The population was categorized by mother tongue i.e. the
primary language in the following categories: Polish, Ukrainian, Ruthenian (i.e.
Rusyn), Belarusian, Russian, Lithuanian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Local, Other, and Not Declared. The category "Local" () versus "Other" () was hotly debated after the fact, because a number of significant languages were not on the list, e.g.,
Romani,
Armenian, and/or what might constitute
transitional language e.g.
Polesian,
Kashubian and others. Statistical differences existed between Ruthenians and Ukrainians. Ruthenians nationwide were 96.5% Greek Catholic but only 3.2% Orthodox, compared to Ukrainians who were almost equally divided at 52.4% Greek Catholic and 46.6% Orthodox. Moreover, many Jews by religion - almost 12% - considered Polish to be their mother tongue in 1931. However, a higher percent of Jews by religion - over 25% - considered themselves to be
ethnically (or in terms of
national identity)
Poles, according to the previous census of 1921. Thus the number of Jews by mother tongue increased as a percentage of the population in the 1931 survey, relative to the number of Jews as a nationality in the 1921 Census. This situation created a difficulty in establishing the true number of ethnic non-Polish citizens of Poland. Some authors used the language criterion to attempt to establish the actual number of minorities, which was difficult considering that over 707,000 people in
Polesia declared that they spoke "
local" rather than any other language. Other authors used approximation based on both language and declared religion. After
World War II in
Soviet bloc countries the interpretation of the census was used for political purposes, to underline the officially-supported thesis that pre-war Poland incorporated areas where the non-Polish population made up the majority of inhabitants. For this purpose some authors combined all non-Polish speakers in South-Eastern Poland (namely
Ukrainians,
Belarusians,
Rusyns,
Hutsuls,
Lemkos,
Boykos and
Poleszuks) into one category of "
Ruthenians"). In fact, the census had counted speakers of Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Ruthenian languages as separate categories Some authors contend that the change in questions asked by the census officials was due to the Polish government's wish to minimise the presence of minorities and represented an attempt to maximize the effects of a decade of educational policies stressing the Polish language. However,
Timothy Snyder notes that following Josef Pilsudski's 1926 coup,'"state assimilation" rather than "national assimilation" was Polish policy; citizens were to be judged by their loyalty to the state, not by nationality.'
Tadeusz Piotrowski called the 1931 census official but "unreliable" for determining ethnicity, and relying upon Jerzy Tomaszewski's "adjusted census figures" stated that Belarusians outnumbered ethnic Poles in
Nowogródek Voivodeship and
Polesie Voivodeship, but Poles outnumbered Belarusians in
Wilno Voivodeship and
Białystok Voivodeship. During
McCarthyism, a 1954 study of the Polish population by the
United States Census Bureau accepted Soviet post-war ethnography that "in presenting the results, the Central Statistical office emphasized the central role played by the Polish ethnic group by increasing the number of minority groups, and thus reducing the size of a given group, shown in the results. Ukrainian and Ruthenian were tabulated as separate languages, although Ukrainian was simply the newer name for Ruthenian, used by the more politically conscious and nationalistic elements." However, Polish General Census Commissioner, Dr. Rajmund Buławski, had stated at the time of the census that both the "Ukrainian" and "Rusyn" languages had been surveyed in parallel to avoid a negative impact on the census results due to objections from the "Old Ruthenians" to the novel categorization of their language as "Ukrainian", because they wished to disassociate themselves from it. The United States Census Bureau report also charged that in the Province of Polesie, the census authorities returned most of the inhabitants "there as speaking 'local languages'"., Another English language account stated that he admitted "that officials had been directed to undercount minorities, especially those in the eastern provinces". However, Szturm de Sztrem's alleged confession has never been produced. ==References==