page_title: Poles in Ukraine
section_title: During the Time of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
hierarchical_section_title: Poles in Ukraine / History / During the Time of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
caption_attribution_description: This is a photo of a natural heritage site in Ukraine, id: 46-227-5003
context_page_description: The Polish minority in Ukraine officially numbers about 144,130, of whom 21,094 speak Polish as their first language. The history of Polish settlement in current territory of Ukraine dates back to 1030–31. In Late Middle Ages, following the extinction of the Rurikid dynasty in 1323, the Kingdom of Poland extended east in 1340 to include the lands of Przemyśl and in 1366, Kamianets-Podilskyi. The settlement of Poles became common there after the Polish–Lithuanian peace treaty signed in 1366 between Casimir III the Great of Poland, and Liubartas of Lithuania.
context_section_description: To mitigate the depopulation stemming from the Crimean–Nogai slave raids, Polish kings, in particular Stephen Báthory and Sigismund III Vasa, sponsored large-scale Polish colonization of central and eastern Ukrainian regions in the 16th and 17th centuries.  Polish magnates were given large tracts of sparsely settled lands, while Polish petty gentry managed the estates and served as soldiers.  Serfs were enticed to move into these territories by a temporary 20 year exemption from serfdom.  Although most serfs were from western Ukrainian lands, a significant number of Polish serfs from central Poland also settled these estates.  The latter tended to assimilate into Ukrainian society and some of them even took part in Cossack uprisings against the landlords. Polish magnates from Ukraine, such as members of the family Potocki and Zolkiewski, played a significant political and social role within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as did Polonized native magnates such as the family Wisniowiecki.  They were amongst the wealthiest nobles in Poland; the Wisniowiecki estate included 38,000 households with a population of 230,000 subjects.
  Polish rule involved expansion of Jesuit schools and large scale construction or ornate castles and estates that included libraries, art collections and archives that in many cases were the equal in importance to those in Poland itself.  Prominent Poles from lands that are currently Ukraine include the historian and poet Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic, Polish baroque poet Kasper Twardowski, and Roman Catholic Bishop of Kiev, as well as writer, Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski. Also Polish Kings Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, John III Sobieski and Stanisław Leszczyński were born in present-day Western Ukraine.
  Following the successful uprising of Bohdan Knelnytsky against the Polish crown in the mid 17th century, Ukrainian lands east of the Dnipro River, the Cossack Hetmanate, became briefly independent and then became an autonomous part of Russia.  In this area, many of the Polish nobles were expelled and Polish political influence was curtailed.  Regions west of the river, however, remained part of Poland-Lithuania for approximately another 150 years, retained their Polish orientation and were the stage of ongoing Polish colonization.  By the late 18th century, approximately 240,000 people of the Volhynian, Podilian and Kiev regions, or 11% of the population, were Roman Catholics, most of whom were Poles.  Approximately half of this number had arrived in the early 18th century.
caption: Zhovkva (Żółkiew) was founded in the 16th century as a Renaissance town by Polish military leader Stanisław Żółkiewski
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