Belarusian Government Policies Regarding the Belarusian Language

Notes:

• In the following, "Belarusian government" refers to whatever political, military, etc., entities controlled the bulk of the territory of Belarus during the period under discussion.

• Refer to the Belarusian Language Society (BLS in English; Таварыства Беларускай Мовы (ТБМ) in Cyrillic Belarusian) Web site, for articles monitoring the state of the Belarusian language in Belarus.

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Tsarist Russia (before 1918)

• 1830. The closing of Belarusian educational institutions, such as the university of Polacak in 1830.

  Note: From 1830 to the present [late 1999], there never has been and there still is no national university that uses Belarusian as its primary language of instruction. Belarusian is essentially taught as a foreign language within Belarusian universities.

• 1864. The execution of Kastus Kalinouski (March 24, 1864), for his Belarusian political activity, which included publishing the first Belarusian clandestine newspaper, Muzhyskaja Prauda (Peasants' Truth).

• mid-1860's. Partly as a follow-up to the execution of Kalinouski and the Belarusian nationalism his activities represented, construction of Russian Orthodox churches throughout Belarus, especially in the villages. (Under control of Moscow church bureaucracy, Russian language was further imposed and reinforced on Belarusians. This Russian religious rule continues through to the Lukashenka dictatorship.)

• 1867. The tsarist government imposes a prohibition against publishing in Belarusian (chiefly in response to the 1863 uprising/Belarusian nationalism).

• 1906. The tsarist government lifted the prohibition against publishing in Belarusian.

• 1906. The tsarist government closes the first national Belarusian newspaper, Nasha Dola, for its revolutionary and Belarusian nationalist content.

USSR (1918-1990)

• In general, brutal, comprehensive attempts at destruction of Belarusian national and cultural identity (including Belarusian language), and destruction of Belarusian national territory. The USSR was very thinly disguised Russian imperialism/colonialism with its use of Russian language and culture to replace native languages and cultures. There was very little change in this regard from the overt Russian colonialism of tsarist Russia; if anything changed, the conditions were more brutual and severe, and the demands by the authorities were greater.

  Belarusian was ousted from schools, governmental agencies, enterprises, and institutions. The Belarusian language was a target of humiliation and elimination under the guise of the consolidation of nations. [Note: There was some token support of Belarusian culture in the nature of folk arts on a small scale; somewhat in the manner of a historical curiosity.]

  Source: Article about Belarus Language Society, BelaPAN, No. 80; Friday, June 18, 1999; 3:10 p.m.   also see local copy of article

  
  

• In summary, this period is characterized by the widespread murder of Belarusian linquistic, academic, and cultural leaders. Some sources state that ninety-percent of Belarusian academic and cultural leaders were murdered, exiled, and imprisoned by the Soviets. Several examples: Branislau Tarashkievich, was executed by Soviet secret police in 1938 after being arrested on trumped up charges (after not being allowed to live in Belarus). Belarusian linguist and writer, Yasip Lyosik (Losik) (1884-1940), died in Soviet prison. Yanka Kupala died in 1942 in Moscow under "mysterious circumstances."

  
  

• Soviet Belarusian language Policy, Narkomovka (1933):
  The replacement of the standard Belarusian of Taraskevic's Belarusian School Grammar by a Soviet, Russified "standard." Narkomovka introduced Russian words, spelling, and grammar into Belarusian and removed the Belarusian versions.

  This Soviet/Russian language policy is still in effect in Belarus today, although, more importantly, Russian is the preferred language of the current pro-Soviet, pro-Russian ruling regime. Since approximately 1996, the Narkomovka variant of Belarusian is being replaced by the use of Russian, and if current official policies continue, Belarusian will soon cease to exist in official documents (which includes academia).

1990

• Law On Languages in the Byelorussian SSR (January 26, 1990):
  Complete text, in Belarusian, as appendix to, Belaruskaya Mova: Entziklapediya, (1994), pages 647-654.

  Belarusian upgraded to the level of a state language.

  Also stipulates, among other issues, that "educational institutions teaching in Russian and other languages may only function in 'the areas of their representatives' compact residence.' . . ."

  April 9, 1998: Amendments to the Law On Languages in the Republic of Belarus Passed

  
  

• On July 27, 1990, the Supreme Council of the BSSR turned itself into a separatist body by adopting the Declaration of Belarusan State Sovereignty. In part, the Supreme Council of the BSSR declared as one of its main precepts:
  "The BSSR shall ensure the functioning of the Belarusan language in all spheres of social life, preservation of national traditions and historical symbols." (Article 9)

1991

• The Belarusian government authorized a state program aimed at developing the Belarusian and other national languages in Belarus.

  In June, 1999, the Belarusian Language Society sent a letter to Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Ling enquiring as to the destiny of this pronouncement.

  (The Belarusian Language Society's letter enquired as to why, apparently, nothing has been done to develop the Belarusian language.)

1994 & 1996

• From the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of 1994 (with alterations and addenda). Adopted at the republican referendum of November 24,1996.   Note: The referendum of 1996 is not recognized by international governmental and legal bodies (since many election "irregularities" took place).
  "Article 17. The Belarusian and Russian languages shall be the official languages of the Republic of Belarus."

  (Simply by elevating Russian to equal status to Belarusian in the constitution, Article 17 weakens Belarusian. But in fact, Article 17 has been a thinly disguised excuse for the regime ruling Belarus to almost exclusively use Russian. It considers the use of Belarusian to be the sign of the political opposition. Refer to the following entries for explicit, factual evidence of this policy.)

1997

• In Belarus in 1997, only 118 of 988 registered periodicals were published in the Belarusian language. Refer to the following for more information, as well as other articles on that same Web page for other, related statistics.

1998

• A law further weakening the use of the Belarusian language in Belarus passed preliminary approval in early 1998. Refer to the following for more information.

  This article notes that, by Belarusian government statistics, twice as many children are taught in Russian as in Belarusian. (As was true during the Soviet era, many people do not trust the statistics of the Belarusian government, thus there is concern that the ratio is even more uneven.)

• See article, "Only 11.2 percent of Minsk's Secondary School Students Were Taught in Belarusian in 1998/1999".

• Also refer to the articles about the Belarusian Language on Trial in 1998 in Belarus.

1999

• In 1998, the Council of Ministers issued more than 2,000 resolutions and only 30 of them were in Belarusian. The prime minister issued only one percent of his directives in Belarusian in 1998. In the first six months of 1999, 8 resolutions and one directive were issued in Belarusian and 1,000 and 190, respectively, in Russian.

• Refer to the Belarusian Language Society (BLS in English; Таварыства Беларускай Мовы (ТБМ) in Cyrillic Belarusian) Web site, for articles monitoring the state of the Belarusian language in Belarus.
  • The Belarusian Language Society Web site also notes a new book is ready to be published: Chronicles of Exterminating the Belarusian Language.

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