Belarusian Education in the Second Polish Republic in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

This essay is devoted to the evolution of the Polish authorities' policy in the eastern lands in the interwar period in relation to the Belarusian language in education. In the first period, under the conditions of dominance of right-wing parties, the task of the state was the national assimilation of the Belarusian population. The planned reduction of the number of Belarusian schools and the exclusion of the Belarusian language from circulation, combined with other factors, led to the growth of tension in the eastern voivodeships. The Act of 1924 (The law on bilingualism in public schools) was intended both to give the appearance that Poland was fulfilling its obligations towards national minorities and to streamline the education system. After the coup of 1926, there was hope for concessions to minorities in the cultural sphere. However, the policy of ousting the Belarusian language from the public sphere, including schools, continued. Unification of education under the program of J. Jędrzejewicz in 1932 placed Belarusian schools under the full control of school inspectors. The survey program of Belarusian lands in the second half of the 1930s showed an obvious lack of schools in the north-eastern lands. At the same time, the Polish authorities concluded that it was necessary to develop Polish schools, not Belarusian ones, and to increase the number of Polish teachers. The poverty of the Belarusian population and the lack of external assistance led to the marginalization of Belarusian political groups, which also affected the schools. By the end of the 1930s, education in the Belarusian language had in fact ceased to exist.