Where Is Poland? | Borderlands

Chapter 7

Borderlands

The intelligentsia fostered the emergence of modern concepts of the nations that inhabited the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The complex ethnic situation meant that choices of identity divided not only neighbours, but often families. There was a similar situation in the Polish-German borderland, Silesia.

Participants of the Congress of Ukrainian Writers, 1898. Source: Wikicommons

Different nations

The lands that comprised the former multi-ethnic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, carved up by the partitioning powers in the late eighteenth century, were one hundred years later still inhabited by several nations which in the meantime had developed national awarenesses and were now ready to think about having their own statehood. Apart from the Poles, these were above all Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Lithuanians, as well as Jews residing throughout the territories.

In many areas, the population was mixed. In the east (the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania), Poles primarily lived in the large cities, such as Lwów (Lviv) and Wilno (Vilnius), as well as in manor settlements. The villages, in turn, were dominated by Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian peasants. The smaller towns were mostly inhabited by Jews. Because of this situation, the former lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were on the one hand a melting-pot of nations, and on the other a place where very different interests came head-to-head.

The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed the beginnings of national revival in the region. In Galicia, numerous Ukrainian political organizations and sociocultural associations were set up in the national spirit, such as Prosvita. The Lithuanians in the Russian-held partition, on the other hand, did not have any ability to set up their own associations or even to publish in their language (there was a ban on publishing anything in Lithuanian using the Latin alphabet) – this led to the emergence of a whole network of book-smugglers, who brought in Lithuanian publications printed in neighbouring Prussia.

The process of forming national consciousness was at its slowest in the territories inhabited by the Belarusian population where intelligentsia had difficulties getting through to the lower classes.

Szeptycki brothers, 1910. Source: National Museum in Warsaw

Brotherlands / Borderlands

Because of the complex ethnic relations and also the emergence of modern nationalisms, dividing lines of identity ran in complex ways across the lands and people of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (especially in the east), not only between neighbors in multi-ethnic villages, towns and cities, but also often – sometimes tragically – between members of the very same family.

One such example can be found in the Szeptycki family from the vicinity of Lwów (Lviv). In the nineteenth century, Andrzej Szeptycki became a bishop of the Uniate Church and a spiritual leader of the Ukrainians, whereas his brother Stanisław became an officer in the Legions who helped secure Poland’s independence.

During the same time, fate separated the Narutowicz family in Lithuania. Gabriel Narutowicz became the first president of independent Poland, whereas his brother Stanisław was one of the signatories of Lithuania’s declaration of independence. In another ‘Lithuanian’ family, the Miłoszes, the uncle Oskar Miłosz identified with the Lithuanian nation (while at the same time being a French writer), whereas his nephew Czesław Miłosz became a Polish poet.

In the Belarusian lands, there was the famous example of the Iwanowski brothers from the Grodno (Hrodna) region, one of which identified as a Lithuanian (Tadas Ivanauskas), another as a Pole (Jerzy Iwanowski), and a third as a Belarusian (Vaclau Ivanouski).

Layered identity

Silesia was never ‘under partition’ per se – the region had for centuries been an object of rivalry between neighbouring countries and so had been held by Poland, the Czechs, and Austria in turn. Following the Silesian wars of the eighteenth century it had ended up mostly under Prussian rule. However, its population was predominantly Slavic and Catholic, speaking a dialect similar to Polish. In the nineteenth century the region became an arena for national tensions. The Prussian authorities intensified their policy of Germanization, but this had consequences that were the opposite of those intended: an outpouring of Polish writing, associations and organizations, as symbolized by such figures as Józef Lompa and Karol Miarka. Alongside the two dominant identities, Polish and German, another local identity also emerged: Silesian. In the nineteenth century Silesia experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization and became an important coal-mining centre. On top of the existing linguistic and religious divisions (Polish vs. German, Catholic vs. Protestant) a new, class-based division became overlayered. Germans were typically the mine-owners and burghers in general, while the local Silesian folk were seen as the mining proletariat. For many, the mythical Poland became an embodiment of the anticolonial strategy, a future land of justice in which the existing social relations would one day be reversed.