RUDN Journal of Russian History (May 2016)
POLES AND BELORUSSIANS UNDER WESTERN BELARUS INTEGRATION INTO THE SOVIET STATE
Abstract
The article deals with the problem of involving the Polish and Belorussian population in the integration processes on the territory of the Western Belarus in 1939-1941. The aim of the study is to identify the basic behavioral aspects inherent in the main ethnic communities of the region, as well as to create the retrospective reconstruction of the scheme of the relationship pattern between the new government and the local population, given its national, cultural and social characteristics. The research technique is based on the comparison of the memoirs and evidence from the archival materials that reflect the mood of the society, the key setting of the policy, as well as certain documents of the state and party administration, security bodies, analysis of the development of ethnic conflicts in the historical turning point. Due to the limited distribution of works of foreign researchers among the Russian audience a special emphasisis put on identifying the common ground in comparing the domestic (Soviet, Russian and Belorussian) and Polish historiography. The study determines the different nature of the contradictions between the Belorussian and Polish communities, demonstrates the methods of removing interethnic tension, identifies a number of ideologically and economically motivated actions committed by the Soviet administration aimed at the local population, that affected their attitude towards the new way of life, confirmed the successful experience of integration into the system of relations, adopted in the USSR. The results may be applicable in the analysis of ethnic conflicts in a historical perspective, as well as in the demonstration of the successful integration experience in the region during the changes of borders and political systems.
