Latynnyky

Latynnyky. The name given to Ukrainian-speaking Roman Catholics in Polish-ruled Western Ukraine, who were either Ukrainian converts to Roman Catholicism or the descendants of Polish colonists who had partially assimilated to the Ukrainian culture. They arose in the late 19th to early 20th century, and by 1939 their number was estimated at 700,000 (515,000 in Galicia and the rest in Volhynia and Podilia). Most latynnyky were peasants. When the new frontiers between Poland and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic were established after the Second World War, some latynnyky emigrated to Poland, but the majority remained and mostly became Ukrainianized. (See also Poles in Ukraine.)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]