Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A Ukrainian cerkiew in Poland











As you get closer to the Ukrainian border on the Polish side, you sometimes see another aspect of the effects of the "moving borders" from after World War Two.

In these areas, on both sides of the present border, there were different ethnic groups before the war - mainly Poles, Ukrainians and Jews.
Sometimes they lived in the same town.
Sometimes they lived in villages with a majority belonging to one ethnic group.

After the war, when the new borders were to be made, heavy fighting between the Ukrainians and the Poles pushed the line back and forth.

When the border was finally settled, most of the Ukrainians from what had become the Polish side, ended up in the Ukraine.
Most of the Poles having lived in what had been Poland, but was now part of the Soviet Union, moved into the "new" Poland.

So here in the borderlands of Poland you spot this part of the local history in the Russian Orthodox churches - cerkiew in Polish.

This wooden cerkiew above was seen while travelling by car from Lubaczow to Belzec.

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