СЕМАНТИКА ІДЕНТИЧНОСТІ МЕШКАНЦЯ УКРАЇНСЬКО-ПОЛЬСЬКОГО ПОГРАНИЧЧЯ 60–80-х РОКІВ ХХ СТОЛІТТЯ КРІЗЬ ПРИЗМУ ПАМ’ЯТІ ДИТИНИ ПОЛЬСЬКОГО ПОХОДЖЕННЯ

Abstract

The article examines the particularities of child-rearing and national identity formation in Polish families on the Ukrainian-Polish border in the 1960s–80s based on in-depth oral history interviews. It was found that these characteristics could vary depending on the place of residence, the compactness or dispersion of the Polish community, as well as the type of upbringing and the atmosphere within the family itself. It is noted that in the early 1980s, Polish families became increasingly mixed and thus more easily assimilated into Ukrainian and Soviet spaces.It has been shown that the choice of their own identity, which was documented at the age of 16 when the person received a passport and filled in the «nationality» column, was obvious for children who grew up in a fully Polish family, and difficult for children from mixed families, whose daily routine and parental influence tipped them one way or the other.The peculiarities of the functioning of historical memory and the reasons for its erasure in Polish families at the stage of intergenerational transmission are analyzed. It was found that language and church were the main factors of a child’s identity. For most of the interviewees, learning Polish began in early childhood and was facilitated by the family environment, Polish books and television.The church played a dual role as a place of prayer and repentance, and as a place of meeting and communication within the Polish national community. Although churches were closed in most towns and villages along the border, and the journey to neighbouring churches was long and difficult, parents took their children to the Worship. It is stated that the children’s integration into the Ukrainian environment was facilitated by friendly communication in the Ukrainian language, while Soviet identity was imposed from outside through school, compulsory study of the Russian language and propaganda lessons. As a result, it has been emphasized that most people from Polish families adopted a dual Polish-Ukrainian identity in the form of a loyal combination of Polish nationality and Ukrainian citizenship. A significant part of the source base of the study consists of interviews recorded in the Striletske village (Yavoriv district, Lviv region), where the area of compact settlement of the Polish population has been preserved.