The Belarusian Polesie as an object of Poland’s ethnocultural engineering in the 1930s: Media aspects (based on the materials of the State Archive of Brest Region)

Abstract

The article analyzes the most important aspects of the ethno-cultural policy of the interwar Poland in relation to the indigenous East Slavic population of the Polesie region in the 1930s on the example of publications of the local Russian-language periodicals and the attitude towards them by the local Polish authorities. Particular attention is given to the newspaper Pod nebom Poles’ya, published in the Russian literary language in the late 1931 – early 1932 in Pinsk, Polesie Voivodeship of the interwar Poland. The publications in Pod nebom Poles’ya actively promoted the all-Russian identity and Russian culture, considering Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians from the point of view of the triune Russian people. In addition, the newspaper voiced cautious criticism of the national policy of the Polish authorities and the population census to encourage the local East Slavic population to preserve their language, culture, and national identity. Since the content of the publications in Pod nebom Poles’ya was unacceptable to the Polish authorities, striving for the complete and final Polonization of the Belarusian population of the eastern provinces of Poland, the local Polish administration pursued a policy of administrative pressure on the newspaper. As a result, Pod nebom Poles’ya was closed, despite its high popularity with the local people. A similar policy of administrative strangulation of objectionable Russian-language periodicals was carried out in relation to other newspapers of Polesie. Thus, the ethnocultural policy of the Polish administration in Polesie in the media sphere was based on in the systemic suppression of the Russian-language press, which defended the ideas of the civilizational unity of the East Slavic peoples.