№3 — 2018 — 15
УДК 94 (476) + 323.15 (476)
Pushkin I. A.
FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF STATE POLICY OF THE BSSR IN RESPECT OF NATIONAL COMMUNITIES (1920-1930-E).
The paper analyzes formation of the national policy of the BSSR in the 1920–1930s relying on the documentary materials from the archives of Belarus, the Republic of Lithuania and the Russian Federation. Peculiarities and main trends of the activities of state governing bodies in regulation of the process of social and cultural development of ethnic minorities are formulated. Tree stages of the national policy of Soviet Belarus in the interwar period are described.
In the period under review representatives of ethnic minorities formed the overwhelming majority in the governing bodies of different levels. Neither revival nor strengthening of national minorities traditional values was the aim of the authorities. The main objective of the national policy was their sovietization to achieve the ultimate goal – building a communist society. The policy of «belarusization» was the most successful policy in the national development of the BSSR in the 1920s. Authorities of the BSSR sought to ensure equality of the Byelorussian, Russian, Polish and Jewish languages as well as opportunities for representatives of all national communities. In the 1920s national local Soviets were established in the territory of the BSSR. There were schools and departments at vocational schools and higher educational establishments as well as cultural and educational institutions that functioned using minority languages. Periodicals and literature were published. Representatives of national minorities played an important part in the development of scientific and higher educational institutions of the BSSR. As a result national communities accumulated positive experience in public administration in the sphere of interethnic relations and political activities. The national policy of the Soviet government in the BSSR worked its way up from giving cultural autonomy to national minorities in the 1920 s to subjecting them to large-scale repressions in the next decade.
Keywords: BSSR, national policy, national minorities, interethnic relations
