There are currently more than 22,000 ethnicPoles living in theRussian Federation. This includes native Poles as well as those forcibly deported during and afterWorld War II. When including all of the countries of theformer Soviet Union, the total number of Poles is estimated at up to 3 million.
Zainsk, Kazan governate, was originally a fort occupied by Chelny strelsty, archers and servicemen, and 81 Polish Cossask prisoners from Smolensk area after the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.[2]
1654, Polotsk Gentry from Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
In 1654 the Poles were taken from Polotsk, 141 people from the Polish small gentry were evacuated to Tiinsk together with the Cossacks, who, before that, "universal servants of Polish kings carried serfdom". Another party of the Polish gentry was settled in the settlement of Old Kuvak [Старой Куваке] and Old Pismyanka [Старой Письмянке] of the future Bugulma district [Бугульминского уезда], Kazan governate. They became part of the Simbirsk Line. Polish gentry until 1830 were considered available soldiers for conscription or draft.[citation needed]
1768 – The Bar Confederation and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
After the change in Russianpenal law in 1847, exile and penal labor (katorga) became common penalties to the participants of national uprisings within the Russian Empire. This led to increasing number ofPoles being sent to Siberia for katorga, they were known asSybiraks. Some of them remained there, forming a Polish minority in Siberia. Most of them came from the participants and supporters of the 19th centuryNovember Uprising andJanuary Uprising,[4][5] the participants of the1905–1907 unrest[5] to the hundreds of thousands of people deported in theSoviet invasion of Poland in 1939.[5]
Originally, 148 Polish exiles were stationed in the Orenburg province, but by the beginning of June 1864, 278 people had been sent to the Orenburg governate to take up residence under the supervision of the police, and by mid-1865, 506 people. In addition, 831 people were identified for establishment on the state lands of the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk districts, of which 754 people were allocated to Ufa.[6]
Millions of Poles lived within theRussian Empire as theRussian Revolution of 1917 started followed by theRussian Civil War. While some Poles associated with the communist movement, the majority of the Polish population saw cooperation with Bolshevik forces as betrayal and treachery of Polish national interests.[7]Marian Lutosławski and his brotherJózef, the father of the Polish composerWitold Lutosławski, were murdered in Moscow in 1918 as "counter-revolutionaries".[8]Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz lived through theRussian Revolution inSt. Petersburg, which had a profound effect on his works, many of which displayed themes of the horrors of social revolution. Famous revolutionaries with Polish origins includeKonstantin Rokossovsky,Julian Marchlewski,Karol Świerczewski andFelix Dzerzhinsky, founder of theCheka secret police which would later turn into theNKVD. However, according to their ideology they did not identify as Poles or with Poland, and members of the communist party viewed themselves as Soviet citizens without any national sentiments. The Soviet Union also organized Polish units in theRed Army and a Polish Communist government-in-exile.
There were 73,000Polish nationals living inRussia according to the2002 Russian census.[9] This includes autochthonous Poles as well as those forcibly deported during and afterWorld War II; the total number of Poles in what was the formerSoviet Union is estimated at up to 3 million.[10] The number of Polish people in Russia decreased to 47,125 in 2010, and to 22,024 in 2021.
Sigizmund Levanevsky, Soviet pioneer of long-range flight who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1934 for his role in the SS Chelyuskin rescue.
Jan Nagórski, engineer and pioneer of aviation, the first person to fly an airplane in the Arctic and the first aviator to perform a loop with a flying boat.
Stanisław Kosior, First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, deputy prime minister of the USSR and member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).
Aniela Krzywoń, the only woman in history who was not a citizen of the Soviet Union to be awarded the USSR's highest honor for bravery, the titleHero of the Soviet Union.
Stanislav Poplavsky (Stanisław Popławski) – general, commander of thePolish First Army during the breakthrough of thePommernstellung (Pomerania Wall) fortification line, securing the Baltic Sea coast, crossing the Odra and Elbe rivers and the battle of Berlin
Arseny Tarkovsky (Tarkowski) – poet and translator (with a father of Polish descent)
Andrei Tarkovsky (Tarkowski) – film-maker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director (with a paternal grandfather of Polish descent)
Dmitri Shostakovich (Szostakowicz) – composer (with a paternal grandfather of Polish descent)
Edita Piekha (Edyta Piecha) – singer, born in France, moved to USSR
Anatoly Sobchak – mayor of Saint Petersburg (mixed Russian-Ukrainian-Polish-Czech descent)
Sergey Yastrzhembsky (Jastrzębski) – Russian politician, President Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesperson on theSecond Chechen War, head of the Kremlin’s Information Policy Department, co-ordinating Putin administration's external communications.
Skarzhinsky, Vasily Anastasievich - Russian Major General
Skarzhinsky, Pyotr Mikhailovich - Major General, Cavalier of the Order of St. Vladimir of the 2nd degree and the Order of St. George of the 4th degree. Commander of the Astrakhan Cossack Regiment. He participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1791
Skarzhinsky, Nikolai Petrovich - lieutenant of the Izmailovo regiment, mortally wounded at Kulm (August 17, 1813), his name is listed on the wall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
Skarzhinsky, Nikolai Vladimirovich (1910–1990) Soviet serviceman, who served in the Soviet 327th anti-tank battalion of the 253rd Rifle Division, was awarded the Order "For Courage" and the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree during the Great Patriotic War.
^abcdefghiJerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki,Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996,ISBN0-313-26007-9,Google Print, 538
^J. M. Kupczak "Stosunek władz bolszewickich do polskiej ludności na Ukrainie (1921–1939)Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie 1 (1997) Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego , 1997 page 47–62" IPN Bulletin 11(34) 2003
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Ancestry in Russia