Poland used Western Belarusian land as colony

10 сентября 2022
Polish authorities continue shocking the audience with their statements. The beginning of September was marked with a series of financial claims against Germany for its aggression and occupation policy of the Third Reich. And here the question arises quite naturally - isn't it the time to present a claim to Poland itself for those historical events, which clearly demonstrated its imperialistic ambitions and appetites? And the Belarusians have something to show to the Rzeczpospolita. 

Expansion into Belarusian lands

The period of Polish rule in Western Belarus after the Treaty of Riga (from 1921 to 1939) became the apotheosis of the chauvinist policy pursued by the ruling circles of the neighboring state against its eastern neighbors for centuries.

The beginning of the expansion to the Belarusian lands is connected with the Union of Krevo in 1385. It presupposed the ascension to the Polish throne (due to the marriage with the queen Jadwiga) of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jagiello. In return the prince himself embraced Catholicism and baptized pagan Lithuania. At first it was just a dynastic alliance, but it turned into a gradual polonization of the entire GDL. And it was not a spontaneous process at all. The royal court developed a whole strategy of subjugating the Lithuanian-Russian state. 

In the 16th century, Poland began to be perceived as an outpost of the Western world. Even the formulation of its historical mission "enlightenment of the barbarian Lithuania and Russia" appeared.

In the XVII and XVIII centuries, chauvinistic speeches became common for the Seimas and Seimiks throughout the Rzeczpospolita. Any manifestation of "non-Polishness" was perceived as an act of treason. 

And the equality of rights of the nobility of the GDL with the "pans" of the Polish crown was in fact the full abandonment of their ethnic identity. This tendency was clearly manifested in the decisions of the General Confederation of the estates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1696. At that time the state had only two official languages - Polish and Latin. As a result, in the 18th century, the Belarusian language was excluded from literature and art and was considered a "peasant" language.

The policy of ethnocide

The programs of the Uprisings of 1830-1831 and 1863-1864 were mainly aimed at reviving the borders of the Commonwealth of Poland within the borders of 1772. Belarus was seen as a part of that state, which had to be returned to its "national" (i.e. Polish) origin.

At that time, the Belarusans were promised both autonomy and rights to independent cultural development. Neither of these promises was fulfilled. Moreover, the Polish authorities even broke the provisions of the Riga Peace Treaty which guaranteed the right for free choice of the peoples who found themselves under the Second Rzeczpospolita. The reality of Polish rule was completely different. The system of education was consistently Polonized. In 1919, 359 Belarusian schools, 5 gymnasiums and 2 teachers' seminaries operated on the territories occupied by the Polish troops. In 5 years, most of them were either closed or changed into Polish schools. And by 1939 not a single Belarusian school remained. 

The development of any educational institutions was deliberately hindered. By September 1939, almost 130 thousand children were not enrolled in any school at all. In contrast to the BSSR, no higher educational institutions were created in Western Belarus. 

The Orthodox Church was systematically persecuted. In our country, about 500 Orthodox churches were turned into Catholic churches. And this despite the fact that it was Orthodoxy that prevailed among the faithful.

There is every reason to assert that the Polish authorities consciously prevented  the economic development of Western Belorussia in the interests of the Polish ethnic territories. The local enterprises consisted by 80 % of the small industries, with not more than 20 people employed there. Heavy industry was absent at all. Our lands were viewed exclusively as a raw materials appendage. Natural resources were exploited mercilessly. For example, nearly all the export plywood (70%) was made of Belarusian timber. Special preferential railway tariffs were introduced for the export of raw materials from Western Belarus.

A large part of the peasantry was deprived of the opportunity to use servitudes, i.e. hayfields, pastures and arable lands in common with the landlords. By 1939, up to 120 thousand natives of Western Belarus had left for permanent residence abroad.

These facts demonstrate the attitude of the authorities of the Second Rzeczpospolita towards the Western Belarusian lands as their colony. Various kinds of administrative measures were aimed at maximum economic exploitation in the interests of Central Poland.

The national-cultural policy pursued can be characterized as ethnocide, i.e. the deliberate destruction of any forms and manifestations of the ethnic identity of the Belarusians. Moreover, this policy has been part of the big project of Polish imperialism for many centuries. 

Recently, we have been writing and talking a lot about everything, but, no doubt, there is still a lot to do to comprehend the essence of Polish-Belarusian relations and, most importantly, to work out the most acceptable form of interstate relations.