Pogranica

Children of a Lost Family, by Olgierd Celestyn Gac-Kozłów (1811)

The Pogranica (from Miersan: Pogranicze: "borderland") was the invitation of several thousand ethnic Miersan Episemialists to rural Zalykia to own and farm land. Promulgated by George II in 1689, it was a response both to the First Miersan Revolt in 1687 and the Ozbey Insurrection in 1688. The Pogranica is one of many instances of artificial population transfers in Soravia.

In response to revolts in Miersa, the Soravian crown, at the advice of much of its court, aimed to elevate the status of the minority Soravian population in Miersa. The deportation of Miersans westward was always planned, but originally aimed to send them to the north-west. After the Ozbey Insurrection, where Badism played a fairly central role, the role of Episemialists in Zalykia were given a heightened importance to ease the governance of Soravia's border regions. As such, thousands of Miersans were promised farmland and resettled in the region, forcefully or otherwise.

The Miersans retained their native culture and traditions in the region for a considerable amount of time, and in some rural places supplanted the Soravian-speaking population as the dominant ethnicity in the region. By the 19th century, they had mostly assimilated, but there are thought to be around 500,000 people of direct descendance to the Pogranica Miersans.