POLISH DIASPORA-polish communities worldwide ( 20 MILLION STRONG „POLONIA“ )

Polish worldwide population today is estimated at almost 60 million. Although it is an impossible task to compile an accurate count of all Poles in the Diaspora, we continuously try to update and maintain the information on this page as accurately as possible. Help us update the population table on this page by sending us any information you might have on Diaspora in specific countries. We were not able to list territories where the Diaspora counts less than 50 people. We did not include the Poles who work on oil rigs ,or on the Antarctic Continent as scientists as a Diaspora. The Polish Diaspora can be divided into two groups. The first group are emigrants and their offspring (next generations) who still see themselves as Poles abroad because of their Polish culture, traditions and mostly language as well. The emigration had political or economic reasons and began in the 19th century. The two world wars made even more people leave the country as well as the economic crisis in the 1980s.The second group are the Poles who live in the former Soviet Union on the territories which used to be Polish and taken away by the Soviets. Some of them were taken to prison or hard work in Siberia or Kazakhstan. 60% of all Polonians (Poles- Abroad ) live in North America. Other articles tell stories about Polish settlements and villages all over the world: “ Adampol- Polonezkoy” is a Polish village existing since 1842 very close to Istanbul (Turkey). Once this beautiful landscape founded by Prince Czartoryski was the moral centre of the Polish resistance against the Germans, Austrians and Russians who have occupied our territory. Now the Poles who still live there (6th generation) have built  a popular holiday resort  there and guests like the former Turkish president K.Ataturk or the current president of Poland A. Kwasniewski have visited it. This article is enriched as some others, too, with beautiful pictures.

“Styrcza” is the name of a Polish village in Moldova which is described here from the historical point of view.

“Derenk” is an example for Polish settlement in Hungary. This village was removed after the last World War but the polish community still meets there every year.

The article “Nova Polonia” focuses on the history of Polish settlement in Brazil (Parana). “RPA” tells some facts about Poles in South Africa.

Under „Australia“ I remember Mr Strzelecki who first climbed  the highest mountain of Australia and named it „Kosciuszko Mountain“ after the Polish national hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a great rebel and revolutionary after Poland became divided, and a Pole who fought for the independence  of the USA. A county, a city and an island are also called Kosciuszko  in the USA.  Another article deals with General Rayski, a Polish pilot who flew for the Turkish Air Force at the beginning of its existence. “Wschod Europy” gives some information on Poles in the former Soviet Union and “Zachod Europy” gives some information on Poles in Western Europe. The famous “Squadron 303”, a group of Polish pilots in the RAF in the last World War who were very successful is also mentioned. Warsaw is known as the capital of Poland but who really knows that 27 villages and cities in the USA and one in Canada are also called so. There are also other Polish cities in North America, like Pulaski ( named after Gen. Pulaski, a Pole who lost his life for the independence of America) and Wilno a polish settlement in Canada, which settlers from the kashubian region called after the former Polish city of Wilno. The Polish district Brooklyn- Greenpoint in NYC I described as an observer. An important task I see is the history and situation of the two million Poles in Germany who are the third largest ethnic group in the multicultural German society after the Germans and Turks. Because most of them own a German passport they are not regarded as a minority in Germany. It is a bad situation because a very small minority of Germans in Poland is regarded as a minority. I hope that this situation will change soon- I mean that will be changed .I invite as well to go to the link “Polska” and to read about Poland, its National Song and its prominence in the Diaspora. It is known that the Pope is from Poland and that Kopernik (Copernicus), a Polish scientist/astronomer, in about 1513  wrote a short account of what has since become known as the Copernican theory, namely that the Sun (not the Earth) is at rest in the centre of the Universe. Also Zamenhof, the man who invented Esperanto was a native of Poland. Marshall Jozef Pilsudski was undoubtedly the dominant figure in Polish history in the first half of the twentieth Century. He was without doubt a major figure in European history and, at two points at least, in the November of 1918 and in the Summer of 1920, World history was profoundly influenced by his actions.

Poet Adam Mickiewicz, and all the Poles who received the Nobel Price like Reymont, Sienkiewicz, Milosz and Szymborska for literature, for example, are known in the world. In the year 2000 Mr Wajda a famous polish movie maker received an Oscar in Hollywood. Penderecki`s concerts were visited by thousands of people this year. I mentioned some Poles who are famous. Now I will introduce you to prominent Poles abroad, maybe you will wonder maybe not:

Roman Liebling Polanski- Polish motion-picture director, known for his psychological dramas and dark comedies and for his difficult personal life. Born in Paris, France, to Polish parents, Polanski moved to Kraków, Poland, at the age of three. When he was eight years of age, his parents were taken to German concentration camps, where his mother was killed. He was reunited with his father when he was 12 years old. At the age of 14 he became a stage actor, and he later studied at the Lódz Film School in Poland.

Ignacy Domeyko- geologist; discovered a few until then unknown minerals. He was the father of Chilean mining industry and a president of University of Santiago. Domeyko produced the first geological map of Chile. He was also the Rector of University of Santiago during 1867-1883. Installed the first weather stations and railway in Chile and Peru.

Zbigniew Brzezinski- Counselor-in-residence at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; trustee of the Trilateral Commission; national security adviser to President Carter and member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; 1981 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom; former faculty member at Columbia and Harvard universities; Ph.D., government, Harvard University.

Barbara Johnson Piasecka- Barbara Piasecka, a historian of art, and her late husband, Mr. J. Seward Johnson, Sr., one of the founders of Johnson & Johnson, gathered an extraordinary art collection renowned worldwide, comprising among others, 19th Century and Old Master paintings and 18th Century French Furniture. During its development, only individual pieces were put on public display. The first ever presentation of a significant portion of the Collection, under the name Opus Sacrum, was staged in Poland, Mrs. Johnson's native land, to coincide with its regaining its independence from communism.

Frederic Chopin- world`s best composer ever. Chopin created or developed a number of new forms of piano music, vehicles for his own poetic use of the instrument, with its exploration of nuance, its original harmonies and its discreet but often considerable technical demands. He used the popular form of the Waltz in a score of such compositions, of which the so-called Minute Waltz is probably the best known of many of almost equal familiarity. The Polish dance, the Polonaise, elevated from village to ball-room, provided the basis of another characteristic form, in sixteen such works, written between 1817, when Chopin was seven, and 1846.

Marie Sklodowska Curie - Maria (Marie Fr.) Sklodowska-Curie (born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867) was one of the first woman scientists to win worldwide fame, and indeed, one of the great scientists of this century. She had degrees in mathematics and physics. Winner of two Nobel Prizes, for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911, she performed pioneering studies with radium and polonium and contributed profoundly to the understanding of radioactivity.

Basia- famous singer- hits with Matt Bianco (Half a Minute), and solo ("Promises", "Cruising for Bruising", "Drunk on Love").

         Michael Pieslak, e-mail: m.pieslak@12move.de     

www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/bordercrossings/diaspora.html

Kolekcja linkow do diaspor z calego swiata- Collection of links towards Diasporas worldwide