The Lublin voivodaship authorities attitude towards the Ucrainian minority in Chełm and southern Podlasie region 1935-1939

Abstract

Starting in 1935 the provincial authorities in Lublin opted for a programme of national assimilation of the Ukrainian minority living in the area. On the scale of the entire Polish-Ukrainian border these kinds of changes in the course of national politics acquired a practical shape only in 1936. Together with the army they have created a programme of vindication and Polonization of the areas of Chełm Land and Southern Podlachia, and they
have actively participated in its implementation. The problem of the Orthodox Church was being moved towards the central stage. The authorities in Lublin unequivocally advocated for possibly the most distant Polonization of the Orthodox Church and the liquidation of supernumerary parishes. It also involved the question of demolition of the inactive Orthodox facilities of the sacral nature. In the opinion of the authorities of Lublin the Orthodox Church was becoming a factor consolidating the Ukrainian minority, but threatening the Polish state, which was accompanied by the accumulation of the irredentist tendencies. The attitude of the authorities towards the Ukrainian minority was clearly undergoing a radicalisation at the turn of 1938/1939. It was expressed by the program formulated in the Province Office on “under-Ukrainizing” the public service. It should be emphasised that the programme remained only in the sphere of planning. Its implementation, set out over the period of 1939-1941, was prevented by the outbreak of the Second World War.