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

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

History

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

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

1918–1939

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Demographics

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

Belarusian and Polish population in voivodeships with significant Belarusian population according to the 1931 census

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

1989–present

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

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

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

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

See also

• Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Belarus in the aftermath of World War II
• Belarus–Poland relations
• Bilingual communes in Poland
• Kresy
• West Belarus
• Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz
• Polish minority in Belarus

Notes

1. This share of Roman Catholics included 42,993 Roman Catholic Lithuanians or around 31.5% of the county's total population.
2. Kamin-Kashyrskyi County's population according to the 1921 census included 41,522 Ukrainians, 9,183 Poleshuks ("Tutejszy") and just 6 Belarusians. According to the 1931 census this county's population included 74,313 Poleshuk ("Tutejszy" language), 8,271 Ukrainian, 1,136 Belarusian and 250 Russian speakers.
3. This share of Roman Catholics included 6,246 Roman Catholic Lithuanians or just over 2.9% of the county's total population.

1. Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyniki spisu ludności i mieszkań 2011. GUS. Materiał na konferencję prasową w dniu 29. 01. 2013. p. 3. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
2. Алег Гардзіенка "Беларуская дыяспара. Сучасныя праблемы і перспектывы"
3. Purism and Language a Study in Modem Ukrainian and Belorussian Nationalism(1840-1967). Walter de Gruyter.
4. Żarnowski, p. 373
5. Mironowicz, p. 80
6. ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground (Polish edition), second tome, p.512-513
7. ^ (in Polish) Stosunki polsko-białoruskie pod okupacją sowiecką (1939–1941) Archived 2008-06-23 at the Wayback Machine
8. Klara Rogalska (18 February 2005). "Oni byli pierwsi (They were the first)". Głos Znad Niemna (in Polish). 7 (664). Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
9. Mironowicz, p. 94
10. Mironowicz, p. 109
11. Nicholas Vakar. Belorussia: The Making of a Nation (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1956), 128.
12. Lubachko, Ivan (1972). Belorussia under Soviet Rule, 1917–1957. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 136–137.
13. "Eugeniusz Czykwin jest nowym przewodniczącym Międzyparlamentarnego Zgromadzenia Prawosławia". Polskie Radio Białystok (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-07-18.

References

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

External links

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

• Belarusians in Poland
• Ethnic groups in Poland
• Belarus–Poland relations
• Polish people of Belarusian descent