PAP news agency, Warsaw, in Polish 1341 2 May 02/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC

The leaders of ethnic and national minority organizations in Poland are encouraging people to be open in declaring their nationality in the forthcoming Polish national census, but the census-taking organization is facing conceptual difficulties with such categories as the recent "Silesian nationality" or with the Lemkos, a small ethnic group originating in Carpathian Mountains who have often previously been deemed to be Ukrainians. Nonetheless, the census commissioner has stated that census-takers should enter onto census forms what it is that respondents declare, and thus also "Silesian nationality" if there will be such instances. The following is an excerpt from a report by Polish news agency PAP:

Warsaw, 2 May: Brother Lemkos, let us have the courage to tell census-takers openly in the census: "I am a Lemko", the Association of Lemkos has appealed. Silesians want to do similarly. The Main Statistical Office [GUS] does not yet know how to register such declarations.

On the 55th anniversary of Operation Vistula [Akcja Wisla], which brought about the deportation of this ethnic group [known as Lemko in Poland, elsewhere in the world also called Carpatho-Ruthene, Rusin or Rusyn] from the Bieszczady and Beskid Niski Mountains [southeastern Poland], the Main Board of the Association of Lemkos has appealed to the descendants of those deported to "have the courage to say openly: yes, I am a Lemko!" "Let them finally know, in Poland and in the world, that the Lemkos have not perished, they live, work and want to live here and now," this resolution reads.

Operation Vistula, that is the forced deportation of around 140,000 Ukrainians from southeastern Poland, started on 28 April 1947 at dawn. The army forced the Ukrainian population to leave their villages within two-three hours, allowing the deportees to only take 25 kilos of baggage.

This action was also the cause of the deportation of Lemkos and Boykos who did not identify [themselves] with the Ukrainians. The Lemkos, [who were then] dispersed across Poland, are integrating anew and trying to regain their property [to the west of] the Bieszczady mountains that was taken by the state. They estimate that there are 60,000 of them...

The national census and its accompanying agricultural census are to take place between 21 May and 8 June. The census will be carried out by around 180,000 census-takers and 179,000 census districts have been delineated. Over four years, the costs associated with the census will come to around 600m zlotys.

The ethnic and national minorities in Poland have for several weeks now been expressing their unease concerning the questions in the national census on nationality. They fear that many people, from fear or else lack of knowledge, will not reveal their true nationalities. And in their view, this might for instance translate into delayed subsidies for minority education or culture.

Members of the Silesian Autonomy Movement [RAS] have since 1996 sought to register an association under the name the Union of Populace of Silesian Nationality [Zwiazek Ludnosci Narodowosci Slaskiej - ZLNS]. The Polish courts acknowledged that the registration of such an association would be tantamount to acknowledging [the existence of] a Silesian national minority. The European Tribunal of Human Rights has ruled that the Polish courts did not break the law in refusing to register the union. The RAS is now conducting an action encouraging Silesians to tell census- takers [that they are of] "Silesian nationality".

In March, the problem of the question about nationality in the census was raised in the course of meetings between the human rights ombudsman, Prof Andrzej Zoll, and the Belarusian, Lithuanian and Tartar minorities in the Podlasie region [northeastern Poland].

The initiators of the appeal on this matter intend to distribute 30-40,000 leaflets encouraging the Belarusian minority to declare their nationality without fear in the census. The main concentrations of the Belarusian minority are in Podlasie Province. According to the various sources and criteria, its numbers are estimated at between 180,000 and 350,000 people.

According to the main council of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland [ZUwP], the results of the census this year will be influenced by the continuing negative stereotype of the Ukrainian, among other things, and they will not fully reflect the numbers of Ukrainians who live in Poland. Piotr Tyma, the secretary of the main council of the ZUwP, told PAP that the union wants the greatest numbers possible to admit to being Ukrainian.

If a group of people declare "Silesian nationality" in the census, the GUS will seek instructions from the authorities about how such declarations should be treated, the census commissioner and chairman of the GUS, Tadeusz Toczynski, has said...

The chairman added that statistics omit nothing and that the census-taker should enter on the form what it is that the respondent declares, and thus also, if there will be such cases, "Silesian nationality". "Census-takers cannot influence in any way the content of replies. The person being registered specifies for himself or herself," Toczynski reminded.

Credit: PAP news agency, Warsaw, in Polish 1341 2 May 02

Return to the 2002 News Archive index