The second generation of Polish deportees reacted to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the same way as the absolute majority: with a sense of
confusion and fear of the future. The issue of economic stability was as relevant as the issue of identity and self-determination. From another perspective the dissolution forced new independent states to formulate national policies.
Kazakhstan chose the concept of a multinational state in the early post-Soviet period due to the extensive polyethnicity in the Central Asian republic. Every ethnic group, diaspora is formed in the community and promotes its culture.
Borders are opening up for religious initiatives and foreign support both for a certain group and for the whole state.
It is clear that ethnic and national communities are not the only forms of existence of ethnic minorities in the country. Different national and ethnic groups either follow social trends and join emerging movements, or take the role of passive observers, shutting themselves off from their ethnic and/or national identity. The Polish population in terms of ethnic identity was divided into the following types:
1) Those who emphasized their identity and declared it among representatives of other ethnic groups;
2) Those who tried to incorporate to the society of the ‘historical homeland’ – Kazakhstani repatriates to Poland;
3) Those who, recognizing their ethnic differences, closed themselves off from other groups in local societies;
4) Those who did not realize/denied Polish identity (for various reasons) and tried to incorporate into other groups.
This classification is close to what Barth proposed when talking about the basic strategies of minorities to participate in the macro-society.105The first type promoted Polish activism developed in Kazakhstan, which clearly distinguished the national and ethnic identity of the members of this trend; the fourth type gave rise to the rare phenomenon of the Kazakh-speaking Pole106or more wider Russian-speaking people of Polish-Kazakh roots, and the second, on the
contrary, became an attempt to introduce into a larger society that meets the criteria of personality and group. The third type prevails among the rural population (mainly the first and second generation) and describes the current
106Ałmatyński Kurier Polonijny has data on the cases when Polish deportees had to learn Kazakh to communicate with locals. Most of the first generation who were deported in the south region of Kazakhstan were settled to the existing Kazakh auls. And they had to learn the language of majority first rather than the state Russian language. (Levitckaya, Nina. 2013. “Istoria i sud’by rodnogo Zhanashara” [In Russian].Ałmatyński Kurier Polonijny, 3(5),15).
105Barth, Fredrik. 1998.Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference.
Waveland Press, 41.
state of villages of the Kamenka type. The latter type is typical for a modern urban Kazakhstani and is not uncommon.
In this chapter, each of the types will be considered in detail, as well as the roles of all three generations in modern society will be determined. The main focus is on people who were born in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The main question is ‘What is the difference between them and their parents in expressing their ethnicity?’ Each of the adopted positions and actions will be considered from the point of view of meeting the social needs of the ethnic minority.
Kazakhstani Polonia: the official representation of Polish minority in the republic
In Kazakhstan there are eleven district Polish community organizations and cultural centers concentrated around “Związek Polaków Kazachstanu” (the Union of Poles in Kazakhstan), which has a total of around four thousand members.107The Union is a part of the global phenomenon ofPolonia – the Polish diaspora comprises Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland.
The first Polish organizations were founded before the dissolution in 1989 in Kokshetau, Karaganda and Almaty. In 1992 all of them were registered
107Website of the Union of Poles in Kazakhstan. URL: zpkz.kz
as official organizations. The Union became the part of the greater company – the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan – and took over the functions of social and political representation of the Polish minority in the state. In most branches the descendants of Polish deportees took management positions. The
communities initiated state and religious celebrations (The Unity Day and Independence Day of Kazakhstan and Poland, Christmas and Easter), music contests, language courses, etc.
The structure of these communities includes the chairman and few administratives, however it is wider because of various social initiatives. For example, in Nur-Sultan there are language courses based on the school №5 or there is a corner of Polonian literature in the Auezov Library. Besides that every year communities provide singing competitions, forums and meetings with Embassy officials.
The structure and the ‘philosophy’ of those organizations are similar to the Soviet local or central authorities such as VLKSM or its yacheykas.The chairman and other administratives are elected collectively and the main aim is to “support and promote” certain values: from Soviet to (Kazakhstani) Polish.
The formal nature of Polish local organizations was adapted by the second
‘Soviet’ generation of deportees. The previous chapter shows that the adoption of official structures was not the only consequence of the Soviet influences.
According to Census data, in 1989 Kazakhstan was inhabited by 60,000 Poles and, in 1999, by 47,297.108And only 12.2 percent of people declaring Polish nationality spoke Polish (a considerably lower percentage than in the other largest ethnic groups in Kazakhstan). Russian is the mother tongue of most Poles in Kazakhstan. Also, during the Soviet period Polish distinctive cultural features were displaced by Russian under the spreading of Russian culture and migration processes in Central Asian republics.109Preservation of Polish culture was also hampered by the dispersion of Poles in Northern Kazakhstan and near Almaty. Ewa Nowicka calls the identity of Poles in Kazakhstan “residual
Polishness,” whereby individuals retained only the basic criterion of Polishness
— the psychological feeling of being Polish, derived from their family histories.110
The members of Kazakhstani Polish communities are rarely spotted to be negative-minded towards Kazakhstan, likewise there are no registered cases of anti-Polish attitudes in Kazakhstan. From the social perspective, Polish
communities seem to be a compromising way to solve the problem of identity in
110Nowicka, Ewa. 2000.“Wprowadzenie,” in Polacy czy cudzoziemcy? Polacy za wschodnią granicą [In Polish]. Warsaw: Nomos, 7–15.
109Martin, Terry. 1998. “The Russification of the USSR.”Cahiers du monde russe, 39/1-2,19.
108Polish diaspora organizations and researchers place their estimates considerably higher. Marek Gawęcki, a researcher of Kazakh Poles and former ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Kazakhstan, also claimed that the official statistical data from the USSR need to be corrected, giving an estimated number of Poles in Kazakhstan of between 120,000 and 150,000.
modern society.111Choosing between Kazakhstani and Polish national identity Polish activists mostly pick the former one, because it correlates with their dual identity. Nevertheless, it is quite significant for them to promote their identity for personal and global (historical) reasons.
Why does the majority of the Polish population in Kazakhstan not participate in ethnic communities? The interviewees share the opinion that the formal nature of the community prevents them from participation. The events organized in the communities are based on generalized versions of Polish traditions, although, as we know, the Polish population were not homogeneous.
For example, every year the Polish community in Nur-Sultan hold
pre-Christmas divinations (Mikolajki), whereas even the first generation of deportees from West Ukraine and Belarus were not familiar with. Mikolajki tradition was imported from contemporary Poland rather than from family tradition. Overall, the narrative of Kazakhstani Poles is mostly based on the deportation and repatriation history, which is nevertheless important, but limited. The only Polish magazine published in Kazakhstan by the Almaty Polish Cultural Centre “Więź”Ałmatyński Kurier Polonijny has a regular
column of Polish legends, traditions and beliefs. And all of them connected with
111It includes the dilemmas between ethnicity and nationality or between different ethnicities. There is the representatives of Polish-Tatar activists in Kazakhstani society who support both their ethnic roots, but in most cases the individual chooses one predominant ethnicity (under the influence of parents’ patterns mostly).
Poland itself, while the stories of local Polish cultures such as ceremonies, folklor (songs, legends, ‘miracles’ and other), cuisine are ‘hidden’ in the
“Deportation histories.”112 For Poles from Kamenka such culture and traditions are similar to the Soviet celebrations of Spring Farewell or “Soviet” weddings – these are reinvented traditions. The source and aim of these ‘inventions’ are also similar: it is the state’s try to replace the previous ideology.
Also, the magazine Ałmatyński Kurier Polonijnyinforms about every scientific publication on Kazakhstani Poles and their history. Some sources of this work were covered there. For example, the collection by Aktobe historian Nadezhda StepanenkoFormirovanie polskoi dispory v Kazakhstane and another monographZhivaya pamyat’that were sponsored by Soros Foundation.113
However, neither the initiatives of Polish communities, nor the publication are connected with culture-, tradition-exploring opportunities. It becomes the matter of every family.
Therefore, official Polish communities in Kazakhstan promoting state Polish knowledge propose to solve the ethnic identity question in the most simple way – choose civil position, whereas the part of descendants do not associate themselves nor with Polish statehood, nor with Kazakhstani. This part
113SeeAłmatyński Kurier Polonijny, 2(30),26–27.
112Bielawska, Deonizja. 2013. “Istoria Belyavskoj Deonizii Pavlovny” [In Russian].Ałmatyński Kurier Polonijny, 3(5),8–12.
perceives patriotism through the “localism” calling the motherland (Rodina) the places where they were born and raised. This is the reason why there is a
difference between Polish diaspora and Polish ethnic minority in the state.
Although the termdiasporafor many researchers is closely connected with the
“dislocation from the ancestral homeland” and the term ethnic minoritydoes not always include the component of displacement,114the Polish case in Kazakhstan presents another perspective. The notion diasporagoes into the political plane, whereas theethnic minoritycharacterizes the Polish population in all its
diversity.
Repatriation: a way to return the past or the political reaction on the historical abuse
Another type of action among the descendants of deportees was the migration to other countries. In the first years after the dissolution Russia became the main point because of the lack of language and cultural barriers. In the first years of independence people migrated mostly due to economical reasons. Another part of the descendants used the opportunity to repatriate. In
114See Brah, A. 1996.Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting identities.Routledge; Clifford, J. 1994.
“Diasporas.”Cultural Anthropology, 9(3),302–338; Cohen, R. and Fischer, C. 2019.Routledge Handbook of Diasporas Studies.Taylor & Francis Group.
the 1990s numbers of countries launched privileged ethnic migration programmes, including Poland.
Contemporary repatriation law was preceded by the postwar repatriation system, which lasted until the 1960s and were based on bilateral agreements and initiated by official institutions such as the Office of the Government
Plenipotentiary for Repatriation.115 In 1997 the Parliament of Poland passed the first law on foreigners, which introduced a special repatriation visa (art. 10) designated for foreigners of Polish ethnicity or Polish origin who were intending to settle permanently in Poland. Nevertheless, a major step in the repatriation system in Poland was the Law on Repatriation of 2000. The law defines a repatriate as a person of Polish origin who arrived in the Republic of Poland with a national repatriation visa and the intention to settle permanently (art. 1, Sec. 2). A person of Polish origin is perceived as someone who declares Polish nationality and demonstrates a connection with Polishness – through language, traditions, and customs – and who has at least one
parent/grandparent/great-grandparents with (or had in the past) Polish
nationality (or ethnicity) or citizenship.116 A person arriving in Poland with a
116Most descendants havespravkasof rehabilitation of the whole family or a certain member where the nationality is pointed. In another case the descendants used their grandparents/great-grandparents’ birth
certificates to prove their Polish origins. Those descendants who don’t have those documents, but know the region of living of their grandparents/great-grandparents can request a certificate from local authorities.
115Łodziński, Sławomir. 1997. “Repatriacja osób narodowości lub pochodzenia polskiego w latach 1989– 1997” [In Polish].Problemy prawne i instytucjonalne, 586.
repatriation visa acquires Polish citizenship at the moment of crossing the
border of the Republic of Poland. The spouse of an applicant who is not himself or herself of Polish origin but who intends to settle in Poland together with the applicant, also receives permission to settle.
The present third wave of repatriation117began with the transformation of the political system in 1989 in Poland and in 1991 – in Kazakhstan. The first stage of repatriation, lasting to the mid-1990s, can be termed “spontaneous repatriation,” as it was mainly based on informal individual or social
initiatives.118 The second period, from around 1996 to 2000, was the laying of the foundations of an institutional repatriation system in Poland. In its first phase, from September 1996 to the end of December 1997, 334 repatriate
families were invited to settle in Poland – around 1,290 people in total. Between 1997 and 2010, only 6,223 people overall arrived in Poland as a result of
repatriation. In the same years, 297 people were recognized as repatriates on the basis of art. 109 of the Law on Foreigners of 25 June 1997; based on articles 16 and 41 of the Law on Repatriation of 2000, the regional authorities recognized a further 734 people as repatriates. In total in the period 1997 to 2010, some 7,079
118Grzymała-Kazłowska, Aleksandra, and Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Halina. 2014. “The Anguish of Repatriation: Immigration to Poland and Integration of Polish Descendants from Kazakhstan.”East European Politics and Societies, 28(3),10.
117The first was in the 1940s and the second – in the 1950s.
people went to live in Poland thanks to repatriation. Nevertheless, statistics show a clearly declining trend in repatriation immigration since 2001.119
Officially, repatriation means arrivals in the state covered by a special state policy, with the objective to settle people of Polish origin who, as a result of border changes and resettlement, lived prior to 2001 in the Asian part of the Soviet Union. In accordance with the binding Law on Repatriation from 2000,
“a repatriate is a person of Polish origin who arrived in the Republic of Poland on the basis of an entrance visa with the objective of repatriation and the
intention of permanent settlement” (art. 1). Importantly, on crossing the Polish border, a repatriate obtains the status of Polish citizen.
However, the concept of “repatriation” has been the source of debate and doubt. The term repatriationwas initiated by the Polish government and
expanded to the research world as a compromise term, though it is not perfect.
For example, Robert Wyszyński notes that, with this category of immigrants, there is no return to their homeland in a literal sense, because it was “the homeland that left them.”120 As a result of politics and changes in border emplacements, Polish repatriates do not return to the lands of their ancestors, but arrive in their historical and ideological homeland. Repatriates to Poland are
120Wyszyński, Robert. 2008. “Citizenship or Nationality – a Difficult Return from Kazakhstan.” In Homecoming. An Anthropology of Return Migration, edited by Nowicka Ewa and Firouzbakhch H. Kraków:
Nomos, 118.
119Ibid.
the descendants of people resettled in Central Asia and Siberia, often those who were born in Ukraine or Belarus. But proposed alternative academic terms such as return121 or theso-called repatriation122of Poles from the former Soviet Union or evenimpatriation123in reference to the current phenomenon, have not been widely accepted.
The results of repatriation are highly promoted by Kazakhstani and Polish media as positive and productive. However, there is a lack of information about the adaptation process and difficulties of repatriants in open sources, while this topic is quite popular among researchers because it identifies the nature of repatriation and gives a complex image of this movement. The research papers help to find out why repatriation does not fit certain groups of the Polish
minority. Kozłowski distinguished the main types of adaptation problem for repatriates in Poland: sociocultural, administrative, living standards, and professional.124A similar typology was proposed by Hut with a division of problems into formal/legal, professional, material/living, sociocultural and climate-related.125Hut stressed the lack of support from state offices because of
125Hut, Paweł. 2002.Warunki życia i proces adaptacji repatriantów w Polsce w latach 1992–2000[In Polish].Warsaw: Oficyna Wydawnicza Aspra-JR, 36.
124Kozłowski, Bronisław. 2004. “Diaspora polska w Kazachstanie w świetle wyników powszechnego spisu ludności z Kazachstanu z 1999 Roku” [In Polish]. InRepatriacja jako element polityki demograficznej Polski,Poznań: Nakom, 67.
123Hut, Paweł. 2002.Warunki życia i proces adaptacji repatriantów w Polsce w latach 1992–2000[In Polish].Warsaw: Oficyna Wydawnicza Aspra-JR, 43.
122Ruchniewicz, Małgorzata. 1999. “Repatriacja ludności polskiej z ZSRR w latach 1955–1959”[In Polish].Dzieje Najnowsze, 31/2,171.
121Ibid, 127.
the lack of social-insurance agreements between Poland and most of the countries of the former USSR. However, Polish-Kazakhstani relations were fully elaborated in the 2000s. And for the repatriates from Kazakhstan there is other main adaptation problems: the entry and maintenance of repatriates on the labor market in Poland126and repatriates’ low linguistic and cultural
competence.127 The family who recently have repatriated to Poland have a quite universal profession – truck driver, but after the move he found out that the process of skill attestation in Poland takes half a year in total, which led to considerable financial problems for all family because of his impossibility to work so long.128The workers of educational and media spheres struggle with more serious problems: often their degree is not recognized by the Polish officials and they should choose physical work. But in most cases the
representatives of non-technical education refuse the opportunity to repatriate.
The second problem of low linguistic and cultural competence can lead to a lack of acceptance of repatriates in Polish society. A 1994 study by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) showed that 39 percent of Poles definitely and 43 percent somewhat supported the idea that “every person of Polish origin, if he/she wants to, should receive Polish citizenship and the right to settle in
128Author interview, 23/VI/21, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, audio tape.
127Kozłowski, Bronisław. 2004. “Diaspora polska w Kazachstanie w świetle wyników powszechnego spisu ludności z Kazachstanu z 1999 Roku” [In Polish]. InRepatriacja jako element polityki demograficznej Polski,Poznań: Nakom, 178.
126Ibid.
Poland.” This result was confirmed by research in 1994–1996 by the Centre of Migration Research at the Institute of Social Studies (University of Warsaw).
However, there are many stereotypes among Polish citizens. The accent of repatriates is associated with Ukrainian and Russian citizenship which in some cases is the subject of conflicts and discriminations.129Social alienation does not encourage repatriates to make steps to solve the problem, otherwise they try to find the Russian-/Ukrainian-speaking community or leave the country.130 Interestingly, some repatriates consider themselves patriots of Kazakhstan.
Being in Poland, they form an active position in relation to important events of the "second Motherland".
The next law allowing people of Polish origin in the territory of the former USSR or those who are stateless in these countries to come to Poland is theKarta Polaka(Card of the Pole) from 2007. This card can be awarded to a person who either declares Polish national affiliation, demonstrates a connection with Polishness through at least a rudimentary familiarity with the Polish
language and a knowledge and cultivation of traditions and customs, who has parents/grandparents/great-grandparents of Polish nationality or citizenship, or who can demonstrate his or her active involvement in the promotion of the
130Grzymała-Kazłowska, Aleksandra, and Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Halina. 2014. “The Anguish of Repatriation: Immigration to Poland and Integration of Polish Descendants from Kazakhstan.”East European Politics and Societies, 28(3),15.
129Ibid.