The Orthodox Church and Byelorussian people

Mironowicz Antoni

Reations Between Poland and Byelorussians

Indications of early Polish national consciousness leading up to establishment of the future Polish state
could be found in the Gniezno town area. Simultaneously signs of Byelorussian national identity
appeared in the vicinities of two main towns Polotsk and Vitsebsk — both on Dzvina River. In medieval
documents that area was described as Alba Russia which means White Russia or Byelorussia.

Polotsk town became the dominant center of political, economical and cultural life for the surrounding
area. In the area ruled by duke Yaroslav the Wise, beside Polotsk town there existed two other principal
national centers — Kiev and Novgorod. Gradually around those three famous central towns in the East —
three European nations were created: Byelorussia, The Ukraine and Russia. Polotsk town was considered
by Byelorussians to be a symbol of their national identity.

Similarly Gniezno and Crakow were recognized by Poles as their national centres, Kiev by Ukrainians and
Novgorod by Russians. The influece of the powerful town of Polotsk covered approximately one third of
the total area inhabited by all Russians. In the 10th and llth centuries Byelorussian territories belonged
officially to Kiev's Russia.

In the 12th century Russia and Poland were governed in accordance with a feudal system — a typical
system used during the Middle Ages in Europe. The feudal system made the local sovereigns more
powerful — meanwhile the dignity and power of the state as a whole was reduced. Therefore in the 12th
and 13th centuries Byelorussia, because of its weakness as a state, was invaded by its neighbours:
Lithuanians, Teutonic Knights and Tatars. For the same reason numerous local battles took place inside
the country. In the middle of 13th century Tatars destroyed a substantial part of Russia's territory and
the south of Poland.

In the year 988 the Eastern denomination of Christianity i.e. Orthodoxy spread its influece over the land
belonging to Kiev's Russia. Gradually over the following centuries Orthodox Christianity became a
predominant religion of the knight's courts and of the people. At the same time Poland was dominated
by a Latin culture. Poles and Czechs however were both Slavonic nations — they adopted Latin as an
official and religious language in their countries. In Byelorussia the Old Slavic language was used for the
official purposes and in religious services the Church Slavonic language was used. The Church Slavonic
language was comprehensible to Slavonic people of that time. It helped to develop the national
consciousness of the Russians much earlier than that of the Poles. The above assertion can be easly
proved by the existence of Russian chronicles which are much older than those written by Polish
chronicle writers in 15th and 16th centuries. In Poland the national Polish language came to be used in
official life only in the Renaissance period. Two outstanding Polish writers of that time were Nicolas Rey
and John Cokhanovsky. It is known that the Old Russian language was in common use in the Polish king's
and in the Lithuanian duke's courts. Both the Polish and Latin language had a less practical importance at
that time. In 1696 the Russian language was replaced by Polish as the official language in the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania.

In the 13th century Lithuania gradually took over most of the Byelorussian territories. In 1262 the throne
of the duke of Polotsk already belonged to Lithuania under the name of Taucivil. In the reign of the king
Mendog almost all Russian duchies were conquered by Lithuania. However it must be admitted that the
Grand Dukes of Lithuania did not eradicate Russian law and culture. On the influence of that culture
numerous Lithuanian dukes abandoned paganism and were baptized in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

While two well known Lithuanian dukes, Olgerd and Keystut, were building up the power of the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania, two Polish kings, Ladislaus I the Elbow-High (Vladyslav Lokietek) and Casimir the
Great, reunited the dismembered Polish country into one state. The last Polish kings of the Piast dynasty
paid special attention to their eastern neighbours. They wanted their successors to include the eastern
neighbours into the creation of the mighty Polish state. The milestone in the history of both the
Byelorussian and Polish nations was the Krevo's Union. According to that agreement Byelorussia, as a
region belonging to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was united with the Kingdom of Poland. By a personal
union in 1386 and in 1559 it was established as a real union of both countries.

In the newly established United Kingdom of Both Nations the previous prevailing position of Russian
culture was gradually being diminished by Polish newcomers arriving from central Poland i.e. regions of
Mazovia and Polonia Minor (Malopolska). The Yahyellonian dynasty after coming to the Polish throne
was baptized Roman Catholic. Since that time the Roman Catholic Church has prevailed over the
Orthodox Church in the country. Besides religion nationalistic problems started to play an important role
at that time. The Lithuanian and Russian magnates were defending their independence against the
domination of the Polish lords. Therefore during the 15th century the union treaty had to be renewed
several times. The Yahyellonian dynasty was bicultural which was advantageous for the national relations
whithin the Kingdom of Poland. For instance many Russians lived in Wawel Castle — the Polish Kings
residence in Cracow. Vladyslav Yahaylo hired Russian artists to paint the pictures in one of the Wawel
Castle chapels and also in the Lublin Castle chapel. Meanwhile the russified Lithuanian dukes founded a
large number of Roman Catholic churches. The Lithuanian dukes' and the Polish kings' court was
bilingual and bicultural. Byelorussians played the leading role there — in the latter half of the 15th
century the numerous wealthy and politycally active Byelorussian magnates' lines became famous.
Amongst others the following families were well known: Sapeha, Slutsky, Khaletsky, Khodkevich,
Olelkovich, Sanhushko, Vollovich, Khreptovich, Tryzna, Hulevich, Zaslavsky, Hlebovich, Massalsky, Pats,
Hlebovich, Meleshko and Tyshkevich. Cracow and Vilnyus became the Byelorussian educational centers.
Francisk Skoryna from Polotsk, considered to be a creator of Byelorussian renaissance, was educated in
the Academy of Cracow in Poland and afterwards in Padva in Italy. The case of Fancisk Skoryna can be
recognized as a good example of the existing conditions of cultural life in the Polish Kingdom of both
nations. However Skoryna, a Roman Catholic, translated the Bible into Old Byelorussian language. Then
the translated Bible was used by the Orthodox Church believers.

Due to the expected lack of a Yahyellonian dynasty successor to the Polish throne and because of the
consolidation of the Polish Kingdom lands the terms of the existing union treaty had to be modified. That
modification was carried out despite the objections of Lithuanian and Russian landlords. The merging of
the Kiev province, Volyn and Podlachia with the Polish Crown reduced the Grand Duchy area to the
Byelorussian and Lithuanian lands. The Union treaty signed in Brest was of significant meaning for the
national and religious relations in Byelorussia. Signing the document of the Church unity was preceded
by intensive activity of the Jesuits. The Jesuits were considered to be the counter- -reformation avant-
garde. Their activity resulted in the restriction of the Protestant Church and subsequently in the
limitation of cultural variety. The Union treaty signed in Brest accelerated the processes of polonization
and conversion into Catholicism of a part of the Byelorussian community. Followers of the Uniate Church
were treated as second rate Catholics. Therefore the Union was never considered to be a national
religion of Byelorussians. In the 17th and 18th centuries when the struggle between the Orthodox and
the Uniate Churches was carried out, the Roman Catholic Church intensified its efforts to increase its
influence in Byelorussia. At that time Catholicism was foreign to the original Byelorussian culture. The
cultural polonization was a result of the adoption of Roman Catholicism by some of the Byelorussian
magnates' Houses. Identification of Poles with Roman Catholics was a natural consequence of a number
of wars involving Poland and Orthodox Russia, Protestant Sweden and Mulsim Turkey. From the middle
of the 17th century several battles and civil wars broke out between different nationalities living in
Byelorussia. The uprising under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky broke out at that time. In 1654
the Pereiaslav agreement was signed. Since that time Russia started to annex the Lithuanian territories.
Orthodox Church affairs were protected by the Russian Tsar and Roman Catholic Church affairs were
defended by the Polish King. Matters concerning the population of the border-line region located
between Smolensk and Grodno were solved by two major neighbours i.e. Poland and Russia. Religious
separation was followed by a social one. The Roman Catholic Church gathered support from the nobility
and the upper middle-class living in towns. Meanwhile the Orthodox Church believers were mostly from
the peasantry. The Byelorussian culture could be divided into two separate types. The polonized elite did
not practise its native customs and culture any more. For instance the polonized noblemen erected and
decorated their renaissance and baroque palaces to resemble those existing in Poland. The lower
middle-class and the peasantry developed their own culture which originated from their Byelorussian
roots.
In the second half of the 18th century, when the partitions of Poland took place, significant historical
changes were expected by both nations. Byelorussians had been absorbed by the Great-Russian power
as a result of the partition of Poland. Just before the first partition of Poland the Constitution of 3rd May
1791 tried to cancel the existing dualism of the Lithuanian and the Polish Crown. It could have led to the
creation of the amalgamated country of four different nationalities: Byelorussian, Lithuanian, Polish and
Ukrainian. In the Russian Empire the Byelorussian customs were treated by the Tsar's authorities the
same way as Polish ones. Even the local tradition in the Orthodox Church was eliminated. For that reason
Byelorussians participated in Polish uprisings in the19th century (Kastus Kalinovsky).

The Polish struggle for national independence generated the Byelorussians movement towards
emphasizing their national separation from other inhabitants of Byelorussia's land. On the eastern
borderland the national Polish and Byelorussian movements emerged as an opposition to Russian
cultural domination. Polish expectations expressed at the beginning of 20th century assumed the future
incorporation and future independence for Byelorussia. Polish promises of political and cultural
autonomy were very weak. In 1884 Byelorussian actvists of "National Will" struggled for actual
authonomy and the independence of Byelorussia. Their successors very clearly demanded the
establishment of an independent Byelorussian state. A new generation of writers and activists living in
Vilnyus at the beginning of 20th century supported the idea of independence. Revolutions in the years
1905 and 1917 caused changes in the national consciousness of the rural population. New Soviet
authorities made Byelorussian the official language. The former spoken language became a language of
literature and of official use in Byelorussian Soviet Republic in 1919 the trial of forming the independent
Byelorussian state was carried out in Mensk. Unfortunately the newly created Byelorussian National
Republic was soon abolished.

The western Byelorussian lands here incorporated into the 2nd Polish Republic territory. Polish
politicians considered the Byelorussian population, estimated as 2 million people, a subject for future
polonization. The Polish authorities took into account in their policy, the necessity of the consolidation of
the eastern borderland of the country. Any evidence of Byelorussian national movements were opposed,
particularly by the Polish left wing organizations. Such political parties as the Communist Party of
Western Byelorussia, the Byelorussian Revolutionary Organization, the Byelorussian Worker's and Peas-
ant's Hramada and the Byelorussian Christian Democratic Party helped to raise the national
consciousness of Byelorussians.

In the 1930s the national movements became more radical and left wing. Such a transition had been
accepted neither by Polish rulers nor Soviet autorities after 17th September 1939. The fate of Bronislav
Tarashkevich, a member of the Polish parliament, imprisoned by Polish goverment and executed in
Mensk by the Soviets as a Byelorussian nationalist, shows how aspirations of the Byelorussian national
independence were strange to Warsaw and Moscow.

The German occupation of Polish and Byelorussian land renewed antagonisms between the two nations
but on the other hand it revealed the necessity of a joint fight for independece. Heavy losses in men
amongst Poles and Byelorussians and the destruction of their country during the 2nd World War
demonstrated how deeply they were involved in the struggle against German occupation.

According to the Yalta treaty Byelorussian territories were to be incorporated into the Soviet Union and
to be named the Byelorussian Soviet Republic. The remaining Byelorussian population living in Poland
mostly in Bialystok region was estimated at about 250,000 peope. After the 2nd World War
Byelorussians were either russified by Moscow or polonized by Warsaw. The goverment of the
Byelorussian Soviet Republic was assigned by Kreml which was not interested in defending or solving the
national Byelorussian problems.

The Declaration of Independece by Byelorussia in 1990 and the taking control of Poland by Solidarity
raised hopes for new Polish-Byelorussian relations. For the past two years contrary to the expected
improvement of international re-ations, the former hostility was renewed. The Polish eastern policy
includes some invasive tendencies. The Roman Catholic Church in Byelorussia is dominated by foreign
Polish priests. Their activity is aimed mostly at maintaining the Polish national influence in Byelorussia
instead of at preaching the Gospel. Byelorussia is still considered by many politicians in Warsaw to be an
eastern borderland of Poland. Similary some of Moscow's politicians think of Byelorussia as a western
province. Time will show whether the new Byelorussian state will be able to keep its own independece
and to protect the Byelorussians living in the Bialystok region in Poland from losing their national
character.