Undesirable Borderlands. Nationality Policy of the Authorities of the Second Republic in the 1930s in Ethnically Transitional Areas

Abstract

Ethnic borderlands were an important part of the national landscape of the Second Republic of Poland. They existed in the areas of contact between the Polish national population and the most important national minority groups inhabiting distinct territories: Ukrainians, Belarusians and Germans. Especially in the 1930s, they aroused growing interest in the state administration. The purpose of this article is to outline different policies of the Sanation camp toward “ethnically transitional areas”. These policies varied, but their final goal was always unification through the Polonization of the communities inhabiting such borderlands.