Peculiarities of the national-cultural policy of belarusization (psychological aspect)

Abstract

The author considers the psychological aspect of the broad problem of Belarusian politics. Modern Belarusian historical science rejected the position of a straightforward assertion that belorussization, like ukrainization, was planned in advance to reveal the best forces of these peoples and then bring down massive repression on them. Everything was more complicated. Inside the country there were both ardent supporters and enthusiasts of the Belarusian revival, as well as those who provided both active and passive resistance to its conduct.

National differentiation between town and country didn't contribute to the success of the policy of Belarusization and contributed to the specificity in the language situation — a city that speaks Russian and a village that speaks Belarusian. A significant part of Belarusian officials denationalized and avoided using Belarusian language, betraying his oblivion as the language <peasant>. The announcement of the Belarusian language as the state language and demands for his knowledge and use of it caused resistance of Russified part of the bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the spirit of campaigning soared in the atmosphere of those years and even a peasant could smell it, who due to centuries of colonial policy had passive rejection of all that is somehow related to the Belarusian language.