Pozostać czy wyemigrować? Autochtoni i Ukraińcy w województwie pilskim w latach 1975–1989 w dokumentach Służby Bezpieczeństwa

In the Piła Province established in 1975, two small groups of inhabitants were recorded who diff ered from the rest of the population in terms of their origin and cultural identity. They were indigenous inhabitants (Polish natives) and Ukrainians deported there within the “Akcja Wisła” campaign (1947). Indigenous inhabitants who lived mainly in the area of Złotów were referred to as Krajniacy. Compared with other communities from the former Polish-German borderland, Krajniacy identified themselves most strongly with Polishness and found it relatively easy to adjust to new social-political conditions after WWII. Ukrainians from south-east Poland were subjected to a long-lasting process of assimilation. Dispersed in a foreign surrounding, they found it diffi cult to maintain their cultural and religious identity. The deterioration of Poland’s economic situation aft er 1975 made many young indigenous inhabitants and Ukrainians leave the country. The former emigrated mostly to West Germany, which provided them with full civic rights and social benefits; the latter chose Canada – a country inhabited by over a million of people of Ukrainian origin. Some of them became social activists. They revived the activity of the Ukrainian Social-Cultural Society and institutions of the quasi-official Greek Catholic Church. Some indigenous inhabitants expressed their will to join bodies open only to people of German national identity, which had not yet been legalized. Ukrainians and representatives of the Polish indigenous population were considered “suspicious” and, until the end of 1989, they were invigilated by the Security Service. The article is based on the documentation of operational activities connected with cases under the operational code-names of “Moor” and “Ideowcy”.