Educational Policy Towards the Ukrainian Population in Poland, 1944–1953

This article examines the educational policy of the Polish communist authorities towards the Ukrainian population in Poland between 1944 and 1953. It focuses on transformations in the organization of Ukrainian schooling, the legal and regulatory framework governing its operation, and the administrative mechanisms of state control. The study traces the relationship between educational policy and the resettlement of the Ukrainian population in 1944–1946, as well as Operation Vistula (1947), both of which fundamentally altered the conditions in which Ukrainian communities existed and effectively dismantled the institutional network of Ukrainian-language schooling. Particular attention is paid to the initial attempts to restore Ukrainian schools in 1944–1945, the subsequent practices of restricting and closing them, and the consequences of the spatial dispersal of the Ukrainian population for access to education in the Ukrainian language. The period from 1947 to 1952 is examined separately, when, despite the absence of an explicit legal ban on Ukrainian-language schooling, a situation of regulatory uncertainty emerged that effectively prevented its restoration. The article demonstrates that, during this period, the school functioned not only as an educational institution but also as an important instrument of state ethnic policy, socialization, and assimilation of the Ukrainian population. It is established that the 1952 decision to introduce Ukrainian-language teaching points did not entail the restoration of a comprehensive Ukrainian schooling system; rather, it provided for the limited incorporation of Ukrainian-language instruction into the Polish state education system. The study argues that educational policy in 1944–1953 was closely intertwined with the state’s deportation and demographic policies and was aimed at weakening the institutional mechanisms through which Ukrainian national identity could be reproduced.