Belarusization in the Smolensk Region from the Pages of the Newspaper «Rabochiy Put’», 1920–1930s

Abstract

The article presents the practice of Belarusization in the Smolensk region in the 1920s – the first half of the 1930s in the format of its reflection on the pages of the newspaper «Rabochiy Put’», as the press organ of the Smolensk Gubernatorial Committee of the RCP (b) – the CPSU (b) and the Gubernatorial Executive Committee, and since 1929 – the main printing body of the Western region with the administrative center in Smolensk.
 The materials of the «Rabochiy Put’» do not form the reader's holistic perception of the policy of Belarusization in the Smolensk region, as in one of the Russian regions with a compact Belarusian population. There were no Belarusian collective farms or Belarusian village councils in the province, as was the case, for example, among Latvians and Jews. Therefore, the main direction of Belarusization has become the education system, i.e. the introduction of the Belarusian language and the course of Belarusian studies in individual schools, as well as attempts to transmit a number of schools into the Belarusian language.
 At the same time, even fragmentary data from newspaper materials of different genres and volumes indicate that neither the provincial authorities (virtually at all levels up to village councils), nor the titular and even the Belarusian
 population itself have become active supporters of the policy of Belarusization, only formally participating in this process, as in one of the many socio-political campaigns of thаt period.