Searching for New Identities: The Belarusian Minority in the Latvian-Belarusian Borderlands from the 1920s to the 1990s

Abstract

The research presented here is based on life stories that were collected during fieldwork in the Latvian-Belarusian borderland from 2003 to 2020 by the Oral History Centre of Daugavpils University. These oral testimonies of Belarusians disclose the circumstances that facilitated or interfered with their involvement in local society, and the changes which occurred in their sense of self-identity. The results of a comparison of three groups of Belarusians demonstrate major differences between identity, formed during the existence of the independent state, the Soviet period, and the post-Soviet period in Latvia’s history. The groups concerned are: (1) Belarusians born during the 1920s and 1930s in the territory of Latvia; (2) Belarusians born during the 1920s and 1930s who moved to the territory of Latvia in the 1940s and 1950s; and (3) Belarusians born during the 1940s and 1950s who moved to the territory of Latvia in the 1960s and 1970s. Belarusians of group 1 mostly integrated successfully into Latvian society, preserving their ethnic identity to some extent. The Soviet migrants (groups 2 and 3), influenced by communist ideology and russification, with some exceptions mostly identified with the ‘Soviet people’, ignoring ethnicity. These Belarusians integrated successfully into Soviet Latvia, but after the collapse of the USSR they had problems recognising the political changes, and needed support in finding their own place in Latvian society.