CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF UKRAINIANS AND BELARUSIANS DURING THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Abstract

The article analyzes the main directions of cultural and educational activities of the Belarusian national organizations in Kyiv and Odessa. It describes the basic tools of popularization of Belarusian culture among Ukrainians. The attention is paid to the significance of educational work in the Belarusian state-building process. This paper indicates that cultural and educational activities of the Belarusian organizations in Ukraine were not separated from cultural and educational activities in Belarus. Belarusian organizations՚ leaders in Kyiv and Odessa did not only contact with People՚s Secretariat of the Belarusian Democratic Republic but also with public organizations.The data clarifies the cultural and educational activities of the Prosvita Society of Polissya Voivodeship in 1920–1930՚s. This article shows that Prosvita became one of the main centres of Ukrainian national-cultural movement in Beresteyshchyna during the interwar period. The analysis of Prosvita activities illustrates the basic forms of the Ukrainian cultural and educational life in the interwar Poland, reveals the regional peculiarities of the Polish national politics towards Ukrainian people of Beresteyshchyna, finds out the character of the relationships between the authorities and the local Ukrainian community.