Wyznanie prawosławne jako podstawowa bariera procesów asymilacyjnych

The paper justified the hypothesis that, as regards the Orthodox inhabitants living in the Podlaskie voivodship, it is the Orthodox faith that is still the primary barrier to assimilation processes and the primary source of self and others. Taking into account the structure of assimilation processes, representatives of Orthodox communities generally undergo acculturation processes and structural assimilation to most of Poland, and assimilation processes stop at the identification and personality assimilation stage. In the Orthodox communities of Podlaskie Voivodship, the process of religious assimilation has not in principle taken place. The reasons for this include, among other things, the rapid decline of the identity of “being urban”, a fundamental increase the importance of Orthodoxy in identifying human identities, especially since the early 1980s, the processes of empowerment of individuals and return to Orthodoxy in cities as an important criterion for group identity; separation of religion from nationality.