CONCEPTS OF BELARUS UNTIL 1918

Jerzy Borzecki

A thesis submitted in ronformity with tne requiremonts

for the degree ~f Mast-r cf Arts

Graduate Department of Xistory

University of Toronto

@ copyright by Jerzy Borzecki 1996 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 ,,nad du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wdîingtori OttawaON KIAW OnawaON K1A OCU4 canada CaMda

The author has grmted a non- L'auteur a accordé une Licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/filrn, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fonnat électronique.

The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis aor substantial extracts kom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenvise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT

Concepts of Belarus until 1918

M.A. Thesis, 1996

Jerzy Borzecki

Graduate Department of History

University cf Toronto

The thesis deals with the kaleidoscopic changes cf the idea of xhat is or what should be Belarus. The term "Belarus" clriginatcd in the 14th century as a purely geographir dosignation. It acquired an ethnic sense as late as the 19th rontury, even though the country was still cjeneraliy c~r~sideredto be part of either Poland or Russia. The idea that Eelarus should becorne an autonomous national entity appeared at the end of the century, gaining sorne recognition oniy after 1905. Th~n,competing concepts of Belarus wsre presented by the budding Belarusian national movement, the party of the Polish landowners in Belarus, the Lithuanian nationai m~vement, the Polish Socialist Party, the P~lish

National-Demccrats, and the Russian nationalist movernent.

World Wzr 1 brought things to a head, and in 1918 the n~vel idea of Belarus as an independent state was întroduced and partly realized by the Belarusian national movement. CONTENTS PREFACE

Pl, ,, ALpc.~ezF . - in fact, Belarusian prirnary sources are n~tth5 ezi~iesf ccd get ncld cf an-phcre in the world. Fer iristanc;~, Fa

?oit3na, whilzh (:an rightiy boast cf king clne r,f tk~efcw

:cluntries blssscd with z relative abundance cf Eolaru3izn ce,1-10 library hclds 6 rompicte az~llccti~ncf Nzsha

JJI va; iridscd, c~rilyincomplete colicctions of this week1:~~311

' [an Zaprudmk, "Soviet Documentation of Byelonissia's History (1909-1 Q 19jW7Zapisy [Transactions] ( 17, 1 983 ), pp. 132- 143; Jan Stanlàevic, 'The Soviet Falsiiïcation ofBelamsian History". Beloncssian Review (4, 1957), pp. 56-79;Ia. Zaprudnik "linitalevich: Rozhdenie Belorusskoi Sovetskoi Respublih: Review-, Zaptsy (15, 1977, pp. i 32-136. be found in seven libraries in four Polish citi~s.'The most

Important library c~lLectFcnsof Belarusian primary sources

are located in Minsk, Hrodna, Vilna, Moscow, Warsaw, London,

New York, and San Francisco.

Since no research funaing is provided for M-A-

stuaents, 1 haci to mako dcv in part with siurces gathered

rhrslugh inter-library loans. Later, however, ronsiaering

these sources insufficient, I made a painstaking search fcr primary sources cited in various seccndary sources held in

T~ronrolibraries. Together with a number of single published priinary sources (mainly rnemoirs) available in

Tclronto, these primary sourcqs shculd constitute a sufficient basis for a meaningful discussion ~f concepts of

&larus until 1918.

An effort has been made thr~ughoutthis papor to use the most recent official place-names, for instance:

Eialystok rather than Bclastok, Hrodna rather thm Grodno,

Vitsebsk rather thari Vitebsk, and so forth. Exception has ken made, hcwever, for place-names ~f which weil-known and generally accepted in Canada versic~nsexist, for exampie:

Erest rather than Berastse, Minsk rather than M~nsk,Vilna rather than Vilnius, and so forth.

' Aleksandra Bergmanowa, "Bialoruski tygodnik 'Nasza Niwa' (10 XI 1906-7 VIX1 19 15)" me Belamsian Weekly 'Nasza Niwanj, Kwarralnik Hisroryczny me Historical Quarterly] (3, 1972), p. 563. In citations, whenever a recognized and accurate

English translation of the primary source could be found, the text in the original language has been omitted. When citing Belarusian texts written originally in Latin rharzicters, or in the so-called lacinka, tneir spelling has been preserved. On the other hand, texts written originally in Cirillic hove been transliterated according to the

Library of Congress system. This soiution is not without drawbacks, since a duality in spelling has thus been croated; howover, alternative solutions, such as transliterating lacinka into the Congress system, or

Cirillir into lacinka, were th~ughttc, be even less aesirable, since they might be founà offensive by the supporters of oither lacinka Dr Cirillic.

Finaliy, since there are no official aepartmental requirements on notes and references with regard to MA. theses,3 I have decided to adopt the style usea bÿ Ward in his historiographical survey Stalin's Russia. 1 find it simple and yet elegant-

University of Toronto: Graduate Studies in History (My, 1WS), p. 8. The etynal(zqy cbf the nam- "Bslarus" r-mains rathcr

ri.Litcr31iyf It means, rtf crlilrsc, "White F;1isfff. Iri

Lc3- C ,- ~rijinsl mcaninq, Rus', ~r Rut hcnia, wzs tile patrirn~rii.zi1

I3rid pr,ss?sscci km;/ al1 t ne princes whrl de~ccnaecfrr,rn Ru ri l.:,

t_j-,e ,zkiicf r,f the .3nf:icnt F;:;_IS' ri.In the fri_irfe~--,+_f;..2nb

f ifroori+h ~zonti~rio~,hr.wever, rhe term Fils' ~2s115e.d ?cl .. cicsl:rlr_lc ,311 the Ea~t-Siavi~r:Lands clf 'ir-hru;3r4:.:

~~i;ri~ri.sni~~.hhnïthe Rusr lana .srclund Crnclensi:, 'Jit~rt~sC,

3rl-j prllat-/: k.sa:.zrrtc ,:&jLe-J ''~~~~~~'*t1z3 nc,~kte-ri -\/ey

- .-- ,n7/ht:izgLy e:.:plain~b.' Hr,wcrier, (25~,IV~ t_h ~;l;>r- y1,3:~sijf.k i:-.,:p~:~~-Res~sis k>.3~&-n rhe r,k,coy:/.3tji:,rl rh.3t in the

-- -* , r:.l~-Kil3si,2n SP~~F,"xhit~ l.2nd" rne.ïn+ 11,ns free r,3 - Irid-ed, &,-ne r_hr-e cit-cs, t;rLi,-h FrL ~~7~-L7ic,- -

- - ,-.------.-. , - 3, 1:nr , .ïrs l:rir:.y8:r, t;:,

. . t:,cjr;.rlq the 1Jr,3nci ïlil,:hy (:,f Lit hixinia .=lrcady dilrir!g + he rilie c,f Gedyminas (-11 j . The iiihu.2nian r.3i.:s-c;:;er rr,e.znt, f J ti-1~t the lsrid lzczscb p,-;ÿiriq r he ~i31r~err1i13

.Michael Cherniavshy, "Russia", Naiionaf Conscio~tmess.History undPofificalCrtfiure irr Earlv-itfodem Europe. ed. Orest Ranurn ( Baltimore, 1973, p. 1 19. 'JU. K. Begunov: "'Weisse Rus'' und Weksrussen in einer deutschsn Chronik des 15. Jahrhunderts" IbBelarus' and Belamians in a Geman Chronicle of the Fifieenth Century], Forsclmngen ,-Ur Os~crtrropaeisc/renGeschichre (27, 19741, p. 300; Leszek Bednarcnik, "Stosunki eînolingwistyczne na obsmWiekiego biestwa Litewskiego" [The Ethno-luiguistic Relations on the Temtory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania], -4cra Baffico-Slavica(22, 1QW), p. 1 1 3. "u. K. Begunov, p. 300- 'Ju. K. Begunov, pp. 302-305. lu. K. Begunov, pp. 209-300; Jan Zaprudruk, Befnrirs: At n Crossroack in History (Boulder-San Francisco-&forci, 1903), pp. 2-3; Byeionrssia: Historicai Ocdine, ed. Ivan Kasiak ('London, 1989, p. 7. Vc~lhyniaand ~kraine'away from the former and annexod it to ine latter, 10 Belarus becarne one of the throe main regir~ns within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The clther two WS~P

Czarnc? Rus [Black Rus' 1, which lay to the south-west r~f

Belarus, and Samoqitia, or Zrnudz, a regiori in the north- western pzrt of the Grand Duchy. Up until the nineteenth i7~rit lir'y', Bclarus and Crarna Rus were somecines dsscribed l~~:lllr=ctivelyas Rzs Litswska [Lithuanian Rus' 1 .11

Subs~quently, that term was applied only to the provinces,

Cr quberniias, of Vilna and Hrodna- Most importsntly, the whoLe territory of tne Grand Duchy was callod Litwa ilithuania], and al1 its inhabitants, ïegardless of their language and religirin, w-r- known as Li twini, Li t~wcy,

Sitwaki, cc Lipki, al1 of xhich means Lithuanians, L i

mlhis state of affairs rernained long âfter the Grand

Duchy of Lithuania, aiong with the entire Polish-Lithuanian

Commonwealth, ceâsed to exist, Fr~rinstance, at kast ilritil rhe end of the nineteonth century, the Taters whc livd in

L1-ne ' former Grand Duchy were universally called Lipki (the term Lipka means Lithuania in both Crimean Tatar and

-- ' Ukraine was then undentood as the regions of Kiev and Bratslav. W.L., '.Nazwy *Rus' 1 'ühaîna- 1 ich znaczenie historyczne"@e Names 'Rus' and 'ükmhe'and Their Histoncai Meaning], Z &i&w Ukrainy [From the History of ükrainc], ed. Waclaw Lipinski CKiev, 19 12), pp. 47-54. 'O Hany E . Dem bkowski, The Union of Lublin: Poiish Federaiism in the Golden Age New York, 1P82), pp. 160-164. " Leszek a=dnara "Wokol ernogenezy Biaiotusinow" (Onthe Or@motthe Belaiusians],Acfa Bolrico- Slavica (16, 19841, pp. 33-48. l2 Bednarcnik, "Stosunki ...", p. 1 13. Turkish) .I3 Also, the Jews who speak the north-eastern

dialect of Yiddish, cnce used in the territory almost

identical. with that of the Grand Duchy, are even today known

as Litvaks. Moreover, the inhabitants of Podlasie, which

used to be part of the Grand Duchy but today is within the

Polish border, are still being called "Lithilanians" by the

people of Mazovia and of the Lublin region, even though no ethnic Lithuanian is to be found there." AS late 3s the

1960s surnames ending with -icz, typical in Belarus, were

still being recognized as "Lithuanianff in the Lublin region.

Finally, ur,til the end of the nineteenth century, the

i~habitantscf what usxi to be th? Grand Duchy generally considered themselves to be Lithuanians, regardless of what language they spoke at home. 15 P.s Zygmunt Jundzill, a well-

kncwn lawyer in Vilna, recalls, "Until 1900 and later, no one in this country called himself other than Lithuanianf'- 16

Indeed, a ViLnian publicist affirmed as lat2 as 1906 that

"The inhabitant of the region of Palanga, Kaunas, Ukmerge,

Svencionys, or Vilna, Hroana, Navahrudak, or evsn of Minsk, is always Lithuanian, regardless wh3ther one speaks Polish,

l3 Czrslaw Lapicz, Kirab Tatarow Iirewsko-pohkich me %tab of the Lithuanian-Polish Tatars] (Torun, 1?86), pp. 22-24. '' Bednarczuk, "Stos unki...", p. 1 i 2. l5 Leon Wasilewski, "Stosunki polsko-litewskie w dobie powstaniowej" me Polish-Lithuanian Relations in the Era of Uprisings], Niepodleglosc [Independence] (1, 1930), pp. 49-50. '' "Jeszcze do 1900 r. Ipozniej nib w tym kruju nie narywd siebie inaczejjak litwinem." Zygmunt Junnnll. "Z dziejow polskiej mysli politycznej na Litwie historycznej"[Frorn the History of Polish Political Thought in Historical Lithuania], Niepodleglosc (6,1?S8), pp. 62-63. My translation. Lithuanian, or Belarusian"." This view is also confirmed by

the writsr Zozef MacKiewicz xho affirmea in hi3 memclirs cnac

"Auntie Pafcia married a Lithuanian when al1 the inhabitants

clf the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania called thcmselves

Lithuanians". 18

It is significant, hwover, that "Lithuania" was

qencrally anderstood to 50 part of historical Pûlznd. This

is zhown by the fact that the Belarusians, deported by Tsar

klcks-i in 1655 from the Grand Duchy to the Nizheg~rodskoi

region, were called Litovtsy [Litnuanians] and Poliaki

[Poles] by the native inhabitants as late as the nineteenth

csnc~ry.'~The territory west of the watershed between the

rivers Ugra and Bolva, which was part of the Grand Duchy in

the years 1410-1503 and 1610-1655, and whose inhabitants

rrtsined some Belarusian characteristics of their speech,

was still called Polsha [Poland] in the beginninç of the

twentieth c~nturyby the people £rom the region cf Moszlsk

(ùetween Smolensk and Kaluga) .'O In 1866, the Russian

" "Mjeszkaniec spodPolagi, Kowna, WiIkmniem, Swieciun hb Wilno, Grodno, Nowogrodka I nawer spod Minsku,jest zcmsze Litwinem, nietaiemie od tego czy on mowi po pofsku, lirewsku lub bialomsh. " Sargas (B.Jalowiecki), Litwo, Ojc-yo nasza... {St. Petersbug, 1906), p. 5. Cited in Jan Jurkiewicq Rozwoj polskicj mysli poljrycrnej na Liiwie 1Biolonrsi w lorach 1905- 1922 [The Development of Polisfi Political Thou& in Lithuania and Belarus betwm 1905 and 19221 (Poznan, 1983), p. 95. tMy translation. le "ciocia Pofcia wyszia zamaz =a Lirwina jeszcze w czasuch, gdy wszyscy rnie~tzkoncy6. WieIkiego Ksiestwa LitewsRiego n~ahsmi stebie Litwinami". Joze f Mackiewicz, Pod kdvmniebem [Under Every Sky], Ilondon, 1964) S. 1S. My translation. l9 L. L. Trube, "Etnonini LIïVA na nizegorodskoj zemle" fnie Ethnic DesignationLIWA in the NizhegorotMoi Region J.hternationd Coderence of Bailicists (Vi1 %S), p. 23 1. 'W. Broch, Govory k tupudu of Mosolsh me Dialects to the West of Mosalçk] (Petrograd, 1916). pp. 87- 128. -' '-nerxssk~rn. no iskoni bzrdto b-vpo/skim". R~~sskaiaStarma [Russia's Past] ( 1882 i. p. 4 12. Cited in Wk-tor Sukiennicki Easr-Centrd Europe Orrririg Cl'orfd CYur I (New York 10841, p. 06. Aiso. in W&or Sukiennicki. "Whou schyku rzadow carskich: Mernorial rosyjskiego oberprohuatora"[Via at the End of Tsarist Rule: The Mernorial by the Russian Obe~rokrrator],Zeqty Historyczne [The Hktoricd Fascicles] (28, 1074). p. 88. --?- "Br-uciu!oglosd wam hiad- rra umboriie/ ClWrtosc, hora Cesuc-Kroipt-pcrocii Kororrie,,' Z rerc Litewskiernu fiies~,Pokcze cala/ Pmaca;" Adam Mickiewicq Pan Tadercsr [Sir Tadeusz] (Warsaw. 1384 1, p. 340. My translation. .- -'The Poles fiorn Korona [Crown-PolandJwere traditionaiiy cded hd0271~y[Masurians] by the mhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Antoni Mironowicq "Wadksztaitujacs biaioniska swiadomosc narodowa w spoIccnosci prawosiawnej na BidostocczyPue"[Conditions influencing Belamian Nationd Consciousness], Zeszyty Noukowe Insrytutu Nuuk Pol~~~c~-n~ych[The Fascicles of the lnsti tute of the Political Sciences] (1 6, 1989j, p. 53. '' "LinvinI hfa-'ur brucia sa, c,-z kloca sie bracia O to,IZ jednemu na inaie N7odysfaw, a dnrgiemzr FYitowr? Nawtsko ich jedno jesr, nazwisko Polakow." Cited in Marceli Kosm- Historia Bialomsi [History of Belanis] (Wroclaw-Warsaw-Cracow-Gdansk,1?70), p. 257. 25 Bednarcaik, "Stosunki ...', pp. 1 13-1 14. o geographic cne. A Belarusian ethnic consciousness, deeply ingrainea in tne masses of Belarus' inhabitan~s,was rk necessary foundation cn whirh a national concept of BelLarus

From thz start, howaver, these deveiopments werc seriously inhibited Gy sev~rzl~bstacles. One cf these was the fart that alm~stthe oritir~noble dzlass ~f the Grand

&cny has bqen Polonizod in the wake 9f the Union of Lu~lin.

The union opened the rather tightly seaiod border betweon

Crown-Pc~land ând the Grand Duchy. As a rosult, West Europeân influences, the Renaissance, the Reformatir~n, the Baroque, ana with +hem Western values, began pouring into thc Grand

Duchy throügh the int-rmediary cf Polirh culture. '"he e:ipônsive Western Latin cultur~c~uld ~ffer murn mqrc char! the traditional Orthodox one. Thus, cven th2 great-st magnate of the P01isi-i-Lithuafiian Commonwealth, Prince Janusz

Radziwill, admitted in 1615 that: "Although 1 was born a

Lithusnizîn and am going to die a Lithuaniôn, n~n~thclessin our fath2rland we must speak Polish.""

Western influences through Polish culturs continued in the f~rmerGrand Duchy after the Partitions. In consequenco,

'%yszard Luzny, 'The Kiev Mohyla Acaderny in Relation to Polish Culture': Harvard Ub-ainianStudies (8. 1 9841, p. 124; Kosrnan, pp. 105-155. ,'i 6' -4czem sam Lihvinem sie urod-il ILihvinem urnnec mi przyjJdrieie,jedrra&w ojcqcnie na~?ejihma polskiego zuzywac musiemy." The letter of Janusz Radziwdl to his brother Krzysztof Cited in Turonek, Waclaw Iwanowski 1 o&o&enie Biaiomsi [Waclaw Iwanowski and the Rebirth of Belarus] (Warsaw, 1992), p. 8. My translation. the rift between the nobility, who adopted Polish culture,

and tne local Belarusian peaszncs who did net, was even

qreater than it would have been otherwise. This was

important especially since the nobility were very numerous

in these parts (much more nurnerous than in Russia pr~per).28

Morecver, the Fdea tnat "the iosser nobility, wno lived in

svoryday contact with the peasants[,] felt a great deal of

âEfinity anci sympathy for thorn",2g appears to be a

sentinontalist cxaggeration. Inaeed, even as late as 1935, an expert on the lesser nobilitÿ of the Polesie region,

Ftoman i-Iorcszkiewicz, maintainod that " 'Th- nobiliry' i:onstitutes here a soparate sociai group. Mombership in this group aepends neitnsr on one's wealth nor cn one's aducation, A nobleman may Es poor, ani rnay not bc &le tc read or write. The only issue that councs is one's anzestry.

Man- 3 tinie, the designation 'Polish nobleman' replaces

TJRF' s nati~nality, and in g~neralone's entire sensc of belonging. Puritÿ of parentage is carefully guarded, To fina a bride, a nobleman travds sometimes tins of kilornetr~s."~~

M. V. Bich, "Naîsyianainy sklad pramyslovaha praletaryiatu klanisi u kantsy XIX - pachatku ,YX st.", Vestsi Akudemii Nawk BSSR- Sevia hrnmadskikh navuk, (4, 1072), p. 34. ;") Alexander Nadson, "Nasa Niva", The Journal ofByeIonrssran Studies (i, 3,1967, p. 184.

b6 iSzla~hra' stanmt tu osobna ppespole~ma- O prsynaie~zoscido niej nie decyduie najatek mi wyksttafcente. Sziacltcic moze byc biedny, moze czyîac 1pisac nie umiec. Kwestia podPrawowa jest tylh rod. 'Szfachcicpokki ' to obeshce tastepje niejedzo&otnie narodowosc, w ogofe cala przynafamosc. Czystosci rohstme sie pihie. Po zonejedzie nieroz sziachcic kiIkadziesiai kilometrow." J. Horoszkiewicz, "W poleskich zasciankach szhcheciaich" [In the Settlements of the Lesser Nobiiity in the Polesie Region], Ziemio [The Land] (6-7, 1939, p. 127. My translation. Another important obstacle in creating any concept of

Eeiarus based on nationality or even based on ethnicity was

that the territories of the Grand Duchy contained a

confusing mosaic of constantly intcracting ethnic groups and

ciicrl~cts. The situation was especially tomplicated in Czarna

Rus and in the Vilna region. The ethnic and linguistic rnosaic was created as a result of the introduction of a very

iolerant interna1 policy in the wako of the Unior! of

Lublin. 3 1 Over time, an interactive linguistic community

(wspoinota komunikatywna) was formed there. Thanks to the process of ccnstant interaction among la~guagesand dialects found in the community, a number of new languages and ciialects have been formed. Thus, Belarusian, Lithuanian, rhe north-eastern dialect of Poli sh (polnocno-wschodnia poiszczyzna kresowa), the languaqe of the Lithuanian Tatars, the dialêct of the Karairns of Troki, the north-eastorn dialcct of Yiddish spoken by the Litvaks, the "heachen ciialects of Narew", and pr~bablythe local dialect of Gypsy

(litouska Roma) were al1 decisively shaped by constant mucual interzction in the period after the Union of

Lublin. 3 2

3' BednarCZUk, "Stosunki..,", p. 109. * Bednarcnik, "Stod...", pp. 109-124; see also Paul Wexler, "Jewish, Tatar and Karaite wmunal dialects and their Importance for Byelo~ssianHistorical Linguistics", The Journui of ByeIomssia Srudies (III, I, lm), pp. 41-49. LIE Lathclic people use Polish in praycr, .înd also ernploy it in

xri t ing and corrssp~ndence. "'5

Even today, aftcr ,311 the othnir clsansinq, +cl which -#-h~ territclries ~f the fermer Grand Duchy were subject_ed

during and particularly after Wc4rld War 11, thcr- still

rernaln 5ntire rsgions wher~p~3ple ?re native speakers rlf at

A!a=l.=t --- tw: L~ZCJU~~PS.One such rr?gi-n Fs the aïil2 ri.€ the

,?lclrdcr bctxocn pr2sent-day Lithuûni~2nd Beiarus. In h~r

1- ' "Jezykiem w pow~rechnymuAyciu jes~ je,yk bialonrski ,wannvpr=ezludnosc 'prosfym'... Obokje+ bialoruskrego,jako prosrego, jest w uqciu rownoczemiejezyk polskt ...Je+ pokkrego ludnosc kotoiicka rqwa do modlitwy I nim fezposhgrrje sie w wpismie I korespondencji. " Wincenty Fuzysztofik, Jasionowh wiespowiam sokdskiego [The Village of Jasionowka in the Sokoika County] (Poznan, 19341, p. 1 Q5. My translation. 3%EIe~Grinaveckiene, "SlawiPny leksykaine w Litewskiej gwane wsi Szalhniai" [Lexical Slavisms in the Lithuanian Diaieet of the Village of Szdtiniai], Acia Bahico-Slavica (22, 1994), pp- 125- 127. legitimately be considered part of any of the three

etnnographic areas: Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Polish.

The nationality issue is even more complicated. It is

so, because one's nationality is more a rnatter of self-

reflection and self-consciousness than a rnatter of one's

ethnicity. 3 7 TWO indiviciuals with exactly the same ethnic

kJackgrclr~nrimay l~gitimatelyclaim tc~be of diff~rent

riatic~nalitics. For instance, Janina Jozefowicz nee

Rodziewicz, the eldesr sister of Lcopold Rodzi~wicz, G~EO£

tne Gettsr known Belarusian leftist activists of the

Interwar Period, consid-red hersclf to be P~lish.'~Ev-r! mclre striking xas the case ~f the Iwanowski family, where

Waclaw was one G£ the more imp~rtantleaders of the aciarusiaa national movement, Tadcusz became a true

Lithuanian, while Stanislaw and Jerzy, the latter an srninont

Polish activist, declared thernselves to be P~lish.~~It is therefore not surprisinq that quite rnâny inhabitants of the fclrmer Grand Duchy had serious difficulties Fn determinirig rheir Siwn nationality. A revealing example was r~cordedby

Konstantin Symmons-Symonolewicz,National Consciaumess in Poimd: Origin and Evohrrion (Meadville, l983j, p. 4. " Aieksanb Bergman, Sprar~bidomskie w IIRzec,lypospofï~ej[nie Beiarusian AîXairs in the II Republic] (Warsaw, 1984), p. 199; Alehdra Bergman, "Leopold RodPewicz", Pvzeglad Hisroryczqv (3, 1979). " Jerzy Turonek, WachIwanowski I o&o&enie Bialomsi pWaclaw iwanowski and the Rebirth of Belanis] (Warsaw, 1 Wî), p. 19. an ethnographer who, in 1855, interviewed the local

shoemaker in a village near Kaunas:

--mat tribe do ycu belong to?

--I am a Catholic.

--That's not what 1 mean. Ifm asking you whether you

are a Pole or a Lithuanian.

--1 cm a Pole, and a Lithuanian as we31.

--That is impossible. You hévo to be eithcr one or the

gther.

--I speak Polish, the shoemaker said, and 1 also speak

Lithuanian .

And that was the end of the interview. 4 O

Tho difficulty in aetermining one's nationality was by

ng mesns limited to the lower or middle classes. Edward

Bzcrc>n von Ropp, Bishop of Vilna, was described by his contemporary, Prussian Lithuanian Johannes Wronka, as

"somowhat E)olish, somewhat Ge~marr, somewhat Lithuaniafi, and most of al1 Catholic". 4 1

It was perhaps n~tunnatural that the perception of one's own nationality might undorgo significant changes.

Thus, as the "Fitaman of the Peasant and Partisan

~etachrnents"~~,Stanislaw Bulak-Balazhowicz, a native of the

40 Citd in Norman Davies, God '.YPlayground: A History of Polond, Vol II, (Oxford, 1981), p. 70. 4 1 Johannes Wronka, Kurland undLimuen Ostpreussens Nuchbarn [Couriand and Lithuania: the Neighbours of East Prussia] (Freiburg im Breisgau), p. 1 13. 47 V. Gorn, "Bdakhovich vo Pskove"(F3alakhoMch in Pskov], ludenich pod Petrogradom-ir belyWI memuamv [ludenich under Petrograd-From the White Memoirs] (Len~ngrad,1027). Cited in Marek regim of Vilna, wrote in Belartisian, "1 heard a cry from my hcrneland: / 'Everyone rises for one's heritage, / Lister? to the te11 of the bel1 of freod~rn!'"~~T-en years later, hcwever, as a General and a Polish citizen, Bulak-

Balschowicz explained to his Polish audience, "Forgive me if rny P~lishis not very good. Our rnotners there in the distant bcrderlands, however, first taught us to love Pciand, and only thon to speak correct P~1id-i."~~

This rather flexible approath to the issue of nacionality did not overly please politicians who realized that any concept of these lands would have to take Fnto arcount the national Ee~lingsof the inhabitants. Tndeod, it sclmetirnes earned thoir scorn. Jozef Pilsudski, for instance, jcjked about Bulak-i3alacncwicz, " today, he is Russian; t6~morrciw,Polisn; after tomorrow, Bclarusian; and the next dsy, a EJegro" .4 5

Eesides joking, some rather arbitrary measures have been adcpted by various politicians throughout the last two hundred years to put right this nationality mess. Tc give just one example, the avowedly democratic govcrnment of the

Cabanowski, General Stmisfaw Bulok-Bai~~~h~cz:Zapomniany bohater (Genlral Stanislaw Bdak- Balachowicz A Forgotten Hero] (Warsaw, 1993)' p. 17. 43 StaniSiaw Bulak-Baiachowicz, "Wezwmie ojca " me Father's Cd]. Cited in Cabanowsk General.,., p.93. 44 "Jedi niezbyt poprcmna pokqawysiowie sie, prosze mi to dorauac. Math bowiem nasre, ram na daiektktchkresach najpierw uczyly nas Pohh kochac, a potemjuz prawidlowo po polskr mowic." Cited in .Aies BieLacki, "Bandyta czy bohater narodowy" [Bandit or a Nationai Hero?], Lirerama na swiecie (8-9, 199 1 ), p. 244. My translation. Andrzej Stanislaw KowdnylS Sowinkow (Warsaw, Iggî), p. 198. ""avecaveckiene, p. 126. J 7 " URosjan tcycie slowa hroiik zamiasr Polak do& w porocznej mowie do absurdu. " J. Tako- Hryncewicq Zptzezytych dni (1550-1905) (Wax-saw. 1030'1,p. 62. My translation. Jurkiewicz, p. 4 1.

by the Tsarist administration, never approached that ideal.

i>n th? contrary, tne authorities had a generai tendency co

dirninish the number of Poles and Lithuanians, while

incroasing the nurnber çf Russians and i3elarusians, since the

lztter were officially treatcd as a local Russian vari2ty. s 1

Incieed, virtually al1 Polish historians, many of whom are recsgniz-ci authorities in the history cf the territcries c,f

th^ fc)rmer Grand Duchy, consiaer the results cf the census tc be unrepresentative. 5 2 This conciusion is confirmed tÿ ths r~sultsof the partial census taken by che Tsarist

.2uthorities in 1909 that shgw the numb2r of Pdes as

~ionsideratlyhighor than in 1897. 53

Hcw~ver,2ven the Polish Glowny Urzad Statystytzny

[Main Bureau cf Ststiscicsj, generally regarded ss a. higniy i~cmpetentand @von-handed body, COU^^ riot produce rcsults

=,n:mnere rieur rcality. Tho number of Gelarusians wi~hinthe ncwly reborn Polish state was obvi~usiymuch highcr than the number shcxn by the rensus cf 1921. 5 5 The analysis of the discrepancy led to the conclusicn that many Belerusians

'' Jan Jurkiewic%Ro-WOJ pohkie mysli poiitycznej na Lirwie I Bidorusi w Iaiach 1905-1922 (Po- 1083), p~.12-13. '' For instance, I. Lewandowsk Federalinn. Litwu I BiaIotws w poliryce obom befwedershego (XI 1918- 117 1920) (Warsaw, lQ6îj, pp. 18-23; J. Ochmanski, Lirewski ruch narodowo-kulmraIny w XlX wiekr (do 1890 r.) (Biaiystok, I965), p. 62; Pioîr Lossowski, Stosunki poLsAo-litewskie w latach 1918-1920 (Warsaw, 1966), pp. 1 7-2 1; Leon Wasilewsla, Lirwa I Biaioms: Zwys historyczno-polifycznystomnkow narodowosciowych (Warsaw, l025), p. 145. 53 W.Wakar. Rowterytorjalny norodowosci polrkiej, Part III, (Kielce, 19 17), pp. 18-20. " Jerzy Tornaszewslcï, Ojcryna nie tylko Poh(Warsaw, 1989, p. 32. "~onstantySrokowskï, Sprawa narodowosciowa na Kmch Wschodnich (Cracow, 19241, p. 5; his 6ndings are codïmed by Wasilewslà, Lima..., p. 248. confusea their nationality with their citizenship, and th~reforedeclared themselves to be P~lish.'~

To correct this problem, in the census of 1931 interviewers asked not about one's nationality but about the language to which one was most emotionally attached. This formula was designxi to s~lvethe problern of people who were riative speakers c.f two or more languages. In addition, it all~wed,frjr instance, ethnic Germans who did not speak

German to be ccunted as German nationals. In the former

Grand Duchy such situations were quite rommon. It =as SC, acrording to the 1917 assessrnent of Leon Wasilcwski, wh~m

Eugen Freiherr von Engelhardt considers "a very g~odand, by and large, an objective expert on the Belarusian pr&lem.s, rt 57 because "bosides undoubtful Lithuanians,

B~larusians,Latvians, Folo~,and Russians, there are in this land also people W~Ghave taken thoir language £rom gne but their ethos from another nationality. Thsre are

Lithuanians who cannot utter even one word in Lithuanian; cher- ars Poles wh~show thanseives tç be full of great

&vction to Polishness, but spoak Lithuanian, or Belarusian, or Latvian as their colloquial lanq~age."~'

" Ludwik Krzywicki, "Rozbior krytyczny wynikow spisu", Miesiecz-nik Statysiyczny (6, 1922). 57 ueiri sehr errer Kenner und im grossen und ganzen mrch objckriver Bewteiler des weissruthenischen Problems", Eugen Freiherr von Engeihardt, Weissnrthenien: Volk und Land (Amsterdam-Prague-Vienna, 1943), p. 223. My translation. 58 "ausser unzweijiehafien Litauern. Weissruthenen, Letten, Pohund Russen gibt es in diesem Lande mrch Latte, wekhe der Sprache noch der einen, der Gesinmrng nach aber einer anderen Norimaiitaex Thus, in the circumstances, the method of the 1931 census appears to be correct. 5 9 Ana yet, the results of the census were again at variance with "the nctorious facts". 6 0

The riumber of the Belarusians shown by the census was tonsiderably sinaller than estimates made by experts. "' To explain the discrepancy is no easy matter but it has been noticed that many people in the countryside described th~ir languago as tutejszy [the local tongue] . In an ethnirally mixed area, such an answer qavo the census official--as â ruie a Pole--an opportunity ta manipulate it and enter it as

Polish. OnLy in the southern Polesie region, where Polos were in a very clear rninority, was the tutejszy anser officially entered in the consus papers. 6 2

This is a plausible esplanation in view of the fact chat in 1931 many Pcles may have believed that the aiaiects cf Eelarusian peasants were, indeed, Polish dialcc~s.As

Late as 1981 sane Pcbies still argued that "in Belarus, as in si1 parts of Poland, rich folk culture flourished with its

angehoeren. Es gibt 'Litmer', welche kein Wort btauisch koennen; es gibt Polen, welche szch von einer starken AnhaenglichkPit on das Polentam beseeh zeigen, aber ah ihre ~mgangssprache~ifauiscb oder weissruthenisch oder lettisch reden." Leon Wasilewski, Die Ostprovinzen des denPolenreichs (Cracow, 19 1 7), p. 70.My translation. '' It is also the opinion of the authority on censuses and national minotities in the hterwar Period Poland, Jerzy Tornaszewski. See bis Rvczpospolita wiehc narodow (Warsaw, 1985), p. 36. EO SrokowskiEi'sexpression regarchg the 192 1 census can be applied equaüy well to that of 193 1, since his es timate made in 1924 exceeded wnsiderably both. See his Sprm..., p. S. 61 Tomaszewsk Rzeczpospolita... , p. 35. 62 Tomaszewski Rzeczpospolito..., pp. 31 -32. "'"na Bialorusi-jak we wqysrkich o5ielnicach Polski-kwih bogara krlnrro lrrdowa te swoisra dla niej para jezykowa". Cited in TomaszewsG Rzeczpospofita..., pp. 133-1 34. My translation. ''Jurkiewicz, p. 99, emphasizes that shortly before World War 1 many Poles considered Belamian an intemiediary dialect between Polish and Russian. He cites "W hwatü jezyka bdoniskiego': Kurzer Lirewski ( 15, 190C). " George Y. Shevelov, "Belorussian versus Man:Delimitation ofTexts before A.D. 1 %Y', The Jorrrnaf of B~vefonrssianStudjes (3, 1974), p. 146. "~~horMaksimovich, "Sprechka pra dakumenty iakikh rukoli nia bylo" [The Argument about the Documents that Have Never Exkted], Zopisy i13, 19751, pp. 77-8 1. Ukrainian". 67 Therefore, Belarusian sch~larRyhnr

i4aksim~vichcould argue wirh much conviction that Ruthenian

3eiarusian and Ukrainian - 6 0

YGWPV~~,even scme time after the Unim Q£ Lublin, many

nuthcnizns vioweci Ruthenia as me fairly h~rnogenc~usothnic

llarncd Ruthenians ~f his time, spcke cf the prostyj jaryk

Rut henians, wit hclut making an;/ di£ferentiaticn between the ncirth und the ~~uth.6 3

Tho Union cbf Lublin, however, spli t Ruth-riia pernianently in two. P. unique c~rifluer~ceof ~arious

devoi~ptheir own national c~nssiousness.~~By the znme t-ken, in the ~ftermathof union the Ruthenian language begari splittifig intc twc branches: Ukrainian and Bslzrusian.

" Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, "TheRuthenian (VoIhynianj Metrica: Polish Crown Chancery Records for bainian Lands, 1 560- l673", Harvard Ubainian Studies ( 15, 1 90 1 J, p. 9. '' R. Maksimovich, "HramotyXWsr. Uporiodkovannia, vstupna staitio, komenruri I slovnyhy pokchchyky [Written Tacts of the Fourteenth Century. Arrangernmf introduction. Cornmentaries, and Dictionarïes-Indexes], M. M. Peshchak, Akademiia Nauk URSR [The Academy of Sciences of the lkamian SSR]. Parn'iatky ukraïns'koi movy [The monuments of the Ukrainian Language]. Kiev, 1974", Zapisy (13, 1979, pp. 11 1-1 12. '" David A. Fnck, "Meletij Srnoîryc'kyj and the Ruthenian Question in the Eariy Seventeenth Century", Harvard Ukrainian Shrdies (8, 1984), p. 364. 70 Jerzy Bomcki, 'The Union of Lublin as a Factor in the Emergence of Ukmhhn Nationai Consciousness", The Polish Review (1, 1996), pp. 37-61. The crucial aspect of the differentiation was the revival of

Bulgarianisms in south Ruthenian, which took place in the

late sixteenth century. In north Ruthenian such a revival bras largdy absent; as a result, "Ukrainian preservod Olci

Bulgarianisms better, whereas [Belarusian] was more receptive tc Polonisrns". 71

According to BGhdan Strumins' kyj, a noted expert on

Ukrainian, the two languages are so rlosely rolated that

\\ +-he rate of Bulgarianisms,..,and of Polonisms is often the rhief distinguishing foature cf their vocabularies.

Therefors, âlmost the only thing a [Belarusian] translater h3s to cicl with a Ukrainian t~xtis to replace its rlative

~iern9ntswith Polonisms (and sornetimes to remove its

Brilgarianisms}, while leaving the resrr as it i~."'~Bearing in mind that "Ukrainian shares 54.8 percent cbf its wGrds with Poli~h",'~Belarusian sharos with PoLish some cwo thirds of its v~cabulary.Moreover, according to Leszek

Bednarczuk, an ethnolinguist f rom Cracow, there is a well fcunded hypothesis that two of the four mcst cnaracteristic fcatures ûf Belarusian pronunciation: ciekanniî and dziekannie, have developed under the influence of the Polisn

. . "Bohdan Sînimins'ky~,"Ubamian between Old Bulprk, Polish, and Russian", Journal of Ukainion Studies (3, 1 W8), p. 42; U. V. Anichenka, Ab polanizmukh u be/ams&aipis 'menmstsi I irth adpavednikawz va uhinskoi u XI7-XWI sr.st- Z zhytstsia rodnaho slova (Minsk 1%9), pp. 35-44. " Strumhs'An, pp. 48-49. '' Strumins'kyj, p. 46. language. 7 4 In addition, it is well known that Belarusian is

ph~n~logicallyand rnorphologically very clos~lyrelated to

Russian. 7 5

Altogother, Belarusian is a typical intermediary

language in the Slavic linguistic group. Although

gramrnatically East Slavic, it is lexically closely r~nnected xith the Pslish language which is West Sla~ic.'~1t is

therefore natural that Belarusian is quite oasily underst~od by Pciles, Ukrainians, and Russians, and vice versa. As a ie~~lt,intermediary dialects have formed al1 around whar is convêntionally considered to be the Belarusian hoartland.

Thcs, in the east, in the regions of Smolensk, Vitsebsk, and

Mahileu, there have developsd Belarusian-Russian iritermediary dialects. In the south, in Polesie anci in

Tidlachia, or Podlasie, Belarüsian-Ukrainian intermediary di.3Lscts were spoken. Finally, in the west and in the north-

WPSC, Eslarusian-Polisn and Belarusian-Lithuanian intornediary dialects were very common. 77

The ~xistenceof intermediary diaiects further cornplicated the linguistic mosaic. In th2 relatively small southern part of the Bialystok region, Belarusian,

" Bednarcnik, "Stosunki...', p. 1 14. 75 A. B. MeMillin, "=th Century Attitudes to Byeionissian before Katski", The Journal of Byelorussion Srudies (I,2, 1966), p. 106. '"c~illin, p. 103. 77 Wasilewsia, Lima ..., pp. 144-145; von Engeihardf pp. 222-227; Tomaszewski,Rzeczpospoliia ..., pp. 30- 31. Ukrainian, and Polish dialects were complemented by

Belarusian-Ukrainian, Belarusian-Poiish, and Polish-

Ukrainian intermediary dialects. 78 Another intermediary dialect is the dialect of the. Lithuanian Tatars, written in a Turko-Arabic script; it is regarded by linguists as either

"Polish-Belarusian" or 'Belarusian-P~lish".'~ Acccrding tri one linguist, extant dccuments written in that

"S~lsrusianiPolish" dialert are "a fzirly faithful representation of the spoken language of at hast a certain iayer of the population of [BelarusJ ". 80 One of the clder authors goes as far as to maintain that in th2 region of

. osour ou, Luniniec, and Stcilin, "the inhabitants use the Polish aialect of the Bolarusian lanquage.""

A good example cf an intermediary dialect is the

ûialect spoken in the village of Szaltiniai. it is

~haracterizedby both Lithuanianisms (e.g. scipiny, Lich. dial. scipinai [spokes]; kiauliuk, Lith. kiauliukas [pig]) and numerous Slavisms (e-g.cystas, Bel- chysty, Pol. czysty

7e Antoni Mironowicz, "Wdksztalaijace bialoniska swiadomosc narodowa w spolmosci prawoslawnej na Bialostocczyznie", Zeqty NmheInstymru NaukPolityezraych (16, 1989). p. 55; W. Kuîifszkiewicz, 'Tradycje bialoruskie I ukrainskie w gwarach okolic Puszczy Bialowieskiejn, Acta Balrico- Slavicn (1, 1964 j, pp. 247-257; Athgwar wschodrr~osfowi~~kichBialostoccz)rny, Vol. 1, ed. Stanislaw Gluika, wrochw-Warsaw-Cracow-Gdansk,198O), p. 123. 79 A. K. Antonovich., Belorrrsskie tehty, pismye arabskim pis 'mom I ich graJiko-ortogruficheska~a sisrema Nha, 1968), p. 334. ao ShiAkiner, "The Vocabulary of a Byelonissian K'it'ab in the British Museumn, The Journai of Byelorussian Studies 011, 1, 1973), p. 55. '' "die Bevoelhrung sich des pohischen Didehes der weissmthenischen Sprache bedient". St J . Paprocki, cited in von Engelhardt, p. 23û. My translation. 9- "- G~aveckiene,pp. 125- 128. " ''chlopi w dhgich kmchoch. prywozacy ploc+ rolne na tyek, oliyali sie mowa, ktora najczescie~ rlielatwo b-doby zakl&kowac do polskiego czy bialon~skiego". Czeslaw Milosg Rod-itzna Ectropa (Paris, 1 080 ), p. 52. My translation. P. J. Mayo. 'The Alphabet and Orthography of Byelorussian in the Zûth Century7. The Journui of B-velonrssian Shrdies (IV, 1. 1977), p. 28. Belarusisn, his dialect was tutejszy [the local cne], widely ussd in his own village but perhaps a bit different frcm the

::rie spr~kenbcyond the f~rest,and evcn mcre so from th- cnz

(:ln the cther side ~f the lake. As lato as the 1950~~ethnic

Selarusians Q£ th2 Bialÿstsk region, still did not kncw ho

Literary Belarusiar~lanqüage and nad trouble reading ir. r 5 milis A 1 wa3 not ver;; surprising, since literary Eel.iru3ian was dc:~cl\cpodr,r! the hasis cf ciialects cf the discanc Minsk 2nd

Yalacizechr~a (Molcdcchno) regions - d6

The terrn "Bolarusian" appearod in the Bialyst?k a~c~~ntr-y~id~~nlyin th? Iritcmar P%ri~d, and was br~ught thpro hy pciitical, n-t ruitur.21 mcvcrnents. 8 7 In 1c134f zn ethnocjriphcr was still able tc Zay, refprring to the -brillage - t Jasic)nr~wlkain the Sokc~lkac~ur,ty, that: "The term

"EeLarusiar~" is not us~dat ,311; it is s~bstitutedk1-j the w~rC~\~irfij31e"~r, ~utright, zzaiawiek (rnan; hurnar?, b~ing)3s opposed to a Jex, or a priest, or an educatod per~ori-''a8

As a resültf acc~rdingtc rlne ~7~nt_empr>raryfin 1919 in the Bislsk county, \\ everyone sp~keBclari~siari but r~cl ~nc rralized it was Belarusian"." EE./en thcugh, during rhe noxr

" Eugeniusz Mironowicz, Bialorusini w Polsce Z944-ZW9(Warsaw, 1W3), p. 2 1 1. '%osman. p. 258, Eugeniusz Mironowicz p. 75. 5; "Na,y 'biolomski ', 'Biolorustn' wcaie hr sie nie icywa, zostep~ejeslowo >rost-v ' hb wprost czalawiek (cziowiek) w odtoznieniu od Zyda albo od ksiedza lub inreligenta ". kysnofik,p. 195. My translation. 23 "ws=yscy mowilipo biafomsh, ale nie wiekieli, ze to bialonrski ". Cited in Piob WrobeL Ksztaltmnie sie bialonrskiej swiodomosci norodowej a Polska Warsaw. 1 990), p. 75. My translation. quarter of a century, some of these ethnic Belarusians

became nationally conscious, the confusion did not end. In

1945, some twenty percent of al1 ethnic Belarusians of the

Bialystr~krogion, most c>f thern presumably nationally

conscious, emigrated voluntarily to Soviet Belarus, To their

surprise, many of them realized there that they were, after

all, Polish, Not only were they cozsidered Polish bÿ th^

:-cal Belarusians, but they ais0 found the c~crlturalbarri~r

t~ be insurmountable ,

Eelarus was the lack cf one unifÿing religion- In fctct, there had been no unifying religi~nin Belarusian hist~ry sinzz the Union of Brest (l596), when, in the afterrnath of the Lublin Union, the Orthodox hierarchy of the P~lish-

Lithuanian Comrnonwsalt h decided to recognize the supremacy

(Jrth~do;.:snd the Uniates f~llowed,alth~ugh in Belarus, iinlike ir? Ukraine, it was rather rnild, 9 2

Following the partitions of Poland, the Tszrist gf~vernmontput hostile pressure on the Uniates, since it r~nsideredthern rznegates of the only true Orthodox faith.

'O Sadowsla, pp. 96-97. 9 1 Frank E. Sysyn. Between Polond and the Ukraine. The Dilemma of Adam Kysil. 1600-16.53 (Cam bridge, Mass., 1985), p. 42. Antoni Mironowicq p. 56; W.Tomkiewicq "Dzieje Unü Koscielnej w Wielkïm Ksiestwie Litewskïm (' 1596- 1 795j7',Pmnietnik Vi' Powszechnego i!jîdu HisioryAow Polskich w Wihie (Lxiv, 1935), Vol 1, p. 322. This pr~mptedsome Uniates to join the less insecure

Catholic Church. For instance, in the Polatsk diocpse alme, about 100,000 Uniate faithful did this in 1803.'~ Even though a decree was issued in 1827 forbidding Uniates to accept the Latin rite, Tsar Nicholas felt it necessary to abclish outright the Uniate Church, This was dcm~in 1839, when the Vniates were fcrred to join the Orthodox Church.

Thus, the majority of ethnic Belarusians berame Orthodox, while a sizeable minority remained Catholic, In 1905, when religi~ustolerance was promulgated by the Tsarist gclvernrnent, about 200,000 Belarusians joined the Cat holir i-hurch. 34 Thisr howover, did not substantially change the proportions between the Belarusian Catholics and Orthodox.

The percentage of Catholics in the first half of the t>~entiethcentury is variously cstimated to range Erûm 5 to

-75." Such irnprecision has been caus~dLy the lack of any clcar dividing line between the Catholics of Belarusian afid

P~lishstock. The estimate thus boils down to the question

'' C . Sipovic, 'The Diocese of Minsk Its Origin, Ektent and Hierarchy", The Jwrdof B'~O~USS~M Sh~diesflI,2, 1 970j, p. 187; P. N. Batiushkov, ~elonrssiiaI Litva (St. Petersburg, J 8W),pp. 330,354,368; -4. KOSSOWS~I,BIaski I cienie Unii Koscielnej w PoLFce w MI-XVIII W. w swietle zrodel urchiwohych (Lublui, 1939), pp. 12 1-123. 34 Tomaszewski, Rzeczpoqofita..., p. 1 15. 95 JozefZaremba, Stosunb. n~todgwosciowew wqjewo&twie nowogro&kim z uwzglednieniem da socjahego (Warsaw, 1939), cited in TomaszewsCa, Ojczyzna... , p. 46; Pervaia VseobsllchoiaPerepis NoseleniiaRosizskoi Zmperii 1897 g., cited in Turonek, Wuci..--.,p. 1 1; Srokowskï, p. 6; Rappagort, "Die Nationalitaetenhge in Polen", Johrbuchfier Smiofogie (3, 1927), p. 246, and Kutscher, "Das neue Polen", ZeitschrîpfirerPolitak (XV),p. 160, ôoth cited in von Engeîhardt, p. 23 1. of how many Catholics had Belarusian, or Polish, national

feelings--a question to which thore is no objective answer.

It should be noted, hcwever, that the inhabitants of

Belarus, whether Orthociox or Catholic, were usually very

cpen and frank about their religious affiliations. According

to al1 authors, they never failed, whether in Tsarist Russia

or in Pc~land, to give a clear and definitive answer when

askod about their religion, whilo they ofton had trouble

answering questions about their nationality. C~nsidering

that in the Russian Empire the officia1 religion was

Orthod~jry, and in intcrwar Poland the unofficially preferred

religion was Catholicism, this opennoss shows that the

peasant in Belarus was not afraid to acknowledge his

reiigious bdiefs.

Lt is th~ref~rerather implausible that the peasant, as

Jerzy Tomaszewski argues, had diff iculty stating his

nationality because he was often fearfuL of offending

officiai preferences. 96 Instead, it seems that Czcslaw

Milosz is right on recollecting that the Slavic peasants of

the Vilna regim "did not understand,,,what is meant by

nationality, and, when asked about it, usually answered: 'Or thodo:~:' . or 'Catholicl " .''

96 Tomaszewski,Rzeczpospolita ..., p. 1 15. 97 "nie rozumieii ... CO zncrcry narodowosc I zapytani O nia o&owiadaii ,wykle: prawosicmny dbo korohk ". Milosz, p. 52. My üanslation. A '6 Rodrice, soc=ac, ze mowiacych po biafonrskar beda nawracali na pruwoslawie, a~wifisie riumnie, w liczbie 30 osob, do &/y I zazadali od nortczycciela, by sen przerobil norarki 'biaiortrski' na polsX-i '. Cited in Wasilewski Litwa ..., p. 123. My translation. 9 3 " W 190.5 =osralo ze-wolone nauczanie religii wjczykrr macierzysrym uc-niow. Kwesiia,jaki jeqk ma bvc ttwazuny zrijezyk rnacieq~sr~vurzniow, byla rozs!r=ygano pcez zapvtonie O ro id, rorl-icow. Prmvie Qn S~Pother hand, Orthodox ethnic Belarusians oft~n

identified tnemselves with the Russian language. As the

ianqusçe cf communication bet~eenthe priest anc th-

fzithful, it was an indispensable element ~f Orthod~xy.The

f3rthcSdo;.:r~ligion was seen as the faith r3f the RUS' [wiara

rsska], xhere the RUS' was understood as ali the E.sst Shvic

pxjples înd their territf2r-y. Thus, the local fielarusian

ziialsct was r:~)nsidereC! to be ruski [ that r2f the Rus'], but

SC. was' the Russian iariguage. frideed, many Bclaru3ian

pqasants thcught Russian to be just the mGre refined versi~n

cf th~irown Beldrusian dial+zt, cspeciâlli/ sinrs thay dia

nclt know the Belarusian literary language. cild Belsrrisians

CIE the Bialystc1k regi~n,whon ssked whst was the lanquaqe cf

in3rruction in 3chfi~lsduring th? Sr,viet (~cLzupati~nclf 1-35-

1941, us~iallyanswer sirnply thct UZLCJRC~PO rusku [ they

taught in the language of the Rus']. Thus, tc1 mosî Grthmiox

Boi.3rusizins the ide3 qf Rus' onccmpassed b~thRussianncss snci Belarusianriess, with ncj rlear dividing line betw~enthe

IO0 ~FJCI.

.Iltcqeth~r, kefc~rt-1915, there had been a string cf important practical ~bstaclesto the creation af a national ccmzept ~f Belarus- Thc inhabitants of Bclarus were

wsz-vscy Bialomsini-karolzcy oc@owiadaii, :e ichjeqkiem macierzysîymjest po Mi...". Cited in Sd3enn.i~~"Wilno ...", p. 96. My translation. ' " Eugeniusz Mironowicz, pp. 205-2M. ~thnicallymixed and the majority of the noble class was

culturaily Polonized. The Belarusian speech was only

slightiy differentiated £rom neighbouring Slavic languages,

ânà its literary standard rernainod virtually unknown in the

countryside. To the average Belarusian, one's nationzlity

s~~rneda distant secondary issue to one's reiigiuus af filiztion. In short, E3elarusian natio~alconsciousness 'w'a~ not deoply ingrained in the masses. In face of this essential interna1 weakness, al1 concepts of Belârus, as we

çhall SEO in the next chapters, were greatlÿ affectsd by evternal factors. As these fact~rstended t~ be very rhangesblo, so were concepts of B-larus. --

'O' "...nalezyrzajkejszyrni sposobami doprowadric do !ego, aby sie zrus=czyiy Ipr=esra&parr=ecjak wilki w lesie. " Cited in bonWasilewski, Polityka narodowosciowa Rosyi (Cracow, 19 16), p. 14. My translation. then until 1905, however, the policy of Russification of aelarus, even though it had nc reptation for beinq gentle, was very much in evidonce, especislly in the wake cl£ the two

Poiish risings of 1830-1831 and 1563-1864. Alrrtost the whc~le rorritory of the former Grand Ducny of Lithuania, inrluaing

Belzrus, became officially designated as cevero-sapadnyi krai [the North-Plesterri Territory], and was regtirdeci by the imperial authorities as an inregrsl part of Russia.

This new concept of Belârus required scme sweepinq char~ges,which often affected the Belarusian part cf the p~pulation. For instance, nearly a million of the Uniate faithful wsre forced in 1839 to accept the Orthodox rsligi-n. But, above all, to reshape the f~rmerGrand Duchy intc an istinno russkii [truly Russian] land, the past, so ci~selylzonnect~d with Poland, had to be obliterateci.

Theref~r-, tne Govsrncr-General cf Vilna, Count Murziv2v, flrd~r~din 1863 that "objects rominding the people cf PrblFsh rule in this country and exciting improper dreams and criminai desires in the native pcpulation", be rcdiectcd frcm the Tyszkietiicz Mus~urnin Vilna and sent to Moscow.

Mc~reover, al1 Polish reading rooms were permanently clc~ed aown, because, as it was officially expiained, they tended

'O2 '>zedmioly. p~ominujacepokkie panowanie w tyn bahIpoahiecajace mieéy iudnoscia tubylcza niewlasciwe manenia I wystepne daznosci ". Cited in Wasilewsùi, Lima ... ,p. 62. Mytranslation. to 'stifle Russian nationality in this c~untry".'~'The

Polish language couid not be taught to the peasants, and h iri any case, were forbidden to read Polish books-

Furthermore, numerous other measures were undortaken to r~ot out al1 Polish influences, in order to faciiitate a thor~uqh

Russification of the country. 104

Naturally, in the concept O£ Belarus as part of the

North-Western Torrit~rÿ, and thus an integrûl part of

Russia, there was no place both for Polish influences and fr~rthe FI~lesthemselves. Muravevr 3 sutcessor, Governor-

G~neràlKaufman (-6)put it quite bluntly whcn hc iclld Polos ir~Vitsetssk: "In this land there caR be 90 question of any cther nationality but Russian. This is z

Russian land- YGU are msrely strangers, and if you do not znito with Russian nati~nalityin y~uïthoüghEs and feelings, if y~uviil n~tbe willing to bring up your childr2n in this spirit, then you must leavc this ccuntry as foreigners. "los In the same vein, ne instructed Poles in

Hrodna: "Yeu shculd becorne Russian from head tc foot and tako pride in the hussian name. Thât is the will of His

Maj5st-y. One cannot hesitate: no other nationality has the

103 'Stiumienia rosyjsskiej narodowosci tego kraju ". Cited m Wasiiewski, Litwa ..., p. ~3.My translation. lad Wasilewskr, Li m...,pp. 61 60. 'O5 "W îym baju nie moze byc mowy o zdnej im~nurodowosci, proct rosyjskief. To bqj msyjski. Wyscre pqbys~amityib, ajesii mysiami I ucnrcicuni nie zespolicie sie z narodowoscia rosyjska 1nie zechcecte yvchowywac dzieci swoich w tym duchu, behiecie musieh kraj ?en opuscicj4ko cudzoziemcy. " Cited in Wasilewski, Ltrwo ..., p. 63. My translation right to live here but Russian. For those who think

differently there is no place in this land; their place is

there--bsÿond the Bug [River] . "'O6 Ind~ed,the Tsarist government meant business. Do-

P~lonizationof Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine, were among

the main tasks of the administration. As the Rüssian

governm~nt's representative at the IYoly See, P. Kapnist, put

it, "For Russia, this is a matter of prime importance: to

eradicate the Polish element and the Polonization in the

vwestern - Provinces of the Empire. Nothing can stop her in

this path. She will go ahead despite any obstacle."107

From the Belarusian point ~f view, the determineci

hussiafi effort at de-Poionization of Belarus ssemea t~ be s

welcome development as it airned to break centurizs-lcng,

Pc2lish cultural domination, Russians werc quick to p~rceive

it as such and tried to appear to be dofenders of the

peasant "non-Polish population" against P~lishlandowners.

Thus, the famed decree of Decernber 10, 1865, declared:

"therc is only a tiny Polish contribution to the t~talof

teri million people in the Western Territory [Belorus,

Lithuania, and Ukraine]. This population, which consists

lM "Powinnisciesie stuc Rosjonami od srop do glow I cWubic sie nazwo 'Rosjanina '. Takajest wola Najlusniejszego Puna. Nie woho walroc sie: ta& inno norodowosc WCniema ruprawa, r#o rosyjska. Kfoinacqj mysli. datego niema miejsca w tym bah,dia tego miejsce tam-ta Bugiem. " Cited in Wasilewski, Li m...,p. 63. My üanslation 'O7 Cited in Sipovic, The Language ..., p. 1S. . .? II!< .. ... na d-iesiec mxlionow ludnosci kram zachodniego ludnosc polsko rv nim jest znibmo nielie-no. Ltrdnosc ta. skladaj*acasic przewcnie z ob_vwoieli ziemskich, rradaje eulemu krajowi charukter polski 1 rrie po-wuh pozosrafej, wcafe niepofskiej ludtrosci ro,wijac sie prawidfowo I ko~~vsfacrra ro wrri t rfrri+bmi y oddandmiz licznych podjetych refonn. " Cited in Wasilewsh, Poli ryka..., p. 30. My translation. ")L~kevich,k-=a russkago je+, pp. 494-495. cited in Sipovic. "'The Language ..., p. 14-23. 110Zhirkevick p. 1 1, cited in Sipovic, "The Languags ..., p. 20. '" "Spisok s otnoshenüa k Minisln gosudarstvennykh irnushchestv Murav'eu ot 10 üunia 1857 goda za ru. 1658", ZapisXi losiya Mitropohta Lirovskagu iSt. Petersburg, L883!, II? p. (52 1. cited in Sipovic. "The Language ...', p. 6. "'C. Sipovic, 'The Language ...' p. 6. '13 Cited in Mc- p. 104. '14 Mc- p. 1O4. " A. Potebnia Dva issledovaniia O -7>ukukh mssbgo iazyka Noronezh 18~33,p. 7 1, cited in McMillin, p. 104. it had the resources ever to becorne a true literary

ianguagc, 116

The few European linguists and ethnographers, however,

~rhoqave any thought to Belarusian, did not agroe with

Russian scholars. For them, whother a full-fledged dialect

Cr not, Esldrusian was related tc Polish. Thus, -ne Gcrman

scholar of the period concurred with rhs pini ion cbf "the gre~te~tSlay~~nic scholar of the KVII c." , the Croât Juri-j

Kryzanic, who held, "Belarusian fsr £rom being independent is s mfre variant, or corruption of the F~lish"."' Another

German srh~larmaintain~d that Bclarusians 'have a separarc, but still lârgely unknown dialect, which appears to te mix~d with Palish" ,"'

Virtually al1 Poiish scnolars, ameng them surh giants as Samuel E, Linde and Adam Mickiewicz, zgr~edthat

Belarusian was a dialect ctf P~lish."~One Rÿpinski even aevised th5 terrn "hiite Ruthenian" instead of the then- wici~ly-usca '"White Russian", in order tu ernphasize the diffsr~nccbetw~on Bclarusians and Rus~ians.~~~

"%c~illm, p. 105, 1W. ' l7 Josef PerwoK Slavionsknia vzaimnosr ' s drmeishikh wetnm do m'III veku (St. Petersburg, L 874), cïted in McMillin, p. 105. ' '' 'Lhabeneine eigene, aber noch sehunbekannte Mundm, welche mir dem Pohischen vennischr sein sol/'*.J. C.von Adelung, Mi~rida~esoder dgemeine Sprochkrnde mit dem Voler Unser ah Sprachprobe in beynabefienjhunder Sprachen und Mundarten (Beriin, 1902), Part 11, p. 63 1, cited in McMillin, pp. 105- 106. My translation. "'McMillin, p. 105. 12' A- Radwan Rypinslq Introduction to Njaczyscik, 18% edition, cited in McMillin. p. 105. Most scholars, particularly the Russians, founà

Belarusian extremely displeasing. Descriptions such as

"hdge-podge" and "corruption" were used as a matter of

course. One Russian scholar went even so far as t~ state in

1665 that Belarusian was "the most repulsive mixture

imaginable that has ever existed in Rus'". "' Another Russian

scholar chararterized the venerable Old-Belarussian language

of Francis Çkaryna as "barbarit-y and gibberi~h"."~

However, numerous Polish aut hors, who considered

Belarusisn a Polisn dialect, were better dispos4 to

perceive the riches of the tongue, even though ackncwledging

its de£icienries. Thus, Rypinski wroto in Beiarusian: "We11,

1 am singing for you--/ Accept my Little song! !/ Perhaps it is not a song? Gibberish?!/ But stili, it is cur ~wn--

ours ! ! ! "12'

Indeed, many members of the landowninç class in

Belarus, although culturally Polish, felt a kind of reqiorial patriotism. In thst £rame of mind, anything from the region, even the generally despised "peasant language", had its

sentimental value to them and seemed worth supporting.

-- - 12' "somaia orvrazitel'naiasmes', kakuiu rolJkomozhno sebe predsravit ' I kokaia kugda-fi60 mshches~vovahna Rusi ". O. M. Bodjanskij, OpoiskclWt moiW. v PoznansAoi biblioteke (1 865.1, cited in McMillin, p. 108. My translation- 12? "vanarshchinu I tarab-hchina ". 0.1.Eazykov, Entsikhyedicheskii lebikon (St. Petersburg, 1837), VIII, pp. 568-569. Mytranslation. '23 -Nu,ja ~abieI pab-/Pwi piesienku ma&!Y MOZUhefa nie piesn? Kasa?!/ Da usio z raki svaja-- nasa!!. Appendage to Polish verse Dla Artemsusro Weryhi. W imiomku (1860), cited in Mc- p. 1W. My translation. Edward Wojnillowicz, a great landowner and the president of

the Agricultural Association in Minsk, thus thanked

Alsksander Jelski, another landowner, for sending him some

brochures in Belarusian: "1 am convincod that these

Belarusian booklets will quickly be circulated when Our

iandcpwriers are gathered in some qreater nunibers at the

nectins of the Agricultural Assn. in Minsk: everycne finds

this tongue pleasant--overy One cf US feil asleop in the

cradle to the folksongs of our nannies and dry-nurses.

Zveryono communicates with the lcca2 people in this tangue:

hign regards, then, to you, dear Sir, for addressing us so

faniliarlÿ . "12'

Thus, the landowners who c~nsideredthemsolves

rulturaily Polish bcgan the pioneer work of cr~atinqa

9slarusian litsrature based on the rich folklorc of the

"local people". This in itself advanced the notion of

B~iarusianas a tongue of perhaps not necessarily a PoFish

hut rather a "brother people". As Gne cf the rnost notea

~ariyBelarusian authors, Polish landowner Wincenty Dunin-

P.Iarcinkiewicz, put it in 1861: "Living among people speaking

5-larusian, deeply immersed in their way of thinking, and

124 L-Je~ternprzekonany, iz re broszurki bialomskie preh sie rozejdu ..., gdy liczniej nase riemiansîwo na posiekenie Tow. Rahiczego w Mimh sie zbierze: hdemu renjezyk miIy~kazdyr nas rarypid w kolebce przy tudowych piosenkach n(~sfychnianiek I piastunek Katdy w pnjezy h...sie z hdem miejscowym poro~?rmiewa,a wszeIRie dohmeniu danme rodowe mykle w fymje+ sa pisme: czasc wiec Srpunu, iz... tak swojsko sie do nos odezwai. 'meleîter of E. Wojdowicz to A. Jelsùi of May 12, 1896, cited in Turonek, Waclmu..., p. 12. My translation. dreaming about th5 better future of this brother people,,..I

decided to write in their own tongue in order to mcourage

them towards education in the spirit of their own custarns

and traditions and according tg their abilitie~"."~

Thus, the concept of Belarus as a territory perhâps

smnewhat different than Poland proper, but still within the

Pcnlish cultural and even political sphere, has endured-

Nâturally, in this concept, the idcas of class solidarity

and cooperation between Polish landowners and Belarusian

peasants Lecarne prominent, Polish landowner Wladyslaw

Syrokomla expressed the idea in one of his Belarusian poems written in the mernorable year of 1848, when socizl and

national revolutions shook the entire European continent

[except the Russian Ernpir-): "The pezisant shoula stand with

the lords as brothers/ Hand ir! hand, and shoulder to

sh~ulder./With the pen on a sheet, and a plough in the

fieid/ One another snould help to be equal". "6 Poiitically, cf course, "it will b~ eâsier for the heart, when the

Muscovite perishes", because then "the enemy fr~mthe

Muscovite land will not corne" anpore, 127

12' 12' V.1. Dunin-MartsHikevich, Zbor tvorov (MmS 19583, p. 46. 126 LLM~kz panami sraie za-pan-bracie/ Ruh taA, a hm& ra hm&./ Piarom nu karcie, dy sachoj na rriwtdA&in &homu rounusc zasciaroi~." Wladyslaw Syrokomla, "Dobsje wiesci", cited in Turonek, Waclaw..., p. 3 1. My translation. lZ7 "lahcrejbudie sercu,jak zhiniec mashi"; "nie pwrX1&ieworah z rnc~kousACIIIakaju ". Syrokomia, "Dobryje.-.", cited in Turonek Wuclm..., p. 30. My translation. ------

'LE ~~POIS~~~podr1ialasiu =a wasa I wopl swobodu ...Bru[~ Bielonrscy, prys=la pora dobrajn. Prncztriciaz sia I dappawszy Boha u pomoszcz, branicie woli, ziamli I wiev wu= ej... " Cited in Kosman, Historia.- .., p. 233. My translation. Cited in Jan Zapnidnik and Thomas E. Bucl. The 1863 Uprising in B-~e~~~frssiff:"Peosonls ' Tmth '' and "Lertersfi-ornBenearh rhe Gallows " (Texrs and cornmenruries) (New York, 1 %O), p. 54. 13' Some rather unscrupulous authors omit in their citations the words "&om near Warsaw", thus changing the whole meaning of the passage, cg. Leo Horosko, "Kastus Kalinouski: Leader of the National Uprising in Byelorussia 18636.1", The Jotln~olof Byelonrssian Snrdies CI, 1, 15369, p. 35. "' Cited in Zaprudnk and Bir4 p. o8. "'The ukase oPTsar Alesander II of lm. 6, 1870 (n. S.), cited in Sipoiic. "The Language ...", p. 14. 133 Sipovic, "The Language ...", p. 16. ariot her three decades, tended to make Cath~licBelarusian

pasants more self-awzre and eventually 1st tnem acquire a

sense of being a separate national group."' Also, the fact

t hat al1 Belarusian literature of the nineteenth ccrttury was

writton in the Latin script (albeit in its Polonized

versionj made the Catholir Belarusians better prsparvti to

assiniilat2 any cQncept cf Belarus as a separate national

entity. Even as recontly as the 1950~~Belurusian CathrpLi.zs

in Poland often managed tc preserve their Belarusian

Iznguage better than the Orthodox. 135

Surprisingly, however, the first concept of Bclarus as

a separate national entity was formulatod in St. Petersburg

by the Belarusian members of the 311-Russian Populist mcveinent Narodrraia volia. In 1884, in their clandestine

rlrgan -3cirnan [Clamor], sub-titlcd "Belarusian social-

r5v~olutionaryreviewJJ, they cieclarod that thoir "main task, as [Belarusians], is to zampaign for the federal

137 indopondence cf [~elarus]"13' within the Russian state.

Accnrding tc~Homan, Belarusians were "a plebeiari nation",

'jJ The predominant role played by the Catholic Belarusiâns in the national movement is ernphasikd by Sadowskr, pp. 68-70;at îhe sarne he,Eugeniusz Mironowicz, p. 74, stresses how difticdt it was for the Orthodo'c.peasant to accept the concept of one's own nationality. As one Belarusian national activist observed, "these Catholics speak better [Belanisian] and with purer accent than our Orthodox people". Cited in J. Love& "Polska, jakiej nie znamy. Bialonisini", Zycie Literackie (9, 1966), cited in J. Zaprudr& "Byelonissia's Representatives in the Second State ba", The Jourtlal of Byelomss~anSîudies (I11,3, i976), p. 237. '% Cited in Antony Adamovic, 'The KW-KoiasCentury 1882- 198î7', The Jarrnal of Byeior~ssim Studies iV, 2, 1982), p. 8. '~7Turonek, Waclow..., p. 21. like "the Slavic ~>eoplesin Austria, [or] the Finns in

Finland". The peasants have 'piouaiy ...preservea the

foundations of their lifp" despite "treacherous attsmpts to

Polonizo or Russify them". Now, the crucizl issue was "the

emergence of their own intelligentsia who would no% uproot

those fcjundations but would devel~pand build on thern", 134

Soon, however, the 3elarusian social-r~volutionary

grî~upin St. Petersburg was uuppressed by Tsarisc poiice,

anci their call, in any evont, did not elicit any support

among the Belarusian peasants. The burden of Leadership as

fsr as the Beiarusian cause was concerneci returned to the

Catholic Belarusians who lcoked ÇG Craccm rûther than to St,

Petsrsburg . There, in 1891, Francisak Eahusevic, the former

fightor in the Polish rising of 1863, published his poem

Düdka bielâruskaja [Belarusian Pipe], This publication,

arcording to the n~tedrontemporary expert, Professor

Karskii, gave "the really decisive impetus to the Selarusian

mcIvementm. 133 Indeed, the aurhor presenteci in his work a new

concept of the Beldrusian tongue. He maintains there thât it

is "just as human, just as noble as French, German or any

~therlanguage" and "for us is sacred because it was given

to 11s by God". Moreover, since the language is what sets the

S. Ch. Aleksandrovich, A. A. Lojka, and V. P. Rahoisha, comps. Belanrshia firurafura XU: stahod&ia. Khestomatyia [Belarusian Literatiire of the Nineteenth Century: A Reader] Wensk, 1071 ), pp. 193- 194, ciîed in Zapmdnik, Beims..., p. 59. '39 E. F. Karskii, Belorujy. Ocherki slovesnosti belorusskogo plemeni (Petrograd, 1%!2), III, p. 1 53. Selarusians apart from other peoples, the poet warns: "do

nGr forsake our Belarusian language, lest puSie [as

Belarusiarïsf". Finally, instead of the usual laments ovcr

rhe land and cornplaints about its neighbours, Bahusevic

paints a moving and inspiring, if sornewhat idealized, image

~f Belarus: "She was neither Great nor Smali, neither Red

nclr Black, but White anC Pure, she kiiled nsbcdy and irijured

noimdy, but only defendeci hers4fU.140

That Dudka bielaruskaja could give that "decisive

impetus" was also thanks to the Polish socialists who ncbt

oniy financed its publication but also smuggled it in

ccnsiderable numbers across the Ru~sianb~raer. 14' Indeod,

many other Belarusian booklets were printed in Gâlicia,

F~zrian, Tilsit, even London thariks to the artivists crf the

Polish Socialist Party (PPS), and then smuggled into Rüssia

by rhe party's well ~rganizedunderground network. 142 (This was very important, because Belarusian writings in Latin

script were banned in Russia from 1867 to 1904, and there was no tontemporary Belarusian literature in ~irillic.'43 j

The PPS did so because at its Paris congress of 1892,

it decided to conduct its activities in al1 the "provinces

14' 14' Cited in Adamovic, 'The Kupala-Kolas...", pp. 9. 11. '" Turonek, Waclow... ,p. 24. 142 For instance, according to the extant report, 332 &lanisian booklets were smuggied through the border crossing near Taurogi in only 1895. Cited m Materialy do historii PPS 1mchu rewohrcy~negow zaborze rogyskim od 1893 r. do 2 904 r. Rok 1893-1897 (Warsaw, 1907), p. 173, cited m Turonek, Wacth..., p. 24. '43 Turonek, Waclaw..., p. 35. :J1 "+prowincjeduwniej R-e~~~ospo/itoPoiska -7wiuzane ". Cited in Ahreria!v... , p. 1 9, ci ted in Turonek Il't~ckmv..., p. 24. My translation. '" " czesc ludrr prawacego rra Litwie jest polska ", ( Jozf Pilsudski), -.It.tIvkilwsrepry, " Wd." i 1. 1902 1. Citcd in Jurhewicz, p. 34. My translation. 146 "... rozbicie panstwa rovjsk~egona glowne czesci skiadowe 1 irsamowolnienie pcemoca wcielon-vcl~w skfad imperirtm krajow. " Jozef Pilsudski's mernoriai to the government of Japan, subrnitted in 1004. Cited in Jozef Pilsudski Pisma zbiorowe. II, p. 253, cited in Edmund Charaszlaewic~"Pmbudowa Wschodu Europ y: Materialy do polityki wschodniej Joze fa Pilsudskrego w latach 1803- 102 1 ',.ViepodiegIosc ( 5. 1 955). p. 136. Mytmnslabon. 147 '-calkarvzf_vm uprmieniu narodawosci, wchod=ac~vc~~w skiad Rzeczypospo fitej na zasad-ie dobrowo/rrejfederacji. " The resolution of the PPS congress of 1832 in Paris, cited in Leon Wasiiewski "Do hrstorü zjazdu paryskiego 1842 r.') Niepodleglosc (8, 1933), p. 1 11, cited in Stanisiaw Biegansh, "E5kudski 1 Lenin O nichach rewolucyjnych I narodowych, Niepodleg/osc (3, 195 1 ), p. o0. My translation. !JS "Katofickacesc fiidnosci bialonrskiq) ors= czesc oportr_vcl~zrlega silnie wp!wowi pofszc~vzr~~v, prawosI~~t~a-ru~=~czyzny~" Cited in Stanislaw Bieganski. "Pils'udski 1 Lenin O ruchach rewolucyjnych I narodowych*,Niepodleglosc (3, 135 1 ), p. 75. My translation. 123 "W tych warunkoch... nie innego nie mozem-v wys~awic,jakdazente do oderwanra histotycnej Litny = doq~nieobeslonymi granicami od Roqi, z pozostawieniem p-vszlemrc porommr eniu sie narodoyvch gnrp socjufisryctnycI~[sprnwy rwegdowania sro~~~~kowpolit~~czr~ych]." Cited in Biegansla p. 75. My ~anslation. 15c ,. ... u~~=czd=eniesie z Po& r zabe-'piecreniem Polakom. Litwinom. Biaiorusinom i Z-vdom swobodncgo ro-wop 1zrsrrnieciem wieikiejpr=iewagijednejnarodowosci nad dnrgo, CO jest koniecznyn wobec ogromrrej gmarwaniny srosrrnh narodowusciowych. " List do Leona Wasilmskiego z 19 listopada 1899 r. [The Leîter to Leon Wasiiewski of Novem ber 19, 18931, cited in Waclaw Jedrzejewicz, --Lisîy Jozefa Pilsudshego z okresu jego pracy w PPS[The Lettas of Sozef Pilsudski fiom the Paiod of His Activity in the PPS],Niepodfegfosc (1 8, 1083, p. 12. My translation. zspirations, and to dernonstrate constantly the necessity of

overrhrowing Tsarism by mesns of coopration between the

nationalities conquerd by it. At the same tirne, the

~C~ngressenjoins the CKR [the hoad body of the party] to

give help, whenever possible, to the budding socialist

mrlvernents among thess nationalities. "'"

Ind~ed,a nsw ~ocialistparty was folrnded in 1902 by

+he Beisrusian students in St. Petersburg, 1ed by Wücl3x

Pwanowski, under the name of "aelarusian Revoluti~nary

Party" (BRP) . The new-born illegai organizati~n, which

romi~dedone mare a politiral discussion :zl1~bthan a reai

pcl.Litical party, realized that any national concept of

BeLarus had first to be based on strong national sentiments

cf the Beiarusian population. in view G£ the lack ~f

2videnc~3f such feelings, these had to be stirred up. This msould cnly ta dona by the ir~telligentsia;but this social group was predominantly Polonized. Thus, the parcy isstled a pr~ciarnstionin Pcllish as follows: "Give the pecple education, but give it in the native language

[Bolarusian] ...Nativê tonguc--it is the expression G£ the soui, its feelings and thoughts.-.To give the people

"' "... w s~omnkachswoich z grupami opozycyjnymi innych narodowosci powinnu srarac sie o rotbrrdzenie w nich dmsepararysrycctrtycit oraz yko+yuac srde àoraiennosc obalenia caram na drodze wspoi&rdania podbitych przezen narodowosci. Zarazem rjord poleca CH?niesc, w miare moznosci, pomocpoczatu&acym nrchom socjo/stycmym wwod tych narodawosci. " Cited in Turanek, Waclaw..., p. 24. Mytranslation. oducation, to let them know their native c~untry's history--

but how! There is almost no folk literature--there is no

history: they have to be created ...The Czechs, the

Lithuanians have done it, can' t you do it?"I5' Wiat the

Belarusian Revolutionary Party wanted, then, was not so much

a social, as a national revolution. The masses of Belarusian

~zountq-folkwere to be transformed by the intelligentsis

into the aelarusian nation.

Polisri socialists immediately promised tr~support that program, published nota bene in che PPS organ Przedswit in

Lr~ndon, "with al1 rneans at our disposal", 152 sven though they expressed the pessimistic view that "the chances of transforming that people irito a nationality, a% least under

toaay' s political circurnstances, are vory ;mal1 .""'

MG~PGVE~,gne of the hoted PPS activists and a native of

Bel-arus, Witold Jcldko-Narkiewicz, argued that rnass rirculation of socialist literature in Belarusisn, as practized by his party, is "more effective even in its nationzl aspect" than the arnbitious but difficult, long-term

------' 5' "Dajcie Iudowi o-ate, ale dajcieja wje~yku ojczystym.. Mowa ojczysta-loz wyroz dus~~,jej umc, mysIi..Dac iudowi oswinre, zapornac z historya oJc?ysta-de jak! Niema prmvie fiterahcry hrdowej- niema hi~oryi:shvonyc je ndezy... Czesi, Lirwini 10 zrobili, wy nie poîraficie?" Cited in Turonek, Waciaw..., pp. 28-29. My translation. '" "wszelkimi srodkami,jabe fera w nanej mocy". Przednvit (2, 1003), p. 53, çited in Turonek, p. 31. '% 'kidokjpnetwomenia sie tego ludu w narodowosc, sa. prrynajmniej przy àzisiejsrych sfosunknch poIirycznych, bardzo mole." Prredswir (2, 1 W3), p. 53, cited in Turanek, p. 3 1 . My translation. program of the BRP.15' This gentle criticism, acc0rdir.g tr>

Jerzy Tur~nek,was the expression of the PPSf distrust of the Belarusian movement which had broken with the tradition

~f Polish cultural paternalism in Belârus and decided to go its own, separate way. 156

The question which strategy would be most effective was

à reai one. Indeed, the conflict betwo~na quick, short-term gain and a long-term, low-roturn strategy--bctween political and educational activity--1ay behind the break-up of the

Belarusian Revolutionary Party in 1903. The more

~ducationallyminded members, led by Iwanoxski, founded the

Circle of Belarusian Popular Education, while the rost, b-nt more on political work, formed the Belarusian Revolutionary

Eramada, headed by the Lutskevich brothers. 157 (Tho re~lacementof the word "party" by the appellation "hrarnada"

[qroup, comunity] may have hzd s~rnethinçtrj do with the recognition that the organizâtion stiil dib not have the character r>f a regular political party.) In 1904, the two

l5' l5' 'bwvdajniejsza...nawetpod wzgledem norodowym". Przednvit (2, 1903), pp. 54-57, cited in Turonek, p. 32. My hadation. Turonek Wucim..., p. 33. '" Accordmg to Turonek, Waclûw..., pp. 33-34'46, the PPS document, "Protokol z konferencji CKR PPS z czemca 1903 r., w Minsku", The Centrai Archive of the CC PUWP [KC PZPR), sheds a new iight on the issue. hownothek only fiom A. Lutskevich's memoirs. Ail Westem authors, ignorant of the "Protoko! ...": go with Lutskevich.

'"' Turonek, Waclow... ,p. 49. i6~Turonek Waclaw..., pp. 44-45. Ic5 Turonek, Waclnw..., pp. 5 1-64. The Polish newspaper, Kurier Litewski [Lithuanian

Courier] of 'filna, warmly welcomed the primer, ana wich it a

concept of the Belarusian nation, as follows: "The peoplef s

cwn, native, national primer! That Fs strictly spoaking a

ray of their own culture. 1s there, then, even a Belarusian

cuiture? Of course, and the more so, if by culture wc

linderstand the individuality of national beirig..,T~ iearn to

read and write in Belarusian is the first, most sacred

national duty of every Belarusian". 166 At the same time,

however, the Polish journalist hsd some doubts whether the

introduction of the c~nceptof a Belarusian nation,

syrnbolized by the newly published primer, was not a

hsrbinger of "what so often poisons even the most precious

culture and often clouds the most beneficial light ~f

kncwledge, namely, chauvinism,..If cnly the questir~nCIE

bel~nginqto this or that naticnality was decided

-xciusively by onefs free and conscious choice [stress in

the oriqir,al]..,Bu'c we icnow, unfortunately, what harvest

will follcw the sowing of a11 that propaganda, exhorting,

urqing, rousing, ~mbittering, and spurring people 10

166 "Wasny, rodmviry, norodawy eiemenfan!Toc scisle rzecz biome: promyk krifury wlamej. Wiec isrnieje I biuionrska krlnrra? Occywfscie, a tpa bur&iej_fezeii pod kailturu rozumiec bedtiemy in~wihalnoscistoty narodowej..Nauczycsie czytoc Ipisac po biaiotush toc pnecie pienvsy, nojswietszy obowiatek narodowy katdego Biaiomsina ". "Elemefitarz biaioniski", Kurier Lirewski (July 25, 19061, cited in Turonek, Waciaw..., p. 54. My translation. fiqht..,We sincerely wish the Belarusian primer not to bring

with it al1 that train of misf~rtune."'~~

C~rtainly,the clearly nationalistic approach to the

problem of a concept of Belarus prpsented by Jakub Kolas,

one of the two qreatest Belarusian pets, and the pillar of

Nasha IJiva, in his poem, Belorussiia, did nothing to dispel

the P~lishj~urnalist' s worries: "Beside GG~'s [Orthodoxj

cnurches/ Tower the [Catholic] churches, / The citios toom xith Jews, / O my unhappy native land!"'"

This was only a harbinger of things to corne. Generaliy,

the Nasha Niva movement has only rarely been accused of

:i?nrjphobis. or chauvînism. 164 Indeed, its coontemp~rary,

Professor Karskii, maintained that "The merit of Masha Niva

lies also in that it avoids any incitement of one nztion

âgainst the other (and thele are seversi in Beiarus j , retaining a perfectly impartial attitude towards thcm. 170

In any case, the Belarusiar! weekly Nasha Niva [Our

Field], the unofficial organ of the Belarusian Socialist

16' "CO ~akczesto zotmwa najcenniejszo nawet kuhre Ipqycmiewa ni- na,dobrocrynniejne swiado wiecty, mmianowicie: szowinizm... Gdyby kwesrie naiezenio do rej czy intiej narodowosci rozstt-rygal fi 1-vko 1wyfacznie dobrowohv swiadomy wvbor,. . Ale wiemy, niestety,jakie zasiewaja plmy owe wsystkie propagmdy, nawddvwania,prtynugimia, budteniu, rozgoryaania I ragnewaniu do w& .. Sertiemie zyczymy efemenramawibio/oruskiemu, oby nie wniosl ze soba korowodu ~ychwszystkich 'szczesIiwwci "'. "Elementarz bialoniskï", Kurier Litewski (July 25, \906),cited in Turonek, Wuclmu-..,pp. 54-55. My translation. 1C8 "Riadoms Bozhimi tserhi/ Vysiarsia kostelyJ Goroda kiJhat zizidami/ Krai moi neveseiyi!" cited m Adarnovic, 'me Kupala ...", p. 14. 16' 16' Pcrhaps not surprisingly7by the Polish nationai demmts in Vilna, e.g. Jozef I-Ilasko, "Antypolska lampania 'Naszej Niwy"', Kurier Lirewski (97,19 12), and Aieksander Zwierzynski, "Nie tedy droga", Kunw Litew.(93, 1912), cited in lurkiewiq Romj..., p. 99. 170 Karskii, p. 163. Bergmanowa, p. 574, and Nadson, p. 205, concur with Karskii. Hramada, established in 1906, was certainly less radical

than its short-lived predecessor, Nasha Dolia [Our Fate], whose al1 six issues were confiscated by censorship

officiais. Thus, Nasha Dolia's subtitle, pierszaja bi2làruskaja hazeta wiaskowaha 1 miasteczkowaha raboczaha

narodu [The First Belarusian Paper for Working People in

TJill.3ge and Town] was toned d~wntr, Nash3 Niva's piersza ja

Dielaruskaja nazeta z rysunkami [The First Belarusian Paper with Illustrations].171 Mile its predecessor printeci the poerns in the vein of Prysiaha nad krywawymi razorami [The

Oath Sworn over the Bloody Ruins], Masha Niva explained tc the read~rsin its first issue: "Do not think that we want to serve only the lr~rdsor only the peasants. No, never! We. wârit to serve the entire wronged Belaruçiân nation".17' This apparent rlass solidarity, hswever, rings hollow in light cf the fact that "the lords", that is the landowners, who were a privileged caste, could only with the greatest ciiffirulty be regorded 3s part of a "wronged" nation. Inde~ci, Jâküb

Kolas assertod in one of his poerns of the period, "No, we r~illnot fully live/ Until the lords have beon hanged! "ln

171 Cited in Bergmanowa, pp. 563, %P. ln "Nie mysicie, ze chcemy siuzyc tyhpanom hrb tylko chiopom. Aile. nlgdy! Chcemy siuryc calemu sikywdzonemu narodowi bioiorusâiemu ",cited in Bergmanowa, pp. 570. My translation. 173 "Nie. nie bedzie da nas zycia, / Dopoki panowie nie zosiana powywieszunil", cited in Kosman, p. 273. My translation. !74 Anton Navina (Anton Lutskevichj, -4dbituje zyccio (Vilna 1939:)'p. 22. cite6 in Adamovic, 'The Kupala ...", p. 19. '?' Cited in Nadson, p. 188. '7%~ra Rich transl.. Like Water, Like Fire: ..ln .4nthofogy of Byelomssian Poetryfiom 1825 to the Presenr Duy (London,1071), p. 60.

different but the vowels, syllables, and words are the same,

the language the same, ana the people who speak cne

ianyuage, are nativa brothers. "leO

In 1912, however, Nasha Niva sided -dith those whc,, iike

Janka Kupala (the other of the two national Belarusian

poets), believed that "There is one great [Belarusian]

ccuntry, one multi-rnillisn [Belarusian] nation; this notion

has one [Belzrusian] language, and a book in the native

tclnquo has no right to divide it into two halves--lathclic

and Orthodox--as it has been done hitherto by means of

religicn, helped by printing the native idion1 in two

alpha~ets". 181

Thus, the "single alphabet fcir the Beiarusiari language"

;-ras rhosen. It wss the Ciriliic. However, the t.=or~teptr~f

Bslarus as a country of the Cirillic script bid not sit -del1

with the Belarusian Catholics, espocially beyause reasoninq

sirnilar to Kupalafs could be emplt;yed tc justify their

forzible conversion to Orthodoxy--something, as showri in

Chapter 1, which they feared quite intensely. Therefore, in

1913, a new paper, Eieiarus [The Belarusian], airned at

180 di ... wybieraj, CO sfe podoba, aby wiedzial kazdy, ze choc iirery rozne, de gloski, syiaby I slowa le same, j+ !en sam Iiudzie, krony mowiajedn-yn jezykiem. ro bracia rodreni ". Bielamski lemenfat...., p. 4, cited in TuroneC; Wuciaw..., p. 41. My translation. Ig1 c'Hutarki z chytacharni Iaki shryft?", Naha Niva (5, 19 12), cited in Nadson, p. 203. Belarusian Catholics was established and printed exclusively in the Latin s~ript.'~'

Three years earlier, the f irst national history of

Belarus was put togethe1 by Vatslau Lastouski. Undoubtedly, his Karotkaia historyia Belarusi [Short History of Bclarus] can be considered more a nationalist vision of Belarus' past than a scholarly, sine ira et studio historical work. The author had nc formal historical education, and hc himself explained, '1 did nct have the ability to produce a work of scholarship resulting £rom a long peri~dof research. 1 wroto what 1 could,..". 183 Indeed, in compiling his book, spanning a period of 1,000 years, Lastouski usod .ZI grand t~talof eighteen sources in Russian and Polish. 184

Signifizantly, however, the author cf this unscholarl- work did bring a new perspective as he aimed at "evaluating certain cvsnts in my own wcy sccording to the benefit qr narm they brought to the [Belarusian] people". 185 Cl~arly,

Lastouskif s understanding of history was rather utilitarian; it was to hirn "the foundation on which the life of any nation is built. If we are to build our Life anew, we musc

Nadson, p. 204. 183 Vlast, Karorkaia historyia Belmusi (Vilna, 19 1O), p. iii, cited in V. Sienkievic, "Lastouski the Historian and his Historicai Views", The Journal o/Bye/olyssian Smdies (V, 3-4, 1982), p. 6. Sienkievic, p. 6. '*' Vlast, p. iii, cited in Sienkievic, p. 6. begin with the foundations so that the building will stand

Lastouskifs approach is understandable, since a national mythology based on a peoplefs past is generally much more effective in arousing national feelings in the p-opls than a scholarly historical work. Sometim~s,h~wever, the spirit of national mythology led the author too far, for instance, whon he campaigned for the replacement of the name

"Eslarusians", which he interpretcd as "poor man's

187 Xussians", by the appellation "Kryvirhy".

Even though in this case the arguments of whzt he p~rceivedâs "sound l~gic,history, [as well as] the interosts and traditions of our renaissance"i88were rejected

Gy rhe Belarusians themselves, Lastouskifs concept of

Eelarus' history was very popular. Wis book "laid the foundation for the writing of Belarusian history" and wss the standard textbook on the subject in Soviet Belarus until th2 late 1920s.""

As important as Lastouskif s pcfiitical concept clf

Belarusf past may hâve been, certainly more important was the political concept of Belarusf present. The latter was dealt with by a small circle of the Nasha Niva editorial

184 Vlast, p. iii, cited m Sienkievic, p. 5. ln Kryvic (1 012, 19251, pp. 43-46, cited in Sienkievic, p. 12. KWC! 10/2, 1925), pp. 45-46, cited in Sienkievic, p. 12. las Sienkieviç, p. 5. hi wâs riot included in it, "the 'upperf cha~txr''. Tti~re~

7 #fl V. Lastouski "Maie uspaminy ab M. B~danovicy7'.Krp~r, ( 1, 1 1, 1 926). pp. 82-63. cited in Adamovic. "TheKupafa ...", p. Io. 191 Wasilewskq Lima..., p. 1 18. .i?"- Nasha Nxva ('12. 19071, pp. 8-7. Cited in J. Zaprudniii. "Byelonissia's Representatives in the Second State Durna", The Journal ofByelorussian Sludies (TII,3, 19765, p. 234. The demand of agrarian refzrrn was indeed very popular

amrlng th^ Belarusisn peasants who clearly dgrced thst "Our

first need is th- land".1o3 On the other hand, th- land(~wner3

never S~GWF~much enthusiasm ahut it, cven thcjuqh man.( cf

rhem

natirbnal (cause.

T,rie dernznd for rogi-nal zr~tcncmy, r,did

Sri jc.'lj much supp~rtamr)ng the Bol.zri_isian ptâsântry. In

~~eneral,they tcnded to be indiffererit to qucstic~nsothcr

rk-lari thoir imrnediüte we11-bcing. "An erripty 3tr~rni~zhis deaf

-#-- _-. pïez~=hings,II clnt ptzsant dcpxty tc the Dima declzred, - ;,ciding crnphat icâlly : "wha t dc L ne4 [ self-gc.vornmer~r ar~d

civil liberty] for if 1 am dying cf h~n~er?""~Anotner

peasarit deputy assert~cichat klclth Grthwir~:~:anc C.zirh~ii81

9rlaru3ian pasants "n~edland, n~tai_itcInGmyf'. 195

Tc- ~zorripiicat_~the mattersr it was nrtt I11~arwhethci-

rhcro shoulci be r,ne .'iutclr~~rn~~ussntity fr,r Belarus anci

Lithuani.î togothcr, clr rather rwc1 zieparate autoncmr~us

-~gic~ns.The Lithuanians, in any c.33ef 3id nrlt lil-s the

fcrmcr s(2lution, sirice they fcarcd that they w~ulclbe

193 From the speech of Korenkov, a Belmian pwant dquty of Mahileu province to the First Duma cited in JanZaprudnik, "The Stnggie for Byelonissia's Autonomy in the First State Duma", The Journal of B-velontssiarr Studies 01, 3, 107 1'). p. 3û 1 . '" From the speech of Kroskovsk~,a pesant deputy fhrn Minsk province to the Second Duma, cited in J. Zapruw "Byelorussia's...", p. 236. 135 Gosudarsrvennaia Duma. Stenografwheskie Otchery (St. Petersburg 1907).Second Duma. 1. col. 15 1 1. Cited in Zaprudnilq "Byelonissia's ...", p. 236. dominated Isy the more numerous Belarusians, while the latter

invclved a controversy cver the Vilna region which was

claimed by Goth national movements. 196

Indeed, the Li thuanian naticrial movement, as seon in

the Mernorial of November 15, 1905 to Count Witte, declared

nclt only the province cf Vilna but also that of Hrodna tc G-

art clf the Lithuanian ethnographic area. The mernorial declareci that the Lithuanians regard the Belarusians of

chese parts "as Slavicized Lithuanians", and "the Poles,

JPWS,RUSS~O~LS and others [who lived there] as recent arrivzls". 197 The Lithuanian Congross cf 1905 dernanded

3utoncmy for ethnographic Lithuania understocci this way, with its parliament in Vilna. 198

.7lne 1 city c>f Vilna, howevor, was c~nsiderdthe national csntre n~tonly by the Belarusians and Lithuanians.

Inhabitcd slmost e:cclusivoly by PQIPS and Jews, it was cailed the "Lithuanian Jerusalem" by the latter,:cc wnil~the former îiaimed its Polishness "on grounds of the othnographic status cpo". 'Oo The issue cf Vilna was indeod

"'Jurkiewicz p. 98. '97 "=azedowianszczonych Litwan~~'~;"Poirrkaw, Zydow, Rosjan I innnnvch-zaprzybyszow porniejszych "- The mernorial's main points are cited in Wasilewski, Lirwa. ..,~p.102-104. My translation. Ah,in Michal Roemer. Litwa. Studium O odrodzmiu narodu iitewskiego (Lviv, 1S%8), p. 428, cited in Jurkiewict, p. 79. 1 ça "Uchwaly Zjazdu", in Roemer, Lima,.., p. 393-395, cited in Jurkiewiq p. 79. '99 ''Mernorial O stosunkach politycznych w guberni FRilenskiej pod panowaniern rosyjskun zlowny po powrocie do Wilna przez bylego rosyjskiego oberprokuratora Samislowskiego. Wilno, w iipcu 10 18". Cited in Suhennicki, "WiIno ...", p. 99. 200 "na gnrncie sraius quo ernograficznego ". M. Roemer, Slosunki emogra~czno-kuhrdneno Li~ie (Cracow, 19û6), p. 10. Cited in Jurkiewicz, p. 79. My translation crucial, for, as one contemporary expert put it, "The

possession of Vilna gives the title to the possession of tn~

[sntir~]country because it [the city] is the heart of

p~litical-historical Lithuania". 20 1

Finally, there was no roal popular support for the

aemand tc* introduce the Belarusian language in the non-

iiturgical f unctions cf the two zhurches, Orthodox and

Câtholic. The Catholic Belarusians, who until 1905 were

forrnally discriminated against by the Imperia1 government, 202

feared thst Beldrusian, officially c~nsidereda Russian

dialect , will cventually be rsplaced by Russian, t hat being

just the next step in guiding the Catholic faithful int~the

Orthodox f01d."~ Notvithstanding that the Imperia1

gcvernmrnt would nsver permit use cf Belarusian in Orth~dox

churshes, Orthodox Bolzrusians wore gsnerally quitr happy

xith the Russian, a recognizod and prestigious Isnguage,

king employed by the priests in relations .dith the

faithful.

TG solve this problem--£rom the nati~naliststandpoint

.3drriittedly a difficult situation--the leadership of the

Nash Niva movement reintroduced the idea of the Uniate

Church. They felt that this denomination would help

~--- 20 1 "Posia&~ie Whasranowi @rddo p0si4d~iak-a~u, 60 onojesr sercem poldtyc,rno-historycznej Li- " Roemer, Stosunki..., p. 9. Cited in Jurkiewic~p. 79. M*j translation. "'Wasilewski Politykn..., p. 3 1; Jurbewicz, p. 18. 203 JUTkiewin, p. 98. individualire and distinguish the Belarüsians £rom Catholic

Pcles and Orthodox Russians, and therefore it sh~ulcibecorne

the national Belarusian religion. Ivan Lutskevich even made

3 trip to Lviv in Austrian Galicia where he induced the head

of the Uniate Church, Archbishop Sheptytskyi, to rec~nnoitre

psrsonally the situation in Belarus. The Archbishop,

hc:wever, goinq there incognito, was qüickly detected by

7~mperial police, and nad t~ leave Belarus in a hurry. The

idea itsclf was dropped. 204

Thus, in reality, the Nasha Niva concept cf Belarus,

with the exception of the agrarian ref~rmissue, did not

have much support among the Belarusian masses. Moreover,

important external obstacles certainly did not help its

rnsnces of implementation. The difficulty of the situation was shown by the fact that the Belarusian weeklyf s average

circulation was only atout three thou~and'~~which, £cc a

"multi-million Belarusian nation", was very modest indeed.

Above ali, after the revolution of 1905-1907, the Belarusian

Socialist firamada suspended its activities as a political

Party, and wns thus unable to get anjr of its mernbers or

sympathizers elected to any one of the four successive sssemblies of the State Duma -'O6

2~ Wasilewskï, Lima ..., pp. 124125. 205 A good discussion of the issue can be found in Bergmanowa, p. 572. mi Turonek, Waclow..., pp. 44-45. . VI~-- Zaprudnik, "Byelorussia's ...", p. 229. "~urhewiczpp. 55-56.lists Ihe names of the Polish representatives of each province t the total of 18 1. Zaprudnik. "The Struggle...", p. 20 1, cites the nurnber of Polish deputies as 13 out of 36, but he does not gïve theïr names, so it is impossible to know whom he counts as Polish and whom not. 2M 7hs Poikh tmn krajowcy means litedy *-theinhabitants of the country, land [hj]"and, hencs, &.the natives". By the Kraj- the Krajowcy meant the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania also hown as histotical Lithuania, or Liti~uanktand Belanis. rdsy turn their native [Belarusian] soi1 with wooden

Thsso pi~pi+,"spoaking and t hinking (3nly in Ff3lish8',

ihc f~rnierGrand Liuchy] "."' They did SI, tlrîause, as Ine cf

'!O '!O W.Lecinich, Pamietniki, II, p. 55 1. Cited in Zaprudnik, "TheSûuggie.. .', p. 206. X' Leciniclci p. 542. Cited in Zaprudnik, "TheStniggle ...", p. 205. 'Ir "Nqjlepsle rradycje R-eczypospolitej przekazalv nam haslo pos=anowanio narodowosci ". Ro ...munt (Roman Shunt), Nowe huslu w sprmie odrodzenia trarudowosci lirewskiej iLviv, 1904). p. 12. My translation. :13 S. ... wsrod sziachty powazna gmpa h&-i sercem I dusza oddanych sprawom scislejszej swojej ojc-yny- 4.1twy i Rrrsi ". Romunt (Roman Shunt), Clos prre~losciI potrzeba chwili ('Lviv. 1 9351,p. 9. My translation. 214 "Mvsmyprzede w~z~vstkim~ywo crescia histotycznej spo/ecznosci Limy 1Bialonrsi O narodowych polacronych cechach I wgledem niej mamy najpierwste obowrarki. " S. K. (Konstancja Skirrnunt), "Nasza 'tutejszosc'", Kurier Litewski (214, 1906). Cited in Jurkiewicz, p. 50. My translation. national antagonisms". 215 Moreover, they pointed out the

distinct character of the former Grand Duchy, its "own waÿs

c*f d~velopment, not directly linked with the Polish

[Congress] Kingciam", and its particular interosts that

should unite its many nati~nalities.~'~Since the land~wners

bcliev~dthat the future belonged to the people, theÿ wanted

rh~irprogram to b~ "able at last t~ attract to us cür dark

and deceived people"; othorwise, the cuituraily Poiislt

lzndowners would become "ornigres in their own r~untry".717

Inde&, they argued that in tending "the e:~:clu~ivol~/Polish

irïtsre~t~..-liesthe danger of these interestsr

~innihilation"."" Therefore, one of the Yzajowcy candiclaies

rc the Duma assured the voters: "although as a P~lcI will above a11 tend the interests of the Polish-Catholic populatiûn of our country, 1 still consider myself a repreçeritativo and plenipotentiary cf the entire populstir~n

~f the pr~vince, not excluding even the Jews"."' Another candidate declared during his electoral campaign that he would bo equally independçnt "from influences from near the

21' ' "Lagodzenie zatargawf... docimanie do mode1 antagonizmow narodowosci~ch." "6Zamiast programu': Przeglad Wilenrki (12/25 Nov. 19 1 1 j. Cited in Jurkiewicz, p. 74. My translation. 2'"wlasne drogi roAwqowenie miazane kzposrednio z Krolestwem PoLÎkim ". L. ~bramowiq"Dwie drogiw,Przeglad Wilmki (5, 19 1 2). Cited m Jurkiewicz, p. 74. My translation. 2 17 "mogaca weszcie prryciagrxac kr nam nasr ciemny Z oszuAiwany hd"; "emigrantowwe wfasrtyn baju ". S. K. (Konstancja Skinnunt). Cited in Jurkiewiw p. 50. My translation. '' w interesarhjedynie pokkich-Jezy grozha zagiady tychze intecesow ". Beutronny, "Naralowa Demokracja na Litwie", Kurier Litewski (21 1, 1906). Cited m Jurkiewict, p. Sû. My transIahon 219 rr. . . chociaz jako Polak bede mial pnede w~stkimna wgledrie interesy hrahosci polsko-kotolickiej naszego kraju,jednuk bede sie uwazdzapnedstawicieh I pehomocnika caioj hdnosci guberni, nie Neva and Moskva rivers as from advice £rom near the

Vistula" .""

Indeed, the Polish deputies £rom the former Grand Duchy

formed a joint caucus together with the Polish

representatives from Ukraine, but not inciuding the Poles

from the Congrcss Kingciom. Evon though they cooperated

closely with the latter, cn certain issues they took a

different position. In the concept of their homelana, the

Krajowcy linked the issue of autonomy for the former Grand

Duchy with that of agrarian reform. Maintaining tnat "In

such a large state as Russia Ft is impossiblt to live without local dif feronces, "'21 they argued that "the agrarian

qüestion could be solved only locally by an autonomous

governrnent". 1-3 Moreover, as one of the Kra jowcy deputies put

it, "To eliminste pogroms, to enable the Region to develop

ncrmally and prop~rly,to insurc peaco among a11 the classes, and among al1 the nationalities which inhabit our

region, it is necessary that local people govern

th~mselves".223

qdaczajac nawer Zydow ". H. Korwin-Milewsh Skdemdziesiar far wspomnien (1855-1925) (Poaian, 1925): p. 2 19. My translation. 220 .A ... od wpl'ow znadh'ewy I Moskwy,jak I oad wskalowekrnad Widy... ". E. Wojnillowicz Wspomnienia f 847-1928 (Vi193 l), p. I 14. My translation. "' GosudarsrvennoiiaDuma. Stenogral;cheskr;e Orchcg (S t. Petersburg, 1 9 1 4), 11, p. 2073. Cited in Zaprudnik, "The Struggie...) p. 505. 2;2 Go~~htvennaia..,I p. 4 19. Cited in Zapmdnik, The Sbuggle.. .", p. 305. r3Gosudarstvennaia.. . , II, p. 1733. Cited in Zapnidnik, 'The StruggIe. ..", p. 307. Furt hermore, apparently trusting in the superiority of

P~lishculture, the Kza jowcy championed the "abolition of

al1 restrictions and al1 privileges, with the exception of one priviloge--that of cultural cornPoci tion" .224 Since, ronsequently, al1 the languages of the native populati~n

should be allowed to De used in schools, a Krajuwcy deputy demanded that "the school authoriti~sshculd introduce the

[Bolarusian] language in the state ~chools"."~AL1 of this was done by the "cultural Poles", because, as th9 sp~akerc~f the First Durna, Aleksander Lednicki, put it, "We must unite only territorialiy and in our parliamentary progrâm defend the needs Q£ OUT entire country". If, however, the Polish d~puties"unite in the name of nationality," he arqued, "we wiil become defenders of a minority and will lose tne confidence of our electors and consequentlÿ r>ur mandates"."'

Alas, notwithstanding that the Imperia1 govsrnment was never willing to arant the former Grand Duchy any scrt ~f autonomy, the position of the Krajowcy turned out to be untenable. Since those "cultural Pclesf' held that "the interest of the whole land wers a single entity, not divided bÿ the particularism of its constituent nationaliti~s,"~~'

"Pervaiia Gosud~vemoiaDuma. A@witnyi spisok Ipodrobnyie biografii I kharaheristiki cMenov Gosudarsrvenrioi Dumy (Moscow, 1906), p. 107. Cited in Zaprudnik "nie Stniggfe...", p. 304. - Okoiny Roxsii (2 My19w, p. 3 15. Cited in Zapmdruk, 'me Struggie ...", p. 295. z6 Lednicki, p. 568. Cited in Zaprudnk, "The Struggie...n, p. 303. "'Leciniclci. p. 556. Cited in Zapmdnik, 7heSmiggle ...: p. 2%. their political fate wac; by nezessity dependent on the rlthcr

-

2%~term used by Lecinich, p. 556. Citzd in Zaprudnik, "TheStniggle ...". p. 296. 223 Komd Niedzialkows k "Dyskusja przedwyborcza". Kurier Litewski ( 272. 1 9Wj. Cited in Jurkiewicz p. 58. 230 Gosrrdarsrverrrraia... ,I, p. 200. Cited in Zaprudnik, The Stru&e.. .", p. 30 1. ?Ji 6. ... czescjednego narodu pokkiego, ktorego historiajest nasza hisroria, a losy na-vmi losami ... ". "Odezwa Polshego Stronnictwa Demokratyczno-Narodowego na Litwie'; Kurier ....(272, 1906). Cited in Jurkewicz, p. 46. My translation. - 7- "- "...-la wqstkich, ktocy siebie =a th@ uwazaja. mowia 1 ezzujapopolsku i nie wst-y&-a sie swej polskosci, niezaleznie od tego, CZ-Y na,wisko ich konczy sie no -ski -icz or -aj&." J. Obst, "Do cqtehikow", KwarfuhikLirewski. tYydawtricnvoposwiecone zubyrkom, pr=estlosci, krajozrmwsswu I ltrdoznawshr Litny, Bialortrsi. Ihjht. (1-3, 19 101, p. 4. Cited in iurhewicz p. 96. My translation. The endings: -ski, -icz, and -ajtis are typical of,respectively, Potish, Belamian, and Lithuanian surnames. 233 S. .. . tyni w.rys~kimi,ho-v.. .chca nodal y orostac tylko hlturolnie Polahmi, politycznie =as rwor=a nurodowosc Xrajowa Lirw).1 &akj~~f... ". J. Bohuszewicz, "Oboz pofski) Gorriec Wifenski( 1 8, 1 0081. Cited in Jurkiewicz, p. 96.My translation. 29 "...owi pol I nuierc-polaczkowie, 'Litwini rnowiacy po polskr ', itp. driwostwoy, Iudzie slobego sema 1 slabejgfowy... ". J. Obsî, p. 4. Cited in Jurkiewicz, p. 96. My translation. the mutual distrust, we are not able not only to take the

iead, but even to assist effectiv~ly.'~' If they, however,

did try to assist the Lithuanizn or Belarusian cultural

movements, the Polish national-democrats cften showeà a lack

of sensitivity and understanding, as, for instance, when

chey cffered "to provide our br~ther-countrymen with pure

rncdols cf a unique culture" .236

In the Duma, the natianal-democratic deputies fr~mthe

f~rmerGrand Duchy cocperated very closely with thoso £rom

ch2 Congress Kingdom. Initially, many of thern opposed the domand for autonomy for the Borderlands fezring that "the

Pcbliçh el~inentwhich is there will be completely domina~ed by the local Lithuanian, [Belarusianj, and Ukrainian popalation". "' Sut.soqu~ntly,hcwever, the P~Lishnat iclnal- d-mocrzts, who made th~irmain gcal a far-reachirig autcnomy fier Pclland, domandod 11so "broad local self -g~vornment" for

"rhe North- and South-Western Territ~ries". They did this On rhe principle that "The interescs cf the Polish people are nct ccnfinod within the boundaries of tk [Ccngress] Kingdom r~fPolând and cannot bo satisfiei by autonmny f~rit aiono".

235 "Zmuszeni bronic naszej odrebnosci rasowty-przed zaborc-y insrynkrem wspokiomkow nnas,ych. cqv to Leronow, czy Biolorusinaw, ze srczera radoscia wifamy hdyz ich strony objaw pracy hlturahej. :alujac jedmie, ze wobec panujucych wMmkow politycznych, jako te= wobec wzajemnej, nniestery ni~(fiosci,nie tylko inicjarpypodjac, ah metshtecmie pomagac niejestesmy w sranie. " "Od redakcji", Lima IRus. Miesiec~nikihsrrowany posm'econy krll~ne,akiejom. k~ojoznaw~I ludoznawshuu (IV, 3, 19 12), p. 1 32. Cited in Jurkiewic~p. 82. My translation. 23 ,,... dostarc~~vcwspolbraciom n- czystych wzorowjedynej kultury-" J. Obst, p. 8. Cited in iurkïewicz, p. 8 1. My transiation. 237 Warsaw newspaper Sfmo(30 July 190.Cited m Zapru- 'me Struggle ...", p. 304. The Folish party believed that they had the right to take

that stand, because, "Like other nationalities, PoLes

inhabit al1 the Western provinces of the Empiro, being in

the Lithuanian, [Belarusian], and [Ukreinianj provinces part

of the permanent native population".23e

The national-dernocrats realized that the Poles were a

minority there, and thus "coulci not be the dominant

ol~rrient";~'~hence, Ft was necessary to obtain in the Westcrn

provinces the conditions for a free and unobstructed

"cultural cornpetition". Therefore, according to Roman

Dr~owski, the national-democràtic 1eader, not only .&as àn

agrarian reform neodeci there, but, first and forornost, "the

promulgation of laws granting civil liberties to all--

oquality of natior~alitiesand religious ronfessior~s,... the

introduction...of broad local self-qovernrnent and the

establishment of a relationship betw~onits institutions and

its administrative authorities based upon la^".'^^

Even though the national-democrats aiways hre in mind

the historical links bctween P~landproper and the fcrrner

Grand Duchy, they believed that the goal of restorinq those

links was, ir~the present political situation, unattainable.

Therefore, they maintained, the autonomy which they dsmanded

" Gosudavsfvennaio..., Second..., 1, col. 906,22 Mar. 1907. Cited in Zaprudnik, "Byelorussia's ...", p. 234. 239 Cited in W. Feldman, Dzïeje polskiej mydi polir-vcmej, 11864-1914 (Warsaw, 1933), p. 366. Cited m Zapruw "Byelonissia's ...", p. 239. 240 Gosudcu-stvennaia..., Second..., 1, cd. 747. Cited in Zaprudnik, "Byelwussia's ...", p. 233. for Lithuania and Belarus, "should be free of the elements of separate statehood, and should not be Gased the idea of a P~lishstata; it should be provincial autonomÿ"-'"

The Orthodox peasan t depu ties from Belarus, however, were highly àistrustful of the Poles' intentions and argued that the proposed "broad self-government" in their homeland

"trould give the main trurnp card to the Polish Landlcrds in grder to subject Orthociox peasants to thoir rulo as they had been during the times of serfdom". They srgued that granting freedcrn of education in Polish would eventually lead tg "the subj~rtionof a purely OrthoCox population to Polish danination and conversion of the Orthodsx to Catholirism". 242

The Belarusian peassnt deputies demanded that docisions concerning Lithuania and Belârus be made "in the Duma, not in a Polish diet somewhers in Warsaw, Vilna, or Minsk". In cny case, "Ne peasants of the North-Western Territory would rather die than permit autonomy, " vowed the Belarusian deputies. 243

The Russian nationalists, who becamo vory vocal after

1905, also tvok a decisively negative view of the concept of an autonomous Belarus. The nationalists saw nothing else but

24 1 Cited in M. Wierzchowski, Sprawy poiskie w 111 1 IV Dumie Panstwowe (Warsaw, 1%@, p. 57. Cited in Zaprudnik, "Byelonissia's...", p. 238. 242 Both passages fiom Gosudarstvemaiu ..., Second..., 1, col. 1341. Cited in Zaprudruk, "Byelorussia's ...", D. 236. '" &th passages fiom Gosudur~lve~aia.... Second. .., l, cols. 16 17- 16 18,5 Apr. 1907. Cited in Zaprudnk "Byelorussia's ...", p. 236. L3t 0kra;nyRossii [Russia's Borderiands] (20, 19061,pp. 48%l00. Cited in Zaprudnik, "Byelonissia's ...". p. 23.5. 'J5 According to the official census of 1807. Wasilewsh, Politykn .... p. 10. '"'.. .. aby Rosya. =amiexkanapcez liczne plerniona 1narohwosci, zatracila swa otyginalnosc I nawer nvoje imie ". From the amendment to the First Duma's address to the Tsar, mohoned by a Russian na tionaiist. Cited Ui Wasilewski, Poliîyka... , p. ~4.My translation. differontiate betweeri the Great Russians, Whit~Russians

[Eelarusians], and Little Russians [Ukrainians]" .'47

True, in the Seccnd Duma, rhe Russian prirns minister

Set~rStclypin declareci: "Self-governrnent baseci (2n the ~ane

oencral principlos, with somo variations allowing f~r

ciifferent lccal conciitic~ns, is to be intr~ducedin tk~s

3,th? Plester-n Torrit~ry,and in the [Cclnlqre33j

Kir:qcicm cf P(>l?nd, fcllltming establishment cf soparato

3cimiriistrat ive cntitics in the lrcalities whore, sinco long

îgc, a pureiy Russian pr~pulati~nhaving its cxn sp~sial

intlrq3t3, has b+sn living- rr 348 Howevsr, even this half-

kiearcod cr~nressi(~nwas never full:/ irnplornont~d.All in ,211,

it rurncd 911t to be imp~ssibletc rcalizs the concept cl£

3elzrus as z scpâratc ontity within the Russian Empire. In

rrd~rfGr any 1:~ncept cf Belarus 1s .3n individuzl country ts.

zu~:~zood, the politir21 stutus qüo h2J first trb ke upset.

247 "Zwr'zeknarodu roqjskiego... nie cbyiroznicy miedzy Wieikorusarni,Bialonrsami IA4aionrsami." Cited in WasilewskÏ, Poliryka ..., p. 63. My translation. 248 6' Samo~adna tych samych ogolnych podstmuach, z pewnemi, wyvolanemi priez odrebne sromnki rniejscowe, zmiar~ami.ma byc wprowad-orty w Ara& Nadbalryckim, w Zaclrodnim I w Krolesrwie Polskiem, po wyodrebnieniu w osobrrejednostki administraqjne miejscowtosci, w krorych oddawna skiasie hahose c-zysto rosyjska, posiadajaca swoje wiasne specyalne interesy ". Cited in Wasilewskl Polityka..., p. 65. My translation. CHAPTER III

the G~rrrisn3seriseci that this "unprecedsntcd worid war II woi_iId

-- ,..- -" "EhNaes mss erstelren ". Theobald Bethmann-Hollweg, Seven ?Var Speeches, pp. 47-40. Cited in WA-tor Suki&ch East Cenrral Europe during Worid War I (-New k-ork, l984), 1, p. 122. '5hppeal'To the Polesn of 14 -4ugust lQl4by Grand Duke Nicholas. Cited in Sukiennick Easr ..., I. p. 02. 251 "gala-pmska rraszego narodrr "; "w potem-ym federac~h-vm,wjmku narodowosci~". The Awt 19 14 declaration of the representatives of Lithuanian orgaruzations and press to the Russian authorities. Citzd in Wasdewski, Litwu ...Zarys ..., pp. 147-148. My translation. Far the moment, however, since the Russian authorities

r~rnainedunresponsive, the Beiarusians haa ro rontenc

C-hanselves with th9 Ccngress cf Arn~ricanLithuanians' wishes

of autonomy for Belarus .'"

How~ver, after the Fiussian Imperia1 Army lost a couple

cf batcles in East Prussia ana â German ~ffensivoseomea

imninen+, a promise was nade CQ rsrnovo the k1an zn ~clü~zâ~iîin

in Ecl3rusian. Morcover, in April 1915, cne Tsariçt

authorities gave their approval +o the establishment qf the

&larusian Assclciacion for Relief O,' Nar Virtim~.The

associztion was the first officiallÿ recognized Bolarusian

~rqînizaticnand ovon obtained public funding. It kcarno,

indeed, bsdly needed in sumrner 1915, when the Germans

conducted tneir grcat offensive, and the Russians applicd

ïh~sc~irched oartn pc~lirzy. About 5i million inhabita~rsof

i3clarus, rnostly Russians cnd 3rthad~:l:Eolzrusians, trere

ovacuat-d, oftsn forcibly, insiàe Russia proper. .? 53 The front

-~tabiiizeà in the rniddle of Belarus, leaving its western

~L-Siricliiding Vilna, Hrodna, znd Br-st, on the German side.

Initially, the Germans had only vague idcas about the

zornplexity of the national issue within the former Grand

Duchy of Lithuania. They rend& to consider it part of

252 The proclamation of the Congress of ,dunerican Lithuanians of September 1 9 14. Cited in Wasilewski Litwu... Zarys..., pp. 143-149. 253 Turonek, p. 70;Sukierinicki, Em..., 1, pp. 1 16-1 17. historical Poland. Since the beginning of the war, the idea clf setting up "against bârbaric Russia" a " Polenreich 'vor!

Libau bis Odessa' "254 was seriously considered by the Germari

Chanrsll~r.The bulk 9f Belarus (west cf the Biarczina

River) was to be included in rhis state. 255

h3en Girman troops, Ied by the Bavarian general, Count

YGT, Pf~ii,entered Vilna in September 1915, h~ olficially ru?Lzd it a "Polish city". M~reover,in his âddr~sstc t'ne inhabitants, the General àescribed, rather Fnaccurâtelg, the antiont capitai of the former Grana Duchy as "a pearl in the qloiiaus Polish Kingdom", concluding the address trith the wxds "Gcd bless ~oland".256

Upon their entry into Vilna, the Germans discovered char in charge of the rity was the Civic Cornmittee. The idea - of sstting up a cornmittee representing al1 ethnic groups r,lr

~heregion originated in circles of the lana~wnorsand intelligentsia connected with two Vilnian banks. 15' Tr-e

Russian Governor-General Verevkin had approved the cr~mrnittee just on the eve of his departure. It was composod of twelvz

'Toiish state 'fiom Lepaia to Odessa"'. Chancellor Bethmann-HoIlwegTswords as cited in Buelow's letter of 10 Dec. 1 9 14. W.Spickernagel Fuersr Buelow (Hamburg, 192 1 j, p. 185. Cited in Sukiennicki, East ..., 1, p. 1 19. 'j5 According to the plan of Nov. 19 14 authored by Ge- Cleinow, the editor of Greniboren and the future head of the Ckman Pres~omf[Press Office] in occupied Warsaw. Wladysiaw Shidnicki, "W poszul8waniu odpowiedniej akcji wyzwolenczej", Naepodieglosc (10, 1935), p. 253. '"Texi of the address cited inPohische Blaef~er,1, pp. 124125. Cited in Sukiennicki, EUSI..., 1, p. 129. '"Zygmunt Juna''2 dziejow polskiej mysli politycznej na Litsuie historycznej", Niepodlegosc (6, 1933), pp. 64-65. Poles, five Lithuanians, four Belarusians, and four Jews. 258

The Germans r~cognizedthe Civic Committee as genuineiy rspresentative of the local population- It obtained fünding fran the Poznsn Welfare Committee and from the Polish Vevey

Cornmittee in Switzcrland. Polish members of the Vilna

Corrtmittee, however, did not inform non-Poles of tno funds

Aror~ived from Vevey, intending tg USE them -xclusively for

Folish concerns, This led ultimatcly to the domise gf the cornmittee when the five Lithuanian members learnt the truth fxom the Gerrnans and decitied to withdraw from it.

In Decernber 1915, however, the next att-mpt ât reviviny the f~rmorGrand Duchy zs a rnulti-national ontity was made.

\\ Th9 members of Li thuanian, Belarusian, Polish, and Jewisn org~riizûticris"propcsod in their ManifesCo to bzs? the now state cn the equality of rights cf al1 native nctionâlities-

"AL1 nationaliries, al1 estates, al1 citizens of the csuntry-", xere asked to forget tneir "mutual rancour, pr~judices, and rnis~rustfulness,, . .for the sake of comrnon

~atherlând".'~~This attempt, however, was also ur.suzc~ssful-

Wiktor Sukiennicki tends to put the blame on the G-rmân occupying auth~rities. hdeed, as the head of the German administration, General. Ericn Ludendorff, admitted, he

"c~uldnet, of course, permit any political activity cn the

""ukiennicki, Ewt-.., 1, pp. 128-129. 259 Cited in Sukidcki, East ..., 1, p. 130. '" Erich LudzndorfE, My CCfariLfemories1914-191s (London, 10 lQ), L p- 205. '" Michal Roemer, Lifwa wobec wojny @oufny mernorial ,- sierpnia 1915).éd. by W. Sulaennicla. Zewv Historycne ( 1 7, 1 9 70j . 76-8 - - L. Abramowicz, "Po wyborach wilsnskich, Pceglod Wilenski ('41 -42, 10 1 2). Cited in Jurkiewicz, p. 75. f-irern~st,we want to be togather with P~land".'~'They

~er~zeivedPoianà as the guarantor sgainst "the Russian

'" "'Pmdetv~~~vstx-irn cl~rerny byc razem z PolsXra! " CtraclawZacizwkki. "Glos z Litwy", Cfiudornosci PolsX-ie ( 74, 19 1 6).Cited in iurkiewicz, p. 136. My translation. 2s "przeciwkoniebezpieczenshuu rosyjskiemu "; "przys=iosc rak Korony. jak f Lihy hisrowc,nqj je+ie wpo1ac:eniu obu pansm dawnej Ruplil~ejPolskiej "; "Dla nus Polakmv jest minimalnvm zadaniem pz-dacenie choc czesci Litwy hisrorycmej (gub. wilertska, grodzietrsko I korolicka czesc minshej) do korony ". The proposai of the proclamation of the Lithuanian Poles, cited in WacIaw Studniciu, "2 zycia politycznego w Wilnie w okresie ohupacji", Kurier Wifenski (1. 19295. Cited in Jurkiewicz p. 137. My translation. snsuring every nationality the pousibility of full interna1

à~veiopmen~"265

In the rpring of 1916, the Central National Cornittee

(CKN) in Wttrsaw, which clsimed to reprosent al1 the Pclos

from the former Congress Kingdom, joined in ~hediscussion.

It considered "it necessary to extend the [future] Folish

State. . . tc includ~thare parts of Lithuaniz, Belârus, snd

Lctvia which would be liboracod poiitically from Russizn

domination during the present war". Recognizing the desiro

nf "+ne peoples of those countries" for "frcc nati~nal

devolopinent and self-depenaence", the CKN believed "thac

keyond the PoiFsh ethnic borders in the north-eastorn parts,

the Polish State must he built on federativo prinriplcs",

which "shcuici be determined by mutual agreement Detigeen the

P::lss znd thê ~er~plesinhabiting th-se cr~untrics". The CF34

proposed "for its part", that within "a [future] conunon

Poiish stat~... ethnic Lithuania an~Latvia would have an

zutoricrnr+us structuro, while tnose aroas of Kescern Beiarus

lib-rateci frsm kussia ciuring th- war wculà form a province

which wculd be self-governing in t ho cultural arrd cc~riornic

265 "...kacmo~cifederac~~~n~Litwy I Bialej Rusi z Pojska no unii dobrowolnej opartej "; "Zosada rownmrpcawnieniapohrycznego wsystkich obyuoteli bajrt, bez romicy noroduwosci, w)-nonio I plci, jak rmiezfasada poszanowanta mniejszosci narodowych, zapewniajaco k-dej narodowosci mo.mosc pelnego, wewnefnnego romoju ... ". Frorn the Sep. 191 5 appeal of the Polish ûemocratic Independence Bloc in Lithuania and Belanis (mcluding four oqpnizatiotls, among them the PPS). Cited in Judiewic;~pp. 132- 133. My translation. fields and have a constitutional guarantee of domestic

oquaiity of rights and complete national freedom" .'66

On paper it al1 looked good, at least to the Poles,

but, in truth, the real power in these countries remained

firmly in the hands of the German military authorities who

had their own ideas. Indeed, the Gerrnans began poridering, as

Field-Marsnal Paul vcn Hiridenburq, the suprerne Grmar!

commsnder in the East, put it, "the s-ri~usdanger which the

restoration of Poland involved for my ~cuntry".'~' As Adolf

BarteLs, a political writer representing the extreme-Right

Destschvr~elkisctierMovement, argued, 'an independent uni ted

Pr~lishstate will always be dzngerous to Germanism," but "in

particular, a big Polish state would present the greatest

handicap for our new ta~ks".'~~These "tasks" inslucied

\\ crgânized migration" of Belarusians to "P-siatic Russiâ", ana the transfer of Jews t~ Palestine, The former Grand

Duchy would form a soparate statc under German protection aria headed by a German Grana Duke, while what remained of its population would be Germanizod in "the most intensi-de and ruthless way", 2 69

x6 Wiskowski Collection III D Id.Cited in Sukiennicki, East ..., 1, pp, 131-132. 267 Paul von Hindenburg Chtr ofMy Li/e (London, l92O), 11, p. 5. *" Der Siegespreiss (West~vsslanddeutsch). Eine poiitische Denkschrift vonrtdo~Bartels(Weimar, 1914), p. 16, cited in SukiennicCci,Earr..., 5 p. 140. 269 Bartels, pp. 26,31-32, cited in Sukiennicki, Em..., 1, pp. 139-1 41. The much more influential All-German Union, on the

~therhand, proposed to split Belarus into two parts. Tne

provinces cf Vilna and Vitsebsk w~uldbe annexeci to Gerrnany, whilo the bulk of the country, inrluding Hrodna, Minsk,

Mahileu, and the entire Polesie marshes wouid go over tr~the

newly formed Polish stste. The Poies and Lithuanians from

the Germsn part of the former Grand Duchy would be moved tc cho Pclish southern part, whereas the Jews would Go rern~vod to either Russia proper or ~alestine."'

The German government, however, dic! not want to commit itself to any definite solution in the East before a peâce with Xussia has been c~ncluded.?bnetheless, the

Chancellor's trustad adviser, Professor Max Sering, who was sent on a fact-finainç mission to the former Grand Duchy, maintâiried in his reprt that "the Russian Lithuaniaris", if pr~perlyprotected frsm the Russians and Foles, "will, most probably, becorne as good [German] subjects as their Prussian c~mpatriots".271 Lithuania proper would then go over to

Gerrnany, while the rest of the former Grand Duchy could b.3 given to Polznd. The crucial question of to which side Vilna wr~uldbe âllocated, remained unanswered.

Denksdv-8 betreflend die nniionai-wirtschrrfr und sozia&olitische Ziele des dmtschen Volkes im gegerwaertigen Kriege von Heinrich Class (n. p., n d), pp. 3434,cited in Sukienniclq Easr..., 1, pp. 142- 143. Sering's report was published in Poiish translation in Z Dokrmenrow CWi(15,191 75, pp. 37-57, cited in Sukiennicki, Emt..., 1, pp. 145-1 46. Thus, General Ludendorff, Hindenburg's Chief of Staff, xh~,in fcrcc, ruicci cne Gsrmcn-cccupieti part r,f tilt f~jrrnor

!SrzzC! Duchy, kn~wcn1-y vague1-y ths qener.31 directicn in "' Sukisnnicb East ..., 1, p. 153. -.TF -" Wasilewsiïi, Lima ... Zarys..., p. 158. '" "Basic Pnnciples of Restoration of the School System" (Dec. 22. 19151. cïted in Sukiennich "kudendo~1, p. 205. also their political and economic importance in Vilna had

been underrated" .273 Inaeec, the German census of Marcn 1916,

probably the most carofullÿ prepât~das well as E-Jcn-

handodly and scrupulously conducted one in the Vilna r-gion

cver, revealed that 50 percent of the city's inhabitants

Fjore Polish, 44 percent Zewish, wniie only 3 percent

Lithuanian, and 1 percent Belarusicri. in rural arezs arclun~

-JLLns 2nd Hrodna, the !?clics also turned cut t_c Le t

majority, in some districts their percentage approaching

ninetÿ. 280 In view of cnese faccs, B~ckerathargueci that "if

it is possible to rule without thsm in time cz~fwar, tG iul-

33zinst thom in poâco-tims sooms to ke =1ct only difficult

but even dangerous since al1 ~thernationziities are

Fnrapzble of ~fferingany prgper suppcrt tc an efficient

q~vernrr~ont".In particülar, the Selsrusians, acc~rdingta

him, \\ never disclosed any tondency for stzt~indoponàcnce,"

znd thus "certain s~paratisttendencias cuitivated by a few

arshe~logistsand writcrs should be considered local

pt~~aûrnenzxithout political significanc~".761

Ludendorff, how~ver,who quite natuxally was roncorned with broader problems than jus% those of the Vilr~areqion,

279 Beckerath's rnemorandum to the Supreme Commander, cited in L. A(bramowicz], Litwa podczm wojny [Lithuania During the War] Warsaw, 19 18)- pp. 7-12, citd in Sukiennick&East ..., 1, p. 164. 280 Michal Bremtein, Spi* h&;osci m. Wihata okrpacji rriemieckiqj od d. 1 lisropadu 1915 r. (Censuses in the City of Vilna diuing the German Occupation fiom the Fkt of November 19 153 (Warsaw, I9 19); see hoPohische Blaetter (102, 19 18), pp. 6244, cited in Sukiennicki, Emr-.., 1, pp. 1tic 16 1. Beckerath, cited in Sukiennickï, Emr ..., 1, p. 165. did not agree with Beckerath's views. Indeed, he maintained

that the Belarusians "were a wiaely-scattered race but

superficialiy Polonized," oven th~ughh~ admitteci that because of their "low level of civilization ...it would be a long time before we could do anything for thern".Z02 Still, noching prevented him frorn trying.

For cne, the German tern Weissrusslând, or White

Russie, whirh, es the official explanation rsn, "made the impression that it referred to some kind of Russians, but nçt to a separate nation, has been changed" to

Weissrüthenien, or Belarus. This change, aff irmed an of ficial Serrnan commentacor, was intended to intensify the naticna1 sentiment among the B~larusiansand to affirm

Sefer? the whole world that "in the Dvina and Neman river- bawins there is awakening tc the riew national life the ancient nation with its own culture and language:

B~larusians".~"M~re~ver, the Eelarusian paper Homan

[Clamor], edited by Lastouski ana the Lutskevich brothers, was arrangea to bo pubiished and princed in the offices of the Gerrnan Wilnaer Zeitung [Vilna Dâily] . Homan's circulation, h~wever,was only about threo thousand, most of

'= Ludendorff, 1, p. 188, and its Gemian ediÉion (Beriin, 1920), p. 145. Le3 rd w dorzeczach Dzwiny I Niemno buhi sie do nowego vianarodowego storozytny narod o wlame hhne1 rnowr'e: Bidomsini " Cited in Wadewslq Litwa...Zarys... ., pp. 1 5û- 159. My translation. which went free of charge to the Russian POWs camps, sinco

it was not in demand despite its very low price."'

,Yoman, in the words of its editors, r~presented"the

political idea that clearly speaks about an independent

existence of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania". That idea,

however, unlike the Kra jowcy concept, referred to the Fra

preceding the Union of Lublin. Indeed, as Eoman explain&,

its politicai concept 'sets aside al1 the lirnicatians that

the strangers who have corne £rom neighbouring Poland want t~

force upon us: nsither the Belarusians nor the Lithuanians,

nGr any other sons of our Land can accept the thought chat the uriity of the Eelarusian-Litnuanian Country with Poland

should be set forth ûs the condition of Our liberati~n".'~~

,YornanJ s concept was justified bÿ the supp~sitionthat the future independent Poiana would be a state dorninated by "the lords and the nobility". Indeed, appealed Homan, "We do not want to serve as farm-hands with the Foles; we do not want the state serfdom in the nobility-ruled Poland". 286 In that

Lima ZC~Isenburga, pp. 93-94; A private report fiom Vh(March 19 17), Wiskowski Coiiection D 1-35, p. 2; 6th official Report of Greaîer Lithuania May25, 19 17). p. 44, all cited in Sukiennicki, E&.-. . 1, pp. 156-157, and 11, p. 1018. 285 "odnucaprzyrem wszystkie the ograniczmia, bore nam clrca narirucic obcy num hi&-ie, CO pnyjechali z sasïehiej Poiski: mi Biaiorusini, mi Lirwint, miinni synowie naszqeJZiemi trie moga pogokic sie z mysia, abyjedmsc Bidomsko-Litewskiego Kru* z Pokko byia postrnvionu za wamnek wpolenia. " Homan, cited in Wasilewski, Lirwa ...Zruys. ... pp. 159-1 60. My translation. =' "pansrvu Z sWiakhfa"; "nia Wtochsk-hyts 'za parabkrru u Pdi&u! nia Wtacltam kiadtounai panshchyny u shiiakhotskai Pol 'shchy!" Homon, No. 32 (20 Apr. 1919, cited in la. Zapnidnik, "Da Pershaha Usebelaniskaha Z'ezdu 19 17 hodu (Dakumenty I matar'ialy)", Zapisy (8, 1%3), p. 185. My translation. 2E-l "pybledv1 wszelkiego rad-aju samo,woncy". Homan, cited in Wasiltwski Lirwa ... Za y..,p. IOO. My tranlation. 288 "beckiem-vdqvc wspofrrymi sifami do utworrerria wiekiej, wolnej reptrbfiki dern~ba~~vcznej ro~jskiej"."Wiec roboî~Ùczq;",Nowy Kurier Lirewski, No. 67 (1 1/24 hfarch 191 71, cited in Juketc-icz, p. IFP. See ako Wojnillowicz, p. 197. My translation. ii3 "naiviafihitympas'fia Vif hi horahBelamsi ". "Autanornia Belamsi ", Homan. No. 51 (20 June 19 17),cited in la. Zapnidnik, "Da...", Zapisy (8, 1963'1, p. 103. My translation. ZiO "hl'hrrna-naqianai 'nue adrahhen 'ne belmskaha narodu "; "Raseiskaifederatyuna- demakrarychai resptrblikoi "; "iokiiaprykryvaizrchysia imiom belanrskirn. vtalx-b prapohundtr =a duIuchetl 'ne da Pol 'shchy "; "vol'nae raz 'vifs'rsio I pounyia pravy inshym rrarodam. zhywchjrn ria Be/artrsi ". "Ad BeIaniskaha Natsyianal'naha Kamitetu", Voi'naia Be/ams ' (2, 19 1?, p. 2. Cited in F. TdBelorusskoe dvzzhenie, pp. 86-87. Cited in Zaprudruk, "Da ...'-, Zapisy ('8, 10631, p. 183. My translation. Belarusian people, will build a free Belar~s".~~~This support was very important for the Belarusian national novernont, not only &cause the landowners helped te finance it,2'2but also since many of them, like Skirmunt who bras a long-time mernber of the State Duma, w2re seasoned politirians. These "cultural Poles" thougnt that in the fluid and uncertain situation in the aftermatn of rhe

FoGruary Revîlution, it was impgrtant f~rchem n~ttt~ hold back, but "to keep in touch with representatives of the new authorities in order to lessen in our country the -vil that nich+ result £rom anarchy8'- 29 3

Frmn their point of view, if an ûgrariari r~fclrrn(z~'ild nGt be altoqether avoided, then, as a matter of damage lcfinrrol, it was important for them to be in a p~sitionCG influente its shape ând implementatic~n. That c~uld~nly bs d~noin an auton~moi~sBclarus, wherezs pursuing ch- kllish national cause was not s practical option, sinte the Pcllos in these parts, uniike in the western provinces of Vilna and

Hrodnz, wzrs in a clear numerical min~rity.N~neth~l-SS, these P~lishlaridowners cooperated with other Polish

- - BI "beda oni wraz z &idemb/dotushm budowac woha Pidorus ". uZjazd bialoruski", Nowy Kurier Liiewski, No. 83 (29 Marchf 1 1 Apr. 19 17). Cited m Jurkiewicz, p. 16 1. My transiaiion. C'2 WojnîUowic~,p. 2 10. See aIso "Communique of the Bela.Division ofthe Ail-Russian Council of Paant Deputiesn.Nushe svobodnoe dovo (50, 19 l T), cited in Velikaia Oktiabr 'skaia Sotsidisricheskaia Revoliursf ta v Belonrsi (Minsk, 1957), 1, pg. 439-44 1, cited in Zaprudnik, "Da Pershaha Usebelanrskaha Z'ezdu 1317 hodu", Zapisy (9, 19641, p. 158. 293 "ufrzjmywac kontok z p~edrrawicielaminowej wfad.z,& zlo, bore wypfynac moze z murchii. rrczynic dia noszego kr- mniejszym ". Wojtiillowicz, p. 197. My translation. organizations in eastern Belarus in organizing provincial

Polish Councils, and the Polish Council of the aelarusian

Lands as the heâd reprêsentative body. 294

Not unlike in the Second Durna, hwever, the idea of

Belarusian autonorny was rejected by the peasant movement in

Belarus. The movement, which was part of the All-Russian

Psasant Union, and Icd by a non-Bclarusian Bolshevik,

Mikhail V. Frunze, aimed exclusiveiy at social and ec~nomic

goals, while treating the national issue as a harnful

distraction. Indeed, it was easier to achieve the former in

3trict cooperation with the all-Russian movement, and, in

z~dditilsr,, the Polish landownors8 support for Belarusian

autonomy did nothing to endear the cause to these peâsznt

activists. They declored that "the so-cailed 'Belarusian

National Congrsss' and the 'Belarusian National Comitteef ol~ctedhy it ...can in no case be regarded as roprcscnting

the views of al1 the Belarusian people and has no right to

speak in its name". 29 5

kccording to the peasant activists, Belarusian peasants

themselves wanted their childrcn to be tzught in Russian, because theÿ b~lievedthat "the Belarusian language, as

~4 Jurhewicz, p. 161 ;Wojnillowicz, pp. 198,336-337. 255 "rok nazyvacmogo 'bef~~.kog~narsional hogo s 'erda ' I izbronnogo na nem 'Belonrsskogo narsiorral 'rtogo komireta ',...niv hemsbrchae ne mozher byr 'prirnun vyrotireiem mnenii vsego belorusskogo naroda 1ne imeet nikakogo pvugovont ' or ego imeni ". Declaration of the Minsk Committee of the All-Rusian Peasant Union, Mirukii golos, No. 23% (Apr. 6,19 1T), cited in Velihzia... , I, pp. 168- 1 60, cited in Zaprud."Da. ..", Zapisy (9, 1 W),p. 155. My translation. such, dces not exist and, therefore, instruction in it iç

not Indeed, the peasant movement argued

"âgainst national autonomy for Belartis, considering it an

inalienable part of Russia as far as culture and nationaiity

are cor~cerned". That viex was also supported by the factual

rclor cf Belarus, the Minsk Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers'

Dzputics. 297 Iristead of a~tonorny, they propos& "r~çionzl

self-g~vernment within the framework of dernocrztic and

republican Russia". 298

Thus, the Belarusian national movement founa itself

under grsat pressure. Since as many as about half of the rnembers of the Belarusian National Committee were Cathclir,

the Belarusian national cause was often portrayed as a

Polish-Cathoiic intrigue OZ the landod arist~cracy."~At the

same time, the poasantry grew mors and more radical. As a

256 "belonrsskogoiazyko, kak rhvogo,net, a potwnu Iprepodovanie na nem vesti nevo-awzhno ". Cited in the Declmiion of the Executive Cornmittee of ihe Soviet of Peasant Deputiss of the Minsk and Vilna Provinces, Minskii golos, No. 2425 (May 1 1.1917). Cited m Velihia..., 1, pp. 294-295, cited in Zaprudnik, "Da...',Zapisy (9,1 Yb4), p. 1%. Myûandation 297 '3protiv natsional 'noi avtonomii Befmssii,schitaia ee neravy~toichastiu Rossii v kul 'turnom I t~ot~ionalhom ofnoshenii." Olshamkii vesmik, No. 815 (June 9, 191 7), cited m Vehkaio..., 1, pp. 33-36û, cited in Zaprudnik, "Da...", Zopisy (9, 1964), pp. 157-158. My translation. "obfastnoesamoupravhie kaia v predelakll demokraticheshi repbIi&anskoi Rossii ". Orshanskii vestnik, No. 867 (10 August 19 17), cited in Velihia..., 1, p. 56 1, cited in &pmdnik, "Da.,",Zqiq (9, 1 %4), p. 16 1 . My translation. 1i9 Turonek, p. 72; Dechration of the representatives of Belarus at the aii-Russian meeting of peasant deputies, Nashe svobodnoe slovo 14 Juiy 19 1T), No. 59, cited in Velikoia..., 1, pp. 439-44 1, tited in Zapnidnik, "Da...", Zapiq (9, 1%4), pp. 158-159; Letter of the Executive Cornmittees of the Soviets of Peasant Deputies of the Minsk and Vilna Pro vinces..., Kksî 'ionskuiagazetal No. 9 (0 July 1017), cited in Velihia..,, I, pp. 459-460, cited in Zapnrdnik, "Da ...) Zqiq(9, 1%4), pp. 159- 160; Protest of the teachers representing Belanis at the congress of the Aii-Russian Teachers' Union, Vestnik Mimkogo gubemkogo komissariata, No. 139 (24 Aug. 1917), cited in Velahia..., I, pp. 545-546, ciîed in Zaprudnik, "Da-..", Zapisy (9,1%4), pp. 160- 16 1. * ,,s~ri2ln? ODE curnod towards socialism, and that I could not approvo"302.

ntaus, 7 the Pclisn Izndowners turncd ovor t~ the iacj of

autqnomy. That was the program of the National-Conservativc

P.3rt-y which was fgurtd?d in Novornber 1-17 in Minsk

303 ;;L-t3~Viri~I?.

Incieeci, al1 Folish poiiticz11 parties in Wursaw psid

rnulzh attention tc the prcblern cf the ?Lresy, 3r P~land's - ~3srernBc>icieriancis. In 1917, they ail supporteà ~heiàes clf

302 "Ze srowa=yszen bialomskich,... w koncu uslavalem sie, albowiem rozpoczeta w nich praca poczarhwo w kiemnh odrodzenia narodowego pqbieralu kiemnek soejafistpy,ktormu l~oldowac nie rnoglem. " Wojnillowicz, p. 210. My translation. $65 t

rüther peculiarly, as that ro Ûe Tree £rom Doth the hussian

znd the Geman rule and to enter into a union with Poland

proper. In fact, Pclish politicians generally assumed thctt

the pe~pies: "Li thuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, and cven

Lacvian, are not fully able to organize themselves into

inbependsnt state units, ~herefore,thsir link xith the

Polish State, since it gives [them] much greater freedom of

nstionai development than their incorporation into Russis or

Gerrnsny, is in tne interest of both parties". 'O6 Liicowise,

rhe Prc.visir~nalStat~ Council (TRS) , whicn, foliowing the

Act c'f Ngvernber 1915, was recognized by the Germans as the

government of an autonomous "Polish Kingdom", declsrcd as

me of its aims the expansion ~f the new state "mer al1 the

lancs that have been wrssted back frorn Russia and which

gravitate toward Poland". 307 Further , while wclcoming the

rocogni tion of Polish independence by the Russian

Lrovisionai Government, the ThS declared that "the

centuries-cld Polish-Russian quarrel about the vast lands

betweon ethnogrsphir Poland and Russia, which have been ticd

"litewski,biolomski, ukrtzinrki, a nawet lotewski, nie posiadiaja pelni wmunkow niezbednych do zorgunizowunia sie w samodriehe jednostki pclltstwowe, p~erozwiazek ich z P~l~~twemPohkim, jako zopewniajacyjuz O wiele wiekambode norodwego rmoju niz wcieienie do Rosji hbNiemiec le-zy w inferesie obusrronnym ". Communique ofthe League of Polish Statedom, cited in L. A[bramowicz], Lima..., p. 72. Cited in lurkiewicg pp. 155-156. My translation. 367 "na ws,ystkie ciazace kr Polsce, a odebune Rosji ziemie ". Ojciya I Postep. No. 16, cited in Z Dokumenrow Chili (13, 19 1 T), p. 36, cited in iurkiewicz, p. 156. My transiation to the fate of Poland for centuries, has not been ended by

the proclamation of the Russian government". 309

The Beiarusian paper Homan took great exception to the

latter statement, angrily pointing out, in an article

entitled "Hands Off!", that such an assertion denies Belarus

the right of self-determination, Thus, in spite of Polish

expectations, it did not at al1 seem that the Belarusians

preferred attachmeil~to Poland rather than to Russia. Eornan,

at hast, often denounceci "Foland's expansionis~plans". 309

At the same time, the paper strongly supported the cause of

zutcnomy for eastern Belarus within Russia. 310

Th- Belarusian movement in Russia, however, was not

suzcessful in its attompts to gain autonomy. The Provisional

Gclvernrnent apparently nover considered the Belarusians a

separate nation. 3 11 In addition, the fact thât the battlefront cut riqht through Belarus, and that sGme one and a nalf million soldiers £rom al1 over Russia were stationed in its eastern part, did not help the Belarusian bid for autonomy, either. The Provisional Government which treated

roseru ut ion of the war as one of its nain rasks, and W~GSP

- -.. - - "wiebwy qorpoLTkO-rosyjs&iO rotiegfe &-a& &tacs pomiedzy etnograflczna PoIsArct a Rosja, a od wiehz losem Pdrki zwïercute, prrer odeme nadu romjskiego nie zostdzakonczo~~v". Cited in L. A[bramonicz], Lima.., p. 73, cited in Jurkiewiq pp. 1%- t 57. My translation. "Ru& von!"; "z&vatnykh plimrou Pol 'shchy". HM. No. 32 (20 Apr. 19 1T), cited in Zaprudnik, "Da...", Zopisy (8, 1%3), pp. 184- 185. My translation ''O Homan,No. JO (22 June 1917), and No. 51 (26 June 1917), both cited in Zapnrdnik, "Da...": Zapisy (8, I963), pp. 1 92- 194. 311 Turonek, p. 72. rule was very insecure, would never champion such a

controversial issue in Russia as Belarusian autonomy.

Finally, that caretaker government saw its mission as that

of rnaintaining unity until the All-Russian Constituent

Assombly has been convened, and therefore avoided any

aecisions that might affect the future siiape ~f hussia. 312

Therofore, the Belarusian national rn~vement, un1i ke

virtually al1 other political movemonts in Russia, did not

c~ndemnthe Bolshevik coup d'etat that toppled the

Provisional Governmenc in tne beginning of November 1917-

Tru?, the Great Belarusian Council, the successor of thî

Central Council, correctly rîrognizod the mornefit 3s historic

and called upon the Belarusians to gather al1 "forces of our

Fatherland to defend and mâintain our freedoms". However,

nothing was said against whom the "froedoms" needed ta 5s

defendod. Indeod, al1 the inhabitants of Belarus were urgcd

"t~unite in one hârmonious family arounci the Great

selarusian Council, getting rid of those who sow ciisc~rd,

and to exercise caution in whatever you do". The safest

tk~ingto do was, of course, to maintain "unity with the

army", the ultimate king-maker in rovolutionary Russia. 31 3

312 Richard Pipes, The Fornorion of the Soviet Union (Cambridge, MW., LW),pp. 50-51. ?13 "sjiy nQShae Bors'karcsh~hylr~&dia obarony 1rttrynrm ftia nashy&hvd'nru 'tsimr "; "ziychetsesiau vudmi zj~odmiusiam 'tu kaiia ViafikaiBefmskoi Ra&, adkiduiuchy ad side seluchyia niuzhodu poRIichy 1by& 'rse as'lsicuozhnymi u svaikh &ei& ". Proclamation to the Belanisian people fiom the Belamsian organkîions, cited Uz Tdpp. 93-94, cited in Zapnidnik, "Da..", Zqisy(8, 1%3), p. 108. My banlaticm. '" "ppolnoe rocxopravie vsekh norsii I icylrov"; "Zo vsemi tratsiiami. vkhodiashcl~imiv sosfuvRossii, dolzlrno b-vt ' przznano pravo na svobodnoe ordelenie Ina obrazovanie samostoiarcl hogo gosudarstva. " Prochation of the 7th AU-Russh Conference of the Bolshevïk Party ( written by Leninj, Dokurnenty I mo!eria!vpo istorii &?ionrssii(Minsk, l9,W), IV, pp. 18- 19, citzd in Zaprudw "Da.. .", Zapiqv 18, 1963, p. lS8. My tranlation. ?15 "Panstwobialonrskie nie nasuwalo sie dotad nihz na~zagor=a~ch~antasto~p~fityc~~~~~~~." L. iV. !Leon Wasilewskï), O wschodnia granice Panstwa PoLrkiego Warsaw, 191 7), p. 16. My translation. 3'Titedin Sukiennicla, East .... 1, p. 458.

with the centre", and to help them win over the secessionists. ''"

Ercm his p~intof view, to deal propêrly with the

BeZarusian question, it was necessary to support th~sq

Belarusians who were determined to keep the country united

with the B~lshevikgovernment. The former were mostly the

inhabitants of the east~rnprovinces cf Vits-bsk and Mahileu

whc, ss Gno contemporary put it, "rould not say gcadbye tc~ their 211-Russian patriotism". '*' in addition, Belarusian

aelqates to the Second All-Russian Congress of Peasants in

Pctrazgrad (St. Petersburg) were traditionally in fawu of maintaining strong links with Russia. At their meeting with

s'talin, it was derided to "summon in the imrnediate future

the Country Congress of Peasant Deputies for the purpose of

\\ ~~c~nditic~ns"aqreed to by both sides was opened with tne

derriand that the congress "act always in contact with the

Xirisk S~vietof Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants'

Deputi~s", headed by â long-time Eolshevik, Alexander F.

Miasnikw, a Russified Armeniari by nationality. (The Minsk

Soviet, as we have seen, had always been hostile to the

'20 From an article by J. Sblin in hVe~fiCJ(Feb. 19 19). Cited in Sulciennich, East.... 1, p. 459. 32' "ne mohli raz 'virarslsa iz svaim useraseiskim porryiotyzmtzm ". Makar Krautsou (Kostsevich), "20 hadou nazad", SM& Molodzi, Nos. 5 and 6 (5 and 26 Feb. 1938), cited in Zaprudnik, "Da..."',Zapisy (9, l964), pp. 1 33-137, my translation. See also A. B., "Usebelaniski kanhres u Mensku, 18-31 (5-18 st. st.) s'nezhnia 1 Y 1 7 h (tlspamirry delehata Kanhresu) (West Germany. 1949), cited in Zaprudnik "Da.. .". Zapisy (9, 1 964), pp. 147- 148. Belarusian national movemont.) The last point on the list

rscognized the "unconditional and full right to free self-

detorrnination for the [Belarusian] people". At thê same

time, the Belarusian Division was "set up at the People' s

Comrr.issariat for Nationalities". 322

Thus, in December 1917, with Stalin's approval and

thanks to Bolshovik funding, '13 the gathering, which wsnt

dcwn in hist~ryas the First All-Belarusian National

Congress, took place in Minsk. There were nearly two

thousand dclegates from the provinces of Minsk, Vitsebsk,

znb Mahileu, £rom Geman-occupied Vilna and Hrodna

pr~vinces~and cven fron~that of Smolensk. 324 Thus, the

Bolsheviks clearly wanted to be perceived by Belarusians as

gerierous, since whether the latter province should beiong to

Belarus has always been â matter of controversy. Howevcr,

dospite such great Bolshevik support, the Belarusian

conqross did not behave according to al1 their wishes.

Indeed, the congress declareci that "in order to szve our

c~untryand prevent its division and separati~n£rom the

Russian Dernccratic Federative Republic, fit] rosolvcs: to

322 Communique in hvesria, No. 244 ( t9[6] Dec. 19 1 7), cited in Sukiennicki, Easr ..., 1, pp. 47.1475. j2' A. Charviakou, Za Savetskuiu Bel.' (Minsk, 1923, pp. 41-50, cited in mmdnik, "Da Pershaha Usebelamkaha Z'ezdu 19 17 h', Zapisy (1 0.1 %6), p. 238; Turonek, p. 73; Wasilewski, Litwa ...Zcuys ..., p. 188. 32d U. htollski, WiaW KastTycM- na &larusin, BeIarrcsJ(Minsk, 19241, pp. 198-200, cited in Zapnidnik, "Da-..",Zapisy (IO, 1%6), p. 229; P. Kreceuski, "Who was at the FiAU-Byelorussian Congress", Vma(Oci. 19 18), i, No. 1, citeci in Bylelomssian Stcrtehood. Re& and Sibliogrcrphy, ed Vitaut Kipel and Zlora Kipei, (New York, 1988), pp. 99-100. establish immediately an organ of power in the couritry in

the form of the MI-Belarusian Council of peasants',

soldiers', and workersf deputi~s,which will-..take the

leadership of the country by entering into practical

relations with the central authority". 325 Thus, the congr2ss

cjot so zarried away by the promises of "free self-

drt3rminationm, that it clearly ignored the basic principle

~f acting ttlways in agreement with the local B~lshevikorgan

of power. In fact, it sttempted to replace it by

estabiishing a new, Belarusian organ of pGwer. Therefore,

oveil though the cctngress fâvoured the soviet i , cc~uncil)

systern of government as well as ~ptedfor r~tainingthe

c~nnectionwith Russia, the Bolsheviks considered it

necessary to disperse it by force ana arrest sevorsl of its

Leaders.

Belarusian Poles were nct, generally speaking,

reprcsentod at the First All-Belarusian Congress, In view of

the progressing raciicalization of the Belarusian national

movGment, including adoption of the ides of transfsrring the

lanu %O the peasants without indemnities, as wcll as

adoption of people's control on industry and the

local oâst Belarusian Polish politicians, the majority of

Cited in F. Tunik, Beforusskoe dvizhenie, p. 105. Cited in Suloennicki, Eart..., 1, p. 475. 326 Vasil Zachadca, "Ihe Major Events in the Byeloxussian Movementw,Byelomssiion.. ., pp. 83-84. 327 Turonek, p. 73. "' "RomanSkirmunt goimv bylpopierac Lirwinow I Bia/onrsinow w ich aspiradach poiir~vc~n~vch.ale riie entu,zja.zrnowai sie mysla oddania im majatku". S. Cat (Maclriewicz),Europa in fkgranti Warsaw, II62 1, p. 166. 3 23 Appeal of the Nam-of,fzvestia, No. 230 (2 Dec. [ 19 Nov.] 19 1 T). Cited in Sukiennich, Easr ..., 1, p. 467. '?" L. Grosfeld, Polihie reakckcvjneformacjewojskowe w Rosji 191 7-1919 (Warsaw. 19561,pp. 4 1.63-bb; A. Zatorski Po& Lewica Wojskowa w Rosji w ob-esie rewohcji f 91 7-1918 (Warsaw, 107 11, pp. 234-235. 73 1 Sukiennicki, East .... 11, p. 746. Another party which counted on German assistance in

c)rder to achi~veits goals, was that of the western

Belzrusi.5n.s. In December 1917, th~ysent t~ the Gernan

rh.3.t "[Gerrnan-loccupied Belarusian-Lithusnian territories

frbrrn an independent and sovereigrl democratic stato oc~mp~sed

znd Lithuaniari, iri ~zlcscstass~lziation with (2-urland".

Further, the authsrs çf the doclarvtion "firmly demandcd"

rhac "in the name of the riant rQ unity of the Belarusian

inciuci3d in the prc~pr~sedstâtc. Finally, "the Boiarusian

pc.313c crcaties, will c~nsr~lidatoits hold cn the Baltic

5,inaispensable for c~urcountryr s life and its

- -. "' "abokupowane ziemie biafomsko-lifewskiesranowily niezafezne cwierrchicz~panstwo demokraiy~~ne,zfozone = hvoch autonomicmych jednostek narodowo-rerytorjahych: biafomskiej I litewskiej, w najscisïejsrym ,wiazh z Kurfmdja"; "usihie zuda "; "w imie pruwa jednosci naroab bia~mrskiego,.. . orar w imiejednosci wqstkic/r ziem bialonrsko-lirewskich, srunowiacych zmszejadro IV. A's. titewskiego "; "biafomskiezorganizowane spoleczenstwo "; "uwozo za konieane oparcie sie O ro z sosiednich wiefkichpam, ktore na podstinuie uk/cJdmpokojowych umocni swe panmanie na rcybmezach Baftyku, niezbednego du zycia I swobodnego rokuwojunaszego kraju ". Cited in Wasilewsti Lihva ... Zarys. .., pp. 160-1 62. My translation. The Gerrnans, however, were riot particularly inclined to fulfil these Belarusian "demands". True, after the Bolshevik

Revolution, with its insistent deciarations of the right to seif-determination for every nation, nothing was the same.

In the new circumstances, the Germans thought it politic to change their approach and, instead of denying that right, rcs(=iiveb tr, manipulate it for their own benefit. Thus, at the end Q£ Novomber, the new German Chancellor, Count von

Herlinq, declared in the Reichstag that in the cases of

Poiand, Lithuania, and Courland, Germany "wouid take into account the right of [these countri-sf] populations to self- cetermination" .333 Tho formula meant in prectice, zs far as the territories of the former Grand Duchy were concerneci, rhzt the Germans would support a specifically limited self- determination of the Lithuanians, who had been proviousij/ uelectod as the only local nationality suitable for zhsorption by Gernany, Thus, in December 1917, the

Lithuanian National Council, or Taryba, proclained at e rlosed meeting "the restorati~nof an independent Lithuanian

Utate with its capital in Vilna and dissolution of al1 the ties that had existed between it and other nations". The

Taryba asked Germany to give the new state "help and pr~toction". Finally, the Lithuanian council declared itself

- - 333 "rnczglednimyprawo stanwienia O sobie ich ludnosci. " Cited in Wasilewski, Lima... Zarys .... m. 168- 169. My translation. for "an eternal, strong federal association with the German

Empire [ including] military, communications, customs, and monetdry conventions". 3 34

As ct result, the possibility of reviving a multi- national Grand Duchy, on which both the Krajowcy and the

3elarusian national rnovement pinned their hopes, albeit each iri a different way, received a fatol blow. The Germûns, obvi~usly,had no reason to advance aelarusian national interests, not to mention those of the Belarusian Poles, against Lithuanian interests. Since Bolshevik Russia was interesteci in supporting none of these nationalities, neithor the Belarusians nor the Belarusian Poles were invlted to participate in the peace negotiations at Brest.

In spite of this, eastern Belarusians did make sorne effort to presîrit their point of view, although their attempts ultimately proved unsuccessful. 335

For quite some time the negotiations, begun in December

1917, fzilod to produce any result. Finally, after ûlmost two months of stalemate, Germany decided to resclve the issue by applying pressure on the battlefront: the Gerrnan

2-54 11 wnowienie nrepodleglego Poltshua Litewskiego ze stolico Wihem 1ruzwiazanie wszeIkich nvïazkow p~stwawych,jakie istnzaiy pomiedry niem a innemi narodami"; '>posnoc I opieke "; "wiecmym,mocnym srosrrnkiem zwitaz- litewskiego ponsrwo z Ceswstwem NiemiecrLiem,.. .w konwenqji mditamqj I hmunihcy&e/ I wspolrioscl celnej I monetarneJ". Cited m Wasilewski, Litwu ...Zarys. .., pp. 169- 1 70.My translation. 335 Evsevii Kancher, "Mysii", CIryrvony sWiakh (25 hg. 1918), No-3-4, p. 22, cited in Zapmdnik, "Da...', Zapisy (9, 1964), pp. 165-166. Army rnoved forward. The Russian Army, which had been disintegrating ever since the beginning of the revolution in fiussia, had no option but tc withdraw. On February 19, 1918,

B~lsheviktroops left Minsk.

The city was instantly seized by both Belarusian national activists and the Polish soldiers of the First

~r,rps;'~~indeed, they appear to have had c~cperatedwith each othor since January.'" The noxt day, the Executive

Committee cf the First All-Belarusian Co~gress,which had existed underground, issued a manifesto, or hramata, "tc the peoplec; of Belarus". In the document the Committee declared

"itself %O be the Provisional Authority" of the country until "ân All-Belarusian Constituent Assembly" would be

"convened on democratic principles". The Natienal

Secretariat of Belarus, an executive Grgân of the

Provisional Authority, was established to tend "the tssks of defendinq and strengthening the revolutionary achievements".

Sirice they were not spocified, one may merely assume thât

"the revolutionary achievements" r~ferredto both the national and social revolutions. In any czse, the main idea of the document was that "the Belarusian people must assert

'" "Liberation of the City of Mi& February 19-20, 1918: Notes of Commander Kanstanty Ezavitau", Byelorussf m..., pp. 10 1 - 103; JaqVaronka, "nie Byeionissian Movernent hm 1 91 7 to 1920. A Short Review", Byelomssion..., p. 110; Sukiennicki, EUS;..., ii, p. 765. ln "Dekret Saunarkomu Zakhodniau vobias'tsi u bnt~.",Sovetshia prmda, No. 24 (13 Feb. [3 1 Jan.] t 9 18), cited in Sukiennici& E~H..., II, p. 765. thcir right to fuli self-determination". As to the national rris," their right tr~nat icnal and persrlnal autonrmy" xaa affirrncd in g~n~ral,without, howev~r, specifying hcw it wculd ho practicâlly ~3:cecuted.3 38

Details, in any event, did not mattor much, b~caus~r,n rhe next day, February Zlst, Germcln croops ontoreci the city. s'ignificantly, the Germans first in~t-cith the Pclish trccps

3r:d c)rlly ~fterwa~dswith the 5elarr~rian.s.? 30 Neith~rthe

Beldrusian ncr P~lishlocal authorities wore rocogniz~aGy ch- Germans; hcw~ver,tnc fclrmer, althoi_igh frlrcibly rcrnr~v-d f~-cmt heir prernis~s, W-re quietly t~l-rztsd. The ~~:~,"~pie~-z, xr~c,trested the territclries seizcd in fehruary read~hingup t.5 the Bisrezina River as collatsral against Russian war irtcicmnitics, decided cc, hcld the aeiarusian card in rrserve.

'j" tanka Zaprud."Ustaunyia hrarnaty Beiaruskae Narodnae Respub W, Zapisy (1 3, 1975). pp. 9 1.95. 339 Varonka pp. 1 10- 1 1 1; Sukiennicki, East. .., II, p. 768. psople". Further, the rnanifesto declsred the principles of

-1 -reedom of speech, press, assembly ...as woll as

:~ncclnditi~nalfreedom cf conscience, and the invir3lability

~f the individual and of residence". In sdditi~n,"the right

KG strike and organizc unions" as well as "cqual rights for

,311 tn~lanquages of the peoples of Belarus," witn~ut,

\\ persona1 .3utonomyWwas likewise affirmed, althc~uqh, in viow

3f the abolition of "private ownership of land" and the ncltic~naiizationcf "forests, lakes, ana natural rosc~urcos", it was not at all rlear on what foundation this autonmy was

Ausin, thesc difficulties did n~treally mattcr, since,

nznifsst(;, it wâs helplcss to carry it oiit, Indeed, the

:.muid novar have allr~xedthcm to realizo their program, sspccially its rcvr~luti~narysccial refr~rms, 7ln fact, thcy prsferrcd the ~ESSradical and more farniliar western

At the end of January, they allowed thern t~>convene in

Vilna a Bclarusian congresS. The ccngress repeat-d its pr~viousdcmands cf reviving the former Grand Duchy and derlareci "that it does not recognize th- decisi~nsof the Lithuanian Taryba as the voice of Lithuania and [Belarus] ,

and takes no responsibility for political camrnitments

assumed by it". 340 Indeed, the Lithuanian national movement

always regarded the provinces of Vilna and Hrodna as part of

Lit huania, position which, recognized the Germans, wouid have rendered the entire west-Belarusian congress a rsther mesningless exercise. To represent effectively the

rights of the western Belarusians, a Belarusian Council

(Rada) was eletted by the Vilna congress, On the eve of the

German February advance eastward, the Vilna Belarusian

Council affirmed that Belarus "is perfectly fitted for an independent political oxistenc~", declared "al1 ties wit h

Russia sev~red", and appeal-d to "the PJestsrn Fowers, especially to Germany", for "assistance in reconstituting the former [Grand Duchy] " .341

Even though the Germans had no intention if granting the latter demand, the declaration of severing "a11 ties with Russia" was important, because it broke the psychological barrier and sffected the way cbf thinking cf the eastern Belarusians, who tended to be rather Russophil?.

However, in view of Lithuania's apparent success at the

Brest pozice negotiati~ns,the Vilna Belarusian Council's position as a separate Belarusian national organ became

Cited in Sukiennicki, Earr..., Ii, pp. 772-773. Y' Citd in Nicholas P. Vakar, Belorussio.- The Mhgof a hrotim (Cambridge, Mass., 1956), p. 102. untenable- As a result, on March 19th, they decided to join the Minsk Belarusian Cornittee, to which they were adrnitted as full members , In the unified Rada (Council), which was dominated by the eastern Belarusians, a token one-fifth of the seats were granted to the five main national minorities in Belarus. 342

Apparently, however, this last-minute show of unity did not help the Belarusians, since, on March 20th, the

Reichstag ratified the Brest Treaty. It gave the entire province of Vilna and most of that of Hrodna to Lithuania, while awarding ten counties of Chernihiv, Mahileu, Minsk, and Hrodna provinces to Ukraine, even though al1 of these territories wçre traditionally claimed by the Belarusian nati~nalmîvernont as part of the Belarusian othnographic area, In addition, on March 23rd, Kaiser Wilhelm II officially recognized Lithuania as a "free and independont

~tate",~'~which ultlmately shattered Belarusian dreams of resurrecting the former Grand Duchy, These great political defeats apparently induced some of eastern Belarusians to break decisively with the legacy of the first All-Belarusian

Cor~gress, which strove to "prevent division and separation" of Belarus £rom Ru~sia,~~~

342 Sukiennicki, East .... II, p. 774. 343 ''pamîwo wohe I niezdezme ". Cited in Wasilewslq Lima ...Zrrrys.. ., pp. 171 - 172. Cited in Sukiennicki, Eat..., 1, p. 475. As a result, the Rada decided, albeit by only a few

votes, to "cast off from our native land the last vestige of national dependence" on Russia. Indeed, the third manif esto c>f the Rada proclaimed "the Belarusian People's Republic" to be "an independent and free state". The manifesto claimed

that the Brest Treaty destroyed the Belarusian people 'by partitioning their land", and, to remedy the situation, proposed 'a review of that part of the Treatÿ ...which coneerns" Belarus. Further, the Rada brought itself to spell

ut "ail those lands" where it thought "the Belarusian people constitute a numerical majority", and which should therefore belong to the new Belarusian state. Those were

"the Mahileu region, the Belarusian parts of the regions of

Minsk, Hrodna (including the cities of Hrodna, Bialystok, and others), Vilna, Vitsebsk, Smolensk, and Chernihiv, as well as adj~centparts of neighbouring provinces, inhabitcd bÿ Belarusians". 345 CuriousLy enough, the formula included only one entire regiçn, and it is one which, by al1 accounts, is considered a peripheral part of Belarus. All the oth~tregions rnentioned in the d~cumentwere to be included in the Belarusian state only partially, with no specifics given. Hrodna and Bialystok, the only two cities cited in the manifesto, were clearly dorninated by the Jewish

35 Cited in Zapmdnik, "Us taunyia...", pp. 93-94,9748. His translation of the term BeforuskuioNorohiu Respublika as "Byelonissian Democratic Repubbcn is, howevzr, cleariy erroneous. 2nd Polish populations, and therefore "the Belarusian perBpie" did not constitute "a numerisai majority" tnere. TG a:(srrLpc4undthe rr>nfusion, parts of somc unnaned "adjac~nt neighb~uringprcvinces" were al^^ tfi Ite incLuded in the

Bslarusian scats. Finally, the manifesto ended with che

sar-ja' AL s expression of nope "t ha+ al1 frecdoni-lrjving pecples

-.-;il1tssi~t the Bslsriisisn pe~pletc 3.rlhi-vc fuily their

9r.litiral .and nati~nalicieas."

Indeod, on March S5th, the day the Third Manifest(> was

~i~k~iisheci,the Rada sont a telegram trl the Kaiser CC, express

"irs aeepest gratitude.. . for the liberâti~nr.f Belarus by th9 G;-.rmun Army frrm the ~~nbearablcyak? cf fcreiqn .3narchy

.3nd rlpjpressiori". Furthcr, the courtcil entreated the mrnnartzh

\\ C .3ssFstance in its task c-f strengthoning the independencc cf the (Eelzrusian] State and the incivisibility of th- country in ini ion with the Germzn

~mpire"- .Z 4 6

The Radars Lcft wing, i~hilzhhaa ken marginally

rlut vrltcd, was nrlt able t~ stanach that political ri~rnaklr~i-ir in4 ~ithdrewfrom the council. Thcir ssats werc filleci by

9-1 mombcrs ropresentiriq mcre socially cc~nservr,tiv~idcâs. i;.s zi rr~sult,the indefstigable Roman s'kirrnunt becamo the i~adercf the s'erretariat, the rouncil's executiv~b~ay.

3jb Cited in Sukiennicki, East .... II, p. 776. Truc, the Kaiser ignored the telegram, but the Secretariat

w.3~ailowed tci exist, and for the next few months it act~d

as a virtually unqu~stionzuquasi-government of the

Bclarusian quasi-state- Even thoiigh it hâd no real prilitical

SGwer, the Secrctariat did its best to sproad Belarusian

nati(2nsl propaganda, increase the number cf BeLarusisn

3cnc1013, promote Bclarusian culture, and even--in t hc fa11 - ctf 1918--tc) r~rganizesomo Belaru~i3ntrvz~ps - ln this Gray,

the concept of Belarus as an independent state was qiven 3

~znâriceto take root among the Belarusiari pocple. The idea,

-*;hich thus far ha^ been considered 'a cirean: thai_ (:an never

247 mzte~.izlize'', kecarne henc~à s~rir~uspolitiral ipticri.

"7 A. Stankenc, cited in Vakar, p. 106. CONCLUSION

The history of Belarus until 1916 is the history of a

country strugglinq to ascertain its status. Becauso of

important interna1 factors, such as the weakness of

Belarusian national sentiment, the lack cf a strong

9elarusian historiral tradition, and the peasant characier

(with 3.11 disadvantages of thât s~ciaiestate) of the

Belarusian scciety, the national concept of Belarus lacked a

proper soiid foundarion. Therefore, numerous ~therconcepts

cf Beiar~~ç,based on foreigfi influences, played a great role

in the pre-1913 era.

Ind%ed, for the first few centuries of its existence,

Eelarus functioned oniy as EI geographic region. The icea of

Belzrus as an ethnic entity ernerged only in the nineteenth

century. In addition, thero woro numerous factors thôt mâdc

it difficult to form one, generally accepted concept of

Selarus. Zthnic and Linguistic similarity to the Ukrâinians,

Russians, and Poles, strong historicai ties with Lithuania

proper, Poland, and Ukraine, the political dependence on

Russia, as well as the preponderant role of the Poles in the

country, al1 tended to obscure the idea of what, aiter all, was or should be Belarus. The issue was additionally

complicated by the multi-national mosaic that had existod in Belarus for centuries. Even religion tended to divide the coüntrÿ.

The two main concepts of Belarus--one holding that the country was part of Poland, the other pointing to its

Russian connection--had been in a state of permanent struggle since the Partitions. Once civil liberties were introduczd in the Russian Empire and the iocal national rnr~vementsbegan to devclop, the concept of resurrecting the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania or a Lithuanian-Belarusian statc was introduced. The Belarusian-Ukrainian link was also consiaered.

World War 1 intensified political activity and, as î, result, multiplieci the nuriber of concepts of Belarus. New concepts included those associated with the riew political factor in the area, the German Empire. The Russian

Revc,Iu%ion, and especially t ho Bolshevik Rev~lutiori, addcd mother social dimension to the problem at hand. The concept of Belarus was alsc affected by territorial concepts of two neighbourincj peoples, the Lithuanians and Ukrainians.

Finally, the ideâ of Belarus as an independent state Gegan ta take root, and a semblance of a national Belarusian parliament and government was established.

Thus, the analysis of concepts of Belarus has shown that before 1918 concepts linkinq Belarus with foreign powers have played a dominant role. It was so partly for oxternal reasons, such as the great powers' expansionism and

Belarus' unfavourable geopolitical situation. The most important, howevcr, were interna1 factors, above al1 the general lack of a strong sense of Belarusian national ronsciousness among the masses of Belarusian peasants. That crucial factor resulted in the fundamental weakness of the

Belarusian movement. This, in turn, set the staqe for the vitality and perçistence of foreign concepts of the country.

Conversely, one can see that the more assertive and botter organized the Belarusian national movemont became, the moro difficult it was for foreign powers to ignore it.

Thon, even tne foreign c~nceptsnad to take into accourit, at least to some extent, Belarusian national aspirations. Thus, whi.1~the initial concepts saw Belarus as rnerely a province af P~la~d,or that of Russia, most concepts af the W~rldWar

1 era rocognized it as a separate national-territorial entity, t heir differences in approactl to it notwit hstanaing .

Indeed, the Belarusian national movement itself unciorwent a marked evolution of its concepts. At first, a mero recognition of Belarus' individuality as a separate ethnic region was al1 they demanded. In 1918, however, ncthing short of a national Belarusian state, albeit Cependent on the German Empire, could have satisfied

Selarusian accivists.

Analysis r>f those pzst rr,nrepts ~f Belarus is

interosring in its cwn right as well as important tcb the

historian. Its significance, however, goes beyond that . It

shclws tnat in the pasc ther~were a grsat many ideas ahut

-.-:h.2? Eclarua sh~uldLe, True, the ~zclilncr'y'hüs much chancjcd

sirice +he pre-1918 erâ. N~nethclcss, niani, sirnil~iritioscari

3r_F11 Ge found. Indead, one may osscntislly agroc xith the

Phiic~scph~rwhcn he cbserve~:" 'Lr~ok,' they SZ~,'bers Is

zc'rneching ncw! But nr,, it has al1 happened Scfc

Thils, cven tociay, when Belarus appears tr~bo still

!~r~<~errzincf what rted to fc~llclw, r he ~xlricepts clf r ha pssr

ni5>' nc3t LI- entirelÿ irrelevant. Ir, sny case, it is useful t-1

-. 7 - reallze that the concept of Belarus as part cc xus~iais

zIr~iy~Grle ~f a number of possibilities. If hist5r.y' cari

inspire 11.5 cc) c~nsiderothir ~ptir~nsas weil, then so murn

the ketter. Prùnary Sources

Cat (Mackiewicz), StanisIaw. Europa in flagranti purope inflagrantij (Warsaw, 1962). Charaszkiewics Edmund. "Przebudowa Wschodu Ewopy: Matenal y do polityki wschodniej Jozefa Pilsudskiego w fatach 1893-1921" whaping of the East of Europe: Sources to Jozef Pisudski's Eastern Policy between 1893 and 19211, Niepodkglosc bdependence] (5, 1955). Dunin-Martsinkevich, V. 1. Bor tvorov [Collecteci Works] (Minsk,1 958). Hindenburg, Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von. Our of M-v Lfle (London. 1920). Jhjewicz, Waclaw, d 'Zisty Jozefa Pilsudskiego z okrtsu jego pracy w PPS" [The Mers of Jozef Pilsudski from the Period of His Activity in the PPS), Niepodleglosc [Independence] (1 8, 1985). Jundzill, Zygmunt. "Z dziejow polskiej mysli potitycnej na Litwie historycznej" From the History of Polish PoliticaI Thought in Historicai Lithuania], Niepodeglosc Fidependence] (6, 195 8). Kipel, Vitaut and Zora Kipd Byelomsian Sîurehood Reuder and Bibliography (New York 1988). Korwin-Mi lewski, H. Siedemdziesiat la! wspormien (1 855-f 9,35/[Seventy Years of Recoilections (1 855-1 925)] (Po- 1 935). Ludendorff, Erich. My War Mernories, 19141918 (London, 191 9). Mackiewicq Jozef. Pod h~dymniebem pnder Every Skyj (London, 1964). Mickiewicz Adam. Pun Tadeusz [Sir T&usz] (Warsaw, 1984). Milosz, Czslaw. Rodzima Europa [The Native Europe] (Paris, 1980). Rick Ver* transl. Like Water, Like Fire: An Anthology of Byelorussian Poe* from 1828 &O the Present Day (London, 1 97 1). Studnicki, Wladyslaw. "W posarkiwaniu odpowiedniej akcji wyzwoIenczej" Fi Search for the Appropriate Liberating Action], Nit?podleglosc (1 0, 1 935). Sukiennicki, Wikor, ed. "Michal Roemer ; Litwu wobec wojny (pou& mernorial z sierpnia 1915)" [Michal Roemer: Lithuania in Relation to the War (A Confidential Mernorial of Augtcst 191 S)], Zesqvîy Historyczne [The fistorical Fascicles] (1 7, 1970).

-A--- 2d."Wilno na schylku rzadow carshch: Mernorial rosyjskiego oberprokuratora" [Vilna at the End of Tsarist Rde: The Memorial by the Russian Oberprukurator], Zeszyp Historycme [The Historical Fascicles] (28, t 974). Talko-Hryncewicz J. Z pnezytych hi (1 850-1908) Prom Times Past] (Warsaw, 1930). Wojnillowicz, E. W~omienia1847-1928 [Memoirs, 1 847-1 928]0/ilna, 193 1). Zaprudnik, Ia., ed. "Da Pershaha Usebeiaruskaha 2' ezdu 19 1 7 hodu (Dakumenty 1mataria1y)- [The First Ail-Belmian Congres of 1917 (Documents and other Sources)], Zapisy [Transactions] (1 0, 1966). ----- , ed. "Da Pershaha Usebelaniskaha Z'ezdu 19 17 hodu @aicumenty 1matarialy)", Zapiv (9,1x4). ------, ed. "Da Pershaha Usebelaruskaha Z'ezdu 1917 hodu (Dakumenty 1matarialy)", Zapisy (8, 1 %3). Zaprudnik, Ianka, ed. "Ustaunayia hramaty Belaruskae Narodnae Respubldu"[The Constituent Charters of the Belamsian People's Repubiic], Zapzsy [Transactions] (1 3. 1975). Secondary Sources

Adamovic, Antony. "The Kupala-Kolas Century 1 883- I982-, The Journal of Byelomssian Studies (V, 2, 1 982). .%iner. Shirin. "The Vocabulary of a Byeionissian Kit'ab in the British Museum", me Journal ofi3yelorussian Strrdzes (iü. 1, 1 973). .Amchenka, U. V. Ab palanizmakh u belalzlskai pis'rnei~nus~~I ikh adpaveahikdh va uXraii2skoi rl .W?-,W7I st. st. Z zhytstsia rodnaha slma [On Polonisms in Belamian Writings and Its Equivalents in the Ukrauiian in the I6th-17th Centuries. From the Past of the Native Idiom] (Minsk, 1969). .An t onovi ch A K. Belonrsskie reh4: pisamye arabskim pis 'mom I ikh grafiko- ortografichrskzzia sisîema [Belamsian Te.- Writtzn in hbicScript and Their Graphic- Orthographie System] (Vil- 1 968). Bzdnarcnik. Leszek. "Stosunki etnotingwistycme na obszarze Wielkiego Ksiestwa Litewskiego" [The Ethno-Linguistic Relations on the Temtory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania], .-lem Baltico-SZaica (33, 1 994). ------. "Wokol etnogenezy Bialonisinow" [On the Origin of the Bclanisians], Acta Baltico- Sfavïca (1 6, 1983). Be-mov, Ju. K. "'Weisse Rus" und Weissrussen in einer deutschen Chronik des 15. Jahrhunderts" ['Belarus' and Belamsians in a German Chronicle of the Fifteenth Century], Forschungen air Ostenropaezschert Geschichte [Researches on East European History] (27, 1973). Bergman Aeksandra '-Lropold Rodziewicz". PnegfuJHistoryczq~[The Htsto~-icalReview] (3- 1979) ------. Sprawy bialomkie w rï ikecquospolitej [The Belarusian Affairs in the II Repuhlicj (Warsaw. 1984). Bzrgmanowa Aleksandra. "Bialoruski tygodndc 'Nasza Niwa"' [The BeIarusian Weekly Nasha Xïva], Kwartainik Historyczm?[The Historical Quarterly] (3: 1972). Bich, M. V. "NatsyianaI'ny sklad prarnyslovaha prdetaryiatu Bclanisi u kantsy -XE-pachath ,XX st.". Fational Composition of the industrial Proletariat in Belanis at the Turn of the Centq], trc?stsiAkademii ..YdBSSa Seryia hramariskikh nd-[The Journal of the Acaderny of Sciences of the Belamian SSR The Humanities Series] (3, 1973). Biegnski, Stanislaw. "Pilsudski 1 Lenin O ruchach rewolucyjnych 1narodowych" [Pilsudski and Lenin on Revolutionary and National Movements], !Viepodkglosc [Independence] (3' 1951). B ielacki. Ales. "Bandyta czy bohater narodowy" [Bandit or Nat ional Hero?], Literaîura na srviecie [Literature of the Worldj (8-9, 199 1). Borzech. Jerzy. '-The Union of Lublin as a Factor in the Emergence of Ukrainian National Consciousness", The Polish Rmaew(1, 1996). Broch. O. Got*ot-yk zapadu ot n/fosaZska[The Dialects to the West of Mosalsk] (Petro-gad, 1916). Ca ban owsh. Marck. Generaf StanisIuw Buloll-Bulacho wicr Zapontniany bolîaler [General Stanislaw Bulak-Balachowicz: A Formen Hero] (Warsaw, 1993). CherniavsLy, Michael. "Russia", National Conscioumess. iiistory and Political Culture in Earlv-Modem Europe, ed. Orest Ranum (Baltimore, 1975). Davies, Norman. God S Pluyground: A History of Poland (Oxford, 198 1 ). Dembkowski, Hany E. The Union of Lublin: Polish Federalim in the Golden Age (New York. 1982). Engelhardt, Eugen Freiherr von. Wezssnrthenien: Yolk und Land [Belanis : The People and the Land] (,4msterdm-Prague-Viem& 1 943). Frick David A "Meletij Smotryc' Lyj and the Ruthenian Question in the Early Seventeenth Century", Harvard Ubainian Studzes (8, 1 983). Glinka Stanislaw, ed. Atlas pur wschodnioslowianskichBialostoccyzm, [Atlas of the East Slavic Dialects of the Bialystok Region] (Wroclaw-Warsaw-Cracow-Gdansk,1 980). Gomol ka, Ejrstyna. PoMie ugrupowania polipme wobec Arwestii bialomkC?'q191 8- 1922 [Polish Political Movements In Relation to the Beiarusian Question, 191 8- 19231 (Warsaw, 1989). Grimsted Patricia Kennedy. "The Ruthenian (Volhynian) Metrica: Polish Crown Chancery Records for Ukrainian Lands, 1 569- I673", Hanard UX~~niartStudies (15. 199 1). Grinaveckiene, Elena. "Slawizrny leksykalne w litewskej wsi Szaltiniai" &&cal Slavisms in the Lithuanian Dialect of the Village of Szaltiniai]. Acta Balfico-Sl&ca (22, 1994). Grosfeld L. PoisXie reakqyiîefonnacje wojskowe w Rosji 19 1 7- 1919 [Polish Rmctionary Military Formations in Russia] (Warsaw, 1956). Horosko. Leo. "Kastus Kalinouski: Leader of the National Uprising in Byelonissia 1863-63". TIte Journal of Byelorussian Studies (I,1, 1965). Horoszkiewicz, J. -W poleskich zasci&ch sziacheckich" [In the Settlements of the Lesser Nobility in the Polesie Region], Zzemia [The Land] (6-7, 1935). Jurkiewicz Jan. Rozwoj poldiej mysli politymej na Lihvit? I Bialonrsi w latach lgO.%l9,'2 [Development of Polish Political Thought in Lithuania and Belanis between 1905 and 19321 Cpoman. 1983). Karskii. E. F. Belonq Ocherk slovesnosti belomss/cago plemeni [The Belamsians. An Outline of the Belmian Tnbès Literature] (Petrograd. 1923)- Kasiak, Ivan, ed. Byelo~sio:HMoncal OufZzne (London, 1988). Kosman, Marceli. Histon'a Biulonrsi [Histov of Belarus] (Wrociaw-Warsaw-Cracow-Gdansk, 1979). Iclossowski, A BZasXci I cienis Unii Koscielnej w PoIscri w AZII--UlII W. w mietle ,-rode[ archiwalnych [The Splendeurs and Miseries of the Church Union in Poland in the 17th- 18th Centuries in the Light of Archival Sources] (Lublin, 1939). Kowalczyk, Andrzej Stanisiaw. Sawinkow [Savinkov] (Warsaw, 1992). Uzywicki. Ludwk "Rozbior krytycmy wynikow spisu" [A Critical Analysis of the Results of the Census], MiesiemikSta@siyczm~(The Statisticai Monthiy] (6, 1932). Krzysztotik Wincenty. Jasionowka wies powiatu sokohkiego [The Village of Jasionowka in Sokok County] (Po= 1934). Kuraszliiew icz W. "Tradycje bialorus kie E ukrainskie w gwarach okolic Puszczy B ialowieskiej" [Belamsian and Ukrainian Traditions in the Dialects of the Bialowieza Forest], Acta Balh-CO-Sbica( 1, 1 964). Lapicz, Czeslaw. Kifab Tatarow litewsko-polsk.lch [The Kitab of the Lithuanian-Polish Tatars] (Torun, 1986). Lswandowski, J. Fed~ralizrn.Litwa I Bialow w polityce obozu belwedersh-ego &II 918-Irrr 1920) [Federalisrn: Lithuania and Belanis in the Poiicy of the Belweder Camp, November 1 9 18-April 1920](Warsaw, 1962). L(ipinski), W(ac1aw). "Nazwy 'Rus' 1 'Ukrauia' 1 ich znaczenie historycncn [The Names 'Rus" ad'Ukraine' and their Hïstoricaf Meaning], Z dn'qiow Ukrainy Prom the Estory of Ukrauie], ed. Waclaw Lipkki, mev, 19 12). Lossowski, Piotr. StuSunki puhko-liteuskie w latach 1918-1920 Polish-lithuanian Relations between 19 1 8 and 19201 (Warsaw, 1966). Lumy, Ryszard. "The Kiev Mohyla Academy in Relation to Polish Culture", Harvard CIkruiniun Sîudies (8, 1984). Makshovich, R- "HramotyXIV st. Up~fiadbvm~avsîupnu stattia komenîari I slovnyky- pokclthchyky [Wrinen Texts of the Fourteenth Century. Anangement, htroduction, Commentaries, and Dictionaries-Indexesl, M. M. Peshchaiq Akademiia Nauk URSR [The Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR]. Parn'iatky ukrains'koi movy [Monuments of the Ukrainian Language].Kiev, 1974", Zapisy [Transactions] (1 3, 1975). Maksimovich, Ryhor. "Sprechka pra dakumenty iakikh nikoli nia bylo" [The Argument about the Documents haî &ve Never EGsted], Zapisy [Transactions] (1 3, 1975). Mayo, P. J. "The Aiphabet and Orthography of Byelorussian in the 23th Century", The Joumai of Byelorussian Sr~dies(IV, 1, 1977). McMiI lin, A B. "XIXth Century Attitudes to Byelonissian before Karski", The Journal of BcvelomssianSîudies (5 2, 1%6). Mikolajewska, B. Nanvy emicme jako czynnik dystansu eînicmego. Shrdium pnypadku zromicowania spolemego na Podlasiu pthnic Names as a Factor of Ethmc Distance: A Case Study of Social Differentiation in the Podlasie Rqgïon] (Warsaw, 1987). Mironowicz, Antoni. "Warunki ksztaltujace bialoniska swiadomosc narodowa w spolecznosci prawoslawnej na B ialostocczyznïen [Conditions Wluencing Belamsian National Consciousness among the Orthodox Population of the Bialystok Region], Zesqty hr&we Instyhrrtr Nuuk Politycznych [The Fascicles of the Institute of the Political Sciences] (16, 1989). Mironowicz, Eugeniusz Bzalonrsini w Polsce 1 945-1 989 [The Belamians in Poland 1945- 1 9891 (Warsaw, 199 1). Nadson, Aiexander. 'Wasa Niva", 7'he Journal of Byelomssian Sues(i, 3,1%7j. Ochanski, J. Liteudi nrch narodowo-kuIturahy wkZY wieh (do 1890 r.) [The Lithuanian National-Cultural Movement in the 19th Century (dl1890)] (Bialystok, 1965). Pipes, Richard The Formation of ihe Soviet Union (Cambridge, Mass., 1964). Sadowski, Andrzq. Narody wielkie 1 male: Bialorusim w Polsce [Nations Great and Small: The Beiarusians in Poland] (Cracow, 1991). Shevelov, George Y. "Belorussian versus Ukrainian: Delimitation of Texts be fore AD. 1569", meJournal oJByelowstStanStudies (3, 1974). Sienkievic, V. "Lastouski the Historian and his Historical Views", The Journal of Byelomssiart Studies O/, 3-4, 1984). Sipovic, C. "The Diocese of Minsk, Its Origin, E>dent and Hierarchy", TheJournal of Byelorussian Studies (JI,2, 2970). Srokowski, Konstanîy. Sprawa narodow&owa na Kresach Wschodmch [The Nationality Issue in Poland's Eastern Borderfands] (Cracow, 1924). Stankievic, Jan. "The Soviet Falsification of Belamsian History", Belorussian Review (4, 1957). Stnunins'lqg , Bohdan. "Wanbetween Old Bulgarian, Polish, and Russian", Joumal of LkaimmanShrdies (3, 1 978). S ubtelny, Orest. Ukraine: A History (Toronto, 1994). Sukiennicki, Wiktor. East Central Europe During World War I (New York, 1984). Symmons-Symonolewicz,Konstantin. National Consciousness in PoIartd: Origin and EvoZuiion (Meadville, 1983). Sysyn Frank E. Behveen Poland and the Ukraine. neDilemma ofAdam Kyd, 1600-1653 (Cambridge, Mass., 1985). Tornaszewski, Jerzy. Ojczynta me îylko Pok&w [The Fathaland not oniy of the Poles] (Warsaw, 1985). ------. lizeczpospol~tawielu narodow [The Commonwealth of Many Nations] (Warsaw, 1985). Tomkiewicq W. "Dzieje Unii Koscxelnej w Wielkun KsieshKie Litewskim (1596-1 795)" [The Hjstory of the Church Union in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1 596-1 7991, P Wetnik W Powszechnego Gazdu Histogkow PoJskich w Wilnie [Transactions of the Siuth General Congres oEPolish Histonans in Vilna] (Lviv, 1935). Trube, L. L. "Etnonixn LlTVA na nizegorodskoj =le" [The Ethnic Designation LITVA in the Nizhegorodskoi Region], International Conference of Balticisîs (Vilna, 198 5). Turonek, Jerzy. Waclaw iwanowski I odrodzenie Bialorusi waclaw Iwanowski and the Rebllth of Belanis] (Warsaw, 1992). Vakar, Nicholas P. Belotw.ssia 171e Making of a Nation (Cambridge, Mass., 1956). Wakar, W.Ronvoj terytorialny narodowosci polskiej [Territorial Development of the Polish Nationality] (Kielce, 19 1 7). Waidenberg, Marek. Kwestie narodowe w Europie Srodkow- Wschodniej mational Questions in East Central Europe] (Warsaw, 1992). Wasilewski, Leon. Die Osprovinzen des alten Polenreich [TheEastern Provinces ofthe Old Polish Commonwealth] (Cracow, 1 91 7).

----A-- . Liîwa 1 Bia20m.s: Zovs histotymo-polity stosunkow narodowosciowych Pithuania and Belanis: A Historical-Political Outline of National Reiations] (Warsaw, 1925). ------. "Stosunki polsko-litewskie w dobie powstaniowej" [The Polish-Lithuanian Relations in the Era of Uprisingy], Niepodkgiosc Fdependence](1 , 1 930)- Wexier, Paul. Vewish, Tatar and Karaite communai didects and their Importance for Byelonissian Kistorical Linguistics", The Journal ofByelo~ussianSiudies (III, i . 1 973). Wrokl, Piotr. Ksztaltowmie sie biololtl~kiejswiudomoscinarodowej a Polska [The Formation ofBelamsian National Consciousness in Relation to Poland] (Warsaw, 1990). Wronka, Johannes. Kurland und Litauen Ostpreussens Nuchbarn [Kurland and Lithuania: the Neighbours of East Pnissia] (Freiburg im Breisgau). Zapmdnik, Ia- "Krutalevich: Rozhdenie Belonisskoi Sovetskoi Respubliki" Wtalevich, The Bi& of the Belomskm Sm.etRepublic. Review] Zctpisy [Transactions](1 5, 1977). Zapnidnik, lm. "Soviet Documentation of Byelonissia's Histmy (1 909- f 9 19)", Zopisy [Transactions] (1 7, '1 983). Zaprudnik, J. "Byelorussia's Representatives in the Second State Duma", The Journal of Byelomsiun Studies (m, 3, 1975). Zapnidmk, Jan l3elam.s.-At a Crossroads in Histov Poulder-San Francisco-Mord, 1993). Zaprudnik, Jan. "The Stmggie for Byelonissia's Autonomy in the First Siaie Duma", The Journal of Byelorussian Sîudies (Il, 3, 1971). Zaprudnik, Jan. and Thomas E. Bird. The 1863 Upnsing in Byefo~z(ssiu:"Peawnts ' Tnrrh" and "Lettersfrom Beneath the Gailows" (Te- and commenta?ies) (New York, 1980). Zatorçki, A Po& Lewica WojskOwa w ROSjj w okresie rewolrrji 1 91 7-1 918 me Polish Lefi- Wing Military in Russia in the P&od of RevoIution 191 7-191 81 (Warsaw, 1971).