Ormianie w PRL-u

In the inter-war Armenians lived mainly in south-eastern Poland. After World War I these territories were incorporated into the USSR, and the Armenians as well as the Poles living there, moved to the People’s Republic of Poland. They had been largely assimilated even before that. In the new circumstances their assimilation continued, because they were spread throughout the country, without congregating in larger groups anywhere. What made the Armenians clearly stand apart was the fact that they belonged to the Armenian Catholic Church. Three Armenian Catholic centres were created in Kraków, Gliwice and Gdańsk. They could only cherish Armenian traditions but could not fully reconstruct them. However, some people really cared about a return of these traditions, which did not happen until the 1980s. Armenian Culture Clubs were established at that time in Kraków, Warsaw and Gdańsk. They managed to bring together Armenians or Poles of Armenian origin, dispersed all over Poland, by organising various events or through publishing activity. The period was also marked by a revival of the Armenian Catholic Church in Poland. In the late 1980s there came to Poland Armenians from Armenia, especially from the areas affected by the earthquake and from the war-stricken Karabakh. With time the immigrants will change the Armenian national minority in Poland. Translated by Anna Kijak