1931 Polish census: Difference between revisions
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== Mother tongue controversy == |
== Mother tongue controversy == |
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The census used the concept of [[mother tongue]] and [[religion]] to classify the respondents, rather than [[nationality]]. [[Polish census of 1921|The 1921 census]] had included a nationality question which was replaced in the 1931 census by the "mother tongue" question; this change was protested by Ukrainians and Jews{{Dubious |1921 census Jews with Polish national identity vs. 1931 census Jews with Polish mother tongue |reason=in the census of 1921 a higher percent of Jews - over 25% - declared Polish nationality, than that which declared Polish mother tongue - almost 12% - in 1931. Considering that even many Jews whose mother tongue was Yiddish or Hebrew considered themselves to be Poles by nationality in 1921, I see no reason why would they protest the replacement of "nationality" question by "mother tongue" question - unless that reason was that Yiddish-speaking Jews who considered their national identity to be Polish could not declare Polish mother tongue? See also the talk page and references to Ezra Mendelsohn's book. |date=March 2016}} among others, many of whom were [[Multilingualism|bilingual or trilingual]].<ref name="Stopnicka">{{cite book|author=Celia Stopnicka Heller|authorlink=Celia Stopnicka Heller|title=On the Edge of Destruction: Jews of Poland Between the Two World Wars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmVt-O3AR34C&pg=PA68|accessdate=17 October 2015|year=1993|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=0-8143-2494-0|page=68}}</ref> Moreover, many Jews by religion - almost 12% - considered Polish to be their mother tongue in 1931.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.pl/books?id=5_OXOwvjqjwC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30 |first1=Ezra|last1=Mendelsohn|title=The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1987| pages=30-31}}</ref><ref name="Marcus">{{cite book|author=Joseph Marcus|title=Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=82ncGA4GuN4C&pg=PA17|accessdate=17 October 2015|year=1983|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-90-279-3239-6|page=17}}</ref> However, actually an even much higher percent of Jews by religion - over 25% - considered themselves to be [[Ethnic group|ethnically]] (or in terms of [[national identity]]) [[Poles]], according to the previous census of 1921.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.pl/books?id=5_OXOwvjqjwC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29 |first1=Ezra|last1=Mendelsohn|title=The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1987| pages=29-30}}</ref> This indicates that replacing "national identity" by "mother tongue" in the census, actually led to reduction of the percent of Jews identifying as Poles in 1931, compared to 1921. |
The census used the concept of [[mother tongue]] and [[religion]] to classify the respondents, rather than [[nationality]]. [[Polish census of 1921|The 1921 census]] had included a nationality question which was replaced in the 1931 census by the "mother tongue" question; this change was protested by Ukrainians and Jews{{Dubious |1921 census Jews with Polish national identity vs. 1931 census Jews with Polish mother tongue |reason=in the census of 1921 a higher percent of Jews - over 25% - declared Polish nationality, than that which declared Polish mother tongue - almost 12% - in 1931. Considering that even many Jews whose mother tongue was Yiddish or Hebrew considered themselves to be Poles by nationality in 1921, I see no reason why would they protest the replacement of "nationality" question by "mother tongue" question - unless that reason was that Yiddish-speaking Jews who considered their national identity to be Polish could not declare Polish mother tongue? See also the talk page and references to Ezra Mendelsohn's book. |date=March 2016}} among others, many of whom were [[Multilingualism|bilingual or trilingual]].<ref name="Stopnicka">{{cite book|author=Celia Stopnicka Heller|authorlink=Celia Stopnicka Heller|title=On the Edge of Destruction: Jews of Poland Between the Two World Wars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmVt-O3AR34C&pg=PA68|accessdate=17 October 2015|year=1993|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=0-8143-2494-0|page=68}}</ref> Moreover, many Jews by religion - almost 12% - considered Polish to be their mother tongue in 1931.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.pl/books?id=5_OXOwvjqjwC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30 |first1=Ezra|last1=Mendelsohn|title=The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1987| pages=30-31}}</ref><ref name="Marcus">{{cite book|author=Joseph Marcus|title=Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=82ncGA4GuN4C&pg=PA17|accessdate=17 October 2015|year=1983|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-90-279-3239-6|page=17}}</ref> However, actually an even much higher percent of Jews by religion - over 25% - considered themselves to be [[Ethnic group|ethnically]] (or in terms of [[national identity]]) [[Poles]], according to the previous census of 1921.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.pl/books?id=5_OXOwvjqjwC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29 |first1=Ezra|last1=Mendelsohn|title=The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1987| pages=29-30}}</ref> This indicates that replacing "national identity" by "mother tongue" in the census, actually led to reduction of the percent of [[Judaism|Jews]] identifying as Poles in 1931, compared to 1921. |
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This situation created a difficulty in establishing the true number of ethnic non-Polish citizens of Poland. Some authors used the language criterion to attempt to establish the actual number of minorities, which was difficult considering that over 707,000 people in [[Polesia]] declared that they spoke "[[Tutejszy|local]]" rather than any other language.<ref name="Fowkes">{{cite book|author=Ben Fowkes|title=Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Communist World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9S4pCKm9bUEC&pg=PA73|accessdate=17 October 2015|year=2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-79256-8|page=73}}</ref> Other authors used approximation based on both language and declared religion.<ref name="Tomaszewski">{{cite book|author=[[Jerzy Tomaszewski (historian)|Jerzy Tomaszewski]]|title =Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów|year=1985|page=35|publisher=Czytelnik|location=Warsaw|language=pl}}, as cited in Piotrowski, op.cit., page 294</ref> After [[World War II]] in [[Soviet bloc]] countries the interpretation of the census was used for political purposes, to underline the officially-supported thesis that pre-war Poland incorporated areas where the non-Polish population made up the majority of inhabitants. For this purpose some authors combined all non-Polish speakers in South-Eastern Poland (namely [[Ukrainians]], [[Belarusians]], [[Rusyns]], [[Hutsuls]], [[Lemkos]], [[Boyko]]s and [[Poleszuk]]s) into one category of "[[Ruthenians]]").<ref name="Zielinski">{{cite book|author=Henryk Zieliński|title=Historia Polski 1914-1939|year=1983|pages= |publisher=[[Ossolineum]]|location=Wrocław|isbn= |language=pl}}</ref> In fact, the census had counted speakers of Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Ruthenian languages as separate categories<ref name="Pol Census 1931">(Polish) Główny Urząd Statystyczny (corporate author) (1932) "Ludnosc, Ludnosc wedlug wyznania i plci oraz jezyka ojczystego" (table 10, pg. 15)</ref> According to {{ill|pl|Piotr Eberhardt}} "it is commonly agreed that the criterion of declared language led to an overestimation of the number of Poles" in the 1931 census, he noted that " Members of minority groups believe that the language criterion led to an overestimation of the number of Poles by about one million"<ref>Piotr Eberhardt,Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis, M E Sharpe Inc, 2003 ISBN 0765606658 page 112</ref> Eberhardt believes that criterion of religion tended to be a better indication nationality, he pointed out that 381,000 Jews identified by religion were considered Poles according to the language spoken<ref>Piotr Eberhardt,thnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis, M E Sharpe Inc, 2003 ISBN 0765606658 p. 114</ref> |
This situation created a difficulty in establishing the true number of ethnic non-Polish citizens of Poland. Some authors used the language criterion to attempt to establish the actual number of minorities, which was difficult considering that over 707,000 people in [[Polesia]] declared that they spoke "[[Tutejszy|local]]" rather than any other language.<ref name="Fowkes">{{cite book|author=Ben Fowkes|title=Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Communist World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9S4pCKm9bUEC&pg=PA73|accessdate=17 October 2015|year=2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-79256-8|page=73}}</ref> Other authors used approximation based on both language and declared religion.<ref name="Tomaszewski">{{cite book|author=[[Jerzy Tomaszewski (historian)|Jerzy Tomaszewski]]|title =Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów|year=1985|page=35|publisher=Czytelnik|location=Warsaw|language=pl}}, as cited in Piotrowski, op.cit., page 294</ref> After [[World War II]] in [[Soviet bloc]] countries the interpretation of the census was used for political purposes, to underline the officially-supported thesis that pre-war Poland incorporated areas where the non-Polish population made up the majority of inhabitants. For this purpose some authors combined all non-Polish speakers in South-Eastern Poland (namely [[Ukrainians]], [[Belarusians]], [[Rusyns]], [[Hutsuls]], [[Lemkos]], [[Boyko]]s and [[Poleszuk]]s) into one category of "[[Ruthenians]]").<ref name="Zielinski">{{cite book|author=Henryk Zieliński|title=Historia Polski 1914-1939|year=1983|pages= |publisher=[[Ossolineum]]|location=Wrocław|isbn= |language=pl}}</ref> In fact, the census had counted speakers of Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Ruthenian languages as separate categories<ref name="Pol Census 1931">(Polish) Główny Urząd Statystyczny (corporate author) (1932) "Ludnosc, Ludnosc wedlug wyznania i plci oraz jezyka ojczystego" (table 10, pg. 15)</ref> According to {{ill|pl|Piotr Eberhardt}} "it is commonly agreed that the criterion of declared language led to an overestimation of the number of Poles" in the 1931 census, he noted that " Members of minority groups believe that the language criterion led to an overestimation of the number of Poles by about one million"<ref>Piotr Eberhardt,Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis, M E Sharpe Inc, 2003 ISBN 0765606658 page 112</ref> Eberhardt believes that criterion of religion tended to be a better indication nationality, he pointed out that 381,000 Jews identified by religion were considered Poles according to the language spoken<ref>Piotr Eberhardt,thnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis, M E Sharpe Inc, 2003 ISBN 0765606658 p. 114</ref> |
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Revision as of 15:24, 11 March 2016
| Polish census of 1931 | |
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| Mother tongue in Poland, based on 1931 census | |
  Media related to Polish census of 1931 - Statistics of Poland at Wikimedia Commons |
The Polish census of 1931 or Second General Census in Poland (Template:Lang-pl) was the second census taken in Poland, performed on December 9, 1931 by the Main Bureau of Statistics.[1] It established that Poland's population amounted to 32 million people (over 5 million more than in the previous census of 1921).
The census was organised following the rules established by an act of the Polish Parliament of October 14, 1931. In contrast to earlier census of 1921, the 1931 census did not count national minorities and detailed information on types of farms, leaving only the question of the overall area of land owned by the citizen.[2] The part related to education was expanded to include questions of ability to read and write.
The results of the census were being published in 39 volumes between 1936 and 1939 in a publishing series "Statistics of Poland". A list of all settlements in Poland was also prepared, but only a part related to Wilno Voivodeship was published.
Results
The population was categorized by mother tongue i.e. the primary language in the following categories: Polish, Ukrainian, Ruthenian (i.e. Rusyn), Belarusian, Russian, Lithuanian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Local, Other, and Not Declared. The category "Local" (Template:Lang-pl) versus "Other" (Template:Lang-pl) was hotly debated after the fact, because a number of significant languages were not on the list, e.g., Romani, Armenian, and/or what might constitute transitional language e.g. Polesian, Kashubian and others.[3]
| Population by first language | Population by faith | |
|---|---|---|
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|
The population was also categorized by religion. Most Jews spoke Yiddish, and some spoke Hebrew. These were categorized as two groups.[5] Statistical differences existed between Ruthenians and Ukrainians. Ruthenians nationwide were 96.5% Greek Catholic but only 3.2% Orthodox, compared to Ukrainians who were almost equally divided at 52.4% Greek Catholic and 46.6% Orthodox.[4][6] Most Ruthenians lived in provinces where the majority of the Ukrainian population was Greek Catholic, too.
By cities
-
1931 Census of Poland, Miasto Kraków, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.11 -
1931 Census of Poland, Miasto Łódź, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.14 -
1931 Census of Poland, Miasto Lwow, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.11 -
1931 Census of Poland, Miasto Poznań , table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.11 -
1931 Census of Poland, Miasto Warsaw, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.18 -
1931 Census of Poland, Miasto Wilno, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.11
By voivodships
-
1931 Census of Poland, Bialostock Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.23 -
1931 Census of Poland, Kraków Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.26 -
1931 Census of Poland, Kielce Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.28 -
1931 Census of Poland, Lublin Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.26 -
1931 Census of Poland, Łódź Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.23 -
1931 Census of Poland, Lwow Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.32 -
1931 Census of Poland, Nowogrodek Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.19 -
1931 Census of Poland, Slaskie Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.20 -
1931 Census of Poland, Polesie Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.20 -
1931 Census of Poland, Pomorski Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.26 -
1931 Census of Poland, Poznań Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.32 -
1931 Census of Poland, Stanislaw Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.22 -
1931 Census of Poland, Tarnopol Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.26 -
1931 Census of Poland, Warsaw Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.30 -
1931 Census of Poland, Wilno Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.10 -
1931 Census of Poland, Wolyn Voivodship, table 10 Ludnosc-Population-pg.22
Mother tongue controversy
 |
The census used the concept of mother tongue and religion to classify the respondents, rather than nationality. The 1921 census had included a nationality question which was replaced in the 1931 census by the "mother tongue" question; this change was protested by Ukrainians and Jews[dubious – discuss] among others, many of whom were bilingual or trilingual.[7] Moreover, many Jews by religion - almost 12% - considered Polish to be their mother tongue in 1931.[8][3] However, actually an even much higher percent of Jews by religion - over 25% - considered themselves to be ethnically (or in terms of national identity) Poles, according to the previous census of 1921.[9] This indicates that replacing "national identity" by "mother tongue" in the census, actually led to reduction of the percent of Jews identifying as Poles in 1931, compared to 1921.
This situation created a difficulty in establishing the true number of ethnic non-Polish citizens of Poland. Some authors used the language criterion to attempt to establish the actual number of minorities, which was difficult considering that over 707,000 people in Polesia declared that they spoke "local" rather than any other language.[10] Other authors used approximation based on both language and declared religion.[11] After World War II in Soviet bloc countries the interpretation of the census was used for political purposes, to underline the officially-supported thesis that pre-war Poland incorporated areas where the non-Polish population made up the majority of inhabitants. For this purpose some authors combined all non-Polish speakers in South-Eastern Poland (namely Ukrainians, Belarusians, Rusyns, Hutsuls, Lemkos, Boykos and Poleszuks) into one category of "Ruthenians").[12] In fact, the census had counted speakers of Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Ruthenian languages as separate categories[6] According to pl "it is commonly agreed that the criterion of declared language led to an overestimation of the number of Poles" in the 1931 census, he noted that " Members of minority groups believe that the language criterion led to an overestimation of the number of Poles by about one million"[13] Eberhardt believes that criterion of religion tended to be a better indication nationality, he pointed out that 381,000 Jews identified by religion were considered Poles according to the language spoken[14]
Some authors contend that the change in questions asked by the census officials was due to the Polish government's wish to minimise the presence of minorities[3][15][16] and represented an attempt to maximize the effects of a decade of educational policies stressing the Polish language.[17] Tadeusz Piotrowski called the 1931 census official but "unreliable" for determining ethnicity, saying that by using language as an indicator of ethnicity it had underestimated the number of ethnic non-Poles, and that in particular, ethnic Poles were not a majority in the Nowogródek Voivodeship and Polesie Voivodeship.[18] A 1954 study of the Polish population by the United States Census Bureau concluded that "in presenting the results, the Central Statistical office emphasized the central role played by the Polish ethnic group by increasing the number of minority groups, and thus reducing the size of a given group, shown in the results, Ukrainian and Ruthenian were tabulated as separate languages, although Ukrainian was simply the newer name for Ruthenian,used by the more politically conscious and nationalistic elements. In the Province of Polesie, the census authorities returned most of the Belorussians there as speaking 'local languages'." [5]
After World War II, Apolinary Hartglas reported that Edward Szturm de Sztrem, the pre-war chairman of the Polish census statistical office, admitted that the census returns, particularly those from the south-east, had been altered at the executive level.[3] Another account stated that he admitted "that officials had been directed to undercount minorities, especially those in the eastern provinces".[19]
References
- ^ Główny Urząd Statystyczny (corporate author) (1932). Drugi powszechny spis ludności z dnia 9 XII 1931r. Formularze i instrukcje spisowe (in Polish). Warsaw. p. 128 publisher=Główny Urząd Statystyczny.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help); Missing pipe in:|page=(help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland (1931). Rozporządzenie Rady Ministrów z dnia 2 września 1931 r. w sprawie przeprowadzenia drugiego powszechnego spisu ludności (PDF) (in Polish). Warsaw. Dz.U. 1931 nr 80 poz. 629.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c d Joseph Marcus (1983). Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939. Walter de Gruyter. p. 17. ISBN 978-90-279-3239-6. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ a b "Główny Urząd Statystyczny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, drugi powszechny spis ludności z dn. 9.XII 1931 r. - Mieszkania i gospodarstwa domowe ludność" [Central Statistical Office the Polish Republic, the second census dated 9.XII 1931 - Abodes and household populace] (PDF) (in Polish). Central Statistical office of the Polish Republic. 1938. Archived from the original (PDF, direct download, table: page 30) on 2014-03-17.
- ^ a b US Census Bureau, The Population of Poland Ed. W. Parker Mauldin, Washington-1954. pp.74-75
- ^ a b (Polish) Główny Urząd Statystyczny (corporate author) (1932) "Ludnosc, Ludnosc wedlug wyznania i plci oraz jezyka ojczystego" (table 10, pg. 15)
- ^ Celia Stopnicka Heller (1993). On the Edge of Destruction: Jews of Poland Between the Two World Wars. Wayne State University Press. p. 68. ISBN 0-8143-2494-0. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Ezra (1987). The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars. Indiana University Press. pp. 30–31.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Ezra (1987). The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars. Indiana University Press. pp. 29–30.
- ^ Ben Fowkes (2002). Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Communist World. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-333-79256-8. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ Jerzy Tomaszewski (1985). Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów (in Polish). Warsaw: Czytelnik. p. 35., as cited in Piotrowski, op.cit., page 294
- ^ Henryk Zieliński (1983). Historia Polski 1914-1939 (in Polish). Wrocław: Ossolineum.
- ^ Piotr Eberhardt,Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis, M E Sharpe Inc, 2003 ISBN 0765606658 page 112
- ^ Piotr Eberhardt,thnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis, M E Sharpe Inc, 2003 ISBN 0765606658 p. 114
- ^ Tadeusz Piotrowski (1998). "Belorussian collaboration". Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947. McFarland. p. 294. ISBN 978-0-7864-0371-4. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ Philipp Ther; Ana Siljak (2001). Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-7425-1094-4. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ Ilya Prizel (1998). National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-521-57697-0. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ Piotrowski, op.cit., page 143: [The Belarusians] were distributed as follows: Polesie, 654,000; Nowogrodek, 616,000; Wilno, 409,000; Bialystok,269,100
- ^ Richard Blanke (1993). Orphans of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland, 1918-1939. University Press of Kentucky. p. 95. ISBN 0-8131-3041-7. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
External links
- Original report from census. Document is in Polish and French. Internet Archive (PDF file direct download, 88 pages).
- The Podlaska Digital Library: document search. Partial results can be found when searching for the following keyword: Spis powszechny 1931 r