Poles

Categories / Population/Ethnic Groups
POLES, an ethnic community forming a part of the St. Petersburg population. The Polish language is related to the Slavic group of Indo-European languages. Their faith is Catholic. The Polish community in St. Petersburg was formed from the late 18th century, but was formed especially quickly after the suppression of the Polish Uprising 1830-31, when restraints were placed on Poles for entering into the services of the western provinces. In 1869 there were 14,400 Poles living in St. Petersburg, in 1910 - 65,000. Among them were civil servants, soldiers and students. Starting at the late 19th century, Polish peasants began to move to St. Petersburg for work. In 1830-58 a weekly paper was produced in the Polish language Tygodnik Peterburgsky, later there were also other periodical publications. The Poles attended services at the Catholic Church of St. Catherine (32-34 Nevsky Prospect), where from 1844 there existed the charitable society of St. Vicent de Paul, library, and from 1906, a men’s gymnasium. From 1856 Polish burials took place at Vyborgsky Roman Catholic Cemetery. After October 1917 the number of Poles reduced, there were approximately 8,000 in 1989. In the 1920s-30s in Leningrad the Polish house of Education by the name of Y. Markhlevsky (10 Nekrasov St) operated, the Pedagogical Technical School, the Polish department of the Pedagogical Institute by the name of A.I. Herzen and other national organisations, which were liquidated in 1937-38. In 1989 the cultural-educational society Poloniya was established, in 1992 - the Union of Poles, involved in the preservation of cultural traditions and Polish language.

References: Чикадзе Е. Формирование общины российских поляков: Пути конструирования этничности // Конструирование этничности. Этнич. общины Петербурга. СПб., 1998. С. 175-226; Юхнева Н. В. Поляки // Многонациональный Петербург: История. Религия. Народы. СПб., 2002. С. 97-104; Базылев Л. Поляки в Петербурге. СПб., 2003.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Herzen Alexander Ivanovich
Markhlevsky Yulian Yuzefovich
Nekrasova St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 10
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 34
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 32
Чикадзе Е. Формирование общины российских поляков: Пути конструирования этничности // Конструирование этничности. Этнич. общины Петербурга. СПб., 1998
Юхнева Н. В. Поляки // Многонациональный Петербург: История. Религия. Народы. СПб., 2002 Civil Servants
Military Personnel
Students
Peasants
Pedagogical University