Questioning the national unity of the Polish state tends rather to arouse fears related to the historical development of the country, especially to dark episodes like the partitions of Poland in the 18th century or, more recently, to the German and Soviet occupations.

Perhaps it is this background that explains the political and emotional impact that the emergence of an ever-growing Silesian nationalism over the past two decades has sparked in Poland. Just after the end of communism, some Silesians began to claim that Poland should recognize that non-Polish national identities exist within its borders. The impact of the Silesian demand made slowly its way, and in 2002 its first big realization arrived: 173,000 people declared Silesian nationality in the 2002 census. And this happened although Polish institutions hold that the Silesian nationality does not officially exist.

The refusal of the Polish state to admit the phenomenon did not prevent it from growing further. A significant political realization came in 2010, when the Silesian Autonomy Movement (RAS, Polish acronym) managed to have members elected to the Silesian regional assembly for the first time ever. It was a real milestone: until then, Polish national parties were the only ones to dominate the political scene, both in Silesia and in the whole of Poland. Times went even harder for deniers of the Silesian nation in 2011: census results revealed that citizens declaring Silesian nationality had grown from 173,000 in 2002 to 847,000. To this, an outstanding qualitative data should be added: out of those 847,000 people, 376,000 declared Silesian to be their only identity -i.e. they rejected espousing a Polish national identity. This had been simply unimaginable two decades before.

Most of those declaring Silesian nationality live in two Polish provinces (or voivodships): Silesia and Opole, which lie on the territory of the former Upper Silesia. RAS gathers most of its voters in those regions, and several movements and associations demanding autonomy -and, in some cases, even independence- have their basis there. RAS is trying to build a multiethnic discourse aimed at targeting not only Silesians who espouse Silesian nationality, but also those who consider themselves to be Poles or Germans, the other traditional national group in the area. Although the majority of Germans were expelled from Silesia at the end of the Second World War, some were allowed to stay provided that they declared themselves to be Poles.

Legal barriers to the recognition of Silesian identity

One of these Silesian organizations, the Association of People of Silesian Nationality (SONS), has been denied official registration by the Polish Supreme Court. According to the ruling, SONS cannot be called as it is called given that no Silesian nation exists. Further, the Supreme Court holds that the very name of the organization challenges the integrity of the Polish state and is against the Constitution. SONS Spokesman Piotr Długosz says that his organization will bring the case before the Strasbourg Court so that their "right to feel Silesians" is respected. The association has also announced that letters to the United Nations in reference to the ban have been sent. Simultaneously, a signature collection campaign has started, aimed at changing the Polish law on ethnic groups, so that the Silesians are recognized as such. The campaign has the support of Senator Kazimierz Kutz and MPs Marek Plura and Piotr Chmielowski.

Despite these supports, the wider political class in Poland "does not want to hear about autonomy. They accuse the autonomists of being secessionists, and when it suits them, they pretend that this phenomenon does not exist", says Barcelona-based Silesian activist Martin Grabowski. While the growth of Silesian nationalism has been especially noticeable over the past 20 years, Grabowski underlines that it has deeper roots: "Silesian identity has been fairly continuous in Upper Silesia over time", and the identity did not disappear even after four and a half decades of communist dictatorship.

Grabowski believes that the growth of Silesian nationalism is "very fast" and that this can be explained by the fact that, according to some research, a social majority in favour of autonomy already exists in Upper Silesia. "There are leaps forward that can be seen only three years apart", says the Silesian activist. "I think that [Silesian nationalism] is now ahead not only of cases like the Occitan, but also of more established nations like Wales".

Other movements seeking their way

Could it be that Silesia is heading a wave that will unveil other national or regional identities in Poland? Only time will tell, but an overview to Poland's map allows to detect a few changes. Some of them already have some progress done, while others are very tiny and new-born.

The Pomeranian Kashubs, located in the area around the major port city of Gdansk, are an example of the first. To date, their movement has mainly focused on linguistic and cultural issues. There have been attempts to consolidate a Kashubian nationalism since the 19th century, but until now this idea has not been undertaken by large segments of the Kashubian population. "In general, Kashubians are perceived in Poland as good Polish patriots, while Silesians are perceived as bad patriots", says Grabowski. Maybe this will change: the Kashubian Unity association is currently trying to assert the existence of a Kashubian nation which, in the organization's view, has been historically oppressed and assimilated by German and Polish nationalism. According to Kashubian Unity, Pomerania should become an autonomous and multinational region within Poland, where Kashubs could freely develop their own national identity.

In ancient Prussia, movements claiming a disctinct identity also start to appear. One of them is Prusaspira, an organization that since 2004 is seeking to recover the Prussian language and culture that blossomed there before Germanization. As a living language, Prussian -which is closely related to Lithuanian and Latvian- died out in the 18th century. Prusaspira is trying to revive it: "The number of speakers is now estimated to be at 50, and there are children for whom Prussian is their first language", says via e-mail Prusaspira President Gniewomir Sarbicki. Despite having become extinct, Prussian did not disappear from Earth: "Single Old Prussian words remained, and most of place names are of Prussian origin. After generations of assimilation" to other languages ​​and cultures, "now we want to reverse the process", says Sarbicki.

According to Sarbicki, Prusaspira does not have a strong political profile: "We would not say that we are political activists. For us, it is enough work to protect our culture". If Prussian consciousness grows, however, "we hope that all very needed political claims about respecting our cultural heritage and cultural autonomy of Prussia will be be taken by the group with wider representation, speaking in the name of all ethnic groups". Sarbicki underlines that the former Prussian territories are now multilingual, and that his movement wants to be the "common denominator of all later cultures and ethnic groups in Prussia".

An idea about diversity that is spreading

In all these emerging movements, Grabowski sees similarities with the situation in Spain: "A process in a region triggers other ones. Silesia is now very dynamic, and people from other regions want to follow its example".

South to ancient Prussia, on the border with Belarus, the region of Podlachia is found. Its inhabitants are officially considered as an ethnographic subgroup of the Polish people. However, Svoja organization claims that Podlachian is a language of its own, independent from Polish, and that it is spoken by 50,000 people in the region. Moreover, Svoja holds that dialects spoken in western Belarus and north-western Ukraine are in fact Podlachian varieties.

Apart from all these groups, the Polish patchwork is completed by a number of national minorities that have their own sovereign states around Poland. The Germans from Silesia have been mentioned above, but they are not the only ones. According to the 2011 census, 51,000 Polish citizens declare Ukrainian nationality, 47,000 Belarusian, 8,000 Lithuanian, 3,000 Slovak and 3,000 Czech. Moreover, there are still national minorities who do not have their own state outside the borders of Poland. This is the case for Poland's 17,000 Roma, 11,000 Lemkos (a group native to the south-eastern region) and 2,000 Tatars, a community that began to take shape on current Polish land at the end of the 14th century. Tatars have kept their Islamic faith in the middle of a mainly Catholic country for over 600 years.

David Forniès

(Image: a 2012 demonstration for the autonomy of Silesia / picture by Kris Duda.)