NATIONAL POLICY OF POLAND TOWARDS BELARUSIANS (1918–1939) IN POLISH HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ЕND OF 1980s – EARLY 2000s

Abstract

The Polish historiography of the late 1980s – early 2000s, devoted to Poland’s national policy towards Belarusians in 1921–1939, is considered. The transformation of the views of Polish historians of the late 1980s – early 2000s on the national policy of interwar Poland is described, the main historiographical positions formed in the 1990s – early 2000s are revealed. It is concluded that in the 1980s, during the existence of the Polish People’s Republic and its socialist partnership with the USSR – Polish historians tried not to raise sharp points Polish-Soviet relations. The research demonstrated the mostly peaceful nature of the coexistence of ethnic groups in interwar Poland. A certain rigidity of the Polish national policy towards Belarusians was explained by the need to resist communist influence and Russification. Violations of the constitutional rights and freedoms of Belarusians were not mentioned. After the departure of the socialist paradigm in the late 1980s, two main concepts of the state’s national policy towards Belarusians were formed in Polish historiography. The first concept addressed the legacy of interwar ideas, partially forgotten in Soviet times. The essence of this concept was based on the opinion that the Belarusian national minority had almost no national identity, so the assimilation of Belarusians in Poland looked natural. The polonization of Belarusians was presented as a progressive process of assimilation to European civilisational values. Proponents of this concept noted that the Belarusian national liberation movement was inspired by the Soviet Bolsheviks, who wanted to shake up the situation in Western Belarus and create the appearance that the local population aspires to the region becoming part of the USSR. The second concept was less common. Its theorists K. Gomulka and V. Mih defended the point of view that the national policy of the Polish state was hostile and harmful to Belarusians. Historians have not hesitated to call this policy assimilation, and the ideas of the ruling political circles, nationalism.