IIEMIGRACJA:
The Polish Emigration
Together with Ireland, Sicily, and parts of Germany, the Polish lands have pro-
duced a disproportionate share of European emigrants. Almost one-third of all
ethnic Poles live abroad. A surprisingly large part of them maintain some form
of contact with the old country. As at any time during the last two centuries,
they play an important, and by now a traditional role in the life of the state and
the nation.^1
The emigrants can be classified in two distinct categories—political and eco-
nomic. (Those who fit into neither category, such as the beloved spouses of for-
eign nationals, have only marginal statistical significance.)
The political emigration began in the 1730s and has continued at regular
intervals ever since. Stanislaw Leszczyriski in his Duchy of Lorraine was but the
first and best known example of countless Poles who have been driven from
their homeland by adverse political fortunes. Somewhat later, the Confederates
of Bar maintained close links with France, many of them retiring to Paris after
their defeat in 1772.. In 1795, 1831, 1846-8, 1864, 1905, and 1944, the failure of
successive Risings propelled generation after generation of patriot-rebels to the
west. In the twentieth century, the re-establishment of an independent Polish
state has occasionally served to reverse the flow. Yet after the upheavals and
forcible deportations of 1939—45, Polish emigrants could be counted not in
thousands but in millions. A few of these returned to the People's Republic; but
virtually none whose homes lay in territories annexed by the Soviet Union, in
Wilno or Lwow, could willingly be persuaded to return there. In the post-war
era, strict controls on the free movement of the population have been abetted by
relative political stability. But in 1956, and especially in 1968, significant groups
of people have left Poland for political reasons.
In the nature of things, political emigres include a high proportion of edu-
cated, principled people; but of all the Polish exoduses none has ever matched
the generation of 1831 for the quality of its adherents and for its outstanding
intellectual achievements. This Wielka Emigracja (Great Emigration) embraced
almost the entire political elite of the Congress Kingdom, and included a large
part of the artistic talent of the day. Its record was far more distinguished than
that of its contemporaries who stayed at home. Whether in the garrets of Paris
or in the wastes of Siberia, their intensity of feeling, the sustained energy of their
political organizations and debates, the brilliance of their literary and scientific