Polish Communities in Great Romania (1918-1940)

Abstract

The author presents the genesis of the Poles' presence in the former and modern-day Rumanian territories, starting from the end of the 18th century. The first to have come to Bukovina, joined to Austria, were the farmers from Galicia. The next surge consisted of political refugees after the downfall of successive Polish risings in the 19th century.

It was typical of the Poles who had settled in towns to be well-educated and cultured, mainly those in Czerniowce, whose increase in number was imposing: from 810 people in mid-19th century to ca. 15.000 in 1910 (in the whole of Bukovina over 32.000). In their professional careers they cultivated the Polish character by way of numerous Polish socio-cultural organizations.

The Polish representatives (as the only group among the minorities) supported the establishment of the so-called Great Romania in 1918, part of which was Bukovina. This fact did not escape the Rumanians notice and they remembered it.

The number of Poles in interwar Romania has been rated differently: from ca. 43.000 (the Rumanian version) to 80.000 (the Polish version).

The author makes note of the political turbulence which took place among the Polish minority and has been unknown in Polish literature on the subject (the group of dr. Szymonowicz, bearing a national and peasant character, and the group of engineer Friedel, identified by the author with liberals). He also presents the complicated issue of national awareness among the inhabitants of the village Poiana Mikula, the settlers who had come from Czadca, on the Polish-Slovakian border. To supplement our knowledge there is some information about the genesis and later mutations of the Polish press in Romania.