Latynnyky

The phenomenon of Latynnyky emerged in the late 19th century, both in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and in Ukrainian areas of the Russian Empire. In Galicia and Lodomeria, Latynnyky emerged both among ethnic Ukrainians who had converted to the Latin Church and Polish people who had been assimilated into Ukrainian culture but retained their religion.^[2]

In the Russian Empire, conversely, the growth of Latynnyky was a form of resistance to Russian efforts to spread Eastern Orthodoxy to members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Chełm Land and Podlachia. Another wave of Catholicisation occurred in 1905, following a loosening of religious restrictions by the Russian government. Furthermore, in both Austria-Hungary and Russia, religious conversion to Catholicism was regarded by the local population as a requirement for marriages between Poles and Ukrainians.^[1]

With the establishment of the Second Polish Republic following World War I, Latynnyky found themselves in Polish territory. At this time, according to Ukrainian nationalist historian Volodymyr Kubijovyč, Latynnyky had a weak national identity, and many later associated themselves with Poland, rather than Ukraine.^[3]

After the Polish–Soviet border agreement of August 1945 formally annexed western Ukraine into the Soviet Union, most Latynnyky remained in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and were fully assimilated into Ukrainian society. Others emigrated further westwards into Poland.^[2]