Polish Thoughts in Ukrainian
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Insight Slavic Studies Polish Thoughts in Ukrainian The Polish language is slowly disappearing among the Polish community in Ukraine’s Rivne Oblast. This is due to the influence of the clergy and the emigration of the younger generation. Pavlo Levchuk the Rivne Oblast and continued preaching, not only in Rivne, but also in Dubno, Zdolbuniv, Ostroh and Institute of Slavic Studies, Sarny. The local Catholic community also includ- Polish Academy of Sciences ed Czechs, who can still sometimes be heard in the churches, praying in their language. One of the most outstanding researchers of the Pol- Pavlo Levchuk, MA ish language in the Eastern Borderlands was Prof. Wi- works as an Assistant aczesław Werenicz. In an article published in part two at the Department he first Christian temple in what is now Rivne of Polish Dialects in the USSR (Польские говоры в of Linguistics at the (then known as Równe in Polish) was founded СССР), entitled “Towards a Historical-Sociologi- PAS Institute of Slavic inT 1548 by Maria Nieświęcka of the Ostrogski clan. cal Characterization of Migratory Polish Dialects in Studies. His research It served the local Catholic community through ma- Polesie,” he discussed the historical migration of Poles interests include multilingualism and ny years, even when the surrounding lands became into the Polesie region (now part of Ukraine and Be- multiculturalism, part of the Soviet Union following WWI – until 1956 larus). He divided them into three groups. In addition linguistic contacts, when the Soviets forced the parish priest, Fr. Serafin to the settlers’ place of origin, he included such crite- teaching Polish as Kashubia, to hand over the keys to the church. Despite ria as their social status, profession, and prestige and a foreign language being prohibited from performing his pastoral duties, level of native language, which influenced the speed and comparative Fr. Kaszubia secretly traveled around the parishes in of assimilation. The table shows the reasons behind glottodidactics. Currently, he is working on his doctoral dissertation Type of settlement Provincial manors Forest farms Agricultural settlements on Ukrainian-Russian- Period of establishment 16th -17th century Late 17th century to the 1860s 1860s–1914 Polish trilingualism From various regions of Where did the migrants From various regions among Ukrainians From the Mazovia region Poland, Vilnius and Galicia come from? of Poland of non-Polish origin regions under the supervision Provincial nobility, Peasants and impoverished of Prof. Władysław T. Social status of migrants Petty nobility gentry nobility Miodunka. He is also involved in the project Profession Military men, farmers Foresters and farmers Wage laborers and farmers “The Polish language Prestige of native high average low in Bukowina Karpacka: language Documenting the Language Borderlands version disappearing cultural Mazovian dialect Polish colloquial language characteristics of literary Polish heritage” (Grant IbH 15 0354 83), Speed of assimilation slow average fast affiliated with Knowledge of Polish Polish romances, Mainstream Polish songs Polish folk songs the PAS Institute of folklore ballads Slavic Studies. Szlachta (Nobility), hatieczkowe, parobki [email protected] Referred to by local Mazury (Masurians), Budniki, Szlaktiuki, Pszeki, (farmhands), ślązaki (Silesians), people as: Bucy Liachy krakusy (Cracovians) THE MAGAZINE OF THE PAS 50 3/59/2018 PAVLO LEVCHUK Kostopil, Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ of the Eucharist, built in 1924. CYFROWA BIBLIOTEKA NARODOWA POLONA the disappearance of the Polish language, or its being least educated community, made up of people who maintained only in the spoken form. had a weak emotional connection to their own lan- The first group to arrive in the new lands were guage, and therefore were most susceptible to assim- members of the provincial nobility and gentry, a com- ilation. Werenicz does not mention their religious munity that enjoyed high social status – according to affiliation, which was one of the key features of the the common saying, popular not only in the Eastern previous two communities, distinguishing them Borderlands: “a nobleman on his own farm is a man from the local population. He mentions the follow- with no equal.” Werenicz mentions such family names ing names: Golik, Gralko, Zajdel, Keszner, Klimczyk, as Abramowicz, Bagiński, Borowski, Wysłouch, Derę- Mróz, Pylisz, and Jagoda. These have undergone gowski, Datner, Zborowski, Pietrowski, Radyszewski, complete Ukrainization (Klimczyk – Kłeczuk, Mróz Saplic, Stachowski, and Chwacki, which still exist to- – Moroz) and are currently only found in the latter day. This group, although the oldest, assimilated the versions. least with the local population. The reasons for this After World War II, 95% of Polish settlers left the included financial status, religion (Roman Catholi- area for the so-called regained territories in western cism as opposed to the Orthodox faith of the local Poland. Why did others stay? Werenicz cites two rea- population), and good relations with the local ad- sons. The first reason is subjective: it had to do with ministration, which favored Polonization. In villages family ties, attachment to the place of residence, and where the Catholic Church remained, Polish contin- fear of risk-taking. The second, objective reason was ued to be spoken (in the borderland dialect), without the lack of contact with large metropolises, which led succumbing to assimilation, even as late as the third the Masurians to quickly assimilate into the indige- or fourth generation. nous population of Polesie and lose their emotional The second group was mostly made up of labor- connection to their own nationality. ers from Mazovia who worked on forest farms. These The revival of the Catholic Church in the Rivne were less educated people and more susceptible to as- Oblast began in 1989, when the parishioners in Os- similation. The only distinctive feature of this com- troh brought in a priest from Lublin. By Christmas munity was its Roman Catholic faith. Family names 1989, Władysław Czajka became the Reverend of Os- in this group included Dąbrowski, Marcinowski, troh, coming to lead his flock spread across the entire Zaruski, Rudnicki, Trzybulski, Dwożecki, Bielawski, Oblast, which symbolically overlaps with the entire Siedlecki, Sosnowski, Suchecki, Tomaszewski, Grze- Rivne deanery. He restored temple after temple to the siak, Kowalski, and Janowicz, also still present among Catholic church. In places where this was not possi- the current inhabitants of the Oblast. ble, such as in Kostopil, which had been affected by When it comes to the third group, it is impossible the slaughter of Volhynia, a new church was built in to identify a specific region from which the settlers the place of the one that burned down. Father Czajka came, taking up jobs as wage laborers. This was the contributed greatly to the rebirth of the Church in THE MAGAZINE 51 OF THE PAS 3/59/2018 Insight Slavic Studies The newly built Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. GRZEGORZ NAUMOWICZ/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS the Rivne Oblast. To this day he remains with and on Sundays, weekdays and certain holidays with the serves his flock. Polish mass being held before noon for the elderly, The revival of Catholicism is closely related to the while everyone else attended the Ukrainian services revival of Polishness, the return to the Polish language in the evening. This wasn’t the case on Christmas Eve and the promotion of Polish culture. In the initial pe- and during the Easter Triduum (from Holy Thurs- riod, 1989‒2001, the Catholic Church played a key role day to Easter Sunday), where the entire congregation in this process. From the very beginning, apart from would worship together. These services were mostly religion, the clergy most often taught Polish, and with- held in Ukrainian, with certain songs performed in out them the revival of the Polish language would be Polish, while the Gospels were read in both languag- impossible. Polish lessons stopped in 1939 when these es, as was the Our Father prayer. In smaller parishes areas were occupied by the Bolsheviks, and so only where only one mass was held on Sundays and hol- those who had attended Polish school before the war idays the services were divided by week. For exam- spoke the language. Those born in the late 1930s and ple, in the first and third week of the month the mass after did not have the opportunity to learn the lan- was held in Polish, and during the other weeks in guage as part of a formal education, only as it was Ukrainian. During the holidays there was often a bi- spoken at home. Father Czajka had to resort to certain lingual mass with certain parts of the service and the tricks, such as introducing Polish songbooks in Rivne sermons presented in either language. The year 2017 printed in Cyrillic, which, albeit unconventional, was may be considered a watershed date in the third pe- a move that allowed the faithful to not only actively riod, in which Ukrainization has been completed. As participate in the services, but also to communicate in a result of the clergy gradually excluding Polish from Polish. Gradually, Ukrainian was also introduced to the services, the parish in Rivne has become the fully the church, most often as a language used for liturgical Ukrainian-language “Church of John Paul II.” readings, sermons and parish advertisements. Howev- There is also another problem. Maintaining the Pol- er, this bilingual mass had many opponents, especially ish language in the Catholic Church depends on its among the elderly, who contributed the most to reviv- knowledge among the younger generation, which is ing their Polish parish communities. This resulted in eagerly learning Polish as a foreign language. Howev- separate masses being held either completely in Polish er, the economic situation in Ukraine is forcing young or in Ukrainian. people to emigrate, most often to Poland, as a matter of The year 2001 is particularly significant as this is fact, which has a huge impact on the Catholic Church the year when liturgical books appeared in Ukrainian, and the entire Polish community in the Rivne Oblast.