Page 65 - Ciancia, On Civilization's Edge

small size of both the German and the Czech communities in Volhynia, which, Zalewski stated, was

around 2.3% and 1.5% respectively, made them ideal candidates for assimilation, since it guaranteed

“that they will not long maintain themselves as a distinct element and will quickly yield to

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Polonization.” In contrast to the language used to describe civilizationally immature Ruthenians,
the discourse of German and Czech assimilation focused on their relatively high levels of economic

development. Czechs, for instance, were depicted less as a separate minority and more as a group

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whose positive contributions to the local economy meant that they could be easily Polonized.
Similarly, the German town of Józefin in Łuck county was described as “completely Polonized” and

the people there were said to consider themselves to be Poles (uważają się za Polaków), despite the

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fact that they were Evangelical Christians, not Roman Catholics. In short, Guard activists used the
language of development in flexible ways, imagining how both civilizationally advanced and

backward people might be included in the Polish nation (whether they wanted to be or not).

***

In the years immediately following the declaration of Polish independence in November 1918,

representatives of the fledgling state asserted their claims to a region with a Polish minority by

navigating the ambiguous Wilsonian moment. As Western statesmen decided which nations were

advanced enough to bestow democratic institutions and mentalities on underdeveloped peoples

across the globe, Poles supported claims to the geographically contiguous but demographically non-

Polish borderland of Volhynia by simultaneously rejecting imperialism and relying on the

87 “Raport o sytuacji na Wołyniu,” AAN TSK 215/43.
88 Like most Volhynians, Czechs usually engaged in farming, but they could also be found working in breweries,
dairies, sugar refineries, and mills. They were particularly active in social and cultural groups, most notably the
Sokol movement. See Nada Valaskova, Aliens or one’s own people: Czech immigrants from the Ukraine in the
Czech Republic (Prague, 1997).
89 “Raport o sytuacji na Wołyniu,” AAN TSK 215/43, 53.

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