Where Is Poland? | Poland Outside of Poland

Warning: session_start(): open(/mnt/files/sessions/sess_sk06uokvp7ckk1d6htes4fbuq4, O_RDWR) failed: Read-only file system (30) in /var/www/html/web/application/_uho/_uho_application.php on line 42

Warning: session_start(): Failed to read session data: files (path: /mnt/files/sessions) in /var/www/html/web/application/_uho/_uho_application.php on line 42
Where Is Poland? | Poland Outside of Poland

Intro
Chapter 1 Where Is Poland?
Chapter 2 A Nation Without a State
Chapter 3 Literature and Censorship
Chapter 4 Poland Outside of Poland
Chapter 5 The Ambassadors
Chapter 6 Women and Emancipation
Chapter 7 Who Is Polish?
Chapter 8 Poland Imagined
Chapter 9 The Road to Independence

Chapter 4

Poland Outside of Poland

Throughout the nineteenth century many Poles left their homeland for political or economic reasons, others were forcibly deported. Indeed, because of such large-scale emigration, by the end of the century there were Poles scatteredallovertheworld.

Immigrants carrying luggage, Ellis Island, New York, 1900. Source: Library of Congress

Polonia

Ever since the massive emigration waves of the nineteenth century, Poles have been living all around the world, including North America (mainly the USA) and South America (Argentina and Brazil), Europe (Germany, Russia), and even the eastern reaches of Asia (Siberia), China (Harbin) and Australia.

The Polish diaspora, known in Polish as 'Polonia', still includes many relatively compact, vibrant communities, which cultivate Polish traditions and remember their origins. The cities and regions traditionally inhabited by the largest concentrations of Poles and their descendants include Chicago, Detroit, New York, Buenos Aires, Parana in southern Brazil, and Germany’s Ruhr basin. On the other hand, descendants of Polish emigrants also live in such surprising places as the town of Cazale in Haiti and the small village of Vershina in southern Siberia (near Lake Baikal).

Due to subsequent historical developments in the twentieth century (World War II in particular), other Poles ended up living in Kazakhstan and other countries of the former USSR. Nowadays, after the economic transformation of the early twenty-first century, the largest clusters of ethnic Poles abroad are currently located in the United Kingdom.

According to various calculations, there are now about 20 million people of Polish ancestry living outside of Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest in the world, as well as one of the most widely dispersed. So how did it all start?

About the project

Concept, scripting, textual & visual content

Mikołaj Gliński & Patryk Zakrzewski

Design & development

Translators

Daniel J. Sax, Marcin Gozdanek, Michał Wieczorek

English content editor

Daniel J. Sax

Research

Olga Tyszkiewicz

Additional research

Zofia Łękawska-Orzechowska, Przemysław Gliński

Sources

Digital Film Repository (CRF), CYRYL – Digital Repository of the City of Poznań, Danish Film Institute (DFI), Emigration Museum in Gdynia, European Institute of Jewish Music, FORUM Polish Photography Agency, Fototeka, Gallica (gallica.bn.fr), HBO, Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IS PAN), Library of Congress, Museum in Sosnowiec, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź (MSL), National Museum in Kraków, National Museum in Wrocław, National Museum in Poznań, National Museum in Warsaw, National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute (FINA), National Digital Library Polona (polona.pl), Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków (PAU), Royal Danish Library (KB), Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Poster Museum at Wilanów, Tatra Museum in Zakopane, Zebra Film Studio.

Video materials

‘Poświęcenie Dworca Towarowego’, ‘Legiony wkraczają do Warszawy’, ‘Dla Ciebie, Polsko’ - courtesy of National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute (FINA). Excerpt from ‘Brandes giving lecture at the Copenhagen University’ - courtesy of Danish Film Institute.

With special thanks to

Alan Lockwood, Michalina Petelska, Włodzimierz Karol Pessel, Adam Zulawski

This project was organised in co-operation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of POLSKA 100, an international cultural programme celebrating the centenary of Poland’s regaining independence in 1918.

Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2022.

You are currently using the desktop version of this website.

Switch to mobile view

Go!