Belarusian authority and Polish minority:
A personal view

By

Konstantin Khodyko	Tomasz Strzala

Relations among Belarusians and Poles are coming from the Middle centuries from that times were these nations were formed. And all this time they were influence each other in cultural, linguistic and other spheres. Many times the border between Poland and Belarus was changed. Because of that there were formed national minorities in both countries. In 90th were founded organisations, which are dealing with national minorities in the countries. And nowadays we have Belarusian Democratical Union (BDU) in Poland and Belarusian Union of Poles (BUP) in Belarus as an umbrella organisations for national minorities. And the most important aim of these organisations is to save the languages of national minorities in neighbouring countries.

"The Belarusian State Committee on Religion and National Affairs has submitted a report to the Council of Ministers saying that there are no grounds for opening a new school in Belarus with instruction in the Polish language. The report comes in response to a demand by the BUP, the largest national and cultural association in Belarus, to build a Polish- language school in the town of Novogrudok, where about 1,500 ethnic Poles live at present. Two Polish-language schools, one in Grodno and the other in the town of Volkovysk, are currently functioning in Belarus. The schools were opened after 1996 for money provided by the BUP and the Polish Diaspora." "Belarusian legislation stipulates that the government must create conditions for teaching children in their mother tongue if their parents want it."

Chairman of the Belarusian Union of Poles (BUP) Tadeush Gavin believes the today's Belarusian-Polish relationship "lacks harmony". It is partially due to the pro-western course of Poland. This course in the foreign policy of the neighbouring country strikes like "a boomerang" the Polish minority in Belarus. The Belarusian authorities made "gross violations" of the law, regarding the Poles living in Grodno region, Tadeush Gavin says.

They do not meet the provisions of the Friendship and Neighbourhood Agreement that sets out creation of proper conditions of residing of 400 thousand Poles on the territory of Belarus.

During the last three years the local government has been delaying permission on construction of secondary schools with studies on Polish and Belarusian languages. The authorities of Novogrudok forbid opening of Polish primary schools. The only Polish school built by Diaspora itself is in Grodno. One more school is to open this year in Volkovysk. However, the Belarusian government does not provide the schools with necessary materials and equipment. "Our children have no proper conditions to learn native language," Mr. Gavin notes.

Officials from the State Committee for Religions and National Minorities are constantly trying to discredit and ruin the Belarusian Union of Poles. Mr. Gavin opines the dismissal of the BUP activist "is directly linked" with his public activity.

Officials from the State Committee for Press claim from the only Polish-language newspaper to sign some agreement to receive a grant. Mr. Gavin says this sort of actions "is an attempt to subdue us". He is afraid that the BUP will have to refuse of the stipulated by the law state support. Moreover, the BUP may soon leave the Coordination Committee of National Minorities that "serves a cloak for public opinion and international community", Tadeush Gavin believes.

Local authorities forbid Poles to protest against violations of their rights thus "provoking illicit actions on our part", the BUP chairman said. Picketing is being prohibited, and no explanations are given. Special police forces simply "disperse" unauthorised meetings, and the authorities fine their organisers. Tadeush Gavin has been recently charged a fine of 115 million rubles for an unsanctioned picketing.

Members of the Belarusian Union of Poles state they will stand for their rights further on. The BUP chairman has not agreed to detail means of such a struggle because he is afraid that afterwards the Belarusian authorities will make the Union outlawed.

One of many difficulties facing Belarus today is the problem of Belarusian language: whether it will continue to exist or not. For many people this issue sounds incomprehensible or even ridiculous. They might ask how is it possible that Belarusians, being a majority (80% of the population identify themselves as ethnic Belarusians and 77.7% regard Belarusian as their native tongue), could have such a problem.

The national referendum held on May 1995 resulted in giving the Russian language the equal status alongside Belarusian. Today the biggest part of Belarusian population speaks Russian. Haw could it happen? I will try to answer at this question by using an example from my childhood.

I grew up in a small village in Brest region near the border with Poland. In this small community Belarusians, Polish, Russians, Ukrainians and Jews had peacefully lived together for centuries. I had a lot of friends there and in fact at that time I was absolutely ignorant about their national identity. We all spoke the same dialect of Belarusian and understood each other very well. When my family moved to the capital - Minsk I found myself in a situation when people sometimes didn't understand the language I spoke. I had to work hard to improve my Russian. "Why Russian?!"- you may ask - because majority of the Belarus population doesn't know Belarusian and use Russian in their everyday life. I could tell you small example about my cousin from Brest region. Two years ago he moved to Minsk and he spoke by Belarusian, but now he speaks Russian. He explains it: "A lot of my friends in the institute speak Russian!".

Though the Middle Age Belarusian language was the state language of the united Grand Duchy from the 13th to the late 17th century. But after the territory of Belarus had been include into the Russian empire in 18th century the Russian language began to spread over Belarus. During the soviet period, when there was russification of the Belarus population, especially in the towns people didn't use Belarusian language.

According to the data of the 1995 census of the population Belarusian was considered as the native tongue by 77.7% of citizens of the republic, but only 45% population speaks Belarusian. In this respect the Belarusian speaking community could be considered a minority in Republic of Belarus.

Nowadays in Belarus there are two official languages: Belarusian and Russian both of them are including in the school program. But Russian language prevails in education. It is the instructing language for 69,4% of students, however, in Minsk this percentage reaches 89 %.

The Law on National Minorities in Republic of Belarus guarantees the right of each of the ethnic minority living in Belarus to learn and use it's native language. The major ethnic groups are: 80%-Belarusians, 12%-Russians, 4%-Polish, 2%-Ukrainians, 1%-Jews and 1%-others.

It's also true that there are not enough schools for minorities in Belarus so that they have an opportunity to study their languages along with the two ones mentioned above. Usually they also study Belarusian and Russian. People understand each other much better and find the common ground when they understand other languages, but it is not a rule for Belarusian government. In Minsk, which is above 2 millions inhabitants there is a school for Jews minority where about 238 pupils were studying in 1995. There are some kindergartens in Grodno region where 262 children are studying Polish language and schools build by Polish government in Grodno and Volkovysk.

But polish minority in Belarus faces mostly with problems but not with solutions. And the biggest problem is in political activity of polish minority, thy are not like Belarusians in the question of national development.

"The situation when people do not know the language and culture of other nationalities living in their territory may be possible, but when they start forget their ancestors' culture and language it becomes a real tragedy." - said Tadeush Gavin.