Solidago

by | Mar 21, 2018 | Solidago

How Can We Help?
You are here:
< Back
Part of a series on
Armenians
Armenian culture
By country or region
Armenian diaspora
Russia
Subgroups
Religion
Languages and dialects
Persecution

Armenians in Poland (Armenian: Հայերը Լեհաստանում, romanized: Hayery Lehastanum; Polish: Ormianie w Polsce) are one of nine legally recognized national minorities in Poland,[3] their historical presence is going back to the Middle Ages.[4][5] According to the Polish census of 2021 there are 6,772 ethnic Armenians in Poland.[1] They are spread throughout the country, having largely assimilated while preserving a long-standing tradition of settlement.

History

Origins and historical role

The origin of Armenian presence in the region can be traced to the end of 10th century:

"The Armenian presence in these regions dates back to the tenth century. Ana, the wife of Prince Vladimir (978-1015), was an Armenian, and, according to Slavic legends and early sources, the princes of Galicia and Kiev employed Armenians living in Kiev as mercenaries. After the Seljuk penetration into Greater Armenia and the fall of Ani in 1064, waves of Armenian immigrants found their way north to the western Ukraine. New immigrants arrived in the twelfth century. The Mongol conquest of Kiev in 1240 and the unstable political situation there forced many Armenians to migrate to Galicia and Volhynia, where settlements of Armenians already existed in Kamenets-Podolskii and the surrounding villages. By 1250 the Armenians had built a church in Kamanets."[5]

More about the beginning of the Armenian settlement in Poland, Adolf Nowaczyński, a Polish writer, gives us the following sketch of the Armenians of Poland:

Long before the fall of the (Armenian) Kingdom of Cilicia in 1375, the Armenians appeared in Poland, having been invited here by David Igorevich, the Prince of Galicia.

The first dismemberment of their country brought about a great emigration. The Armenian emigrants, taking with them a handful of native soil in a piece of cloth, were scattered in southern Russia, into the Caucasus, in the land of the Cossacks, while 50,000 from among them came to Poland. From then on, new streams of Armenian emigration periodically proceeded from the shores of Pontus towards the hospitable country of the Sarmatians, and it must be said that these guests, coming from such a distance, proved themselves really 'the salt of the earth,' an exceedingly useful and desirable element. They settled mostly in the cities, and in many places they became the nucleus of the Polish bourgeois class.

The Armenians played an important role in shaping Poland's economic and cultural landscape, leaving a lasting impact through their contributions:

"They were mainly occupied with trade and craft. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Armenians introduced Orient onto the Polish market, importing from the East a variety of oriental luxury goods, and producing their own from oriental designs for the nobility and patricians. Although they were an affluent community, some restrictions were imposed on them, since members of the Armenian Apostolic Church were regarded as heretics in the Polish society. However, in 1630 they entered a union with the Roman-Catholic Church and became Catholics of the Armenian Liturgy. This advanced their assimilation processes"[6]

Late medieval and early modern periods

The Armenian Cathedral of Lwów (now Lviv) was for centuries the most important Armenian church in Poland

Through successive immigrations, the Armenians of Poland gradually formed a colony, comprising 5,000.[7] They were welcomed by the Kings of Poland and were granted not only religious liberty, but also political privileges. Casimir III (1333–1370) gave to the Armenians of Kamieniec Podolski in 1344 and those of Lwów in 1356 the right of setting up a national council, exclusively Armenian, known as the "Voit." This council, composed of twelve judges, administered Armenian affairs in full independence. All acts and official deliberations were conducted in the Armenian language and in accordance with the laws of that nation. The Armenians of Lwów had built a wooden church in 1183; in 1363 it was replaced by a stone edifice which became the seat of the Armenian prelates of Poland and Moldavia.

In the battles of Grunwald and Varna, the forebears of the Alexandrovics, the Augustinovics, the Agopsovics and Apakanovics took part. Also from their ranks came forth later renowned Poles, such as the Malowski, Missasowicz, Piramowicz, Pernatowicz, Jachowicz, Mrozianowski, Grigorowicz, Barowicz, Teodorowicz, among others.

As Kaffa in Crimea voluntarily recognised Polish sovereignty in 1462,[8] with around 46,000 Armenians (66% of the city's population) in the 1470s,[9] it became the largest concentration of Armenians under Polish sovereignty until the Ottoman capture of the city.

Armenian document written in Lwów, 1578

In 1516 King Sigismund I authorized the installation in the wealthy and aristocratic center of Lwów an Armenian tribunal called the Ermeni tora in Armeno-Kipchak (Datastan in Armenian). The peaceful life of the colony was troubled in 1626. An abbot named Mikołaj Torosowicz was ordained a bishop in 1626 by Melchisedek, a former coadjutor-Katholikos of Etchmiadzin who supported restoring unity with the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the ensuing rift between the majority of the Armenian community and the few followers of Torosowicz the Armenian community finally reentered into communion with the Holy See forming the Armenian Catholic Church which retained a separate hierarchy and used the Armenian Rite.[1]

Armenians enjoyed better living and earning conditions in Poland, local Armenian self-government, religious tolerance and the opportunity to preserve their own customs.[10] Initially, Armenians settled in royal cities along important trade routes, but later also in private towns, attracted by Polish magnates.[10] Armenians lived mostly in south-eastern Poland, with local Armenian communes in Brody, Brzeżany, Horodenka, Jazłowiec,[11] Józefgród, Kamieniec Podolski, Lwów, Łysiec, Mohylów Podolski, Obertyn, Podhajce, Raszków, Stanisławów, Studzienica, Śniatyn, Tyśmienica, Złoczów and Żwaniec.[10] In addition, there were Armenian churches in Bełz, Buczacz, Jarosław, Kijów, Kubaczówka, Kuty, Lublin, Łuck, Waręż, Włodzimierz, Zamość, Żółkiew.[10] Some Armenians moved to other parts of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, e.g. Kraków, Warsaw, Gdańsk, Płock, Piotrków and Vilnius.[12][13][14] The Armenians grew wealthy from trade, specializing in importing a wide variety of goods from eastern markets, i.e. Moldavia, Wallachia, Turkey, Egypt, Persia, India and Muscovy to Polish trade centers, such as Kraków, Gdańsk, Lublin, Poznań, Jarosław, Toruń and Vilnius.[15] In 1674, Armenians of Kamieniec Podolski were expelled by the Ottoman occupiers, and after around three years of exile in the Balkans, they returned to Poland and mostly settled in Lwów, Stanisławów, Brody, Łysiec, Tyśmienica and Złoczów, but some settled in western and central Poland.[16]

Ties to the Armenian community in the Romanian lands

The Armenian monastery of Suceava colloquially known as the Zamca was the base of operations for James Louis Sobieski's failed bid to become the Prince of Moldavia.

Armenians in Moldavia were under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Diocese of L'viv since 1365, shortly after the principality was founded. As merchants, the Armenians mere present in many of the important commercial centers in the various polities which now make up Romania and Moldova. The oldest architectural monument built by Armenians on these lands and preserved to this day is the church of St. Mary of Botosani, built in 1350. Nicolae Șuțu writes in Notion statistiques sur la Moldavie (published in Iași, 1849): "From the 11th century, the Armenians, leaving their settlements invaded by the Persians, took refuge in Poland and Moldova. Subsequent emigrations took place in 1342 and 1606. The Armenian churches in Moldavia, the oldest of which is in Botoșani and founded in 1350, while the other is in Iași which dates from 1395." The fact that two Armenian Bibles from Caffa dating to 1351 and 1354 were preserved in this church is a testament to the antiquity and importance of the Armenian colony in Botoșani. During the short-lived persecution of the Armenian community under the reign of Moldavian Hospodar Ștefan VI Rareș, many Armenians fled across the border into Poland.

Around 10,000 of the Lwów Armenian community who had settled in Moldavia moved from there during the Turko-Polish war in 1671 to Bucovina and Transylvania. In Bucovina, they lived in the city of Suceava and its vicinity. In Transylvania they founded two new cities, Erszebetvaros (Dumbrăveni) and Szamos-ujvar (Gherla), which, as a special favor, were declared free cities by Charles VI, Emperor of Austria (1711–1740).

When James Louis Sobieski attempted to ascend to the Moldavian throne, his base of operations was the 15th century Armenian monastery of Suceava. Beginning in 1690, the Monastery became the headquarters of the Polish Army for all of their operations in Moldova related to Poland's participation in the War of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire. Staying at the monastery for several years, the Poles built an extensive network of bastion fortifications which are well preserved to this day. The popular name of the monastery, "Zamca" likely comes from this period and is derived from zamek, the Polish word for castle.

Late modern period

Armenian church of Stanisławów in the 1930s

The Armenian origins of many Polish families can be traced to before World War II, the result of intermarriage. The Armenian cathedral of Lwów, modelled on the Cathedral of Ani, was an important site for religious pilgrimages. The last Armenian Archbishop in Poland, Józef Teodorowicz, as the head of the community, was a member of the Austro-Hungarian Senate, together with Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic colleagues.

Following the late-18th-century Partitions of Poland, most Polish Armenians found themselves in the Austrian Partition. By the end of the 18th century, the Austrian authorities dissolved Armenian church schools for children and the Armenian Collegium in Lwów, with only one Armenian school active until the 1860s in Kuty.[17] The Armenian community of partitioned Poland have maintained contacts mainly only with Armenians from the neighboring regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia, while they very rarely had contact with Armenians of Armenia or with other Armenian diaspora.[18] As most of Podolia fell to the Russian Partition and the Armenians there were cut off by the border from the Armenians in the Austrian Partition and the Armenian Cathedral of Lwów, Mohylów Podolski was designated the seat of a local Armenian Catholic bishop (the only one in what was then Russia).[19] By the 1870s, the Armenian communes in the Russian Partition, such as in Mohylów Podolski, were abolished.[19] By the end of the 19th century, proficiency in Armenian among Armenians in Poland had almost completely disappeared.[18] Some activists sought to reestablish an independent Armenia or to obtain international protection for Armenians from the Turkish-perpetrated massacres.[20] An Armenian-language faculty was introduced at the University of Lwów in 1904.[21]

Malyi Virmeny which translates to "Little Armenia" in Ukrainian is a historic old town once near the Smotrych River which was founded during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 6,000 Armenians in Poland living mostly in Eastern Galicia (today Western Ukraine), with centers in Lwów (Lviv), Stanisławów (Ivano-Frankivsk), Brzeżany (Berezhany), Kuty, Łysiec (Lysets), Horodenka, Tłumacz (Tlumach) and Śniatyn (Sniatyn). Polish-Armenians were an integral part of the movement to restore Poland's independence during World War I.

Khachkars in Kraków, Łódź and Gdańsk

In 1916, Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz attempted to bring several thousand Armenians survivors of the Armenian genocide to Lwów, but to no avail due to the hostile attitude of the Turkish-allied Austrian occupier.[22] The Armenian community in Poland and Poles supported efforts to restore an independent Armenia following World War I.[23] The Polish-Armenian Society was founded by a group of Poles and Armenians in Lwów in 1920, which after the Red Army invasion of Armenia advocated the admission of 40,000 Armenians from the Caucasus and Russia to Poland, which, however, was impossible due to the Soviet occupation.[24]

After suffering heavy losses along with the rest of Poland's population in World War II, the Polish Armenian community suffered a second loss. The regions of Poland where Armenians were concentrated such as Eastern Galicia were annexed into the Soviet Union as part of the agreements reached at the Yalta conference. As a result, the Polish Armenian community became dispersed all over Poland. Many of them were resettled in cities in northern and western Poland such as Kraków, Gliwice, Opole, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Warsaw.

To combat this dispersion they began to form Armenian Cultural Associations. Additionally, the Catholic Church opened two Armenian Catholic parishes with one in Gdańsk and the other in Gliwice, while Roman Catholic churches in other cities such as St. Giles in Kraków would from time to time also hold Armenian Rite services for the local Armenian community.

A number of cultural and artifacts of Armenian culture can still be found within Poland's present-day borders, particularly in the vicinity of Zamość and Rzeszów. Additionally, a number of Khachkars have been erected in front of several churches in Wrocław, Kraków, and Elbląg as memorials to commemorate victims of the Armenian genocide. It is unknown whether the Polish-Armenians were specific targets of Nazi Germany during World War II, though the Armenians were not scapegoated by the Nazis unlike Jews, Romani people and other minorities during the Nazi occupation of Poland.[citation needed]

Armenians today

Parish churches of the Armenian Rite Catholic Church in Warsaw, Gdańsk and Gliwice

Most Armenians living in Poland today origins are from the post-Soviet emigration rather than the older Armenian community. After the Soviet Union's collapse, thousands of Armenians came to Poland to look for the opportunity to better their life. It is estimated that between 40,000 and 80,000 Armenians came to Poland in the 1990s, (many of them returned to Armenia or went further West, but up to 10,000 stayed in Poland), with only about 3,000–8,000 from the so-called 'old emigration'.

The Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians was established by the Ordinary of the Armenian-Catholic rite in Poland, Cardinal Józef Glemp, the Primate of Poland, on April 7, 2006 to care for the books, paintings, religious remnants which were saved from perishing when carried away from Armenian churches situated in the Eastern former parts of Poland captured by the Soviets during World War II.[25]

The Armenian Rite Catholic Church which had been historically centered in Galicia as well as in the pre-1939 Polish borderlands in the east, now has three parishes; one in Gdańsk, one in Warsaw and the other in Gliwice.

There are also now schools in Poland that have recently opened or added on courses that teach Armenian language and culture either on a regular or supplementary basis in Warsaw and Kraków.

Notable Poles of Armenian descent

See also

References

  1. ^ a b GUS. "Tablice z ostatecznymi danymi w zakresie przynależności narodowo-etnicznej, języka używanego w domu oraz przynależności do wyznania religijnego". stat.gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  2. ^ "Poland's Armenian community is outstanding manifestation of Diaspora, says Ambassador". armenpress.am. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  3. ^ "Ustawa z dnia 6 stycznia 2005 r. o mniejszościach narodowych i etnicznych oraz o języku regionalnym". isap.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  4. ^ The First Large Emigration of the Armenians – History of Armenia
  5. ^ a b Papazian, Dennis R. (April 2001). "The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Volume I, The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century, edited by Richard Hovannisian and, The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II, Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century, edited by Richard Hovannisian". Canadian Journal of History. 36 (1): 209–211. doi:10.3138/cjh.36.1.209. ISSN 0008-4107.
  6. ^ "Armenians in Connecticut: Oral History, The Long Shadow of Genocide, and The Building of Community", Armenians around the World: Migration and Transnationality, Peter Lang, 2015, doi:10.3726/978-3-653-05625-9/18, ISBN 978-3-631-66446-9, retrieved 2024-05-21
  7. ^ Krzysztof Stopka, Ormianie w Polsce dawnej i dzisiejszej, Kraków 2000
  8. ^ Kołodziejczyk, Dariusz (2011). The Crimean Khanate and Poland-Lithuania. International Diplomacy on the European Periphery (15th–18th Century). A Study of Peace Treaties Followed by Annotated Documents. Leiden and Boston: Brill. p. 17. ISBN 978-90-04-19190-7.
  9. ^ "Этнография народов Крыма: Армяне" (in Russian). Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University. Archived from the original on 8 June 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d Stopka 2010, p. 118.
  11. ^ Jakubowski, Melchior; Walczyn, Filip; Sas, Maksymilian (2016). "Jazłowiec". Miasta wielu religii. Topografia sakralna ziem wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (PDF) (in Polish). Warsaw: Muzeum Historii Polski. pp. 68, 72. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  12. ^ Stopka 2010, p. 119.
  13. ^ Chodubski, Andrzej (1993). "O osadnictwie ormiańskim na Wybrzeżu Gdańskim". Słupskie Studia Historyczne (in Polish) (3): 85.
  14. ^ Majewski, Marcin Łukasz (2015). "Zapomniana mniejszość: Ormianie w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim w XVII i XVIII wieku". Lehahayer. Czasopismo poświęcone dziejom Ormian polskich (in Polish). No. 3. p. 63.
  15. ^ Stopka 2010, p. 120.
  16. ^ Agopsowicz, Monika (2019). "Ormianie kamienieccy w ostatniej ćwierci XVII wieku – próba rekonstrukcji spisu imiennego". Lehahayer. Czasopismo poświęcone dziejom Ormian polskich (in Polish). No. 6. pp. 6, 15.
  17. ^ Krzyżowski, Tomasz (2020). "Nauczanie języka ormiańskiego na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim w latach 1904–1939". Lehahayer. Czasopismo poświęcone dziejom Ormian polskich (in Polish). No. 7. pp. 260–261.
  18. ^ a b Osiecki 2020, p. 240.
  19. ^ a b Potapenko, Maksym (2021). "Ormianie Mohylowa Podolskiego pod koniec XVIII i w połowie XIX wieku (na podstawie pomiarów statystycznych ludności)". Lehahayer. Czasopismo poświęcone dziejom Ormian polskich (in Polish). No. 8. p. 108.
  20. ^ Osiecki 2020, pp. 240–241.
  21. ^ Krzyżowski, p. 264
  22. ^ Osiecki 2020, p. 241.
  23. ^ Osiecki 2020, p. 242.
  24. ^ Osiecki 2020, pp. 245, 250–251.
  25. ^ Website of the Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians

Bibliography

  • Osiecki, Jakub (2020). "Towarzystwo Polsko-Ormiańskie we Lwowie (1920–1922)". Lehahayer. Czasopismo poświęcone dziejom Ormian polskich (in Polish). No. 7.
  • Stopka, Krzysztof (2010). "Ormianie". In Kopczyński, Michał; Tygielski, Wojciech (eds.). Pod wspólnym niebem. Narody dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (in Polish). Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polski, Bellona. ISBN 978-83-11-11724-2.

External links

Categories
Table of Contents