| Group: | Czechs in Poland |
| Popplace: | Cieszyn Silesia, Łódź Voivodeship, Warsaw, Kłodzko County |
| Pop: | 3,447 (2011) |
| Langs: | Czech, Polish |
| Rels: | Predominantly Roman Catholicism |
| Related: | Czechs |
Czechs in Poland form a small minority of 3,447, according to the 2011 census,[1] up from 386 in 2002. Czech presence in Poland dates back several centuries, with more numerous migration to Poland starting in the early modern period.
Most of them reside in and around Zelów (81, in Łódź Voivodeship), in the Czech Corner within the southwest portion of Kłodzko County (47, in Lower Silesian Voivodeship) and in the Polish sections of Cieszyn Silesia (61). Some live in Warsaw.
After the Bohemian loss to Austria at the Battle of White Mountain of 1620, many Czechs adhering to the Moravian Church fled subsequent Austrian Catholic persecution to Poland. The main center of Czechs in Poland became Leszno. Notable Czech refugee in Poland was philosopher John Amos Comenius.[2] A notable remnant of the Czech Protestants in Poland are the files and library of the Unity of the Brethren from Leszno, now held at the State Archive and Raczyński Library in Poznań and the Kórnik Library in Kórnik, and listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.[3]
In the 19th century, Czechs also settled in Zelów and its environs and in Volhynia. Czechs of Kwasiłów in Volhynia founded a local branch of the Sokol movement in 1911, which formed part of the Polish Sokół movement.[4] Within interwar Poland, the main centers of Czechs were Zelów and Kwasiłów in the Wołyń Voivodeship (1.5%). After the war many Czechs of Volhynia were expelled by the Soviet Union, and forcibly resettled in Czechoslovakia.