Revindication of Orthodox churches in the Second Polish Republic

The restitution action formed part of the general policy of the Second Republic against the Polish Orthodox Church, which aimed to minimize the social and political influence of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian national minorities.

An important motive was also a strong hostility to the Orthodox Church, a religion which was seen as a representative of the partitioning powers on Polish soil, as well as the memory of the dissolution of Roman Catholic monasteries in the Russian Empire.

According to surviving documents from 1937 to 1938 the goal was total Polonization of areas west of the Bug River (traditionally seen as the border between Catholic and Orthodox Poland) and to maximise Polish cultural influences east of it.

Formally, this step was justified by the need to protect the assets of churches abandoned after World War I, during the Bieżeństwo (the mass exodus of the Orthodox populations from western areas of the then Russian Empire in the face of approaching German troops).

[4] A second decree, the Regulation Commissioner General Directorate of Civil Eastern Territories of October 22, 1919 (rozporządzenie Komisarza Generalnego Zarządu Cywilnego Ziem Wschodnich), known as the lex Żeligowski, only related to areas east of the Bug River.

The response to the bishop's call was so great that by 1920, Przeździecki changed his ordinance, leaving the decision open on the fate of specific objects seized from the Orthodox church.

[15] Churches were demolished in Aleksandrów Kujawski, Grajewo, Janów Lubelski, Jędrzejów, Kalisz, Kolno, Kozienice, Lubartów, Lublin, Łask, Łomża, Mława, Modlin Fortress, Opoczno, Osowiec, Ostrów Mazowiecka, Pińczów, Płońsk, Przasnysz, Pułtusk, Raczki, Radomsko, Raduczu, Rawa Mazowiecka, Różan, Rypin, Sieradz, Sierpc, Skierniewice, Słupca, Sosnowiec, Suwałki, Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Warsaw (6 locations), Włocławek and other locations.

[16] Some of these places, which did not find their way into the hands of the Catholics, were adapted for secular purposes, for example a former Orthodox church in Ostrołęka became a scrap yard, one in Skierniewice became a granary, and one in Staszów, a theatre.

On the other hand, they totally tried to deny the Orthodoxy in Chełm and Podlasie, according to the declaration by Lublin governor Stanislaw Moskalewski, who in 1921 announced that: "the country west of the Bug River was purely Polish.

"[14] In a similar vein, the MWRiOP commented in a February 5, 1924, letter that "the Lublin province should strive to Polonize Orthodoxy or displace it in favour of the Roman Catholic Church".

[19] Earlier, in 1919, it was established that 5,000 faithful was the norm for the creation of permanently functioning Orthodox parish, while removing the clergy of a closed church would hold back the local population from demanding that it re-open.

[24] However, on May 24, 1921, progress of recovery actions in the Lublin region and local interfaith relations exacerbated the situation to such an extent that the MWRiOP had to not only prohibit further occupation of the churches, but also suspend the execution of orders already obtained by Catholics.

Both sides tried to gain the support for its case with the local authorities and the government, writing memoranda and relying on the harm suffered in the past (by Catholics) or by the guaranteed freedom of religion (by the Orthodox).

Leon Radziejowski, in a Rzeczpospolita article titled "Playing with fire", noted that while the actions of Tsarist authorities taking Catholic churches was illegal, the issue of the fate of the controversial buildings directly threatened to have an undermining internal effect.

The Catholic News Agency, commenting on the case, allowed for the possibility that civil unrest would result, but constantly emphasized the need to redress wrongs suffered in the time of the annexation.

[citation needed] The Roman Catholic Church created a bad impression by their undervaluations of the disputed objects, for example, the Pochayiv Lavra monastery and its assets were valued at 2,000 złoty.

Russian and Ukrainian organisations (a special committee chaired by Serhij Chruckyj developed and published documents relating to the recovery of churches) additionally appealed to the Sejm.

[46][47] The official position of the government on the issue of the recovery of churches was expressed by minister Sławomir Czerwiński in January 1930, declaring the need to take into account the demands of all faiths.

The government was strongly supportive of concepts of the Catholicism of the eastern borderlands and continued the predetermined policy of Polonizing the Polish Orthodox Church and limiting the development of their religion.

Significant to this was the speech by the governor of Lublin, Józef Rożniecki, in 1935, for which the factor of the Russification of the Orthodox has become a potential tool of the Ukrainian national movement, and which, therefore, called for a decisive battle for its Polonization.

[51] In 1935, during a secret convention dedicated to the Ukrainian population, the Lublin civil administration openly carried on this conversation with the military, represented by General Mieczysław Smorawiński.

[53] After the death of Józef Piłsudski, these trends increased in strength, which was reflected in the establishment of the Minorities Committee, which at the first meeting addressed the issue of the Orthodox Church and upheld the concept of its Polonization, and eventually created the conditions to move the population to Roman Catholicism as the best guarantee of being Polish.

Unlike previous waves of the recovery, the government took care to create the right atmosphere, inspiring a series of newspaper articles in support of affirmative action claiming that Orthodox churches may cause re-Russification or Ukrainianization in places of mixed ethnic composition.

The Commander in Chief was General Bruno Olbrycht (replaced on May 21 by Colonel Marian Turkowski), and the new governor of Lublin, Major Jerzy Albin de Tramecourt, who was an overt supporter of Polonization.

In protest, in parliament July 21, 1938, Polish-Ukrainian politician Stepan Baran listed the cases of dismantling of active monasteries and sites that had been places of worship for centuries.

[59] While the Orthodox population made no attempt to actively resist, they more often protested through legal means, using the representatives of the Ukrainian minority in parliament, and through memorials and complaints directly to the government and the Marshal of the Sejm.

[60] A separate pastoral letter, the call was made for a three-day fast on the first days of August, it appealed for people to refrain from revenge and expressing admiration towards those who refused to convert.

The latter filed an application for the appointment of a committee of inquiry, which would examine the overall relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Polish government but the Speaker of Parliament said this was unconstitutional and did not put the proposal to a vote.

It is now known that those in charge of conversion made promises to give land to the peasants after changing to Catholicism, and argued that their ancestors belonged to the Catholic nobility, but they also used arrest and intimidation to convert those of Orthodox faith.

Governor Jerzy de Tramecourt declared the need to further increase Polish state ownership in the Lublin region by creating a nobility and settlement program, designed to break established historical clusters of Ukrainians.