Instytucjonalizacja ruchu polskiego na Ukrainie w latach 1988–1991

The institutionalization of the Polish movement in Ukraine, 1988–1991For a long time the Polish minority in Ukraine was unable to fulfill its religious, cultural, educational, and political needs because of the Soviet communist regime. All institutions were controlled by the Communist Party and state security organs. Nevertheless, the process of the rebirth of Polish institutions and organizations began in 1989 via the former channels of the communist apparatus which was prepared to allow limited concessions. Thus the process was from above and not from below, from the center to the periphery, according to the former command political system. It relied on former organisations, mostly Towarzystwo Łączności i Związków Kulturalnych z Zagranicą.However, the ethnic mobilization of the Polish minority in Ukraine proceeded faster than the equivalent process embracing the Ukrainians themselves, who fought also for sovereignty for the nation. The article describes in detail the phases of forming the Polish organizations for which Polskie Stowarzyszenie Kulturalno-Oświatowe was a precursor, and its forms of activity, later imitated by other social organizations, such as Polish language courses, festivals and competitions, folk dancing, travel to Poland.