History of The Ukrainian Minority in Poland - Kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The annexation of Red Ruthenia by Casimir III (Kazimierz) came about as a result of the Polish–Lithuanian peace treaty signed in 1366. It was a two-stage affair, according to Hustyn Chronicle by Zakhariia Kopystensky (d.1627). The Polish King vowed to respect the Orthodox faith, but also, bestowed the Ruthenian gentry with the same rights as the Polish. Kopystensky – the re-discoverer of the ancient Hypatian Codex of southern Rus – regarded the eastern Slavs as "one nation in the medieval sense of the term, descended from a common ancestor." He "clearly differentiates between Muscovy and Ukraine-Rus'" in his work. The total area of Ruthenian lands annexed by Poland was about 91,000 km2 (35,135 sq mi), and most of the population spoke Ruthenian (a linguistic predecessor of both modern Ukrainian and Belarusian). The local nobility gradually became polonized, and many members of the Ruthenian szlachta converted to Roman Catholicism. Among the most famous Ruthenian families who polonized themselves were the Wiśniowiecki, Zbarascy, Zasławski, and Czartoryski families. Others, such as the Ostrogski, Sanguszko, and Kisiel families, resisted polonization. All these noble Ruthenian families were very influential in pre-1795 Poland, and one of the Polish kings, Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki, was the son of a notable Ruthenian magnate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky and representative of populist movement in Ukraine, attacked Poland, claiming: "the four centuries of Polish rule had left particularly destructive effects (...) economic and cultural backwardness in Galicia was the main "legacy of historical Poland, which assiduously skimmed everything that could be considered the cream of the nation, leaving it in a state of oppression and helplessness".