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Belarusian minority in Poland

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Belarusians in Poland
Białorusini w Polsce
Total population
47,000, 0.12% of Polish population (Census 2011)
Regions with significant populations
Podlaskie Voivodeship
Languages
Belarusian, Russian, Polish
Religion
Polish Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Greek Catholic.

The Belarusian minority in Poland (Belarusian: Беларусы ў Польшчы, romanized: Biełarusy w Polščy; Polish: Białorusini w Polsce) is composed of 47,000 people according to the Polish census of 2011.[1] This number decreased in the last decades from over 300,000 due to an active process of assimilation.[2] Most of them live in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.

A small but unconfirmed Belarusian population remains in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in western Poland. They may be assimilated into the Polish population, but Belarusian culture has not firmly disappeared in the whole of Poland since World War II.[citation needed]

History[edit]

Belarusians, 1903
Symon Budny
Francišak Alachnovič

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth[edit]

Poland first acquired a Ruthenian (predominant ancestors of modern Belarusians) minority in the 16th century, when after the Union of Lublin in 1569 Poland gained control over some of eastern territories formerly belonging to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Poland retained control over that region until the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. In time, the Belarusian culture and nationality started to develop in that region, but also increasing number of people became Polonized. Later influences, particularly Lithuanization and Russification, further contributed to the blurry ethnic border and resulted in a region with many territories with significant minority of one culture or another.[citation needed]

1918–1939[edit]

Belarusian language frequency in Poland based on Polish census of 1931
Belarusian minority in the Second Polish Republic
Linguistic (mother tongue) and religious structure of Northern Kresy (today parts of Belarus and Lithuania) according to the Polish census of 1931

In 1921, at the end of the Polish–Soviet War, Belarusian territories were divided between Second Polish Republic and Soviet Russia under the terms of the Peace of Riga. Thus the newly reborn Poland gained a disputed territory, known as Kresy or West Belarus, inhabited by both Belarusians and Poles. According to the Polish census of 1921, there were around 1 million Belarusians in the country. According to Soviet sources, there were 3 million Belarusians in 1921.[3] Most historians estimate the number of Belarusians in Poland at that time to be from 1.7 million[4] up to 2 million.[5] Belarusians formed 3.1% of the populations of the Second Polish Republic, mostly inhabiting the east-central voivodeships, particularly the Nowogródek Voivodeship.[6][7] Belarusians consisted the majority of population of Polesie Voivodship, however most of them didn't declare themselves as Belarusians, but at Tutejsi ("Locals").

Several thousand Poles were settled in the area pursuant to the legislation of December 20, 1920.[8] In the elections of November 1922, a Belarusian party (in the Blok Mniejszości Narodowych coalition) obtained 14 seats in the Polish parliament (11 of them in the lower chamber, Sejm).[9] In the spring of 1923, Prime Minister of Poland Władysław Sikorski ordered a report on the situation of the Belarusian minority in Poland. That summer, a new regulation was passed allowing for the Belarusian language to be used officially both in courts and in schools. Obligatory teaching of Belarusian was introduced in all Polish gymnasia in areas inhabited by Belarusians in 1927.[citation needed]

In the 1921–1926 period Poland did not have a consistent policy towards its ethnic minorities. Belarusian schools, not being subsidized by the Polish government, were facing severe financial problems already by 1921.[citation needed] After an early period of liberalization, tensions between increasingly nationalistic Polish government and various increasingly separatist ethnic minorities started to grow, and the Belarusian minority was no exception.[6][7] A Belarusian organization, the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union, was banned in 1927, and opposition to Polish government was met with state repressions.[6][7] Nonetheless compared to the (larger) Ukrainian minority, Belarusians were much less politically aware and active, and thus suffered fewer repressions than the Ukrainians.[6][7]

Increasingly, Belarusians in Poland faced extensive Polonization. After the 1930 elections in Poland, Belarusian representation in the Polish parliament was reduced and in the early 1930s the Polish government started to introduce policies intended to Polonize minorities.

In 1935, after the death of Józef Piłsudski, a new wave of repressions was released upon the minorities, with many Orthodox churches and Belarusian schools being closed.[6][7] In 1938 about 100 Orthodox churches were destroyed or converted to Roman Catholic ones in the eastern parts of Poland, the majority of them in ethnically Ukrainian territories.[10] Use of Belarusian was discouraged. Not a single Belarusian school survived until the spring of 1939, and only 44 schools teaching Belarusian still existed in Poland at the beginning of World War II.[citation needed]

Belarusian leadership was sent to Bereza Kartuska concentration camp. Earlier, Belarusian political leaders reported to the League of Nations of tens of thousands being flogged by police, and subject to torture in interrogations. According to Belarusian accounts, sixty to seventy peasants were hanged daily during anti-guerrilla campaigns.[11][12]

After the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact and pursuant German and Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, portrayed by Soviet propaganda as 'liberation of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine'[citation needed], many Belarusians welcomed unification with Byelorussian SSR.[6][7] Since 1939, with the exception of a brief period of Nazi occupation, almost all Belarusians previously living in Poland would live in the Byelorussian SSR.[6][7]

It was initially planned to move the capital of the Byelorussian SSR to Vilnius. However, the same year Joseph Stalin ordered that the city and surrounding region be transferred to Lithuania, which some months later was also invaded by Soviet Union and became a new Soviet Republic – Lithuanian SSR. Minsk therefore was proclaimed the capital of the enlarged Byelorussian SSR. The borders of the BSSR were again altered after the war (notably the largely Polish area around the city of Białystok was returned to Poland) but in general they coincide with the borders of the modern Republic of Belarus.[citation needed]

Demographics[edit]

The results of the 1931 census (questions about mother tongue and about religion) in voivodeships with significant Belarusian populations. Belarusian/Poleshuk("Tutejszy")/Russian and Orthodox/Greek Catholic majority minority counties are highlighted with yellow:

Belarusian and Polish population in voivodeships with significant Belarusian population according to the 1931 census
Today part of County part of Voivodeship County Pop. Belarusian, Poleshuk & Russian % Polish % Orthodox & Uniate % Roman Catholic %
Belarus Lithuania Wilno Braslaw 143161 37689 26.3% 93958 65.6% 29713 20.8% 89020 62.2%
Belarus Wilno Dzisna 159886 85051 53.2% 62282 39.0% 88118 55.1% 56895 35.6%
Belarus Wilno Molodechno 91285 49747 54.5% 35523 38.9% 63074 69.1% 21704 23.8%
Belarus Wilno Oshmyany 104612 11064 10.6% 84951 81.2% 15125 14.5% 81369 77.8%
Belarus Wilno Pastavy 99907 49071 49.1% 47917 48.0% 44477 44.5% 50751 50.8%
Lithuania Belarus Wilno Švenčionys 136475 16814 12.3% 68441 50.1% 1978 1.4% 117524 86.1% [Note 1]
Belarus Wilno Vilyeyka 131070 65220 49.8% 59477 45.4% 70664 53.9% 53168 40.6%
Lithuania Belarus Wilno Vilnius-Trakai 214472 9263 4.3% 180546 84.2% 2988 1.4% 201053 93.7%
Lithuania Wilno Vilnius City 195071 9109 4.7% 128628 65.9% 9598 4.9% 125999 64.6%
Total in Wilno Voivodeship 1275939 333028 26.1% 761723 59.7% 325735 25.5% 797483 62.5%
Belarus Nowogródek Baranavichy 161038 70627 43.9% 74916 46.5% 99118 61.5% 45126 28.0%
Belarus Nowogródek Lida 183485 20538 11.2% 145609 79.4% 23025 12.5% 144627 78.8%
Belarus Nowogródek Nyasvizh 114464 77094 67.4% 27933 24.4% 82245 71.9% 22378 19.6%
Belarus Nowogródek Novogrudok 149536 103783 69.4% 35084 23.5% 109162 73.0% 28796 19.3%
Belarus Nowogródek Slonim 126510 63445 50.2% 52313 41.4% 89724 70.9% 23817 18.8%
Belarus Nowogródek Stowbtsy 99389 40875 41.1% 51820 52.1% 54076 54.4% 37856 38.1%
Belarus Nowogródek Shchuchyn 107203 10658 9.9% 89462 83.5% 38900 36.3% 60097 56.1%
Belarus Nowogródek Valozhyn 115522 33240 28.8% 76722 66.4% 47923 41.5% 61852 53.5%
Total in Nowogródek Voivodeship 1057147 420260 39.8% 553859 52.4% 544173 51.5% 424549 40.2%
Belarus Polesie Brest 215927 115323 53.4% 50248 23.3% 135911 62.9% 43020 19.9%
Belarus Polesie Drahichyn 97040 81557 84.0% 6844 7.1% 83147 85.7% 5699 5.9%
Ukraine Belarus Polesie Kamin-Kashyrskyi[Note 2] 94988 75699 79.7% 6692 7.0% 83113 87.5% 6026 6.3%
Belarus Polesie Kobryn 113972 71435 62.7% 10040 8.8% 93426 82.0% 8973 7.9%
Belarus Polesie Kosava 83696 68769 82.2% 8456 10.1% 68941 82.4% 7810 9.3%
Belarus Polesie Luninyets 108663 83769 77.1% 16535 15.2% 85728 78.9% 13754 12.7%
Belarus Polesie Pinsk 184305 128787 69.9% 29077 15.8% 140022 76.0% 16465 8.9%
Belarus Polesie Pruzhany 108583 81032 74.6% 17762 16.4% 82015 75.5% 16311 15.0%
Belarus Polesie Stolin 124765 92253 73.9% 18452 14.8% 105280 84.4% 6893 5.5%
Total in Polesie Voivodeship 1131939 798624 70.6% 164106 14.5% 877583 77.5% 124951 11.0%
Poland Białystok Augustów 74751 1582 2.1% 68674 91.9% 875 1.2% 67821 90.7%
Poland Białystok Białystok City 91101 3781 4.2% 46386 50.9% 7628 8.4% 41493 45.5%
Poland Białystok Białystok County 140078 11465 8.2% 116709 83.3% 22035 15.7% 105685 75.4%
Poland Białystok Bielsk Podlaski 202410 70356 34.8% 111377 55.0% 91749 45.3% 91215 45.1%
Belarus Lithuania Białystok Grodno 213105 69832 32.8% 101089 47.4% 87205 40.9% 89122 41.8% [Note 3]
Poland Białystok Łomża 168167 129 0.1% 146308 87.0% 295 0.2% 145230 86.4%
Poland Białystok Ostrołęka 112587 49 0.0% 104341 92.7% 166 0.1% 103871 92.3%
Poland Białystok Ostrów Mazowiecka 99741 60 0.1% 85925 86.1% 160 0.2% 85540 85.8%
Poland Białystok Sokółka 103135 2107 2.0% 92816 90.0% 13329 12.9% 81030 78.6%
Poland Białystok Suwałki 110124 6289 5.7% 85707 77.8% 1519 1.4% 87350 79.3%
Poland Białystok Szczuczyn 68215 117 0.2% 60935 89.3% 200 0.3% 60763 89.1%
Belarus Białystok Volkovysk 171327 74823 43.7% 83111 48.5% 80621 47.1% 76373 44.6%
Poland Białystok Wysokie Mazowieckie 89103 148 0.2% 78881 88.5% 376 0.4% 78584 88.2%
Total in Białystok Voivodeship 1643844 240738 14.6% 1182259 71.9% 306158 18.6% 1114077 67.8%
Total in four voivodeships 5108869 1792650 35.1% 2661947 52.1% 2053649 40.2% 2461060 48.2%

1989–present[edit]

Belarusians in Poland, 2002
Gienek Loska
Nadieżda Kostiuczyk

The Belarusian minority has been active in political life in Poland since 1989. In the 2006 elections to the Podlasie Sejmik, the Białoruski Komitet Wyborczy (Belarusian Electoral Committee) received 7,914 votes (2.05%), however this was not enough to receive any seats in the Council. The most votes from this list were for Jan Czykwin (2,405), Eugeniusz Wappa (1,669) and Eugeniusz Mironowicz (1,119).

When the local elections were repeated in the region on 20 May 2007, the Belarusians again submitted their own electoral committee, which for the first time had several Lithuanians running on the list, in their region of Sejny and Puńsk.

There is an unknown number of Belarusians in northwest Poland, but some Polish Belarusians were relocated there by the Soviet invasion of Germany in April 1945 and the captured lands of formerly German Pomerania was annexed by Poland.

In 2019 Eugeniusz Czykwin has been elected to the Polish Sejm on the Koalicja Obywatelska list, being the representative of the Belarusian and Orthodox minority in the parliament.[13]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ This share of Roman Catholics included 42,993 Roman Catholic Lithuanians or around 31.5% of the county's total population.
  2. ^ Kamin-Kashyrskyi County's population according to the 1921 census included 41,522 Ukrainians, 9,183 Poleshuks ("Tutejszy") and just 6 Belarusians. According to the 1931 census this county's population included 74,313 Poleshuk ("Tutejszy" language), 8,271 Ukrainian, 1,136 Belarusian and 250 Russian speakers.
  3. ^ This share of Roman Catholics included 6,246 Roman Catholic Lithuanians or just over 2.9% of the county's total population.
  1. ^ Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyniki spisu ludności i mieszkań 2011. GUS. Materiał na konferencję prasową w dniu 29. 01. 2013. p. 3. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
  2. ^ Алег Гардзіенка "Беларуская дыяспара. Сучасныя праблемы і перспектывы"
  3. ^ Purism and Language a Study in Modem Ukrainian and Belorussian Nationalism(1840-1967). Walter de Gruyter.
  4. ^ Żarnowski, p. 373
  5. ^ Mironowicz, p. 80
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Norman Davies, God's Playground (Polish edition), second tome, p.512-513
  7. ^ a b c d e f g (in Polish) Stosunki polsko-białoruskie pod okupacją sowiecką (1939–1941) Archived 2008-06-23 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Klara Rogalska (18 February 2005). "Oni byli pierwsi (They were the first)". Głos Znad Niemna (in Polish). 7 (664). Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  9. ^ Mironowicz, p. 94
  10. ^ Mironowicz, p. 109
  11. ^ Nicholas Vakar. Belorussia: The Making of a Nation (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1956), 128.
  12. ^ Lubachko, Ivan (1972). Belorussia under Soviet Rule, 1917–1957. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 136–137.
  13. ^ "Eugeniusz Czykwin jest nowym przewodniczącym Międzyparlamentarnego Zgromadzenia Prawosławia". Polskie Radio Białystok (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-07-18.

References[edit]

  • (in Polish) Łukasz Kaźmierczak, Trzy procent odmienności (Three percent of different) - article describing results of Polish census 2002 and minorities in Poland, citing census data
  • (in Polish) Janusz Żarnowski, "Społeczeństwo Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej 1918-1939" (in Polish), Warszawa 1973
  • (in Polish) Eugeniusz Mironowicz, "Białoruś" (in Polish), Trio, Warszawa, 1999, ISBN 83-85660-82-8
  • Rabagliati, Alastair (2001). A Minority Vote. Participation of the German and Belarusian Minorities within the Polish Political System 1989-1999. Kraków: Zakład Wydawniczy NOMOS. ISBN 83-88508-18-0.

External links[edit]

  • (in Polish) Bialorus.pl - portal of Belarusian minority in Poland
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