Polish national minorities as a subject of social and political processes in Ukraine ; Польское национальное меньшинство как субъект общественно-политических процессов в Украине ; Польська національна меншина як суб'єкт суспільно-політичних процесів в Україні

Open Access

Abstract

Now before Ukraine on the way to the formation of a stable civil society, along with the problem of national consolidation, is also a problem of adjustment of the normal interethnic relations, protection rights of ethnic and national minorities. In the conditions of the political system's development in Ukrainian society ethnic and national minorities began to engage in the sphere of political activity, seeking to take a rightful place in the process of public and cultural construction.In the multinational composition of Ukraine from time to time the problems of settlement the relations with separate ethnic or national groups, including Russian, Tatar, Romanian and others, are updated and exacerbated. The Polish minority is one of the most numerous national minorities living on the territory of our state. It is marked out by movement strengthening to the self-organization and national identification, and also formation as a subject of policy. There is so important, from our point of view, to research, on the one hand, a role and place of Ukraine in the realization of rights and satisfaction of needs of Poles in Ukraine, and with another – the participations of this minority in social and political processes of the state.Considering the relevance and insufficient studying of this problem, the author set to himself the purpose: 1) to analyze the main features and trends of development of the Polish minority in Ukraine; 2) to identify the key aspects of the participation of the Polish community in the Ukrainian social and political processes.The object of study is the Polish minority in Ukraine as an important part of the civil society and its political system, and the subject is the process of formation, functioning and development of the Polish minority as a subject of modern social and political life of Ukraine.There are 144 130 Poles in Ukraine today, according to the last population census in 2001. It makes 0,3 % from the total number of the population of the state. The Polish take the eighth place in terms of population among the ethnic minorities in Ukraine (after Russians, Belarusians, Moldovans, Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Romanians).The resettlement of Poles in Ukraine historically was connected primarily with the Right Bank and Eastern Galicia. The most numerous Polish ethnographic communities formed here. The most part of Polish lived in 2001 in Zhytomyr (49 046 persons; 3,5 % of the population), Khmelnytsky (23 005 persons; 1,6 % of the population) and Lvov (18 948 persons; 0,7 % of the population) regions.In general, the present social, political and religious situation in the environment of the Polish minority is stable and loyal to the Ukrainian government. Social and political moods of Ukrainian Poles naturally determine by both positive and negative sentiments.In January 1992, in Lvov at the Congress of Ukrainian Poles the Federation of the Polish Organizations in Ukraine (FPOU) was founded. It is led now by E. Khmelyova. This organization and the Union of Poles in Ukraine are today the most influential organizational structures of the Polish minority in Ukraine.In November 1994, in Kyiv the societies «Consent», «Solidarity», Cultural and Educational Association of Adam Mickiewicz, Kyiv branch of «The Union of Poles» decided to create «The Coordinating Council of Polish Organizations in Kyiv». Before all Polish non-governmental organizations in this country is to not only revive the local Polish national identity, but also comprehensively facilitate to the productive cultural relations between the two countries.In January 2000, the Polish Institute in Kyiv was established with the support of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was led by P. Kozakiewicz. Its tasks include: development and promotion of the image of Poland as a modern and democratic state, supporting the exchange of views, the elimination of negative stereotypes in the Ukrainian-Polish relations.The Polish NGOs practiced such forms of activity: teaching the Polish language; establishment and functioning of libraries and publishing activities; research activities; organizing places and cultural sites associated with the history of Poland; organization of cultural and educational activities; assistance in the process of developing national performances etc.There are five schools with education in Polish in Ukraine. These schools, which have about two thousand pupils, function with the support of Polish NGOs. There are four Polish schools in the Lvov region. Two of these schools are located in Lvov, and another two are in the area of Mostynsk. Another school with education in Polish functions in Ivano-Frankivsk. The curriculum at schools with education in Polish introduced the subjects of «History of Poland» and «Geography of Poland».As a subject Polish is studied in Ukraine by more than 4 thousand students, and more than 3 thousand students study Polish facultatively or in circles. Polish is also studied in numerous Ukrainian universities. At the end of 2012 the Polish organizations in Ukraine initiated to provide Polish the status of regional language in the area of Mostynsk. There are about four villages, which population is made by Poles.The western regions, where the most part of the Poles is living, are characterized by vigorous activity of the Polish community in the media sector. Thus, «The Polish word» (25 min.) in the broadcasting of TV «Zhytomyr» is weekly published. And «TRK Union TV» broadcasts daily for the Polish community on the proposal TV «Polonia».Lvov is the capital of the Polish Radio in Ukraine: «Radio Lwow» tells at a frequency of the radio station «The Independence» in different days. There is a program «Program katolicki». The Lvov city NGO «Polskie Towarzystwo Radiowe» works here. An important role in cross-cultural communication is played by Polish Radio for the abroad. There are news, press reviews, comments and reports of correspondents all over the world, interviews and debates, literary and music plots in the broadcasting.Periodicals of the Polish national minority are represented by the following groups of editions:- informational: «Głos Podola» (Kamenetz-Podolsk), «The Monitor of Volyn» (Lutsk), «Kurier Stanisławowski» and «Kurier Galicyjski» (Ivano-Frankivsk), «The Polish Newspaper» (Zhytomyr), «Dzyennik Kiyovski» (Kyiv);- public: «Lwowskie Spotkania» (Lvov), «Harcerz Kresow» (Lvov), «Wspolne Dzedzictwo» (Ternopol), «KOTWICA» (Mykolaiv);- cultural and educational: «The Mosaic of Berdichev» (Berdichev), «The Voice of Teacher» (Drogobych), «Krynica» (Kyiv);- religious: «The Shouts from Volyn» (Ostrog), «The Joy of Belief» (Lvov).Recently the joint Ukrainian-Polish projects in the media sphere, for example, the international interdisciplinary magazine «Ucrainica Polonica» and «The Ukrainian Polonistic» gain the increasing popularity.The status of the Polish national minority in Ukraine is qualitatively different from the status of other minorities, such as Roma or Crimean Tatars. After all, the Poles have their historical homeland, the neighboring of Ukrainian state – the Republic of Poland, from which a financial and institutional support comes. Therefore the self-determination process in Polish minority is quite successful and quick.The negative phenomenon for the image of Ukraine is the fact that it works and develops mainly by financing from the government of Poland. At the current time, for example, all meetings of the Polish community in Lvov Church and departures of children on rehabilitation and training to the Republic of Poland are financed also by Poland.Thus, according to the Association of Polish culture in Lvov, the local administration level of care to ensure the interests of the Polish community in Lvov region, compared with a sponsorship of the Republic of Poland, is zero. Over the last few years the Association of Polish culture received for its needs from Lvov regional state administration only about 2 thousand UAN. It forces the Ukrainian Poles to address on the constant help to the bureaucracy of Poland. In this aspect the chairman of the society E. Legovich opposed a situation with ensuring of requirements of the Ukrainian diaspora in the territory of the Republic of Poland. There are considerable budgetary funds for the satisfaction of its interests, which in accordance with the established procedure are transmitted through the Sejm to the communities of national minorities. So, 2 million zloty (about 5 million UAN) are annually allocated for the needs of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland. Thus, E. Lehovych notes that the Polish community would be sufficient amount of 100 thousand UAN.However, speaking about the presence of members of the Polish community in the Ukrainian elected authorities and government agencies, we have to note a negative trend associated with the low levels of its representation. Thus, Ukraine has not any political party of the Polish national minority (for example, Hungarian and Russian communities have its own political parties, such as «The Democratic Party of Hungarians of Ukraine», «KMKS» Party of Hungarians of Ukraine, «The Russian block» and others. And these parties of the national minorities stood on elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine). The Polish community is not represented in the Ukrainian parliament. There are two Poles among the 66 members of the regional council of Mostynsk (Lvov region). Poles make 20 % of the number of the residents of Mostynsk and 8 % of Poles are living in the area).Thus, we can conclude, that the Polish minority is one of the largest minorities in Ukraine, and it is on its way of the identification and a political subjektivation. Poles in Ukraine experienced the process of assimilation due to an extended stay in limited contacts with their historical homeland, as indicated the data from recent Ukrainian population census. However, a positive is the fact that today the Polish community in Ukraine will intensify its activities, key points of which are:1) preservation of cultural originality and development of cultural creativity;2) functioning of national and cultural, public organizations;3) contacts with the historical homeland and participation in interstate processes.The negative sides of the position of Polish national minority in Ukraine are:1) absence of political communities (political parties) for the representation the minority at official level;2) low level of participation in formation of power structures and representation at all levels of the power (from local to governmental and parliamentary).Also, despite the existence of numerous guarantees of the rights and protection of the freedoms of national minorities in Ukraine, approved at legislative level, the real practice shows an insufficient attention from the Ukrainian government to these questions. The existence and development of the Polish national minority in Ukraine is provided by the contacts with the historical homeland. It practically finances the diaspora. Therefore Ukraine have to accept a number of scientifically reasonable measures in order to the reforming, carried out in education, sciences, public administration and local government, don't entail to the restriction of the right of the minorities, including Polish, to get an education in a state language, to develop and protect own cultural and a creative heritage, to participate in formation of authorities and to have own representation in electoral bodies. ; Статья посвящена выявлению основных черт и тенденций развития польского национального меньшинства в Украине, а также определению ключевых аспектов участия поляков в украинских общественно-политических процессах. Сделана попытка показать уровень гражданской зрелости, политической культуры польской общины в Украине на современном этапе. Особое внимание уделено роли национальной политики украинского государства в процессе политической субъективации польского национального меньшинства. ; Статтю присвячено виявленню основних рис і тенденцій розвитку польської національної меншини в Україні, а також визначенню ключових аспектів участі поляків в українських суспільно-політичних процесах. Зроблено спробу показати рівень громадянської зрілості, політичної культури польської громади в Україні на сучасному етапі. Окрему увагу приділено ролі національної політики Української держави в процесі політичної суб'єктивації польської національної меншини.