Białorutenizacja i ukrainizacja języka liturgicznego w Kościele prawosławnym w II Rzeczypospolitej

The Orthodox Church in the II Republic of Poland, reviving as a continuation of the Russian Church, gradually underwent relatively important changes. Under the influence of a very active national Ukrainian movement as well as of the Byelorussian movement and the Polish authorities, it ceased to be a nationally homogenous whole. The Byelorussian and Ukrainian circles actively strived to introduce the national languages – Byelorussian and Ukrainian – into the liturgy. By doing so they sought to restore the national traditions in the Church in Byelorussian and Ukrainian lands, taken away from Poland after the XVIII century partitions. The aspirations to underline the national traditions in the Church were accompanied by the desire to give the Orthodox Church in Poland the national Byelorussian and Ukrainian character. The gradual introduction of Ukrainian and Byelorussian into the liturgy and church life went with great difficulty due to the reluctance of the Church hierarchy – mostly Russians – as well as the state authorities, aiming decisively at the assimilation of the national minorities into the Polish nation. Polonization, supported by the state authorities, formed the circles of the Orthodox Polish, particularly among the orthodox soldiers of the Polish Army. At the same time the fundamental community of the faithful consisted of Byelorussians and Ukrainians, who, by the means of introduction of the national languages into the liturgy and the church life (among other things), wanted to use the Orthodox Church to develop their own national ideas.