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Polish minority in Belarus numbers officially about 400,000¹² although various estimates by non-governmental sources are much higher. Its history dates back several centuries. They form the second largest ethnic minority in the country after Russians. Due to poor Polish-Belarusian relations and intolerance towards non-governmental organizations, the situation of Polish minority is regarded as poor.^{citation needed}

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History

Polish minority in modern Belarusian territory started to form during the times of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, due to voluntary Polonization and settlement. Polish influence, weakened by partitions of Poland, was restored over the West Belarus in the interwar period, but was again weakened after the Soviet invasion of Poland, when West Belarus was incorporated into the Belarusian SSR. At that time and over subsequent years, many Poles inhabited that region were either killed or deported (first east - when during the Second World War the Soviet forcibly resettled large numbers of Belarusian Poles to Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; later west, to shifted Poland; see Repatriation of Poles (1944-1946)). The remaining Polish minority was significantly discriminated^{citation needed} against during the times of the Soviet Union, with continuing policies of Sovietization. The situation of the Polish minority started to improve during the late years of the Soviet Union, but faced difficulties from the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko.¹³

Current situation

Polish minority in Belarus numbers officially about 400,000 (both censuses from 1989 and 1999 showed similar numbers)³although various estimates by non-governmental sources are much higher.¹²

After the Russian minority in Belarus, Poles certainly form the second largest minority group in Belarus.⁴ The majority of Poles live in the Western regions of Belarus (including 294,000 in Hrodna voblast).

The largest Polish organization in Belarus is the Union of Poles in Belarus (Związek Polaków na Białorusi), with over 20,000 members.²

The Polish minority in Belarus consists mainly of people settled to West Belarus in the period between the two World Wars^{citation needed}. Also, there is an aspect of many Catholic Belarusians and descendants of the Belarusian nobility historically identifying themselves as Polish, which is less and less common as the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus undergoes the process of self-depolonization.

As Poland supports the pro-democracy anti-government opposition in Belarus, the Polish-Belarusian relations are poor, and representatives of the Polish minority in Belarus often complain about various repressions.^{256 7} In 2005, Lukashenko regime has launched a campaign against the Polish ethnic minority. The Belarusian authorities claimed that their pro-western Polish neighbours are trying to destabilise the regime, and the Polish minority is a fifth column. In May and June of that year they have expelled a Polish diplomat, closed a Polish-language newspaper and replaced the democratically elected leadership of a local Polish organisation, the Union of Poles in Belarus (UPB), with their own nominees.⁸

See also

• Belarusian minority in Poland
• Polish minority in Soviet Union

References

External links

• Various links and information about Polish organization on Belarus
• News Articles about the Polish Community in Belarus
• Poles in Belarus: Revival of Heritage and Search for Ancestors
• (Polish) Various articles and legal documents related to Polish minority in Belarus
• (Polish) Polacy na Białorusi: Liczebność i rozmieszczenie ludności polskiej według ostatnich spisów powszechnych

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 29 September 2008, at 22:36.

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