Bez przeszłości nie ma przyszłości – kościoły rzymskokatolickie na Zaporoskim Przyazowiu

Abstract

The national and religious identity of Polish minority in the north-eastern Ukraine for centuries has been shaped under the influence of different factors than in the western part of the country. The problem of self-identification of homo postsovieticus is strongly linked with the idea of multiculturalism and a conscious choice of ethnicity. Poles from the Zaporozhye Priazovye have lived thousands kilometres away from the Motherland in a multicultural society consisting of over 130 nationalities. In order to understand how the Polish minority identity from the Zaporozhye Priazovye has been shaped it is important to learn about the history of the Roman Catholic Church in that region. The article presents the history of the above-mentioned Polish minority via the history of the churches in Dnipro, Kamianske, and Zaporizhia. The image of a Catholic Pole in reference to the Polish minority often turns out to be ambiguous, because for a long time the development of religion in those regions was impossible.