Polish Migration to the Katerynoslav Governorate at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Abstract

The aim of the article was to identify and present elite flows of Polish migration to the Katerinoslav Governorate and their adaptation practices in the last quarter of the 19th — early 20th centuries. The methodological basis of the work was the range of prosopography techniques and methods, which were used as tools in the reconstruction of the collective portrait of representatives of various social groups. The novelty of the study lies in establishing the causes, mechanisms, social and personal composition of the two Polish migration flows to Southern Ukraine. Special attention is paid to identifying the ways and methods of adaptation of the Polish population. The Polish migration flows on the territory of the Katerynoslav Governorate are presented. The movement of participants in the Polish uprising of 1863–1864 was forced in nature. The purpose of their stay was to survive while waiting for the end of the exile. Participation in the armed struggle against tsarism determined the special attitude of the authorities and the local population towards them. The second group is graduates of prestigious mining institutes who deliberately went to promising industrial regions to realize their ambitious plans for civil service and business careers. In terms of political orientation, mining engineers were distinguished by complete loyalty and conservative beliefs. Representatives of both streams looked differently at the prospects of their stay in the South of Ukraine. The former, in the overwhelming majority, considered it as a transit region, while Polish officials and businessmen associated the economic and financial future with it. Calculating the parameters of both streams, which was measured in dozens of people, allows us to assert that they represented extreme positions in a wide spectrum of the resettlement of thousands of Poles to the Katerynoslav Governorate. Between these extremes is widespread labor migration, the resettlement of employees, educational and cultural figures. The study of all Polish migration flows, the establishment and clarification of their quantitative and personal composition, strategies and practices of survival and adaptation in Southern Ukraine has significant scientific relevance and appears to be a promising direction for further heuristic and interpretative efforts.