Mateusz Piskorski: Can you explain to Polish Readers what fresh Russia is? In your lectures, you compare it with America, the chaotic West, which was visited by passionate people, adventurers, entrepreneurs and even affairs who carried out there. The fresh Russian state appeared in 1764, during the reign of Catherine II. This happened almost 30 years before the Second Partition of the Republic, as a consequence of which the Russian Empire took over the Right Coast Ukraine, and 250 years before the uprising in the southeast of Ukraine (in Novorossia), which was known as the Russian Spring.
Dr. Aleksander Vasiliev: The name “Novorosja” was introduced by Catherine II. Her courtesies, who worked on a fresh territorial unit task in the south-west of Russia, proposed to call it the ‘Jekaterinian Province’, but the Tsarica personally, hand-written annotated on the paper that it must be called ‘New Russia’ and ‘New Russia’. This word can be compared to fresh England in North America, on the Atlantic coast, or the territories of the first English colonies to appear there. North of them appeared with time fresh France, the territory of present-day Canada. We now know this region as Quebec, but it was then called fresh France.
The Romans called Scotland fresh Caledonia...
Yes, and fresh Caledonia. In the same series is besides Novorosja, due to the fact that if we look at all European languages, this name simply means "New Russia". Moreover, in many Russian texts from the 18th century this last word appears. This terminology was born by the fresh World, Mundus Novus. It began to be divided into national entities. The Russians came into possession of land that had to be managed and civilized, as 1 of the last.
For Poland, Catherine II is simply a negative figure, but she is justified by the fact that she did not truly want to grow to the west, and 1 of the creators of fresh Russia, her favorite, Duke Grigorij Potomkin, a prominent Russian politician, thought that the Republic of Poland should not be divided at all, but should preserve it. It would be adequate for a political arrangement to be established there that favours Russia, which does not let Orthodox spiritual persecution. If Orthodox rights were respected, there would be no reason to interfere. Russia saw itself as an Orthodox defender and Prussia as Protestants. The most progressive social solutions, technologies and the most active people have reached Novorosia. Besides, specified places have always attracted foreigners who wanted to make a career, or just to do forward-looking business. Visitors from Germany, Switzerland, besides from France (after the large French Revolution) settled on these lands.
From the Balkans.
– Of course – from Serbia, Greece, Albania, Aegean Islands. Poles besides took part in this process of colonization of Novorosia. Without them, it is hard to imagine the improvement of these areas and, as shortly as possible, after the partitions of the Republic, part of the nobility, which was located in the areas incorporated into Russia, was given the chance to join the imperial project. For example, on the Black Sea, there is simply a tiny town of Skadowsk in the Kherson region. It is presently under Russian control. It's a port. It is named after a household of Polish entrepreneurs Skadowski, who founded 1 of the first buying houses in Kherson. They conducted very intensive economical activity in these territories.
New Russian ports were for Polish goods, mainly agricultural goods and natural materials, the gateway to confederate markets. Since then, they have been exported not only by the Baltic through Gdańsk, but besides by Cherson. People who came to fresh York to do business there gradually settled there due to the fact that most of them were of noble origin. They could regulation the land, settle the peasants, thus becoming local landowners. It is worth saying that Polish landowners in Noworosja, possibly not quantitatively, but due to their social position, were rather a crucial layer. It's a very interesting process. all specified fresh planet territory, like the United States, always becomes specified a crucible. There are people of different nationalities who have a common cultural framework; in America it was British culture and English.
For Noworosia, the framework was determined by Russian culture and environment. Many Poles, though not all, have assimilated strongly. It was usually a tiny Russian nobility who, at the threshold of Modernity, colonized and converted to Catholicism in the 16th to the 19th century. In Novorosia, she returned to Orthodoxy. A good example was Apollon Skałkowski, a historian. It was called "The Herododot of Noworosia", which is considered to be the first (although not entirely true) author of a separate work on the past of these lands. He was born in Volyn and although he was undoubtedly a Russian scholar, there was something left in him of Polish identity. For example, he hated the hajdamacs who slaughtered Poles and Jews in Humania. He was criticized for it by Shevchenko, who praised the slaughter. But already Mickiewicz dedicated poems to Skałkowski.
However, there were besides those who remained Poles, who kept Polish culture and language. There are any examples. Everyone knows Anton Chekhov Step's novel. Chekhov came from Taganrog, a town on the north-eastern shore of the Azov Sea, which was then part of the Yekaterinosław province. The book's action takes place in the east part of fresh York. So fundamentally on the present Donbas, before his industrialization. There is already the first mill in Juzuwka (now Donetsk), since Katarzyna II there has been another mill in Lugansk, but intensive industrialization has not yet been. This is the last decade before industry. Donbas is then primarily a farm, pasture area. In the fresh 1 of the characteristic characters is the beautiful and rich Polish landowner, Countess Dranicka, and the admin of her property Kazimierz, besides Polak. Step is simply a cross-section of various layers of fresh Russia. There are characteristic Jews, Russian landowners, small-Russian peasants, there are Great-Russians, ancient rites. This is an illustration of the agrarian life of Novorosia distant from the urban centres of the Russian Empire. In this personality gallery, the Polish landowner occupies a rather natural place. Everything is happening in the east of Novorostia, on the border with the lands of the Donsky Army.
And another example of classical Russian literature: the main character of the Wanderer of the beloved Nikolai Leskov during his travels goes to Nikolayev, where he takes up work as a governer of the kid of the Polish master. Let us look at 1 of the most crucial for the aristocracy of Novorosia horse ridings – the Jesuit horse ridings in the Kherson state (Jelyzawietgrad is Ukrainian Kropiwnicki). This is 1 of the earliest colonized areas in which the Russians began settling even before Catherine II reign. straight bordered the Republic of Poland before cutting. That's where the most Poles were. Polish landowners lived in this area, who kept Polish culture in families until the 1917 revolution. Their full generations served in Russian light driving regiments, while remaining with Catholicism and Polish language. And it was treated perfectly normal.
There are cases that people grew up in aristocratic families as a child. In their memoirs they later wrote that until a certain period of their lives they spent holidays with their grandparents in Polish estates. In the early years of their lives, they utilized the Polish language and the language of local peasants - Malo-Russian. The Russian language was taught only later erstwhile they began schooling in the mediate school in Jelizawietgrad. They were absolutely Russian, and in times of civilian war any of them fought in the White ranks.
One more acquainted example. The cultural Pole was Yuri Olesha...
Oil?
- Yeah. A well-known Odesian literate, prominent representative, alongside Valentin Katajev, Ilja Ilfa and Evgenija Petrov, the South Russian mainstream in Russian literature, author of the popular children's fresh 3 Fats in the USSR. It came from the gulf. He grew up in a Polish household in which this Polishness was already slow disappearing. It's a generation that did a revolution in its youth. Almost completely assimilated in Novorosia.
A poet Arsenij Tarkowski was besides born in Jelizavetgrad...
– Yes, this is another example of a Pole. And besides the father of manager Andrei Tarkowski, who filmed the filming of the fresh Solaris Stanisław Lem.
Writer Alexander Grin was the boy of Polish noble Stefan Hryniewski, who was sent to Siberia for his participation in the January uprising. The alias ‘Grin’ came from his name. Although he was born in the north of Russia, his work active Novorosja, with Crimea.
Yes, especially with Crimea.
Konstantin Paustowski was besides a Pole, who wrote about Novorosja all his life, and his candidacy was 4 times applied to the Nobel literary prize. The name is Polish.
– He was from Kiev. Among his ancestors were besides Poles. Let's mention Joseph Conrad. He was born Józef Korzenowski in Malo-Russian Berdyczów, and besides had a fresh Russian period of his biography erstwhile he was sent as a young boy to his uncle who deals in Odessa. That's where he worked, that's where he became a sailor. The future Joseph Conrad sailed from there on a cruise and his further wanderings were no longer related to Russia.
Dr. Aleksander Vasiliev
What attracted Poles to fresh Russia?
– It was a space of large possibilities for self-fulfillment. On the erstwhile lands of Volyn, Podola, Kiev or Polesia there was quite a few tiny nobility, which the Russian authorities subjected in fact to the Sekvestre. A noble without earthly property was stripped of her rights. This caused social tensions, and this active her participation in subsequent uprisings. They were individuals free, but they had no land, no subjects. And frequently they were incapable to prove their origin without documents, which were frequently counterfeited at the time. The Russian authorities so regularly removed nobles from the register. So if individual came from this caste structure The right bank wanted to stand out somehow, he was going south, to fresh Russia, and there he had a career in state service, in the military, or in trade.
During the time of Mikołaj I, even a show was issued, which limited the percent of Poles in the fresh Russian administration. The problem is that Russia has always suffered from a deficiency of educated people capable of state service or military service. Most of the population until Alexander II's reforms were peasants. In the days of Catherine II, it was possible to make stunning careers only due to its own advantages. But as early as the first half of the 19th century, behind Alexander I and Nicholas I, society became ossified. And there was a shortage of people in the administration and the army. This tiny nobleman answered the criteria for those who wanted to go on the way of an authoritative or officer career. They have been free for many generations. As a result, Polish nobles began to flow into the administration of the fresh Russian country, which made them gain an advantage in it. During this period the authorities considered Poles to be possibly unreliable.
There is besides an example of the Besarab province. After joining the Russian Empire, it was initially a Besarab circuit and was subsequently created a gubernary in the lineup of the neo-Russian governorship general. They were then called fresh Russian-Besarabian. Besarabia is simply a geographical extension of Novorostia west of Dniestr and it is worth knowing that until the establishment of the Moldovan Socialist russian Republic, cultural Moldovans were not the majority in this area. There were about 50% of them. Among the others were Greaterrusini, Malorusini, Jews, Germans and Poles. Poles were very influential there and at any point they took almost all positions in administration.
How did they get there?
– They arrived from the Law Coast in the first half of the 19th century, erstwhile – as you know – it was already part of the Russian Empire. They were a very active number there. Of course, there was a local aristocracy in Besarabia, but it was very corrupt, inefficient and poorly educated. Generally, she didn't represent a very advanced level. It came from Greeks – fanatics, oriented towards Constantinople, ruthlessly oppressing Moldovans. Russia was not very curious in this fanatical administration and there was no 1 to fill this vacuum. It was filled by Poles.
It should be noted that they did so primarily in their own interests. At 1 point the Russian authorities realized that in these recently annexed areas things were not going in the right direction: the Polish administration replaced the fanatics, acting solely for its own benefit. As a result, the Polish “expert” was completed. Poland's expansion in Besarabia was besides part of the Poles' journey to the South – to Noworosja. Now I'm going to talk about the most distinctive example to illustrate this thesis. He is simply a well-known Russian nationalist from the Besarab province, Vladimir Puryszkiewicz.
Grigorij Rasputin's killer?
- Yeah. Puryszkiewicz is 1 of the most clear evidence that even specified a hard assimilation of the community, as Poles, was melted not only on Russians but besides on Russian nationalists.
When we talk about the Earth's colonization of Novorosia, it is worth mentioning that it was performed not only by nobles without land, who tried to make a career on these lands, but besides by representatives of the large Polish aristocracy, for example Potoccy...
“Yes, the Potocks, for example, had respective palaces in Odessa. In general, many Polish landowners, not necessarily even from Noworosja, but even from Podola, liked spending part of the year in Odessa. It was just the nearest large European city. Kiev did not grow up at the time, Lviv was in Austro-Hungary. And in Volyn, it's just towns like Żytomierz or Łuck...
You spoke of Polish landownery in Noworosja. Did Polish capitalists get there?
– Yes, but they participated in the next phase of improvement of Novorostia. The first phase was the military control of these lands. The second is agricultural development. First it was breeding, then increasing cereals. And only in the 1990s did the industrial boom begin. Poles could not do this due to the fact that Poland, the territory of the Kingdom of Poland, was the most industrially developed part of the Russian Empire. At the time, you gotta realize what the industrial map of Russia looked like: it was respective islands. There was a western part – the Kingdom of Poland. Areas around St. Petersburg and further north – Pietrovsk plants, partially Ołoniecka state (Karelia). And, of course, Moscow. Moscow and Moscow district, very industrially developed. Finally, Ural. Large industrial centres ended there. erstwhile factories began to be built in Noworosia, Poles did not sit with their hands on. They built metallic plants over Dnieprem; in Kamienskoj or Kamience, close Yekaterinosławia. And on Donbas Poles created the Starokramatorian Hutniczy Kombinat.
The Donbas industrial improvement pioneer, British John Hughes, immediately brought with him respective 100 English workers. They lived there and worked until the revolution. They besides brought their fellow Belgians, who were actively active in the industrialization of fresh Russia. They were skilled workers who brought technology with them and taught them locals. So did Germany and Poles.
So Polish industrialists brought Polish workers with them?
- Yeah. Another celebrated example – Stanisław Kosior, revolutionary, prominent russian state and military activist. There are so far streets in Russia bearing his name. Kosior had respective brothers and they all worked together in 1 mill in the present Lugansk People's Republic – in Alczewski Metalurgical Works. 1 of the future leaders of the Donetsk-Krzyworoska Republic worked with them, and later the full USSR – Klimient Voroshilov. Stanisław Kosior was a locksmith at this factory. He and his brothers were active in revolutionary activities, and they were regularly released from the factory. However, hands were needed to work, so they could work in a neighbouring factory, where they were accepted without problem, even knowing their past.
As for that bet in Kaminka, he is besides known someway for the fact that Leonid Brezhniev's parents worked there. Young Leonid went to junior advanced there. Admittedly, its Polish owners treated workers very well. There was a tough discipline, but it was related to the fact that most of the people working in the factories of the Russian Empire were peasants, and not very wealthy. They had considerable problems with the discipline of work. In russian times, this was presented as a manifestation of any terrible oppression of the proletariat, but to make a weak farmer an efficient worker, disciplined practices were necessary. The full strategy of penalties that existed in the factories caused dissatisfaction of the workers, but in fact those who met standards and requirements, in many establishments were rather good. And that's the mill in Kaminka. Poles built homes and hospitals for workers there. They opened the local gymnasium, which was attended by the future Secretary-General of KPZR, Leonid Breżniew in the years of planet War I. The photos of him and his household have been preserved. His father was not a private worker, but a highly qualified specialist. erstwhile we look at a image of the Brezhnevs, we see an average bourgeois family.
Was there any relation with Novorosja between the well-known Bolshevik revolution activist, Pole Felix Dzierżyński?
Yeah, he lived in Kherson for a while. His parents moved there briefly.
Did Poles fight in the ranks of the Whites in Noworosja?
– respective Polish groups existed in the Russian Army during planet War I, which were to become a future army of the fresh Poland in the event of Russia's triumph over Germany. The same units, only on the other side, formed Piłsudski. erstwhile the Bolsheviks entered the peace of Brest, Poles faced the possible of Germans coming, whom they considered enemies. The Reds weren't friends to them either. There was besides the Central Council – Ukrainians complained about the lands that Poles considered to be their own.
Under these conditions, Polish troops initially withdrew throughout Novorosia, all the way over Don, where the White Movement was formed. They were then transferred to Odessa, which was left by Germany and Austro-Hungary, previously located there under the Brest Peace. Odessa was controlled by Austrians, whose commander shot himself, incapable to bear the fall of the Habsburg Empire. He was buried in an Odesian cemetery. Then Poles were the first to appear in the city, due to the fact that the Whites had besides small strength, and the entent's troops were just approaching Constantinople. They were the first to take over the city; they were formally on the side of the White Movement, although, of course, they were actually on their own side. Later, erstwhile the Ukrainians were defeated, Odessa remained under the control of the Whites, including Poles. Whites wanted Poles to stay with them to fight the Reds together, but Poles had something to do. Among others, they participated in fighting the Ukrainians for Galicia.
Later, relations between the White and Polish movement did not work out well. Of course, Russians and Poles have quite a few historical pretensions. But if we are talking about Poland and the Whites in fresh Russia, the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, then the Army of the Russian Baron Wrangle, then there are more of these pretensions on the Russian side. Piłsudski acted rather cynical here. There was a minute erstwhile Denikin wanted to go to Moscow. If Piłsudski hit at that time in the west, the Bolsheviks could lose. However, he was not curious in rebuilding Russian statehood, although Poland was already guaranteed independence. possibly 1 of the Romanovs would lead it. Poland would not be in its present form after planet War I in the event of Russia's victory. Piłsudski, however, thought it was better to hold the Bolsheviks in power in the Kremlin, due to the fact that everyone understood it was a marginal movement. These issues were besides considered by the entent, especially the English. The behaviour of Poles in 1919 and 1920... They risked themselves at that time, due to the fact that “the wonder of the Vistula” could not have been at all; war is simply a thing that is hard to predict. Poles may have suffered a historical defeat, but they were lucky.
One more historical-literary painting can be mentioned here. A friend of the author Olesz, mentioned earlier, was even more celebrated than him in the future russian writer, Valentin Katajew. During the civilian War, he fought in the White ranks and in 1920 was arrested by the checkers. Katayev and his younger brother were accused of taking part in an underground organization that planned to support Wrangla's troops in their desanto from Crimea. At the same time, the services detected a “Polish organization” which hoped that Odessa would be liberated from the power of the Bolsheviks by Polish troops. As we know, this did not happen, and during the years of russian rule, the Polish diaspora in Noworosja practically ceased to exist.
Thank you for talking to me.
Matthew Piskorski spoke
Dr. Alexander Vasiliev (born 1978 in Odessa) – historian, lecturer at the Odessa National University (2001-2014), Odessa City Councillor (2010-2014). After 2014, persecuted by SBU, he dealt with journalism, including in Donetsk. Since 2018, editor of the past section of the portal Ukraine.ru.
Photo: wikipedia commons
Think Poland, No. 7-8 (12-19.02.2023)
