Heros and Anti-Heros of the Belarusian Independence Project in Chechoslovakia

During the interwar period, two competitive concepts of "Belarusianness" aspired to unite the polity on nationally-imagined ground: the émigré community based its arguments on the unique history, language and culture of Belarus and sought full national independence; (Žuk-Hryškievič 1978, 37-40) the Bolsheviks interpreted nationality as a temporary identity which, if allowed to develop culturally, would fall apart.They believed that a nation, as a form of cultural and economic organisation of a society, would then be replaced by the supranational communist society (Martin 2001, 67-82).To meet this fi nal goal, they introduced korenizatsiya, a programme aiming at the socio-economic development of non-Russians, as part of their ethnic policy. 1 Czechoslovakia became one of the interwar centres for émigrés from the former Tsarist Russia thanks to the programme known as Russian Aid Operation or Russian Support Action (Ruská pomocná akce).It was announced that the émigrés would be supported both fi nancially and organisationally by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July 1921.As the Czechoslovak leading representatives were convinced that education would facilitate the future return of the refugees to their homeland and help foster its development all-round, stipends for students formed the most important part of the action.Czechoslovak universities accepted those who were able to study in the Czech or Slovak languages and many Russian and Ukrainian educational institutions and cultural associations were founded (Magid 2012, 49-56; Vlček 2012, 19-28; Kopřivová 2018, 290-311).Russians and Ukrainians dominated among those who found asylum in Czechoslovakia, but Russian Aid Operation was open to other nationals as well.Belarusians formed a less numerous group.Nevertheless, several leading representatives of the Belarusian People's Republic (Bielaruskaja Narodnaja Respublika, henceforth BNR) settled in Czechoslovakia, ensuring Prague had a

Art · Humanities · Independence (probability theory · Political science · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Mathematics · Soviet and Russian History