Polonisation or Polonization (;In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэяй. Польскі рух на беларускіх і літоўскіх землях. 1864–1917 г. / Пад рэд. С. Куль-Сяльверставай. – Гродна: ГрДУ, 2001. – 322 с. (2004). Pp.24, 28.), an additional distinction between the Polonization () and self-Polonization () has been being made, however, most modern Polish researchers do not use the term polszczenie się. ; ; ; ) is the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular the Polish language. This happened in some historic periods among non-Polish populations in territories controlled by or substantially under the influence of Poland.
Like other examples of cultural assimilation, Polonization could be either voluntary or forced. It was most visible in territories where the Polish language or culture was dominant or where their adoption could result in increased prestige or social status, as was the case with the nobilities of Ruthenia and Lithuania. To a certain extent, political authorities have administratively promoted Polonization, particularly during the interwar period and in the period following World War II.
This happened to the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795), when the Ruthenian and Lithuanian upper classes were drawn towards Westernisation with the adoption of Polish culture and the political and financial benefits of such a transition, as well as, sometimes, with the administrative pressure exerted on their own cultural institutions, primarily the Orthodox Church and Protestant by conversion to the Roman Catholic faith was often the single most important part of the process. For Ruthenians at that time, being Polish culturally and Roman Catholic by religion was almost the same. This diminishing of the Orthodox Church was the part most resented by the Belarusian and Ukrainian masses. In contrast, the Lithuanians, who were mostly Catholic, were in danger of losing their cultural identity as a nation, but that was not realised by the wide masses of Lithuanians until the Lithuanian national renaissance in the middle of the 19th century.
On the other hand, the Polonization policies of the Polish government during the interwar years of the 20th century, particularly in the Eastern Borderlands, were more deliberate. Some of them were similar to the mostly forcible assimilationist policies implemented by other European powers that have aspired to regional dominance (e.g., Germanisation, Italianization, Russification), while others resembled policies carried out by countries aiming at increasing the role of their native language and culture in their own societies (e.g., Magyarization, Romanianization, Ukrainization). For Poles, it was a process of rebuilding Polish national identity and reclaiming Polish heritage, including the fields of education, religion, infrastructure and administration, that suffered under the prolonged foreign occupation by the neighbouring empires of Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary. However, as a third of recreated Poland's population was ethnically non-Polish and many felt their own nationhood aspirations thwarted specifically by Poland, large segments of this population resisted to varying degrees the policies intended to assimilate them. Part of the country's leadership emphasised the need for the long-term ethnic and cultural homogeneity of the state. However, the promotion of the Polish language in administration, public life and especially education, were perceived by some as an attempt at forcible homogenisation. In areas inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians, for example, actions of the Polish authorities seen as aiming at restricting the influence of the Orthodox and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church caused additional resentment and were considered to be closely tied to religious Polonization.
Medieval Poland
Between the 12th and the 14th centuries, a number of towns in Poland adopted Magdeburg rights that promoted the towns' development and trade. The rights were usually granted by the king on the occasion of the arrival of migrants. Some integrated with the larger community, such as merchants who settled there, especially Greeks and Armenians. They adopted most aspects of Polish culture but kept their Orthodox faith. In western Poland, many townspeople were Germans. Initially, trade guilds had been exclusively German-speaking. However, this began to change by increasing Polonization in the 15th and 16th centuries. Since the Middle Ages, Polish culture, influenced by the West, in turn radiated East, beginning the long process of cultural assimilation.Michael J. Mikoś, Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to the End of the Eighteenth Century. A Bilingual Anthology, Warsaw: Constans, 1999. Introductory chapters.
Polish–Lithuanian Union (1385–1795)
Grand Duchy of Lithuania Poles reached Lithuania long before the union of the two countries. In a letter to the German Franciscans, Grand Duke Gediminas asked them to send monks who spoke Samogitian, Ruthenian or Polish. Other sources mention Polish slave carers and educators of children. This indicates the presence of Poles, probably prisoners of war or their descendants. Polish influence increased considerably after the Union of Krewo (1386). The Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila was offered the Polish crown and became Władysław II Jagiełło (reigned 1386–1434). This marked the beginning of the gradual, voluntary Polonization of the Lithuanian nobility.Thomas Lane. Lithuania stepping westwards. Routledge, 2001. p. 24. David James Smith. The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Routledge. 2002. p. 7.Romuald J. Misiunas, Rein Taagepera. The Baltic States, years of dependence, 1940–1980. University of California Press. 1983. p. 3. Jagiełło built multiple churches in pagan Lithuanian land and provided them generously with estates, gave out the lands and positions to the Catholics, settled the cities and villages and granted the biggest cities and towns Magdeburg rights in their Polish variant.
Lithuanian nobles were granted privileges modelled on those held by the Polish nobility. 47 families of Lithuanian families were adopted by 45 Polish families and endowed with Polish coats of arms. Lithuania adopted Polish political solutions and institutions. The offices of voivodes and castellans appeared, and the country was divided into voivodeships and powiats. There was also a representation of the nobility, called Sejm, following the Polish model. However, unlike the Polish Sejm, the magnates had the deciding vote, and the petty and middle nobility only approved the decisions of the magnate's council. Since the late 15th century marriages between Lithuanian and Polish magnates became more frequent. This brought the Lithuanians even closer to Polish culture. The first such marriage was the one between and the daughter of Alekna Sudimantaitis in 1478.
Polish influence intensified in the period preceding the Union of Lublin. The royal court took steps to make the political and economic system of Lithuania more similar to Poland. An important step was the introduction of the hide system (Volok Reform – ), based on the Polish model. The reform was introduced by specialists from Poland, mainly from Mazovia, headed by . Włóka was a Polish measure of land (in Ruthenian volok), and in Lithuania, it became the basis for land measurement. At the same time, Polish measures of area and distance were introduced, as well as a model of farming based on the folwark and three-field system.
During the Reformation, voices were raised that Latin should be the language of the Lithuanians, due to the alleged proximity of the two languages and the legendary origin of the Lithuanian nobility from the Romans. However, this intention failed and Latin never reached the same position as in the Polish Crown. Instead, Polish quickly took the place of the official language. At the beginning of the 17th-century instructions and resolutions of sejmiks were written down in Polish. In the period 1620–1630, the Polish language supplanted Ruthenian in the books of the Lithuanian Metrica. When in 1697 the Sejm of the Commonwealth passed a resolution to replace Ruthenian language by Polish in all official actions, it only approved the long-standing status quo. In addition to Polish, Latin was also used in the documents of the Lithuanian chancellery referring to the Catholic Church, cities under Magdeburg Law, Livonia and foreigners.
Already at the beginning of the 16th century, Polish became the first language of the Lithuanian magnates. In the following century, it was adopted by the Lithuanian nobility in general. Even the nobility of Žemaitija used the Polish language already in the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Polish language was adopted by the entire nobility of the Grand Duchy – Lithuanian, Ruthenian, German and Tatar. The Polish language also penetrated other social strata: the clergy, the townspeople, and even the peasants.
Linguistic Polonization did not always mean full Polonization in the state or ethnic sense. The Lithuanian nobility felt united with the Polish nobility as part of one political nation of the Commonwealth, enjoying privileges, freedom and equality. In this sense, they often referred to themselves as "Polish nobility" or outright "Poles". At the same time, separatism and the defence of Lithuanian national separateness within the federation state were strong. The Lithuanian nobility was strongly attached to the laws, traditions and symbols of the Grand Duchy. Moreover, the Lithuanian separateness was also defended by the members of ethnically Polish families settling in Lithuania.
Church and education The spread of Polish culture was channelled through the Catholic Church. A large part of the Lithuanian clergy were Poles, either of Polish descent or from Polish families settled in Lithuania. Of the 123 known canons of Vilnius, only slightly more than half (66) were ethnic Lithuanians, and most of the others were of Polish origin. The role of the church was important because it had a monopoly on teaching. By 1550, 11 schools were established in the Samogitian diocese and 85 in the Vilnius diocese. In 1528 the diocese of Vilnius decreed that the language of instruction of religious texts should be Polish and Lithuanian. Latin was taught exclusively in Polish, so children who did not know this language were taught Polish first. Lithuanians went to Kraków to study, in 1409 professor of theology founded a dormitory for students from Grand Duchy Overall 366 Lithuanian students studied in Kraków between 1430 and 1560. In the 16th-century students from Lithuania were coming to Kraków already considerably Polonized. In 1513, Lithuanian students were accused of mocking the plain Polish speech of their colleagues from Mazovia before the university court.
Polish had the advantage over Ruthenian and Lithuanian that its vocabulary, being influenced by Latin, allowed more abstract thoughts to be expressed. Moreover, its proximity to the Ruthenian language made its adoption all the more natural. The Reformation, on the one hand, accelerated the development of literatures in Lithuanian, on the other hand, it contributed to an even faster spread of the Polish language. The Calvinist magnate Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł published in Brest a Polish translation of the Bible for the use of Lithuanian Calvinists.
Royal court