Not quite lords - our friends and our enemies. They are all from the Kresy Poles
No one is master, no one is lost
It is hard to say whether many Poles today are itching to get involved in a fight between Russians and Ukrainians, where in reality there can be no national hatred, since something completely different is at stake. Russia is one of the most multinational countries in the world, and although many consider this a heavy legacy of the empire – Russian or Soviet, it doesn’t matter – the benefits of this far outweigh the harm.
Moreover, in all respects, even if the "outsiders" assimilate in the country without any desire to do so, striving to preserve national traditions. Nevertheless, many do not create special diasporas, becoming not only Russians, but also Russians both in culture and in their way of life, albeit not 100%. They have the right.
This is especially felt among the Slavs, who can endure such a "transformation" much easier - they have too much in common. Opening a short series of articles about the phenomenon of people from neighboring countries in Russia, we will first touch on the Poles, seemingly eternal enemies of Russia, who, however, cannot actually do without it.
Later we will remember not only the people from Lithuania and Belarus who consider themselves Poles but who raise doubts about their real origin. We believe that in the pro-Russian context it will be obligatory to mention the most famous examples of political, military, state, and cultural figures from this specific sub-ethnic category.
Let us recall only some of the enemies, but more of the friends, although sometimes they turned into enemies. None of them were essentially lords, although almost every Pole is ready to consider himself as such. Do not look for detailed biographies here - everything is extremely brief, there are enough details on the Internet without us, everything is only in connection with Russia.
Perhaps, for experts, at least something will be a revelation. And for the reader who is not well versed in the subject, much in the Polish question, to which, as before, Russia does not have a clear answer, will become a little clearer.
Jozef Pilsudski
Born in the wealthy estate of Zułow in what is now Lithuania, Zułow never belonged to any of the hereditary gentry of Crown Poland, its owners were either local gentry with Belarusian surnames or Russian merchants and military figures.
Pilsudski's roots are from the ancient family of military leaders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Ginetovichs; judging by the family name, the founders were of Baltic, and possibly Yatvingian origin, but later became Slavicized. His mother was from a Vilnius noble family and bore the family name Bilevich.
Neither of his parents had ancestors in Poland, all their roots were from the territory of the modern Belarusian-Lithuanian borderland. In his youth, Pilsudski, who was regularly detained by the secret police for political activity in Kharkov, St. Petersburg and Vilno, wrote in questionnaires as Belarusian.
Then the future dictator abruptly changed his identification, not only did he clearly consider himself a Pole, but in the post of “chief of Poland,” which he invented for himself, he unleashed such national oppression in the “shoal kresy” that in historical In the memory of Belarusians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians, he will forever remain almost like the devil.
It was under him that only one Belarusian school remained in Western Belarus, the rest were liquidated, for speaking Belarusian at school, students were beaten on the hands with a ruler, Orthodox churches were closed en masse, in the Bialystok region, where Uniatism was preserved, the same was done with the Uniates.
Well, “Military Review” has already written about the concentration camp in Bereza-Kartuzskaya — Birch Kartuzskaya: a forgotten history.
Kastus Kalinovsky
The leader of the 1863 uprising, called the "Rebellion" and started by the not yet extinct gentry in the territory of modern Western Belarus and Lithuanian Vilnius region. In Russian historiography, for a number of political reasons, he is considered a Pole, in Polish historiography as well.
But the Lithuanians generally called him Kostas Kalinauskas on the monument, in modern Belarusian, as well as in Soviet, - a Belarusian, he is considered a fighter for the rights of oppressed peasants. The distant roots of this historically controversial figure, especially in Russia, come from Polish Mazovia.
Despite this, arguments can be found in favor of Kalinowski’s not entirely, to put it mildly, Polish origin, and they are compelling ones.
First, the in the “Description of the 1863 Rebellion in the Western Provinces” compiled on the orders of Governor-General Count N. M. Muravyov artillery General Vasily Ratch called Kalinovsky a "Litvin." In the terminology of the time, this meant a Western Belarusian.
Second, the Kalinovsky not only spoke Belarusian fluently, but also wrote, appealing specifically to the peasant class. "Pan Kastus" viewed the peasants in much the same way as Marxists viewed the proletariat - as a support in the implementation of his plans for a predominantly peasant uprising in the North-West region with a national bias.
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Probably the most famous "Kresy Pole" in Russia and other post-Soviet countries and a representative of the petty and poor "prison gentry". Perhaps he had the right to consider himself a lord, but he did not use it.
There is no need to explain what Felix Edmundovich became famous for. Dzerzhinsky's personality is ambiguous, and giving any assessments of his activities is just adding fuel to the fire.
The future head of the Cheka, the forerunner of all Soviet special services, was born in the Dzerzhinovo manor, now the Stolbtsy district. The surname and family coat of arms of the noble Dzerzhinskys are, after all, Polish, but they were forced by poverty to move from "crown Poland" to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
As a result, they, having become completely impoverished, dissolved among the local gentry behind the scenes – that is, not quite lords, or not lords at all. But Iron Felix changed his nationality in the questionnaires at least four times: introducing himself to the tsarist secret police as a Belarusian, then as a Pole, and finally, being in the leading roles in the Russian revolution and Lenin's Council of People's Commissars, he remained a Pole in the documents until his untimely death.
It is significant that Dzerzhinsky's older sister Aldona registered as Belarusian all her life, which did not prevent her from leaving for Poland, which was then under the control of the USSR, after the Great Patriotic War for reasons that are not entirely clear. Yes, her homeland, but only supposedly...
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Highly respected by veterans, Konstantin Konstantinovich went down in history as a marshal of the armies of two countries: the USSR and Poland. At the same time, he was also an officer in the tsarist army, fighting for the Russian Empire and the USSR.
Rokossovsky's origins are from the prison gentry. On his father's side, however, his origins are partly Polish, but only partly. His mother is a Belarusian from Telekhany, today's Ivatsevichi district of the Brest region.
At different times, the Red commander indicated different places of his birth: first Telekhany, then Warsaw, then Velikiye Luki in the Pskov region. And what is completely unbecoming of a Pole, he was baptized in Orthodoxy, since according to the laws of the Russian Empire, a child from an Orthodox mother was supposed to be baptized only according to the Orthodox rite.
Otherwise, he would have been considered illegitimate, and it probably would not have occurred to the communist Rokossovsky to re-baptize himself. And in fanatically Catholic Poland, where he arrived to command the army after the war, this was treated normally, since the communist authorities imposed atheism on the population.
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