BELARUSIANS IN POLAND: ASSIMILATION NOT IMPLIED BY LAW Hanna Vasilevich ECMI WORKING PAPER #80 October 2014 ECMI- Working Paper # 80 The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) is a non-partisan institution founded in 1996 by the Governments of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German State of Schleswig-Holstein. ECMI was established in Flensburg, at the heart of the Danish-German border region, in order to draw from the encouraging example of peaceful coexistence between minorities and majorities achieved here. ECMI’s aim is to promote interdisciplinary research on issues related to minorities and majorities in a European perspective and to contribute to the improvement of interethnic relations in those parts of Western and Eastern Europe where ethno-political tension and conflict prevail. ECMI Working Papers are written either by the staff of ECMI or by outside authors commissioned by the Centre. As ECMI does not propagate opinions of its own, the views expressed in any of its publications are the sole responsibility of the author concerned. ECMI Working Paper # 80 European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) Director: Dr. Tove H. Malloy © ECMI 2014 2 | P a g e ECMI- Working Paper # 80 BELARUSIANS IN POLAND: ASSIMILATION NOT IMPLIED BY LAW This Working Paper focuses on the situation of the Belarusian minority in Poland, an autochthonous ethnic group which traditionally resides in the eastern parts of today’s Podlaskie Voivodship and represents an integral part of the Belarusian -Polish borderland. The text argues that although Polish minority-related legislation formally complies with the international standards, its general effectiveness is significantly impeded by overall regional development of the Padliašša/Podlasie region. Hanna Vasilevich October 2014 ECMI Working Paper # 80 I. INTRODUCTION Belarusians in Poland, despite being the third- Belarusians represent an autochthonous largest officially recognised minority after population in the Padliašša/Podlasie3 region Germans and since 2011 Ukrainians, do not which roughly corresponds to the territory of attract much attention. When the problem the Podlaske Voivodship. Being a part of the concerns minorities, Germans or Ukrainians Belarusian-Polish borderland, the are usually mentioned. Further focus is placed Padliašša/Podlasie region is historically very on the Jewish minority which has strong links important for the Belarusians. This with Holocaust issues.1 Moreover, there is still Belarusian-Polish borderland represents a an ongoing debate with a strong political region which is distinguished by relatively dimension whether Silesians should be treated stable coexistence and interaction of different as a specific ethnic group within the context ethnic groups and cultures, which has resulted of Polish minority-related legislation.2 Thus, in the formation of a unique type of a rather despite their relatively large numbers specific culture, characterized by mutual Belarusians remain somewhat in the shadow tolerance and lack of conflict among the of other minorities in Poland in terms of members of different ethnic and religious academic research. communities.4 This area is therefore an 3 | P a g e ECMI- Working Paper # 80 example of state borders that do not coincide border.9 While terminology can produce with the ethnic ones and in which often associations with Polish domination and linguistic and ethnic cultural factors5 do not oppression against the Belarusian identity correspond to each other.6 The area is among Belarusians, Poles can link this characterised by a rather stable ethnic interpretation with positive nostalgic consciousness of its population, but at the feelings.10 Second, the Belarusian-Polish same time it features a simultaneous borderland is often portrayed as a borderland belonging to different cultures and knowledge between East and West, or in Huntington’s of different languages.7 That is why the area typology Western and Orthodox of the Belarusian-Polish borderland in general civilizations.11 That is why the religious factor and the Padliašša/Podlasie region in particular is at least as important here as the ethnic one. can be regarded as a historically defined topos Third, frequent changes of the borders that which is situated in Europe’s geographic have occurred in the region in the 20th centre and is internally configured by the century have made it possible for scholars to factor of the Belarusian-Polish state border.8 treat entire Belarus as a borderland between Russia and Poland since “the position of II. HISTORY OF BELARUSIANS Belarus between the two powerful and culturally different neighbors indicates that IN POLAND WITHIN THE their influence, both individual and combined, CONTEXT OF TODAY’S BORDER is a major determinant of Belarus’s identity, FORMATION comparable in its significance to its indigenous tendencies”.12 The very notion “Belarusians in Poland” To understand the complexity of the within the context of historical developments ethnic and religious developments in the in the region where they currently reside has Belarusian-Polish borderland, an in-depth always had somewhat different meanings overview of the region’s history and border within wider historical and national formation is required. Once a part of the perspectives. These different meanings have a Grand Duchy of Lithuania bound by the union strong connection with the historical with the Kingdom of Poland, at the end of the narratives in the region as well with the 18th century the region was annexed by the formation of people’s identities. Russian Empire. There on the remnants of the First, within the context of the Polish old state a number of competing national ideas worldview, the Belarusian-Polish borderland emerged which after the 1863 anti-Russian is referred to as kresy wschodnie (eastern uprising embraced the mass population13, as borderlands). Therefore it is largely perceived “some patriots [of the former Commonwealth as a historical, political and cultural reality of Both Nations] recast the nation as the and is thus present in the historical narratives people, and nationality as the language they and consciousness of the local Belarusians spoke”.14 Each of these narratives had its own and Poles who live on both sides of the grounds, arguments and scope of 4 | P a g e ECMI- Working Paper # 80 opportunities, resulted in failures or and Polish.”19 Thus, the historical achievements which could be summarized as developments in the region demonstrate that: understanding of the present in terms of Belarusian Catholics were much more easily closed possibilities.15 subjected to the assimilation and embrace of As for the territory of the current Polish ethnic identity, Podlaskie Voivodship, in the beginning of the Orthodoxy was a sort of additional and 20th century this area was the place where very crucial protection element in preserving Belarusian and Polish national ideas competed Belarusian identity in Padliašša/Podlasie. with each other. This rivalry cannot probably The First World War became a turning point be considered as a full-fledged competition in the formation of modern Europe dominated due to the fact that Polish nationalism was by a new form of statehood – a nation state older and much more developed. This can also emerged as a result of the old world’s be explained by an overwhelmingly rural problems, but this form of statehood did not character of the Belarusian ethnic element, provide every nation with equal possibilities.20 lack of national bourgeoisie and thus the very Poland “had emerged from the swirling belatedness of the Belarusian national process of modern statecraft as battered movement.16 Another aspect to be considered victors, establishing lessened replicas of the is the confessional affiliation which in terms old imperial order with a large, diverse of the Padlašša/Podlasie has been a very territory and a heterogeneous, multicultural important factor. On the one hand, the population”.21 Belarus was much less overwhelming majority of persons who successful in achieving its national goals, as belong to the Belarusian minority in Poland the attempts to establish a nation-state on the are affiliated with the Orthodox Church. On ethnic Belarusian lands failed in 1918. the other hand, in terms of the region’s ethnic Subsequently in 1919 the Belarusian Soviet history, this linkage between Belarusian Socialist Republic was proclaimed on part of national identity and Orthodox religious this territory, while later in 1921 the country affiliation has not always been the case. For was divided between Soviet Russia and instance, the results of the 1897 Census of the Poland.22 As a result, Belarusian ethnic lands Russian Empire showed the domination of the were cut almost in half and what is now the Belarusian ethnic component in the Belarusian-Polish borderland became part of predominantly Catholic Sakolka/Sokółka the re-established Poland. municipality.17 However, the same group of Such a configuration of the border left peasant Catholic Belarusians in this area faced Polish Belarusians largely rural so that their the shift towards Polish national identity national “intelligentsia was too small to serve which was revealed in a relatively strong as an ally for any Polish political formation” movement for schooling in Polish.18 Russian and “Belarusian national aspirations within authorities emphasised in their reports Poland were seen as crypto-Bolshevism.”23 “Belarusian Catholics consider themselves Moreover, “in the inter-war period, protection Poles and speak with each other in Belarusian of rights of national minorities posed a serious 5 | P a g e ECMI- Working Paper # 80 political problem to Poland which to a large transfer of the most of its parts together with extent had not been resolved then”.24 It meant two districts of the adjacent Region of Brest to that all these minorities should be integrated Poland.29 Upon accomplishment of this in a manner that “all the natives of the Roman transfer, the current border between two Catholic faith were registered as Polish”. Even countries was established.