The Plight Of Polish People In Belarus

The Polish minority in Belarus is officially numbered at 288,000 according to the 2019 census, though the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland estimates the number to be as high as 1,100,000. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the situation of the Polish minority in Belarus has been steadily improving, with Poles in Belarus re-establishing Polish language schools and their legal right to participate in religious life. However, the attitude of the new authorities towards the Polish minority is inconsistent, and local levels of the Belarusian government are largely unwilling to accept the aspirations of their own ethnic Poles, making them targets for state-sanctioned intolerance.

The Polish minority in Belarus

Historically, the lands of modern Belarus have been an integral part of Polish ethnic and cultural presence, with important Polish historical figures hailing from the region. After the Napoleonic Wars, Russia annexed the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania as its North-Western Territory, and throughout the 19th century, a majority of the gentry, comprising about 10% of the population, continued to identify as culturally Polish. Following the Polish-Soviet War (1918-1921), Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland, and in the elections of November 1922, a Belarusian party obtained 14 seats in the Polish parliament. In the spring of 1923, the Prime Minister of Poland, Władysław Sikorski, ordered a report on the situation of the Belarusian minority in Poland, and a new regulation was passed allowing for the Belarusian language to be used officially in courts and schools.

However, tensions between the increasingly nationalistic Polish government and various ethnic minorities, including the Belarusian minority, began to grow. A Belarusian organization, the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union, was banned in 1927, and opposition to the Polish government was met with state repression. After the 1930 elections in Poland, Belarusian representation in the Polish parliament was reduced, and the Polish government introduced policies to Polonize minorities. In 1935, a new wave of repression was unleashed on the minorities, with many Orthodox churches and Belarusian schools being closed, and the use of the Belarusian language was discouraged.

Following the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the Polish anti-German resistance movement, Armia Krajowa, actively operated on the territory of modern-day Belarus. After the war, the Polish population was forcibly resettled as part of the Soviet-Polish population exchange, and the remaining Polish minority in Belarus faced significant discrimination during the times of the Soviet Union. All Polish language schools were replaced with Russian ones, and all Polish organizations and social clubs were liquidated. The situation of the Polish minority began to improve in the later years of the Soviet Union, but it faced difficulties under the government of Alexander Lukashenko.

According to the 2019 census, the Polish minority in Belarus officially numbers about 287,693, with the majority living in the Western regions. The largest Polish organization in Belarus is the Union of Poles in Belarus, with over 20,000 members. However, Polish-Belarusian relations are poor, and representatives of the Polish minority in Belarus often complain about various repressions, such as the jailing of the former head of the Union of Poles, Tadeusz Gawin. The Lukashenko government has launched a campaign against the Polish ethnic minority, claiming that they are trying to destabilize the balance of power and that they are a fifth column.

The Belarusian minority in Poland

Historical Context

The territories of the Russian Empire consisting of modern Belarus were divided in 1921 between Poland and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic at the Treaty of Riga, thus ending the Polish-Soviet War. This led to the Polonisation of the Polish part of Belarus in the 1920s and 1930s. Obligatory teaching of the Belarusian language was introduced in all Polish gymnasia in areas inhabited by Belarusians in 1927.

Population

According to a 2019 census, there are 287,693 Belarusians in Poland, forming the second-largest ethnic minority in the country after Russians, at around 3.1% of the total population. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland estimates that the number is as high as 1,100,000.

Discrimination

Political Representation

The 1937-1938 Polish Operation of the NKVD

The 1937–1938 Polish Operation of the NKVD (Soviet security service) was an anti-Polish mass-ethnic cleansing operation carried out in the Soviet Union against Poles, labelled by the Soviets as "agents". Ordered by the Politburo of the Communist Party, the operation targeted so-called "Polish spies". However, NKVD officials interpreted this broadly to mean "absolutely all Poles".

The operation was implemented according to NKVD Order No. 00485, signed by Nikolai Yezhov, head of the security service, and approved by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The order, titled "On the liquidation of the Polish diversionist and espionage groups and POW units", was distributed to local NKVD subdivisions along with a "secret letter" from Yezhov, explaining the operation and detailing the supposed threat of "Polish intelligence in the USSR".

The operation lasted from 25 August 1937 to 15 November 1938 and resulted in the sentencing of 139,835 people, and the execution of 111,091 Poles living in or near the Soviet Union. The majority of the victims were ethnically Polish, but some belonged to minority groups from the Kresy macro-region, such as Ruthenians, who, in the Soviet worldview, had elements of Polish culture or heritage and were therefore considered "Polish".

The "album procedure" was adopted for this operation. Long lists of Poles, condemned by a lower NKVD organ, were collected into "albums" and sent to midrange NKVD offices for approval by a troika. This procedure was later used in other mass operations of the NKVD.

The operation began with an internal purge targeting communist activists of Polish origin, Red Army officers, and Chekists (secret police officers). It then expanded into a wider genocidal operation against all Poles. NKVD investigators used brutal beatings and sophisticated torture methods to force arrested Poles to confess to being members of the Polish Military Organization, which, in reality, did not exist.

The Polish-majority villages of Siberia were also targeted. In Belostok, Tomsk Oblast, 100 men of Polish origin were executed and their bodies thrown into the Ob River. The small Polish communities in remote parts of the USSR were also targeted, with at least 89 people becoming victims in Georgia, and at least 180 Poles falling victim in Kyrgyzstan.

The death toll of the operation constituted 10% of the total number of people officially convicted during the Yezhovshchina period, and Poles were 30.94 times more likely to be shot than members of other ethnic groups in the USSR. The operation caused the near collapse of the economy in Byelorussia, as thousands of peasants, railway workers, industrial labourers, and engineers were among the victims.

The consequences of the 1937–1938 Polish Operation were far-reaching, and it is considered one of the greatest crimes committed against the Polish nation in its history.

The 1939 Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland

The Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 was a military conflict by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany without a formal declaration of war. On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland from the west, triggering World War II. In response to German aggression, Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany.

The assault on Poland demonstrated Germany's ability to combine air power and armour in a new kind of mobile warfare called "Blitzkrieg" or "lightning war." Germany deployed 60 divisions and nearly 1.5 million men in the invasion, with an advance force of more than 2,000 tanks supported by nearly 900 bombers and over 400 fighter planes. The Polish army lacked modern arms and equipment and was unable to mobilize effectively. Despite fighting tenaciously and inflicting serious casualties on the Germans, the Polish army was defeated within weeks.

On September 17, 1939, 16 days after the initial German invasion, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. The Red Army, which vastly outnumbered the Polish defenders, encountered only limited resistance. The subsequent military operations lasted for 20 days and ended on October 6, 1939, with the division and annexation of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This division was in accordance with the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed on August 23, 1939, which divided Poland into "spheres of influence" of the two powers.

The campaign of mass persecution in the newly acquired areas began immediately. In November 1939, the Soviet government annexed the entire Polish territory under its control, and about 13.5 million Polish citizens were made Soviet subjects following show elections. A Soviet campaign of political murders and other forms of repression, targeting Polish figures of authority, began with a wave of arrests and summary executions. The Soviet NKVD deported hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Poland to Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941.

The Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland had far-reaching consequences, leading to the division and occupation of the country by the two dictatorial regimes. The Polish dream of independence, which had appeared promising in 1918, had come to an end. The invasion also marked the beginning of World War II, with Britain and France declaring war on Germany in response to the aggression.

The 2020-2021 Belarus-EU border crisis

In response to Lukashenko's threat, Belarusian authorities, state-controlled travel agencies, and some Middle Eastern airlines began advertising easy entry to the EU for migrants, most of whom were from the Middle East and North Africa. These migrants were then instructed on how to cross the EU's border and provided with tools such as wire cutters and axes to breach border barriers. Those who were unable to cross were often forced to remain on the border by Belarusian authorities, who were accused of assaulting them.

The crisis primarily affected Lithuania, Poland, and Latvia, each of which declared states of emergency and announced plans to build border walls. Between August and December 2021, tens of thousands of unauthorized border crossing attempts were recorded, with a peak in October. At least 20 migrants died during the following winter due to the actions of Poland.

Human rights organizations criticized both sides for their treatment of migrants. Belarusian authorities were accused of manufacturing the crisis and exploiting migrants, while Lithuanian, Latvian, and Polish border guards were criticized for using pushbacks, denying asylum claims, and providing inadequate food, water, and shelter.

The crisis led to further deterioration in Belarus-EU relations, with the EU imposing additional sanctions on Belarusian officials and state-owned companies. Poland's response to the crisis, including the construction of a border wall and pushbacks of migrants, received mixed reactions from the Polish public, with some polls indicating approval and others showing indecision or opposition.

The crisis also had a significant impact on Poland's relations with Belarus. Poland supported the pro-democracy opposition in Belarus and criticized the treatment of the Polish minority in the country. Representatives of this minority often complained about repressions, including the jailing of the former head of the Union of Poles in Belarus.

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