Russians in Poland - one of the officially recognized Poland . [1] The total number is about 13 thousand people (2011) [2] .
According to , Russians are in seventh place among all national minorities after Silesians [3] , Kashubians , [3] Germans , Ukrainians , Belarusians and Gypsies [4] .
Russians inhabit different regions of Poland without forming a compact ethnic area, and are descendants of different waves of immigration, starting with the Old Believers who settled in the Suwalki district at the end of the 18th century, as well as modern immigrants. By religion, they are mostly Orthodox.
Strength
Before World War II, the number of Russians in Poland was up to 100-140 thousand people. After the war in 1945, in connection with the change in the borders of the Russians, about 20-30 thousand remained. Currently, up to 13 thousand inhabitants of Russian origin live in Poland, including from 2.5 thousand to 3 thousand are Old Believers [5] .
According to the 2011 census, 13,046 residents of Poland declared Russian nationality, including 8,203 as the first (of which 5,176 was the only one) and 4,842 as the second. Most (7,119) of respondents considered themselves to be Poles at the same time. [6]
According to the 2002 census, only in one Polish administrative unit did the Russian minority make up more than 0.5% of the population - in the commune of Augustow (0.66% of the population) [7] .
Settlement area
The Russian minority can be divided into three parts:
- Russian Old Believers who resettled in the Commonwealth from the seventeenth century. Including in Suwalkia - from the second half of the eighteenth century and to Mazuria - since 1830.
- Russians who remained in Poland after redistribution of borders and post-revolutionary emigration.
- Modern immigrants from Russia and the countries of the former USSR.
Old Believers live in three regions in the Warmian-Masurian and Podlaskie voivodships. Currently, only three villages have survived, in which the Russians live compactly. These are , and Voinovo . In the 1970s and 1980s, the Russian population of Masuria decreased significantly as a result of emigration to Germany .
Since the nineteenth century, Russians living in Poland have settled in large cities, primarily in Bialystok , Lodz and Warsaw .
Notes
- ↑ Ustawa z dnia 6 stycznia 2005 r. o mniejszościach narodowych i etnicznych oraz o języku regionalnym. Dz.U. 2005 nr 17 poz. 141 (Polish) . Internetowy system aktów prawnych (2009—2013). (Retrieved October 16, 2015)
- ↑ Raport z wyników. Narodowy Spis Powszechnego Ludności i Mieszkań 2011. Rozdział XI. Struktura narodowo-etniczna ludności. 1.Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności (Polish) (pdf) S. 106. Warszawa: Główny Urząd Statystyczny (2012). (Retrieved October 16, 2015)
- ↑ 1 2 Officially considered Poles
- ↑ Charakterystyka mniejszości narodowych i etnicznych w Polsce (Polish) (pdf). Ministerstwo Administracji i Cyfryzacji. Archived on May 27, 2016. (Retrieved October 16, 2015)
- ↑ Jan Strenkovsky. What do Russians live in Poland . novpol.org (March 13, 2015).
- ↑ Narodowy Spis Powszechny Ludności i Mieszkań 2011 // W-wa, 2013.
- ↑ Deklaracje narodowościowe w gminach w 2002 r. , 2014-07-01 , < http://stat.gov.pl/download/gfx/portalinformacyjny/pl/defaultstronaopisowa/5743/1/1/nsp2002_tabl4.xls >