these two nations. However, despite these positive actions in common relations, the attitude of a decisive part of the intellectual elite of modern Lvov residents is more and more influenced by the mythology of the multiculturalism of this city and its membership “ever since” to Europe, with the dominant Ukrainian language, and simultaneous marginalization of thousand years of belonging to the Polish state, which in effect creates a fake image of the city and its inhabitants.

This article is dedicated to discussing the implementation of the descriptive geometry, i.e. the scientific novelty from the end of the 18th century, in secondary school education on the Polish territories in the 19th century. At that time, Polish lands were under the occupation of three empires: Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Over the time, the policy of the partition empires toward the Poles was changing in intensity. As a consequence, in the 19th century, there were schools on the Polish territories with Polish, Prussian, Austrian and Russian curricula and relevant lecture languages. The article analyses the implementation of descriptive geometry into teaching mathematics in schools located in all three partitions. Keywords: descriptive geometry, history of mathematics education, history of mathematics

The topic of the relations between the French Socialists and Poland from the end of World War II until the end of 1970s is relatively unknown. The French Socialist Left approached the Polish Communist Left with distrust, even downright aversion. A big disappointment for SFIO was the forced unification of Polish Socialists and Communists in 1948, because up to this point the French had counted on keeping their Polish Comrades in the Western orbit. When the Iron Curtain was dropped, the French Socialists could only observe from a distance the excesses of the Polish People’s Republic government. From as early as 1950s on, the French Socialists created numerous doctrinal analyses concerning the perspectives of a possible “real socialist” reform. Interestingly, when the period of easing of the tensions in international relations (Detente) came, the right-wing French Socialists made an effort to improve the relations with Warsaw, which had been significantly enfeebled by the years of the Cold War.

In the 19th century, Polish public opinion was in a situation similar to that of Ukraine. She tried to get rid of Russian state dictates and free herself from colonial dependence. The difference was that Polish culture, unlike Ukrainian culture, was marked by development, and society completely welcomed the ideas of the national liberation struggle. Polish society was not deprived of the imperialism of the «Historical Commonwealth» and wanted to use Ukrainians as building material for the creation of a supra-ethnic Polish state nation. What drove a wedge between Ukrainian and Polish national figures. At the same time, the Polish movement provided Ukrainians with rich material for a conceptual historiosophical understanding of the ideas of Ukrainian national liberation. Ukrainian figures of Polish origin fell less under the spell of federal theories, and were more independent in their approach to the independence of Ukraine. It is not by chance that the founder of national populism in the form of a hrodavi was a nobleman of Polish origin – Volodymyr Antonovych, and of Ukrainian modern conservatism – also a right-bank nobleman Vyacheslav Lypynskyi. The article discusses the conceptual positives from the influence of Polish society and its liberation struggles of the 19th century. on the development of the Ukrainian national liberation movement at the beginning of the modern era of history. Objectively, the Polish movement gave the Ukrainian elite more promising ideas to follow than Russian liberalism. The author draws attention to the presence of figures in the Ukrainian movement who had Polish cultural and national roots. Moreover, it was in the midst of Polish society that politicians appeared who raised the question of the cultural and political separation of Ukrainians from Russians. First of all, we are talking about the «hustlers» of V. Antonovych, the Rylskyi brothers, K. Mikhalchuk and O. Yurkevich. Intellectuals of Polish culture radicalized the anti-Russian orientation of the activities of the Kyiv community (V. Antonovych and others). They created a council policy for the unification of the sub-Austrian and sub-Russian Ukraine, and pursued the policy of the «New Era» in Galicia. Independent horse movement. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the leaders of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party also had in their ranks descendants of the Polish cultural nobility (V. Lypynskyi, O. Skoropis-Yoltukhovskyi, L. Yurkevych, etc.). Socio-political Ukrainian conservatism of the pre-revolutionary era was built on the activities of Roman Catholic Ukrainians (V. Lypynskyi, L. Sidletskyi, B. Yaroshevskyi, F. Volska), who at the time manifested the Ukrainianness of the descendants of the right-bank gentry in Ukraine.

The article deals with the main principal categories of Polish minority self-identification and some problems of religious and language awareness in Eastern Podolia. The analysis is based on recordings collected in Grodek Podolski and its neighbourhoods at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The author of the paper analyzes what is the image of the identification being reflected in the statements of local Polish inhabitants, finds out what motivates the interviewees to define themselves as Poles, and describes the ways of eliminating the Polish population in Eastern Podolia by authorities, through indicating the main factors that hinder the Poles’ self-identification. The paper concludes that the Catholic religion is an element integrating the national minority that enhances the Polish national identity and maintains the transmission of cultural traditions. The language as a bearer of the sense of identity influences a person’s self-presentation, becoming its integral component. Language awareness often coincides with the national and ethnic identity. Despite the harmful policy of Soviet authorities’ against Poles and all their efforts to suppress religion, Polish culture and language, the Polish population has never stopped to consider themselves as a related part of the entire Polish nation by keeping national traditions, they were faithfully committed to the Catholic Church, tried to preserve their language and history for younger generations.Manuscript received 12.08.2020