This is the only way to save Polish demography (Part 1)

For over 20 years, the prospect of the Polish demographic catastrophe has been carefully concealed, and today it is too late for pro-family activities to save us from biological extermination. They must be combined with a prudent immigration policy. It’s time to bring our fellow countrymen back to the homeland.

Fr. Andrzej Kobyliński

From July 2020 to June 2021, the number of inhabitants in our country decreased by almost 200,000. It is as if a city the size of Radom or Toruń ceased to exist within one year. During this period, less than 344,000 children were born in Poland, while the number of deaths reached almost 540,000. Our society shrunk in the second half of 2021 by another 100,000. It is as if a city the size of Płock or Kalisz disappeared from the map of Poland within six months. Most people died of natural causes, while some deaths were caused by COVID-19. Unfortunately, a large group of deaths were caused by paralysis of the health care system and various restrictions in access to medical services due to the pandemic and lockdown. Of course, the problems related to the coronavirus did not cause the current demographic crisis in our country, but only radically aggravated it. In Poland, as early as 2019, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births.

Pro-family policy

For several years now, the prospect of our nation’s demographic catastrophe has started to emerge in the public domain more and more often. It’s a pity that it did so late. And still not often enough. Unfortunately, for over 20 years this inconvenient topic was carefully hidden by almost everyone. A conspiracy of silence prevailed. Demographic issues appeared from time to time in some philosophical or sociological reports. In this context, the pro-family policy pursued by the government authorities since 2015 should be appreciated. If there were no 500+ program1 and other pro-social activities, the current demographic decline would be even greater.

However, many factors indicate that it is impossible to save Poland from biological extermination through an appropriate pro-family policy. Why? It is simply too late to reverse the demographic trends that prevail today. Pro-family activities could have been effective in the 1990s and at the beginning of this century, when the number of new births began to drop drastically. Today, demographic challenges must necessarily be combined with a prudent immigration policy. Unfortunately, those in power do not see such a necessity, among others, authors of the draft legislation on the Institute of Family and Demography, which at the beginning of December 2021 was referred for further work in the Social Policy and Family Committee. The act provides for the establishment of a new public institution in the form of a state legal entity. Its tasks are to include conducting scientific research on demography and developing appropriate recommendations.

Currently, Poland needs a long-term immigration program that can save us from a demographic catastrophe. The activity of governmental and local authorities should be addressed primarily to the millions of our compatriots living abroad. Firstly, everything must be done so that Poles living in the countries of the former Soviet Union can return to their homeland as soon as possible. We should also persuade our emigrants who live in European countries and those scattered around the world to return. Polish immigration policy should be similar to the actions taken by Israel in 1989, regarding Jews who previously lived on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain. The Germans undertook a similar action after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, creating suitable living conditions in the country for many inhabitants of the former Eastern Bloc who had German roots.

Slavic people

The risk of biological annihilation applies not only to Poland, but also to all Slavic nations. A real population catastrophe is also threatening Belarusians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Russians, Slovaks, and Ukrainians. The 20th century was an extremely tragic period in the history of the Slavic peoples. The unimaginable barbarism of the last century especially hit the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe, and on a brutal scale. Polish, Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian blood flowed across the Slavic countries. The sea of ​​ bloodshed shaped the common historical tragedy and fate of the Slavic peoples. In the years 1932–1933, the communists committed one of the greatest genocides in the history of the world in the lands that belong to Ukraine. The Holodomor, i.e. the deliberate triggering of a disaster that resulted in an extremely horrific death of 6 to 10 million people in the span of a few months. The German plan for the “final solution” of the Jewish people also concerned, above all, the extermination of Jews living in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The unimaginable barbarism that took place in the 20th century, however, did not lead to the biological extermination of the Slavic nations. The Slavs survived two world wars, communism, and national socialism. Unfortunately, the risk of a slow extinction of the population in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe arises in this century – in times of peace, scientific and technological development, and increasing prosperity. The spectrum of demographic suicide in this region of Europe is clearly evidenced by various national and international reports on demographic forecasts and population policy.

The World in 2100

July 11 is World Population Day. It is an annual holiday established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, on the anniversary of the Five Billion Day in 1987, when the world population reached five billion. World Population Day celebrations are intended to draw public attention to the urgency and gravity of population problems, especially in the context of development plans and programs, and to the need to find appropriate counteractive measures.

In July 2017, as part of the celebration of this holiday, the Population Department of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations published a document on the forecast of the number of inhabitants on our planet in 2100. A similar study was published by UN experts in 2019. However, from the Polish perspective, more important information is contained in the document from 2017. A solid analysis of this study should be the subject of a widespread debate in all countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Why? Because this document paints a vision of a spectacular demographic catastrophe that threatens the Slavic peoples. In this study, Central and Eastern Europe is the only region in the world that faces the risk of true biological extermination.

I subjected this document to a thorough analysis precisely in terms of the future of the Slavic peoples. The prospect of the demographic collapse of our entire region is truly terrifying.

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This article was published in January 2022 in “Do Rzeczy” magazine.