- Link:
- http://theses.gla.ac.uk/704/
- Collection:
-
- Subjects
- HD Industries. Land use. Labor DJK Eastern Europe DA Great Britain
- Creator:
- Kernberg, Thomas
- Description
- Before 1939 there had been some Polish settlement
in Scotland, but the members were too few in number to organise
themselves on a national basis. After the defeat of the 1830-31
`Powstanie Listopadowe' (the November Rising) some members of the
`Wielka Emigracja' decided to settle in Scotland. Next, following
the defeat of the 1863-64 `Powstanie Styczniowe' (the January
Rising), there was a migration to Scotland with both economic and
political motivations. Most of the men found employment either in
coal-mining or in the iron and steel industries mainly in
Lanarkshire. These `Poles' (who were mostly ethnic Lithuanians) had
to overcome the opposition of the organised labour movement as well
as anti-Catholicism and anti-alienism. By 1939 the members of the
`economic emigration' had become `assimilated' into Scottish
society. The defeat of Poland in September, 1939, by Germany and
the Soviet Union caused Poles to escape to France where a new
Polish government in exile was formed led by President Wladyslaw
Raczkiewicz and Prime Minister General Wladyslaw Sikorski. General
Sikorski led the re-organisation of the Polish Armed Forces with
the financial and material assistance of France and Britain.
Following the defeat of France, during June and July, 1940, the
Polish government in exile, some 20,000 Polish servicemen and some
3,000 Polish civilian refugees were evacuated to Britain. General
Sikorski received the support of Churchill and could reform Polish
Army, Air Force and Navy units in the United Kingdom and the Near
East. The Polish First Army Corps was organised in Scotland. When
the war in Europe ended in May, 1945, the Corps comprised the First
Armoured Division, the First Independent Paratroop Brigade, the
Fourth Infantry Division (incomplete), the Sixteenth Independent
Armoured Brigade (also incomplete) and administrative and training
centres. During the war many Polish servicemen and civilians were
befriended by hospitable Scottish people. The British authorities
and the Polish government in London created a `support society' for
Poles, including education and welfare facilities. Both the
location of Polish units and institutions during wartime and the
knowledge which Poles acquired of life in Scotland significantly
influenced post-war settlement. For Poland the outcome of the war
was `defeat in victory'. The decisions taken at the Teheran
Conference (28 November to 1 December, 1943) and the Yalta
Conference (4 to 11 February, 1945) prevented many Polish
servicement and civilians from returning to their homeland. On 5
July, 1945, the governments of Britain and the U.S.A. ceased to
recognise the Polish government in London and recognised the Polish
Provisional Government of National Unity in Warsaw. Despite the
participation of the former Prime Minister of the government in
London, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, this new `government' in Poland was
dominated by Stalin's Communist agents and their allies. Between
1945 and 1951 the Polish community in Scotland was formed against a
background of increasing political terror in Poland. Initially,
there was strong opposition in many parts of Scotland to the
proposed settlement of Poles. Many people in Britain did not
understand that Poland was under the control of the Soviet Union.
The `elections' of 19 January, 1947, by which the Communist `Polska
Partia Robotnicza' (Polish Worker's Party) and their allies seized
power, finally made the position of the Polish settlers in Scotland
secure. After the victory of the Labour Party in the British
General Election in July, 1945, the Labour government, led by
Clement Attlee, `inherited' the Interim Treasury Committee for
Polish Questions which had been formed by the previous government
led by Churchill with the aim of gradually closing down the
institutions of the Polish government in exile. Instead, the
machinery of the Interim Treasury Committee was used for the
welfare of Polish civilian refugees in Britain, the Middle East,
British East Africa and other countries. As the relationship
between Britain and the Soviet Union worsened, the British Foreign
Secretary Ernest Bevin had to face the consequences of the failure
of Stalin to honour the promises given at Teheran, Yalta and
Potsdam regarding Poland. In order to place Poles in employment in
Britain without serious opposition from the trades unions, the
Labour government instituted a policy of controlled resettlement
through the Polish Resettlement Corps, the Polish Resettlement Act
of 27 March, 1947, and the European Volunteer Workers scheme. Above
all, Polish servicemen under British command, their families,
dependants and other civilian refugees were used to provide
manpower for essential undermanned industries, such as agriculture,
coal-mining, textiles and the building trades. The War Office
transferred the majority of Polish service personnel who refused to
return to Poland from their service areas to England and Wales for
service in the Polish Resettlement Corps and demobilisation into
civilian life. By 1951 the basis for the Polish community in
Scotland had been formed with many institutions and organisations
to replace the wartime `support society'. Most exiled Poles
believed that the Soviet Union would be defeated by the Western
democracies and that in a few years they would return to their
liberated homeland. The majority of Poles in Scotland settled in
areas with good employment opportunities. Between 1951 and 1961 the
Polish community in Scotland became permanently established with
major centres of settlement in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Falkirk
and Kirkcaldy. After the removal of many of the worst features of
`Stalinism' in Poland after October, 1956, the defeat of the
Hungarian Uprising convinced most exiled Poles that Poland would
not be liberated either by a national revolt or by intervention by
the Western democracies. In addition, many Poles in Scotland lost
interest in community life because of the disputes among the exile
political and military leadership in London, which resulted in a
major crisis during 1954 causing the creation of two factions,
namely the `Zamek' supporting President August Zaleski and the
`Zjednoczenie' whose aim was to remove him. These disputes
contributed towards disunity in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk,
leading to the creation of alternative social centres in opposition
to the pro-`Zjednoczenie' Polish Ex-Combatants' Association
(`Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantó' or S.P.K.) and their `Domy
Kombatanta'. The S.P.K. also lost popularity because of their
opposition to visits by exiled Poles to Poland following the
reforms after October, 1956. Fortunately, these disputes proved
short-lived. Wladyslaw Gomulka and his successor, Edward Gierek,
failed to give the Polish nation genuine political, economic or
cultural freedom. Many exiled Poles in Scotland continued to
support community institutions, such as the Polish Parish, and
often returned to participate in organised community life after
long absences. While many Poles became `assimilated' into Scottish
society (mainly through marriage to Scottish women and isolation
from fellow-Poles), in 1990 there are active Polish communities in
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Falkirk, Dundee and Kirkcaldy. With a large
number of members of the `second generation' involved in community
activities than in other Polish centres in Scotland, the Poles in
Glasgow are probably the most active.
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- NonPeerReviewed
- Format
- application/pdf
- Relation
- http://theses.gla.ac.uk/704/01/1990kernbergphd.pdf
- Relation
- http://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b1364454
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