“Don’t raise a new intelligence” : difficult Polish years in Lviv, 1959-1962

The text concerns the fate of Poles in Lviv over three years (1959-1962), since the end of the so-called second repatriation to significant reduction of the presence of the Polish language in urban space. This period was marked by a clearly anti-Polish policy of the local authorities, aimed at almost total Sovietisation of the Polish minority. During the analysed period, the parish of St. Mary Magdalene (the church building was handed over to the neighbouring Lviv Polytechnic Institute). In addition, the Polish-language education system in the city was also damaged: out of three existing institutions, one was closed (school No. 30), and the other was reduced to the role of an eight-year-old (school No. 10). Both blows against the Polish minority resulted from a significant drop in the percentage of Poles in Lviv caused by departures to Poland in 1955-1959. The aim was, however, not to educate new generations of Polish intelligentsia in the city. It was intended to achieve this effect by limiting the possibility of meeting spiritual needs and receiving education in the mother tongue. In this way, the next generations of Lviv Poles were supposed to feel primarily as citizens of the USSR, which was assumed by the authorities.