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At the same time, for several years in the [[1920s]] the [[Polish language]] had an official status in the semi-autonomous Soviet-controlled [[East Belarus]], along with [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Yiddish]]. The Polish minority had its organizations there, the building of the Roman Catholic [[Church of Saints Simon and Helena|Red Church]] in Minsk was home to a Polish-speaking national theatre of Belarus. However, in early [[1930s]] most Polish organizations in East Belarus were liquidated by Soviet authorities and their leaders were often arrested and either sent to concentration camps or killed.
At the same time, for several years in the [[1920s]] the [[Polish language]] had an official status in the semi-autonomous Soviet-controlled [[East Belarus]], along with [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Yiddish]]. The Polish minority had its organizations there, the building of the Roman Catholic [[Church of Saints Simon and Helena|Red Church]] in Minsk was home to a Polish-speaking national theatre of Belarus. However, in early [[1930s]] most Polish organizations in East Belarus were liquidated by Soviet authorities and their leaders were often arrested and either sent to concentration camps or killed.

In 1937–1938 the Soviet [[NKVD]] and the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] attempted to erradicate Poles as a minority group in East Belarus during the largest ethnic shooting and deportation action of the [[Great Purge|Great Terror]].

===The "Polish operation" of the NKVD===
Just prior to the 1939 [[Invasion of Poland]], the Soviet [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussia]] witnessed [[Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union (1937–1938)|the genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union]] resulting in the virtual erradication of Polish minority along the border.<ref name="bookhaven">{{cite web | url=http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/tag/timothy-snyder/ | title=A letter from Timothy Snyder of Bloodlands: Two genocidaires, taking turns in Poland | publisher=Stanford University | work=The Book Haven | date=December 15th, 2010 | accessdate=April 25, 2011}}</ref><ref name="thepolishreview">{{cite web | url=http://www.thepolishreview.org/backissues.html | title=''Execute the Poles: The Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union, 1937-1938.'' Documents from Headquarters | publisher=[[Warsaw]]: 3S Media | date=2010 | isbn=8376730207 | accessdate=April 25, 2011 | author=Tomasz Sommer | pages=277}}</ref> The [[Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union (1937–1938)|state-sanctioned campaign of mass-murder]] which took place approximately from August 25, 1937 to November 15, 1938,<ref name="naukowa.pl">{{cite web | url=http://www.naukowa.pl/Historia,7kt/Rozstrzelac-Polakow.-Ludobojstwo-Polakow-w-Zwiazku-Sowieckim-w-latach-1937-1938.-Dokumenty-z-Central,328396ks | title= Sommer, Tomasz. Book description (Opis). | publisher=Księgarnia Prawnicza, [[Lublin]] | work=Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim w latach 1937-1938. Dokumenty z Centrali (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union) | accessdate=April 28, 2011}}</ref> according to archives of the Soviet NKVD, resulted in the killing of 111,091 ethnic Poles (mostly men). Additional 28,744 were sentenced to death-ridden [[labor camp]]s; amounting to 139,835 Polish victims across the country (10% of the officially persecuted persons during the entire [[Yezhovshchina]] period, with confirming NKVD documents). About 17% of the total number of victims came from Byelorussia, among them, thousands of peasants, railway workers, industrial labourers, engineers and similar others, resulting in near collapse of its economy.<ref name="McLoughlin">McLoughlin, Barry, and McDermott, Kevin (eds). ''Stalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union.'' [[Palgrave Macmillan]], December 2002. ISBN 1403901198, [http://books.google.com/books?id=8yorTJl1QEoC&pg=PA164&dq=polish+operation+of+nkvd+111,091&ei=kpXuRu_aLKfUowKVmZC2Dw&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=-1KiWrPJ2aP3HQJiSz5LWxesdC4 p. 164]</ref> The coordinated actions of the Soviet NKVD and the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] in 1937-1938 against [[Poles in the former Soviet Union|Polish minority]] living in the Soviet Union, representing only 0.4 percent of Soviet citizens, amounted to an [[Genocide definitions|ethnic genocide]] as defined by the UN convention, concluded historian [[Michael Ellman]].<ref name="paulbogdanor">Michael Ellman, [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1933.pdf "Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932-33 Revisited."] Amsterdam School of Economics. [[PDF]] file</ref> His opinion is shared by [[Simon Sebag Montefiore]],<ref name="Montefiore">Simon Sebag Montefiore. ''Stalin. The Court of the Red Tsar'', page 229. Vintage Books, New York 2003. Vintage ISBN 1-4000-7678-1]</ref> Prof. [[Marek Jan Chodakiewicz]],<ref name="rp.pl">{{cite web | url=http://www.rp.pl/artykul/594183.html | title=Nieopłakane ludobójstwo (Genocide Not Mourned) | publisher=[[Rzeczpospolita]] | date=15-01-2011 | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=Prof. [[Marek Jan Chodakiewicz]]}}</ref> and Dr [[Tomasz Sommer]] among others.<ref name="thepolishreview">{{cite web | url=http://www.thepolishreview.org/backissues.html | title=''Execute the Poles: The Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union, 1937-1938.'' Documents from Headquarters | publisher=[[Warsaw]]: 3S Media | year=2010 | isbn=8376730207 | accessdate=April 25, 2011 | author=Tomasz Sommer | pages=277}}</ref><ref name="se.pl">{{cite web | url=http://m.se.pl/wydarzenia/opinie/zbrodnia-wieksza-niz-katyn_157172.html | title=Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków z lat 1937-38 to zbrodnia większa niż Katyń (Genocide of Poles in the years 1937-38, a Crime Greater than [[Katyn massacre|Katyn]]) | publisher=[[Super Express]] | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=Franciszek Tyszka}}</ref><ref name="historyton.pl">{{cite web | url=http://historyton.pl/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=11729 | title=Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (To Execute the Poles. Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union) | publisher=Historyton | accessdate=April 28, 2011}}</ref><ref name="wiara.pl">{{cite web | url=http://info.wiara.pl/doc/578542.Publikacja-na-temat-eksterminacji-Polakow-w-ZSRR-w-latach-30 | title=Publikacja na temat eksterminacji Polaków w ZSRR w latach 30 (Publication on the Subject of Extermination of Poles in the Soviet Union during the 1930s) | author= Andrzej Macura | publisher=Portal Wiara.pl | date=2010-06-24 | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=[[Polska Agencja Prasowa]]}}</ref> In a typical [[Stalinist]] fashion, the murdered Polish families were accused of "anti-Soviet" activities and state terrorism.<ref name="global364">{{cite web | url=http://globalizacja.org/node/364 | title=Konferencja „Rozstrzelać Polaków – Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim” (Conference on Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union), [[Warsaw]] | publisher=Instytut Globalizacji oraz Press Club Polska in cooperation with Memorial Society | accessdate=April 28, 2011}}</ref><ref name="polishclub.org">{{cite web | url=http://www.polishclub.org/2011/03/22/prof-iwo-cyprian-pogonowski-rozkaz-n-k-w-d-no-00485-z-dnia-11-viii-1937-a-polacy/ | title=Rozkaz N.K.W.D.: No. 00485 z dnia 11-VIII-1937, a Polacy | publisher=Polish Club Online | date=22 March 2011 | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=Prof. [[Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski]] | quote= See also, Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union), article published by The Polish Review vol. LV, No. 4, 2010.}}</ref>


During [[World War II]], the Polish anti-German resistance movement [[Armia Krajowa]] was actively operating on the territory of former [[West Belarus]], although many ethnic Belarusians also actively participated in the movement.<ref>According to the historian Jan Siamashka, ethnic Belarusians of only Orthodox faith constituted about 40% of the Navahrudak Discrict Military Group of the AK (Zgrupowanie Okręgu AK Nowogródek). This number does not include Roman Catholic Belarusians [http://www.jivebelarus.net/history/new-history/army-krayova-part-02b.html?page=4]</ref>
During [[World War II]], the Polish anti-German resistance movement [[Armia Krajowa]] was actively operating on the territory of former [[West Belarus]], although many ethnic Belarusians also actively participated in the movement.<ref>According to the historian Jan Siamashka, ethnic Belarusians of only Orthodox faith constituted about 40% of the Navahrudak Discrict Military Group of the AK (Zgrupowanie Okręgu AK Nowogródek). This number does not include Roman Catholic Belarusians [http://www.jivebelarus.net/history/new-history/army-krayova-part-02b.html?page=4]</ref>

Revision as of 17:03, 6 August 2011

The Polish minority in Belarus numbers officially about 294,549 according to 2009 census.[1] It forms the second largest ethnic minority in the country after Russians, at 3,1% of the total population. An estimated 180,905 Polish Belarusians live in large agglomerations and 113,644 in smaller settlements, with the number of women exceeding the number of men by about 33,000.[1] Some estimates by Polish non-governmental sources are higher.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the emergence of sovereign Republic of Belarus, the situation of the Polish minority has been steadily improving. The politics of Sovietization pursued by decades of indoctrination, went down in history. Poles in Belarus began re-establishing the Polish language schools and their legal right of participating in the religious life. However, the attitude of new authorities to Polish minority including the Roman Catholic Church are not very consistent. The new laws are insufficient, and the local levels of Bielarusian government are largely unwilling to accept the aspirations of their own ethnic Poles.[2]

History

Polish ethnic and cultural presence on the lands of modern Belarus started to form in the times of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth mostly due to voluntary Polonization. Most Belarusian Poles are descendants of Belarusian (Litvin) Roman Catholic peasants and szlachta who voluntarily adopted Polish identity predominantly in the 19th century. Roman Catholicism was considered a "Polish faith" and Eastern Orthodoxy a "Russian faith", and according to this principle the population of Belarus was often classified as either Polish or Russian in the times of the Russian Empire.

Polish influence was restored over West Belarus in the interwar period. The Polish government continued the policy of active polonization of the local population, stimulating local people to take Polish identity.

At the same time, for several years in the 1920s the Polish language had an official status in the semi-autonomous Soviet-controlled East Belarus, along with Belarusian, Russian and Yiddish. The Polish minority had its organizations there, the building of the Roman Catholic Red Church in Minsk was home to a Polish-speaking national theatre of Belarus. However, in early 1930s most Polish organizations in East Belarus were liquidated by Soviet authorities and their leaders were often arrested and either sent to concentration camps or killed.

In 1937–1938 the Soviet NKVD and the Communist Party attempted to erradicate Poles as a minority group in East Belarus during the largest ethnic shooting and deportation action of the Great Terror.

The "Polish operation" of the NKVD

Just prior to the 1939 Invasion of Poland, the Soviet Byelorussia witnessed the genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union resulting in the virtual erradication of Polish minority along the border.[3][4] The state-sanctioned campaign of mass-murder which took place approximately from August 25, 1937 to November 15, 1938,[5] according to archives of the Soviet NKVD, resulted in the killing of 111,091 ethnic Poles (mostly men). Additional 28,744 were sentenced to death-ridden labor camps; amounting to 139,835 Polish victims across the country (10% of the officially persecuted persons during the entire Yezhovshchina period, with confirming NKVD documents). About 17% of the total number of victims came from Byelorussia, among them, thousands of peasants, railway workers, industrial labourers, engineers and similar others, resulting in near collapse of its economy.[6] The coordinated actions of the Soviet NKVD and the Communist Party in 1937-1938 against Polish minority living in the Soviet Union, representing only 0.4 percent of Soviet citizens, amounted to an ethnic genocide as defined by the UN convention, concluded historian Michael Ellman.[7] His opinion is shared by Simon Sebag Montefiore,[8] Prof. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz,[9] and Dr Tomasz Sommer among others.[4][10][11][12] In a typical Stalinist fashion, the murdered Polish families were accused of "anti-Soviet" activities and state terrorism.[13][14]

During World War II, the Polish anti-German resistance movement Armia Krajowa was actively operating on the territory of former West Belarus, although many ethnic Belarusians also actively participated in the movement.[15]

After the Soviet invasion of Poland West Belarus was incorporated into the Belarusian SSR. At that time and over subsequent years, many Belarusian Poles were either killed or deported[citation needed]. At first the deportations were heading east as during the Second World War the Soviets forcibly resettled large numbers of Belarusian Poles to Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

After the war, as part of the Soviet-Polish population exchange, many inhabitants of Belarus who identified themselves as Poles were sent to shifted Poland. In exchange, several thousands of Belarusians from parts of the former Belastok Voblast were resettled to Belarus (see Repatriation of Poles (1944-1946)).

The remaining Polish minority in Belarus was significantly discriminated[citation needed] against during the times of the Soviet Union, with continuing policies of Sovietization. The situation of the Polish minority started to improve during the late years of the Soviet Union, but faced difficulties from the government of Alexander Lukashenko.[2]

Current situation

Ethnic Poles share in Belarus (Census 2009), district level data, district level cities and Minsk were depicted with circles.
Ethnic Poles distribution in Belarus (Census 2009), district level data, district level cities and Minsk values were summed with the surrounding districts.

Polish minority in Belarus numbers officially about 295,000. The aspect of Roman Catholic Belarusians and descendants of the Belarusian nobility identifying themselves as Polish is less and less common as the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus undergoes the process of self-depolonization.[citation needed]

After the Russian minority, Poles certainly form the second largest minority group in Belarus.[1] The majority of Poles live in the Western regions of Belarus (including 230,000 in Hrodna voblast).

The largest Polish organization in Belarus is the Union of Poles in Belarus (Związek Polaków na Białorusi), with over 20,000 members.

As Poland supports the pro-democracy anti-government opposition in Belarus, Polish-Belarusian relations are poor, and representatives of the Polish minority in Belarus often complain about various repressions.[16][17][18]

In 2005, the Lukashenko government launched a campaign against the Polish ethnic minority. The Belarusian authorities claimed that their pro-Western Polish neighbours are trying to destabilise the government, and that the Polish minority is a fifth column. In May and June of that year a Polish diplomat was expelled, a Polish-language newspaper was closed and the democratically-elected leadership of a local Polish organisation, the Union of Poles in Belarus (UPB), had their own nominees replaced by those sympathetic to Lukashenko.[19]

The introduction of the Karta Polaka in 2007 enabled many thousands of inhabitants of Belarus to get it by formally declaring their Polish identity to Polish officials. The introduction caused protests from Belarusian officials.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Statistics from belstat.gov.by (бюллетень). See page 22. RAR data compression of Template:PDF file. Listing total population of Belarus with population by age and sex, marital status, education, nationality, language and livelihood ("Общая численность населения; численность населения по возрасту и полу, состоянию в браке, уровню образования, национальностям, языку, источникам средств к существованию") Template:Be icon
  2. ^ a b Prof. Piotr Eberhardt, "Polacy na Białorusi." Świat Polonii. Stowarzyszenie Wspólnota Polska. Accessed August 6, 2011.
  3. ^ "A letter from Timothy Snyder of Bloodlands: Two genocidaires, taking turns in Poland". The Book Haven. Stanford University. December 15th, 2010. Retrieved April 25, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b Tomasz Sommer (2010). "Execute the Poles: The Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union, 1937-1938. Documents from Headquarters". Warsaw: 3S Media. p. 277. ISBN 8376730207. Retrieved April 25, 2011. Cite error: The named reference "thepolishreview" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Sommer, Tomasz. Book description (Opis)". Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim w latach 1937-1938. Dokumenty z Centrali (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union). Księgarnia Prawnicza, Lublin. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  6. ^ McLoughlin, Barry, and McDermott, Kevin (eds). Stalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union. Palgrave Macmillan, December 2002. ISBN 1403901198, p. 164
  7. ^ Michael Ellman, "Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932-33 Revisited." Amsterdam School of Economics. PDF file
  8. ^ Simon Sebag Montefiore. Stalin. The Court of the Red Tsar, page 229. Vintage Books, New York 2003. Vintage ISBN 1-4000-7678-1]
  9. ^ Prof. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (15-01-2011). "Nieopłakane ludobójstwo (Genocide Not Mourned)". Rzeczpospolita. Retrieved April 28, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Franciszek Tyszka. "Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków z lat 1937-38 to zbrodnia większa niż Katyń (Genocide of Poles in the years 1937-38, a Crime Greater than [[Katyn massacre|Katyn]])". Super Express. Retrieved April 28, 2011. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  11. ^ "Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (To Execute the Poles. Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union)". Historyton. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  12. ^ Polska Agencja Prasowa (2010-06-24). "Publikacja na temat eksterminacji Polaków w ZSRR w latach 30 (Publication on the Subject of Extermination of Poles in the Soviet Union during the 1930s)". Portal Wiara.pl. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  13. ^ "Konferencja „Rozstrzelać Polaków – Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim" (Conference on Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union), [[Warsaw]]". Instytut Globalizacji oraz Press Club Polska in cooperation with Memorial Society. Retrieved April 28, 2011. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  14. ^ Prof. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski (22 March 2011). "Rozkaz N.K.W.D.: No. 00485 z dnia 11-VIII-1937, a Polacy". Polish Club Online. Retrieved April 28, 2011. See also, Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union), article published by The Polish Review vol. LV, No. 4, 2010.
  15. ^ According to the historian Jan Siamashka, ethnic Belarusians of only Orthodox faith constituted about 40% of the Navahrudak Discrict Military Group of the AK (Zgrupowanie Okręgu AK Nowogródek). This number does not include Roman Catholic Belarusians [1]
  16. ^ BBC NEWS | Europe | Belarus Polish chief jailed again
  17. ^ Wirtualna Polonia
  18. ^ Białoruś: Polowanie na Polaków
  19. ^ Poland and Belarus | Bordering on madness | Economist.com
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