Polesie (association)

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Polesie
Полісьсе
FormationApril 14, 1988;37 years ago (1988-04-14) [1]
Founder Nikolai Shelyagovich
Dissolved1995;30 years ago (1995)
Type NGO
PurposeRevival of the Western Polesie language [2]
Recognition of Polesie Residents of as a minority
Autonomy of Western Polesie (factions) [3] [1]
Location
Region
Western Polesie
Membership~600 [4] (1990)
Official language
Polesian, Belarusian

Polesie [a] was a cultural association whose aim was the recognition of the local residents of West Polesie (called "Yotvingians" by the group [1] ) as a separate national minority and the autonomy of Western Polesie within Belarus.

Contents

History

Polesie Cultural Union

Map of the Yotvingian Ethnolinguistic area defined on the Western Polissia scholarly conference In April 1990. Yotvigia Map.svg
Map of the Yotvingian Ethnolinguistic area defined on the Western Polissia scholarly conference In April 1990.

Nikolai Shelyagovich created the public-cultural association "Polesie" (Полісьсе) in April 1988 on the Belarusian Culture Fund. Its goals were the revival of the Western Polesie language, [2] recognition of the local residents of as a national minority and a national and cultural autonomy of Western Polesie. The organization caused great interest among the intelligentsia of Minsk and Brest, attracting many well-known scholars, researchers, philologists, historians, writers and poets. In 1988, the newspapers "Balesy Polіssya" ("Voices of Polesia") and "Zbudіnne" ("Awakening") began to be published. These publications were popular among the Belarusian intelligentsia, and besides the historical Polesian concept, also reflected various aspects of modern life of the Polesians. [1]

Decline

Some Belarusian public figures and writers such as Nil Gilevich, Oleg Trusov and Zianon Pazniak, opposed Polesie, regarding the movement as a threat to the territorial and national integrity of Belarus. [5] [2] [6] Some even suspected that this was a provocation of KGB, akin to the creation of Pridnestrovie. [7] [2] In 1993, Our Word published an article claiming that “imperial forces in the former USSR” sought to incite ethnic hostility in newly independent states and use groups like Polesie to destabilize Belarus. According to the article, in the event of a national-democratic victory in Belarus, the movement’s leaders, particularly Shelyagovich, would serve merely as a temporary façade for a Bolshevik-backed coup in the western Polesie region. Scholars P. F. Lysenko and V. A. Poluyan published an open letter in People’s Newspaper and Zarya in 1992. The letter cited statements in the newspaper Zbudinnya, whose authors speculated about various options for the political future of Polesie, including autonomy within Belarus or Ukraine, or even independence. Lysenko and Poluyan emphasized what they saw as the Ukrainian influence on the movement, pointing to proposals for cooperation with Rukh and calls for the region to join a “Western Ukrainian state.” Historian G. Grechishkin expressed a similar view in Pinsky Vestnik, arguing that autonomy or statehood for western Polesie was unrealistic, saying that union with Ukraine was the only logical outcome for the movement. [8]

Lukashenko used to speak in support of the Polisse Union during a meeting of the Belarusian Supreme Council, opposing nationalist movements. However, he later claimed responsibility for preventing the division of the country and the establishment of a Polissian Republic. [5]

Polesie was disbanded in 1995.[ citation needed ]

Ideology

The group claimed that the Poleshuks are direct descendants of the Baltic tribe of Yatvyags, emphasizing a significant cultural distance between the residents of the western regions of the Brest region and other regions of Belarus. [9] Its official goals were the revival of the Western Polesie language, [2] recognition of the local residents of as a national minority, with some factions further supporting national and cultural autonomy of the West Polesie region. [4] [3] In April 1990, a scholarly conference was held in Minsk, where the group also declared the territories of the Brest and Pinsk regions of Belarus, the Volhynia region of Ukraine, and the Podlachia and Chełm regions of Poland to be a part of their Yotvingian ethnic area. [1] [5]

In June of 1991, the group considered a proposal to more actively promote the development of the culture of the Polesie region of Belarus. Shelyagovich proposed adopting a law on the Western Polesie ethnic group, and the creation a Western Polesie cultural and educational center. The deputies made the decision to support and approve the desire of the members to study the folk culture, folklore, dialect of the Polesie region, but considered the creation of any autonomies, scientific centers as inappropriate, as, according to them, the residents of Belarusian Polesie were an original part of the Belarusian people. [3]

According to the results of a sociological study of interethnic relations in the Belarusian border area based on materials from Western Polesie done by Engels Konstantinovich Doroshevich, It was noted that 81.8% of the total number of respondents did not advocate for any autonomy and considered themselves Belarusians. 61.7% considered it inappropriate to allocate Western Polesie into an independent cultural and linguistic region in the Republic of Belarus, 7.3% supported the idea of autonomy, concluding that "the problem of a separate Polesie ethnicity is not present in the national ethnic consciousness." The divide in the group was seen in the Kobryn district, where a confrontation between pro-Ukrainian Poleshuks and those in the association supporting the independence of Western Polesie as an administrative, linguistic, and economic unit happened. [3]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Цадко О. Полесье и опыт национального конструирования (1988–1995), Палітычная сфера. Гісторыя і нацыя, no.24 (1), 2016, pp. 78-93.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Шыляговіч Мікола · Slounik.org". slounik.org (in Belarusian). Retrieved 2025-04-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 І.а, Пушкін (2013). "Дзейнасць інстытутаў дзяржаўнай улады па рэгуляванні міжнацыянальных адносін у Рэспубліцы Беларусь (1991–2010)". Вестник Полоцкого государственного университета. Серия А. Гуманитарные науки (in Belarusian) (9): 153–159. ISSN   2070-1608.
  4. 1 2 Yasev, V. V. "Проблемы Обеспеченйя Правнациональных Меньшинств В Деятельнсти Партии Народного Согласия" (PDF). Electronic archive library of Moscow State University (in Belarusian). Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Terra Sudorum - The Ukrainian Week". 2012-11-24. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
  6. ↑ Свабода, Радыё (2007-12-11). "Палеская аўтаномія: сьмерць праекту?". Радыё Свабода (in Belarusian). Retrieved 2025-04-03.
  7. ↑ Андрэй Дынько, Найноўшая гісторыя яцвягаў, ARCHE No. 6 (11) – 2000
    Quote: "Рух «новаяцвягаў» сапраўды можна разглядаць як спробу рэалізацыі нацыятворчага праекту, а можна — як маcштабную палітычную інтрыгу ці ўмелую правакацыю КДБ супраць беларускага і ўкраінскага нацыянальна-вызвольных рухаў. Маўляў, як Малдове стварылі Прыднястроўе, так тутака хацелі стварыць Яцвязь"
    (The movement of the "New Yotvingians" can indeed be viewed as an attempt to implement a nation-building project, or as a large-scale political intrigue or a skillful provocation by the KGB against the Belarusian and Ukrainian national liberation movements. I.e., just as the Moldovans created Transnistria, they wanted to create "Yatsvyaz" (Yotvingia) here.)
  8. ↑ Kazak, Oleg. "Western Poless Ethnocultural Movement in Belarus (Late 1980s – First Half 1990s) in Assessments of Its Critica and Opponsible" (PDF). Digital Repository Of Polessky State University (PDF) (in Belarusian). Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  9. ↑ Kazak, Oleg. "Interpreting the Past as a Tool for Forming Alternative Identities: Rusyn and West Polesie. Ethnopolitical Movements in the USSR" (PDF). Belarus State Economic University Repository. Retrieved 1 December 2025.
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