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The Polyethnic State: National Minorities in Interbellum Poland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Gabriele Simoncini
Gabriele Simoncini*
Affiliation:
The City College of New York, New York City, USA
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Extract

Interbellum Poland remains an important example of a polyethnic state and society in European history. Its short existence between the wars does not diminish the importance of its many peculiar aspects, nor does the fact that it can be defined as an unsuccessful example in organizing, institutionally and socially, a polyethnic community. The theoretical definition of the Polish experience has puzzled historians in the past. Polish historiography substantially ignored or steadfastly marginalized the nationalities in the Second Republic and in earlier historical times, an attitude echoed by Marxist historians in post-bellum Poland. Now, indirectly, the topic is attracting attention again as a consequence of the new problematic caused by current European historical events both in the East and West.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 22 , Issue S1: Special Issue - Ethnopolitics in Poland , Summer 1994 , pp. 5 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities of the USSR and Eastern Europe, Inc. 

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References

Notes

1. For coeval accounts see J. Urbański, Mniejszości narodowe w Polsce, Warszawa, 1932; P. Włtodarski, Zagadnienia narodowościowe w Polsce odrodzonej, Warszawa, 1936; K. Kierski, Ochrona praw mniejszości w Polsce, Warszawa, 1933. And the Journal Sprawy narodowościowe, published during the interwar time after 1926.Google Scholar

2. For a recent valuable overview of minorities, see E. Wynot, “The National Minorities of Interwar Poland: An Overview,” Poland between the Wars: 1918-1939. A Collection of Papers and Discussions from the Conference “Poland between the Wars: 1918-1939” held in Bloomington, Indiana, February 21-23, 1985, T. Wiles (ed.), Bloomington, 1989.Google Scholar

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11. A representative example of coeval literature is R. Korsh, Żydowskie ugrupowania wywrotowe w Polsce, Warszawa, 1925.Google Scholar

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31. See Hrabyk, K., Sprawa ukrainska. Poznan, 1935; R. Torzecki, Kwestia ukraińska w polityce III Rzeszy, Warszawa, 1962; T. Cieslak, Hitlerowski sojusz z nacjonalizmem ukrairiskim w Polsce, Warszawa, 1968.Google Scholar

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35. Rothschild, J., East Central Europe between the Two World Wars, Seattle, 1974, pp. 39-40.Google Scholar

36. See note 34.Google Scholar

37. Mendelson, E., “The Politics of Agudas Yisroel in Interwar Poland,” Soviet Jewish Affairs, No. 2, 1972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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39. See G. Iwański, “Żydowski Komunistyczny Związek Robotniczy Kombund w Polsce 1921-1923,” Z Pola Walki, No. 4, 1974 and G. Iwański, “Powstanie i działtalność Komunistycznej Organizacji Młtodzieży “Cukunft” w Polsce (Styczeń 1922 - kwieczen 1923 r.),” Pokolenia, No. 3, 1974.Google Scholar

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41. As a general reference see M. Kosman, Historia Biatorusi, Wroclaw, 1979.Google Scholar

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45. See note 8.Google Scholar

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