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Belarusans in the United States
Vitaut Kipel
University Press Of America, ® Inc.
Lanham _ New York - OxfordContents
· Note Regarding Terminology and Spelling
· How it Began
· Introduction
· Conceptualizing Belarus
o The Location of Belarusans and General Information
o The Republic, of Belarus
o Belarusans in Poland
o Belarusans in Latvia and Lithuania
o Belarusans in Ukraine
o Belarusans in Estonia, Karelia, Kazakhstan, Kirgyzstan
o Belarusans in the Russian Federation
o Belarusans in the Western Diaspora
o The Historical Background
o Terminology
o The Early and Medieval Period
o Decline of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
o Belarus Under Russian Occupation
o Belarusan Survival During the Nineteenth Century
o The Political Revival at the End of the Nineteenth-Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries
o Nasa Dola and Nasa Niva
o The Establishment of the Belarusan Democratic Republic
o The Belarusan Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR)
o Western Belarus: A Part of Belarus in the Polish State
o Belarusan Catastrophe
o Belarus During World War II: 1939-1941; 1941-1945
o Belarus After World War II
o Notes
· Chapter I: Research, Publications, and Pertinent Statistics on Belarusan Emigration/Immigration
o English-language Publications
o Foreign-language Publications
o Belarusan-language Publications
o A Few Remarks About Statistics
o Notes
· Chapter II: Some Ethnic Characteristics of Belarusans
o Belarusan Surnames
o National Costume
o Weaving and Embroideries
o Pottery, Straw, Woodcarving
o Belarusan Cuisine
o Music, Song, and dancing
o Folk Theatre
o Customs
o Observances of Saint's Days
o Language
o Notes
· Chapter III: Waves and Causes of Emigration from Belarus
o The Belarusan Province of the Society of Jesus in America
o Former Insurgents as Immigrants
o Agricultural Colonies
o A Belarusan Populist, A Territorial U.S. Senator and Others
o Mass Emigration
o The Economy-The major Cause of the Emigration
o Political Emigrants
o Post-World War I Arrivals
o The World War II Years and the Post-World War II Wave
o Notes
· Chapter IV: Distribution. First Jobs
o Notes
· Chapter V: Initial Contacts with Organizations and the Beginning of Ethnic Awareness
o Religious Contacts
o Labor Unions
o Insurance, Self-Assistance Organizations
o Emergence of Belarusan Awareness
o Notes
· Chapter VI: Origins and Development of Belarusan Organizations
o Initial Stage
o Formation of Belarusan Political Organizations
o Attacks on Belarusans
o Notes
· Chapter VII: The Belarusan Masses Prior to World War II, and the War Years
o Religious Affiliations
o Anarchist Groups
o Leftist Groups, including "Progressive Belarusan Organizations"
o Organizations with a Pro-Russian Orientation
o Belarusan Activities in World War II
o Belarusan-Americans Re-activate Notes
· Chapter VIII: The Post-World War II Wave of Belarusan Immigration
o Initial Post-War Contacts
o The Status of Belarusan Emigrants in Eastern Europe
o D.P. Camps
o Belarusan Political Representation
o A Sociological Profile of the Post-World War II Immigration
o Fresh Initiatives in the Post-World War II Era
o The Mass Arrival of Belarusans D.P. `s in America
o The Organizational Period
o New Organizations
· Notes Chapter IX: Religious Structures
o Eastern Orthodoxy in Belarus and in the Diaspora
o Belarusan Catholic Christians of the Latin Rite
o Belarusan Catholic Christians of the Eastern Rite
o Belarusan Protestant Christians
o Belarusan Jews and Muslims
o Beginnings in the United States
o Church-related Organizations
o Churches
o Belarusan Orthodoxy in America
o The Activities of Belarusan Roman Catholics
o Belarusan Protestants
o Belarusan Old Believers
o Belarusan Muslims and Jews
o Belarusan participation in Multinational Organizations
o The Vision of a Coordinated Effort
o Notes
· Chapter X: Activities
o Programs of Social Assistance
o Political Activities
o Observance of Belarusan Independence Day
o The Sluck Military Action Against the Soviets
o Kastus Kalinouski's Anniversary
o Anniversaries of Purges in Soviet Byelorussia
o The Anniversary of Janka Kupala's Death
o The Second Belarusan Congress, June 27, 1944
o Support for Dissidents and Political Rallies
o Naturalization and Passport Identification Struggle
o Continuous Contacts with Washington, DC
o Educational Activities
o Lectures for Youth
o Summer Programs
o Excursions
o Cultural Representation
o Professional and Semi-Professional Theatre
o School Theatrical Activities
o Representation Through Singing, Dancing, and Music
o Exhibitions
o Belarusan Representation at Large
o Major Events in the Life of Belarusan-American Communities
o Bi-Annual Conventions
o Other Events
o Sports Activities
o Leadership of Belarusan Activities
o Belarusan Elements in the Activities of Leftist Groups
o The Activities of "Lost Belarusans"
o Notes
· Chapter XI: Publishing, Belarusica in Print Media, Readership, Records, Radio, and TV Coverage
o Belarusan Publishing in Western Europe After World War II
o Belarusan Publishing in the United States
o Coverage of Belarusans and Belarusan-Related Activities in Non-Belarusan Print media
o An Observation About Readership
o Belarusans in Other Media
o Radio
o TV Programs
o Records, Tapes
o Distribution of Belarusan Materials
o Notes
· Chapter XII: Belarusan-American Heritage and Relations
o Belarusan Research in the United States
o Belarusan Printed and Archival Resources
o Belarusan-American Relations
o Relations on Governmental and Organizational Level
o The Cultural Domain
o Belarusan-American Literary Relations
o Contacts Through Returnees
o A Flare of New Relations, and Decline
o Notes
· Chapter XIII: Acquired Characteristics of Belarusan-Americans
o Political Behavior and Concerns of the Group
o Notes
· Conclusion
· Appendix: Belarusan Alphabets
NOTE REGARDING TERMINOLOGY AND SPELLING
This study deals primarily with activities, events, and organizations that took place prior to August 25, 1991, the day that the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence. On September 19, 1991, the name of the country was changed to Belarus, or the Republic of Belarus.
The adjective derived from the country's name is Belarusan or Belarusian. In keeping with the wide adoption of the former spelling, we have consistently used Belarusan. A confusing aspect of dealing with Belarusan proper names, family names, and geographical terms is the matter of transliteration.
One of the difficulties involved with Belarusan proper names and geographical terms is the matter of transliteration. The origin of the problem is that such names and terms are frequently written according to Russian or Polish transliteration tables. In this volume, Belarusan proper names and geographical terms are generally transliterated according to the Belarusan version of Latin script, except that, for the sake of historical accuracy, the many variant spellings used by various authors and organizations have been retained in the form in which they originally appeared. We ask the reader's forbearance.
HOW IT BEGAN
The idea of writing a history of Belarusans in the United States occurred to me during the Christmas season of 1955, as a newly-arrived immigrant.
My first residence in this country was in the city of Passaic, New Jersey where my parents had lived since 1949. Passaic was then a multi-ethnic town made up primarily of Jewish, Hungarian, German, and Slavic populations. Passaic remains ethnically mixed at the end of the 1990s, although the demographic composition has changed significantly. The Slavs included Poles, Rusyns, Slovaks, Ukrainians, and Belarusans. Belarusan was spoken on many street corners, with a noticeable concentration in the downtown area around Market and Monroe Streets. I naturally became interested in these immigrants— when and how they had come and what they were doing now. I asked my father about them, after all, he was already an "old timer," since he had lived in America since 1949. My father, although he was very conscious of everything Belarusan, dismissed my questions with a wave of his hand. "Oh, these are our people, all right, but they're as dense as an autumn night. There's no sense in bothering with them."
Such an attitude didn't please me very much. But only much later, I realized, that wave of my father's hand "don't bother" was pretty much the attitude of his entire generation to their compatriots, earlier Belarusan immigrants. And my mind was made up then to do some research about my compatriots. They were, indeed, "our people." From my first day in Passaic, I conversed with them in Belarusan—even though there was a cultural-chronological gap of a half-century between us.
To learn more about my landsmen I went to the local library and was impressed—its holdings were quite extensive, easily accessible with a good catalogue and a friendly and helpful staff. But to my surprise I found myself unable to locate any information about Belarusans. Nor were the librarians able to assist me in obtaining any information in their collection about Belarusan immigrants. My visit to the New York Public Library was no more helpful, although there was a sizeable collection of Belarusan books, there was no heading for Belarusans or White Russians (then the library form) in the United States in their catalogue.
It was my disappointment at coming up against all of these deadends that triggered the idea of doing something to fill in these blanks. It was inexplicable to me that no one had written anything about a group that was so numerous. How little had I known that it would not be an easy project.
Soon after my arrival I married Zora, who had been my close school friend since the years of World War II in Minsk and later, when we had studied together in Belgium. She became my wife and colleague in work. And for a while life took us in directions away from our new-found topic of interest, but the goal of my researching Belarusans in the United States was never too far from my mind.
As our family grew, we started to travel all over the United States; we wanted our children to know the land of their birth. Over a period of about 15-20 years we visited in a planned manner all fifty states. This was a good time to search for Belarusans as well. Wherever we went we would check telephone directories, local newspapers, historical societies, churches, and museums. And everywhere we found traces of a Belarusan presence, although they always were hidden in non-Belarusan wrappings. Such findings only strengthened my resolve, supported by the entire family, to search out, document and unwrap the saga of the Belarusan presence in the United States.
Thus, I embarked on research. This work is the product of long research, although I am writing it, the design of it belongs to the Kipel family. Many dozens of people have contributed to assembling this information. The list of those who have helped is very long. My thanks go, first of all, to my family — Zora, Alice, and George — because there is not a single fact, idea, or observation in this book that I have not discussed with them at one time or another. A new member of our family, Lorraine Kipel, deserves my sincere thanks for her patience and willingness to be a learning and absorbing audience. And I am especially pleased to have three young readers of these pages, our grandsons, Ales, Andrej and Anton Kipel.
Next, to my closest friends and colleagues for half a century - Mr. Anton Shukeloyts and Dr. Jan Zaprudnik, who offered help with suggestions, analyses, and criticism of many chapters.
To Catherine Ballarene, a very closj? family friend and colleague at the NYPL for decades, for being the first American reader, who discovered that she grew up with descendants of Belarusan soil. A special word of thanks to my friend Professor Thomas E. Bird, a participant-observer, for his editorial guidance and assistance. His background in Belarusan affairs and his willingness to respond from "the other side, the broad American reading public," have made his advice invaluable. Messrs. Michas Sienka, Walter Pielesa, Kastus Mierlak, Vasil Scecka, Alex Silvanovich, George Naumchyk, Uladzimier Rusak, Pavel Kulesh, Vasil Puntus, Mikola Latushkin, Vitali Kazan, the late Siarhej Karnilovich, Kastus Kalosha, Michas Bielamuk, Jazep Arciuch, George Stankievich, Michas Tulejka, Janka Rakovich, Alex Mickievich, Aleh Latyshonak, Nikodym Zyznieuski, Mikola Hrebien, Nadzia Zaprudnik, Julia Andnisyshyn, Tamara Kolba, and Families: Vasil and Halina Rusak, Langina and Uladzimer Bryleuski, Juzefa and Caslau Najdziuk, Dr. and Mrs. Vitaut Ramuk, Dolores and Vasil Melianovich, Maria and Piotra Kazhura, Dr. Alia Romano, Rev. K. Star and Metropolitan Mikalay were all generous in sharing their knowledge, time, and talent.
My thank you also goes to many members of The New York Public Library and especially to Messrs. Edward Kasinec and Robert Davis of the Slavic and Baltic Division for their assistance in bibliographical research.
Introduction
The Republic of Belarus is a new independent country which the average American has known little about until recently. With the `breakup of the Soviet Union, the news media now discuss this new state on an almost daily basis. A nation that was submerged in a larger entity and virtually unknown yesterday is becoming a familiar part of America's (and the world's) understanding of the evolving configuration of the East European landscape. In light of this, it is not surprising that the very notion of Belarusans in the United States will come as a fresh concept for many. Notwithstanding the ethnic diversity of this country, Belarusans remain a novel entry on the demographic map of the United States, despite the fact that they have been a presence in this country for well over a century.
Due to an unfortunate combination of historical circumstances, including bureaucratic inertia and the lack of preparedness on the part of U.S. Government officials and clerks, Belarusans were not recognized as an independent nationality group for a number of decades following their first arrival on these shores. Immigrants who came from the Belarusan areas of the Vilna and Smalensk provinces, and from the Grodno, Vitebsk, Minsk, Mogilev, Pinsk, Brest, and Gomel administrative regions of the former Russian Empire were lumped under several "official" ethnic categories by American immigration authorities, demographers, sociologists, politicians, and, unfortunately, by numerous academics as well. These categories were: "Lithuanian" (a rough translation of Licviny, the historical name for Belarusans, used until the beginning of this century); "Poles" for Belarusans of the Catholic faith; and "Russians" for Eastern Orthodox Belarusans. In addition, many Belarusans were listed as "other Slavs" or simply "others."
The majority of Belarusan immigrants were assigned the broadly defined category "Russians." This label was affixed when they first entered the administrative offices of the Russian Empire. No one asked them their opinion as to this categorization, and they were in no position to protest. Even if they had been asked, they could not have replied accurately, as they were politically and historically ignorant of (or indifferent to) their own past, their own ethnic identity. Only one thing concerned them—getting to "promised America." For the record keepers and statisticians, these peasant immigrants from Belarus became "Russians."
Upon their arrival on American soil, they were greeted and, once again, recorded as Russians. Tens of thousands of them came, constituting yet another part of history's "immigrant masses." However, these "Russian" masses were the creation of bureaucratic officials in the Russian Empire and their counterparts in the United States. For the convenience of bureaucrats and owing to administrative lethargy, persons who originated on Belarusan soil, who spoke Belarusan, and who brought, along with their meager belongings, Belarusan customs and traditions, became "Russians." This turn of events was more than mere injustice—it is one of the tragedies of the twentieth century that bureaucracies possessed the power to usurp a people's identity and replace it with a gross untruth.
The label "Russian" stuck to many. They accepted it, for how could they know otherwise? What could they do? At every turn, some authority figure assured them they were indeed "Russians."
But today, something can be done—by sociologists and ethnologists who have access to the data that will permit a rectification of this historical miscarriage of justice. The portmanteau term "Russian," found in statistical-reference works must be carefully examined by scholars to reveal the numerous nationalities which this category masks. To update a familiar saying, "Scratch a Russian-American and find a Belarusan (or a Ukrainian, a Georgian, et al.)."
The purpose of this volume is to provide documented information concerning these mislabeled Belarusan-Americans from the 17th century through the early decades of the 20th, and about post-World War II emigrants as well. A major aim is to decipher the irregularities resulting from faulty categorization and to analyze mistakes made by authors and agencies in the past. It is also the author's desire to stimulate further research on Belarusans in the United States, for these chapters constitute only an introduction to this large subject. A comprehensive study jpf this group remains the task of tomorrow's scholars and researchers.
Hopefully, this book and future research will make it possible for Belarusans to be properly located, identified, and given appropriate credit for the contributions they have made as citizens and co-builders of these United States.
Conceptualizing Belarus
o The Location of Belarus and General Information
Belarus can be located on a map with no difficulty: it lies between Poland on the West and Russia on the East, between Ukraine on the South and Lithuania/Latvia on the North.
Belarus's capital city, Minsk, is situated along the railroad route linking Warsaw and Moscow. In geographical terms, Belarus lies almost in the middle of Europe.
Unfortunately, to the average American reader, Belarus's geographical location is not very meaningful since the geography of Eastern Europe does not have a large place in the curriculum of most American schools. While the name Belarus elicits a vaguely East European response, it does not generally prompt a clear notion of the country.
On the other hand, more positively, many Americans are familiar with the names of Andrei Gromyko and Olga Korbut. These two well-known figures—one a long-time statesman, the other a world-class athlete, "the darling of the 1972 Olympics"—are both Belarusans. Gromyko hailed from the southeastern corner of the country, near the city of Gomel; Korbut from the northwestern corner, the city of Grodno.(l)
The northeastern corner of Belarus, with the city of Vitebsk as its focus, is for many associated with the name of Marc Chagall, who was born there and immortalized the city in his paintings. Like thousands of Jews who came from the Belarusan portion of the Pale, his Jewish upbringing and his Belarusan roots are inexorably intertwined with his personality and work. Many of Chagall's early paintings reflect his life in Vitebsk as well as other Belarusan themes.(2) Every American has heard of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, and know about his place in American history. Few, however, are aware that he was born in Belarus, the scion of an ancient Belarusan noble family, associated with Belarus throughout his life. (3)
Together with Kosciuszko must be mentioned the name of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz who was also born in the Brest region of Belarus and reflects in his writings on his childhood in Belarus-Lithuania (Litva).(4) Numerous other names are even more familiar to the present generation. For example, in sports Vitali Shcherba, winner of six gold medals at the Barcelona Summer Olympics, is a Belarusan. Heavy-weight lifter Aleksandr Kurlovich is another world champion.(5) Generations of Americans have idolized Alex Wojciechowicz, an American of Belarusan descent and the center on Fordham University's famous "seven blocks of granite," offensive line in the 1930s and a member of both the College and Professional Football Halls of Fame.(6)
Numerous other names that are familiar to Americans are associated with Belarusan territory. Among them, American labor leader David Dubinsky was born near the city of Brest in Belarus.(7)
The American labor movement has included a number of other outstanding figures who were born in Belarus, including Samuel Wolchok, Fannia Cohn, and Bessie Hillman.(8) Among the contemporary figures who have roots in Belarus are Maurice Hindus, who wrote that he was born "in my native village in Byelorussia."(9) A.M. Rosenthal, The New York Times's former executive editor, is "...the son of a Byelorussian-born house painter..."(10)
An outstanding military figure, General Aleksandr Barmin, from Mogilev, authored an important book, One Who Survived, 1972.(11)
Many Americans have heard such place names as Minsk, Pinsk, Brest, Smolensk, Vilna, Gomel, Mogilev, Polotsk, Mozyr, and the region of the Pripet Marshes.* These are place names associated with various historical events, especially of World War II vintage; places where important battles were fought. A few Belarusan cities are known for world-significant historical events: the act of the Union between the Western and the Eastern branches of Christianity occurred in the city of Brest in 1596. The city of Vilna, an important place in the history of Eastern Europe and Judaism in that region, was the capital of the Belarusan-Lithuanian state for several centuries.
Belarus, or more precisely, the city of Minsk, the capital of the Republic, appears in the American press now and again in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Some years before that tragedy, the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, spent some time as a factory worker in Minsk. This phase of his life continues to intrigue history buffs. Thirty years later, in 1993, American writer Norman Mailer spent time in Minsk researching Oswald's Belarusan sojourn.(12)
More recently Belarusan territory has been associated with the tragedy in Chernobyl and the mass graves of Kurapaty, near Minsk.(13)
As can be seen, the average American has been exposed to a considerable amount of information about the concept of Belarus, but often fails to make the connection between these names, places, and events in Eastern Europe and the country currently known as the Republic of Belarus [RB].
Nor is the average American citizen aware that among his neighbors are many thousands of fellow Americans of Belarusan descent. Most Americans would be surprised to learn that descendants of the country today called Belarus have lived in the United States since colonial times.
These aspects of the Belarusan presence in America will be considered in greater detail further on. For now let us discuss some general facts about Belarus and Belarusans.
o The Republic of Belarus
The Republic of Belarus, prior to 1991 known as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (abbreviated as BSSR), includes approximately two-thirds of all Belarusan ethnographic territory; the bulk of the remainder belongs to the Russian Federation, with other portions located in present-day Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia.
The population of Belarus is over 10,000,000 people; over 2,000,000 Belarusans live in other republics of the former Soviet Union.
Minsk, the capital of Belarus, has a population of close to two million people. The majority of Belarusans, about 80%, profess the Eastern Orthodox faith; about 15% are Roman Catholics. The remainder are Baptists, Old Believers, Jews, and Muslims.
Until a few decades ago, Belarusans were engaged almost exclusively in agriculture, lumber and wood-processing industries. Flax, potatoes, wood products, agricultural commodities, and alcohol were the major items of export.
Today, Belarus is an industrial nation with diversified enterprises—the chemical industry, machine building, and electronics prominent among them. Its most important resources include forests, salt deposits, and good arable land. Belarus's production of potash is the largest in Europe, surpassing even the Russian deposits in the Ural mountain region.
The BSSR, like the entire Soviet Union, was governed by the Communist Party which directed a centralized economy. The complex difficulties involved in moving toward a market economy and a democratic form of government are enormous. But steps are being made in this direction.
o Belarusans in Poland
Bielastochchyna, i.e., the region of Bialystok in the Polish State, is a territory where Belarusans have lived since prehistoric times. Belarusans inhabit the eastern parts of the region, including such cities and towns as Bielastok, Bielsk, Sakolka, Hajnauka, Siamiatychy, Zabludava, and several other localities. The territory is approximately 10,050 square kilometers, with an estimated Belarusan population of between 300,000 and 500,000. This region formed part of the Russian Empire prior to World War I. It was incorporated into the newly-formed Polish State in 1919-20. In 1939, it became part of Soviet Byelorussia and, following the Yalta Conference in 1945, it was returned to Poland.
Belarusans in Poland enjoy some cultural freedom. There are several Belarusan organizations, some schooling is conducted in Belarusan, a weekly newspaper, Niva, is published, weekly and daily radio and T.V. programs are broadcast in Belarusan, and there is limited book publishing.
Aware of the strength of cultural polonization, the Belarusan population has become politically active and participates as a Belarusan bloc in regional and local elections.(15).
o Belarusans in Latvia and Lithuania
Belarusans in Latvia are concentrated around the cities of Dzvinsk and Lucina, in the region called Latgalia. Those in Lithuania live on Belarusan ethnic territory around the city of Vilna and within counties bordering on Belarus.
In excess of two decades, from the 1920s into the 1940s Belarusans were active in these regions, conducting their own schools and political parties, with the cities of Dzvinsk and Vilna serving as important political and cultural centers of Belarusan life. This situation changed dramatically after World War II. Until the mid-1980s Belarusans were not permitted to carry on any organized activities in these two countries. This policy has begun to change in the 1990s and Belarusans are making some gains in developing their cultural and community life in both states.
Older statistics and current research estimates indicate that the Belarusan population of Latvia is approximately 120,000 and that of Lithuania is in the neighborhood of 100,000.(16, 17)
o Belarusans in Ukraine
The indigenous Belarusan population of Ukraine, found in the Palessie region and near the city of Charnihau numbers between 50,000 and 100,000. Many Belarusans migrated at the beginning of the 20th century to the port of Odessa and other industrial and mining centers of Ukraine. Over 400,000 Belarusans presently live in Ukraine.(18)
o Belarusans in Estonia, Karelia, Kazakhstan, Kirgyzstan
The industrial centers of Estonia, especially Tallinn and Kokhtla-Jarve, attracted the Belarusan working class who continue to live in this northernmost Baltic republic, but retain very close ties with their homeland.
Belarusans in Karelia, Kazakhstan, Kirgyzstan, and other regions of Central Asia are the descendants of political prisoners and deportees who were uprooted from their homeland either during the tsarist period, or under the Soviets. They number in the hundreds of thousands.(19)
o Belarusans in the Russian Federation
As has been indicated above, various parts' of Belarusan ethnographic territory are found today in the Russian Federation, with a Belarusan population of about 500,000. These include such cities as Klincy, Navazybkau, Smalensk, Staradub, and areas northeast of Belarus. In addition, Belarusans are widely distributed throughout the remainder of the Russian Federation. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusans live in Siberia, descendants of immigrants who arrived at the beginning of the 20th century. Thousands more are the descendants of Belarusan prisoners who were not allowed by the Soviet authorities to return to their Belarusan homeland. Many others are migrant workers, deported during various periods of the Soviet reign, who remained there permanently. Over 150,000 Belarusans in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as the Belarusan population of other cities in the Russian Federation, are continuing to establish local Belarusan organizations to meet the needs and desires of their communities. Total Belarusan population of Russia is over one million persons.(20)
o Belarusans in the Western Diaspora
The Belarusan communities in the United States, Canada, some countries of South America, and France are of both pre-World War I, and post-World War II vintage. Large contingents of post-World War II emigrants also went to Australia, Belgium, England, Germany, and Italy.
The Belarusan National Council estimates that there were between 650,000 and 700,000 Belarusans living in the Western diaspora as a result of emigration.(21)
o The Historical Background for Belarusans
Even a sophisticated American reader is not apt to associate present-day Belarus with any state in that part of the world as he or she remembers it from the past. The geographical situation of a nation split among five administrative states certainly does not simplify an understanding of the concept of Belarusan state and nationhood. One can fault the educational system for not providing a clearer picture of Belarus in the past, but it must be admitted that the history of Belarus has not been simple. Complications lie not so much in the history itself as in the interpretation of that history by various authors and historical schools, pursuing widely varying agendas. Let us attempt to remedy this confusion to some degree by providing a contemporary point of view of Belarus's past, in outline fashion.
o Terminology
A good deal of the confusion surrounding Belarus lies in the area of terminology. The terms "Byelorussia," "Byelorussians," and, since 1991, "Belarus," "Belarusans," and "Belarusians" are all relatively recent, when understood as a political concept. While the term "Bielaia Rus"' (White Rus1) was used in a variety of historical documents, it was not employed in a sense that embraced the Belarusan nation. More commonly, "Bielaia Rus'" was used as a figurative and geographical concept applied to a territory that was not clearly defined.
The historical name for Belarusans was Licviny which usually is translated into English as "Lithuanians."(22) (This term was applied to Belarusans from the 12th to the end of the 18th century when the Russian administration began to apply the term to a Baltic tribe, the Samogitians). The term Licviny, when applied to Belarusans, is frequently found in belles-lettres and was also used by some in relation to Belarusans in the United States.(23)
The name "Belarus" was used in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Russian Imperial apparatus without giving it any national-ethnic significance. Pursuing its plans for the total Russification of the region, the Russian administration introduced a regional designation, and for the next sixty to eighty years Belarus was known officially as "the Northwestern Territory" (Severo-Zapadnyi Krai) of the Russian Empire.(24) Toward the end of the 19th century one of the outstanding leaders of the Belarusan Renaissance and a pioneer of modern Belarusan literature, Francisak Bahusevic, revived the term "Belarus" and began to apply it to the nation.
For most Americans, the term "Byelorussia" achieved visibility during World War II, and especially in 1945 when, in the process of establishing the United Nations, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic became a charter member of this world organization. Up to World War II the more familiar terms by which the country and the people living in that part of the world were known to Americans were "White Russia" and "White Russians," or "White Ruthenia" and "White Ruthenians." Both terms referred to the same country and nationality. The Republic officially changed its name on September 19, 1991, when it became the Republic of Belarus with adjectival forms Belarusan or Belarusian.
As is evident, confusion exists in the area of terminology. This brings us to the core of the problem: Why is there such confusion? What was Belarus before it was incorporated into the Russian Empire, before the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries? How did it happen that Belarus is so little known outside of Eastern Europe? These questions cannot, obviously, be easily or quickly answered. They require a very short excursus into the historical past.
o The Early and Medieval Period
Historical sources reveal that the tribes who were the antecedents of present-day Belarusans began to organize into individual principalities around such cities as Polack, Smalensk, and Turau as early as the 9th and 10th centuries. During the 12th century, the individual principalities on Belarusan ethnographic territory moved towards a kind of unity, forming the nucleus or core of a state which gradually became an important commonwealth in Eastern Europe over the next several centuries, known through history as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Since it was Belarusan principalities which gave rise to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, it is not surprising that the Belarusan language was recognized as the official language of the Grand Duchy, and that the city of Navahradak in the earlier years, and later Vilna, served as the capitals of this large, influential state.(25)
o Decline of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Gradually the Grand Duchy of Lithuania came under the strong cultural influence of Poland because of the unions of 1386 and 1569. The higher reaches of society became strongly Polonized and dissociated from the broader mass of the population. Polonization, religious inequality, and social unrest caused the internal destabilization of the Grand Duchy. The state became weakened militarily and politically. Meanwhile, further east, the state known as Muscovy grew stronger and began to expand to the east, south, and west. Muscovy moved into the territory of the Grand Duchy and further west into Poland.(26)
o Belarus Under Russian Occupation
Belarusan territories were among the first to fall under the impact of Muscovy's (Russia's) westward expansion. The beginnings of Russian domination over the Belarusan territories go back to the 16th and 17th centuries when the easternmost parts of Belarusan ethnographic territory were incorporated into the Russian Empire. Then, in a series of successful advances, Russia invaded and annexed Belarusan lands in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Thus, by the end of the 18th century, all Belarusan ethnographic territory had been brought under Russian rule. Administrative divisions were drawn, according to which Belarusan lands were split administratively among neighboring provinces. Russian policies towards Belarus were, from the end of the 1700s, clear and precise: the difference between Belarusans and Russians must disappear and those Belarusan territories should be made Russian not just in name but in heart and soul as well.
The aims of these policies were very specific-to secure the Western borders of the Empire and make a reality of the age-old tsarist goal of "uniting all the Russias," (i.e., Belarus and Ukraine [V.K.]).(27) This goal was alive and well through the reigns of various tsars and remained vigorous through the decades of the Soviet regime.
o Belarusan Survival During the 19th Century
The 19th century witnessed an active implementation of Russian policies in Belarus. During the first decades of the century, imperial Russian officialdom sent a considerable number of Russian administrative personnel and clergy from the central parts of Russia into Belarus. Numerous attempts were made to transport even Russian peasants with the intention of altering the ethnographic makeup of the area. (28)
The Russians began to act even more aggressively after the Uprising of 1830-31 which impacted on large parts of Western Belarus. In 1840 the term "Belarus," which was just beginning to be used by the administration, was officially abolished and replaced by the deliberately vague term the "Northwestern Territory." In the 1830s began the forced deportation of Belarusan to the northern regions of the Empire. (29)
The Uprising of 1863-64 in Belarus marks the beginning of unprecedentedly harsh policies of Russification, exploitation of land, and the distant resettlement of the populace. The uprising, led by Kastus Kalinouski, was prompted primarily by socio-economic factors - (the disparity between the peasantry and the petty nobility)~although national factors also played a role.(30)
The government undertook effective large-scale programs of confiscating the property of participants in the Uprising and their relatives. These properties were turned over to imperial dignitaries imported from Russia. In this manner vast tracts of Belarusan land passed to Russian ownership. The new governor, appointed for the Northwestern Territory, M.N. Muraviev, received his nickname, "Muraviev, the Hangman" for inaugurating a series of executions and a policy of extremely harsh persecution of the population. Muraviev wielded absolute power, surrounded himself with trusted Russian nationals, and reduced the local population to penury.(31)
Muraviev's task was the Russification of the population. Therefore, emphasis was placed on schooling, language, and the church. The Belarusan language was outlawed in 1859, and could not be used for any publication or even as a language of conversation among students. The number of schools allowed to be open was strictly controlled and the Muraviev administration made strenuous attempts to introduce more ethnic Russian teachers.
Muraviev's administrators were not willing to gamble on the loyalty of the local teachers to St. Petersburg's agenda. The principle was adopted that only teachers who came from Russia could be trusted to teach Belarusan children.(32)
The Russian administration also paid enormous attention to religion, using the Orthodox Church in a variety of ways in pursuit of their policy of Russification.
Economically, the administration pursued a policy of impoverishing the region, transferring ownership of lands to high-ranking officials imported from Russia, exporting natural goods such as flax, timber, etc., and not developing local industries favoring the emigration of the local labor force out of the region, especially to distant Siberia. Thus, beginning with the last two decades of the 19th century and through the early years of World War I, hundreds of thousands of Belarusan peasants emigrated to Siberia and to the United States. The authoritative Soviet Belarusan demographer, A. Rakau, gives an approximate figure of 1,387,000 as the total number of emigrants from Belarus during the half century preceding World War 1.(33)
o The Political Revival at the End of the 19th - Beginning of the 20th Centuries
Although the Russian administration exerted maximum effort to uproot any characteristics of Belarusan separateness—political or cultural—ethnic awareness among Belarusans began to emerge toward the last quarter of the 19th century. This, despite all policies of the Imperial administration. A very observant statement concerning Belarusan national awareness was made by a well-known historian:
Yet Russia did not succeed in destroying White Russian nationality. According to the census of 1897, there were 5,880,000 persons describing themselves as White Russians, though the official census was in the habit of falsifying the figures in favor of the Great Russian element on every possible pretext. The White Russians inhabit the governments of Vitebsk, Mogilev, Minsk, parts of Smolensk, the eastern part of the government of Vilna, and the government of Grodno.(34)
Somewhat resonant of this statement is the observation of James Reston, a prominent journalist of later decades. In his column in The New York Times, Reston said:
...Byelorussia is one of the ancient battlegrounds of Russian history. The Swedes have invaded it from the north. Napoleon and Hitler have overrun it. The Germans have destroyed its cities. The Poles have dismembered it in the west and the Tatars have invaded it from the south. But the land has never really been conquered, not even by the Russians.(35)
Organized Belarusan activities date back to the last quarter of the 19th century when Belarusan students began to establish "landsmen" circles (Hurtki) in various Russian universities. Toward the end of that century literary works in Belarusan began to appear, including works by Francisak Bahushevic, with his famous words "Don't abandon your native language lest you die," to an 1891 collection of his poetry, Dudka Bielaruskaja [The Belarusan Fife].(36)
In 1902 the first Belarusan political party, the Belarusan Revolutionary Hramada was established. This was soon followed by numerous cultural and religious organizations, publishing firms, and a teachers' union. Viable political leaders appeared on the scene: the Lutskievic brothers Anton and Ivan, Aleksandr Ulasau, Vaclau Ivanouski, and Ales Burbis, among others.(37)
o "Nasa Dola" and "Nasa Niva"
The real impetus for the revival of Belarusan consciousness and development of a mass movement was the appearance of Belarusan-language newspapers: first, the short-lived Nasa Dola (1906); and then its successor, Nasa Niva (1906-1915). The latter publication played a particularly important role, for around this newspaper assembled the most active leaders of the Belarusan intelligentsia. Under their political and spiritual guidance, this newspaper became the wellspring of Belarusan political thought, programs, and activities. Indeed, Nasa Niva became the seedbed of modern Belarusan literature and gave rise to a literary movement called Nasaniustva, which left a profound mark on Belarusan literature, and remained influential long after it had ceased publication.(38)
In the political arena, the pages of Nasa Niva reflected the multitude of problems one would expect to find in any political movement. Thus, the newspaper articulated the necessity of introducing the Belarusan langauge into the schools, and the need to establish a Belarusan university. It also identified significant dates in Belarusan history. For the first time a newspaper published materials which stressed that the history of Belarus was just that, the history of "our country" which was different from and separate from that of Russia or Poland. Nasa Niva emphasized the need for textbooks, dictionaries, and other useful literature. As one might have anticipated, the newspaper devoted considerable attention to the emigration process and reacted vigorously to it.(39)
Undoubtedly the newspaper Nasa Niva had some influence on the emigrant masses. If before 1905, thousands of emigrants considered themselves tutejsyja, i.e. "locals," the number of those who had abandoned such vague terms for a better understanding of their past and of themselves had increased considerably by the end of the decade. Unfortunately, the influence of the newspaper on those who emigrated was not lasting, and not strong enough to make full-fledged, nationally-conscious Belarusans of them.
o The Establishment of The Belarusan Democratic Republic
The high point of Belarusan political activities during the prewar period and World War I years was the convening of the All-Belarusan Congress in December 1917 in the capital city of Minsk. This Congress was attended by 1,872 delegates from each of the Belarusan provinces and from all walks of life and every social stratum of the population, including all the ethnic groups residing in Belarus. It was also attended by over 700 military delegates of Belarusan nationality serving in various units of the Russian Army. This was the largest democratic political assembly ever convened in Belarusan modern history. The Congress, in pursuing the rights of the peoples to self-determination, focused on working towards declaring the independence of Belarus. The Bolsheviks, who had seized power after the Revolution, could neither agree nor tolerate such an objective. Sessions of the Congress were interrupted by the Bolshevik armed forces. However, the Congress was able to elect a Council which, on March 25, 1918, passed a resolution declaring the independence of Belarus in the form of the Belarusan Democratic Republic, encompassing all Belarusan ethnic territory. The Council also elected an executive body which initiated a broad spectrum of political activities. The government of the Belarusan Democratic Republic established diplomatic relations with several sovereign states which recognized the Belarusan State either de jure or de facto.
This new democratic state, the Belarusan Democratic Republic, was short-lived, but the proclamation of Belarusan independence and consequent political activities had an enormous impact on the psychology of the Belarusans and served to elaborate the programs of the national movement to restore a modern Belarusan state.(40)
o The Belarusan Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR)
Trying to catch up with the Belarusan national movement, the Bolsheviks who, up until this moment, had ignored Belarusan interests and sensibilities, now moved quickly. On January 1, 1919, in the city of Smolensk, the Soviets proclaimed the Belarusan Soviet Socialist Republic, the BSSR. The Soviet republic was proclaimed nine months after the establishment of the Belarusan Democratic State. The leadership of Soviet Belarus, then headed by a few Belarusan Communists, faced a difficult time laying the foundations of the new republic. However, they were relatively successful: they assembled cadres, and Belarusanization gave a moral boost to a new generation of Belarusans.(41)
o Western Belarus: A Part of Belarus in the Polish State
The term "Western Belarus" was applied to that portion of Belarus which, after the Riga Treaty of 1921 became part of the Polish state. Western Belarus had a population of slightly over three million, while Soviet Belarus (i.e., Eastern Belarus) had a population of about 5 million.
Despite the dangers posed by the Polonization, Western Belarus flourished during the early twenties. Belarusans in Western Belarus opened over 400 primary schools as well as seven high schools and teachers' colleges. Belarusans sent numerous representatives and senators to the Polish Parliament. Belarusan scholarship, publishing, and cultural life generally developed at a remarkable pace. The Belarusan national movement reached its peak in Western and Eastern Belarus during the mid-1920s.(42)
o Belarusan Catastrophe
Unfortunately this surge of Belarusan national revival was not destined to last long. The growth of Belarusan national cadres, the spread of Belarusan national awareness among the rural masses, and the Belarusanization of the cities (which essentially meant the growth of national political potential) were not viewed with a sympathetic eye either in Moscow or in Warsaw. Toward the middle of the twenties, in an obvious change of governmental policy, the Poles started to curb severely Belarusan activities. Soon the Polish authorities had declared a virtual pogrom against Belarusans. Schools and churches were closed, Belarusan organizations and representatives harassed, and newspapers outlawed. A mock trial of the largest Belarusan political party—the Belarusan Peasants' and Workers' Hramada - was staged and carried out. Hundreds of Belarusan activists were exiled to the Polish territories and thousands of others fled to Soviet Belarus and South America. The massacres of Belarusan activists, peasants, workers, and intelligentsia were in full swing in Poland in the late 1920s; by the beginning of the 1930s the Belarusan movement in Poland had been totally crushed.(43)
The Poles did not stop at destroying the Belarusan civic movement. They also totally annihilated the Belarusan Roman Catholic movement. Belarusan Catholic priests who, after the Russian Revolution had settled in Poland and established a Belarusan school and cultural center in the town of Druja, were ordered to close the school. The clerics were transferred to Polish territories or exiled abroad-to France and Manchuria.(44)
Developments in Soviet Belarus took a somewhat different turn. The pogrom against the Belarusans in Poland was carried out under the pretext that the Belarusan movement was Communist-inspired. This gave the Soviets an excellent opportunity to lure more Belarusans from Poland into Soviet Belarus. Meanwhile, the Soviet Republic of Belarus was continuing to develop along national lines in all areas of life; the influx of patriotic manpower had the potential, over time, of increasing national self-awareness. Thus, toward the end of the 1920s, there had emerged and developed in Soviet Belarus an unprecedented phenomenon: a large concentration of nationally self-conscious intelligentsia. Tragically, as it turned out, this occurred at a politically dangerous juncture. The Communist Party was simply waiting for the appropriate moment to liquidate the Belarusan national intelligentsia and to realign the Belarusan Republic on the course that the party needed, rather than along the lines that the Belarusan people desired.
The ax fell in June of 1930 with mass arrests in Minsk and during 1930-31, hundreds of teachers, cultural workers, scholars, writers, and administrators were imprisoned all over Belarus. Soviet Belarus lived through several waves of purges occurring intermittently, the peak years of arrests being 1930, 1933 and 1937-38. The official explanation for these purges was that the party was fighting with the "National Democrats," i.e., with the Belarusan national intelligentsia and nationally-conscious Belarusan citizens. During the late 1930s most of the Belarusan military cadres and the remaining Belarusan National Communists were arrested and executed by firing squads.(45)
Thus, by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Belarusan nation had lost all of its most seasoned, dedicated, and able leadership. Not one of the founders of the Soviet Belarusan Republic in 1918, not one of the pioneers of Belarusan activities in Western Belarus was at freedom in the late 1930s. All walks of life suffered: politicians, literary people, teachers, scholars, and scientists, as well as hundreds of thousands of ordinary Belarusan citizens whose only crime in the eyes of Polish and Soviet officialdom was their dedication to, and love of, their Belarusan homeland, and the maturity of their political outlook. For a politically emergent nation, this holocaust was a traumatic blow. The Belarusan nation has not recovered from that catastrophe to this day.
o Belarus During World War II
1939-1941
Two major parts of Belarus—the Belarusan Soviet Republic and Western Belarus-were united into a single republic in September 1939 when the Soviets invaded Poland in 1939. For a while, the Soviet authorities maintained the historical capital of Belarusan territories, Vilna, within the boundaries of Soviet Belarus. However, political maneuvering by the Soviet central administration soon made a gift of the city of Vilna to the Lithuanian state, which was shortly thereafter incorporated into the Soviet Union. The occupation of Western Belarus by Soviet troops cost the Belarusans dearly: thousands of Belarusans were deported to Siberia, prominent Belarusan leaders who lived in Vilna and other cities were deported or shot, and numerous objects of historical importance, memorabilia, and archives from the Lutskevic Museum in Vilna were confiscated and distributed among various learned institutions in several republics of the USSR. The city of Vilna ceased to exist as a social and cultural center for Belarusans.
At the outbreak of World War II, one can say that the Belarusan movement, a segment of which aspired to an independent Belarus, had reached its lowest ebb, with its leadership dispersed, exiled, or massacred. Other than in Prague, where a few political leaders maintained the symbolic office of the Belarusan Democratic Republic, no other significant Belarusan political center existed.(46)
1941-1945
While the Soviets and Poles were trying their best to diminish the political challenge of the Belarusans, the Germans looked upon the Belarusans as potential allies, studying many aspects of the country, and producing several analytical works.(47) A few of the Belarusan leaders had contacts in Berlin, and they wished to believe that Berlin was sympathetic to the cause of Belarusan self-determination and independence. A number of Belarusans emigrated to Berlin in 1939, and a Belarusan organization was established in Germany after the invasion of Poland, the main function of which was to locate and register Belarusan prisoners of war. A weekly Belarusan newspaper, The Dawn [Ranica], began in Berlin in December 1939, and continued publication until March 1945.
After failing to win over the Belarusan leadership in Prague, the Germans began to negotiate in earnest with the Belarusans in Berlin and other locations.(48)
Under these circumstances, it was only natural that some Belarusans would look upon the Germans as their political allies. This point of view was reinforced with the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, when the Germans began to occupy Belarus and encountered many Belarusans (and non-Belarusans) who had suffered under the Soviets and were willing to work with anyone who offered the opportunity of opposing the Soviets. However, in the wake of initial easy victories over the retreating Soviet Army, the Germans quickly changed their plans. They no longer considered the Belarusans a necessary factor in their military strategy, and began to view the situation altogether differently.(49)
The Belarusan political leadership—with whom the Germans had maintained a close relationship prior to the attack on the Soviet Union-was perceived to be a liability, `the Germans alone were "destined" to be masters of the occupied territories while the local population would be slaves.
This leadership group, however, had attempted to derive as much as possible from the Germans in terms of advancing the Belarusan cause. They were successful in obtaining permission to organize Belarusan schools, engage in limited publishing ventures, exercise some limited areas of jurisprudence, achieve a modicum of self-administration in civil matters, and empower a police force necessary to protect the population against Soviet guerrillas and maintain order in the cities. Although the Germans quite late agreed to the formation of some sort of Belarusan army, they were slow in equipping and arming it for a simple reason: the Germans did not trust the Belarusans. Finally, at the very end of 1943, the Germans consented to form a kind of government, and also reluctantly agreed that the Belarusans could convene a Congress which would have the right to confirm or disapprove the appointed government and its activities. The Belarusans convened the Congress in the city of Minsk on June 27, 1944.(50)
While a number of Belarusan political leaders cooperated with the Germans during World War II, there were many Belarusan patriots who were of the opinion that Belarusans should have an independent movement, not associated with the Soviets, Poles, or Germans. This group, facing insurmountable odds, attempted with some success to organize an anti-Nazi underground operation under the banner of the Belarusan Independence Party.(51)
On the Soviet side of the front, the Belarusans were serving in the Red Army and were counted upon as important anti-German fighters.
Although the partisan movement in Belarus was initiated and organized by a non-Belarusan leadership and directed from Moscow, it gradually engulfed a large segment of the Belarusan nation. The main reason for this was the Nazi policy towards the Slavic peoples. Communist propaganda was masterful, with the party even using national slogans to attract and please Belarusans.
In retrospect one can view the reactivation of Belarusan nationalism—after a decade of terror in the thirties—as a normal phenomenon which could have been anticipated. Belarusan nationalism played an important role on both sides of the front, and it was partially as a result of this heightened national consciousness and the consequent activities which it spawned that led to Belarus gaining its seat in the United Nations in 1945.
o Belarus After World War II
The Second World War devastated Belarus. Over 9,000 villages and settlements were wiped out; over 200 cities were burned to the ground. Over one million homes were totally destroyed. The demographic loss to the Belarusan nation numbers close to six million souls.(52) Belarusan territory was once again Balkanized: the city of Bielastok was given to Poland, while Vilna was awarded to Soviet Lithuania. Still other parts of Belarusan territory were included in neighboring states.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants left Belarus and resettled in the Western world and began their political activities under the banner of the Belarusan Democratic Republic.(53)
The post-World War II years in Belarus were characterized by mass terror, deportations, violations of human rights, and, above all, Russification - which reached such proportions that any eighteenth-century tsar would have looked with envy at the professionalism of his successors' genocidal policies. (54)
It took Belarus almost two decades to heal the material wounds resulting from World War II. Only in the late 1950s and early 1960s did the Republic once again begin to reach pre-war economic levels, and gradually become an important manufacturing region in several fields. Industrial economic indicators placed Soviet Byelorussia in the ranks of the advanced technological nations. At the same time, however, it continued to lose its rural population at an alarming rate: about 24-25 persons per thousand per year.(55)
A particularly worrisome factor was the depopulation of the republic of its young native population through a federal policy of mobile employment which sent young people outside of their native republic. An equally troubling aspect was the concomitant influx of a variety of ethnic groups, a phenomenon that has been observed since the 1950s.(56)
Industrial and technological growth, unfortunately, does not imply or guarantee that Belarusan cultural and ethnic traditional values have been preserved, much less developed, at the same level. As an East Slavic nation, with linguistic roots close to the Ukrainians and Russians, Belarus has suffered more than any other people from Russification, Sovietization, and assimilation. A cause for particular alarm is the situation of the Belarusan language, whose use was purposefully decreased and eliminated from all areas of life. The number of Belarusan-language publications was kept very low, at the same time that the total circulation of Russian-language newspapers and journals was continuously increased. The official attitude toward the language of the republic and indeed all manifestations of Belarusanness was the claim that any attachment to one's own culture, history, or language was "nationalistic;" whereas, adoption of the Russian language was evidence of an enlightened "internationalist" attitude since "Russian is recognized as a means of communication around the world." The most damaging aspect of the policy of Russification was an accompanying attitude, implied and overt, that use of the native language of the nation was undignified and unworthy. The goal was a psychological reduction of esteem and respect for the Belarusan language.
It is noteworthy that, despite the strength of this campaign of denigration, the Belarusan intelligentsia and a sizable segment of the population at large never accepted its premises. Voices against the policy of Russification and public protests against the degradation of Belarusan culture were heard constantly from the 1960s on, and an open campaign for granting official ("state") status to the Belarusan language and favoring Belarusanization of the republic has been carried on vigorously since 1985.(57)
A British newsweekly, The Economist, wrote in 1987 that:
Byelorussia is where Russian has made its greatest inroads. A campaign in defense of the native language has developed in the republic press. Letters pouring in by the hundreds... Late in 1986, 28 leading Byelorussian cultural figures, including the writer Vasil Bykov, appealed to President Gorbachev to save their nation from "spiritual extinction. "(58)
A second document, signed by 134 leading Belarusan intellectuals was sent to Mr. Gorbachev, reinforcing the previous demands for the revival of Belarusan cultural independence. This topic became the agenda for an extensive discussion all over Soviet Byelorussia as well as in diasporan communities.(59)
A national revival can also be seen in the religious sphere, specifically in the demand that the Belarusan language be introduced into church services, both Orthodox and Roman Catholic. With the re-establishment of a Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belarus by the Vatican on July 25, 1989, and the inclusion of ethnic Belarusans in the Orthodox episcopate, those churches seem to be undergoing a slow renewal along national lines. Yet, this revival in Belarus is very, very slow.
The most encouraging signs of Belarusan awakening are the many and varied Belarusan activities in the organizational and political arenas. The variegated, typically small, "informal" patriotic groups such as Tutejsyja [Locals], Spadcyna [Heritage], Pachodnia [The Beacon], and larger groups such as the Tavarystva Bielaruskaj Movy [Society for the Belarusan Language], the Ecological Union, and others concerned about various aspects of social and national life, began to spring up and become important in the 1980s. These events contributed to the development of a political climate in which it was possible to form a national political movement, the Bielaruski Narodny Front [Belarusan Popular Front]. This movement, functioning in opposition to the regime, constitutes a truly historic landmark in the evolution of the nation.
An outstanding role in redirecting research priorities and establishing working contacts with scholarly communities of the Western world belong to new groups such as the International Association for Belarusan Studies (Miznarodnaja Asacyjacyja Bielarusistau) and the National F. Skaryna Center for Humanities and Education (Nacyjanalny Navukova-Asvietny Centr imia Franciska Skaryny), both headquartered in Minsk.
The introduction of pierabudova/perestroika in 1985 was, of course, an important factor in the evolution of political awareness and activity in Belarus. However, several other major events have exerted an influence on the life of the nation: the tragic nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the discovery of the mass graves of victims murdered in the village of Kurapaty, near Minsk, and the revival of national consciousness in the life of the religious communities of the republic.
The 1990s have seen the spirit of the nation reassert itself and grow stronger. A new modern nation-state has begun to appear on the map of Europe. However, many obstacles face the development of a truly democratic state in Belarus. The first free, democratic elections which were held July 10, 1994, in which Belarus chose its first President, Mr. Aleksandr Lukashenka, proved to be disastrous. Democratization processes virtually stopped, reforms ceased, the Constitution was violated dozens of times, and all indications are that a new dictatorial regime is on the rise. The referendum of May 1995, initiated by Mr. Lukashenka against the opinion of Parliament and against the Constitution, returned the Republic to the old Stalinist symbols and system of governing. Undoubtedly the nation envisages many challenges ahead. The future of the Republic of Belarus is very unclear: the nation has not yet spoken its last word as to whether it will join the democratic world as a free and independent nation, or choose a totalitarian regime in an unhealthy political union with its eastern neighbor. The choice is up to Belarusans to make.
o NOTES
1. Sports Illustrated, Oct. 31, 1989.
2. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 1974), s.v. "Shagal,
Marka."
3. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 1972), s.v. "Kasciushko, Tadeush."
4. V. Gritskevich, Puteshestviia nashikh zemliakov (Minsk, 1968), 77-95.
5. Bielarus, New York, September 1992.
6. Mrs. L. Bryleuskaja, correspondence with author, July 27, 1988.
7. D. Dubinsky and A. H. Raskin, A Life with Labor (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 17.
8. Biographical Dictionary of American Labor (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984), 666.
9. M. Hindus, The Kremlin's Dilemma (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 181.
10. Time, Oct. 20, 1986. 77.
11. A. Barmin, One Who Survived (New York, 1972).
12. Zviazda, Minsk, Apr. 22, Dec. 10, 1993.
13. M. Carter and M. J. Christensen, Children of Chernobyl (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1993), 214.
14. Kurapaty (New York: Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1993), 87.
15. J. Zaprudnik, Belarus at a Crossroads in History (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), 278.
16. E. Mironowicz, Bialorusini w Polsce, 1944-1949 (Warszawa: PWN, 1993), 218.
17. P. Miranovich, "Bielarusy u Latvii, 1919-1944," Zapisy, 16 (1978): 92. Lietuviu Enciklopedia (Boston, 1974), s.v. "Bait Gudas."
18. Etnahrafija Bielarusi (Minsk, 1989), s.v. "Bielarusy."
19. Op. cit,p. 59.
20. Sibirskaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia (Moskva, 1929), s.v. "Belorussy."
21. "Faktycnyja dodzienyja ob stanie bielaruskaj emihracyi, 1.5. 1949," (New York Archives of the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic).
22. Encyklapedyja Litaratury i Mastactva (Minsk, 1986), 287.
23. Dilo, L'viv, no. 100, May 7, 1936.
24. J. Zaprudnik, "The Name of Byelorussia," East Europe, 24(3) (New York, 1975): 12-15. W. Ostrowski, About the Origin of the Name "White Russia" (London, 1975): 46.
25. R. Ostrowski, Fragments from the history of Byelorussia (to 1700), (London: Byelorussian Central Council, 1961).
26. J. Najdziuk, Bielarus ucora i siannia (Miensk, 1944).
27. V. Kipel, "Byelorussia under Russian occupation: past, present, future," Russian Empire. Some Aspects of Tsarist and Soviet Colonial Practices (Cleveland, Ohio: Institute for Soviet and East European Studies, John Carroll University, 1985): 72-99.
28. A. Pushkarevich, "Preobrazovanie dukha narodnosti," Izvestiia AN SSSR, Otd. Obshchestv. Nauk (Leningrad, 1932): 15-32.
29. V. Zacharka, "Bielarus na uschodzie," Iskry Skaryny, Praha, 1934, no. 4: 47.
30. T. E. Bird and J. Zaprudnik, The 1863 Uprising in Byelorussia: Documents (New York, 1980).
31. U. Ihnatouski, 1863 hod na Bielarusi (Minsk, 1930).
32. A. Cvikievic, Zapadno-Russizm (Minsk, 1929).
33. A. Rakov, Naselenie BSSR. (Minsk, 1969), 100
34. H. von Eckardt, Russia (New York: Knopf, 1932), 475.
35. New York Times, Oct. 18, 1957.
36. F. Bahasevic, Tvory (Minsk, 1991), 16-17.
37. A. Luckievic, Za 25-hadoupracy (Vilnia, 1928).
38. A. Nadson, "Nasa Niva," The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, no. 3, 1967, 184-206.
39. V. Kipel, "Nasa Niva i emihracyja," Zapisy, 19 (1989), 8-26.
40. V. and Z. Kipel, Byelorussian Statehood (New York, 1988).
41. V. Krutalevich, Rozhdenie Belorusskoi Sovetskoi Respubliki. (Minsk, 1975).
42. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 1971), s.v. "Zachodnija Bielarus."
43. Political Prisoners in Poland (New York: The International Committee for Political Prisoners, 1927).
44. Archives of the magazine Bozym Slacham, London.
45. S. Kabysh, "The Byelorussians," Genocide in the USSR. (New York: Scarecrow Press, 1958).
46. E. Engelhardt, Weissruthenien; Volk und Land. (Berlin: Volk uud Reich, 1943).
47. С Regel, "Weissruthenien...," Geographische Zeitschrift, Heft 4/5 (1942), 121-157.
48. J. Turonak, Bielarus pad niamieckaj akupacyjaj (Minsk, 1993), 31-40.
49. A. Dallin, German Rule in Russia: 1941-1945 (New York: Macmillan Press, 1981. 2nd. ed.), 199-225.
50. I. Kasiak, National Independence of Byelorussia (London: The Byelorussian Central Council, 1960).
51. I. Kasiak, Byelorussia. Historical Outline (London: The Byelorussian Central Council, 1989).
52. A. Bahrovich, A Population of the BSSR in the 1959 Census (New York: Byelorussian Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1962).
53. R. Zuk-Hryskievic, The Life of Vincent Zuk-Hryskievic (Toronto, 1993).
54. Communist Takeover and Occupation of Byelorussia (Washington, D.C.: Select Committee on Communist Aggression, Special Report, H. Res. 346 and 438, 1955), 19-21.
55. The Soviet Review (Armonk, N.Y., Fall 1984), 38-39.
56. The Crimes of Khrushchev (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Congress, 86th Congress, First Session, Dec. 17, 1959).
57. Letter to a Russian Friend. A Samizdat Publication from Soviet Byelorussia (London: The Association of Byelorussians in Great Britain, 1979).
58. The Economist (London, May 16, 1987), 51.
59. Two Letters to Gorbachev from the Byelorussian Intelligentsia (London: The Association of Byelorussians in Great Britain, 1988).
Chapter I: Research, Publications, and Pertinent Statistics on Belarusan Emigration/Immigration
The questions which must be asked when one addresses the issue of Belarusan emigration/immigration are: 1) Has the fundamental research been done? 2) Has a systematic attempt been made to study Belarusan emigration to the United States and the life of Belarusan-Americans in this country? The answer, unfortunately, is negative in both instances, and research is confronted with numerous problems.
The first underlying difficulty is that, for the most part, Belarusans were not properly identified upon leaving their homeland, nor during their processing upon entering the United States. They were not recorded as Belarusans. The attitude of Russian officialdom is the main cause for this situation. One has to bear in mind, as was said in the introductory pages, that the Russian tsarist state, and the Russian Empire did not allow the formation of an administrative entity which would embrace all ethnic Belarusan territory. The Russian administration called Belarusans—Russians, although tie term Belarusans was used by Belarusans themselves in academic circles, and even by the 1897 Census administration. Russian officialdom, when faced with the problem of emigration, functioned under the assumption that Russian ethnic stock—i.e., Great Russians—do not emigrate. Therefore, neither statistical data, nor any other data were considered important. Imperial Russia was not concerned with recording data about inorodtsy, non-Russians. The term plemennoi sostav, translated literally as "tribal composition," as used in migratory Russian statistical terminology, placed all Belarusans in the category of "Russians." In addition, data on foreign emigration were not collected systematically. The second problem was that the religious affiliation was determinative of nationality, i.e., ethnic background: the Russian government considered Belarusans of the Roman Catholic faith to be Poles and Orthodox Belarusans to be Russians.
The obstacles, intentional and unwitting, set up by authorities in the Russian Empire and in the Washington bureaucracy have made identification of Belarusans in the United States an impossibly complicated task. Although the Russian Census of 1897 recognized Belarusans as a separate group, the tsarist emigration authorities did not record Belarusans as a separate nationality. And, as a consequence, neither did the United States Immigration Service. In fact, an authoritative government publication, the Dictionary of Races and Peoples published in Washington, D.C. in 1911, singled out Belarusans to say that they were not recognized as a separate ethnic group for the purposes of the immigration process. Although two different, indeed opposite philosophical concepts formed the basis of the two government bureaucracies—oppression and dictatorship in Russia and respect for human rights in the United States, they agreed on the final result: no statistics on many nationalities were kept on either side of the ocean. As a result of this policy, further studies based on official data, have been seriously handicapped. The student of Belarusans in the United States faces formidable difficulties: on the one hand, it is a demonstrable fact that Belarusans came to the United States in large numbers; on the other hand, no official statistics about them existed. This is one reason why hundreds of volumes dealing with Slavic Americans make no mention of Belarusans whatsoever. But the situation is even worse. Thousands upon thousands of pages of research and analyses exist in which Belarusans in the United States are mislabeled or otherwise misidentified. The study of Belarusans in the United States is no easy topic.
The following survey of literature on immigrants, research on the various Slavic groups, etc. will attempt to throw some light on these blank spots in American immigration history, and to show that the Belarusan presence was noticed, although it was often not clearly spelled out.
Some of the most visible obstacles facing the researcher of Belarusica in the United States as well as some of the existing sources of meager information about Belarusans were outlined by this author in an earlier article.(l) The present analysis enlarges on the topic of research by including not only English-language publications, but foreign-language materials as well.
o English-Language Publications
With the exception of some passages in a few general works about Slavs in America, brief articles in newspapers, and slight allusions in a very few reference works, the presence of Belarusans in the United States is not dealt with. Despite the wide variety of Slavic topics that have attracted the interest of the American scholarly community, the Belarusan phenomenon remains neglected. This neglect is further compounded by the fact that what has been printed has often been incorrect, incomplete, or offensive to Belarusans. The most frequent problem of this sort is using the term "Russian" to describe Belarusans, on the grounds that ethnic Belarusan territory was located within the boundaries of the Russian Empire. American textbook publishers bear a heavy responsibility for the enormous amount of carelessly researched material and outright misinformation that is steadily provided to school children and college students. Their lack of concern about distinctions in Eastern Europe constitutes a major disservice to the educational process.
Works about Slavic immigrants made their appearance at the beginning of the twentieth century. Information about Belarusans is typically limited to naming the nationality as a subdivision of the East Slavic group, sometimes mentioning the language, more often simply giving the geographical location of the country.
Some important writings about Slavs in America provide data about immigrants and the problems associated with the group of immigrants customarily labeled "Russians." Dr. Allan McLaughlin, one of the earliest students of Russian immigration to America includes some general statistics about Belarusans.(2) Unfortunately, tie does not mention Belarusans in America, or rather, he does not identify them as such.
Belarusans are not specified in an extensive survey of East European and Slavic immigrants in the series of articles in the magazine Charities, which says:
Charities makes this week what it is believed will be welcomed as a substantial contribution to such knowledge of some of the fragments of nationalities loosely known collectively as Slavs.(3)
However, individual authors of various analyses of East European and Slavic immigrants in this magazine focus on the problem of identifying "races" among the Slavs and the category "Russians," which often appears in quotation marks. Thus, the author Mary Buell Sayles writes:
First of all, however, it may be well to review briefly the race and religion of the two peoples referred to as Poles and Russians. Concerning the Poles facts seem clear enough. Some of them distinguish themselves as "German" and some as "Russian" Poles, but most of them make no such distinction in ordinary speech. With the so-called Russians, the case is more complicated. I shall continue to use the names ordinarily employed by these people in speaking of themselves, leaving to specialists the determination of their precise race and nationality. (4)
The author Kate Holladay Claghorn, in describing immigrants properly identifies on the map the provenance of "Russian" immigrants as "the extreme western portion" (of the Empire, V.K.) and says the following:
The greater number of these "new" immigrants, both from Austria-Hungary and Russia, may be grouped together under the general name of Slavs. That is, all the people thus grouped together speak languages of the general type known as Slavonic. This grouping also indicates roughly race affinities as well, and, in view of the importance nowadays attributed to "race" as a factor in social development, it may be well to get some idea of the race relations partly expressed and partly concealed by relations of language... The peoples in our table to be counted as Slavs by language and in the main by race, may be divided into the North Slavs, including the so-called "Russians," Poles, Bohemians, Moravians, Slovaks, and Ruthenians; and the South Slavs including the Bulgarians, Servians, Montenegrins, Croatians, Slovenians, Dalmatians, Bosnians, and Herzegovinians.(5) The Slavs of Russia are estimated at about one-half of the population of the country. Of these perhaps forty millions are found in Great Russia... These are the typical Russians or true Muscovites. As seen by the map, as well as the table, almost none of these emigrate.(6)
At this point Claghorn cites a footnote which says: Russians shown in the table are not even certainly known to be of this element, but probably are a group of various, undetermined affinities.(7)
One can be certain that Belarusan immigrants were included under this category of "undetermined affinities."
In a different publication which appeared years later, this latter term was substituted by a variant version of a nationality name: "The millions of immigrants who have come to America from Russia are of various racial stocks and peculiar nationalities."(8)
Although the earliest books dealing with Slavic immigrants to this country, e.g., by John R. Commons and Emily G. Balch do not specify Belarusans as an immigrant group, they do focus on the problems of the term "Russians." These pioneer researchers stated that the group which is widely known as "Russians" was in tact not a homogeneous group, but a mixture of peoples. Thus, John R. Commons wrote of the Russian group as follows: "The significant fact of this immigration is that it is only 2 percent Russian and 9 5 percent non-Russians."(9) Emily G. Balch specifies the Belarusan Language (White Russian) along with Great Russian and Little Russian (Ruthenian, Ukrainian) but considers the group "Russians" as the broad category of immigrants, making also this observation:
Russians form the smallest of the Slavic groups of immigrants... There have long been Russian religious colonists in the country... Mennonites, "Stundists,"... These are, however, "Little Russians" like the Ruthenians, not "Great Russians" or Russians proper... (10)
Since these early works on Slavic immigrants are thorough and authoritative, and certainly provide considerable informative material, it is the more unfortunate that they do not distinguish the Belirusans as a distinct national entity. Successive generations of scholars look these data at face value, accepted the term "Russians" without reservation, and thus perpetuated the original error.
Researchers have also been troubled not only by a confusing ethnic differentiation, but by the available statistical data pertaining to immigrants generally and particularly those immigrants who originated in the Russian Empire as well. Emily G. Balch remarked as follows:
The census figures for natives of Russia who, as we have seen, make up a very small percent of the immigrants from their country... As regards the number of Russians in the country, I have never found anyone bold enough to attempt an estimate. If then we neglect all Russians who entered the country before 1899 (both them and their descendants), we should still have at least sixty or seventy thousand among us, the total number who have entered the country since 1898 being, as said above, 66,282.(11)
Professor Carl Darling Buck wrote in a very forthright manner when he discussed U.S. Census data from the turn of the century in Chicago:
The Lithuanians, who in language and sentiment form a distinct people, and are represented by thousands of immigrants, are nowhere mentioned. In Chicago they were told by enumerators that, there being no provision for Lithuanians, they might be either Poles or Russians. Whether in other places they were classified under Poland or Russia, or both, it is impossible to say.(12)
Another researcher, Phyllis K. Metzler, writes in her article about the people of Detroit:
One other eastern group was represented in fairly large numbers, but the numbers are misleading. The census reports 669 Russians in 1890, but most of them probably didn't think of themselves as Russians. Some were undoubtedly Polish-speaking and should be considered part of the Polish community. Many were Jewish, expelled from Russia by the terrible pogroms... The fact that no Orthodox church was organized until 1910 would indicate that no sizable self-consciously Russian group existed in 1889.(13)
The attitude of American Officialdom to the ethnicity and nationalities in general contributed to confusion and misinformation.
The United States government produced an important work on immigration during the first decade of this century, published under the title Report on Immigration, as part of official U.S. research. This is a very thorough analysis of immigration, its causes and probable effects, on the U.S. economy. As a separate printed entity it also contains an important reference volume entitled Dictionary of Races and Peoples (1911). This provides authoritative information about Belarusans, using the then-current term "White Russians." Some passages will give the flavor of this significant work.
The White Russian is one of the three distinct branches of the Russian language and race, although of far less importance numerically and politically than either of the other two [i.e., the Great Russian and the Ukrainian, V.K.]. It is as much a "race" as the Great Russian ("Russian") or the Little Russian (Ruthenian), although usually considered simply as Russian in „. America. Unlike the term "Black Russia," "White Russia" is still found on the ethnographical map. It is a compact but small district roughly corresponding with what is now called "West Russia," though reaching somewhat nearer Moscow on the east... The White Russians constitute over three-fourths of the population of the Mogilev and Minsk provinces and about half of Vitebsk, Vilna, and Grodno. In Kovno and Courland they approach the Baltic.
The White Russians have long been in political subjection, first to Lithuania then to Poland, and, finally, to the Great Russians, although their lot now appears preferable to that of all the other subject peoples of western Russia. For this reason, among others, we hear little of them as a distinct race... They are usually considered to be of purer Russian stock than either the Great or the Little Russians. Both the latter are far more modified by Mongolian elements, Finnic, and Tataric...
They are... of the purest type of the so-called "Eastern" or "Celto-Slavic" race.
The White Russians number less than 6,000,000 or but little over one-tenth as many as the Great Russians. They are not counted separately as immigrants [emphasis mine, V. K.].(14)
This document says that the "Great Russians" emigrate chiefly to Siberia and that they emigrate to America to a smaller degree in proportion to their population than any other Slavic people.
It is clear from this publication that the U.S. Immigration authorities had an accurate idea of the ethnic origins of immigrants from the Russian Empire. It was precise, even subtle in its grisp of the various nationalities. It remains a mystery why these same authorities did not apply their data and understanding to these national distinctions as they compiled statistical materials. Stephanie Bernardo, one of the recent students of ethnic groups in the United States, provides a very frank and well-defined explanation for this attitude: convenience. Bernardo writes:
Over 200,000 Russians entered our country between 1881 aid 1890, and over 1.5 million more found their way to America between 1901 and 1910. Not all of them were technically "Russians," however—some were Jewish, Polish, Ukrainian, Byelorussian or Carpatho-Russian—but, for the sake of convenience, immigration officials listed them according to their country of birth or the passports they carried, without regard to their individual "ethnic" heritage.(15)
If one were to resort to modern-day terminology, this approach could be said to constitute discrimination. Seemingly, there were two reasons for the adoption of this policy by the Immigration authorities. The first was political: the majority of the Slavic immigrants came from imperial states, Russia or Austro-Hungary. The concept of nationality-which has undergone considerable clarification during the twentieth century—was just beginning to achieve visibility in these multinational imperial states, and the central authorities were not enamored of the concept. It represented an element of unknown implications. It is not surprising, therefore, that the United States, with an outlook that was profoundly conditioned by its English history and roots, acquiesced in the preferred views of emigrant-exporting states. The second reason for not using the nationality-ethnic criterion was that the United States, under the pernicious influence of the "melting-pot theory," was not sensitive to the problem of nationality, national identity, and nationalism and was not anxious to emphasize or perpetuate an awareness of such distinctions. Regrettably, this point of view prevails in the Washington, D.C. bureaucracy to this day.
In sum, one cannot find any government data on Belarusans in the early literature on immigrants, with the exception of the Dictionary of Races and Peoples, with its unfortunate statement that Belarusans (White Russians) do not count as a separate group of immigrants.
Professor Richard Boeckh has researched and analyzed in a very authoritative manner the attitudes of the American Immigration authorities and the data of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Boeckh refers to apparent terminological changes in the statistical immigration data claimed by the Immigration authorities in the 1890s: "[T]he three parts of the Russian Empire do not appear as separate headings."(16) He suggests that in order to have more realistic data on the "racial stock" of the immigrants, one should compare the American data with the data of local censuses, in particular with the Census of the Russian Empire of 1897, in which the mother-tongue played an important role in determining "racial stock" or ethnicity.
Unfortunately for the Belarusans, this did not happen. The U.S. authorities paid no attention to the Imperial Census of 1897, according to which Belarusans numbered over 6,000,000 persons.(17)
Frank J. Warne, in his pioneering analysis of Slavic immigrants in the anthracite region, does not specify Belarusans; he once again uses the term "Russians" with the remark appended "A peculiar type of Russian."(18) However, interviews conducted by this writer with third- and fourth-generation Americans, descendants of the pioneer-miners of the late 1890s, revealed that they were all emigrants from the Grodno or Vilna provinces of Belarus or from the Volyn region of Ukraine. Many of the Eastern Orthodox churches of the coal region were built by these Belarusan immigrants.(19)
In the book by D. L. Miller and R. E. Sharpless, Belarusans are hidden in the phrase: "Peoples of more than a dozen other nationalities, mostly from the empires of Czarist Russia and Austria-Hungary."(20)
E. A. Ross, in his article "Slavs in America," writes that the "Russian" immigrants in the United States, whom he numbers at 56,000, are not "true Russians." Anticipating a problem with this group, he states: "Still, these minor currents may be lost in the flood that is likely to roll upon us, once the great central Slavic mass of 80,000,000 `true Russians' is tapped."(21)
As the years passed, more publications concerning Slavic-Americans appeared, more questions were raised about the accuracy of the term "Russians," and more reservations were expressed about the data originating with the U.S. Census Bureau and the Immigration Service.
Writing about Slavs found on Southern farms, LeRoy Hodges noted, "For instance, within the term "Russians," as commonly used in the U.S., are included several Slavish races. They are the Lithuanians [sic] out of the great race of Letts, the Russians proper, who include Great Russians, White Russians, and Ruthenians or `Little Russians,'"(22)
Conde B. Pallen in his tribute to Andrew J. Shipman, states:
Russians are composed of Great Russians or Northern Russians, White Russians or Western Russians, and Little Russians (Ruthenians) or Southern Russians... The White Russians are so called from the prevailing color of the clothing of the peasantry, and inhabit the provinces of Vitebsl, Mohileff, Minsk, Vilna and Grodna.(23)
Jerome Davis accepted an inclusive definition of "Russians" in his research.
By Russian, as used in this study, is meant the Great Russian, inhabiting Central Russia, the White Russian, living between Poland and Russia, and the Little Russian, from what was formerly South Russia. We do not know exactly how many Russians and Ruthenians [i.e., Ukrainians—V. K.] there are in America. Guesses vary by the hundred thousand. The reason for this is apparent when we consider the complexity of the racial problem involved. Until 1898 the United States Census classified all who came from the territory controlled by tine Tsar's government as Russians. From that year on Jews were classified separately, as were also the Ruthenians. In 1910 all who called their native language Russian were considered Russians. When we turn to the last Russian census, we find that 2 percent of the entire European population were Jews who called Russian their native language. Since the great majority of emigrants to America from Russia were Jews, undoubtedly much more than 2 percent were so included in our census.(24)
In his other study, Jerome Davis writes:
Yet the 1920 census records 392,049 foreign-born Russians in the United States and, including those born in America of Russian parentage, a total of 731,949. Those familiar with the methods of census enumeration know that this number is open to a large possible error. Different authorities make widely varying estimates [...] Although these conjectures are of uncertain value, the official census figures would seem to justify accepting the number as about 700,000, although this is an increase of 700 percent since 1910.(25)
In his volume devoted to the study of Slavic immigrants during the pre-World War I period Fjeril Hess concludes:
Of these Russian immigrants, not counting the Carpatho-Russians and the Russian Jews, there are about 200,000. Of this number it is estimated that twenty-five per cent are Great Russians (coming from Central Russia), forty percent are White Russians (from Eastern [sic] Russia), and thirty-five percent are Little Russians (Ukrainians from Russia).(26)
Kenneth D. Miller makes brief mention of Belarusans in his book, published in 1925, but he spells out an important observation about them which has been totally missed by most other scholars. "There are many Roman Catholics among the White Russians," he writes. And he continues that the White Russian nationality was not recognized by the Russian administration, but that they presently have their own republic.(27)
Another interesting observation about Belarusans and other Slavic groups coming from the Russian Empire was made by Maurice R. Davie. This author, familiar with the question of nationalities, states that
American statistics do not distinguish between Great, White, and Little Russians, but there is reason to suppose that Great Russians predominated in the Russian emigration up to 190Д, while after that year Ukrainians and White Russians emigrated in largest number.(28)
The reason for this situation, according to Davie, was that tie Great Russian religious emigration, such as the Dukhobors and other groups, predominated prior to 1905; while after this year the non-Russian emigration became dominant.
The American authors Francis J. Brown and Joseph S. Roucek share Davie's point of view. (29)
Such Russian scholars as V. D. Bonch-Bruevich anl V. V. Obolensky also expressed the opinion that the Russian sectarians constituted the largest group of emigrants from the Russian Empire prior to 1905.* Obolensky, however, puts the number of Bfelarusan immigrants, even prior to 1905, at the same level as the number of Russian sectarians.(30)
This author agrees with Obolensky because sources, such as the 1905 year-book of the Grodno province reveal that the number of Belarusans who emigrated to the United States from this province is significant. (31) Moreover, the report of the Vilna province for the year 1903 states that the economic conditions within the province forced the peasants to emigrate chiefly to America.(32)
These conclusions are congruent with the data furnished by the U.S. Commissioner of Immigration for 1902, as Obolensky notes in the cited publication.
However, Mr. V. Paniutich, in his analysis of migratory processes in Belarus, reports that the officials of various regions reported an increase in emigration to America after 1906.(33)
With the passage of time, new works about Slavs in America appeared. The validity of the statistics concerning the "Russian" group was challenged, and many scholars suggested bluntly that these data were unreliable and should be disregarded. Thus, Carl Wittke states that statistics concerning nationalities from the former Russian Empire are meaningless because they do not differentiate between what he calls "real Russians" and other nationalities. The same author also expresses concern about the data for the Polish group when he writes:
By 1920, there were 3,000,000 of Polish parentage in the United States, although here again it must be remembered that the Poles were not always sharply distinguished for statistical purposes from the Ruthenian and similar groups.(34)
In some instances, authors, obviously realizing that there were many nationalities under the term Russian, stated simply "Whatever were the special, distinctive cultural characteristics of the various Russian groups in America, all these groups... no attempt was even made to outline the specific groups.(35)
Louis Adamic uses a vague and mischievous term, "Slavic-Russian," intending, apparently to cover all nationalities of Slavic descent who emigrated from the Russian Empire. Adamic writes that "The Slavic-Russian immigrants are estimated at about four hundred thousand. "(36)
Problems associated with the broad and undiscriminating use of the term "Russian" were taken note of in various places. In his publication about immigrant settlements in the State of Connecticut, Samuel Koenig writes:
Because of the lumping together of many ethnic groups under the caption of "Russians" by the United States Censuses, the popular impression is that Russians are very numerous in America. As a matter of fact, real Russians, and by this we mean Great Russians, have never come here in large numbers and, consequently, constitute a much smaller group than is commonly supposed. If mother tongue is an indication of the numerical strength of an ethnic group, then, according to the Bureau of the United States Census, there are 9,810 Russians in Connecticut. This number necessarily excludes the American-born and undoubtedly includes many Ukrainians and all of the White Russians.(37)
While some scholars expressed reservations about the correctness of calling any immigrant from the Russian Empire "Russian" in specific ethnic terms, other writers did not formulate their concern so precisely, but nevertheless questioned the use of the term "Russian" for so broad a spectrum of peoples. A number of American scholars who studied the speech of the Slavic immigrants to America underlined the fact that the majority of those immigrants did not speak Russian—they would frequently use the expression "proper Russian" - but rather, several different Slavic languages. This despite the fact that, if questioned, the immigrants were apt to claim that what they spoke was "Russian." This phenomenon was observed in court proceedings.
The petitioners are Russians seeking to enter the Unitedl States... [I]t appears that they were part of a group of illiterates laborers, only one of whom, it seems, Gegiow, speaks even the; ordinary Russian tongue... [T]heir ignorance tended to makes them form a clique to the detriment of the community. (38)
H. G. Wells, the well-known American writer, studied the distribution of the Russian language in the United States and wrote as follows:
It is commonly assumed that there are great numbers оf Russians in this country, and it is true that many millions of immigrants came to the United States from the Russian Empire between 1890 and 1910. Most of these, however, were Jews, principally Yiddish-speaking, though some of them spoke Russian as their native tongue; many of the remainder were Poles, who, of course, do not permit themselves to be confused with Russians of any sort. Only a minority were really Russian, Ukrainian, or Ruthenian Christians. Even of these, during the pre-war period, the Ukrainians and Ruthenians were the more numerous.(39)
A Mr. Peter Stepanovsky, writing from California, responded to Wells' article in a letter to H. L. Mencken with these observations.
It has occurred to me that you may wish to utilize H. G. Wells' article on Russian (Mercury, April 1932) in a future edition of The American Language. As your "constant" reader—and a rather warm admirer, if you please—since the days of Smart Set, I deem it my bounden duty to warn you against any such embalming of Wells' enthusiastic drivel. A few examples will suffice to convince you that I am not talking through my hat... All right, then, let's go. Page 448, Col. 1, par. 1: `Only a minority were really Russian, Ukrainian, or Ruthenian Christians.'
Mr. Stepanovsky notes: "The most numerous pre-war immigrants were the White Russians (from the wretched marshy lands of Western Russia)." And then he goes into the specifics which differentiate the Slavic languages.(40)
The work by Henry Pratt Fairchild exemplifies, however, the confusion which reigned in the terminology pertaining to ethnicity of the former Russian Empire. Thus, Fairchild describes a "regular" Russian peasant, meaning the Great Russian, and explains why the Great Russian peasant did not emigrate. Writing about Belarusans, he states:
The White Russians (the name has nothing to do with complexion) live on the central western border, and they and the Poles, or such part of them as war and revolution have left to Russia, complete the list of Russian Slavs.(41)
An article by Colgate Professor Albert Parry entitled "Artists of Wrecking" identifies Belarusans, specifies their working habits and, for the first time in an American periodical, uses the term "Belorussia." Parry writes:
Like most of the Russians in this country, they (i.e., Belarusans-V.K.) are called Pollacks. (It is the Russian Jews who are called here—Russians). They came to the States during the decade preceding the World War from the marshy villages of Belorussia, the western and most backward part of the ex-Empire. (42)
Some writers did include correct information alongside pure nonsense. For example, an article co-authored by Yaroslav J. Chyz and Joseph S. Roucek, "The Russians in the United States," correctly identified Belarusans in this country and noted that there was an organized Belarusan life in the United States. They continued, "This article endeavors to limit the discussion to immigrants and their descendants of the Great Russian and White Russian groups" with a footnote added that makes the clear and accurate observation "The White Russian group in three of the Western provinces of the old Russian Empire is a distinctive group in the East Slavonic family."
Unfortunately, after that good start, they make the peculiar comment that
No distinction is made between the Great Russians (Russians proper) and White Russians. The White Russians in America seem to be entirely dominated by the Russians. White Russian organizations in the United States are very few and scattered. The only newspaper in White Russian, Beloruskaya Trihuna; a weekly in Chicago, edited by J. J. Voronko, ceased to appear several years ago.(43)
So much for a scholarly analysis of the Belarusans!
Yet the publication "Manual of Slavonic Personalities" -past and present) includes a number of Belarusans in the fields of culture, politics, and research.(44)
The World War II years opened a new chapter in the history of Belarusans in the United States. The name "Byelorussia" began to appear on the front pages of American newspapers. Belarusan territory became an important battleground in the struggle against Nazi Germany. The Byelorussian S. S. R. was featured prominently in the press following the War when it became one of the founding members of the United Nations Organization in 1945. Although press coverage of World War II and post-war events gave the B. S. S. R. considerable visibility and made it a somewhat familiar term to many Americans, most did not associate the name of this distant country with their Slavic neighbors, who were, in any event, often mislabeled as "Russians" or "Poles."
Moreover, there continued to appear works which were misleading and harmful. One example is the Slavonic Encyclopedia, edited by Joseph S. Roucek. This mischievous volume had the following to say: "The White Russians, or, as they are at present referred to in the Soviet Union, Byelorussians, should be considered as Russians..." Roucek continues: "The White Russians have nothing in common (not even language) with the White Russians who used to drive taxis in Paris, speak a sort of Somerset Russian and write it phonetically."(45). Reference tools such as the Slavonic Encyclopedia belong in museums under the rubric "Curiosities," rather than on library shelves where they are a source of misinformation.
Materials on Belarus began to appear with greater frequency as the post-World War II wave of Byelorussian immigration arrived. A substantial analysis of Belarusans in the United States was carried out by the Common Council for American Unity which provided a reasonably accurate account of Belarusans in the United States and the structure of the Belarusan communities in this country.
Since the majority (between 60% to 75%) of the immigrants from pre-war Russia are estimated to have come from its northwestern Byelorussian part, it can be assumed that out of these 400,000 persons, some 225,000 to 275,000 were of Byelorussian origin. There are not even such general estimates regarding the proportion of Byelorussians among the 2,905,859 persons of Polish birth or parentage. But, probably not less than 75,000 to 125,000 of them were of Byelorussian origin. This would give a total of 300,000 to 400,000 persons of Byelorussian birth and origin now in the United States. If a similar calculation is applied to the mother-tongue statistics, it may be assumed that in 1940, 150,000 to 200,000 persons had Byelorussian as the "Principal language spoken in the home in earliest childhood" which is the United States definition of the mother tongue.
The Byelorussian American group, stimulated by the arrival of Byelorussian DP intellectuals from Europe, is now in the process of organization. Two rival Byelorussian organizations which are trying to assume leadership were formed only in February of this year [1951] and have had no time, as yet to show their relative strength. Nominally, they both support the idea of an independent, democratic Byelorussian Republic. The difference between them, as well as between their respective centers in Europe, seems to be, first, past orientations (the Abramchik group is friendly to the Poles; Astrouski collaborated with the Germans) and, second, general background. The followers of the Astrouski group are mostly natives of eastern Byelorussia and are refugees from the Soviet Union. They are, also, almost exclusively Orthodox. On the other hand, a considerable number of the followers of the Abramchik group are Catholics and many of them—if not the majority—are natives of the western part of Byelorussia, which between the wars, was part of Poland. In both groups, however, the desire to form a united front appears quite pronounced.(46)
Although brief, this report is the first meaningful analysis of the Belarusans in the United States.
Beginning in the 1950s, an important source for information on Belarusan-Americans became the Congressional Record, which included a substantial amount of material concerning Belarusans, their communities, organized activities, ideological views dealing with the establishment of a new Belarusan democratic state, historical and cultural development, leadership, etc. This agency produced also a number of important publications concerning the attitudes of Belarusans, including Belarusan-American attitudes towards the Soviet occupation of Belarus.(47) Undoubtedly, for a student of Belarusica the Congressional Record is an important research tool.
There are numerous references to Belarusans in several studies of Slavic-American communities during the sixties, seventies, and eighties, raising once again the problem of terminology for East European Slavic immigrants, as well as other aspects of Belarusan studies in America.
Thus, for example, Nancy Eubank specifically states that:
To most modern Americans, a Russian is a citizen of the vat country known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,. Americans are not always aware of the fact that the USSR is a state composed of people of widely varying backgrounds...(48)
Professor Paul R. Magocsi, a knowledgeable authority on nationalities in the American ethnic population, attempts to educate the American reading public very rightly and correctly. He writes.
Who exactly are the Russian Americans? Estimating tie population of North Americans with Russian roots is problematic because the term Russian was originally applied о many immigrants who came from the multinational Russian empire and Soviet Union. These people were in many cases actually Jews, Poles, Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Germans, or others.(49)
The Russo-centric approach, traditional in American schools and universities, has made it very difficult for scholars in the United States who research the Slavic people to make distinctions and judgments that differ from the "accepted wisdom," and distorted categorization that dominates American academic thinking.
The phenomenon of including Belarusans and others in the group of immigrants mechanically labeled "Russians" remains a common practice down to the present time. One recent author, Michael W. Tripp, studied a group which he called "Russians"" in San Francisco, but noticed that within this group there were White Russians from the Grodno, Minsk, and Mogilev provinces. He turned the concept of "Russianness" on its head with the following explanation:
One's "Russianness" became a question of where each individual or group perceived his loyalties to lie and a reflection of the political geography of the time. (50)
A different American student of "Russian" immigration and its adaptation to American society mentions Belarusans, however, in a rather unclear context, as a separate ethnic group, but as part of the "Russian" masses. This author even provides some statistics, following Davis's reasoning, that from 1888 to 1910 over 1.9. million immigrants came from the Russian Empire. Among them were 4.4% Belarusans (the term used is White Russians), which in numbers means close to 84,000 persons. Unfortunately, this study is of little use in obtaining a distinct picture of Belarusan-Americans, or of the number of Belarusan immigrants, because the peak of that immigration prior to World War I occurred after 1910.(51)
Some research has been done by students at various colleges and universities. One such work is a paper by Edith Rusconi Kaltovich, written at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, "Roebling's Ethnology of Two Minority Groups: Byelorussians and Rusins." Writing of these two small ethnic groups which share a number of characteristics, Kaltovich says:
The Byelorussians and the Rusins were two small immigrant groups, who settled in the industrial regions of the Eastern States, particularly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. These people, who settled in Roebling part of Florence Township, N.J. had, besides the typical problems of an immigrant group, others which resulted from their relative smallness in number, the obscurity of the homeland, and ill-defined nationality, and their membership in a hybrid church. When Roebling was established in 1905, the Byelorussians and Carpatho-Rusins helped in the construction of the mill... because the Byelorussians were Russian Orthodox, they attended Saint Vladimir Church (1916)... Some of the Byelorussians attended the Holy Assumption Catholic Church in Roebling... The Byelorussians remain isolated because of the small number and did not build a church or cemetery... The settlers from Byelorussia founded their homes mainly around the urban area of Roebling... The new land was hospitable, the newcomers hardworking and persevering. While the first generation of immigrants remained mainly laborers or craftsmen, their descendants contributed outstanding specialists and professionals in all fields of activity. All have merged into the mainstream of American life and have richly contributed to the growth of this nation. The first Byelorussian settlers were: Steven Zitnik, Jadwiga Spirida, Julian Awdick, Harry Varvara, Alexandria Kozak's father John Zacharkov, and others...(52).
"Byelorussians in America" was the title of a seminar study presented by Victor Czartorysky and Roman Mardarewich at the City College, CUNY, under the guidance of Professor Peter Goy in 1975.(53)
Maria Paula Survilla presented an authoritative research paper on Belarusan musical traditions in North America, "Music and Identity: Byelorussians Making Music in North America," at the University of Michigan, Arm Arbor. (54)
The Bicentennial years and post-Bicentennial period witnessed a considerable increase in publications concerning Belarusan-Americans; they have been treated in several specialized studies.(55)
An interesting observation was made by Thomas J. Archdeacon in his book Becoming American. He refers to Belarusans in numerous places and, focusing on Slavic immigrants to this country, he writes:
The eastern Slavs, centered in what is today the Soviet Union, constituted the largest Slavic bloc at the time of the great migration. Their ranks included the Russians, the Byelorussians, the Ruthenians, and the Ukrainians, peoples who used the Cyrillic alphabet and were affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox church or the Eastern Rite of the Rontan Catholic... Most of the Slavs who left Europe went to the United States. The American republic absorbed approximately 83 percent of the total emigration between 1876 and 1910; Canada the next most frequent destination, took in only 8 percent. Determining exactly the ethnic affiliations of the departees is an impossibility, given the demographic and national complexities of the region.(56)
At this juncture, a very positive sign is manifest: Belarusans begin to be mentioned in publications designed for a broad reading public.(57)
The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups added substantially to the information available about Belarusan-Americans, including an estimate of 175,000 to 200,000 Belarusans in tie United States.(58)
Significantly, in 1980, Belarusans appeared for the first time as an individual group in the records of the United States Census, numbering 7,381 persons. Obviously, the number of Belarusans recorded in the U.S. Census of 1980 is totally wrong. It is the principle of correct identification that is important.(59) Unfortunately, the necessary sensitivity and approach to the problem of identifying smaller nations within the American mosaic has not yet penetrated the U.S. census establishment.
In view of this, the most recent, 1990 U.S. Census data deserve comment. Tabulation of the Belarusan community is buried under the rubric "Detailed Ancestry Group for States." So the Census recognizes the presence of Belarusans—although concedes that there are only 4,277 in the entire United States. Such a figure is unrealistically low, especially if one considers that the cumulation is broken down by states. Even those states where there are numerous Belarusan churches, organizations, and agencies show a very small number of Belarusans.(60)
The breakdown by states is as follows:
Alabama 15 Kansas 0 Ohio 146
Alaska 0 Kentucky 0 Oklahoma 19
Arizona 30 Louisiana 0 Oregon 99
Arkansas 23 Maine 35 Pennsylvania 233
California 368 Maryland 239 Rhode Island 24
Colorado 24 Mass. 99 So. Carolina 0
Conn. 71 Michigan 189 So. Dakota 0
Delaware 18 Minn. 33 Tennesee 16
Dist. of Col. 27 Missouri 10 Texas 39
Florida 232 Montana 8 Utah 0
Georgia 15 New Hamp. 24 Virginia 45
Hawaii 8 New Jersey 629 Vermont 0
Idaho 0 New Mexico 0 Washington 44
Illinois 627 New York 703 Wyoming 0
Indiana 42 No. Carolina 45
Iowa 12 No. Dakota 0
Since these figures bear no accurate relationship to actual numbers of Belarusans living in states such as Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, or Pennsylvania, where there are large active Belarusan groups, with memberships in the thousands, there is no reason to assume that the data for such states as Texas, Virginia, or Washington are any more accurate.
It is difficult to understand how an agency as powerful and important to individuals, organizations, and politics as the U.S. Census Bureau can for decades compile a record of statistics gathered that is so methodologically flawed, misleading, and inaccurate.
The misinformation is particularly blatant (and verifiably so) when one examines the statistics for the group called "Russian" (in the sense of "ancestry"). The number for that group is given as 2,952,987. The Bureau does indicate that this group also includes persons who have reported that he or she is of "Rusyn," "Cossack," or "Black Russian" [?] heritage. The usefulness of such misinformation is nil. One could understand such terms as "Great Russian" or even "Muscovite," but conscious inclusion of these other categories is irresponsible and unacceptable.
There is no question that a significant number of "Russians" (in the sense of "ancestry") are—in the sense of ancestry-Belarusans. The question, of course, is how many?
As has been analyzed further on in this volume, there were originally between 600,000 and 650,000 Belarusans who immigrated and settled permanently in the United States. With the natural increase in subsequent generations, the number of persons of Belarusan descent would, by the end of the 20th century, exceed a figure of oat million by a considerable amount.
This carelessness, indifference, and perpetuation if long-discredited ethnic categories must be ended.
However, at the same time, one has to recognize that, as the quantity and, in some way, quality, as well, of general information and knowledge about Belarusan-Americans began to be noticeable, the process of misinformation did not stop. An example of such poor quality information is a book by Stanford Neil Gerber, Russkoya Celo, published by AMS Press in 1985.(61)
This dissertation is a flagrant example of how sociological jargon, in the hands of someone with a little bit of knowledge can be disastrous—worse, ludicrous .
Gerber explains, by way of introduction, that "both anthropologists and sociologists have been definitely negligent" [in examining] "the Russian-American community." He claims to have gathered materials for his study over a period of twelve months "from September 15, 1965 to August 1, 1966," and, having been "materially aided by a `primary contact'—a resident member of the community" to have developed expertise "as a participant observer."
Gerber never identifies the community by name. He explains that it "is located on the extreme edge of a large metropolitan area containing a population of approximately 1,200,000 people," that it is somewhere in the Midwest where there is "a major railroad, an important grain elevator, and a newly-built government-subsidized housing development for lower income people."
He begins on page five, and remains throughout the book, invincibly ignorant of the ethnic identity of the people with whom he is dealing. Or rather he denies it. His assignment, apparently was to study "Russian ethnic life in America" and, having found a Slavic-speaking community, he was determined that they would be Russians. He admits (p. 10) that natives of Bylorussia [sic]... comprise the bulk of the population of Russkoya Celo." He says that only a "few members...emigrated from other provinces," including a mm from Ukraine and a woman from Siberia. The residents of this community "who claim Bylorussian [sic] origin usually locate their birthplace in Grodno." This would be sufficient data, one might think, to send the dissertation writer to some reference works that would provide some background about Belarus, Belarusans, and the Belarusan language. Instead, we are informed that his "familiarity with the Russian language...was not sufficient to carry out... prolonged conversations" and that his "knowledge of Russian was `classical' rather than colloquial." Rather, one concludes, whatever degree of fluency Mr. Gerber brought to his task was in Russian and his informants were, by their own self-identification, place of origin, and native language— Belarusans—not Russians.
These immigrants from Grodno Province describe how they came to America and their reasons for emigrating. It is noteworthy that they quite consistently employ Belarusan vocabulary.
Following the carefully crafted practice of the American press in dealing with ethnic or religious minorities, Gerber was determined to locate and identify the bizarre and the fantastic. And he does. We are given "information" from "informants" about black magic, faith healing, folk medicine, dream books, card reading, omens, palm reading, and spells. He was determined to find a quaint, primitive culture—complete with evidence of its dying out—if it were the last thing he did.
What we are given is errant nonsense, misinformation, disinformation, and stereotypes. The book is a mish-mash of useless, misleading, dangerous stringing together of "data" that could not be of any use to anyone. This publication is an embarrassment to the academic community and a scandal for sociologists. The one usefulness of this publication is its demonstration that down to the present time there are enclaves, communities, and entire church congregations scattered all over the United States which are made up of ethnic Belarusans. The immigration officials told immigrants three generations earlier that they were Russians (or Poles); the Church repeated the same thing and generations lived their lives with an incorrect national-ethnic label.
These few English-language publications clearly underscore how little has been written about Belarusans in the United States and how few serious studies of the group have been done. A deeper survey of periodical literature should continue, and here and there, a mention of Belarusans can be found. This, however, would not change the conclusion: Belarusans, as an American ethnic group, have not been researched.
o Foreign-Language Publications
Not surprisingly, official Russian-language publication] of the pre-World War I period did not recognize the Belarusan nationality in the emigration process. Belarusan emigrants were listed as Russians. More often than was the case in English-language publications, a descriptor specifying the geographical region of origin was provided; e.g., "Russians from the western or north-western provinces." A few of the Russian-language remarks about Belarusan immigrants in the United States were considered in an earlier study (see note 1).
One of the first Russian officials to analyze emigration from Russia, K. G. Voblyi, made some important observation i about emigrants, their origins, and statistics relating to them. He wrote in 1904:
... [A]ny student of Russian emigration will face a difficult situation. In order to be able to analyze this important emigration from Russia, the scholar of the process should turn to foreign sources. Lack of precise and continuous registration of emigrants makes it impossible to carry out a serious scholarly analysis of the emigration.(62)
Voblyi emphasizes in the introductory section his extensive use of foreign statistical sources. He also writes that the regions of the Empire which witnessed mass emigration from 1900 to 1904 were the Kingdom of Poland, Courland, Vitebsk, Minsk, and the Bessarabian provinces.
A similar use of United States statistical data on emigration from Russia can be found in the report of the Russian Consular Adrisor in Washington, D.C. This report analyzes U.S. data on emigrants from the Russian Empire, including a breakdown by "tribal composition" (plemennoi sostav). In this review, Belarusans are not mentioned but are subsumed under the term "Russians." (63)
While government publications, both English and Russian, did not distinguish Belarusans during the emigration period, other foreign-language publications-Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish—regularly noted the Belarusan presence in America.
The Ukrainian press recognized Belarusan immigrants in the United States as early as 1897. The first Ukrainian Calendai in the United States, dated 1897, said: "Belarusans came to the United States from the western provinces of Russia later than the Slovaks and Rusyns... Belarusans were mostly of the Orthodox Faith."(64)
A widely circulated Russian-language publication, Russko-Amerikanskii vestnik, questioned even the definition of the term "Russian."(65)
An editorial in the Russian-language bulletin, Russkii Vestnik, New York, wrote as follows in 1914:
The Russian immigration to America is the latest one, but it is moving in a broad wave. During the past twelve to thirteen years America's shores have received over 200,000 ethnic Russians, i.e., Great Russians, Little Russians, and Byelorussians...(66)
The Russian-American Handbook estimated in 1913 that "Russian" immigration, i.e., `Great-Byelo-Little Russians' numbered about 200, 000 persons.(67)
E. I. Omelchenko, in his analysis of "Russian" immigration to the United States, considers Great Russians and Belarusans together, and arrives at the total number of 139,000 as of July 1, 1917 which "is much lower than the repeatedly circulated number of 300,000, a number of an unknown provenance."(68)
Dr. Mark Vilchur, an authoritative and knowledgeable historian and scholar of the "Russian" immigration to the United States, himself a contemporary of that immigration, wrote in his book, Russians in America: "Mostly these were from the western provinces of the Empire... grodnentsy, minchane, and volyntsy, i.e., persons from the Grodno, Minsk, and Volyn provinces (i.e., Belarusans and Ukrainians, V.K.).(69) Vilchur also wrote about the problem of statistics concerning immigrants from the Russian Empire: "We will look in vain for an answer to the question—how many Russians are there in America-in the official statistics books. The last U.S. Census data do not reflect the real picture."(70) Vilchur then goes into an analysis of the cause of this situation and, through a variety of methods, using correspondence with different states, he attempts to arrive at a reasonable figure. According to Vilchur, as of 1918 there were between Ј00,000 and 700,000 "Russians" in the United States. He immediately qualified this number by saying that it also includes Jews, peoples from the Caucasus, Poles, and other nationalities who came from the Russian Empire, who speak Russian and, having become acculturated Russians, understandably considered themselves Russian. Vilchur also comments, regarding government statistics: "The official agencies which are dealing with the immigrants who came from Russia provide different estimates as to the number of them: usually they quote the triple-fold figure-100,000-300,000. However, many of the officials are of the opinion that over 400,000 immigrants from Russia live presently in the United States." In any case an old terminology was being used, i.e., Great Russians, Belarusans, and Little Russians are also counted and considered to be "Russians."(71)
Dr. Mark Vilchur headed the "Society for Studies or Russian Immigration" the first point on whose agenda was to "establish contact with the ethnic organizations of Ukrainians, Belarusans, Carpatho-Russians, and others and to obtain access to their archives, documentation, etc."(72) One can only applaud the Society's intentions. Unfortunately, nothing is known of the fate of this project.
An interesting series of articles authored by I. V. [identity unknown-V.K.] on the "History of the Russian Colony in Imerica" was published in the newspaper Novyi mir, New York, providing numerous important details on early Belarusans in New York City. One example:
The very first peasant from the North-Western Region, from tie Minsk province, came to America, to New York, in the early 1890s. He landed on American shores to search for `gold on tie streets' as he heard about America from his Jewish compatriots in the old country. Through his Jewish friends he got his first job in the garment industry. This peasant from the Minsk province opened his own shop and employed there his compatriots toward the end of the decade."(73)
E. D. Garin published an article on the history of the Russian immigration devoted largely to an analysis of statistical data from the U.S. Census of 1920. The 1920 Census places the number of Russians in the United States at 781,949 and the number of those oi Russian birth by parentage at 2,718,842. The Russian immigration reached its peak in the period between 1910 and 1914, according to Garin.(74)
Another author who analyzed available statistical data was V. D. Kazakevich. Following an extensive study of various data, he estimates that the Russian-Belarusan colony in the United States numbers between 200,000 and 300,000 persons, in his words, "so many Americans have their roots in Belarus and Great Russia. "(75)
An interesting remark about the "Russian" colony in Detroit was made in the editorial of a Russian language journal, Russkoye Obozrenie:
Our landsmen have their own restaurants where they eat. The names of these restaurants are Kiev, Odessa, and Minsk. From the names of these restaurants it is not too difficult to determine where these people came from. They came from Ukraine and from Belarus. There are almost no Great Russians in Detroit. But even the few dozen Great Russians who live in Detroit came only recently and they are called White Immigrants.(76)
The editorial estimates that there are about 40 to 50 thousand immigrants [in Detroit] from the former tsarist empire.
Daniil Kazushchik, a Belarusan by birth and a long-term influential leader of the organization known by its acronym, ARROV, wrote in the 30th anniversary journal of that organization:
The bulk of the Russian immigrants to the United States, about 300,000 of them, arrived between 1905 and 1914. This was an economic emigration and consisted mostly of impoverished, landless Belarusan and Ukrainian peasants from the western and south-western provinces of tsarist Russia."(77)
A similar idea was expressed earlier in the newspaper Novyi Mir:
The Russian colony in America is a mass of a half-million people russified in the czarist army, and partly Americanized Belarusan and Ukrainian peasants who came here to earn some money.(78)
A Russian-American activist, a contemporary of the mass emigration from Russia, Mr. Ivan Okuntzov, author of a lengthy descriptive monograph Russian Emigration in North and South America (Buenos Aires, 1967), totally ignores any differentiation in terms of nationality, and "dumps" into a very broad category of "Russian" Belarusans, Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns, Jews, various religious sects, etc.(79)
However, Mr. R. Polchaninov, a well-known Russian-American scholar, having roots in Belarus, recommends an urgent need for clarification of the terms "Russian"—"Russkii" and "Rossian"— "Rossiiskii" which in turn as he suggests will help to clarify and differentiate Great Russians from Belarusans, Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns, etc.(80) Nevertheless, the fact remains that no systematic analysis or study of Belarusan-Americans was ever made.
Research on Belarusan emigration to the United States or to any other country was at a zero point in what used to be Soviet Byelorussia, although marginally, here and there, some remarks and ideas were expressed.
However, some works on emigration of Soviet provenance should also be mentioned, although the Soviet Union was not a great producer of materials on emigration to the United States. From time to time, analyses appeared on Lithuanian, Russian, Ukrainian or other emigre groups, but virtually nothing substantive on Belarusan emigration. Not only did the Soviets fail to publish any research on Belarusan emigration, but in their works on emigration to the United States, they continued to use misleading imperial terminology, i.e., they use the term "Russian emigration" with the implication that this is a "Great Russian" emigration and not emigration from Belarus and Ukraine.
A typical example is the work by A. A. Bagramov, in which the author describes a colony in Sioux City, Iowa, of immigrants from the Kapyl region (Central Belarus-V.K). He calls them Russians, although they are one-hundred percent Belarusans.(81)
Another Soviet author, Sh. A. Bogina, mentions Belarusans within the context of the Russian group; she points out that Korolenko described a Belarusan emigrant in his novel but does not indicate that Nikolaj Sudzilouski-Russell was a Belarasan.(82)
Other Soviet books on the emigration to the United States devote no attention to Belarus, perpetuate the terminological mix-ups of the term "Russian," and concentrate mainly on socio-economic aspects of the immigrants and their contribution to the class struggle in America. These are works by V. E. Chirkin, A. M. Shlepakov, and L. I. Zubok.(83)
Among more recent titles dealing with the economic and political emigration from the Russian Empire which have some bearing on Belarusans are those by A. M. Chernenko (1989), and A. Eidintas (1989).
The monograph of A. M. Chernenko discusses the role and influence of Russian revolutionaries in the American labor movement. He mentions some activists who were born in Belarus—I. Hurvich, N. Sudzilouski-Russell—but does no research on the Belarusan dimension.(84)
Alphonas Eidintas has researched the Lithuanian emigration to the United States during the period from 1868 to 1940; unfortunately, he does not elaborate on the term "Russian" and seems to use it without qualification as a broadly inclusive term. He, however, notes that "prior to World War I, 41 percent of Russian emigrants left the country illegally without foreign passports."(85)
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia treats Belarusan emigration in very general terms. It says: "Several hundred thousand Belarusans live in Argentina, Uruguay, and other South American countries. There are no statistical data on Belarusans in the United States."(86)
Despite that, however, two works on emigration of Soviet provenance should be singled out as important research contributing to the topic of Belarusan emigration to the United States. One, the authoritative analysis by V. V. Obolensky, published in 1928; the other a relatively recent, 1986, monograph by N .L. Tudorianu.(87, 88)
Obolensky's study, although published over 65 years ago, still contains some valid information and sound ideas concerning Belarusan emigration to the United States.
First of all, this author opines that for several reasons, it would probably be impossible to arrive at a precise number of Belarusan (and other national groups) emigrants from the tsarist empire prior to World War I. Since foreign-travel passports were issued by the governors' offices of individual provinces, they would serve as the main source for statistics on emigration.* Unfortunately, statistical data on emigration abroad were not collected regularly; age, marital status, occupation, and country of destination were not recorded at all. Also lacking, understandably, were data on illegal emigrants, a group which was quite numerous. Obolensky writes also that Russian scholars of emigration often looked to foreign sources for data on Russian emigration but, regrettably, foreign immigration services were not concerned about accurately identifying the nationality of emigrants from the tsarist empire. Nevertheless, Obolensky's work provides some statistics and supplements his research with many documents pertinent to the question of nationalities. In one instance, for example, Obolensky cites the report of the governor of the Vilna province, stating that in 1910 emigration from this province reached sizable proportions and the emigrants were mostly Lithuanians and Belarusans of the Roman Catholic Faith. The same report also says that about 18,000 persons left the Vilna province between 1908 and 1910 and that the governor considered "this emigration one of the important cornerstones of the life in the province." The document reveals additionally that "the epidemics of emigration which spread over into the Minsk province, apparently prior to 1905, became extremely widespread and resulted in a labor shortage in the province by 1913."
As a consequence, numerous agents who specialized in illegal emigration were arrested during the winter of 1914. The spread of emigration continued nevertheless and, by 1914, had reached the Mogilev province. Obolensky concludes that the "Russian" emigration consisted primarily of Belarusans and Ukrainians during the period from 1907 to 1913 and deduces that the "Russian" emigration amounted to about 3,000,000 persons during the period from the 1860s to 1915. Jews constituted the largest contingent of this emigration, followed by Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusans, Russians, Lithuanians, Finns, and Germans. Obolenski gives the percentage for each nationality and, when translated into numerical terms, Belarusan emigration to the United States amounted to between 180,000 and 270,000 persons during that period of time.
N. L. Tudorianu's book is an extensive analysis of the economic emigration from the Russian Empire containing new data, references, and citations based on archival sources on emigration from Belarus prior to World War I. Tudorianu uses both Russian and foreign documents and summarizes new findings. Of importance to Belarusan research is the fact that in some of these documents, emigrants from the Empire were called Belarusans and not Russians or Poles. Thus, the governor of the Suvalki province (the extreme north-western part of Belarusan territory, V. K.) reported in 1910:
The emigration to America started gradually and increased before and during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. About 4,000 to 6,000 persons emigrated annually, although exact records of the emigrants were not kept. The emigrants ranged according to nationality as follows: Lithuanians and Poles, ; followed by Belarusans, Old Believers (ethnic Russians for the most part-V.K.), then finally Jews and Germans. (Tudorianu, p. 174-175)
A report of the governor of the Grodno province stated that:
Those who leave for jobs were mainly Belarusan-peasants, almost exclusively males in the age bracket from 18 to 40 years of age. (Tudorianu, p. 175)
An interesting remark concerning emigrants from the Russian Empire was made by the Russian Consul in Seattle and Nome (the states of Washington and Alaska, respectively, V.K.). The Consul filed a report with the Russian Ambassador in Washington in 1914 which said:
During the past five months of my presence here I have been able to meet people from most of the European and Asian provinces of Russia. Among the emigrants, one observes lately, many Belarusans and Malorussians (Ukrainians—V. K.). The Great Russians are mainly from Kursk, Riazan, and other provinces. One wonders how these people from "dreary gray villages" could get to America. Although Jews and Germans started the emigration from Russia, and these people left Russia for ever, Belarusans, Ukrainians, Russians, Armenians, Finns, Georgians, and others, considered the emigration as a temporary event. (Tudorianu, p. 177, 178)
Tudorianu emphasizes the economic aspects of the emigration from the Russian Empire, but, regrettably he does not focus on the problem of the nationality of the emigrants. He apparently accepts the term "Russian" as a designation of geographical provenance without any attempt to specify the ethnicity of the emigrants. In many ways his analysis of the nationalities of the emigrants repeats the points made by Obolensky, especially when he states that Belarusans and Ukrainians were included in the group labeled "Russians" and that an exact determination of the numbers of these emigrants would be extremely difficult if not impossible unless the ethnicity could be determined by specifying places of origin of the emigrants.
Tudorianu does not provide specific statistics on the nationalities who emigrated from the Russian Empire but he concludes that about 3,300,000 individuals emigrated from the Empire during the period from 1820 to 1916; and that, of the above number of emigrants, 2,651,000 came to America during the period from 1899 to 1916. He chooses to describe this time-frame as "the period of imperialism when the needs of the United States for cheap labor increased greatly." However, immediately following this allegation, the author states:
The nationality, social class, age, and sex of the emigrants from the Russian Empire prove that these people were searching for a better life in the United States; that these were ordinary working people—craftsmen, rural seasonal workers, and peasants-oppressed by misery. (Tudorianu, p. 185)
Some evidence about Belarusan emigration to the United States is found in recent Polish-language publications: Florian Stasik, states that among the "Polish immigrants to the United States were also Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Belarusans, and Lithuanians."(89)
An extensive survey of literature on social-demographic conditions in Belarus during the great emigration, i.e., the second half of the 19th century to 1939, was published by Oleg Latyszonek.(90)
o Belarusan-language Publications
Belarusan immigration/emigration to the United States was obviously examined in Belarusan publications of the time, as well as during the course of subsequent decades. Although these materials provide mostly a descriptive profile, attempts were made to analyze the causes of the emigration, the economic conditions of the "old" country, and the number of emigrants.
The pioneering efforts in this endeavor was made by the newspaper Nasa Niva, then the only legal newspaper in the Belarusan language. The editor and publisher of the newspaper, Ulasau, attempted to derive the number of Belarusan emigrants to the United States and figure out the financial impact that they could have produced on the domestic economy. Ulasau's approach was purely theoretical, but by using his parameters, one arrives at considerable financial assistance to the country in the form of incoming bank deposits, and at a number of emigrants in the range of between 700,000 and 750,000 persons, i.e., the number of Belarusan emigrants that went to the United States.(91)
Considerable attention to the emigration/immigration from and to Belarus, and the life of Belarusans in the diaspora was given by the newspaper Homan, an ideological successor to the newspaper Nasa Niva. Homan, however, emphasized mainly the political significance of immigrants.
Problems of Belarusan immigration to the United States were also touched on by Belarusan-American publications. The first Belarusan newspaper in the United States, The Whiteruthenian Tribune [Belorusskaia Tribuna] focused on terminology. Thus, the newspaper wrote:
How are we called in English? The English-speaking world refers to us either as White Ruthenia or White Russia. The first is more proper, because the second name may be understood not only as one relating to our country, but may imply Russia as a whole with the addition "White" (White Russia versus Red Russia, Soviet Russia). Under our name, the name of White Ruthenia implies Belaya Rus, or Belorussia and the correct and proper definition of our country is Belorus; its population-the Belorussian people.(92)
This newspaper devoted many articles to Belarusans in the United States and attempted to discuss and explain the presence of Belarusans in this country. Succinctly, it wrote in 1928:
... the "Russian" colony consists 99 percent of Belarusans. In fact, all the "Russian" organizations in Chicago, and for that matter in other American cities also, consist of Belarusans. Whether these people, i.e., the members of these organizations, are conscious Belarusans, is another matter. But undeniably these people are of Belarusan origin. This fact is indisputable.(93)
An important article, allegedly authored by J. Varonka, appeared on the "White Russian Day Program" in Chicago in 1930.
Many researchers estimate the number of Belarusans in the United States at about one million. Our feeling is that this number is too high. The number of Belarusans in the United States is most probably in the range of over one-half million. One should keep in mind "that in addition to so-called "Russians" (meaning "Russian Orthodox" immigrants who are in reality Belarusans of the Eastern Orthodox Faith), there are many immigrants of the Roman Catholic Faith who were counted as Poles, but they are in fact, Belarusans of the Roman Catholic Faith. Belarusans of the Eastern Orthodox Faith are russified and usually associated with the Russians. However, such an association, is groundless, is more terminological than ideological, because those Belarusans have nothing in common with the Russians. They sing Belarusan songs, and even when they have learned Russian songs, they sing them with Belarusan characteristics and accent. Belarusans of the Roman Catholic Faith are entirely absorbed by the Polonization process; only occasionally do they reveal tendencies to be separate from the Poles. The Russian-language newspapers, if only sporadically, discuss "the Belarusan problem." This "problem" does not surface in the Polish newspapers at all.
The Belarusan movement in the United States is very young, but it shows signs of vitality. Only recently the movements of the Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Flemings were also young. A young movement will grow. The Belarusan movement is on the rise in the homeland. The movement arises where there are prisons, terror, and oppression. But here in the United States we are freer than in the homeland.(94)
Varonka's article, ending on an enthusiastic note, is profound in its understanding and essentially correct in its exposition: the movement was young and was on the rise.
Articles on Belarusan-Americans began to appear in the homeland during the early 1920s. One of the first articles was a concise account of Belarusans in the United States by Sciapan Bubeshka which was published in a school textbook in Vilna.(95)
During the 1920s and 1930s, dozens of articles and news items about Belarusans in the U.S. were published in textbooks, newspapers, and magazines in West Belarus, Lithuania, and Latvia. While these materials cannot be considered research materials strictu sensu, they constitute important sources for studying Belarusan-Americans.
A lengthy survey of Belarusans in the United States, with considerable specific data, including names, was published in the newspaper Ranica in Berlin in 1940.(96)
Belarusans in the United States received some coverage in Soviet Belarus as well. One would expect that the relationship between the diaspora and the homeland would take a normal, amicable course. The Soviet media constantly repeated the cliche that the emigrants from Belarus were the poorest of the poor. Curiously, however, by the end of the 1920s, the Soviet authorities had become hostile toward their emigrants' new homeland. This reflected the party line from the very top, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the B. S. S. R. The press and radio coverage moved beyond negativity to hostility and slander. This tenor remained for some years to come. The Soviet regime showed no inclination whatsoever to pursue serious research on any question relating to the diaspora communities.
The situation concerning research on Belarusan-Americans changed after World War II. First of all, the new Belarusan immigration to the United States began regular documentation of Belarusan activities in the periodical press, and produced numerous research articles and publications dealing with Belarusan-Americans, both in Belarusan and English.
On the other hand, the attitude toward Belarusans in the United States also modified in the home country: the Soviets started to differentiate emigrants. The "bad guys" were those who came to the United States after World War II; the "good guys" were the "old" immigrants, i.e., those who came to America prior to World War I. Such differentiation is documented in literary writings, in which one can find numerous interesting facts about the American way of life. But at the same time one can find here and there pieces of information useful for research of Belarusan immigration to this country. Thus, some information on Belarusan emigration to the United States can be found in the analyses of A.N. Peshkova and V.D. Selemenieu, although this topic has a secondary place in their research. A. N. Peshkova finds that most of the Belarusan emigrants who went to the Americas originated in the Grodno province. She concludes that during the 50 years preceding the October Revolution, about 1,500,000 Belarusans migrated to the East (i.e., to the Siberian lands, V. K.) and that during the 19 years preceding World War I, the eastern provinces of Belarus (i.e., the Minsk, Mogilev, and Vitebsk provinces, V.K.) supplied about 20,000 emigrants who crossed the ocean. Consequently, the loss of Belarusan population to emigration resulted in lower demographic growth in Belarus.(97)
V.D. Selemenau examines the causes of agrarian overpopulation in Belarus, and states that "prior to World War I, about 800,000 Belarusans emigrated to America, of whom 600,000 could be considered seasonal workers."(98)
Research on seasonal workers, agricultural labor surplus, demographic analyses, and the development of industry in Belarus are the topics in which one encounters here and there notes and remarks about emigration of Belarusans to the Americas. Unfortunately, no separate research on Belarusan emigration to the United States was done prior to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when some works begin to appear, and constitute significant contributions to the subject.(99)
o A Few Remarks About Statistics
Official data supplied by the U. S. Immigration Service or the Bureau of the Census can not be used because they did not differentiate the Belarusan group within the context of such rubrics as "Russian," "Polish," "Slavic," etc.
However, in 1980, the U. S. Census began to list the Belarusan group separately, 7,381 persons, and conveyed to this author that the Census Office has data on Belarusans from previous censuses under various names, viz., White Russians, Belorussians, and Byelorussians. Unfortunately, because of bureaucratic rules and regulations, these data on Belarusans have never surfaced in print.(100)
The lack of official data has not prevented scholars from deriving and computing numbers of Belarusan emigration/ immigration by various methods and techniques, and arriving at usable results. The numbers pertaining to Belarusan immigrants which have appeared in print are far from uniform or precise, but in this author's opinion, they do reveal the extent of the migratory process. The causes for numerical differences are several, but the major one is the definition of the Belarusan administrative territory on which the origin of the immigrants was based.
Aleksandr Ulasau, the editor and publisher of the newspaper Nasa Niva, proposed a method of approximating the sum of money that Belarus could receive from the immigrants to America, thus providing a basis for estimating how many Belarusan emigrants there were in the United States at that time. By using Ulasau's method for calculating the number of Belarusan immigrants to America, one arrives at a figure of 700,000 to 750,000 persons who came to America during 1900 to 1912-13.(101)
An American, New York-based Russian-language newspaper, Russkii Emigrant, May 23, 1913, contemporaneous to emigration and a semi-official organ of the Russian authorities in the United States, published a report on emigration from the Northwestern Territory of the Russian State, which states that "according to the data collected by the Director of the Emigration Bureau in Vilna, Mr. A. Ofrosimov, during the past 10 years over 1,500,000 persons emigrated from this region, of which Belarusans count about 700,000 emigrants."(102)
By using Obolensky's calculations, one derives the number of Belarusan immigrants to the United States at between 180,000 and 270,000 persons. The low number of Belarusan immigrants in this case might be explained by the fact that Obolensky certainly did not use Belarusan ethnographic territory for his calculations^ 103)
The Council of the Belarusan Democratic Republic estimates that about 500,000 Belarusan immigrants settled in the United States prior to World War II; and an additional 50,000 to 100,000 Belarusans came to the United States after World War 11.(104)
A Russian-American scholar, Mr. W. Alexeev estimates "that there are about 300 to 400 thousand White Russians in America."(105)
The Common Council for American Unity estimates the number of Belarusan immigrants in the United States at between 300,000 and 400,000 persons.(106) The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups states that Belarasans in the United States number between 175,000 and 200,000.(107)
Recent Belarusan scholars, V.P. Paniutich and V.D. Selemenieu, agree with Belarusan Academician Shcharbakou, who arrived at the figure of 800,000 for the total of Belarusan immigrants to the United States prior to World War 11.(108) An authoritative Soviet Belarusan demographer, A.A. Rakau, estimates that during the 1920s Belarusan immigrants to the United States accounted for "several hundred thousand" persons.(109)
The number of Belarusan immigrants to America can be derived from Soviet sources by a different route, which is the following. A number of reference books on the economic development of Soviet Byelorussia state that "Belarus lost to emigration 1.8 million people during the half-century prior to the October Revolution."(110) A very widely-used geography textbook of the Byelorussian S.S.R. writes that "prior to the revolution, 1.4 million Belarusan emigrants went to Siberia, other parts of Russia, and abroad."(111) A survey of the Belarusan economy, published in 1957, provides the following data: "The total number of emigrants from Belarus during the fifty years preceding the revolution is l,387,000."(112) This number-1,387,000—is also repeated in other publications, including standard party texts.(113)
As is evident, although the numbers vary, they are generally of the same order of magnitude. Thus, one can use a round number, as an approximation of 1,500,000 Belarusans who left Belarus during the period from the 1860s to the outbreak of World War I.
Another consistent and, one can assume, reasonably accurate set of numbers which surface in print in various publications are the numbers of Belarusan emigrants to Siberia during the period from the 1830s to 1914. The Belarusan Soviet Encyclopedia states that 716,600 persons emigrated from Byelorussia to Siberia during the period from 1896 to 1912.(114) P. D. Vereshchagin, in his numerous authoritative studies of Belarusan peasant emigration to Siberia, asserts that about 550,000 Belarusans emigrated to Siberia between the years 1885 and 1915.(115). Therefore, again, a round average number of emigrants to Siberia would be approximately 633,000 persons. Working with these two sets of numbers—lacking original statistical data, such an approach is seemingly justifiable—one obtains: the number of Belarusan emigrants to America by simple subtraction, i.e., in the range from 850,000 to 900,000.
These data, assembled from various non-primary sources, include most probably the emigration to the United States, Canada, and South America. However, this fact does not change our reasoning much, because emigration to other regions was small when compared with the flow to the United States, numbering in the tens of thousands maximum. The number of re-emigrants—those who returned to Belarus during the decade prior to and following World War I—is calculated at approximately one-fourth to one-third, or 215,000 to 300,000 persons. (116)*
Consequently, the number of Belarusans who became permanent residents of the United States prior to World War I is in the range of 550,000 to 650,000 persons.
The Belarusan contingent of emigrants between the wars is small, only a few thousand, and the number of Belarusan emigrants who came after World War II, estimated by the Belarusan National Committee, is about 50,000 to 55,000 persons.(117) In conclusion, the total number of Belarusan immigrants who settled permanently in the United States is in the range of between 600,000 and 650,000 persons. It must be under-scored and understood, that this is an approximation based on scattered published data. By using such a number, the present objective is only to alert the students of Belarusans in America to the dimensions of the Belarusan emigration to the United States. A more precise and scientifically correct figure may emerge in the future when this topic is further researched, as new techniques and new technologies make that possible, and further archival documents become available. To many readers and students, the figure of 600-650,000 will be surprising. However, this number is about of the same magnitude as the number derived by the method proposed by A. Ulasau, Academician Shcharbakou, and the estimate of the Council of the Belarusan Democratic Republic. This figure is nevertheless manifestly in disagreement with the number of Belarusans as recorded by the U. S. Censuses of 1980 and 1990. Yet, one has to bear in mind that the officials in the Immigration/Statistical bureaucracy of the U. S. ruled long ago that "White Russians are not recorded separately as an immigrant group" (Op. cit., 14, Dictionary of Races and Peoples, 1911, U.S. Immigration Commission, p.113-114).
Unfortunately, this bureaucratic injustice prevailed until the 1980s, when Belarusans began to appear in official U.S. statistics. Granting that this official number is incorrect and misleading, its appearance is a victory for Belarusan-Americans. After all, it has not been easy to reclaim Belarusan ethnicity, especially when the great-grandparents of present Americans of Belarusan descent were classified and described as "Russians," "White Russians," "others," "various Russian groups," "miscellaneous," "Russian immigrants from the extreme western parts of Russia," "Russians who don't speak the ordinary Russian tongue," "tribal types," "non-proper Russians," "non-real Russians," "a peculiar type of Russian," "undetermined affinities," "peculiar nationality," "Pollacks," "Poles," "Slavic," "Russian-Lithuanians," and other epithets scattered through ethnic literature. What an imaginative and "impressive" array of "synonyms."
One must deal with this issue philosophically. The numbers, the data, the official statistics are unquestionably important. But more important is the fact that for decades an entire European nation was ignored, mislabeled, and thrust into non-existence because of bureaucratic processes; and now this nation, a vital and significant part of the American mosaic, is making an attempt to reclaim a crucial portion of its American heritage: its authentic ethnic identity.
o NOTES
1. V. Kipel, "The Early Byelorussian Presence in America," Zapisy, 17 (1983): 113.
2. A. McLaughlin, "The Slavic Immigrant," Popular Science Monthly, 63 (May-Oct. 1903): 25.
3. "The Slav in America, the Second of Charities Studies of `Strangers Within the Gates'," Charities, 13 (Dec. 1904): 189.
4. "Mary Buell Sayles," Charities, 13 (Dec. 1904): 257.
5. К. Н. Claghorn, "Slavs, Magyars and Some Others in the New Immigration," Charities, 13 (Dec. 1904): 200.
6. Claghorn, Op. cit., 201.
7. Claghorn, Op. cit., 202.
8. America's Making. A Civic Festival and Exhibition of Three Centuries of Contributions to American Progress (New York: New York State and City Dept. of Education, 1921), 7.
9. J. R. Commons, Races and Immigrants in America (New York, The Macmillan Co., 1907), 87.
10. E. G. Balch, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York: Charities Publications Committee, 1910), 277.
11. E.G. Balch. Op. cit, 278.
12. С. D. Buck, A Sketch of the Linguistic Conditions in Chicago (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, The Decennial Publications, First Series, vol. VI, 1904), 6-7.
13. P. K. Metzler, "The People of Detroit, 1889," Bulletin of the Detroit Historical Society, Jan. 1964, 12.
14. Dictionary of Races or Peoples (Washington, D.C.: The Immigration Commission, 1911), 113.
15. S. Bernardo, The Ethnic Almanac (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1981), 53.
16. R. Boeckh, "The Determination of Racial Stock Among American Immigrants," American Statistical Association, New Series, 76 (Dec. 1906): 201.
17. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 1975), s.v. "Nasielnictva."
18. J. F. Warne, The Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1904), 102.
19. Mrs. Mary Kraus, Scranton, Pa., interview with author, Scranton, Oct. 25, 1989. The notes of the interview are kept in the files of the Belarusan Institute in New York.
20. D. L. Miller and R. E. Sharpless, The Kingdom of Coal (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), 171-72.
21. E. A. Ross, "The Slavs in America," The Century Magazine, 84(4), 1914: 597-598.
22. L\ Hodges, Slavs on Southern Farms; An Account (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Senate, Doc. 595, 1914), 21.
23. С. В. Pallen, ed., A Memorial to Andrew J. Shipman (New York: Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 1916), 162-81.
24. J. Davis, The Russians and Ruthenians in America (New York: George H. DoranCo., 1922), 20.
25. J. Davis, The Russian Immigrant (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1922), 9-10.
26. F. Hess, High Adventure (New York: Council of Women for Home Missions, 1925), 119.
27. K. D. Miller, Peasant Pioneers. An Interpretation of the Slavic Peoples in the United States (New York: Council of Women for Home Missions, 1925), 13.
28. M. R. Davie, World Immigration (New York: Macmillan, 1936), 136.
29. F. J. Brown and J. S. Roucek, Our Racial and National Minorities (New York: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1937), 203.
30. V. V. Obolensky, Mezhdunarodnye i mezhkontinentalnye migratsii v dovoyennoi Rossii i SSSR (Moskva: TsSU SSSR, 1928).
31. Pamyatnaya Kniga Grodnenskoi Gubernii (Grodno, 1905), 83.
32. Dakumenty i Materialy pa historyi Belarusi (Minsk: Akademiia Navuk BSSR, v. 2, 1940), 613.
33. V. K. Paniutich, К voprosu о roste otkhodnichestva (Minsk, 1963), 47-54.
34. С. Wittke, We Who Built America (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1939), 420, 427.
35. America's Making..., 7.
36. L. Adamic, A Nation of Nations (New York: Harper Bros., 1945), 154.
37. S. Konig, Immigrant Settlements in Connecticut, Their Growth and Characteristics (Hartford, Conn.: Connecticut State Dept. of Education, 1938), 43-44.
38. E. Abbott, Immigration Select Documents and Case Records (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1924), 254.
39. H. G. Wells, "The Russian Language in the United States," Mercury, April 1932, 448-450.
40. Petr Stepanovsky, Correspondence, May 7, 1932, Baltimore, MD., Pratt Library, H. L. Mencken Room, File Box #AL-29.
41. H. P. Fairchild, Immigrant Backgrounds (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1927), 213-214.
42. A. Parry, "Artists of Wrecking," Esquire, April 1936, 48.
43. Y. Chyz and J. S. Roucek, "The Russians in the United States," The Slavonic and East European Review, 17(51), April 1939, 638, 645.
44. V. S. Vlahovic, сотр., ed., Manual Slavonic Personalities; Past and Present (New York: Slavonic Press, 1940), 96.
45. Slavonic Encyclopedia (New York: Philosophical Library, 1949), s.v. "Slavs."
46. Byelorussian-Americans (New York: Common Council for American Unity, March 1951), 3-4.
47. Communist Takeover and Occupation of Byelorussia. (Washington, D.C.: Select Committee on Communist Aggression, Special Report, H. Res. 346 and 348, 1955).
48. N. Eubank, The Russians in America (Minneapolis, MN.: Lerner Publishers, 1973), 2.
49. P. R. Magocsi, The Russian Americans (New York: Chelsea House Publications, 1989), 41.
50. M. W. Tripp, Russians Routes: Origins and Development of an Ethnic Community in San Francisco (San Francisco: San Francisco State University, 1981), 77.
51. B. Johnston, Russian-American Social Mobility (Saratoga, CA.: Century Twenty-One Publishing, 1981).
52. E. R. Kaltovich, "Roebling's Ethnology of Two Minority Groups," (Master's Thesis, Rutgers University, 1977), 4, 10-11.
53. V. Czartorysky and R. Mardarewich, Byelorussians in America (New York: City College, CUNY, 1975), 20.
54. M. P. Survilla. "Music and identity: Byelorussians making music in North America," (Master's Thesis, The University of Michigan, 1990).
55. M. Pap, Ethnic Communities of Cleveland (Cleveland: John Carroll University, 1973), 67-73. V. Kipel, "Byelorussians in New Jersey," In: The New Jersey Ethnic Experience (Union City, N.J., 1977), 88-107. V. Kipel, Byelorussian-Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland (Cleveland: Cleveland State University, 1982). V. and Z. Kipel, "Byelorussian Theatre in U.S.," In: M. Seller, Ethnic Theatre in the United States (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983), 67-100.
56. T. J. Archdeacon, Becoming American (New York: The Free Press, 1983), 125-27.
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59. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1980 (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Released June 1, 1983).
60. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Census of Population, 1990, Detailed Ancestry Groups for States, October 1992).
61. S. N. Gerber, Russkoya Celo (New York: AMS Press, 1985).
62. K. G. Voblyj, Zaatlanticheskaia emigratsiia (Varshava, 1904), 46-51.
63. Izvestiia Ministerstva Inostrannykh Del, Konsulskie Doneseniia, kniga VI (St. Petersburg, 1914), 117-135.
64. Pershi Russko-Amerikanskii Kalendar (Mt. Carmel, PA.: Svoboda, 1897), 49.
65. "Koloniia" [in Russian], Russko-Amerikanskii Vestnik, 1978, 3:20.
66. "Editorial" [in Russian], Russkii Vestnik, 1(6): 1 (1914).
67. Russko-Amerikanskii Spravochnik (New York: Russkoye Slovo, 1913), 127.
68. E. I. Omelchenko, Finansovo-ekonomicheskoye polozhenie Soyedinennykh Shtatov v 1917 godu (New York: Novyi Mir, 1918), 87-98.
69. M. Vilchur, Russkie v Amerike (New York, 1918), 12.
70. M. Vilchur, V amerikanskom gornile (New York, 1914), 11-12.
71. M. Vilchur, "Zachatki russkikh kolonii" [in Russian], Vestnik Ameriki, 2(6): 12(1918).
72. "Note" [in Russian], Nauka i Zhizn, 15: 31 (1924).
73. I. V. "Istoriia Russkoi Kolonii v Amerike" [in Russian], Novyi Mir, Dec. 4, 1926.
74. E. D. Garin, "America's Russians" [in English], Russkii Golos, Nov. 6, 1927.
75. V. D. Kazakevich, "Stolko russkikh" [in Russian], Novyi Mir, Apr. 6, 1936.
76. "Russkaia koloniia" [in Russian], Russkoe Obozrenie, Aug. 1928.
77. Iubilejnyj Sbornik (New York: ARROV, 1950), 10-25.
78. Novyi Mir, New York, 26, 1926.
79. I. K. Okuntzov, Russkaya emigratsiia v Severnoi i Iuzhnoi Amerike (Buenos Aires: Seyatel, 1967).
80. R. Polchaninov, "Rossiiane" [in Russian], Novoye Russkoye Slovo, May 7, 1978.
81. A. A. Bagramov, Immigranty v SSha (Moskva, 1957).
82. Sh. A. Bogina, Immigrantskoye naselenie SSha (Moskva, 1976). 276 p.
83. V. E. Chirkin, Diskriminatsiia natsionalnykh menshinstv v SShA (Moskva, 1958). M. Shlepakov, Immigratsiia i amerikanskii rabochii klass v epokhu imperialisma (Moskva, 1966). L. I. Zubok, Ocherki istorii rabochego dvizheniia v SShA, 1865-1918 (Moskva, 1962).
84. A. M. Chernenko, Rossiiskaia revoliutsionnaia emigratsiia v Amerike (konetsXIXv.-l917) (Kiev, 1989).
85. A. Eidintas, Litovskaia emigratsiia v strany Severnoi i Yuzhnoi Ameriki v 1868-1940 gg. (Vilnius, 1989), 47.
86. Bolshaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia (Moskva, 1925), s.v. "Belorussy".
87. V. V. Obolenskii-Osinskii, Mezhdunarodnye i mezhkontinental'nye migratsii v dovoyennoi Rossii i SSSR (Moskva, 1928), 5-9, 21-27, 59-74, 132-133. Published in English as: V. V. Obolensky-Osinski, Emigration and Immigration into Russia (Washington, D.C.: Publications of the National Bureau of Economic Research, no. 18, International Migrations, vol. 1, 1929).
88. N. L. Tudorianu, Ocherki rossiiskoi trudovoi emigratsii. (Kishenev: Shtiintsa, 1986).
89. F. Stasik, Polska emigracja zarobkowa w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki 1865-1914 (Warszawa, 1985), 47.
90. O. Latyszonek, "Problematyka spoleczno-demograficzna ziem bialoruskich. Studia Historyczne," Studia Historyczne, 4(1988): 613-24.
91. V. Kipel, "Nasa Niva i emihracyja," Zapisy, 19(1989): 66-96).
92. "White Ruthenia or White Russia," Belorusskaia Tribuna, Apr. 30, 1929.
93. "V Chicago?," Belorusskaia Tribuna, Oct. 20, 1928.
94. White Russian Day Program, Chicago, Feb. 16, 1930.
95. S. Bubeshka, "Zyccio bielarusau u Amerycy," In Rodny Kraj. (Vilnia, 1921), 197-98.
96. M. Zinuk, "Bielarusy u Amerycy," Ranica, Apr. 28, July 14, 1940.
97. A. N. Peshkova, "Rol emigratsii," Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, Geografiia, 3(1968): 149-51.
98. V. D. Selemenau, "Da pytannia ab historyi," Vestnik Bielaruskaha Dziarzaunaha Universytetu, 2(1978): 13-17.
99. S. Matiunin, "Emigratsii," Sem Dnej, 13(1990).
100. Correspondence between the author and the U. S. Census Bureau, Sept. 26, 1982.
101. A. Ulasau, "Ab emihracyi," Nasa Niva, 3(1911), 4(1913).
102. "Statistika," Russkii Emigrant, May 23, 1913.
103. V. V. Obolenskii-Osinskii, Mezhdunarodnye..., 132.
104. Memorandum of the Council of the Byelorussian Democratic Republic, Osterhofen, Germany, 1947.
105. W. Alexeev, manuscript of an article "Russians in U.S." stored at the Immigration History Research Center, St. Paul, MN, dated 1927.
106. Byelorussian-Americans (New York: Common Council for American Unity, March 1951), 2.
107. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), 181.
108. V. P. Paniutich, Iz istorii formirovaniia proletariata Belorussii, 1861-1914 (Minsk, 1969), 21.
109. A. Rakov, Naselenie BSSR (Minsk, 1969), 83.
110. Ekonomika Sovetskoi Belorusii, 1917-1967 (Minsk, 1967), 21.
111. Belorusskaia SSR (Moskva, 1957), 73.
112. Narodnoye Khoziaistvo Belorussii za 40 let (Minsk, 1957), 20.
113. S. K. Erygin and F. D. Ryzhenko, Leninskaia programma (Moskva, 1959), 105.
114. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 1973), vol. 7, 170.
115. P. D. Vereshchagin, Krestianskiepereseleniia (Minsk, 1978), 4. P. D. Vereshchagin, Iz istorii agrarnykh migratsii (Minsk, 1978), 71-72.
116. The Orthodox Church in America, Dept. of History and Archives. Syosset, N.Y., Immigrants Home, Essays on Immigration, 1915; code: XI, 1-4.
117. Byelorussian National Committee, West Germany, Regensburg-Osterhofen, Archives: Memoranda File, 1948.
Chapter II: Some Ethnic Characteristics of Belarusans
The turbulent historical past which caused Belarusans to emigrate also created enormous difficulties in studying Belarusans in the diaspora. Misleading and confusing terminology, the acculturation of Belarusans by neighboring cultures, the dearth of even erroneous official statistical data—these are just a few of the obstacles facing researchers and scholars.
Although it might seem at first blush as though the Belarusan heritage in the United States is a "lost colony," that is not the case. When Belarusans came here, they had specific ethnic-national characteristics. They worked here, left descendants, and contributed to the growth of the country. Their contribution is not lost: evidence of it is all around us. Authentic Belarusica is often fitted out in different wrapping, mislabeled, and hence, not recognized. There are internal and external factors of mis-identification. From outside, Belarusan-Americans are aware that the American public has not, until recently, had an opportunity to be aware of Belarus as a separate national entity; has not had a clear notion of where the country is located, or where it fits into the Eastern European scene. From within himself, the average Belarusan-American has been cautious about claiming his national identity, aware that it can easily be misunderstood as "some kind of Russian." Added to this is the regrettable fact that many fourth, third, and even second generation Belarusan-Americans are themselves unclear about where their forebears came from. Despite all these complications, the Belarusan heritage has endured, and, with the emergence of the Republic of Belarus, more descendants of Belarusan background are pursuing their genealogy, acquainting themselves with the land of their forefathers and mothers, and reappropriating their national heritage. Thus, common sense shows that when one unwraps this, and labels it properly, the Belarusan heritage appears.
The Belarusan situation in America is in some ways comparable to that of Italian-Americans whose great-grandparents came to these United States thinking of themselves as Genoese, Venetian, Milanese, or Sicilian, and, owing to subsequent political events became "Italians." When the mass emigration from Belarus was taking place and immigrants were coming to this country, they called themselves "Grodnentsy," "Minskiia," "Vitebskiia," "Vilenskiia," i.e., people coming from the Grodno, Minsk, Vitebsk, and Vilna provinces, respectively. The overwhelming majority of them had no clear concept of nationality, no state that they could call their own. As has been mentioned, this enormous influx of immigrants from eastern Europe was called simply "immigrant masses from Russia." However, during the ensuing political developments, a new political entity was established, termed Belarus. Belarus as a state included the birthplaces of all these immigrants and consequently, using present terminology, they would be called "Belarusans." So should their descendants be called "Belarusan-Americans." For the sake of objectivity and historical truth, the mistakes of the past should be corrected.(l)
Regardless of officialdom's classification of these immigrants by nationality, regardless of the degree of their acculturation, Polonization or Russification, their intellectual level, etc. they maintained their Belarusan ethnic characteristics which could not be erased or altered; characteristics which were deep-seated in the historical development of the nation.
We will briefly look at some Belarusan characteristics that are still preserved and observable in Belarusan-Americans.
o Belarusan Surnames
Ethnic origin is frequently recognized in the United States by one's surname. Although exceptions can be found, names such as Cohen, Straszewski, Tufaro, Chung, Wu, etc. will normally be assumed to indicate a generally recognizable ethnic origin. The average American is usually quite adept at making such determinations, almost without thinking about it, automatically identifying a person's background as Jewish, Polish, Italian, Chinese, or some other ethnicity.
However, when it comes to Belarusans, the average American at best would ask whether there are names that are distinctly Belarusan; or a name would be pronounced in the Polish or Russian manner, on the assumption that it would be close. Obviously, typical Belarusan surnames do exist, but in America one is not aware of them. Such a name as Kalosha, Burbiel, Kresla, Sienka, Mickievich, Savionak, Barsuk, Kaubasa, Kalada, and hundreds of others are typically Belarusan, but are not generally recognized as such because of a lack of familiarity about Belarus in general. It requires sensitivity to things Belarusan to identify names from that culture. Undeniably, many Belarusan surnames are similar to, or have Slavonic roots in common with Polish, Russian, or Ukrainian surnames. Similarly, many surnames of those nationalities are close to Belarusan provenance, especially those of geographical derivation, such as Minski, Pinski, Slutski, or Vitebski.
Local geographic names provided the basis for numerous Belarusan surnames, many of which have been adopted by Jewish families originating in Belarus. These include such names as Alshanski, Babrujski, Bychauski, Homelski, Hlybotski, Mahilouski, Mazyrski, Slonimski, Vilenski, Zarechny, and many others.
Those Belarusans who lived on the borders of Belarusan territories have surnames which often show Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, or Ukrainian influences; but the converse is also true. The names of many Lithuanians, Latvians, and Russians often reveal Belarusan influences.
Quite understandably, Belarusan surnames reflect the historical development of the nation. In written form, they were often polonized or russified, because official documents issued variously by the Russian and Polish administrations transcribed Belarusan names according to the phonetics and orthographic rules of those two languages, often disguising their Belarusan identity. Typically Belarusan names such as Varatnicki, Bartasevic, or Budzilovic are thus spelled in the Russian or Polish manner: Worotnitskii, Bartoszewicz, or Budzilowicz. The clear possibility of deliberately russifying (or polonizing) Belarusan surnames did not fade away in 1993.(2) Since this spelling implied that the bearer was a Pole or a Russian, it is easy to understand how proper national identification became confused.
Studies about Belarusan surnames, place names, and related nomenclature are numerous, including a very authoritative work by the late Professor Boris Unbegaun, Russian Surnames, which contains an extensive chapter on Belarusan surnames.(3)
Unbegaun groups Belarusan surnames into several categories, based on linguistic features typical of the Belarusan language, but not characteristic of other, neighboring Slavic languages, such as Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. He stresses repeatedly that it is often not an easy task to define precisely different Slavic names as typical of one or another Slavic people because there are many common characteristics and derivations of surnames shared by several of them.
One of the largest groups of Belarusan surnames derives from baptismal names which are common in Belarus. This group is divided into several subgroups on the basis of morphological linguistic features. These surnames are often constructed with the addition of the suffixes "ou, eu, au, iau." Names include Haponau, Jakubau, Kastusiou, Kazimirau, Suprunou and Tamashou. A more characteristically Belarasan group is made up of names with the suffix "ionak, -onak," e.g., Jakubionak, Kastusionak, Samusionak, and Tamashonak. Another derives from Christian names in their Belarasan form such as Hapon, Jakub, Kastus, Kazimir, Samus, Suprun, and Tamash. The most typical Belarusan surnames, however, are those with the suffixes "-ovich, -ievich." Russian family names do not use these suffixes. Neither do Polish or Ukrainian surnames. These are names such as Hapanovich,, which derives from the name "Hapon" (in Ukrainian, Gapanovich); Trachimovich, formed from the name Trachim (Trochym in Ukrainian); Citovich, from the name Cit (Tyt in Ukrainian); Zmitrovich, from Zmitra (Dmytro in Ukrainian, Dmiter in Russian); or Mickievich, from the diminutive Micka, Zmicier, the full form. Unbegaun makes the following statement about the name Mickievich: "The surname of the Polish poet Mickiewicz is unmistakably of White Russian origin." (4). He cites as typical Belarusan surnames the following: Atrachovich, Banasevich, Butrymovich, Chadasevich, Chrystanovich, Darashkevich, Jakimovich, Levanovich, Pashkievich, Radkievich, Radzievich, Semianovich, Stankievich, Takarevich, and Zhauniarovich. He generalizes that surnames in -ovich/-evich seem to be more typical for the White Russian than for the Ukrainian group. Examples of those ending' in "-enak/-onak" are Kavalonak, Stelmashonak, and Zalataronak. Variations are Kavalienia and Liashchenia.
Yet another sub-group of surnames deriving from baptismal names are those ending in "-enka." For example, Anuprenka, Asipenka, Vasilchanka. Sometimes these names end in "-enko;" when this occurs it is difficult to differentiate them from Ukrainian surnames.
Certain Belarasan surnames are based on diminutives. Names such as Achremchyk, Adamienia, Alaksiejchyk, Astapienia, Danilchyk, Dzianisienia, or Haradziejchyk, Perrasienia, and Varvarshenia, or Haurylchyk, Naumchyk, and Sauchyk.
Other Belarasan surnames end in -uk/-juk,-chuk: Astapchuk, Klimuk, Levaniuk, Maksiumiuk, Piatrak, Zmitruk. Another group ends in -ski/-cki: Arciuchouski, Jakubouski, Liavonski, Simanouski, Zmitrouski, Zubkouski.
Many Belarusan surnames derive from occupational names: Alejnik, Dziak, Hrabar, Kaval, Launik, Muliar, Pilnik, Pisar, Rolnik, Shkliar, Smaliar, Sudnik, Sukach, and Zaprudnik.
Nicknames are the source of a number of typically Belarasan surnames, among the most common of which are Babovich (bean), Kamarovich (mosquito), Krylovich (wing), Mirovich (peace), Zhuchkievich, Zhukievich, Zhukovich, and Zhuk (all deriving from the word zhuk, beetle). In the course of the immigration process and the many bureaucratic procedures involved, a good number of typically Belarasan names were modified and changed entirely. The most significant changes took the form of truncation: Niesciarovich to Nestor, Kuchynski to Kuch. Sometimes as attempt was made to create a more Anglo-Saxon sounding name: Mikula was altered to Maccula, Ilaryion became Hillary, for example. In cases where the meaning of a name was keenly felt, it might be translated: Kaval as Smith, Biahun as Runner, Vazovy as Tracker. However, the changes were often made at random, without any specific system. Thus the name Vincuk Skorb became Vincent Smith(5), Shcherbashevich became Sarbuk(6), Panko became Panus, Kanrad Sidarchuk became John Bock.(7) In a few instances, the rassification was obvious even in this country. Thus, Paval Kachan became Kachanov(8), etc. The tradition of name changing at random continues even to the present. (9)
Such changes as these, it is clear, are not confined to the Belarusans. They occur among all immigrant groups. In the case of older Belarusan immigrants, the changes were made for the most part at the port of entry by the immigration authorities, while the immigrants of the post-World War II period changed their surnames by themselves in most cases.
Belarusan surnames in the United States constitute an area for further research. However, it bears repeating that the major problem facing the researcher who will seek to identify Belarusan surnames is the fact that most of them were written in a polonized or russified form because of the passports, which suggest one of those nationalities. This makes it difficult to identify the bearer who was Belarusan. (10)
o National Costume
The most visible and expressive Belarasan folk art is found in national apparel—in weaving and embroidery—where the predominant colors are red, white, black, and occasionally green. Symmetry and geometric designs are the most characteristic features of Belarusan decorative pattern.
The Belarusan folk costume that has developed as a result of long and complicated processes in the nation's material and spiritual cultures, strongly reflects the specific features of the nation. It varies from one part of the country to another. However, the main elements of the costume and its simplicity remain essentially unchanged in the home country as well as in the United States.
A woman's holiday dress of home-spun (now, all are factory-made) material consists of: a white linen blouse, always ornamented with embroidery or woven design, red and black its prevalent colors; an apron, usually of white linen with embroidery and adorned with hand-crocheted lace, but sometimes of colored stripes or plaid linen or cotton; a long pleated skirt, called andarak, of colorful woolen material, with either a solid, striped, or plaid pattern. A vest, laced or buttoned in the front, called kharset, which is tightly fitted, flattering to the figure, often with slits from the waist down. A headdress completes the costume. The girls wear coronets, head-bands; the married women put on namitki, a head-towel of embroidered linen, intricately tied around the head. A khustka, a kerchief or babushka, is often used as a headdress. Strings of beads are worn around the neck.
The man's costume is composed of linen trousers and a shirt. The shirt is long, embroidered, and always worn with a hand-woven colorful belt or sash. A waistcoat is often put on over the shirt. The ensemble is completed with a straw hat, or a felt cap, called maherka. The warm outdoor clothing is a woolen overcoat, svitka, or sheepskin coat. Traditional laptsi—willow or bast shoes—shoes made of home-cured leather, and boots constitute the footwear.
Although the folk costumes of various parts of Belarus are notable for their similarities, they differ in combinations of color, ornamentation, and in the variations of pattern and style, which make up the regional characteristics.
The costumes of American-Belarusans often reflect regional differences of the homeland, but for the most part these are classic Belarusan costumes, copied from standard reference books.(11)
o Weaving and Embroidery
These are very old, traditional, and widespread folk arts of the Belarusans. Weaving of rugs and belts is one of the most ancient, practical, and useful forms of art.
Colorful hand-woven rags have many uses in Belarusan households: they serve as decoration, bed spreads, wall tapestries, table covers, blankets, rags, etc. Wool and linen are the chief materials used in making these spreads, the wrap usually being in linen with a woolen weft. Often rags are all woolen, at times all linen. The designs are many and varied. Besides the traditional geometric ornaments, floral and frequently animal and bird designs are applied. Some of the most common patterns are и ahurochki (pickles), и kruhi (circles), и zorki (stars), и vakentsy (windows), и kvietki (flowers).(12)
Hand-woven belts make up another centuries-long tradition. It would be appropriate to quote a Belarusan-American artist, a professional painter, and an expert on hand-woven belts, Tamara Kolba of New Jersey:
The belt has a tradition. It is a companion throughout life. When the baby is born, they tie his swaddling clothes around him with a belt. When the women took food to the men in the field, they lashed the earthenware jars with a belt. It was indispensable to a man. He could be seen barefoot, but never without his belt. When a girl got married, she had to give a belt as a gift to every single member of the groom's family. The belt was like an offering, it was something venerated.(13)
Belts are made either from linen, wool and linen, or wool alone. They can be striped, have a geometric design, or be an abstract design based on something in nature.
The tradition of belt weaving in Belarus has a long history. By the middle of the 18th century, the city of Slutsk in Belarus had become a center for sash production. These sashes were made of silk, with gold and silver threads, and were highly prized. Presently, these sashes "made in the city of Slutsk," as the trademark proclaims, are rarities and much esteemed by museums. In this country, museums in Buffalo, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Brooklyn Museum have these Slutsk sashes.
Ruchniki (towels) are another, very important category of folk art expression and play a prominent role in the traditions of Belarusans.
The ruchnik is a long piece of linen, elaborately decorated in a woven or embroidered pattern, concentrated at both ends. Towels are used during wedding ceremonies, and at various solemn celebrations. Belarusan households are often garnished with a towel in a place of honor where the icons are hung. An icon at a crossroads, an intersection, or an entrance to a road leading to a settlement is marked with a towel. Towels are signs of reverence and lend dignity to an occasion or celebration. Belarusan homes are full of ruchniki for all events. (14)
o Pottery. Straw. Woodcarving
Pottery is one of the oldest and most widespread folk arts in Belarus, and has remained virtually unchanged since its beginnings. There are Belarusan specialists in this craft in the United States. Belarusan earthenware—pottery, pitchers, and plates—is marked by simplicity and elegant plasticity. Complicated forms and elaborate ornamentation are not common in Belarusan folk tradition. This scarcity of ornamentation points to practical, rather than decorative use.(15)
Straw is often called Belarusan gold and has been used in folk tradition as far back as the grain culture itself. Straw plaiting or braiding is an ancient craft and art. Besides such purely utilitarian functions as storage casks, boxes, jars, and sewing baskets, it was used for decorations in home and church. For example, altar door decorations were made of straw in the 17th and 18th centuries. The most recent use of straw encrustation is of a decorative nature, and includes beautiful colored jewelry and sewing boxes, wall plaques and picture frames, album covers, etc. These products are decorated with traditional geometric ornamentation in various colors. Belarusan-Americans have numerous specialists in straw encrustation.(16)
Egg Painting, with specifically Belarusan ornamentation, especially during the Easter season, is a long-standing national custom brought to the United States and widely-cultivated among Belarusan-Americans.
Woodcarving is second nature to Belarusans. From ancient times, Belarus was famous for its forests. Houses, churches, furniture, household utensils, and decorative sculptures were all made from wood. Wood products were embellished with open carved works that looked like fine filigree from a distance.
Folk sculpture in wood ranged from representations of pagan gods to Christian saints, native animals, and birds. The native bison, zubr, became virtually a national symbol, because its carved image is found so often in Belarusan homes.(17)
o Belarusan Cuisine
"A guest in the house is God in the house." This traditional Belarusan greeting expresses the national attitude towards hospitality.
However, before going into an overview of Belarusan cuisine, it is worthwhile to underscore the fact that virtually all Americans are well acquainted with one product of Belarusan bakery without realizing that it is of Belarusan origin. That is the simple, ubiquitous bagel.(18) The traditional bagel comes from the Belarusan town of Smarhon in the northwestern part of Belarus. But the bagel is not the only item of Belarusan provenance. Others include pirahi (pirogi), kaubasy (kielbasy), and kapusta (cabbage), which are also known to many Americans.
Belarus is located in the forest, grain, and potato belt of Eastern Europe, and Belarusan cooking reflects the riches of the land. Food includes a wide `variety of grains: rye, barley, wheat, buckwheat, millets, oats, and also a diversity of mushrooms. The so-called European mushroom, Boletus Edulis, which is highly-prized and highly-priced in the United States because of its delicious flavor, grows in abundance in the forests of Belarus. Unfortunately, following the Chernobyl accident, mushrooms in many areas of South Eastern Belarus are not edible because of radioactivity.
But the most famous food of Belarus remains potatoes, prepared in a variety of ways: in pancakes, casseroles, cutlets, stuffed, etc. Belarusans boast of having over 70 different ways of preparing potatoes so that no dish would be repeated in a menu during the course of an entire month.
The main meat products are veal, pork, fowl and venison.
Belarus is also richly dotted with clear lakes and crisscrossed by big and small rivers complete with a stock of fresh-water fish. One of the delicacies of Belarus is small river lobster, far surpassing in taste the sharp flavor of the ocean variety.
There are many dishes which Belarusans have in common with their Slavic neighbors: halubcy (stuffed cabbage), borshch, chaladziets, kapusta, and kaubasa. There are other dishes, however, that are more distinct and typical of Belarusan cooking: barley kucia, birch and honey kvas, etc. Menus vary greatly with the seasons. Cold borshch and cold sorrel soup are served in summer; kaubasa with fried cabbage and bacon are eaten in the winter. Naturally, holidays and special occasions call for special dishes. No wedding is complete without sweet wedding bread, called karavaj. While at funerals, barley kasha is passed around the gathering of relatives and friends.
The Christmas Eve dinner traditionally includes twelve meatless dishes, such as beet kvas with mushroom dumplings and barley kasha with honey. Before the onset of Lent, bliny (sourdough pancakes) with a special sauce—vierashchaka—is the established traditional 9)
The majority of Belarusans, regardless of when they came to America, and generations of Belarusan-Americans preserve their traditional cuisine.
o Music, Song, and Dancing
Belarusan music is very old. Scholars trace its origins to pagan times and other features to the later period of principalities on Belarusan territory. Belarusans love to sing on all occasions—birth and death, marriage and military service, the seasons, work and leisure, in happiness and in grief.
Songs are often accompanied by the instrument called husli. There were also professional troubadours who followed the princely courts and wandered from town to town. They were called bajany. Over the centuries the songs changed, reflecting historical changes such as Russian and Polish occupations, uprisings, etc. New genres of songs were born. Songs about draftees, serfs, and rebels. Of special appeal to Belarusans are the rich and elaborate lyrical songs which are the basis of Belarusan folk music. The lullaby is especially popular in American Belarusan families, as generations of children grew up with the lyrics to these songs, sung to them by their grandmothers.(20)
A very typical Belarusan characteristic is the tendency to form an instrumental group. The most commonly used instruments are the violin (skrypka), bajan (a type of accordion), cymbals, dudka (pipe), and often the tambourine.(21)
Dancing has enjoyed a millennium-long tradition in Belarus. Belarusan folk dancing in characterized by richness of composition, uncomplicated movements, and a small number of rapid steps. Folk dances, often accompanied by songs, express the feelings, work habits, and life style of the Belarusan people. Ethnographers have identified over one hundred Belarusan folk dances.(22) The tradition of folk dancing has been preserved in Belarusan-American communities.
o Folk Theater
Belarusans have always appreciated drama. From the earliest pre-Christian times, various religious rites and ceremonies and folk customs were dramatized. Many traditional pre-Christian rites were preserved in one form or another even after the introduction of Christianity. The Christian era provided new material for dramatization. These two trends have coexisted in Belarus down to modern times. From these have developed plays, mummery, puppets, and shows. Belarusan folk tales were also a rich reservoir for shows and dramatization.(23)
o Customs
Belarus is a country rich in customs. Obviously, many customs found on Belarusan territory are common to neighboring Slavic nations as well, but there are some which have specific Belarusan features. What is characteristic of Belarusan customs is the interwoven elements of nature (especially agriculture), pagan, and Christian components. Many of these customs are closely related to the calendar, ceremonial events, and the cycle of family life. Observance of customs is accompanied, as a rule, by dances, singing, folk theater, and games.
Although modern life in a technologically advanced society is not conducive to maintaining ancient traditions, it is surprising how many customs survive.
Many Belarusan customs can be observed in the United States, some even maintaining regional peculiarities. We will mention only those customs that are most widely observed and which can be considered typical for all of Belarus.
The Christmas season, of course, prompts the recollection and observance of many customs. One of the most cherished and well preserved is the celebration of Kuccia, a very solemn and elaborate supper on Christmas Eve. Twelve or more dishes are prepared and served. The pot with Kuccia (a special barley confection) is placed on a stand in the corner under the icons. The head of the household begins by saying grace. The dishes are served in a specific order, with a portion of each dish set aside for the ancestors. The Kuccia is the last course of the supper. The traditional Kuccia is observed on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Epiphany Eve, and is called the First, Second, and Third Kuccia, respectively. The fasting rules are not observed on the Second Kuccia, and it is therefore called bahataja (rich). A distinctive Belarusan detail is the making of bliny, the pancake prepared on days when Kuccia is observed.
Another Christmas tradition widely observed in the United States is decorating the tree with hand-made Belarusan ornaments. As a rule, the entire family takes part in the ceremony and the oldest member of the family (together with the youngest: grandparents and children), contribute the most craftsmanship.
Numerous superstitions associated with the holiday season reflect the ancient Slavic cults of nature worship. Thus, the custom of inviting maroz, the Frost, to partake of the Third Kuccia is an attempt to bribe a former minor pagan deity.
Caroling, an old Christmas tradition, is solidly maintained by Belarusan Americans. Young people would gather together, practice a few carols (Kaladki) and then travel from house to house carrying a giant lit star, singing carols. Along with merrymaking, the carolers praise the host and his family and, in return, they are handsomely rewarded with goodies, money, and small presents. Belarusan youth organizations in the United States practice this tradition for fundraising purposes. However, Belarusan carolers in this country are excellent ambassadors of their culture, singing during the Christmas season in a number of popular places such as the American Museum of Immigration, Inc., at the Statue of Liberty in New York; the Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel, New Jersey; the Boy Scouts Museum, East Brunswick, New Jersey (now in Texas); the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois, among other places.(24)
Easter season is also an occasion for many customs. It starts with a period of fasting. The festivities begin with Palm Sunday, Vierbnica in Belarusan, from the word viarba, which means "willows." Pussywillows are used instead of palms on Palm Sunday. Each girl brings a bouquet of pussywillows, decorated with artificial flowers and evergreen twigs to church. After the service, there is a contest to select the girl with the prettiest bouquet. The night before Easter Sunday the Holy Liturgy begins at eleven o'clock and lasts until four a.m. During the Liturgy, people carry lighted candles in a procession around the church. After the service, the priest blesses colored eggs, sausage, babka (Easter bread), and cheese. An Easter breakfast, Razhavieny, is held in the church hall where traditional foods are served. Easter Sunday is a day to visit friends, relatives, and neighbors. During the day children and adults play various games, such as the cracking of eggs. Two characteristics of Easter Day are that parents buy their children new outfits and that after the midnight Liturgy on Easter, the parishioners embrace one another and say Chrystos Uvaskros (Christ is Risen).
Other religious-pagan customs include celebration of Kupalle, which marks the end of spring and the beginning of summer. This event coincides with the feast of St. John the Baptist. Kupalle is a celebration for young people. According to tradition, the girls make wreaths and float them on the waters of a lake or river, to find out from which direction their future husband will come. At night the boys and girls gather around a bonfire to sing and jump over the flame and play games. This tradition is maintained by young Belarusan Americans, who usually gather together in a place such as Belair Miensk in New York State, or Polacak in Ohio, or some other place near water.
Another custom observed by many Belarusan families and communities is the feast commemorating the departed, Dziady. It is celebrated up to four times a year, but the most solemn observance is in the fall, called Asianiny, from the Belarusan word vosien (Autumn). The ceremony begins at supper with a prayer by the head of the household, who invites the deceased ancestors to participate. An extra plate is set for them, many dishes and drinks are consumed. The first spoonful of each dish is set aside on the extra plate, as is the first drink.
Many Belarusan communities preserve the tradition of honoring army recruits. A special mass is celebrated, followed by a party in the parish hall where traditional draftee songs are sung.
A fall observance, Dazhynki (harvest festival), is a very joyous event with a traditional community dinner.
Family traditions such as births, marriages, deaths, and christenings are also rich in custom and ritual and are often carried out in the parish hall.
Belarusan-American organizations have published numerous collections of songs, carols, and books of customs to assist the younger generation in understanding special observances, traditions, folk-songs, and Christmas carols.(25)
o Observances of Saint Days
All Eastern and Western rite churches observe the feast days of the nation's patron saint. The Irish celebrate the feast of St. Patrick and St. Bridget; the Welsh of St. David; the Germans of St. Boniface.
St. Euphrosynia of Polack is the Patron Saint of Belarus. She was the granddaughter of the Belarusan King Usiaslau of Polack, and as a patron of the arts and of education, she contributed very much to the development of learning and culture in medieval Belarus. Her feast day, May 23, is widely celebrated by Belarusans.(26)
Belarusan-Americans observe very widely the day of St. Cyril of Turau, an outstanding churchman and philosopher from the town of Turau in the southernmost part of Belarus. He was renowned for his eloquent sermons and religious writings. His feast day is celebrated on April 28 and he is very much revered by Belarusans.(27)
The Mother of God of Zyrovicy is the patron of many Belarusan churches. The patronal feast is celebrated May 20th. According to history, the Icon of the Mother of God miraculously appeared on a pear tree in 1470. In 1970, Belarusans celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Appearance of the Mother of God of Zyrovicy.
The church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus on the Piazza della dei Monti in Rome belonged to the permanent representative of the Ruthenian (Belarusan-Ukrainian) Church at the Holy See since 1625. A beautiful icon of Our Lady of Zyrovicy is enshrined there. (Pope Pius VII venerated this icon immediately after his election).
In northeastern Pennsylvania in the city of Olyphant, the Ukrainian Catholics have erected a Shrine of Our Lady of Zyrovicy on the grounds of St. Cyril's Church.(28)
There are other church-related anniversaries and events such as the Smalensk Adyhitryia, celebrated August 10th, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of All Saints of Belarus (the third Sunday after Pentecost).(29)
Belarusans of Roman Catholic faith observe the day of Our Lady of Vostraja Brama in Vilna, celebrated on November 16th, St. Mary of Budslau, observed on July 2nd, and others.(30)
There is a striking difference in the sanctoral cycle among Belarusan Christians in the homeland and in the diaspora. The Orthodox liturgical calendar is documented each month by many Belarusan saints—monk, prince, bishop, ruler, scholar. Virtually every part of the diaspora, including the United States, boasts its saint— Turau, Polack, Vilnia, Smalensk, Zyrovicy, Halshanny, Navahradak, Berascie, Slutsk. The paradox is that in the homeland, under the influence of a Moscow oriented hierarchical leadership, the obligatory liturgical calendar is filled with Russian patriarchs, Greek mendicants, and Syrian theologians, but almost no local Belarusan saints.
o Language
The language of Belarusan-Americans has its characteristic elements also.
First-generation Belarusan-Americans understand the language of their parents without difficulty, but in most cases speak with an American accent. Youngsters who went through the program of supplementary schools understandably have a better command of the language and speak more easily than those who did not have formal training. Second-generation youngsters understand the language for the most part, but have difficulty in expressing themselves in Belarusan.
In everyday use many Americanisms have entered the Belarusan language but were totally Belarussified and do not strike one as foreign.(31)
A very peculiar phenomenon is the language of thousands of Belarusan immigrants who came prior to World War I. These people claim that they speak Russian (or, more precisely, spoke, because this generation is almost gone), which in fact was not Russian but, as a Jewish-Russian-American journalist observed: "they speak a peculiar jargon that is a blend of Byelorussian dialect, the Russian language, and Russianized English."(32) A different scholar, who studied the Russian language of these immigrants, said the following:
In the 1930 census, 315,721 inhabitants of the United States reported Russian as their mother tongue. Of these, there can be no question that a large number were Byelorussians or Ukrainians, who do not speak Great Russian in its standard form but rather closely related languages of the East Slavic groups of various mixtures of several or all of them.(33)
The above outlined characteristics, together with places of origin of the forebears, feelings of attachment to the region, and "family legends" about the location of family origination should be the loose principles for differentiating ethnic Belarusans within the broad category of "Russian immigrants (or "Russian Poles") and from members of other ethnic groups. Obviously, this is not easy, but these are precisely the only tools by which distinctions can be made for the sake of scientific correctness and objectivity.
o NOTES
1. P. R. Magocsi, "Are the Armenians Really Russians?" Government Publications Review, 14(1987): 133-68.
2. J. Price and J. Kreuski, "It's Time to De-Russify Belarusian Names," Bielarusian Review, 4(1992-93): 6-7.
3. B. Unbegaun, Russian Surnames (Oxford, 1972). M. V. Birlya, Bielaruskaja antrapanimija (Minsk, v. 1, 1966; v. 2, 1969).
4. B. Unbegaun, Russian Surnames, op. cit. 303.
5. Ks. J. Tarasevich, Na Backauscynu. (Wilnia, 1936), 118.
6. Novyi Mir, New York, Nov. 12, 1915; Oct. 26, 1935.
7. Russkii Golos, New York, Apr. 27, 1930.
8. Novyi Mir (Iezhenedel'nyi), New York, May 29, 1926.
9. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: Name file.
10. V. Lastouski, Rasijska-Kryuski slounik (Kouna, 1924), 761-71.
11. Bielaruskqje Narodnaje Adziennie; albom (Minsk, 1981).
12. V. la. Fadzieeva, Bielaruskaja narodnaja vyshyuka (Minsk, 1991).
13. The Record, Hackensack, N.J., Apr. 25, 1983.
14. Byelorussian Cultural Tradition in America (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers, the State University, 1983), 12-13.
15. Bielaruskaja keramika (Minsk, 1984).
16. J. M. Schuman, Art From Many Hands (Worcester, Ma.: Davis Publications, Inc., 1981), 79-82.
17. Ia. M. Sachuta, Bielaruskaje narodnaje mastactva (Minsk, 1980).
18. Holas Radzimy, Minsk, July 4, 1991.
19. Byelorussian Cuisine. (Minsk, 1979).
20. Lullabies of the World (New York: Random House, 1967), 186-87.
21. M. Kulikovich, Rodnyja matyvy (Cleveland, 1967).
22. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 1973), s.v. "Narodny taniec."
23. M. S. Seller, ed., Ethnic Theatre in the United States (Westport, Conn., 1983), 67-100.
24. M. Kulikovich, Kaladouscyki: Byelorussian Christmas Songs (Cleveland, 1961).
25. M. Kulikovich, Bielaruski piesienny zbornik (Cleveland, 1960).
26. P. Koster, "The Life of Euphrosynia," Orthodox Life, Jordanville, N.Y., 27(1977): 2-12.
27. A. Nadson, "Spiritual Writings of St. Cyril of Turau," The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, London, 2(1969): 3-24.
28. SS Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church, Centennial Jubilee, 1888-1988 (Olyphant, PA., 1989), 163-67.
29. Byelorussian Orthodox Calendar, 1968, 1970 (New York-Cleveland, 1967, 1969).
30. Ja Sviatlo Svietu. Sviatyja Bielaruskaha Narodu (New Brunswick, N. J.: Bielaruskaje Pravaslaunaje Zyrovickaje Bractva, 1984).
31. V. Pashkievich, "The Teaching of the Byelorussian Language in an English-Speaking Milieu," Zapisy, New York, 17(1983): 209-13.
32. M. K.Argus, "We Love America," The Hanover Forum, 2(1923): 17.
33. M. Berger, "The American English Pronunciation of Russian Immigrants" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1952), 13.
Chapter III: Waves and Causes of Emigration from Belarus
While individual travelers from Belarus could, and apparently did, venture to America during the period of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, historical developments of the 18th century became the main impetus for emigration from Belarusan territory.
The decline of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and consequent occupation of Belarus by Russians constituted the principal factors which created social, economic and political conditions favoring emigration. As a result of Russian policies, Belarus was forcibly transformed from an advanced political nation with a developed culture and the entire spectrum of national life, into a colonial territory populated by an ethnic mass systematically and intentionally deprived of any official historical past, and with the bleak prospect of becoming an assimilated and russified bloc of backward people. Thus, Belarus became a major source of emigration from the Empire over a period of many years. Well over 1.5 million Belarusans left their homeland and settled in the large cities of the Russian Empire (St. Petersburg, Odessa, etc.), Siberia, North and South America, and Western Europe. The process of emigration from Belarus over the past two-hundred years has been an ongoing phenomenon, but there has been, of course, an ebb and flow conditioned by internal and external affairs within the country. What chronological periods of Belarusan immigration can be identified?
o Individual and Small Groups of Immigrants: 17th-19th Centuries
This period covers the American Colonial Period, through the last quarter of the 19th century. However, whereas the 19th century provides considerable documentation about immigration to America, relations between Colonial America and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (i.e., during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries) still remains a topic for researchers, including the subject of immigration to America during that period. Some specific data strongly suggest that Belarusan travel and immigration to America was possible. Here are some interesting facts: Captain John Smith became the first Governor of the Colony of Virginia in 1608. Five years earlier, in 1603, Captain Smith visited Belarus. In his True Travels (1), Captain Smith recalls that he came to "Rezechica, upon the River Niper, in the confines of Lithuania."* He then narrates how he traveled through southern Belarus and Podolia to Poland.(2) Thus, it would not be unusual if Captain Smith brought Belarusans with him to Virginia (or, for that matter, Ukrainians also), specialists in tar production and woodworking, together with Polish glass manufacturing specialists. Support for this view also comes from the following statement: "For hemp and flax, potashes and soapashes, pitch and tar, there is a Treaty afoot, for procuring of men skillful in those trades from Eastern parts: besides the Polackers yet remaining in Virginia."(3) Thus, while documentation exists that people known as Poles lived in the Colony of Virginia, there is good reason to think, because of Smith's travels, that there may also have been Belarusans. The familiarity of Captain Smith with Eastern Europe leads one to conjecture that he used the term "Eastern" to embrace a large geographical area, viz., the territories of Belarus and Ukraine. Thus, it is not an unlikely hypothesis that the Slavic names in the Virginia Colony are Belarusan and Ukrainian as well as Polish.
There is also a statement in old chronicles and recent writings that a citizen from the Belarusan territory came to the Colonies: "On June 6, 1610 an immigrant from the city of Bielastok, a physician, Dr. Lawrence Bohun (Bahun), comes to the Colonies." (4) A citizen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who came to America early and who may well have been of Belarusan origin is Dr. Aleksandr Curtius (Kurczewski), a scholar and teacher in New Amsterdam. Prior to his arrival in the Colonies in 1659, he taught at Polotsk and Vilna.(5)
The most famous and distinguished immigrant from Belarus is of course Thaddeus Kosciuszko (Belarusan spelling is Kasciushka). Major General Kasciushka was born in Belarus, had close ties to his native land, and contributed significantly to the cause of independence and the military history of the United States. Although the information and literature about this great man is very abundant in many languages and scholarship, as a rule, it considers Kasciushka to be a Pole dedicated to the American cause and freedom, however, his relationship to his native soil and to the Belarusan people was not studied at all. Nevertheless, one thing which could be said affirmatively is that Kasciushka's biological roots, i.e., Belarusan roots, are unquestionable, and this fact alone gives ample ground to credit the deeds of this outstanding man to the Belarusan nation as well.(6)
o The Belarusan Province of the Society of Jesus in America
The events of 1772, 1793, and 1795~generally known as the partitions of Poland—were in fact partitions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. These divisions brought Belarusan territory and people under complete tsarist control. With these acts the tsars began the long-range task of russifying and depopulating Belarus, a process which continued until recently. Naturally, these political upheavals caused the number of emigrants from Belarus to increase. The large part of the emigrant population was comprised of intellectuals who could not tolerate the alien occupation. During the first quarter of the 19th century, a sizable group of Roman Catholic priests emigrated from Belarus to the United States. Many among them were of Belarusan origin, and many were associated with the Jesuit Academy in Polotsk, in northeast Belarus. They represented a sizable intellectual cadre for whom the Church authorities in America found good use. Among the most prominent were Fathers Boniface Krukowski, Norbert Korsak, and Kohlman. But Belarus not only played a significant role in providing priest-emigrants; it also provided its name for a religious community of men, the Jesuits.(7)
A piece of history that is often overlooked is that the Society of Jesus survived in this country only because they became affiliated with Belarusan territory. The American Jesuits not only became affiliated with Belarus, but their jurisdiction in the United States became known as the "White Russian Province." This affiliation was in effect from 1805 to 1814 when the papal ban against the Jesuits was lifted. Associated with this period of development of the Roman Catholic Church in America is an outstanding personality of Belarusan descent, the immigrant priest, Rev. Francisak Dzierozynski. Father Dzierozynski was born in the town of Orsha in northeastern Belarus, on January 3, 1779. He studied at the Jesuit College there, and in 1794, at the age of fifteen, he entered the Society of Jesus "bringing with him an intellect of rare order."(8) He was ordained during the academic year 1808-1809 and was appointed professor of theology at the Academy of Polotsk. He also taught at several other town schools in Belarus, meanwhile keeping close contacts with friends, relatives, and colleagues in the countryside. Most of his life before emigrating to America was spent on Belarusan soil. He was active, living among the people, and sharing their needs. While at the Academy of Polotsk, Fr. Dzierozynski probably became familiar with the writings of a younger student-scholar at the Academy, Jan Barshcheuski, who wrote in Belarusan and Polish, and is considered one of the pioneers of modern Belarusan literature. The fate of his native land, which was going through the darkest period of its history, was of great concern to Francisak Dzierozynski. At the same time, being an enlightened man, he was fully aware that seemingly nothing could or would stop the Russian Imperial advance westward. Fr. Dzierozynski exemplifies many educated Belarusans at the first half of the 19th century. Most of them were devout Catholics. They had typically received excellent instruction, and many were culturally and politically pro-Polish. Having assessed a rather dark political cultural future for their native country, and not totally supporting the policies of Polishness or Polonization, a wide stratum of the intelligentsia—including a number of clergymen like Dzierozynski were ready to emigrate. Rev. Dzierozynski arrived in Philadelphia on November 7, 1821, and died in Maryland on September 22, 1850.(9)
From the time of his arrival until his death, his intellect and energy were entirely devoted to his new country. Father Dzierozynski held a number of posts, including head of the American Jesuit Community. However, Father Dzierozynski's main interest and occupation was the organization of Roman Catholic education in this country. His contribution to the development of the American Roman Catholic school system is enormous and the literature on the subject voluminous. (10)
The emigration and settlement in America of Roman Catholic clergymen from the Academy of Polotsk is a colorful and significant episode in the history of American Catholicism, of the Society of Jesus, and of the emigration from Belarus.
o Former Insurgents as Immigrants
The Roman Catholic clergymen who emigrated from Belarus in the first quarter of the 19th century were followed by a new wave of emigrants as a consequence of the Uprising of 1831. While this anti-Russian Uprising had a particularly powerful impact in the western parts of Belarus, people from the central regions of the country also actively participated. (11)
A number of men came to the United States after what has come to be called the Kalinouski Uprising in Belarus, 1863-64. The majority of these "freedom fighters" were Polish, as is correctly depicted in literature. However, many of them called themselves "Licviny" or "of Lithuanian descent" or even "Lithuanian nobility." They were also called "exiles from Russian Poland." Many of them took the initiative to indicate their place of birth, a specific palatinate such as Vitebsk, Minsk, Mogilev, etc., often supplementing this with the term "Litva," firmly distinguishing their birthplace and homeland from Poland. These various descriptive terms were used, of course, to emphasize the non-Polishness of these former soldiers. Almost all of these former insurgents were of the Roman Catholic faith and their names were perceived as Polish, which gave them a Polish identity for the general public. And, as the distinguished Polish-American historian M. Haiman put it, "according to all appearances... it may safely be assumed" that they were Polish.(12)
Men from Belarus who achieved prominence in America during the 19th century include Feliks Mikloshevich, an outstanding personality in the history of the American Navy, who was descended from an old noble family in the region of Vitebsk with collateral lines in the Polotsk region. Alexander Holynski, born in Vitebsk, who came to the United States after the 1831 Uprising, and contributed to the American literary scene and geographical literature. Aleksander Bielaski from the Minsk region, and Henry Dmochowski, known in the United States as Henry Saunders, a famous sculptor and painter.(13) Dmochowski-Saunders took part in the Uprising of 1831 and fled to Western Europe after the Uprising was crashed. He came to the United States in 1851, remaining here for about ten years. Dmochowski then went back to Belarus in 1861 and became one of the organizers and leaders of the Kalinouski Uprising in Belarus, 1863-64. He was killed in action in Belarus.(14)
Apparently, one such "Pole," i.e., a polonized Belarusan of Roman Catholic faith, was a Mr. Korzonkowski,- who died in Philadelphia circa 1865-70. He was obviously born in Belarus and willed his possessions to a noble in the Minsk region whose executor, Vincuk Dunin-Marcinkevich was a well-known Belarusan writer, who encountered difficulties with the tsarist administration because of his political orientation.(15)
Clearly, the episode of Belarusan immigration in the 19th century, as a consequence of the anti-Russian uprisings of 1830-31 and 1863-64, merits further research and analysis. It is interesting to note, that I have had the opportunity to speak with the descendants of many of these former soldier-immigrants. Many of them knew that their great-grandfathers were not Polish. Such were the families of Arnold Ziemkievich, Perth Amboy, New Jersey; the Hapanovich families in Buffalo, New York; the Kavalchuks in Gary, Indiana; and a number of others. I met a number of people from these families while working at the New York Public Library, when they came in to do genealogical research on their ancestors. They often knew the names of the villages in Belarus from which their great-grandparents had come. Most of them are Roman Catholic, which makes it significant that they are so keenly aware of their non-Polish identity and Belarusan provenance, being for so many years in a Polish environment.
Thus, many immigrants who originated from Belarusan territory and, as a consequence of the anti-tsarist revolts, came to the United States in the 19th century, can and should, with fairness and objectivity, be considered the earliest Belarusan immigrants.
o Agricultural Colonies
The agricultural colonies established by the so-called "Russian" progressivists during the mid-19th century make up an interesting chapter of Slavic-Jewish immigration and ethnic history of the United States with an identifiable Belarusan dimension. These were colonies of intellectual idealist-Utopians who came to the United States with the intention of forming a new progressive society, and to alleviate social injustices in the world by setting an example of a new way of living. All of them, with the exception of some religious communities such as the Dukhobors and the Mennonites soon went bankrupt and the majority of their leaders returned to Europe. According to William Frey, the founder and ideological father of these colonies, toward the end of the 19th century there were sixty-seven agricultural "progressive" Slavic-Russian communities in the United States.(16) One of these colonies had a name closely associated with Belarus: the Vilna colony, although its organizers never left New York City.(17) Prior to coming to America's shores, a few of the leaders of these colonies had close relations with Belarus, a number of them having received their agricultural training and some financial support in Belarus. As a matter of fact, the locality of Harany, in the Polotsk region, was the training ground for a few of these populists prior to their "going to the people."(18) William Frey also had an extensive correspondence with Fred Wolley who lived and studied at the Hory-Horki Agricultural Academy in Belarus and with Dr. Nikolaj Sudzilouski-Russell.( 19)
o A Belarusan Populist/A Territorial U.S. Senator and others
An intriguing episode in the history of Belarusans in the United States is the activity of Dr. Nikolaj Sudzilouski-Russell. Dr. Nikolai Sudzilouski-Russell, Belarusan-born, a physician, social and political leader, scholar, and—yes, an American politician—is a colorful personality of the 19th and early 20th century. The biography of this man is unusual. From a small locality, Sudzilavichy, in east central Belarus, near the city of Mogilev, where he was born in 1850, passing through Russia and many countries of Central and Western Europe, after obtaining his degree in medicine, Dr. Sudzilouski came to the United States in August of 1887. After a few very active years working as a physician and an "ethnic" politician, and having had numerous problems with the Russian Orthodox authorities in California, Dr. Sudzilouski-Russell settled in Hawaii in 1897. He soon became a popular and successful politician and rose to the position of President of the Senate of Hawaii.(20)
Dr. Sudzilouski-Russell left an impressive political heritage, a significant array of scholarly works of a scientific nature and, of special interest, an enormous number of revolutionary works devoted to the theoretical and practical aspects of destroying the Russian Empire. Although he witnessed the October Revolution, Sudzilouski never accepted the Bolsheviks or the newly created Soviet-Russian Empire. Despite numerous attempts by the Soviet Belarusan leadership to lure Sudzilouski back to Soviet Belarus, he never returned to his homeland. Dr. Sudzilouski-Russell died in China in 1930. He wanted to be an American consul in Japan, but was never given this opportunity.(21)
Throughout various printed sources pertaining to the 19th century, one can find here and there mention of Belarusan immigrants as depicted by various writers.
A witty advertisement appeared in a grocery store in Connecticut: "The owner offers discounts to his countrymen from the Mogilev province in Belarus."(22)
E. N. Matrosov, one of the first journalists to describe the United States in the Russian language, said about New York City:
"The Russians from Russia (as opposed to those from Galicia and Hungary, V. K.) are only a drop in the bucket, literally, because they numbered about 150 persons which is nothing in a city of three million, and these are primarily Orthodox Belarusans from Minsk and adjoining regions. They were chiefly tailors, smiths, and shoemakers, the latter being the majority."(23) The author, after visiting a restaurant in downtown New York, remarked that it was established and owned by a "Polonized Belarusan from the Minsk province."(24)
Another author, Mr. I. P. Sysoyev, makes the following remark about the Russian immigrants: "Russians, i.e., Great Russians from Nizhnegorod and the Yaroslavl regions, in the United States are only a very few. The Russians in the United States are predominantly from the Western region: the provinces of Mogilev and Minsk."(25)
A Belarusan immigrant was mentioned by V. G. Korolenko in his novel Bez Iazyka [Without a Language] and in other writings.(26)
The last decade of the 19th century closes the period of limited Belarusan immigration to the United States. Some generalizations and analysis can be made.
Up to that time, Belarusan immigrants to America were predominantly Roman Catholic, the majority were educated and to some degree influenced by Polish culture. They left their homeland during a complex and turbulent period of history. The process of religious-cultural Polonization of the country was decreasing and an aggressive Russification was beginning. Belarus's past, known as the Litvan or Lithuanian period, was being obliterated and substituted by something else. The memory of the immigrants, however, still conjured up Belarusan historical elements. Mentally they were at a crossroads. These people were influenced by western cultural, social and political ideas associated with some degree of polonization, at the same time that they were confronted with a Russian totalitarian system imposed by force. This system was determined not only to assimilate the Belarusan nation and obliterate its history, but to rewrite the past as well. Yet a large segment of the Belarusan Roman Catholic population, not having accepted Polishness and the Polish form of Catholicism, remained passive and resigned to the newly-newly-imposed system. Nevertheless, many became active fighters against Russia, although they were losing battles as well as the war.
By any imaginable standard, the political prospects for the ethnic Belarusans were bleak, without a future. Faced with this impasse, hundreds, perhaps thousands, emigrated. They settled permanently throughout Western Europe, the United States, and South America. These were political immigrants. Unfortunately they did not leave much by way of contributions to the cause of reviving the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, forming a strong organization, or launching an idea for establishing a new political unit - an independent Belarusan state. However, these 18th and 19th century immigrants from Belarusan territory have contributed signally to the development of their adopted nation, thus laying the foundation of an American-Belarusan heritage.
o Mass Emigration
Mass emigration from Belarus began slowly during the final decades of the 19th century, and lasted until World War I. At the outset this emigration was directed not towards the United States but to industrial cities in Poland, to Riga, St. Petersburg, to the mines and cities of Ukraine, to the port of Odessa, and—in especially large numbers—to Siberia. Belarus was a major supplier of manpower to the Russian Empire. As one author put it, "Thus, in more than one respect, White Russia is the Empire's Ireland."(27) After the wave of emigration to Siberia decreased, or, in some areas, stopped altogether, emigration to the United States began in earnest, reaching its peak during the years 1910-1913.
The topic of emigration from Russia received considerable treatment in Russian literature. Concern was focused primarily on the legality of the phenomenon, and the size of the emigration; unfortunately, the ethnic issue did not attract much attention.
Some general remarks about the legal aspect of the emigration are in order.
Few authors expressed the view that the mass economic emigration from the Russian Empire was illegal. The crux of the matter lay in the fact that Russian legislation and administration were not prepared to handle the problem posed by the enormous size of the emigration. A Russian scholar, S. la. Ianovskii, in his analysis of the problem of emigration, asserts that while the Russian Code of Laws had no specific legislation dealing with the emigration, the implication was that emigration from the Empire was illegal. Ianovskii said that "articles 325 and 326 of the Imperial Russian Criminal Code clearly state that the Russian Code of Laws recognizes only temporary leaves to foreign countries: thus every residence outside of the country's boundaries is illegal."(28) Ianovskii also wrote that there was no rule or legislation on procedures for obtaining passports. These rules varied from province to province and emigrants were considered to be in violation of Statutes 325-327 of the Russian Code of Laws. This Russian authority said that the first legislation dealing with emigration was passed in 1892 and dealt only with the emigration of Jews. "However," wrote Ianovskii, "if the red tape was enormous and difficulties were too great to overcome, illegal emigration was an alternative and—it was widespread."(29)
Another Russian scholar and authority, V.V. Obolensky-Ossinsky, in his numerous works on emigration from the Empire, expressed similar ideas. He wrote that specific legislation concerning broader emigration was drafted in 1906, but was not ratified until the beginning of 1917, and that "The emigration was in fact tolerated semi-officially, without legislative approval."(30)
At the same time, however, officialdom made a distinction between "legal" and "semi-legal" emigrants because in some official tables, this difference was clearly spelled out. In a Pamiatnaia kniga from the Grodno province, one finds population statistics with the official categories given as follows: 1. Population shifts with permission of the administration, and 2. Population shifts effected by individual choice (with the implication that these were moves without authorization, and were, therefore, irregular). Within this second category, numbers are provided for "Moves to Siberia and other places within the Empire," and "Moves to America and other countries," with the total number of moves broken down by male, female, and the total of both sexes.(31)
Obviously, a confused state of legislation dealing with the emigration had an influence on statistics, ethnic origin, and other specifics of the emigration process. For Belarusans this is particularly troubling because one cannot find any numbers at all, adding to the complexity of research on the emigration.
Be that as it may, the Belarusan lands at the beginning of the century were ready to supply the labor market of the world with manpower in large numbers.
o The Economy—The Major Cause of the Emigration
Punitive Russian policies, religious persecutions, russifying political measures, and the economic situation in Belarus were the major factors causing emigration during the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. The economic factor had particularly broad significance. Russia's economic policy toward Belarus, especially in segments such as the regulation of land ownership, the development of industries and capital investment, slowed the Belarusan economy down during the second half of the 19th century. The economic
situation worsened especially after the land reform of 1861, when a great number of Belarusan peasants did not receive any land, thus increasing enormously the unemployed agricultural labor force. The surplus of agricultural labor grew systematically during the decades of the 1880s, 1890s, and at the beginning of the 20th century. As one source indicates, there were about nine percent landless-peasant households which sold their labor in 1893.(32)
While Belarus was producing an enormous surplus of agricultural labor, Russia deliberately stalled the development of industries in Belarus. The northwestern region of the Empire, i.e., Belarus, was industrially the most backward territory of the tsarist state. Belarus produced only 0.88 percent of the gross output of the industry of the Empire, although it was inhabited by 3.6 percent of the population.(33) Belarus was also characterized by very low per capita income. According to Belarusan scholars Hauryla Harecki and Dzmicier Pryshchepau, Belarus's per capita income ranked as follows: (34)
(Harecki: 1900)
(in rubles)
Australia 346
United States 273
Russia 67
Belarus 54
(Pryshchepau: 1900, 1913)
(in rubles)
Belarus 46 73
European Russia 67 101
Germany 184 292
England 273 463
Additional factors such as a famine at the beginning of the century, and local epidemics increased the impoverishment of the region and augmented the pressure to emigrate.
The economy of the country, as well as the details of everyday life are to some extent recorded in numerous publications, especially in the newspaper Nasa Niva.(35)
Obviously, the economic state proves conclusively the abnormal situation in Belarus which became, under Russian domination, a typical colonial territory: a pre-industrial society where jobs were not available and obtaining food became a prime concern.
Emigration seemed to many a logical solution to the problem, and it came as an avalanche.
o Political Emigrants
Although the economy was the main cause of mass Belarusan emigration at the beginning of the 20th century, research reveals that political emigrants were not unusual in this process as well. Apparently there were not too many political emigrants, but nevertheless a few of them were rather outstanding, and left a distinct mark on the East Slavic group of emigrants in the United States. The most visible was Dr. Aleksandr Sienkevich, a former teacher and Belarusan political activist, a physician and revolutionary leader of anarchist-socialist ideology in the United States. Here is what the newspaper Nasa Niva reported about his coming to America:
The police wanted to arrest our teacher, Mr. A. Sienkevich, claiming that he was trying to open the people's eyes to the way things are here. He, however, was able to flee to America. In order to clear our heads, the administration appointed a new teacher for us named Janka Satyha. Here `'they" call us "strikers".(36)
Other political emigrants include Kanstantin Vanchukievich and Stepan Zenkievich, both from the Sluck region, activists in the Socialist movement, who later returned to Belarus.(37)
It is worthy of note that the concept of a political emigration versus an economic emigration from the Russian Empire is beginning to receive distinct treatment in scholarly literature. A good example is the work of P. D. Vereshchagin dealing with the Belarusan peasant emigration to Siberia. He writes: "In a certain sense, the emigration of peasants [from Belarus, V.K.], should also be considered an anti-government or political action."(38) This view has merit because, although the Russian government had its own plans for Belarusans, these were significantly modified by the Belarusan masses. The government wanted to keep a part of the Belarusan peasantry, especially those who were of the Orthodox faith, on Belarusan territory because the Russians felt that this segment of the population could and would be totally russified. The fact that the peasantry ignored these plans of officialdom and emigrated in large numbers must be viewed as a successful anti-government action with political overtones.
Analogous reasoning could be applied to the analysis of Belarusan emigration to the United States: the regime was not in favor of large-scale emigration abroad, but spontaneously the movement took on enormous proportions, coming to an end only with the outbreak of World War I.
More a political factor than an economic one was the important and widespread phenomenon of draft evasion.(39)
o Post-World War I Arrivals
Belarusans who arrived in the United States after World War I were predominantly political immigrants. They were not too numerous, but in their ranks were many with leadership traits who were able to generate Belarusan political activities in this country. These were Messrs. Anton and Jan Charapuk, and Jazep Varonka, established leaders of the Belarusan Democratic Republic. Varonka had served as Prime Minister of the Government of the BDR. They settled in Wisconsin and Chicago. Then came former soldiers of the Sluck military units who participated in the Sluck Uprising and settled in Detroit.(40)
The contingent of new emigrants increased somewhat when Belarusans began to arrive from Poland, where a pogrom against Belarusans during the 1920s was in full swing. Along with Belarusan political activists, a few Belarusan Roman Catholic priests also came from Poland, as their life there had become unbearable. These included Revs. Andrej Cikota, Viktar Shutovich, and later Jazep Reshats.(41)
A few Belarusans, mainly of mixed Jewish-Belarusan marriages arrived in the United States from Germany during the late 1930s—end of 1941.(42)
o The World War II Years and the Post-World War II Wave
Those who came during the war, 1942-45, a tiny group, cannot be called immigrants per se; in fact, they were prisoners of war who after the war chose to stay in this country, which was not easy to achieve. These were either former soldiers of the Soviet or Polish armies who fell into German hands and subsequently were taken prisoner by the Americans; or they were men of Belarusan nationality serving in various German military or support units. The majority of these were forcefully repatriated to the Soviet Union after the war, but a few were able to remain in the United States.(43)
The next very small contingent of Belarusans who arrived either during or shortly after World War II were those who were born in the United States but whose parents had returned to the "old country" prior to the war. These children had been raised abroad.(44)
Mass arrivals of Belarusans in the post-World War II period date from 1948 to the early 1950s. About 50,000 Belarusan immigrants came during this period.(45) This wave of Belarusan immigrants was exclusively political, as were previous small contingents. Although these immigrants represented a very broad spectrum of Belarusan people, they shared a common denominator: they were all anti-Communists and a great majority of them were nationally-conscious Belarusans with the political objective of restoring a Democratic Belarusan Independent State. Almost all of them came on "Displaced Persons" (DP) quotas. However, by no means can this group of immigrants be considered a homogenous mass if one considers the course of their previous lives. First of all, they came from various countries, the majority from West Germany and Austria, but many from Great Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, South America, and even North Africa. These were their "first stop" countries after leaving Belarus as a consequence of World War II.
Secondly, this mass of people consisted of several distinct categories: former war prisoners of many armies; former emigres who left Belarus either shortly after World War I or in 1939 when the Soviets invaded Poland; persons who had worked in Germany during the war, i.e. "Ostarbeiters," or refugees who fled Belarus in 1943-44; post-World War II defectors and dissidents; and emigres of the 1970s and 80s. As was communicated to this author by Ms. Ala Peshkova, a Belarusan scholar based in Minsk, the emigration from Belarus during the 1980s was in the tens of thousands for various reasons: political, reunification of families, economic, etc. About 95-97 per cent of the emigrants expressed the desire to go to Israel, but a thousand or so emigrated to the United States.(46) This number will certainly be increasing in the future.
In summary, the Belarusan influx to American shores has had a long history, beginning with individuals who ventured to come to America during colonial times, through periods of increased and mass immigration, to the present, when new immigrants arrive under the rubric of political asylum.
o NOTES
1. J. Smith, The True Travels (London, 1629).
2. Z. Kipel, "Captain John Smith in Byelorussia," Zapisy, 16(1978): 119-28.
3. J. Smith, The True Travels, op. cit., 42.
4. A. L. Waldo, First Poles in America, 1608-1958 (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1957), 14,22.
5. A. C. Curtius, Inaugural Medical Dissertation (Chicago, 1967), 9-10.
6. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 1972), s.v. "Kasciushka, Tadeush."
7. M. Haiman, Polish Past in America: 1608-1865 (Chicago, 1939), 65-67.
8. M. H. Rutkowska, "A Polish Pioneer Jesuit in America," Polish American Studies, 3(3-4)(1960): 92-100.
9. J. S. Osuch, "Patriarch of the American Jesuits," Polish American Studies, 17(3-4)(1960): 92-100.
10. Sacrum Poloniae Millennium (Rzym, v. 7, 1960).
11. A. F. Smirnov, Revoliutsionnye sviazi narodov Rossii i Pol'shi, 30-60 gg. XIX v. (Moskva, 1962).
12. M. Haiman, Poland and the American Revolutionary War (Chicago, 1932), 69.
13. J. A. Wytrwal, "Lincoln's Friend-Captain A. Bielaski," Polish American Studies, 14(3-4)(1957): 65-67.
14. Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Encyklapedyja. (Minsk, 1972), s.v. "Dmachouski, Henryk."
15. V. Dunin-Marcinkievic, Tvory (Minsk, 1984), 483-84.
16. A. Yarmolinsky, A Russian's American Dream (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1965), 102.
17. L. Levine, The Women's Garment Workers (New York, 1924), 27-28.
18. M. Iosko, Nikolaj Sudzilovskii-Russell (Minsk, 1976), 50-54.
19. The New York Public Library Archives: Frey Archives, Box 2, Folders 4, 10.
20. Bielarus, New York, 210, 211, 1974.
21. Hawaii National Archives, Honolulu: Russell-Sudzilowskii File.
22. W. Kruszka, Historia Polska w Ameryce (Milwaukee, v. 3, 1905), 91.
23. Graf Leliva, "Zaokeanskaia Rus," Istoricheskii Vestnik, LXVII (1897): 134, 154-57.
24. Graf Leliva, op. cit, 159.
25. I. P. Sysoyev, Puteshestvie v Ameriku (Moskva, 1910), 74-75.
26. V. G. Korolenko, Sobranie sochinenii (Moskva, v. 4, 1954), 490.
27. H. Stewart, Provincial Russia (London, 1913), 111.
28. Zhurnal Ministerstva Iustitsii, v. 4(1909): 91-114.
29. Zhurnal Ministerstva Iustitsii, v. 4(1909): 92.
30. V. V. Obolenskii, Mezhdunarodnye i mezhkontinental'nye migratsii v dovoennoi Rossii i SSSR (Moskva, 1928), 6-8.
31. Pamiatnaia knizhka Grodnenskoi gubernii na 1905 god (Grodno, 1905), 83.
32. Stroitel'stvo kommunizma i sotsial'nye izmeneniia v krestianstve Belorussii (Minsk, 1966), 8.
33. Belorussian Review, Munich, 4(1957): 124
34. H. Яатескі, Narodny prybytak Bielarusi (Vitebsk, 1926).
35. V. Kipel, "Emihracyja z Bielarusi i hazeta Nasa Niva," Zapisy, 19(1989): 66-96.
36. Nasa Niva, 3(1907).
37. Pamiatnik Bortsam Pogibshim za Osvobozhdenie Belorussii (Minsk, 1925), 24-25, 47-48.
38. P. D. Vereshchagin, Krestianskiepereseleniia (Minsk, 1978), 5.
39. Correspondence with Mrs. Halina Siargeeva in Minsk, 1991-92.
40. Mr. Lavon Rydleuski, interview with author, Louvain, Belgium, Sept. 1949.
41. Rev. Ul. Tarasevich, Archives, 1983, Chicago, Christ the Redeemer Church.
42. Mr. Gregory Aronson, interview with author, New York, Sept. 26, 1961.
43. Mr. Vasili Glaskov, interview with author, New York, Dec. 1972.
44. Mr. Janka Nichajonak, interview with author, New York, Aug. 1964.
45. Belarusan National Committee Archives, South River, N. J., Alexander Russak's File.
46. Correspondence with Ms. Ala Peshkova in Minsk, 1994.
Chapter IV: Distribution. First Jobs
It would be an impossible task to provide a sketch map on the distribution of Belarusan immigrants. Such a document was not compiled when the immigrants came to this country, and it would be difficult to reconstruct the precise settlement of Belarusans. What can be done, however, is to draw a general outline of the distribution pattern of Belarusans during the early years of their arrival on America's shores.
Belarusans settled all over the United States from Alaska to Florida; the bulk of them, as part of East European and Slavic emigration, settled in the states between Illinois and New York.(l)
The criteria for choosing a settlement were very simple: the availability of non-skilled jobs, proximity to their landsmen, and the agent's decision as to which port in the United States the emigrant should be sent.
Baltimore, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were the ports of entrance for Belarusan immigrants; only a handful of Belarusans came through the West Coast ports during the post-World War II period. New York was the main gate of entry for the majority of them. First it was the Castle Garden, the principal processing point for many (they called it "Kachaharnia," an extremely modified and tortured form of Castle Garden, meaning in Belarusan translation "furnace"), and later on, from the beginning of the 20th century, it was Ellis Island which received the bulk of Belarusan immigrants.
The first stop for those who did not have addresses to go to was the "Russian Immigrant Home," 347 East 14th Street, New York City, an institution sponsored by the Russian authorities. The home did an effective job of resettling newcomers; statistics and documents show that the majority of the customers of the home were immigrants from Belarusan lands. In fact, a report to the Archbishop Platon from the Rev. Iakov Korchinskii, the director of the home, specifies that "from the opening date, December 5, 1908 to January 8, 1909, all the immigrants came from the Western Provinces of Russia."
The statistics from January 1, 1912 to October 1912 (inclusive) show that "immigrants who came from Ellis Island to the Russian Immigrant Home were as follows: from the Minsk Province-253; the Grodno Province-191; the Volyn Province-189; the Vilna Province-52; the Kiev Province-40; the Podolsk Province-33; Bessarabia-12; the Kovno Province-9; the Lublin Province-8; the Kharkov Province-7; the Mogilev Province-5; the Vitebsk Province-3; the Saratov Province-1; the Tambov Province-L.etc." Obviously, immigrants from Belarus were the predominant patrons of the Home, and the New York-based, Russian-language newspaper Russkii Emigrant is an important source for studying attendance at the Home, as well as the initial distribution of the immigrants.(2)
Jersey City, Elizabeth, Bayonne, the Amboys, Passaic, New Brunswick, and especially Newark were the major stops for Belarusan immigrants on the New Jersey side. Because they knew practically no English at all, getting to the places where their compatriots lived was not an easy task. An interesting episode was told to me by one of these early Belarusans, Mr. Alex Kalotka, who himself arrived in this country in 1908. When, after passing through Ellis Island, he arrived in Newark and asked a policeman "How do I get to the center where my compatriots live?" The policeman began to make signs with a few English words, meaning approximately "Go down the street for about 10 blocks and listen on your right. When you hear songs, that's where the Russians live." Mr. Kalotka managed to find the house and ever since has been very happy and grateful to America.(3)
Assistance in finding jobs was also provided by numerous religious, social, and business groups but most of all through contacts with the compatriots.
It was quite natural that the majority of Belarusans and other East and South European immigrants settled in the eastern and north-central parts of the United States and in the major industrial cities. Because of the urban, cosmopolitan character of the eastern seaboard and the large cities, the economic and social conditions in those places were more favorable for Belarusans and they could adapt more easily to the American way of life.
However, a number of Belarusans also went to farms. The states of New York and New Jersey were especially attractive because of the nature of their crops and because these states had a large population of Polish and Jewish farmers with whom Belarusans had good relations. In New Jersey, for example, Belarusan farmers can be found from the beginning of the century. Here is what is said about one of them: "The first Russian settler to arrive to farming districts in Vineland, N.J. was Serhej Demenenko from the Minsk Province. He started chicken farming. Presently there are about 200 Russian people around him (about 50 families)".(4)
Belarusan farmers were known also in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Ohio, New York, North and South Dakota, Maine, and some even went west and south.(5) Belarusans as well as other East European immigrants went into farming because of intense recruitment programs by numerous companies interested in attracting immigrant-workers to specific regions. South Jersey was one of those areas. The European Colonization Company, based chiefly in the Philadelphia-South Jersey region, was one such company; it attracted Italian and Jewish farmers for the most part, but picked a few East Europeans, Belarusans included, as well.(6) The eastern states, New York and New Jersey in particular, served as places for the recruitment of a labor force for the northern and mid-western states, and many Belarusan immigrants went there.(7) A large number of Belarusans were also recruited for the mines in Pennsylvania, and the industrial centers further west such as Pittsburgh, Homestead, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, and Gary, Indiana.(8)
A fairly good idea of the distribution of Belarusan immigrants can be seen by scanning various Slavic-language and local newspapers.
The presence of Belarusans in industrial regions could be derived from occasional happenings such as this: while visiting the United States in 1958, Nikita Khrushchev went to see the industrial center of the United States-the Pittsburgh Steel region, where he entered the town of Homestead on September 24, 1959. Here is how the event is portrayed by William Serrin:
The workers had been instructed on security and protocol: Don't talk to Khrushchev. Don't try to shake his hand. Stay at a distance. Show respect. Federal agents and police swarmed over the plant. But one worker, a janitor named Dmitri Zastupenevich, was a native of the Soviet Union, and when he saw Khrushchev he became so excited that he suddenly called out to him in Russian. For a moment, Khrushchev was taken aback. Then he quickly walked up to Zastupenevich, who was standing with other workers behind ropes that the security officers had erected. "Where are you from?" Khrushchev asked him in Russian. "Minsk," Zastupenevich replied.
Khrushchev was flabbergasted. What a small world! He was in a steel town in the middle of the United States, and here was a man from the Byelorussian city of Minsk. He grabbed the Soviet foreign minister, Andrei A. Gromyko, and pulled him toward Zastupenevich. "Here's another Byelorussian," Khrushchev said to Zastupenevich, referring to Gromyko. "Hello and good luck," said the always dour Gromyko, showing no enthusiasm.(9)
Some reflections on Belarusans and their distribution in New Jersey and neighboring states are expresed in the correspondence of this author with Mr. M. DeBeck, a first-generation Belarusan-American.(10)
Brother Kipel,
I am retired, nearing 67, and a former newspaperman. My folks were in New Jersey since 1900. We are of Byelo-Russian stock, but Slavonic nonetheless. The Russian-American story is a saga of Byelo-russians, Carpathians, Galicians, Rusyns, Great (Moscow) Russians, and Lemko off-shoots, and even some Ukrainians... Thus, if we are to write on this occasion about Byelo-Russians, it becomes quite a sticky problem... At any rate, the influx of Byelo-Russians, and their kin-folk, started to flow to these shores about 1880 and continued for about one generation until about 1920. But, in that turbulent 40-year period, the influx was heavy; thousands and more thousands, coming through "Casa Garda" (or Castle Garden), at old Battery Park in New York City. These people asked for nothing more than a chance to work. My parents were among these new-comers. They were called "green-horns" but the real meaning was "green-hands." They toiled in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, the oil refineries in New Jersey; in the clay brick yards and pits, the steel mills, railroad gangs, the silk mills of Paterson and thread mills of Passaic, in New Jersey. They worked at Mack Motors in Plainfield; the asbestos factories of Johns-Manville, at Singer Sewing's sprawling complex in Elizabethport, just to mention a few.
During the great strike at the Standard Oil Refinery in Bayonne, in 1915, Russians and Slavonics were caught in the middle. Some 60 per cent of all workers among Standard Oil's 6,000 employees, were Slavs, including very many Belarusans. But they were not responsible for the strike... This writer's father was in that refinery since 1900, working as a tank-builder, riveter, and boiler-maker. In early days the men worked 10 hrs per day and 8 hrs on Saturdays^ for a total of 58 hrs per week. Weekly pay was $14.00. Many friends of my father went to work in Pennsylvania. If we were to run these "Russian-Slavic" people through a very fine sieve and screen them out, to determine who were the Byelo-Russians, we would have to study them by name, viz: these come to mind, covering nearly 70 years: Kalina, Dubinski, Ivanychy, Pavelchuk, Kasarovich, Kabylaz, Semanchik, Lukash, Aleksandrovich-to mention a few who worked at the Standard Oil Refinery in Bayonne, N.J. With the "winds of change," a vast segment of the new breed of "Russian" (Belarusan-Americans) can be found in New Jersey suburbs, especially in Linden, Cranford, Roselle, Westfield, Clark, the Plainfields, etc., etc. But it is almost impossible to identify specifically Belarusan-Americans... However, we must and do acknowledge the great contributions of our kin-folk: Byelo-Russians and other Slavs. We honor our ancestors.
And a few additional remarks on the distribution of Belarusans:
New York City, New York. From 1910 to the early 1920s the Belarusan language was the language of the "Russian masses" from 14th street to Battery Park.(l 1)
Casper, Wyoming. "Myself, I always stay in the prairies: I tend the sheep in the winter and in the summer. My pay is $50 per month plus my keep. During the winter months I sleep in a tent in camp and during the summer I sleep under the sky. I am here already for my third year. During the winter season I don't see too many people. I am always alone with 2,500 sheep and say-the dog, which tends the herd as I tell him to. I lived in Detroit for seven years and this city is as familiar to me as my own house. I used to live at Russell Street and often went to the cooperative restaurant to eat. Unemployment sent me to Wyoming to tend sheep. During the summer, it is not too bad here, but during the winter months, it is rough-freezing, for two days in February, the temperature was-24. Right now it's raining but the grass is already growing. Today I saw an eagle, who had already laid two eggs in her nest. So friends, greetings to all of you and good luck in your work." Casper, Wyoming, Petr Hurynovich. (12)
My inquiries revealed that this ""Russian cowboy" was an immigrant from the Minsk Province and had come to the United States about 1912.
The Belarusan presence in Kansas is evident from statements such as this: "linguistic Europe as represented in Kansas—Russian, White Russian, Ukrainian—Kansas City small settlement."(13)
The following letter is another example of the path followed by immigrants from Belarus. Mr. Hardziej Busko spent many years in Sioux City in the state of Iowa. His wife is also from Sioux City and both of them are revisiting this town after a long separation. This is what he writes:
One doubts that another "Russian colony" such as the colony in Sioux City can be found. In the first place, this colony is characterized by the fact that it consists predominantly of immigrants from the former Minsk province, Slutsk county, the town of Kapyl. The first immigrants came here about 50 years ago. How they got here, no one can explain. From the very beginning they got jobs at the slaughter-house because that was the only industry in town. True, there were jobs on the railroad, but these immigrants did not know enough English and could not get jobs there. The colony began to grow; more people came from Kapyl, wives, fiancees, brothers, et al., everyone came to Sioux City. Soon the colony became the largest "Russian colony" in the Midwest. Later a few immigrants also came from the Grodno province and from Volyn. However, about 80 percent of the immigrants in Sioux City are from the Kapyl and Slutsk regions.(14)
Then the author writes that there was a church and a progressive Russian (meaning Communist-sympathizing— V. K.) organization, which taught their children Russian. Mr. Busko proudly remarks at the end:
But there is an important difference between the Russian colony of Sioux City and other cities. The second and third generations of Belarusans from the Kapyl region have had a college education and the city is very proud of such names as Dr. N. Narejka, Dr. A. Bushmar, lawyers V. Shuminski, N. Ameljanik, and Z. Cvirka. Very many descendants of those immigrants from Kapyl presently hold city and state government jobs, are engaged in politics, etc. The community is very proud of them. Thus, I feel that our Belarusan immigrants have done a very good job, that they deserve recognition and we are very proud of them too. (14)
Belarusans settled also in California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont, Colorado, and other states as well.(15)
Somewhat figuratively, the distribution of early Russian, i.e, Belarusan and Ukrainian, immigrants in this country, chiefly those from the early decades of this century, was discussed in the newspaper Novyi Mir, New York, in an article entitled "The Mirror of our Life in America" :
During our young years we worked in tiny shops which became the major, leading industries of America; we worked in the mines and witnessed the construction of the first shaft and ground construction of those mines; we worked on the railroads and helped to rebuild these one-track lines into multi-track railways from New York to San Francisco, from Chicago to New Orleans; we worked in the fields of the northwest territories cutting trees, cultivating virgin soil, and creating the bread basket of America; we worked in the textile factories of New England and New Jersey and in the silk factories of Pennsylvania; we worked on the tobacco plantations of Connecticut, Virginia, and Kentucky; we built bridges, canals, skyscrapers, prisons, museums, orphanages, and bordellos; we worked in the automotive industry of Detroit's giants; we old-timers, jointly with the complete `international' of other immigrants, have created what has made America the technical leader of the world and have created all the wealth which the Vanderbilts, Morgans, and Fords then took into their hands...(16)
This narrative of a people certainly is hyperbolic and leftist but it reflects a hard-rock reality about the distribution of Slavs, including Belarusans. Throughout America there is scarcely an industry, region, or community, where one cannot find traces of a Belarusan peasant immigrant.
Statements about the distribution of Slavic immigrants, including the so-called "Russian group", i.e., Belarusans and Ukrainians, were made by many early scholars of Slavic immigration. Numerous authors even tried to make an estimate about "The Russians" in various cities and states.
Edward A. Ross wrote about the distribution of the Slavic immigrants as follows:
When, about fifteen years ago, the great Slav invasion began, the American frontier was remote, shrunken, and forbidding. The newcomers were not in quest of cheap land, independence, so much as of paying jobs from which they might hoard "big money" and return, well off, to their homes. They gravitated, therefore, to the mining, metal-working, and packing centers, where there was a demand for unlimited quantities of raw labor, provided always it be cheap. So these sturdy peasant lads came to be Nibelungs, "sons of the gloom," haunting our coal-pits, blast-furnaces, coke-ovens, smelters, foundries, steelmills, and metal refineries, doing rough, coarse work under skilled men who, as one foreman said to me, "don't want them to think, but to obey orders"... For these manful Slavs no work is too toilsome and dangerous. Their fatalistic acceptance of risk has much to do with the excessive blood-cost of certain of our industries. They are not "old-clo" men, junk-dealers, hucksters, peddlers, and snappers-up of unconsidered trifles, as are some of the people among us. They have no nose for the small, parasitic trades, but with a splendid courage they tackle the heavy, necessary tasks. Large of body, hard-muscled, and inexpert in making his head save his heels, the Slav becomes the unskilled laborer in the basic industries. (17)
F. Hess, in analyzing jobs which "Russians", [i.e., Belarusans and Ukrainians— V.K.], took writes:
But the average Russian immigrants who came to the United States before World War I were, like the Slovaks and Jugoslavs, peasants, for the most part from primitive surroundings. The condition of these people in America has been, and is, more miserable than almost any of our other immigrants. Because of the almost unremitting oppression at home, they have accepted unquestionably the worst that America has to offer and have done the meanest of the mean work in connection with our gigantic man-eating industries. (18)
Carl Wittke has said:
The Russians who came during the last generation went into industry, into the coal and steel areas, into lumber and fishing farther west, or into fruit-growing regions of California and Florida.(19)
Interesting remarks about the distribution of Belarusans in the United States were made by Mr. Sciapan Bubeshka, a Belarusan who established himself as an authoritative leader among Belarusan and other Slavic immigrants in New York City during the first decades of the century. Mr. Bubeshka writes:
... because the Jewish immigrants settled mostly in the large cities, our people also intermingled with Jews in New York, Chicago, and other cities. It should be noted that many Belarusans learned Yiddish and live very harmoniously with their Jewish neighbors. Belarusans in New York, about 15,000 of them, work mostly in the garment industry. The Belarusan colony in Chicago is also large; Belarusans there work mostly in the slaughterhouses. An impressive number of Belarusans live in Pittsburgh and Detroit where they are employed in the steel mills and automotive industries respectively. Very many Belarusans have settled in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Belarusans are employed in these states in paper manufacturing, textile industries, brickmaking and cement factories. Belarusan immigrants went also in mining, railroads, construction, and agriculture. In all these areas there are good Belarusan specialists, who could be useful for Belarus. (20)
Attempts were even made to represent the distribution of "Russian" immigrants numerically by localities. Here are a few statistical data:
Boston. The City has about 15,000 "Russian people" chiefly from the western provinces of the Empire.(21)
Mr. F. F. Kuntsevich, widely-known leader of the "Russian colony" in New York City, himself a Belarusan, has been attempting to organize a viable Russian-American Democratic Club and estimated the number of "Russian" people at about 80,000.(22)
The Russian-American Guide, a reference book, gave the following data on the "Russian population": New York City-over 125,000; Pennsylvania-about 80,000; New Jersey-about 40,000; Illinois-30,000; Massachusetts-20,000; Ohio-20,000; Michigan-over 15,000.(23)
A very detailed statistical breakdown by states of the "Russian immigration" in the United States from 1905 to 1911 is provided in the Russian-American Yearbook, compiled by Ivan K. Okuntsov.(24) These numbers are, of course, only approximate estimates, reflecting nevertheless, the general trend and extent of distribution.
The geographical diffusion of Belarusan immigrants was primarily governed by the availability of jobs. This is certainly a positive characteristic for the group. These immigrants did not possess any technical skills, did not know the language, were in a completely different cultural environment and yet they were not afraid of any job, any place. It is not exactly an entrepreneurial attribute, but certainly a pioneering feature so typical of hundreds of thousands of them. As one contemporaneous observer remarked: "Very plain Belarusan is totally transformed in America."(25) A distinctive trait of these immigrants is also that they did not stay at their first jobs too long. As soon as they learned the basic skills, made friends, became somewhat familiar with the language and the country—they moved on, got better jobs, and began on their path of upward mobility in American society. This author has had a chance to talk to "old-timers" who changed their places of residence ten to fifteen times, and worked at dozens of different jobs.
The distribution of Belarusan immigrants in the interwar and post-World War II period bore some similarity to that of their countrymen of the pre-World War I wave. However, following an initial stage, the immigrants of post-World War II have tended to gather together and to form new Belarusan organizations.
o NOTES
1. T. J. Archdeacon, Becoming American. An Ethnic History (New York: The Free Press, 1983), 141.
2. The Orthodox Church of America. Dept. of History and Archives, Syosset, N.Y. File: Russian Immigrant Home, New York, Section XI: Correspondence.
3. A. Kalotka, interview with author, Egg Harbor City, N. J., July 1972.
4. I. Okuntsov. Russkaia emigratsiia v Severnoi i Iuzhnoi Amerike (Buenos Aires, 1967), 154.
5. L. Hodges, Slavs on Southern Farms (Washington, D. C, 1914, U. S. Senate Doc.no. 595), 21.
6. D. Osborae, interview with author, Egg Harbor City, N. J., September 1961.
7. Holy Ascension of Christ Orthodox Church ,65th Anniversary, (Albion, Michigan, 1981), 3.
8. P. Robert, "The Slavs in the Anthracite Coal Communities," Charities, 13(10), 1904:215-222.
9. W. Serrin, Homestead. The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town (New York: Random House, 1992), 295.
10. M. DeBeck, correspondence with author, December 22, 1976.
11. Interviews with A. Alashkievich and F. Kryuko, New York City, March 1960.
12. Amerikanskie izvestiia, Detroit, April 1, 1938.
13. N. Carman, Foreign-language Units in Kansas (Lawrence: Univ. of Kansas Press, 1962), 66.
14. Russkii Golos, New York, August 27, 1956.
15. Byelorussian American Association, New York, Archives. File on Belarusan geographical distribution.
16. Novyi Mir, New York, January 17, 1936.
17. E. A. Ross, "The Slavs in America," The Century Magazine, 88(1914): 597-98.
18. F. Hess, High Adventure (NewYork, 1925), 118.
19. С. Wittke, We Who Built America (New York, 1939), 428.
20. S. Bubeshka, Belarusy и Amerycy (Vilnia: RodnyKraj, 1921), 197-98.
21. Nauka i Zhizn, New York, September 1923, 19.
22. Russkii Golos, New York, December 10, 1925.
23. V. D. Krymskii, The Russian American Guide, (New York., 1934), 189.
24. I. Okuntsov, compiler, Russko-Amerikanskii Spravochnik (New York, 1913), 127-33.
25. Russkii Emigrant, New York, May 23, 1913.
Chapter V: Initial Contacts with Organizations and the Beginning of Ethnic Awareness
It is difficult to determine when Belarusans began to join organizations such as fraternities, clubs, and societies. Individual immigrants, especially those who had achieved some education, became members of various groups as early as the 19th century.
The circumstances were very different with the immigrants who came during the mass emigration from Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century. These were uneducated, often almost illiterate peasants, without any notion of organizational life, civic or political activities.(l) At the point when such an immigrant began to become involved in this country, following a typically unpleasant experience—the first encounter with the administrative bureaucracies at the place of departure, and the port of entry—the immigrant found himself in a totally different environment, whose culture contrasted from the one he had left. He found himself faced with new, alien concepts—such as organizations—as well as many other new structures in American society. The situation was aggravated by the linguistic barriers posed by his new home, which added to a sense of loneliness and insecurity, and the desire to be with one's own people. Thus, after the necessary initial contacts with officialdom, the immigrant's voluntary association with the English-speaking community remained very limited. Immigrants lived among their own countrymen. They shopped occasionally at a small grocery or a clothing store, often owned by a Jewish immigrant from Belarus or Ukraine or Poland who had come to this country a few years before they had; they frequented saloons where the bartender, as a rule, had mastered a few words from the Slavic lexicon to please his Slavic customers. Many restaurants and saloons even adopted Slavic and Belarusan names: Grodno Tavern in Chicago, Minsk Restaurant in Detroit, Kobrin and Belorussia Restaurants in New York, etc. (2)
A similar situation existed at the shop: his contacts at work were mostly with his own countrymen or immigrants whose backgrounds, were similar to his. The immigrant's communication with his foreman consisted typically of just a few words. These immigrants, Belarusans and other East Europeans, lived in self-imposed physical and psychological ghettos and were, apparently, happy with such an arrangement. The immigrant's encounter with the wider world, no matter how limited it may have been, was through the parish, organizations affiliated with the church, and the labor unions. Other organizations came across his horizon later on.
o Religious Contacts
Religious organizations constitute the oldest type of societies which immigrants joined in substantial numbers. Joining the church was almost an automatic step for the majority of Belarusan immigrants. However, a good portion of the immigrants did so not necessarily out of religious sentiments, but out of a regard for tradition and the need to belong to a community.
Belarusans are generally a religious people, but they can not be characterized as regular church-goers, especially the men. They tend, as a rule, to be critical of the clergy. This characteristic of Belarusans was evident even in the United States among the immigrants. An example of this attitude is a communication from Chicago: "Here in the North Side are very many Russians, mainly from the Minsk province. They call the priests names and treat the socialists with contempt and ridicule."(3) Such an attitude toward the clergy has an historical background: for over the years, clergymen in Belarus were, for the most part, ethnic Poles or Russians.
The choice of religious jurisdictions with which a Belarusan immigrant could affiliate was very limited in the United States. The immigrant was faced with a well-organized, extensive net of Polish Roman Catholic Churches on the one hand; and Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions, influenced and controlled by the Russians on the other. Thus, Belarusan immigrants of the Roman Catholic Faith joined Polish and, occasionally, Lithuanian parishes; while those of the Orthodox Faith attended Russian parishes, in some places joining Carpatho-Rusyn or Ukrainian congregations.
The Polish Roman Catholic Church was vehemently opposed to the manifestation of any ethnicity other than Polish in the context of church activities. Thus, Belarusans who joined Polish Roman Catholic parishes were destined to be uprooted from their ethnicity and assimilated into the Polish-American group. The Polish Roman Catholic clergy pursued an active, conscious, and effective policy of Polonization. The Polish clergy considered all Roman Catholics from Belarusan lands as Poles and Catholicism east of Poland was considered to be a Polish matter. One prominent Polish-American writer noted: "The Catholic religion was the main permanent feature of Poles in America."(4) The Polish clergyman simply denied the presence of Belarusans within their flocks and systematically refused to use the term Belarus or Belarusans. One monsignor, the pastor of a Roman Catholic parish which included many known Belarusans among its pioneer-founders, and which today includes many conscious Belarusan Catholics, responded to my inquiry, "Most of the families came from Mala Polska, Wilno."(5) The 50th and the 75th anniversary volumes of the same parish, without devoting a single line to the many Belarusans pioneers of the parish, proudly boasts: "The Polish immigrants, under the watchful guidance of Polish-speaking priests, soon began to feel at home."(6) However, as this author discovered in numerous interviews, periodic attempts were made within some Polish parishes to keep the Belarusans together and to form circles of landsmen from Grodno, Vilna, and other Belarusan cities and provinces.(7) It is a fact that even within the Polish Roman Catholic jurisdiction there were a few Roman Catholic priests who manifested their non-Polish ethnic identity. It is significant that Rev. W. Kruszka, a distinguished student of Polish Americana felt it necessary to specify the ethnic background of some of the Roman Catholic priests within the Polish-American Roman Catholic structure. Thus, Rev. Kruszka notes: Rev. Feliks Motulewski, a Litwin was one of the founders of the parish of St. Anthony, Toledo, Ohio; Rev. Stupinski, a Litwin, founded the parish of St. Kazimir in Shenandoah, Pa.; Rev. Antoni Sikorski, born in Navahradak (present central Belarus) did take part in the uprising of 1863 and then was exiled to Siberia, lived in Smolensk, and helped very much the Uniate Church in the home country. He was the parish priest in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Rev. Kruszka writes also that many parishioners in Roman Catholic Churches in Mt. Carmel, Pa.; Everson, Pa.; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Worcester, Massachusetts; the parish in the township Vilna in Minnesota, and a few other places came from territories such as Suvalki, Grodno, Vilna, Minsk, etc., i.e., Belarusan lands. Obviously, thousands of parishioners and very many clergy in so-called Polish churches have Belarusan roots.(8)
The Russian Orthodox Church was opposed to Belarusan ethnicity no less than the Polish Roman Catholic Church. However, the Orthodox Belarusans had some advantages over their Roman Catholic brothers in America.
First of all, Orthodox Belarusans were more numerous than Belarusans of the Roman Catholic faith. Thus, it was more difficult to Russify this large number. Secondly, it was only in a few large American cities that the Orthodox parishes had any significant number of ethnic ("Great") Russians and there were no large communities of Russians into which Belarusans could be absorbed and assimilated. The Poles in America, however, numbered in the millions. Thirdly, the Russian Orthodox priests, many of whom were themselves not Great Russians, but Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns, and even Georgians, were also not as sophisticated as the Roman Catholic clergy; nor did they have such strict control over their parishioners' activities outside of the parish. While there was a conscious policy among the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America (the present-day Orthodox Church of America-OCA) to Russify their parishioners, the clergy recognized that their flock often included Belarusans, Carpatho-Rusyns, or Ukrainians, and these various backgrounds are in many instances enumerated by name in anniversarial volumes published by the parishes. It is interesting to note a significant shift in the use of terminology pertaining to the backgrounds of the parishioners. In 1906, the organ of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States, Amerikanski Pravoslavnyi Vestnik (Vol. 10, no. 1, January 1906, p. 10) speaks of their parish in South River, N.J. as made up, "almost exclusively of Russians coming from our north-western provinces." In 1980, the 75th anniversary book says quite clearly that "The particular area of Russia upon which we focus is the province of Vilna in Belarus where most of the church founders originally resided."(9) Thus, gradually, the Russian Orthodox Church, a very powerful tool for Russifying Belarusans, Ukrainians, and Carpatho-Rusyns over the centuries, has slightly shifted from its ideological commitment to Russification, as Americanization has become a priority in the United States. The church leadership was unable to uproot Belarusan ethnic consciousness totally, although it inflicted enormous damage on the Belarusans by denial, rejection, belittling, or hostility towards their ethnicity. Many of these Orthodox Belarusans became an "ethnic mass" under the banner of the "Russian Orthodox Church." An illustrative recent episode is appropriate: at an ethnic fair in Baltimore there was a stand entitled "Russian Orthodox Church" without any specific ethnicity. When a visitor attempted to specify the ethnicity of this stand, an enlightened Belarusan clarified that this banner included Belarusan immigrants who did not know who they were ethnically.(10) At the same time however, for many Belarusan immigrants the Russian Orthodox Church was the first acquaintance with any expression of the Orthodox faith on American soil and many of them who remained within the jurisdiction of this Church became very active, contributing considerably to the development of Orthodoxy in America. Belarusan immigrants were in many places the organizers of the parishes and the builders of the Orthodox churches. Thus Belarusans were pioneers of establishing Orthodox parishes in Denver, Colorado; the Holy Trinity Church in New Britain, Connecticut; Sioux City, Iowa; the Church of the Resurrection and the St. Andrew's Orthodox Church in Baltimore, Maryland; the Holy Trinity Church in Boston, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in Chelsea, Massachusetts; the Orthodox Churches in Albion, Detroit, and Flint, Michigan; Claremont, New Hampshire's Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church; the Orthodox parishes in Alpha, Newark, Manville, Passaic, Trenton, South River, and Garfield, New Jersey; Orthodox parishes in Brownsville, Rochester, and Syracuse, New York; SS. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Boswell, the Holy Trinity Church in Pottstown, the Orthodox Church in Bethlehem, and several churches around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Orthodox parish in Springfield, Vermont.(ll) The list could go on and on. In fact, one will find in most industrial American cities, and probably in every state of the Union where there is an "East European" Eastern Orthodox Church and population, that Belarusan immigrants were among the pioneers in establishing parishes and building churches.(12)
It is a well known fact that Belarusan immigrants joined other religious Christian jurisdictions also.
Here is an interesting case. The Reverend Aleksandr Gromtsev, submitting an annual report to Archbishop Evdokim of the Aleutian Islands and North America, dated March 26, 1916, comments on the situation in Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Church in Kansas City, Kansas, as follows: "The Russian immigrants do not join the Serbian Orthodox Parish in this city, but instead they joined the Roman Catholic Parish, and many families are known to have converted formally to Roman Catholicism."(13) And a different detail concerning conversions in a Roman Catholic Parish in New Britain, Connecticut.
In September, 1895, Rev. Lucyan Bojnowski from the province of Grodno (Poland under Russian domination) was appointed rector of the parish...The people in New Britain, who come for the most part from Russian Poland, some from Galicia, the smallest number from under German domination...From 1896 to 1902 Priest Bojnowski converted to the Roman Catholic Faith 1 Jew, 1 Jewish woman, 4 Protestants, 2 members of the Old Russian Church, and 22 Greek Orthodox Russians, but in spite of all his teachings and efforts he has not yet succeeded in converting even one perverted Catholic Pole..."(14)
Obviously, in both cases one speaks about Belarusan immigrants: no Russian would consider converting to Roman Catholicism. The case in New Britain illustrates that a Belarusan-born Roman Catholic priest was able to speak to his compatriots, and to convince them to join his parish. Rev. Lucyan Bojnowski was born in 1867 in Grodno, in Sakolka district, parish of Dabrowsk.(15)
The fact that East European immigrants of Orthodox faith, most probably Belarusans, joined the Roman Catholic Church in America is documented in other sources. The Eastern Churches Quarterly wrote in 1942:
It is true that many of these immigrants from Europe, when they were living in the New World, lost their faith or no longer practiced it, or were converted to the Latin part of the Catholic Church.(16)
Conversion to Protestantism is also a known fact. This phenomenon was not unknown in the past; and it took place in the United States as well. Here are a few examples. It was noted already by Rev. Kruszka when a Belarusan-Lithuanian Roman-Catholic priest converted to Baptism, (op. cit. no. 15)
Scranton, Pa. The majority of the people here are from the city of Chernigov, however, others are from Volyn, Minsk, and Mogilev provinces. All of them are almost illiterate peasants and very simple people. Many of the Russian immigrants join the Baptists and become Protestants. Their behavior improves.(17)
An interesting piece of information concerning religious affiliations was provided to me (V.K.) by an American-born Belarusan, Mr. Michael DeBeck, an Eastern Orthodox Christian first, then a member of a Protestant congregation. He writes:
"We did, indeed, belong to the First Russian Church in Bayonne, New Jersey, viz., St. John, as of 1894. It was first—St. John, The Apostolic Russian Church. Then, a change of priests, and, also adoption of Byzantine Rite. So, my father went with a group who founded St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Bayonne, New Jersey... Russians-Belarusians, now, mostly third and fourth generation Americans belong also to Sts. Peter and Paul Carpatho-Rusyn and St. Mary's Greek Catholic parishes."(18)
Another case of conversion to Protestantism, this time from Roman Catholicism was brought to my attention by R.A. Pohowski, a Senior Exploration Geologist with Shell Petroleum Co. in Malaysia, whose genealogical research brought him in contact with the Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences. He communicates:
I am connected to Belarus via my father, Alexander Pohowsky, Jr. (physician, born 31 August 1916 in Scranton, PA). His father was Alexander Pohowsky (coal miner, born 25 July 1876 or 27 July 1879 in the village of Kuplin, Grodno district, Belarus.
Surprisingly, little concrete information has surfaced concerning my father's mother Paulina Gevrova, perhaps Kevra. Her daughter, Paulina, thinks she may have been born in Vilna region, but this is uncertain. It is known that she and Alex (Sr.) were married by John Koleshnikov in Scranton in 1906. The same minister converted my grandfather from Catholicism to the Baptist faith in 1904. "(19)
How many Belarusan immigrants converted from Eastern Orthodoxy to other forms of Christianity? This question is hard to answer, as it needs specialized research. But this author suspects that desertions of Belarusan immigrants from the Eastern Orthodox Church, and their assimilation into broader American society, with a complete rupture of ties to Orthodoxy and ethnicity became a widespread phenomenon, supported at present by dozens of acquaintances with the parishioners of small Protestant congregations in many communities in New Jersey, New York, and Ohio.
Membership in a parish was not only the first acquaintance with an organizational structure for the first East European immigrants, including Belarusans, but the parish hall was, as a rule, the center of social life for an immigrant: weddings, christenings, anniversaries, etc. took place there, as well as many new organizational activities.
Affiliated with the church were Brotherhoods, Sisterhoods, Landsmen Circles, and small Mutual Aid Societies which were established in many Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well as in Roman Catholic parishes. Such church-affiliated groups were important for the Belarusan Immigrants as was noted in the press:
In Passaic, New Jersey, there are many Poles and Russians from the Western provinces. These people live as they were in the seventeenth century rather than the twentieth. They show no interest in anything... They live by their grandfathers' and great-grandfathers' thinking. They do not recognize other organizations except religious brotherhoods.(20)
Boston sheltered approximately 15,000 Russian people... predominantly those who were born in the Western provinces. Prior to the revolution the entire life of the colony centered around the church. There were no other organizations.(21)
Russian population of the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, is relatively small, about 120-200 families; mostly these are immigrants from the Minsk and Grodno provinces. They are all centered around the Church; there are no other Russian organizations.(22)
Gradually, these small, church-affiliated brotherhoods and mutual aid groups united within the same religious jurisdiction, and expanded their activities to include not only church members but all their landsmen. In this way were started such large organizations as the Russian Orthodox Catholic Society of Mutual Aid in America, established 1890; the Holy Mother of God Society, established 1893; the Society of the Russian Brotherhoods, established 1900; the Russian Orthodox Society, established 1912, and many similar groups in different parts of the country.(23)
The absolute majority of the membership of these organizations were Carpafho-Rusyns, Belarusans, and Ukrainians. However, as time passed, the Ukrainians were able to enlighten their compatriots in Ukrainian awareness, which resulted in the establishment of independent Ukrainian national organizations.
This was a very significant achievement for the Ukrainians in America. Because of their lack of cadres, the Belarusans were not able to do so.
Many of these originally church-affiliated organizations survive in one form or another today. Their membership consists of thousands of second and third generation Americans to whom the appelation "Belarusan" should be added.
o Labor Unions
The new immigrant's contact with unions occurred at the work place. However, in contrast to the Jewish immigrants who came from Belarus and became active builders of American unionism, Belarusan immigrants were not the greatest supporters of the labor movement. They were not yet ready to join the movement. The labor movement was for the Belarusan masses someone else's organization, not theirs, and they felt more at ease with Russian-speaking groups which were mostly of a socialist or anarchist stripe. A Belarusan-American activist, contemporaneous with this immigration, expressed his opinion about the Belarusans and their attitude toward unions:
Belarusans work in many industries; they work very hard but earn very little. The reason for this is that our people are not interested in the labor movement, they have not joined unions and are not organized; thus, their salaries are very low. This makes them unhappy about the United States. They do not speak English, although they have been living in the United States for many years. They are as removed from American culture as their compatriots residing in the Minsk or Grodno provinces. "(24)
An American student of the labor movement, L. Levine, said about the East European immigrant workers:
For a while, these immigrants, upon their arrival in the United States, maintained a critical attitude toward the trade unions. Compared to the revolutionary movement of Europe, the American Federation of Labor seemed tame and insipid... To many of these immigrants, especially to those who came from Russia, even the Socialist Party of America and the anarchist group here seemed devoid of a true revolutionary spirit. The majority of these immigrants, therefore, kept aloof from the "American movement." They maintained their interest chiefly in things Russian and joined various organizations which in one way or another aimed to help the Russian Revolution.(25)
Although not enthusiastic about unionism, Belarusan immigrants began to join many unions at an early stage. The first Belarusans to join the unions were the miners in Pennsylvania. These Belarusans, working closely with the Lithuanians, Poles, and other East Europeans, many of whom were supportive of the labor movement, joined the locals.
However, the most sizeable groups of Belarusan immigrants joined unions in large industrial cities: Akron, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, etc.
In several industries, a few union locals were even organized by Belarusans, among them the wreckers unions, and the garment industry locals in Brooklyn (Brownsville area).(26) The Russian-Polish Local 103 of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in New York City was organized by Belarusans in 1913.(27) Belarusan immigrants were active in the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, in the Boot and Shoe Workers Union, in the needle trade unions, and in the automotive industries' unions.
One Belarusan, an active union organizer and union official, Volodia Tatarchik, was killed for his labor activities in New York City. Racial overtones—Orthodox Jews vs. East Europeans—were not excluded. Tatarchik's funeral was a manifestation in support of the union and the socialist movement. Here is how the Russian-language newspaper described this event:
No less than 10,000 people came to the funeral: Jews, Russians, and other workers. At the head of the procession was a red flag and a long line of union officials. All the speeches emphasized the uncompromising devotion of Volodia Tatarchik to the cause of the working people. The union suggested a collection for a monument.(28)
Volodia Tatarchik was from the town of Kapyl in central Belarus, in the Sluck region, and one of the speakers at the funeral was Sciapan Bubeshka, who addressed his speech to his countrymen, Belarusans.(29)
More Belarusan immigrants joined the unions during the 1930s and 1940s, although the spirit of unionism was never espoused totally by the early Belarusan immigrants. The documentation in Joel Seidman's book The Needle Trades, provides a survey of union membership in the New York Metropolitan area in 1937, revealing that out of 5,720 members, only 93 were "Russians".(30)
Those who joined the unions were obedient followers of the rules and regulations and did take part in numerous major strikes such as the Homestead Steel strike in Pennsylvania in 1892, numerous strikes in the coal region, Pennsylvania, the Chicago strike in 1904, the strikes in Paterson and Bayonne, New Jersey, and many others.
As compared to their "older" compatriots, the new Belarusan immigrants-those who came after World War II - fully understood the significance of unionism, and they joined the unions immediately, although they were reluctant to adhere to the pro-leftist sympathies of some of the unions.
o Insurance-Self Assistance Organizations
Among the various things that America taught the immigrants, one of the most far-reaching in its consequences was life insurance. This concept caught on with the Belarusan immigrants, as well as with other -immigrant groups. The experience of ethnic groups in America suggests that at the moment when an ethnic organization becomes an insurance organization, it takes a giant step toward Americanization. It becomes a business rather than a programmatic group. Its survival, if managed properly, is guaranteed by an ever-increasing membership, because, as a rule, parents buy insurance policies for their children—ironically, in order to keep them closer to their ethnic roots. These organizations are also subject to federal and state controls and are fully accountable to their membership. Insurance organizations, which include the term "Russian" as part of their official name, and with a very large percentage of Belarusan immigrants among their members, are numerous.
The insurance organizations to which many Belarusans belonged were the Russian Circle of Mutual Aid, established in New York City in 1872; the Oshmener Brothers Mutual Aid and Benevolent Association, established in New York City in 1882; the Minsk Mutual Aid Society, the Young Men's Commercial Association, and the Russian Workmen Education Society (called also the Minsk Workmen Society), all formed around the turn of the century mostly by Jewish immigrants from Belarus which also accepted their Belarusan landsmen into membership.
Numerous local mutual-aid groups and insurance organizations were established in association with religious bodies such as various Eastern Orthodox churches. Most of them were short-lived, while others lasted longer.
The first joint Belarusan-Ukrainian insurance organization was established in Michigan in 1913.(31).
Belarusan immigrants in New York City established the Russian-Slavic Self-Assistance Society in 1915, one of the founders of which was Mr. Sciapan Bubeshka, a nationally conscious Belarusan.(32)
In most cases, however, ethnic-centered insurance organizations were not long-lived. Belarusans did not establish any such group which would survive; for the most part, they joined mainstream American insurance companies, with only a small number belonging to groups of Ukrainian or "Slavic" heritage.
o Cultural-Political Organizations
Although Belarusan immigrants of the beginning of the century were psychologically and intellectually removed from any notion of belonging to a political organization, the American environment and their contacts with other nationalities exerted an enormous educational influence on them. Gradually, the need developed to belong to a civic group, to be part of a broader society. Unfortunately for the Belarusans, a national leadership which would formulate goals for a Belarusan organization was lacking. Thus, the groups most accessible to the immigrants were those which spoke a language close enough to be understood and which promoted ideals which could be readily grasped, e.g., the economic problems of one's native village, the oppressive regime of the tsar as compared to the American political structure, and so forth. It was completely natural, under these circumstances, that Belarusans began to join Russian-speaking and occasionally Polish-speaking groups. Such cultural and political groups were numerous. The Slavic Society of New York, established in the 1830s was apparently one of the first groups with some political ideals to which individual Belarusan immigrants belonged.(33) Individual Belarusans also belonged to the Russian Pan-Slavic Society in San Francisco, established in 1867; and still later, to the Greek-Russian-Slavic Society of which Dr. N. Sudzilouski-Russell was elected a vice president.(34)
The Russian-Slavic political groups became numerous toward the end of the 19th century, and these organizations mushroomed during the early decades of the 20th century. Organizations which adhered to socialist ideologies were most apt to attract Belarusan immigrants, but anarchist groups also boasted a substantial Belarusan membership. Such organizations included the Russian Social Democratic Society, established in New York City in 1890 with branches active in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston and other large cities ; the Union of Russian Social Democratic Organizations, established in New York City in 1907 with local chapters having Belarusan geographical names such as: the Social Democratic Society of Minsk... of Pinsk... of Borisov... of Dvinsk, or the Bobrujsk Workmen's Circle. Then, during the first two decades of this century many dozens of similar groups were formed, including political federations such as the Latvian, Ukrainian, etc. socialist parties.(35) The leadership of these groups made an enormous effort to recruit members into their organizations. This was especially true after the year of 1905, when immigrants from the Russian Empire began to arrive in large numbers. The geographical names used for titles of these organizations was certainly attractive to newly-arrived immigrants. One of the most active and militant groups during this period was the Union of Russian Workers. This organization began in the New York City-Newark industrial region in 1907-09, and within just a few years it succeeded in forming about 200 active chapters throughout the country.(36) These organizations served as the base for establishing the Russian Social Democratic Revolutionary Party (RSDRP). While the overt aim of these groups was to assist new immigrants, an unpublicized objective of the leadership was to build a financial base for providing assistance to the Russian revolutionaries in the homeland. However, intellectually, these immigrants, members of various socialist-anarchist groups, were not the material that the Russian socialist leadership had expected. They were peasants, not proletarians ready to fight, prepared to carry the banner of "the class struggle." They had to be enlightened, educated, and indoctrinated in order to be of any assistance or use in revolutionary activities. The leadership, however, embarked on the complex task of molding these farm lads into militant revolutionaries. A Russian socialist leader, Riabchenko, writes in his memoirs that an intense struggle developed between Russian officialdom—whose surrogate in the United States was the Russian Orthodox Church—and the Russian socialists for influence and control over the arriving masses of peasants. "It was not an easy job," recalls Riabchenko, "because for the most part these were peasants from non-Russian territories and Jews from the Pale. The Jewish immigrants came under the influence of the Jewish socialists and began to follow their instructions. The peasant immigrant did not care about revolutionary ideas, but rather, was concerned about jobs, saving some money, and going back to the old country to acquire land and be a landowner."(37) Another Russian socialist activist, Limar, made the following analysis of the membership of the Union of Russian Workers:
One can establish three types of members in the organization: (a) proletarians; (b) hungry proletarians, i.e., those members who are looking primarily for jobs and satisfying their physiological needs; and (c) those whose purpose is to acquire land and property.(38)
This description of the last segment of their membership was characteristic of Belarusan immigrants.
A different Jewish-Russian-American intellectual and leader of the Russian American colony analyzing this period wrote:
After the abortive revolution of 1905, a number of active revolutionaries escaped to this country and almost simultanously there began a great exodus of peasants from starving squalid villages of Byelorussia... The Russian peasants who were already here were hostile to us political emigres..."(39)
An impressionistic observation—though one not flattering to Belarusans-about these recently-arrived immigrants was expressed in the newspaper Russkii Golos in an article entitled "Let us close ranks, American-Russians":
The Russian colony numbers about 300,000 members. The majority of them are peasants from the North-Western Territory. They have come from the most unenlightened, uncultured, and backward region. They wandered here in America in mines, forests, far-away shops, farms, and plantations. With great pain they learned to write, read, and think. The socialists did not approach them. They were ignored. Consequently, many of them became swallowed up in the hands of Orthodox priests. (40)
It is debatable as to how many of these Belarusan immigrants remained with church-related societies, but one should not underestimate the number who became involved with political groups. The socialists and anarchists attracted thousands and thousands of Belarusans: they opened hundreds of schools and education classes, provided instructional and reading materials, and implanted into these shy and uneducated people a sense of human dignity and individual pride. A somewhat typical example of the work habits, intellectual level, and the purpose for joining the organization is described in an interview with a couple of Belarusan immigrants involved in the deportation procedure.
Naum Stepanauk of Brest-Litovsk: he was a farm worker in Russia. He seldom read newspapers, but no scientific or technical books. When he immigrated to the United States he went to New Castle, Pennsylvania, to the address of a man whom he knew. Then he spent three years in the mines at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, from there he went to Roderfield, West Virginia, and then to the farms in Kansas. He also worked in a shop in Ohio and in the smelters and mines of Pueblo, Colorado. In Akron, Ohio, he had a job with the Goodrich Rubber Company. His average wage was twenty-four dollars a week. Stepanauk is a member of the Federation of Unions of Russian Workers. He said that his purpose of joining the organization was to educate himself further, and he said that one of the objectives was to teach men Russian language as well as English, because very many members of the organization cannot read Russian. When asked why it would be of value to them to know Russian, he replied "so that workers may understand life, their own lives."(41)
Another Belarusan immigrant, Nikolai Volosuk, from the Grodno province, also a member of the Federation of Unions of Russian Workers said that in his leisure time he attended a self-educational school, where he learned about botany, forestry, where coal comes from, and how it is formed.
Undoubtedly, during the period from 1905 to 1917-18, the socialists and anarchists enlightened thousands upon thousands of these former primitive and uneducated souls and succeeded in transforming many of them into aggressive revolutionary proletarians, who caused considerable unrest among East European immigrant workers, especially Slavs in numerous industrial regions of the country. The Russian Orthodox Church did not altogether lose the straggle for influence over the East Slav Orthodox masses, but it unquestionably lost many thousands of its former subjects.
This period witnessed the formation of dozens of societies with programs and goals centered on cultural and educational activities. The Znanie Society (Knowledge) was established in Boston, Nauka (Science) and Chekhov Society in New York, a Landsmen Circle in Philadelphia, Russian Educational Society in Denver, Colorado, and similar groups were formed in Chicago, Detroit, Gary, Indiana, Newark, New Jersey, and other industrial cities and towns.(42) Members of these organizations were mostly Belarusans, Ukrainians, and Carpatho-Rusyns, but ethnic Great Russians, and Russian Jews, who were totally Russified culturally, played an important role by occupying leadership positions. The political-ideological outlook of these organizations was diversified, the majority being of socialist-anarchist views, but there were many groups of the rightist, pro-tsarist philosophies as well. However, all these new organizations had one element in common: they were all pro-Russian, and the goal of Russification of the immigrant masses was one of the first of their objectives. Borisov, one of the leaders of the New York organization, Nauka, provides an interesting account about the origin and background of the membership of this organization:
Difficult social and economic conditions of our people forced us to find new ways to improve the situation. Although there were Russian organizations in New York City already, the Cathedral on East 97th Street and the political club on East Broadway, these groups were headed by lawyers and doctors. Their language was not understood by the Russian immigrant masses, and the immigrants did not fit the outlook and the social milieu of the existing organizations... We must recognize that the absolute majority of our supporter and co-workers during the first years of the organization were peasant-immigrants from the Grodno, Vilna, and Volyn provinces.(43)
So, the Nauka Society was established. It is hard to tell with certitude how many educational classes, schools, libraries (and even peoples' university in Chicago) were established, but they certainly numbered in the hundreds. An extraordinary and successful effort was made to enroll the younger generation in these schools. But these educational groups continued to perform the same task as the tsarist Russian administration was doing in the homeland: Russification in the first place. The experience in Russification gained in the old country was again applied in the United States, and both segments of Russian society-i.e., the rightists and the leftists-were trying to Russify Belarasan immigrants and their children.
A general overview of various "Russian" organizations in the United States during the first and second decades of the century was made by E. L. Omelchenko, an official of the Russian government, and a member of the Extraordinary Russian Mission in the United States in 1917.
The bulk of Russian immigrants belong to organizations called "Union of Russian Workers (Soiuz Russkikh Rabochikh) or similar titles. These organizations exist in most industrial cities and towns throughout the United States. These organizations are not too numerous in terms of their membership, some of them have no more than sixty members and they do not have any influence on American opinion... The Russian sections of the American Socialist Party would be the second group of organizations to which Russian immigrants belong. The Russian Socialist sections are, however, less popular among the Russian immigrants than the Unions of Russian Workers. Also affiliated with the Russian Socialist sections are various groups which support the revolutionary movement in Russia. The Russian Socialist groups have been sending the political leadership to Russia. (44)
The period when dozens of "Russian-Slavic-Progressive" organizations were established in the United States, holds considerable interest for Belarusan-Americans, because during this time the topic of Belarus abundantly surfaced in the media, and there emerged active leaders with specific Belarusan ties. Dr. Aleksandr Sienkievich was one of them.
Dr. Aleksandr Sienkievich had an interesting biography. He was born in Belarus in the village of Mikalajeushchyna; he was a relative of the Belarusan bard, Jakub Kolas. A graduate of the Teachers' College in Niesvizh, Belarus in 1902, he, together with Jakub Kolas, became active in the Belarusan National Movement, and the organization of the Belarusan Teachers' Union. In fact, he was secretary of the first clandestine convention of Belarusan teachers in 1906. The tsarist security police pursued Sienkievich for his Belarusan activities, and he fled to the United States.(45) In America, Sienkievich graduated from the University of Maryland in Baltimore, with a degree in medicine, and became a popular practicing physician. At the same time, however, he became very actively involved in the political, socialist-anarchist movement. He formed numerous circles of his compatriots and taught them the rudiments of political ideologies, revolutionary activities, not neglecting work on their English, and to give them background information on Belarus. Dr. Sienkievich re-emigrated to Russia via the Far East when the Revolution of 1917 took place. There he became a fighting member of the red revolutionary forces, and later, at the beginning of the 1920s, he returned to Belarus. His political ascent was rapid in Soviet Belarus, only to be terminated during the purges of the 1930s.(46)
Sciapan Bubeshka is another leader who was active during this period. Although his biography may not be as colorful as Dr. Sienkievich's, his contribution to the development of Belarasan national awareness and Belarasan organizations in this country is more noticeable. (47)
While analyzing the activities of Dr. Sienkievich, one remembers also the political career of Dr. Sudzilouski Russell- two decades earlier. It is worthwhile to take note of these two Belarasan activist-intellectuals associated with the political life of the United States.(48)
Both men were educated individuals who knew well the state of the Belarasan nation. Both men were fighters for social justice. Yet they did very little for the Belarusan immigrants. Undoubtedly, if Dr. Nikolaj Sudzilouski-Russell at the turn of the century, and Dr. Aleksandr Sienkievich during the second decade of this century—instead of lending their intellectual abilities and skills to the cause of world revolution—had stuck to the idea of enlightening their own nation, Belarus, and the Belarusan immigrants in this country, the Belarusan-American community would have progressed considerably further than it has. This, unfortunately, did not happen. The irony is that both of these revolutionaries died far from their homeland without having had any significant influence on the course of world affairs.
The organizational life of immigrants from the Russian Empire, thousands upon thousands of whom were Belarusans, was very intense and diversified during the first quarter of the 20th century. Several hundred organizations were formed. Many nationalities from the Russian Empire formed their own societies, clubs, etc., and were able to steer their life in the new country in a consciously national-ethnic direction. Latvian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian organizations had a significant influence on events in their respective countries, and American-Lithuanians played an important role in achieving the independence of Lithuania.
Unfortunately, the Belarusans in the United States did not enjoy this kind of success. They did not form durable organizations for one basic and important reason: a lack of leadership. Nevertheless, one might reasonably ask: Why did Belarusan immigrants join Russian or Polish churches, clubs, and organizations if they felt themselves to be different? The answer to this question is not altogether easy and simple. The need to belong—an understandable part of the immigrant's sense of personal security—would be a partial answer to the question. As to the question concerning the label of the organization, the nature of the reply would be quite complex. Its cause is found in the historical past. The ethnic Belarusan immigrant at the turn of the century felt totally uprooted: he had no past, no future, he could not speak his language in society. The Belarusan peasant-immigrant had been Russified, Polonized and deprived—systematically and intentionally—of his own national consciousness. Tragic and ironic as it may seem, Belarusan immigrants had nonetheless, in many cases, come to feel comfortable with one or another of those alien cultures and their organizations. Thus, the label of the organization did not mean much. As a consequence, membership in non-Belarusan organizations in America only contributed to the further deracination, Russification, and Polonization not only of the immigrants themselves, but also of their descendants, i.e., successive generations of Americans.
Despite such an unfavorable situation for the Belarusans, the ideas of national awareness and separateness began to surface among Belarusan immigrants. This led to the eventual establishment of Belarusan organizations throughout this country.
o Emergence of Belarusan Awareness
The second half of the 19th century, down to 1917-1918, was an important time in the history of the Belarusan nation. The nation was undergoing a political and cultural revival, the shaping of Belarusan national identity anew, and the establishment of a modern Belarusan political nation and state. While this process was taking place, thousands upon thousands of Belarusans were emigrating from the country which was called "the north-western territory." The national revival touched only very few of the emigrants, and then, only marginally. The majority, however, left their native soil untouched by the Belarusan renaissance. The emigrants called themselves "locals" (tutejshyja). Russian and American officialdom called them "Russians" or "Polish." These labels, alien to them, unfortunately stuck to many. Nevertheless, in many a Belarusan national awareness did begin to develop.
The concept of being Belarusan came to these immigrants through a variety of channels. Many of them maintained close contacts with the land of their birth and were aware of changes taking place there. For many, national identification, i.e., Belarusan identification, came through the printed word. The major role in awakening the national consciousness among Belarusans was played by the newspaper Nasa Niva, the first legal Belarusan newspaper, published in Vilna from 1906 to mid-1915. The role of this newspaper in the revival of the Belarusan political nation is widely recognized. However, it is not so well known that the newspaper had an influence on Belarusans who lived beyond the boundaries of Belarus. Somehow it is overlooked that the newspaper from its beginning counted on Belarusan emigrants. In the editorial for its second issue the newspaper said: "Our writings will be well understood by a factory worker who has left his native country to go to a foreign land to find a job and bread there." The newspaper published many materials of interest to potential emigrants as well as having contributors from abroad, including several from the United States. The newspaper was the first to appeal to Belarusan immigrants in the United States to establish their own national organizations.(49) The staff of the newspaper was instrumental in producing a vademecum for emigrants entitled A Book for Emigrants Who Go to America, Vilna, 1912. The book, sponsored by the Society for Assistance to Emigrants, contains ample and informative materials about the United States as well as an extensive Belarusan-English conversation aid.(50) The newspaper had subscribers and many correspondents in the United States, and even as late as the 1950s many Belarusan "old-timer" immigrants praised the newspaper.(51) Undoubtedly the newspaper Nasa Niva had an influence on some Belarusan immigrants and planted the seed of Belarusan organizations in this country.
The appearance of the newspaper Nasa Niva, and especially the ideology that it taught, was strongly attacked by the Russophile media in the homeland. Nasa Niva was virtually on the front line in almost each issue in combatting Russophile attacks. Such a confrontation was to be expected in Russia. What is amazing is that the ideas of Belarusan separateness and Belarusan national identification also came under attack in the United States. A case in point is the newspaper Svit (Swet) published in Wilkes, Barre, Pa. This Russian-language, very Russophile Orthodox newspaper, in its issue of July 23, 1908, said the following:
In Prague, at the congress of progressive Slavic students, a student, Obuchovskii, from the Mining Institute of Petersburg, declared to the world that there is one more separate nation—the Belarusan nation, which has its own literature and history. According to Obuchovskii, this nation numbers about eight million people and publishes the newspaper, Nasa Niva. "Isn't it clear that the newspaper is an important proof of a separate nation" jokes Svit!». (52)
Further, the article says that Belarusans could prove more about their desire for separateness, but the nation is very oppressed by the Russians and Poles. Then the newspaper tries to analyze the situation and sarcastically remarks that the congress in Prague adopted stupid resolutions which do not oblige anyone to anything. However, such adverse reactions could not stop the movement. As it gained momentum, the Belarusan revival in the homeland had a very positive influence on Belarusans in the United States.
The Belarusan leadership in the homeland understood the importance of galvanizing the Belarusan masses abroad. The newspaper Homan, Vilnia, 1916-18, the ideological successor to Nasa Niva , made the topic of Belarusans in the United States a part of their agenda. Homan said in one of its articles:
Some movement was noticed among our countrymen in the United States shortly before World War I. Our countrymen in America were ordering Belarusan books and subscribing to newspapers, and they were writing letters to their homeland in the Belarusan language. We also hope that Belarusans in America will become organized.(53)
In a different article, published after the European Nationalities Conference in Lausanne in 1916, Homan made an appeal to Belarusan immigrants in the United States:
Our brothers across the ocean, please organize and give us the political assistance that we need here. Otherwise, your home country will not forgive you just watching what was going on back in the homeland and not helping us.(54)
But it was not only Belarusan-language publications that began to devote attention to Belarusans in a context of national political awareness. The idea of the Belarusan nation and statehood started to surface in non-Belarusan publications. Such newspapers as Novyi Mir and Russkii Golos, both published in New York, and well-known among Belarusan immigrants, covered this topic almost systematically.(55, 56) Information and analyses of the Belarusan political movement were reported in the Ukrainian newspapers, especially in Svoboda, published in New Jersey and New York and events in Belarus were also reviewed by the Russian-language New York-based newspaper Novoye Russkoye Slovo.(51) In this way, mostly through the printed word, the ideas of Belarusan national awareness, separateness, and statehood were communicated to Belarusan immigrants in the United States, inspiring them to form Belarusan ethnic organizations.
o NOTES
1. H. P. Kennard, The Russian Peasant (Philadelphia, 1908), 43.
2. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives, file on advertisements.
3. Novyi Mir, New York, Aug. 30, 1912.
4. K. Wachtl, Polonia w Ameryce (Filadelfia, 1944), 75.
5. Byelorussian American Association, New York, Archives: letter of Rev. M. Ksieniak, South River, to Anton Shukeloyts, New York, November 1986.
6. St. Mary's R.C. Church, South River, N.J., 75th Anniversary volume (1979), 59.
7. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives; file on memorabilia.
8. W. Kruszka, Historia Polska w Ameryce (Milwaukee, 1907-08), v. XI, 14; Dz. 2, pt. 2,43, 66-67, 72, 150-151; v. XIII, 123-126; v. IX, 144.
9. SS. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, South River, New Jersey, 75th Anniversary (September 28, 1980), 12.
10. D. Mostwin, Trzecia wartosc (Lublin, 1985), 65-66.
11. The Orthodox Church of America, Development of the Orthodox Church in America (Syosset, N.Y., 1975), 122, 125, 133, 154, 164, 212.
12. The Orthodox Church of America, Syosset, N.Y., Archives, Alphabetical listing: commemorative issues.
13. The Orthodox Church of America, Syosset, N.Y., Archives, XV-i-A: Indiana-Maryland file.
14. W. I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (Boston: The Gorham Press, 1920) v. 5, 89-91.
15. W. Kruszka, Historia Polska w Ameryce (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1907-08), v. VII, 140; v. XI, 101.
16. Eastern Churches Quarterly, V(l-2), 1942: 21.
17. Novyi Mir, New York, May 23, 1913.
18. M. deBeck, correspondence with the author, 1987.
19. R. Pohowski, correspondence with the author, 1989-91.
20. Novyi Mir, New York, March 20, 1918.
21. Nauka i Zhizn, New York, September 1923.
22. Novoye Russkoye Slovo, New York, June 19, 1941.
23. I. K. Okuntsov, Russkaia emigratsiia v Severnoi i Iuzhnoi Amerike (Buenos Aires, Seyatel', 1967), 423.
24. S. Bubeshka, "Zyccio bielarusau u Amerycy," In: Rodny Kraj, (Vilnia, 1921), 197-98.
25. L. Levine, The Women's Garment Workers (New York, B.W. Huebsch, Inc., 1924), 142-43.
26. Novyi Mir, New York, April 23, 1936.
27. Russkii Gobs, New York, Aug. 3, 17, 24, 31; Sept. 7, 1930.
28. Novyi Mir, New York, April 22, 23, 26, 1915.
29. Ivan Karduba and Ihnat Shyshka, communication to author, New York, 1965.
30. J. Seidman, The Needle Trades (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942), 45.
31. Ustav Tovarishchestva Belorussov i Malorussov (Grand Rapids, 1914), 12.
32. Svobodnoye Slovo, New York, May 1916.
33. M. Vilchur, "Russkie organizatsii v Amerike," Vestnik Ameriki, New York, May 12, 1918,2-5)
34. M. I. Iosko, Nikolaj Sudzilovskii-RusseV (Minsk, 1976), 141-42.
35. Tovarishch Russkogo Immigranta v Amerike (New York: Novyi Mir, 1913), 134, 135, 159.
36. Russko-Amerikanskii Rabochii (Newark-New York, February 1908).
37. Katorga i ssylka, Moscow, 1(62), 1930: 141-42.
38. Russko-Amerikanskii Rabochii (Newark-New York, May 1906).
39. M. Argus, "We love America," The Hanover Forum, 2(2): 17 (1936).
40. Russkii Gobs, New York, May 26, 1917.
41. R. Park. The Immigrant Press And Its Control (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1970), 77.
42. I. K. Okuntsov, op. cit, 262-269.
43. Nauka i Zhizn, New York, March 1923.
44. E. I. Omel'chenko, К voprosu organizatsii Rossiiskoi kolonii (New York: Novyi Mir, 1917), 32.
45. Nasa Niva, Vilnia, 3, 1907.
46. Litaratura i Mastactva, Minsk, August 5, 1988.
47. Ranica, Berlin, May 12, 1940.
48. Katorga i Ssylka, Moscow, 67, 1930: 168.
49. Nasa Niva, Vilnia, 2, 1906.
50. Rady dla emihrantau, katorye educ и Ameryku (Vilnia, 1922), 64.
51. A. Kachanouski and L. Savionak, communications to the author, September 1967.
52. Svet, Wilkes Barre, Pa., July 23, 1908.
53. Homan, Vilnia, April 17; October 16, 1916.
54. Homan, Vilnia, June 27, 1916.
55. Novyi Mir, New York, March 2, April 5, May 27, June 6, 1918.
56. Russkii Golos, New York, June 4, July 2, 1917.
57. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York: file with clippings from Ukrainian and other Slavic newspapers.
Chapter VI: Origins and Development of Belarusan Organizations
o Initial Stage
The notion of establishing a Belarusan organization was first expressed by Dr. Aleksandr Sienkievich and his friends in Baltimore about 1910-1912. In fact, as one witness remembered, there was a small circle of Belarusans formed in Baltimore, but it had more of a social-ethnic basis rather than a political one. Although Dr. Sienkievich recognized very clearly the need for such a Belarusan organization, ideas of broader scope prevailed and he became totally involved in the anarchist movement and was lost to the Belarusan cause in the United States.(l)
There is a note that "a Belarusan and Little Russian Society was established in Grand Rapids, Michigan in May of 1913 and that Mr. Adamskii and Mr. Lenskii were the leaders of this group."(2)
The manifestation of Belarusan separateness and the need for an organization appeared in the parish of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity on Leavitt Street in Chicago in 1912. There, a sizable group of parishioners had a conflict with the priest, who accused them of misappropriating an Easter collection. A confrontation occurred and, because of the power of the priest, the group was expelled from the parish. Most of those who were expelled were immigrants from the Grodno, Vilna, and Minsk provinces. Among them some were fairly enlightened Belarusans and a couple of them were subscribers to the newspaper Nasa Niva. Mr. Makar Ablazhej, who knew personally a few of the expelled, told this writer that some of them wanted to establish a Belarusan Brotherhood at this time, but lacked the intellectual leadership to take a separatist initiative along ethnic lines.(3) Although this attempt to form a Belarusan organization was ultimately not successful, and the energy of these Belarusan immigrants was channeled into the "Russian" stream, the awareness of Belarusan ethnicity had surfaced in discussions of options. Other expressions of separate Belarusan identity also appeared in other churches: Belarusan sentiments were expressed in St. Michael Orthodox Church, whose priest, Archimandrite Timon, was Belarusan-born; and in several Evangelical congregations. It is clear that the atmosphere in Chicago was favorable for the emergence of a Belarusan organization; this was realized a few years later, during the early 1920s.(4)
A plan to form a progressive, socialist-oriented Belarusan club was discussed by a number of Belarusans who met at the Svoboda restaurant in Brooklyn, owned by an enlightened Belarusan, Mr. Sciapan Bubeshka. This venture, unfortunately, did not materialize, but a progressive "Slavic" club was established in 1918-19 with a largely Belarusan leadership.(5)
It was reported in the press that immigrants from the Vilna, Minsk, and Grodno provinces had formed an Independent Brotherhood in Lindena, a suburb of Cleveland, in 1918.(6)
o Formation of Belarusan Political Organizations
The October 1917 Revolution in Russia, the establishment of the Belarusan Democratic Republic in 1918, followed by the formation of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, the proclamation of the independent Polish and Baltic States, and growing attention to the "Belarusan question" in American newspapers—these were the events which significantly influenced Belarusan immigrants in the United States: they provided a stimulus for awakening national consciousness and galvanizing them as an identifiable group. An example of Belarusan participation in the political activities of this period is a resolution adopted at a rally in St. Louis, Missouri. It reads:
Resolution
We, former citizens of White Russia, Ukraine, and Lithuania, at a meeting assembled in the New Club Hall, at the corner of 13th and Chouteau Avenue on Sunday, May 16, 1920, after a careful and thorough discussion of the present situation in the above-enumerated countries, adopted the following resolutions: Whereas, after due consideration of the action of the Allied Peace Conference assembled at Versailles, France in 1919, which turned over the destinies of the people of Ukraine, White Russia, and Lithuania to their long-time enemy, Poland, we consider this action of the Peace Council unjust, especially, considering that Poland for many years exploited the people of the said countries and their natural resources and caused them to suffer exceedingly great humiliation under its barbarous yoke of oppression.
Now, after thousands of the best sons of each of the three respective countries have sacrificed their health, happiness, and even their lives in the World War, to make the world just and safe for democracy, the said Allied Peace Conference has caused a repetition of that historic wrong by granting to Poland a mandate over the peoples of the said countries for a period of twenty-five years.
And, whereas each action on the part of the Peace Conference provokes the indignation of any liberty-loving people; now, we pray the government of the United States and her associates, the Allies, to revoke the mandate given to Poland on the ground of being contrary to the acknowledged principle of the right of each people to self-determination;
We ask that Poland cease hostilities on non-Polish territories; We ask the Government of the United States of America to stop supplying Poland with ammunition and war materials.
We ask that our Government not supply Poland with soldiers; We pray further that the principle of self-determination shall be exercised in this case, and that these people be given the inalienable right of free men to decide and choose, with the consent of the government, their own form of government. And, lastly, we unite our voices of protest against the contemptible acts of imperialistic Poland with those of our unfortunate countrymen and brothers in Ukraine, White Russia, and Lithuania. (7)
This text was also sent to President Woodrow Wilson, the Vice-President, and numerous high-ranking officials.
Belarusans participated in political rallies in Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, and were to take part in the Ukrainian-Lithuanian rally in New York City.(8)
Thus, it was natural that the idea of establishing their own organizations matured among Belarusans. Little by little, these groups evolved.
New York. Belarusan leaders undertook activities aimed at forming a Belarusan organization in the Metropolitan New York area sometime in the fall of 1920. However, the first meeting of the leadership did not occur until the spring of 1921. This meeting was held on March 2, 1921, when a steering committee was elected. A plan was developed to convene a larger meeting that would include Belarusans from Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and from some of the waterfront towns in New Jersey. The publication of a bulletin was approved. The first mass meeting of Belarusans from the New York City area and adjacent suburbs took place in New York on May 6, 1921. At that time the organization was formally established under the title of "The White Russian National Committee" and the address was given at 63 Park Row, New York City. The same address was indicated for a second organization entitled "The White Russian Press Bureau" which apparently was formed at about the same time.(9) The Press Bureau initiated the publication of a Bulletin. The editorial in the first issue of the Bulletin outlined the goals of the Belarusan organization as follows:
1. To inform the American, Belarusan, and Russian communities about' events taking place in Belarus and of the fact that the Belarusan nation is carrying on a struggle for its independence.
2. To help Belarus with moral and material support.
3. To distribute among people of Belarusan heritage newspapers and books as well as other printed materials in the Belarusan language.
4. To organize lectures dealing with Belarusan problems and topics.
5. To defend the independence and indivisibility of Belarus and the idea of transferring land and power into the hands of the people.(10)
A separate Belarusan organization was also formed in Brownsville, Brooklyn, its leadership included Messrs. Hajduk, Homza, Krywulka, Zvaryka, and Bubeshka.(11)
Following the example of Metropolitan New York, Belarusan organizations began to be formed in New Jersey and Illinois. Belarusans started organizing in South Amboy, New Jersey in 1921. Here is the report as published in the Belarusan press:
Belarusans who have been living here for a long time, used to belong to various Russian and Polish organizations. They eventually realized that they needed their own organization which could unite all Belarusan immigrants and would also provide assistance to Belarusans in the old country, thus securing a better future for our peasant nation. Our workers, having become enlightened and aware of their Belarusan ethnicity, came to the conclusion that they should not drift into other groups, but, rather, take the future into their own hands and organize themselves. Our group is not large; so far we only have 30 members who are very patriotic and would be ready to sacrifice their lives for Belarus and its freedom. We send our brotherly greetings to all who share our beliefs there in Belarus.(12)
Similar organizations were formed in Passaic, and Garfield, New Jersey.(13) Belarusan organizations were also established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Grand Rapids, Michigan.(14)
Thus, by the early 1920s, there were over a dozen small Belarusan organizations in several states and cities. Unfortunately, these organizations did not survive too long because of a lack of Belarusan leadership, insufficient number of nationally-conscious members, and above all because of the activities of pro-Communist groups which were detrimental to Belarusan non-Communist organizations in the United States.
However, viable Belarusan organizations were established in Chicago, Illinois, which had an influence on Belarusan life in the United States. A few factors favored Chicago's Belarusans. First of all, numerous enthusiasts who wanted to establish a Belarusan organization long before 1920-21 learned from experience that they needed a solid leadership to survive; and secondly an active propaganda campaign for establishing Belarusan organizations did not limit itself to the Chicago area only, but broadened its base by extending its efforts into neighboring states and industrial cities. Of positive significance was also the fact that Belarusan leadership in Europe changed its attitude toward Belarusan Americans. The feeling was that cooperation between Belarusans on both sides of the ocean would be fruitful for the Belarusan cause. One of the first Belarusan leaders to arrive in the United States was Mr. Anton Charapuk. He and Messrs. V. Trafimovich and P. Chopka called the first organizational meetings of Belarusans in Chicago in 1920.(15) The organization was established with the title "The White Russian National Committee." A steering committee was formed which assumed responsibility for formulating the organization's goals, and obtaining publicity to expand the group into a mass membership organization. The committee issued numerous press-releases and memoranda, contacted potential leaders, and did a serious job of promoting the new Belarusan organization. Since the work of the committee was diversified and politically oriented, its leadership decided to transform the steering committee into a new organization entitled: The Committee for the Defense of White Ruthenia.(16) Meanwhile, The White Russian National Committee was pursuing its own agenda with the aim of bringing together the Belarusans of Chicago. The Committee established close contacts with the Belarusan political leadership in various centers of Western Europe, and suggested the idea of bringing a number of Belarusan leaders to the United States. This was a sound idea and the time was right. Belarusan political leaders, having emigrant status, could do much for the Belarusan cause by coming to the United States and exercising their talents here. By this point in time the Belarusan political leadership in Europe had entirely shifted its outlook toward the Belarusan immigration in America. The importance of establishing working relationships between Belarusan immigrants in America and the Belarusan political leadership in Europe was also expressed in an article in the political journal Belaruski Sciach, published in Kaunas, Lithuania.(17)
Close political cooperation between Belarusans in diaspora was finalized when Jan Charapuk, whose father, Anton Charapuk, had come to the United States in 1920.(18)
Jan Charapuk stayed a short period in New York, then went to Wisconsin, and finally settled in Chicago. After arriving in Chicago in 1922, Jan Charapuk gave himself over entirely to Belarusan activities. He focused on recruiting members for the White Russian National Committee, approved the idea of convening a mass congress of Belarusans in Chicago, and became heavily engaged in organizing this congress. It appears that, at Charapuk's request, the government of the Belarusan Democratic Republic decided to send another political leader to the United States. The proof of this is a memorandum from the Council of the Government of the Belarusan Democratic Republic to Jan Charapuk, who, the memorandum states "is a representative of the Government of the Belarusan Democratic Republic in America." This document, signed by Piotra Krecheuski then the President of the Council of the Belarusan Democratic Republic, reveals the extent to which the Belarusan leadership in Europe was interested in Belarusan activities in the United States. It reads:
We are just about ready to send a representative to the projected congress in Chicago as you have instructed us. Mr. Jazep Varonka will most probably be our representative. You will soon also receive a memorandum concerning the political situation in the home country, as well as a copy of the memorandum to Washington from Mr. A. Tsvikevich, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The agenda of the Chicago congress should address the following matters, as I see it:
1. Belarusan activities on the local level.
2. Fight against the exploitation of Belarusan immigrant-workers...
3. Establish self-imposed voluntary taxation and assistance to the home country...
4. Specify your attitude toward the Belarusan Democratic Republic and Soviet Belarus.
5. Express your views concerning the occupation of Eastern Belarus by the Moscow regime and of Western Belarus by the Poles...
6. Express your views concerning the Eastern boundaries of the Polish state...
7. Unite and subordinate the local Belarusan organizations to one center which is the Government of the Belarusan Democratic Republic... Belarusan representation abroad.
8. Elect a Central Belarusan Committee for the United States and Canada.
Then President Krecheuski expresses his views about the Belarusan political movement and its vitality and suggests that the document be published in the American press.(19)
The convention of Belarusans was timed for the arrival of Jazep Varonka. His coming to Chicago was widely publicized. Press notices were issued in Belarusan, Russian, Ukrainian, and English and read as follows:
Attention, White Russians. White Russians: attention. Sunday, October 28, 1923, a mass meeting of White Russians will be held in the Grand Hall of the South Side School, 1231 S. Morgan Street. The meeting will begin at 4:00 p.m. The speaker at the meeting will be Mr. Jazep Varonka, a well-known White-Russian political leader, who has just arrived from Europe.
White Russians of Chicago and suburbs: everyone come to the meeting. Admission is free; the hall will open at 3:30 p.m.
Signed: The White Russian National Society.(20)
The wide publicity for the convention and the appearance of a new person on the scene assured the success of the meeting. According to numerous witnesses, it was a mass event assembling not only Belarusans from many wards and parishes of Chicago and its suburbs, but delegations from Kenosha, Wisconsin; Cleveland, Ohio; Gary, Indiana; Grand Rapids and Detroit, Michigan; New Jersey and New York. (21) As a result of the convention, a new organization was established: The White Ruthenian National Association. Its leadership was as follows: Jazep Varonka, chairman; Makar Ablazhej, treasurer; the control commission consisted of Jan Charapuk, chairman; Paval Chopka and V. Trafimovich, members. The convention also outlined and approved the following goals of the new organization:
1. To promote national ethnic awareness among Belarusan immigrants in the new world.
2. To assist the revival of the Belarusan nation and the Belarusan National State.
3. To defend the rights of the Belarusan people for the above-mentioned principles.
4. To initiate, develop, and carry out cultural and educational programs among the Belarusan immigrants by various means including opening schools, libraries, and conducting lectures.
5. To provide political, cultural, and economic assistance to the home country. (22)
Charapuk's organizational abilities and Varonka's involvement in the convention had a very constructive and encouraging effect on the participants. The elected leadership and the numerous activists were ready to undertake a program of Belarusan activities in the United States. At the same time they were fully aware that their task would not be easy by any means. They were faced with immense problems such as the lack of recognition of the Belarusan group by American society, the low level of national consciousness of the masses, and a general lack of leadership. In order to attempt to address these problems, Varonka and his associates developed an agenda. Their first step was to open an office for the organization at 2129 Greenwich Street, Chicago.
Next they established close working contacts with other friendly ethnic organizations such as Germans, Lithuanians, Poles, Slovaks, and Ukrainians, and societies such as the Knights of Columbus, the Smithsonian Institution, the Ukrainian Hetmanich's and Mikita Shapoval's groups, the Russian Socialist-Revolutionaries, among others.(23)
After that, the Belarusan organization launched a program of soirees and concerts with varied musical and theatrical repertoires. As a rule, special pamphlets and programs accompanied these soirees with extensive information about Belarus and Belarusans in the United States.(24)
Belarusan organizations in Chicago started observances of Belarusan Independence Day, March 25, 1924, although on a small scale this Belarusan holiday was already noted in the United States earlier.(25)
Charapuk, Varonka, Rev. John Tarasevich, Anton and Jan Charapuk initiated lecture series in the schools of Chicago and expanded these series to the neighboring cities and states of Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan; Wisconsin, and Indiana, where Belarusan immigrants lived in significant numbers. They assisted in the establishment of Belarusan organizations in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the Bielaruskaje Narodnaje Tavarystva (Belarusan Peoples Society) was formed, in Gary, Indiana and in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(26)
While the organizational and educational activities of the Belarusan leadership in Chicago was moving into high gear, one of the signal achievements of the Belarusan community in Chicago was the commencement of the publication of the first Belarusan newspaper in the United States, Belorusskaia Tribuna [The White Ruthenian Tribune]. The newspaper was "published by the White Ruthenian National Association in Chicago, Illinois, and devoted to the interests of Whiteruthenians in the United States and Canada. The first Whiterathenian paper in America. J.J. Voronka, Editor." The objectives of the newspaper were formulated by Jazep Varonka as follows:
Our political goal is the renaissance of the Belarusan nation. Our guiding principle is an independent Belarusan Democratic State. The Belarusan People should be the masters on their soil. The will of the Belarusan People is our law.(27)
Although published irregularly, the newspaper nevertheless became an important voice of Belarusan ideas, principles, and ideology, reflecting at the same time the life and activities of Belarusans in the United States. The leadership of the newspaper also fully understood that in order to reach a wider audience, they needed to use the language that the masses were most accustomed to hearing in official situations, i.e., Russian. However, articles in Belarusan were also published, as were articles and news items in English. Apparently, not everyone agreed about the language of the publication, and Varonka offered this explanation in a letter to Rev. John Tarasevich:
Why is The Whiteruthenian Tribune published in Russian? It may very well be that it will never be printed in Belarusan as long as our fight against Russification continues in the United States. However, soon we ought to publish a small journal in Belarusan. It will be a constructive journal and not as destructively-critical as The Whiteruthenian Tribune. We also need in the near future a Belarusan newspaper in the Polish language. I will start such a paper, perhaps, this coming fall... We are fighting here against the anarchists who are receiving support from the Russian Black Hundred group. I am fighting on both sides: in The Whiteruthenian Tribune and in the Vestnik of which I am also the editor.(28)
From the perspective of some purists, Varonka's approach (of using the Russian language to promote Belarusan national consciousness) can be criticized for confirming the immigrant Belarusan-American's own psychosis about the superiority of the Russian language vis-a-vis Belarusan. But obviously Varonka was a pragmatist whose goal was communication and persuasion. Using Belarusan to reach his target audience would, in many instances, have proved to be counterproductive.
Notwithstanding the fact that The Whiteruthenian Tribune was published in Russian, it provided an enormous amount of information on aspects of Belarusan life all over the world. It reflected developments in Soviet Belarus, often reprinting articles from the Belarusan press. The newspaper provided overviews of Belarusan activities in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Western Europe. It contained a wealth of information about Belarusan culture, literature, economy, and the historical background of the Belarusan nation. But first of all, The Whiteruthenian Tribune covered in detail the life of Belarusans in Chicago and Belarusan participation in the presidential elections of 1928.
One of the Belarusan organizations—The White Russian American National Club—adopted the Democratic political platform in its entirety and changed its title to White Russian Organization for Alfred E. Smith for President. The group established satellite groups in many wards of the city and opened an election headquarters. The leaders of the group were: Jan Charapuk-Zmahar, chairman; other members included Ivan Piatnitsa, Mikalai Jakubenia, and Makar Ablazhej. Jazep Varonka assumed responsibility for publicity and speakers programs. The presidential candidate, Gov. Alfred E. Smith, visited the Belarusans and received the Belarusan delegation with the following address:
The fact that the Belarusans are participating in the present political campaign is the first step for Belarusans to enter the mainstream of American life. This event became possible only because the Democratic party is favorable to the needs of Belarusans. Such an event would be impossible with the Republicans.(29)
The idea of establishing a separate Belarusan organization triggered the formation of numerous groups. Such were the White Russian People's Society of the City of Chicago, the White Russian Aid Committee, the White Russian-American Club, and several pro-Communist organizations. One organization, the White Russian-American Civic Club, in fact a Belarusan Democratic Organization, which was formed during the Presidential campaign of 1928, remained active into the 1930s, and established similar groups in other states: a Belarusan, Osip Vodchets, an activist within the Democratic Party, was also associated with the Belarusan Democratic Club and campaigned during the presidential elections of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Belarusans also participated in the Chicago mayoral and other political campaigns of the 1930s. Once again, special organizations were formed which carried out a full-fledged advertising campaign for the mayoral candidate, William Hale Thompson, and several other politicians. (30).
Among these other organizations active in Chicago during the 1930s one finds the Whiterussian Consulate, the White Ruthenian Cultural-Educational Society, and the White Russian-American Citizens Association. (31)
Excellent assistance and support for Belarusan activities in Chicago was rendered by the Belarusan Roman Catholic priests who had fled from Poland during the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, when the Polish religious authorities and the administration unofficially declared a pogrom against Belarusans.
Thus, Chicago became the home of Rev. John Tarasevich and Uladzimier Tarasevich, Rev. Viktar Shutovich, Rev. Michas Urbanovich, and later on, Rev. Jazep Reshats. These Roman Catholic priests were instrumental in broadening the base of Belarusan organizations and initiating numerous cultural programs. But Rev. John Tarasevich, who came to the United States in his youth, became especially well-known as a Belarusan activist in New York, Connecticut, and Wisconsin. In addition to being involved in his theological studies and Belarusan organizational projects, Rev. John Tarasevich began publication of a bulletin entitled Prauda, and became one of the founders of a religious journal of Uniate profile, The Voice of the Church, which contained numerous articles of Belarusan interest. (32)
Rev. John Tarasevich is also the architect of the Belarusan Catholic Community in Chicago which is still alive and active today.
A great boost to Belarusan activities was the radio program entitled "The White Russian Hour," established by Jazep Varonka in 1929 and continued, although with much less Belarusan-language content and with much more commercialization, until the 1950s.
Activities involving Belarusans in Chicago are well documented in several newspapers, and many are available on microfilms at the Chicago Public Library. A few of these documents are in English and merit citation, such as the "Interview with Mr. J. Voronka, 2009 Cortez St., Director of Russian Radio Programs, Stations WEDC and WSBC."
Mr. Voronka, a White Russian, was born in the state of Grodno and was reared and educated in St. Petersburg (present Leningrad). He came to the United States in the fall of 1923, and has resided with his family in Chicago since then. Mr. Voronka came to America for the sole purpose of lecturing among the White Russians. At that time, nationalism started to play a very big part among the White Russians, especially among those in America, and for that reason Mr. Voronka began, upon his arrival, to lecture among the White Russians in Chicago, as well as in the states of Wisconsin and Michigan. As a fiery White Russian, he has tried to awaken their national pride and self-respect, to bring them out of that sleep in which he found them. Mr. Voronka admits that he met with little success due to the geographical and ethnographic ignorance of his countrymen. Finding Bolshevism among them, he was hampered in his undertaking. In the opinion of Mr. Voronka they were not Bolshevists but Bolshevistmaniacs (sic).
In Mr. Voronka's view, there is no pure Russian colony in Chicago. According to his version, only five percent are genuine Russians (Great Russians); the rest are connected with Russia more through a love of the Russian culture than anything else. The Russian colony in Chicago is composed largely of White Russians from the provinces of Grodno, Minsk, Vilno, Vitebsk and Mogilev; next are Ukrainians from the provinces of Volin, Podolia, Kiev, the southern and the western parts of Chernigov.
Incidentally, Mr. Voronka thinks that the White Russian is obligated to the Jew, who has been most influential in his emigration to the United States. As an example he relates the following: A Jew persecuted by the Russian government emigrates to America. A year later he begins to send money to his family. A White Russian, his next-door neighbor, finds out all about it and concludes that the Golden Land is a better place for the peasant. The peasant begins to think about emigrating; this is how the "Russian emigration" began. Voronka's undertakings have met opposition from a number of Russian churchmen who were opposed to the Enlightenment. Having retained the religious spirit of the times of the tsar, they remained even in America patriots of the old school, and as such, were opposed to his activities. Finding such difficulties, Voronka made up his mind to change the field of his pursuits. He started to open schools for children and Russian laboring-men who did know the Russian language. On the north side of Chicago and in Benton Harbor, Michigan, he opened seven schools and at present is still conducting a school in Pullman.
In January 1924, he became associated with the Russkii Vestnik, a Russian daily. When the latter was sold to the present owners of Rassvet, he became connected with Rassvet...Belorusskaia Tribuna...Russian Review...Russian Almanac...and Ukraine.
In 1929 Mr. Voronka conceived the idea of expanding his field of activities among the White Russians—that is to reach a greater part of the Russian colony. For that purpose the radio was brought into service. At the beginning, programs were given in White Russian and on Sundays only. From the start, Mr. Voronka met with powerful opposition from ultra-Russian patriots of the Russian colony. Both wings, the right as well as the left, opposed him and for this reason the White Russian Radio Hour was short-lived...(33)
The surge of Belarusan activities in Chicago was received with satisfaction by the leadership of the Belarusan Democratic Republic. Dr. Aleksandr Tsvikevich, then the Chairman of the Council of the Prime Minister of the Government of the BDR, acknowledged the successful achievements of Belarusans in a letter addressed to John Charapuk. He expressed his thanks, and appointed Mr. Charapuk a Charge d'Affairs of the Belarusan Democratic Republic in the United States.
Mr. Vasil Zacharka, who succeeded Piotra Krecheuski as the President of the Council of the Belarusan Democratic Republic in 1928, asked Ihnat Labach in Chicago to inform the Council of the BDR about Belarusan activities in the United States.(34)
One important and pioneering aspect of Belarusan activities in Chicago should be emphasized: the establishment of close working contacts with the homeland.
Belarusan organizations in Chicago initiated programs of financial assistance to Belarusan schools in the homeland. The Belarusan schools in Budslau, Vilna, Radashkavicy, and Klecak received assistance from various organizations in Chicago.(35) The high school in the town of Druja, sponsored by the Belarusan Catholic Clergy, obtained assistance from Belarusans and Lithuanians: "The American-Lithuanian Marians helped to support the Druja Center and thus they were able to obtain a building, buy a printing press, and were about to start the publication of their own newspaper. However, the Polish government withheld permission. "(36) Rev. John Tarasevich assisted in bringing Belarusan young people to the United States for study.(37) According to a student magazine, even Janka Kupala intervened on behalf of the Belarusan students by writing a letter to Janka Charapuk, seeking assistance for Belarusan students in Prague and Vilna.(38)
The Belarusan organization in Chicago was invited to participate at the Linguistic Academic Conference in Minsk. (39)
o Attacks on Belarusans
The fact that Belarusan organizations and activities were springing up, displeased and upset Russians, i.e., ethnic Russians, and pro-Russian groups. Most of the Russian organizations, churches, newspapers, especially those headed by ethnic Russians, (i.e., Great Russians), reacted very negatively to the Belarusan awakening. They were fiercely opposed to any manifestation of national consciousness or even a suggestion of separatism. Leadership of this outlook had many followers among Russified Belarusans, and they used any means to smear Belarusan activities and the Belarusan national movement.
Groups professing various non-Communist, pro-Russian-oriented programs began a wholesale campaign against the Belarusan leadership in Chicago by accusing them of many faults: that they were pro-German; that the leadership was mostly Roman Catholic and friendly to Poland; that the Belarusan leaders were secretly pro-Communist, etc. The clamor about pro-German and pro-Polish did not bother anyone and had no foundation. The pro-Communist charge stemmed from the fact that the views of the Belarusan leadership coincided with the views of pro-Communist organizations regarding Belarusan political activities in Poland and the Belarusan organizations in Chicago supported Belarusans in Poland morally and financially. Consequently, the accusations of Belarusans being pro-Communist came from many sides: from Russians and from Poles.(40)
The other sizable group of antagonists of the Belarusan movement were the Communists and Leftists, who were quite numerous in Chicago during the 1920s. However, the attacks on the Belarusan leaders and organizations by the Communists were different. The Communists seemingly did not realize that support for Belarusan activities in Poland did not imply "togetherness" with the Communist ideology. Although the Communists knew that J. Varonka, J. Zmahar, and other Belarusan leaders were pursuing their own political objectives, at the beginning they criticized them mildly and locally. However, when the Communists became convinced that the Belarusan political leadership was guided by its own standards and its own political ideology, i.e., an authentic, independent Belarusan political line—they began to attack Belarusans full-blast in the Communist newspapers, at meetings and over the radio.(41)
But in spite of all the attacks in print, the physical mayhem, such as a gunfight at a Belarusan soiree, accusations and innuendoes designed to destroy the Belarusan image and organizations, they continued to follow what they felt was the right course.(42)
Attacks on Belarusan activists and organizations continued through the 1930s, 1940s and after. As a matter of fact, the leftists never stopped slandering Belarusan activities in the United States. Such attacks may have been harmful to the Belarusans at the very beginning. However, neither the nationalist-tsarist Russian, nor the Communist offensives halted Belarusan activities in Chicago. On the contrary, their slanders helped to crystallize and publicize Belarusan views and principles and cement the community. At a time when the ethnic consciousness of the Belarusan masses was at a low ebb, at a time when Belarusans had to take a political stand facing Soviet Russian nationalism and imperialism, Belarusan leaders in Chicago were nevertheless able to counterattack and promote the principles of an independent Belarusan Democratic State. Furthermore, the Belarusan leadership in Chicago was able to influence a number of immigrants to join the ideological movement based on Belarusan independence. Under difficult circumstances, this was a notable accomplishment. (43)
As we have seen, during the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, Belarusan-Americans began their community-organizational life and were quite successful. Belarusan organizations, small and large, were established in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the only organizations to have survived are those in Illinois. What emerges from this experience is that the lack of educated, nationally-conscious cadres of leaders within the Belarusan-American community prevented the growth of organizations and hampered Belarusan activities. In many instances, the leftist, pro-Soviet element infiltrated Belarusan organizations and, using the powerful propaganda tool of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic as their credentials, shifted organizations and activities within the various communities onto a different track. In the final analysis, however, many small Belarusan organizations died while pro-Soviet groups were temporarily strengthened. This phenomenon should be emphasized: once a pro-Soviet group took over an organization, the organization ceased to function as an American ethnic group, and became an adjunct to the world-wide, pro-Soviet movement. The existence of national ethnic organizations, whether in the United States or in Argentina, is not compatible with Soviet ideology. History demonstrates that a fundamental tactic of such groups is the destruction of these ethnic-oriented organizations.
It is therefore the more remarkable that Belarusan organizations in Chicago were able to survive, under constant, severe pressure, and while taking a constant beating from many sides. Their leadership was mature and competent enough to steer a steady organizational course under the banner of the Belarusan national ideology. The Chicago chapter in the life of the Belarusan-American colony remains an historic benchmark.
It would be logical to end this chapter by outlining the life paths and political outlooks of the individuals who took up the challenge of founding the Belarusan movement in this country. This did not, of course, happen all at once. At first, there were a few simple peasant-immigrants who identified themselves as coming from Belarusan territories, and who formed landsmen circles. More vocal were those who wanted to promote Belarusan identity within the framework of Slavic and "Russian" societies. One of the most prominent among the latter was Sciapan Bubeshka. The earliest traces of Bubeshka's activities among Slavic immigrants were noticed in 1912-14, at which time he was closely associated with his countrymen. Then, the newspaper Novyi Mir, April 23, 1915 reported that Bubeshka was one of the speakers at the burial of a union organizer, a Belarusan, Volodia Tatarchik, who had been killed in a fight. Bubeshka's name later appeared dozens of times in connection with the activities of a Russian-Slavic Society in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn. From numerous witnesses and reports in several Russian-language newspapers, we know that S. Bubeshka was a businessman involved in various manufacturing and service-oriented businesses. He was . politically a convinced anti-Communist, and had a sound idea of organizing Slavic immigrants, clearly identifying his fellow Belarusans. Bubeshka was the first Belarusan-American author to publish a brief review of Belarusans in the United States; it was printed in a Belarusan textbook in Vilna entitled "The Life of Belarusans in America" (1921). Bubeshka is credited with the publication of several issues of the Bulletin and of establishing the White Russian Press Bureau in New York. He also assisted in organizing Belarusans in Metropolitan New York.
Although Sciapan Bubeshka was not a visible proponent of Belarusan statehood, he nevertheless left a distinct mark on the organized life of Belarusan-Americans.(44)
Anton and Jan Charapuk, father and son, were pioneers of the Belarusan political movement in the United States. Jan Charapuk's influence on Belarusan organized life in this country lasted over several decades. He was born in the Grodno region on August 12, 1896, and died in Chicago on November 16, 1957. After finishing local schools near Grodno, Jan Charapuk enrolled in the Department of Law and Economics at the University of St. Petersburg. From his youth he was involved in the Belarusan movement, and after the Revolution of 1917 he became a professional Belarusan politician. After the establishment of the Belarusan Democratic Republic in March, 1918, Jan Charapuk was a special envoy of the BDR Government to Germany, the Baltic States, and Czechoslovakia. Next, Charapuk took the assignment from the Council of the Belarusan Democratic Republic to go to the United States and begin the organization of Belarusans in this country.(45)
Jazep Varonka was also an outstanding pioneer and leader of the Belarusan movement in the United States. He came to the United States at the request of Jan Charapuk. Varonka, prior to coming to America, had an impressive career as a political leader, including Prime Minister of the Belarusan Democratic Republic. Varonka had a good education and was an erudite man. His organizational and political involvements in this country are remarkable, and his determination to establish a strong Belarusan organization is commendable. However, being a pragmatist, Varonka walked a political path in his own way. Be this as it may, Varonka and Jan Charapuk deserve the title of political pioneers of the Belarusan movement in the United States.(46)
Reverend John Tarasevich was another tireless forerunner and leader of the Belarusan movement in the United States. Father Tarasevich was born in the village of Kleshniaki, Western Belarus, on October 30, 1892. At the age of 19, he emigrated to the United States. Working in cotton mills and shoe factories in various states, he continued his education at night, and entered the La Sallette Missionary College in Connecticut. In 1917, he took his vows and was sent to the University of Freibourg in Switzerland, where he obtained doctorates in theology and philosophy. After his return to the States he was ordained in 1923, and devoted himself to teaching, hospital ministry, and the Belarusan movement. However, the reunion of the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity was what was closest to his heart, and he dedicated a great deal of energy to this cause.
He became the editor of a bilingual Russian and English journal, Voice of the Church, where he and a number of other priests (including several Belarusan priests) discussed numerous aspects of Christian dogma, constantly preaching rapprochement with their Eastern brothers. This magazine also published a variety of articles of specifically Belarusan interest. The contribution of Belarusan clergy to the cause of church unity between Catholics and Orthodox is certainly noticeable.
Working with Belarusan immigrants in New York, Connecticut, and Chicago, Father Tarasevich was one of the founders of several Belarusan organizations, including the White Russian-American National Council in 1941, of which he was the first chairman. He also wrote a number of memoranda to the State Department and to the President of the United States, demanding that Belarus' borders not be altered during the post-World War II period. In 1955, Father Tarasevich founded, and was appointed the spiritual leader of a group of Belarusans in Chicago at the Church of Christ the Redeemer.
Reverend John Tarasevich was assisted in his organizational and religious work by other Belarusan Roman Catholic priests: Rev. Viktar Shutovich, who spent over three years in the United States attempting to organize Belarusans of Roman Catholic faith; Rev. Jazep Reshats; and a dedicated Belarusan patriot and intellectual who was lecturing about Belarus in numerous colleges and schools, Rev. Michas Urbanovich.(47)
In addition to these most prominent leaders of early Belarusan life in the United States, there were numerous others. Among them: M. Michajlouski (brother of S. Rak-Michajlouski), Ihnat Labach, Makar Ablazhej, U. Tzibanouski, Paval Chopka, J. Hajduk, Jazep Kurdzionak, and V. Trafimovich, all of whom contributed to the development of Belarusan national organizations in the United States.(48)
o NOTES
1. Interviews with Mr. A. Sakadynski, Egg Harbor City, N.J., September 1956.
2. Russkii Emigrant, New York, Nov. 28, 1913.
3. Konstantin Ermolik, Memoirs, Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, reels 61, 62, sections II D 1; III С 1 С.
4. Interviews with Mr. M. Ablazhej, Chicago, 1961, November 1961.
5. Novyi Mir, New York, May 24, 1915.
6. Russkii Golos, New York, April 11,1929.
7. Svoboda, Jersey City, N.J., May 27, 1920.
8. Svoboda, Jersey City, N. J., May 20, 1919.
9. Ranica, Berlin, May 12, 1940.
10. Bulletin of the White Russian Press Bureau in USA, summarized in Ranica, Berlin, May 12, 1940:.
11. Bielaruski Kalandar. (Vilnia, 1921), 77.
12. Kryvic, Kaunas, 2, 1923, 63.
13. NasSlach, Vilnia, 20, 1923, 4.
14. Bielaruski Student, Praha, 2-3, 23.
15. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, Krasnov scrapbook, HI: B-4.
16. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, Project III: B-4; III-B-2.
17. Bielaruski Sciach, Kaunas, no. 4, 1922, 6-10.
18. Backauscyna, Munchen, 51-52, 1957.
19. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: files Chicago, BNR.
20. Svoboda, Jersey City, N.J., August 2, 1923.
21. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, Varonka's file.
22. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, file: White Russians, I-F-4.
23. Belorusskaia Tribuna, Chicago, October 20, 1928; April 30, 1929; March 15, April 15, 1932.
24. Amerikanskii Beloruss, Chicago, the White Russian National Association, February 16, 1930, 8. Belorusskii Vecher, Chicago, the White Russian National Association, March 7, 1926, 4.
25. NasSlach, Vilnia, 15, 1923, 23.
26. Belorusskaia Tribuna, Chicago, 7, 1930; 8, 1931.
27. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, Varonka's file.
28. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives, Correspondence file: Jazep Varonka to Rev. John Tarasevich, July 17, 1929.
29. Belorusskaia Tribuna, Chicago, 2, 1928.
30. Constitution and By-laws of the White Russian People's Society of the City of Chicago (Chicago, 1924), 5. Russkii Vestnik, Chicago, March 16, 1924.
31. Russkii v Amerike, spravochnik (New York, 1931), 96.
32. A. Stankievich, Bielaruski Chrysciajanski Ruch (Vilnia, 1939), 225.
33. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, files: II-B-2e/lv/; II-B-2d(l); II-B-2e (I-C); II-B-2f; I-A-la.
34. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives, Correspondence file: A. Tsvikevich to I. Charapuk, August 27, 1923.
35. Chryscijanskaja Dumka, Vilnia, September 15, 1929; October 15, 1930; March 27, May 10, July 10, 1938; July 10, 1939.
36. S. Yla, Jurgis Matulaitis (New York, 1987), 221.
37. Zorka, Vilnia, 11, 1938.
38. Bielaruski Student, Praha, 2-3, 1923.
39. I. Niamiha, Inbelkult (Munchen, 1957), 27, 33, 41.
40. Russkii Vestnik, Chicago, March 16, 1924.
41. Novyi Mir, New York, May 21, June 11, December 3, 1932; April 1, 1936.
42. Sialanskaja Niva, Vilnia, 14, 1926.
43. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, reel 61; HI-30275/ III-B-1.
44. Russkii Gobs, New York, January 29, 1928.
45. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives, Biographical files.
46. Byelorussian Statehood (New York, 1988), 313, 357-358.
47. Bielaruskaja Carkva, Chicago, 23, June 1962. Novoye Russkoye Slovo, New York, Nov. 7, 1978;
48. Chicago Public Library, Microfilm Archives, Krasnov Scrapbooks, reels 61,62.
Chapter VII: The Belarusan Masses Prior to World War II, and the War Years
The Belarusan National Movement began to make inroads in the United States during the decade preceding World War I, and became more active during the post-war years. Belarusan organizations were established, and Belarusan political ideas and goals were formulated and expressed.
Belarusan organizations attracted, however, only a fraction of the Belarusan immigrant masses in the United States. Thousands of immigrants remained outside of the Belarusan political movement and the scope of its activities. The main reason for such an abnormal situation was a very weak Belarusan self-awareness (or its absence altogether), caused by a variety of factors. Adverse propaganda coming from all sides and the dismissal of any evidence of Belarusan separateness were major negative factors. Traditional Belarusan conservatism also played a role: very many Belarusan immigrants felt comfortable within the organizations and the churches that they had themselves formed or assisted in establishing decades earlier. They really did not care about the name by which an organization was called. This was especially true for parishes and religious groups.
Not so much by way of defending the immigrant masses, as for the sake of objectivity, one must keep in mind the complexity of the political situation in Eastern Europe following the revolutions of 1917. It was not easy for an experienced politician to decipher correctly the new situation. For an unsophisticated, frequently illiterate immigrant, it was an insurmountable task to define in his own mind who the contending forces were, and what they represented, much less to clarify a national ideology for himself.
The great mass of the common people quickly realized that the tsar was gone, and that the old regime had collapsed. To many of these immigrants, the past regime had meant order and stability, and they were not anxious to abandon their loyalty to that regime. As one first-generation American wrote to us about his father, a peasant Belarusan immigrant: "My father...had nothing but high praise for the tsar, ridiculed the Roman clergy and hierarchy, complained about the weak-spined Orthodox church and prelates."(l) This was a very typical point of view for thousands and thousands of Belarusan immigrants.
On the other hand, there were thousands of others who harbored nothing but angry resentment towards the tsar and the old regime, and greeted the changes with joy. This group, indoctrinated, encouraged, and blinded by the revolutionary developments in the home country, was ready to make a revolution in this country too. Socialist, Bolshevik, and anarchist propaganda, which had been aimed at these immigrants for years prior to the revolution, now excited them to a fever pitch. The class struggle was the main argument; it was one that the working masses could identify with. The long-term efforts of the diverse propagandists paid off handsomely. The "Russian" immigrant masses-at least a large portion of them-became aroused and stood ready to act.
One grass-roots example of the numerous reasons for the conversion of some to Bolshevism is given in Robert Park's book, The Immigrant Press and Its Control. When an immigrant from the Grodno region (Western Belarus) was asked whether he believed in Bolshevism, he replied, "I only believe that if I go back to Russia, I will have some land. "(2)
Although their understanding of the various political ideologies was, for the most part, very shallow, the masses of uneducated peasants were good followers, and solidly supported the professional politicians who constituted the revolutionary leadership. A significant percentage of the Belarusan immigrant masses were enthused by the programs of various revolutionary groups. Their experience as peasant workers made them suspicious of the capitalist establishment. And it seemed to them that America was the main pillar of world-wide capitalism which, they felt, should be changed (or destroyed). Such radical views made these immigrants an easy target for attacks by combative anti-revolutionary Americans. The mood of millions of Americans was to be on guard against the "Red Menace." The immigrant masses—who were perceived to be Russians—were the personification of this menace. Thus, a conflict was inevitable. The situation worsened after World War I, when all kinds of political extremism and discrimination flourished. This period opened an unpleasant page in America's attitude toward "Slavs" and "Russians." U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, inspired by patriotic sentiments and reflecting the views of middle-class conservative America "not to allow revolution to happen," began to rule with an iron fist.
The epoch of searching for subversives, "Reds," "Commies," and "Revolutionaries" began, and the "Palmer Raids" were the culmination of those efforts. The years 1919-20, when the Palmer Raids were in full swing, inflicted serious scars, and wounded the spirit of many so-called "Russian-Americans". It was they who were among the first targets of the Palmer Raids; they who were most associated in the popular mind with the "Red radicals;" and they who suffered greatly. Hundreds of them were deported to the home country, many more hundreds have nursed an angry resentment for their entire life and, in many cases, have transmitted it to their children. One must also add that post-World War I deportation procedures led to new problems: in many instances, Belarusan peasant-immigrants who came to America from "Russia" prior to the war, had Poland after World War I, as their place of origin. Thus, legislation was needed to deport these immigrants. The problem arose also as to whether or not to deport their families—especially children, who were American-born—as well.
A few corollaries of this human tragedy are that as a result, many valuable records, archives, publications, and immigration documents were destroyed. It is very unfortunate also that during this turbulent period, no voice was raised to remind that hundreds of these then "suspicious Russians," i.e., mostly Belarusan peasant-immigrants, successfully served and fought many battles of World War I in the United States Army.(3)
A regrettable aspect of this period is that the entire philosophy of getting rid of the "Red-menace" lacked consistency: while many American Congressmen, leading politicians, intellectuals, and numerous businessmen were making speeches in the public forum favoring the Russian revolution and the newly-established regime, much of American society was cautious toward Bolshevism with a large segment hostile to the new Kremlin leadership.
Unfortunately, being associated in the American mind with the new regime, by virtue of geographical origin, the so-called Russian colony (consisting in fact, mainly of Belarusan peasants) paid a high price for their anti-capitalist sympathies because of the mood of the country.
The Palmer Raids accomplished an unexpected goal: they solidified the followers of many radical groups, and they gave the opportunity of a life-time for the Communists to influence the immigrant masses. One certainly can ask if the paranoia of many "Russian" leftists of the thirties and later periods could be viewed as a consequence of the Palmer episode.
An additional factor surfaced and contributed to the murky political situation among the so-called Russian immigrant masses. A new wave of immigrants from Russia began to arrive soon after the October Revolution. (This time the term Russian does not need any quotation marks, for the immigrants were almost all ethnic Russians: former administrators and members of the military, intellectuals, et al.). These immigrants, having lost their country as a result of the revolution, and being strongly anti-Bolshevik, joined many existing "Russian" organizations, became leaders in their communities, and initiated effective anti-revolutionary propaganda, while remaining very strongly opposed to the non-Russian nationalities.
These new immigrants were in a position to influence many Belarusan immigrants, which they did, as well as to call a new tune for the entire so-called Russian-American colony. Two large factions of "Russian" immigrant masses were formed: a leftist, pro-revolutionary faction, with Soviet sympathies. It had numerous subdivisions within it but had a well-defined ideological, Moscow-directed leadership; and an anti-revolutionary, conservative ideological group, with pro-Russian sympathies, and an even greater splintering within its ranks.
Under these conditions, the acceptance of a set of entirely new political concepts—such as Belarusan nationalism, a Belarusan state, or an independent Belarusan organization—was bound to face enormous obstacles. None of these was a concept that the bulk of Belarusan immigrants could clearly understand or identify with. So, it is not surprising that such ideas, i.e., Belarusan identification, were welcomed by only a relatively small group of immigrants who were more politically aware and educated.
How were these "Russian" (in fact, largely Belarusan) masses organized? Several groups can be identified.
There were "Russian" religious congregations led by pro-Russian conservative priests and bishops; anarchists; socialist-Communist organizations inspired and directed by Communists of unconditional pro-Moscow obedience and orientation; and pro-Russian nationalist societies.
o Religious Affiliations
Many thousands of Belarusan immigrants remained associated with the Russian Orthodox Church and affiliated brotherhoods after the revolutions of 1917.
As has been indicated, Belarusan immigrants were the original builders and founders of many parishes of this jurisdiction and they maintained their membership in these churches all their lives. The events of 1917-18 did not significantly change the political outlook of those who were associated with religious bodies and even their children and grandchildren tended to remain church-goers. The Russian Orthodox Church, generally known by the abbreviation "Metropolia," successfully Russified those parishioners, remaking them into "Russian-Americans." How many of them remained within the church is a question not easy to answer. Rev. Vitalii Sahaidakivskii estimates that about 15% of this jurisdiction are of Belarusan descent and about 80% are of Ukrainian descent.(4) In the opinion of this writer, the percentage of Belarusans within the Orthodox Church in America is considerably higher than 15%.
It is fortunate that, decades later, in April 1970, the so-called "Russian" Metropolia changed its name to the Orthodox Church in America, somewhat modifying the process of Russification, giving place to a more normal course of development—Americanization—as a result of which numerous publications and clergymen of this denomination have begun to recognize within the present membership many descendants of Belarusan immigrants. Although this jurisdiction is not a substitute for the Belarusan Autocephalous Orthodox Church, it is presently quite a democratic body which has begun to acknowledge Belarusans as part of its flock, and among the important developers of Eastern Orthodoxy in the United States.
o Anarchist Groups
Anarchist theories were attractive to some of the Belarusan masses: these notions were simple, easily understood, and seemed attainable. Belarusan membership in these groups was very large, numbering in the tens of thousands.
"Russian" anarchist organizations existed in many American cities where there were immigrants from the Russian Empire, but the most dynamic groups were in Boston, Detroit, New York, Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. The anarchists became especially active after the October Revolution in 1917, and established a central organization at the All-Colonial Conventions on February 1-4, 1918, and January 6-9, 1919, both held in New York City. However, as time passed, the influence of the anarchists over the immigrants decreased and many of their former members joined other political organizations such as the Federation of Russian Socialist Organizations (Federatsiya Russkikh Sotsialisticheskikh Organizatsii v Amerike) which, incidentally, was established at the above-mentioned All-Colonial Conventions.
Amid the anarchist organizations, a number of Belarusans held top leadership positions. Among them were Dr. Aleksandr Sienkievich and his wife Hanna, who started an anarchist organization in Baltimore, and whose influence spread around the country, but was especially strong along the East Coast.
Other Belarusans in the leadership of the anarchists were: Maksim Stotski, a prolific journalist and writer, author of the book Kvadratura Kruga; he later joined the ROOVA group; Aleksej Valentejchik, pseudonym, Denisov; Semen Hilchuk, pseudonym, Terpigore; Nikifor Hushchyk; Vasil Savchuk; Demian Slautich; Artem Jatsuk; Pavel Zhuk; Ksenofront Karaneuski, and a few others.(5)
o Leftist Groups, including "Progressive Belarusan Organizations"
The leftist, including Communist groups, began to establish themselves in large numbers and to intensify their activities soon after the October 1917 Revolution. The number of groups and their membership steadily increased during the post-revolutionary years under different names. There was no lack of professional leadership, although many of the Communist leaders either went back to Russia, or were deported. The climate for the Communist activities was just right. A sizable segment of the "Russian" immigrant masses were indoctrinated by ideological-professional agitators over a period of years about the class struggle. Realizing that they were a "lower"-level part of society, second-rate citizens in the American context, these people were not in a pacifist mood. They thought that world revolution was just around the corner—and that it was their duty to join the leftist organizations to speed up that process. It must also be underscored, that the entire American leftist movement during the early decades of the century had a foreign-born leadership. The language sections of the Communist wing, especially the Slavic and Russian groups, were totally pro-Moscow oriented and acted very aggressively.
Practically every large and small industrial city in the United States had "Russian Progressive Clubs," "Russian Workers Societies," etc. According to the Russian-American Directory in 1918, the Russian Press Bureau had contacts with 75 Russian organizations; by 1919 the Organization of Russian Socialists alone numbered about 150 groups in the United States.(6) Harvey Klehr, in his analysis of the Communist leadership in the United States, writes: "Between December 1918 and April 1919 the Russian, Ukrainian, South Slavic, Lithuanian, and Lettish Federations jumped in membership from 12,086 to 22,430."(7)
The political awareness, and increasingly militant mood among the "Russian-Slavic" masses following the events of 1917-18 was well-documented in the press.
A few examples will provide the flavor of this period:
The majority of the members of the Russian colony in San Francisco became members of the anarchist-unionist organization, the Union of Russian Workers.(8)
Of all the cities in New England, Boston sheltered the most Russian people. According to the latest count [1923] there are approximately 15,000 Russian people, predominantly people who originated in the Western provinces [i.e., ethnically Belarusan territory, V.K.] who came to the United States before World War I. The huge Russian colony of Boston has practically no people with education, and the people have been living like orphans all this time. Prior to the Revolution the entire life of the colony centered around the church. There were no other organizations, so one did not hear the word "lecture," this word was not even known in the lexicon here. When the Revolution broke out, the colony changed: from God-fearing, it became revolutionary. However, the hope of returning to their homeland became an illusion, and the colony in Boston became very fractured, and is in a rather somber state. Presently, the Russian colony in Boston is grouped into two organizations: One Communist and one Anarchist, neither one having the energy that was there before. (9)
The events of 1918-20 are also vividly remembered by one Belarusan in Boston, Daniil Kazushchik, later on a long-time, prominent leader of pro-Soviet groups in the United States. Kazushchik describes how agitation by the newspaper Novyi Mir influenced the immigrants and how members of the "Russian" colony in Boston and in other cities became radical and Communist. He recalls that the revolutionary spirit of the masses in the late `teens was at its peak and crossed nationality lines: Belarusans, Poles, Latvians, Ukrainians and others were united by a single idea: the struggle against capitalism. (10)
Be that as it may, a very large segment of the so-called "Russian" colony in the United States was in a state of revolutionary turmoil during the years after the October Revolution, and nobody could predict in which direction this mass of people could turn its activity and energy.
As far as Belarusan awareness is concerned, an interesting development took place. As soon as nationally-conscious Belarusans began to establish Belarusan organizations in New York, Chicago, Wisconsin, New Jersey, etc., the leftists and Communists started to take an interest in Belarusans. This situation had its parallel not too long before, following the proclamation of the Belarusan Democratic Republic on March 25, 1918. In response, the Communists established the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic on January 1, 1919. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Communists initiated the process of forming numerous Belarusan organizations of leftist, or what was called groups of a "progressive" ideological orientation, clearly imitating earlier steps of Belarusan national activists of pro-Belarusan Democratic ideology.
Why would the Communists suddenly show an interest in a national movement? The answer to this is relatively simple: the Communists felt that at that time the Belarusan masses were fertile soil for political conversion. Being part of the American labor force they would be a good medium for infiltrating the labor movement and stirring up trouble. The Communists used the following arguments in their appeals to Belarusans: (1) the Byelorussian Soviet Republic which was proclaimed in 1919 was making progress both culturally and economically; (2) the national aspirations of the Belarusan people "to be called human beings"—as expressed in a line from Kupala's poem—were being realized. On the other hand, Belarusans who were in Poland, "a western, capitalistic society," according to Communist notions, still had to struggle. The Poles did not accept Belarusan equality, and, on the contrary, attempted to destroy the Belarusan movement, and, indeed, to physically destroy Belarusans. These were the major issues that the Communists exploited in courting the Belarusans in the United States. The Communists also realized that the Belarusan National Movement in the homeland had gained support, and had important accomplishments to its credit. They thought that the same could happen in the United States, viz., that the Belarusans could become stronger, could organize themselves, and grow into a factor to be reckoned with. Thus, it was felt advisable that the revolutionary group move early, and develop communist-leftist organizations within the Belarusan immigrant masses. Undoubtedly, the Communists also knew that, while Soviet Byelorussia was preoccupied with its own problems, the Belarusan activists in Poland were struggling with the Poles, and the Belarusan leadership in the United States was small in numbers and relatively weak. It was imperative to be in the vanguard among the Belarusans, so that, if it were necessary, a Communist Belarusan leadership would be prepared to assume an active role. All these considerations suggested to the Communists that they needed to take the initiative among Belarusan workers in America. That is precisely what they did for the next decade, beginning in the twenties. As recently published materials reveal, as early as 1925, the Central Communist authorities in Soviet Byelorussia were placing special emphasis on the need to establish contacts with Belarusans in the diaspora, either through local Party members, or through special "envoys." (11)
First of all, the Communists began to advertise the achievements of Soviet Byelorussia and the straggle of the Belarusan people in Poland through Russkii Golos and Novyi Mir, and a few other newspapers, they published a considerable amount of cultural and historical information about the aims of the Belarusan people's aspirations for the future. An active campaign began among Belarusan workers to form organizations to assist Belarusans in Poland, and to establish closer ties with Soviet Byelorussia. The situation of Belarusans in Poland gave the Communists much to write about, because of the Polish Government's campaign against the Belarusan Peasants' and Workers' Hramada and other Belarusan political and cultural groups and institutions. By harassing and eventually destroying the Belarusan movement in Poland, the Poles antagonized both the Belarusan population in the homeland and the Belarusan immigrants in the United States.
The Communist groups took full advantage of the situation. Knowing that many Belarusan immigrants in the United States originally came from western parts of Belarus, i.e., those regions of Belarus which were part of the Polish state during the 1920s and 1930s, the leftist leadership started to organize Belarusan People's Societies which became associated with groups such as the International Workers' Defense, and a powerful organization, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Belarusan People's Societies were established in many cities: Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Gary, Grand Rapids, New York City (Brooklyn had several branches of the society under the title Union of Belarusans in the Borough of Brooklyn), Newark and Passaic Lawrence in Massachusetts, and Wilkes Barre in Pennsylvania. In addition to People's Societies, organizations were established such as: The Committee for Assistance to Political Prisoners in Poland, and the Bobrujsk Workmen's Circle, both in New York; Russian Progressive Club of Omaha, Nebraska; Society of Russian-American Citizens in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; All-American Committee for Assistance to the Peoples of West Belarus, and many other similar groups which became actively involved in providing political and financial assistance to Belarusan prisoners in Poland.(12)
The Communists encouraged Belarusan immigrants to visit the homeland, they kept up contacts with returnees, and they appealed to the Belarusan membership of other organizations, including religious groups.(13)
These Belarusan leftist groups printed their appeals in support of Western Belarus in hundreds of periodicals with authoritative endorsements, including those from Henri Barbusse, Louis Aragon, Upton Sinclair, Michael Gold, and John Dos Passos.(14)
To intensify contacts between Belarusan immigrants in America and the homeland, to glamorize Communist economic policies and the Soviet way of life, the Soviet ideologues adopted an additional method of propaganda: an intensive letter-writing campaign. Beginning in the mid-1920s, this project was initiated by the top propaganda authorities, and was transmitted down to the level of the national republics.
Many all-Union, as well as republic-level newspapers had special offices of international correspondence. In Soviet Belarus such newspapers were Zviazda, Vitsebski Proletary, Paleskaia Prauda, and others. International correspondence was also carried out by individual enterprises. A Bureau of International Workers Liaison was established in Minsk in 1926. According to this organization, Soviet Belarus received 4,035 letters from abroad and mailed to various countries 4,209 letters during 1926-27.(15)
The letter-writing campaign in the United States mainly made use of Russian-language newspapers such as Novyi Mir and Russkii Golos. Many of these letters were in the Belarusan language, and were signed by those who had reemigrated to Soviet Belarus. However, the letters were very naive, filled with shallow propaganda, non-specific to the conditions. The letters were addressed to farmers, workers, schools, individual Belarusan immigrants, etc.(16)
The late twenties and early thirties witnessed a broad and intense fund-raising campaign on behalf of the BSSR and the Soviet Union. It was a campaign for the purchase of tractors and trucks, well organized through various groups and media. Rallies, meetings, and gatherings were held in dozens of towns and cities. Virtually all pro-socialist organizations-"Russian" and non-Russian-responded to the hysteria of buying American tractors to send to the USSR. This program spread to various cities as well as to parishes and even individuals.(17)
Belarusan immigrants were the best audience for such projects for several reasons. First, because they were familiar with the needs of agricultural work. Second, they knew very well the real situation of farming conditions in their homeland. Third, they believed that this was the best way to provide assistance to their families in Belarus. Thus, it was only natural that the response was very positive: hundreds of thousands of American dollars were collected for this well-planned project.
However, the purchase of tractors was apparently only a partial solution. The Soviets needed tractor mechanics and operators. Through organizations, appeals in the leftist press, and personal appeals to individual immigrants, they again succeeded in obtaining assistance. Training schools for tractor mechanics were opened in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where graduates were encouraged to travel to the USSR to operate American tractors, and to teach Soviet citizens about them. Many Belarusans went to the Soviet Union with American tractors. None of them reached Belarus.
To keep the immigrant masses active, the Communists encouraged them to celebrate special days such as the MOPR Day (Mezhdunarodnoye Obshchestvo Pomoshchi Bortsam Revolutsii), May Day, Women's Day, etc.(18)
This kind of Communist activity and propaganda among the masses went on during the 1920s, into the 1930s, 1940s, and well into the 1970s. During this period, many pro-Communist organizations, especially those which were formed for specific political reasons, such as groups to assist Belarusan Hramada in Poland, ceased to exist. However, the organizations which were established by the immigrants on their own initiative survived, a number of them remain in good shape up to the present. These are groups such as the International Cooperative Society, Detroit (Detroitskoye Kooperativnoye Obshchestvo), Russian-American Women Society (Russko-Amerikanskoye Zhenskoye Obshchestvo) and others.
Within the camp of leftist sympathizers, one large umbrella organization with thousands of Belarusan members plays an especially prominent role because of its indigenous character and the tenacity and stability of its membership. This is the Russkoye Narodnoye Obshchestvo Vzaimopomoshchi v Amerike. This organization has a very significant number of Belarusan members. Its current membership consists chiefly of second- and third-generation Americans of Belarusan descent. It has its roots in the Brotherhood called "Narodnoye Obshchestvo Vzaimopomoshchi imeni Aleksandra Nevskogo," which was chartered as an insurance organization in Pennsylvania in 1920. Gradually, by absorbing similar smaller groups and steadily increasing its membership, it became known in 1924 as Russkoye Narodnoye Obshchestvo Vzaimopomoshchi v Amerike (RNOV). From the beginning this organization called itself progressive and adhered to a socialist-Communist ideology. It united with the International Communist Society, the International Workers Order, in 1936, becoming the Russian Chapter of this international organization, the Russian-American Section of the International Workers Organization. The organization became "Amerikansko-Russkoye Obshchestvo Vzaimopomoshchi" (AROV) in 1944, the name under which it is generally known presently. One of the leaders of this organization, Jakov Eberhard, said of the membership: "About 90 percent of our members were Belarusans." The AROV incorporated numerous small "Russian" organizations during its formation process, such as the society "The Peasant" (Krestianin) in New York City, the Russian Drama Club (Russkii Dramaticheskii Klub) in Boston, the Russian Workers Organization in Baltimore (Russkaya Rabochaya Organizatsiya goroda Baltimory), etc., giving them numerical sequence, "Local No. so and so." Many local clubs of this organization were named after prominent revolutionary ideologues, such as branch no. 65 in New York City, which became "The Chernyshevski Society" (257 East 10th Street), branch no. 62 became "The Gorkii Society," etc.(19) At present, the organization has dozens of branches and affiliated groups throughout the country, carries on extensive social and cultural programs, (with the main focus of activities at Arrow Park in New York State) and maintains close contacts with numerous Belarusan (former BSSR) agencies.
As a point of interest, it should be mentioned that associated with the Belarusan leftist movement were not only ethnic Belarusan immigrant masses, but even an organization such as the powerful Civil Liberties Union, League for Defense of Human and Civil Rights. This organization collected funds and provided assistance in the court trial of a Belarusan Communist, Siarhej Prytycki, who was tried for assassination in Poland in 1937.(20)
Summing up the organizational activities and the structures of the leftist and pro-Communist groups with substantial Belarusan membership, it is important to note that, although the Soviet Union was weak during the 1920-1940 period, its power not yet consolidated, and faced with a series of internal and external problems, it nonetheless carried on an active propaganda campaign abroad with increasing intensity. Stirring up national feelings among the immigrant masses was one of the tried-and-true methods of the Communist party apparatus.
o Organizations with a Pro-Russian Orientation
As noted above, many Belarusan immigrants did not accept the philosophies and slogans of the Left, and formed or remained members of other organizations, some of which were openly hostile to revolutionary agitation, and were not necessarily church oriented either. These included various educational societies, insurance organizations, and local clubs of a social nature. A couple of the largest deserve to be mentioned. One of them is the Russkoye Nezavisimoye Obshchestvo Vzaimopomoshchi in Chicago (the Russian Independent Mutual-Aid Society). This organization has its roots in a church-affiliated brotherhood within the Orthodox Parish of the Holy Trinity on Leavitt Street in Chicago. As has been mentioned, this church experienced internal unrest and a sizable group of parishioners, mostly of Belarusan background, separated from the church. Discussions were held by many of those who separated about establishing a Belarusan organization, but the idea did not come to fruition. The members who split from the Holy Trinity Parish began to work very diligently to form a new congregation, and they succeeded in establishing St. George Parish on Wood Street; they also started the St. George Mutual Aid Brotherhood. It is this group that became the nucleus of a large Independent Mutual Aid Organization— the RNzOV (Russkoe Nezavisimoye Obshchestvo Vzaimopomoshchi)—with numerous chapters in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and other Midwestern states and large cities. As a matter of fact, one of the pioneers and active organizers of this group, a staunch anti-Bolshevik named Vladimir Levkovich, was a Belarusan from the town of Kartuz-Biaroza in Southwest Belarus. He was later assassinated by the leftists.(21) The organization had a mostly Belarusan membership and many of them held important leadership positions. The Belorusskaia Tribuna gave the following membership profile of the organization's First Chapter, i.e., the Chicago Chapter: (22)
Members from Grodno province: 247 persons
from Minsk province: 125
from Vilna province: 11
from Mogilev province: 3
from Belarusan parts of the Chernigov province: 2
Total: 388 persons.
Persons originating in Belarusan provinces constituted 72% of the total membership of this first chapter. Belarusan membership in the organization expressed a favorable attitude toward Belarusan ethnic organizations in Chicago. It did respond very positively to supporting appeals for the Belarusan cause in Poland. The organization changed its name several times, and currently, its title is the Russian Independent Mutual Aid Society, Chicago, also formerly known under the title Russian National Orthodox Society (Russkoye Narodnoye Pravoslavnoye Obshchestvo).
Yet another organization which was and is labeled "Russian," but boasts a substantial Belarusan membership, is the Russkoye Obiedinennoye Obshchestvo Vzaimopomoshchi. Its title in English is "The Russian Consolidated Mutual Aid Society of America", commonly known in its abbreviated Russian form as "ROOVA." This nation-wide organization was established, after prolonged maneuvering and many organizational problems, in Philadelphia in 1926.
From the outset it adopted an uncompromising anti-Communist platform; the aim of the leadership was, and is, to be a thoroughly Russian organization. However, its membership is largely Belarusan.(23)
The organization tolerates a mild ethnic and cultural expression of Belarusanism in form, i.e, it invites Belarusan performing groups, dancers, etc., but politically is a strongly pro-Russian organization closely cooperating with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, known as an aggressively nationalistic Russian body. The organization is widely renowned through its suburban property, called the ROOVA Farms, located in Jackson Township, New Jersey, where since 1934, when the property was acquired, a considerable Slavic settlement has grown up around it. Mr. Herman Schultz, the executive director of the ROOVA Farms, commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Farm in 1964 in an article "devoted to the founding fathers of the ROOVA Farms", writes:
The leading group of the founders of the Farm consisted mainly of peasants from Belarusan villages who came to the United States prior to World War 1.(24)
The preceding pages have provided a brief overview of the major, regional and nation-wide "Russian" organizations. There are a number of other, smaller groups with Belarusan membership, but they do not display any noticeably conscious Belarusan dimension besides the fact that these people have close personal ties with Belarus. Such were the "Zemliachestvas," i.e., "Landsmen Circles" (Minsk Circle, New York, Grodno Circle, Chicago, and others). The founders, the great-grandfathers of the present membership of these "Russian" organizations, have long ago passed away. Their descendants are alive and well, living somewhat uncomfortably with Americans' perceptions of them as "Russians," but with a nagging memory of their Belarusan forebears. This is the most unfortunate facet of the problem.
A few remarks about the founders and leadership of the foregoing "Russian" organizations, which had, and still have, a predominantly Belarusan membership, are in order.
The Belarusan creators and the pioneers of the anarchist and leftist organizations became part of these groups because of political convictions, many of them were conscious Belarusans. Many more were Belarusans in name only, soldiers in the movement for a cause. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, these people were ideological followers. Among the most prominent were Daniil Kazushchik, Nadia Silivonchik, Daniil Shitsko, Vera Karluk, Fred Klimovich, Ivan Kravchuk, and many dozens of others.(25) A similar ideological label can be affixed to Belarusan leaders and founders of American Orthodoxy—yes, the statement is correct—a large part of Belarusan immigrants should be considered pioneers of this branch of Christianity on the American continent. These people, possessing a very small degree of ethnic awareness, wanted to remain faithful to the church body which offered spiritual guidance and moral values. There are thousands upon thousands of these Belarusan souls, including a few priests.(26)
However, a totally different reasoning should be applied in order to understand those Belarusans who participated in establishing, or joined civic organizations labeled "Russian."
At this point, it would be appropriate to concentrate on this phenomenon by asking a few questions: Why were these active people not in the Belarusan camp? Were those leaders aware of their Belarusan heritage? Did they see a clear difference between Belarusan and Russian? After all, they were not ignorant men; they were political and civic activists with some education. The answer to some of these questions is fairly simple: many of them knew that they were ethnically Belarusan. A few of them said so openly, and with pride. For example, in the necrology of Jakov Winslow (Vasiliev)—who was the president of the ROOVA Society from 1932 to 1937, and during whose administration the ROOVA Farms were organized and launched—one reads: "Jakov Artiemievich always underscored his Belarusan origin, although he never denied his Russianness."(27) Among other leaders of these pro-Russian groups were Piotr Osipovich from the Vilna region, the first president of the Chekhov Society in New York City; Vasil Kulesh, also from the Vilna region, a businessman and three-term president of the Chekhov Society; Matvej Drozdovich, from the Vilna region, founder of the Nauka Society, Chairman of the Russian People's Home in Brownsville, New York, and, during the 1920s, president of the Russian People's Society (Russkoye Narodnoye Obshchesrvo) in New York; Osip Kozhura, from the Grodno region, member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Mutual Aid Society, New York; Ihnat Zenko, from the Vilna region, one of the founders of the Chekhov Society, New York City; Ihnat Polchevskii, president of the ROOVA organization, 1924-1925; Stepan Trus, from the Grodno region, one of the founders and secretary of the Russian People's Home in Elizabeth, New Jersey; M. Lazarevich, for many years the top man in the ROOVA organization and its president during the years 1937-1945, and 1952-1954; K.H. Karalchuk and I.I. Matushevich, presidents of the ROOVA in 1929 and 1930; V. Kazak and L. Kul, top leaders of the ROOVA organization and the ROOVA Farms; Herman Schulz, post-World War II long-time Director of the ROOVA Farms, Belarusan-speaking and well versed in Belarusan culture; D. Vashkevich, one of the founders of the Pushkin Senior Citizens Home, Jackson, New Jersey; L. Kachula, pioneer of the Society Nauka, New York City; P. Hramovich and A. Kryulka, leaders of numerous organizations in the Brownsville area, Brooklyn, New York; N. Slutski, activist and leader of numerous "Russian" organizations in Passaic, New Jersey, and hundreds of others.(28)
The core of the problem lies in the fact that these people possessed a very low degree of Belarusan national consciousness; they did not see the difference, in a political sense, between Belarusan and Russian. Those who knew—men like Sciapan Bubeshka and Aleksandr Sienkievich-were the exceptions. The majority of these leaders were the products of a long policy of aggressive Russification. The Russian culture, the Russian Church, and the Russian state were the first and last criteria in their outlook. Russification was so deeply imbedded in them that they could not imagine an alternative. Any deviation from "Russianness" would be treason, a German, Polish, or Zionist intrigue and for many of them, above all, disloyalty to the idea of "togetherness of Great, Little, and Byelo-Russian roots." Many of them, all their lives, had tried to achieve a status closer to "Great Russian." This is where the phrase "Belarusan origin" and the notion of "Russianness," as expressed by many of these leaders, came from.
Summing up the activities of the organizations with large Belarusan membership during the inter-bellum period, 1920-1941, one detects a few faint elements of Belarusan awareness, especially in those of a pro-Soviet blend. However, these organizations, being the product of Soviet needs, almost all faded away as those needs shifted in a different direction, or emphasized a different geographical region.
The organizations that pursued other than Soviet goals did not respond well to Belarusan interests. The most unfortunate fact for Belarusans in the United States was that the leadership of these numerous organizations, predominantly of Belarusan origin, i.e., biologically, was intellectually the product of tsarist Russification policy. These leaders had their Belarusanness bleached out of them, in a political sense. The process of brainwashing, begun in churches, schools, and agencies of the Russian Empire, was continued and completed in the New World, through the multi-faceted network of Russian-oriented and Russophile organizations, agencies, churches, and publications. However, the Belarusan roots of these people is an undeniable fact.
Belarusan Activities in World War II
o Situation in the Homeland
World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939. Within a period of less than three weeks, Belarusan territory became a war zone when, on September 17, 1939, the Soviets "extended the hand of liberation" to Belarusans in Western Belarus. Ironically, a consequence of Soviet aggression against Poland, in concert with Nazi Germany, was that almost all of western Belarusan ethnic territory, including the city of Vilna, was brought together in a single republic, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. This episode was not long-lasting. On October 10, 1939, the Soviet government gave the city of Vilna to Lithuania, becoming its capital in 1940.
About two years later, Soviet Belarus became one of the first republics of the Soviet Union to feel the power of the Wehrmacht when Nazi Germany attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941. Fast-changing developments witnessed Belarus occupied by the Soviets once again in 1943-1944. Belarus was "liberated" three times during World War II; once from the "Polish landlords;" once from the Soviet Communists; and once from Nazi invaders.
o Belarusan-Americans Re-activate
Organized activities among Belarusans in the United States were at a low point prior to World War II. The press reported Belarusan participation in the Slavic-American Festival in Chicago (March 25, 1941).(29) In Columbus, Ohio, Ukrainians and Belarusans paid tribute to Christopher Columbus. Admiring speeches were given by Belarusan Jan Zmahar, Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus Pinta Council.(30)
The early events of the war, consequential territorial shifts which directly affected Belarus, the political demarches of the Lithuanians and the Poles in the United States, coupled with a realization that Belarusan involvement and commitment were at a low ebb nationwide, prompted the Belarusan leadership in Chicago to undertake concerted efforts to develop organizational life once more.
Jan Charapuk-Zmahar and a few colleagues convened a conference on September 7, 1941 at 2623 West Augusta Boulevard in
Belarusan Masses Prior to World War II, and the War Years 185
Chicago, with the purpose of founding a new organization. A resolution was adopted to call the new organization Bielaruska-Amerykanskaje Tavarystva Pomacy Zertvam Vajny na Bielarusi [The Belarusan-American Association of Aid to Victims of War in Belarus (White Russia)]. Their application for a charter was submitted on September 25, 1941 and was signed by Messrs. Zmahar, Labach, Hayduk, Ablazhej, and Rev. John Tarasevich. The State of Illinois did not grant the charter but requested a change in the name of the organization, with which the organizers complied. The new name proposed was Bielaruska-Amerykanskaja Nacyjanalnaja Rada [The Belarusan-American National Council].(31)
The minutes of the third meeting of this organization, dated November 9, 1941, note that "A charter for the `White-Russian American National Council,1 certificate no. 11612, dated October 27, 1941, has been received from the State of Illinois. Officers elected for the remainder of 1941 and for the calendar year 1942 are the following:
Rev. John Tarasevich, Chairman
Jan Charapuk, Vice-Chairman
Pauluk Chopka, Treasurer
Makar Ablazhej, Financial Secretary
Jazep Varonka, Corresponding Secretary
Rev. Jazep Reshats, Religious Affairs
Ihnat Labach, Recording Secretary.
Other matters as recorded in the minutes deal with routine issues, including participation in the upcoming convention of the All Slavic-American Congress. It was resolved to send two delegates to this Congress, namely Rev. Prof. John Tarasevich and Jan Charapuk-Zmahar. A resolution was also adopted to send a memorandum to the Congress of the United States.
At the fourth meeting, on December 7, 1941, discussion focused on international affairs. The fifth meeting, January 4, 1942 passed a resolution fully supporting President Roosevelt's military initiative. Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and English-language newspapers reported on the establishment of the White Russian-American National Council. Minutes of the sixth meeting, January 18, 1942, deal with local initiatives, e.g., organizing a Belarusan soiree. Another resolution instructed that a telegram be sent to President Roosevelt, declaring the Council's support for his political decisions. At the seventh meeting of the executive board, February 22, 1942, the Constitution and By-laws of the White Russian-American National Council (WRANC) were read and adopted. The Constitution expresses a blend of American and Belarusan ideals.
At one of the meetings, a reply from the White House was read in which the President expressed his satisfaction that Belarusan-Americans in Chicago had become active. Other letters received were from The New York Public Library regarding the publications Amerikanskii Belorus and Belorusskaya Tribuna; and from Professor Nicholas Vakar of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was resolved that Belarusan Independence Day should be celebrated at the Monastery of St. Procopius.
The eighth meeting, held on May 10, 1942, discussed local issues. The ninth meeting, June 7, 1942, heard the anti-Nazi speech given by Belarusan national poet Janka Kupala at the All-Slavic Congress in Moscow. It offered encouragement to Belarusans in the United States. At the tenth meeting, October 4, 1942, a prayer was offered in memory of Janka Kupala. It was resolved to have a panichida served for him on October 11, 1942. Jazep Varonka, a member of the Board, was featured on a radio broadcast honoring Kupala. The Board authorized the manufacture of souvenirs, American and Belarusan flags. Rev. John Tarasevich presented a report about his participation at the first All Slavic-American Congress in Detroit on April 25-26, 1942. It was resolved that Belarusan-Americans should become involved in local elections and should participate in the program of the All Slavic-American Congress. At the eleventh meeting, December 6, 1942, it was decided to have a city-wide commemoration of Janka Kupala in Chicago, and an Ad Hoc Committee was formed for this purpose, consisting of Rev. John Tarasevich and Jazep Varonka.
The twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth meetings—February 21, June 13, and November 7, 1943—were taken up with 1) local activities of the Belarusan group, and 2) reports about international Belarusan demarches. The fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth executive meetings were held on January 16, June 4, October 1, and December 10, 1944. It was noted that the Encyclopedia Britannica acknowledged receipt of an article about Belarus and expressed their thanks. An analysis was made of specific involvements of the Council with the All Slavic-American Congress, and mention of Belarus in various ethnic newspapers was noted. Belarusan-language radio programs aired by Jazep Varonka were discussed. Fr. Tarasevich's correspondence file reveals that Mr. Mikola Abramchyk has contacted the Council from Paris.(32)
There was apparently no regular meeting of the executive board during the year 1945, but the Council's correspondence reveals that that year the term "White Russian" began to be replaced by the name "Byelorussian."
Beginning with the nineteenth executive meeting, held on February 3, 1946, the activities of the White Russian-American National Council were concentrated on international affairs, on monitoring the Belarusan emigration in Western Europe, and on domestic political issues. The correspondence files of the Council covering the years from 1946 to 1948 are enormous. In 1947, the Council received a letter from President Harry S. Truman, acknowledging the Council's support of his policies.(33)
While the minutes of the National Council are a valuable source of information about the activities of the Belarusan community in Chicago during the war years, they do not reflect the full extent of the group's political correspondence or the scope of its international activities. Of special note is the political correspondence of Rev. John Tarasevich. He pursued several objectives, chief of which was to inform American and West European political figures of Belarus' desire for independence and for the preservation of Belarusan ethnographic territory undivided. (Western Belarus was under Polish rule prior to World War II, and should, he felt, be made a permanent part of the Byelorussian SSR). Father Tarasevich addressed numerous memoranda concerning Belarus's territorial claims and political future to the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C.; as well as to the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the Byelorussian SSR, Kuzma Kisialeu. He also wrote memoranda dealing with Belarusan political matters to Sir Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary; to Dr. Eduard Benes, President of the Czechoslovak Republic; to several U.S. Congressmen; to the White House; to Soviet religious authorities, including Archbishop Alexei of Yaroslavl' and Rostov; and to numerous American nationalities organizations.
It is noteworthy that in his correspondence with the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the BSSR, Father Tarasevich wrote in the Belarusan language.(34) The Council's ideas were promoted through the printed word, radio addresses, and by participation in many conferences and meetings. A great many articles and news items about Belarusan activities in the United States were reported on in the Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian press.(35)
The White Russian-American National Council's political activities were directed not only at those outside the Belarusan community, but within the community as well. For example, the Council started the observance of the Anniversary of Byelorussia's Independence on March 25, 1918; the anniversary of poet Janka Kupala's death, June 28, 1942; and other cultural and religious commemorations.
A significant development in the life of the Council and the community was the working contacts it developed with other Slavic-American communities and organizations.(36)
World War II served to galvanize and energize Slavic Americans. Nor is this difficult to understand if one considers two factors that had enormous impact on Slavic communities in the United States, namely 1) virtually all Slavic territory in Europe was occupied by the Nazi armed forces; and 2) Nazi racial theory held that Slavs were Untermenschen, lower forms of human life. These facts united American Slavdom in its opposition to Nazi Fascism. The impact of Fascism on the Slavic world brought American Slavs somewhat together, no longer merely working together as individuals, but acting in concert as a group of people with a shared ethnic background and development.
The American Slavs formed an organization called the American Slavic Congress. This was a loose confederation, leaving total individuality to each national group, but providing a united voice to the American public, and arousing the patriotism of Slavic Americans. The leadership of the organization shared a clear leftist orientation, and World War II provided the opportunity for the pro-Soviet element to carry out their ideological platform in a more overt way. This pro-Soviet atmosphere was not confined to the Slavs; the mood of the entire country was positively inclined towards the Soviet Union and sympathized with "good old Uncle Joe [Stalin]."
The American-Slavic Congress was active along several lines: it rendered financial assistance to the Soviets, promoted their ideals, and forged American public opinion in the direction of being on good terms with the Soviet Union. However, at the same time, Slavic groups and organizations evinced a loyalty and patriotism towards their adopted country, the United States of America. Thousands of American Slavs volunteered for military service. Many of them died for their new homeland.
From the outset, Belarusans played a role in this new organization. The first American-Slavic Congress was held in Detroit, Michigan, on April 25-26, 1942. The Belarusan National Council was represented by Rev. John Tarasevich. The Second Congress was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 23-24, 1944. The third in New York City on September 20-22, 1946. At the Third Congress, Father Tarasevich once again represented the Belarusan Council of Chicago. Mr. Timafej Gorbunov of the Byelorussian SSR was the main speaker at the Congress, representing not only his own republic, but the USSR as well. This was perhaps the first instance on record when representatives of Soviet Byelorussia and opponents of that regime in the diaspora shared the same platform. The Fourth American Slavic Congress was held in Chicago, Illinois September 24-26, 1948. Representatives of the Belarusan Council (White Russian-American National Council) participated in every American Slavic Congress, as did Belarusans from leftist organizations.(37)
Through such contacts and organizational affiliations, the concept of Belarus as a political entity was slowly, but increasingly widely recognized.
The straggle of Belarusan partisans against Nazi occupiers was written up in the American press and in a number of periodicals, such as the Michigan Slav, The Slavonic Monthly, and similar publications.
In addition to propaganda about the straggle of Belarusans against the Third Reich, Belarusan-Americans actively collected funds, clothing, and other items to assist their compatriots in Belarus. American libraries became interested in Belarusan materials and established contacts with the representatives of Soviet Byelorussia in the United States.(38)
However, the White Russian-American National Council in Chicago was not the only Belarusan organization which was active during the war, although it was the largest group with specifically Belarusan objectives. Another group which participated in Slavic activities was located in Brownsville, in New York City. A third organization, also in New York, calling itself Landsmen from the Minsk Province, was established in 1944. The goal of this organization was to bring together descendants from the Minsk region and to organize assistance for Soviet Belarus. Belarusan interests were also propagated by numerous leftist groups such as the Committee of Assistance to the Minsk Population, Organization to Help Western Belarus, and similar bodies which carried on programs of enormous material assistance to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.(39)
The contribution of Belarusan-Americans to the American military effort during World War II is an important page of our national history—and it remains to be written. It is an unresearched subject in America.
Such research faces, yet again, the vexing problem of terminology. Thousands of American soldiers during World War II were labeled "Russian" in parentage or background when, in fact, they had Belarusan roots. And the student who will tackle the subject should be well aware of the difficulties. On the other hand, numerous publications, mainly newspapers and a few books, recorded the military exploits of Belarusan-Americans, and examples are numerous.
Ivan Radiukovich, whose parents came from Minsk Province, was one of the first American soldiers to land in Normandy on June 6, 1944.(40) The Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to Nikolaj Oreshko. The Distinguished Flying Cross to Vadim Kovalenko.(41) In June of 1944, Captain Alexander Pohowsky, Jr., M.D. also landed in Normandy, where he was wounded and was awarded the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal, the American Theatre Ribbon, and the European Theatre Ribbon. His service is recorded in the volume Courage and Devotion Beyond the Call of Duty (Evansville, Indiana, 1946), which states that
Captain Pohowsky, without regard for his own personal safety, assisted in giving first aid and evacuating casualties, even though exposed to enemy firing, until he was hit in the left eye by a piece of shrapnel... His aggressiveness, determination to evacuate casualties and his coolness under fire were a great inspiration to all those around him.(42)
Although it may sound unbelievable, a Belarusan-American also distinguished himself in the Soviet military. A Hero of the Soviet Union, Vasil Marciechau, was born in the United States, near Columbus, Ohio. His parents re-emigrated, returning to Belarus, where this American-bora boy grew up and had an outstanding military career during World War 11.(43)
The following events also had a bearing on Belarusan-American relations during World War II:
Ilya Mazuruk was one of the first Soviet aviators to fly from the peninsula of Kamchatka to Alaska during the war.(44)
People around the world saw the photograph depicting the meeting of American and Soviet troops on the Elbe River in April, 1945. The Soviet soldier whom the GI is hugging is a Belarusan, Aleksandr Silvashko, currently the principal of a school near the town of Kletsk in central Belarus.(45)
Further research will paint a fuller picture of the role of Belarusan-American men and women in World War II in many theatres. There were Belarusan-Americans who fought the battles of the Pacific and, among the later immigrants, i.e., post-World War II wave, were those who were in the Allied forces and took part in historic battles such as Arnheim, Monte Cassino, the North African theatre, and others.
o NOTES
1. S. Volens. Correspondence with author, October 7, 1985.
2. R. E. Park, The Immigrant Press and Its Control (New York: Harper's Brothers, 1922), 79.
3. United States. Immigration and Naturalization Service, records, 1919-1920.
4. V. Sahaidakivskii, Rev. Pravdy ne vtopiti (Toronto, 1977), 299.
5. Delo Truda-Probuzhdenie, May-September, 1953, 21, 43; October-December, 1953, 27, 50; August-December, 1954, 11-16; August-December, 1955, 14-15; January-April, 1956, 12, 55; February, 1958, 32-33; June 1958, 21-22; December 1958, 5-7.
6. Russian-American Register, New York, 1920. 230-232.
7. H. Klehr, Communist Cadre (Stanford: Stanford University, 1978), 141.
8. Katorga i Ssylka, Moskva, 30, 1927, 18-20.
9. Nauka i Zhizn, New York, September, 1923, 19.
10. D. Kazushchik, Pervye shagi (Minsk, 1970), 18.
11. Holas Radzimy, Minsk, September 9, 1993.
12. Russkii Gobs, New York, January 26, February 3, 1926; February 6, 17, March 24, April 21, 23, June 6, 8, 1927; May 7, 18, 20, 21, July 18, 27, December 1, 1928; November 4, 17, 1929; October 17, 23, December 13, 1930; January 13, 1931.
13. Novyi Mir, New York, March 5, 1927; April 21, 1828; May 28, June 11, December 3, 1932; November 27, 1937.
14. Soviet Literature, Moscow, June 1931, 126-127.
15. Voprosy Istorii, Minsk, 1980,32-42.
16. Novyi Mir, New York, November 29, 1935; January 16, April 6, 1936.
17. Russkii Golos, New York, August 25, 1927; November 9, 18, 1929; January 13, 14, February 11, 19, 20, 1931.
18. Vestnik BDU, Minsk, ser. 3, 3, 1984, 6.
19. Tridtsat Let AROV: 1920-1950 (New York, 1950), 140.
20. W. Wilenchik, Die Partisanen Bewegung in Weissrussland, 1941-1944 (Berlin: Osteuropa Institut Forschungen fuer Osteuropaeische Geschichte, Band 34, 1984), 145-146.
21. Rassvet, Chicago, February 18, 1933.
22. Belorusskaia Tribuna, Chicago, June 1932.
23. Istorii otdelov ROOVA, 1926-1936. (New York, 1936), 45, 63, 88.
24. Russkii Vestnik, New York, May-June 1962.
25. Russkii Golos, New York, Archives: Biographical files.
26. Orthodox Church in America (OCA) Archives, Syosset, N.Y.: Biographical file.
27. Russkii Vestnik, New York, May-June 1962.
28. Russkii Vestnik, New York, Archives: Biographical files.
29. Novoye Russkoye Slovo, New York, March 25, 29, November 29, 1941.
30. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: Charapuk file.
31. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: Belarusan-American National Council file.
32. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: BANR Minutes.
33. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: BANR correspondence file.
34. Belarusan Library, Skaryna Library, London: Rev. Jan Tarasevich's file.
35. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: aewspaper clippings file.
36. Belarusan Library, Skaryna Library, London: BANR file.
37. Belarusan National Council, Chicago, Archives: Activities file.
38. Special Libraries Conference on Russian Materials, New York, American Russian Institute, November 17, 1945, 23.
39. Novoye Russkoye Slovo, New York, March 16, December 3, 1946.
40. Novoye Russkoye Slovo, New York, October 20, 1942; March 6, 1943; May 27, June 27, 1945; February 15, 1946.
41. Russkii Vestnik, New York, 136, 1944; 137, 138, 1945.
42. Belarusan Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives: Correspondence file: Kipel/Robert Pochowski.
43. Bielaruskaja Savieckja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 7, 1973), 43.
44. Bielaruskaja Savieckja Encyklapedyja (Minsk, 6, 1972), 536.
45. Kommunist Belorussii, Minsk, 9, 1988, 65-66.
Chapter VIII: The Post-World War II Wave of Belarusan Immigration
o Initial Post-War Contacts
As the countries of Western Europe were gradually liberated from Nazi occupation, a number of Belarusans in Chicago initiated contacts with Belarusan immigrants in Western Europe.
The minutes of the Chicago Belarusan National Council reveal correspondence between Rev. John Tarasevich and Mr. Mikola Abramchyk in Paris; while Rev. Jazep Reshats corresponded with Belarusans in West Germany and Sweden.(l)
An important role in developing and maintaining these contacts was played by the newspaper Bielaruskija Naviny, which began publication in Paris in 1945. This newspaper gave coverage to political news of interest to Belarusans in the diaspora in Western Europe, and search notices about relatives in the United States.(2) Contacts were made through other publications which began to be established in West Germany and Austria in 1946-47.(3)
Thus, it was through organizational and personal initiatives, the Belarusan-language publications abroad, and several humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, the World Church Service, and the YMCA-YWCA, that Belarusans established contacts between their countrymen in the United States and those across the ocean, and opened the way for emigration.
This wave of post-World War II Belarusan immigrants inaugurated a new era in the history of Belarusan immigration to the United States.
o The Status of Belarusan Emigrants in Western Europe
While the Allies were celebrating their victory over Nazi Germany in May of 1945, over two million Eastern Europeans, and former citizens of the Soviet Union—including many tens of thousands of Belarusans—had taken up residence in various countries of Western Europe, totally uncertain about their future.(4)
Only a short time before, the majority of these Belarusans had been Ostarbeiters, "workers from the East," the labor force brought to Germany from the Soviet Union. "The East" usually meant that one's origins were in those parts of the USSR under German occupation. This included the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In addition to Belarusan Ostarbeiters, there was also a sizable group of young people who were former members of the Union of Belarusan Youth, and who were brought to Germany as apprentices in factories of various industries and military installations.(5)
The next large group of Belarusans living in postwar Western Europe was comprised of former prisoners of war, who had served as soldiers in the Polish or Soviet armies. Ales Winicki puts the number of Belarusan POWs who served in the Polish army at 70,000, and Vernant Jacques lists about 80,000 Belarusans, former soldiers of the Polish army, who became German POWs.(6)
A fourth significant group of Belarusan refugees in West Germany was made up of people who had left their homeland in 1944-45 in the face of advancing Soviet armies. This was a very diverse group of persons—farmers, workers, and members of the intelligentsia—estimated at between 75,000 and 100,000. Other sources, such as the International Refugee Journalist Association in the British Zone of Occupation, in its 1948 guidelines to the press, said the following about the number of Belarusans in West Germany:
We learn from the Central White Ruthenian Refugee Committee that there was on April 1948, the total of approximately 50,000 White Ruthenian refugees in the three Western Zones of Germany. (7)
As the Allied Forces occupied all of what became West Germany, they were faced with the problem of what to do with the immigrants who were former residents and citizens of the Soviet Union—Baits, Belarusans, Russians, Ukrainians, and members of some other nationalities—and who did not want to return to their homeland. The Soviet authorities demanded that these people be repatriated in accordance with the Yalta agreements. The Yalta Conference (February 1945) had sealed the fate of hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europe's peoples. The decisions taken at that conference during the last months of World War II in Europe constituted an important act by politicians as the end of hostilities approached. Unfortunately, the terms of the Yalta Conference-essentially dictated by the Soviets and rubberstamped by the Western Allies-stipulated that all former citizens of the Soviet Union should be repatriated. However, the term "Soviet citizen" varied among the Allies.
The Western Allies did not consider those who had been citizens of the Polish State prior to September 1, 1939 to be Soviet citizens; nor those who had lived in Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania preceding the occupation of those republics by the Soviets in 1940. These people never claimed Soviet citizenship, and were never considered to be Soviet citizens. As the previously mentioned British scholar, Malcolm J. Proudfoot, wrote: "There were more than 250,000 of these people in the western zones of Germany and Austria." Although the Soviet Union considered these refugees as "theirs" and demanded that they be returned to their home areas, "by force, if necessary," the policy of the Allies was that
The British and United States Governments had not recognized any territorial changes brought about by the [Second World] war and that all persons from such areas will not be returned to their home districts nor treated as Soviet citizens unless they affirmatively claim Soviet citizenship. (8).
Thus, a situation was created, whereby many Belarusans were able to remain in the West as former citizens of the Polish State. Unfortunately, in some areas, Western military commanders, following orders and not reasoning much, did forcefully repatriate thousands of refugees, among whom were many non-Soviet citizens. This constitutes one of the most tragic pages of the history of World War 11.(9)
It will probably never be known with accuracy how many Belarusans were repatriated by force, but by September 1, 1945, Pravda reported that 4,115,709 persons had been returned to the Soviet Union, including of course, Belarusans, Russians, and Ukrainians.
By the end of 1945, there remained in West Germany and Austria several hundreds of thousands of emigrants who did not want to return to their homeland. The Belarusan National Committee in West Germany estimated that between 75,000 and 100,000 Belarusans chose not to return to Belarus, by now occupied once again by the Soviets.(10)
Following the cessation of hostilities, the refugees in Western Europe (or, to use the term then current), the "displaced persons," came under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (or SHAEF), then subject to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and still later on, to the International Refugee Organization (IRO)(11). As the displaced persons passed through the screening procedures of the Military Authorities or the administrative maze of UNRRA's bureaucratic machine, many of them, former citizens of the Soviet Union, realized that they could be repatriated to the USSR according to the terms of the Yalta Agreement. In order to avoid this, these people had to change their documents to prove that they were not Soviet citizens. For Belarusans, the most logical way to do this was to prove that they were citizens of the Polish State prior to World War II. Altering their documents, i.e., their birth place, was done with relative ease because Belarusan compatriots who originated in Western Belarus testified for their fellows during the process of obtaining new documents. J.A. Tannahill, studying the foreign work force in Britain, made the following remark concerning this peculiar situation:
Byelorussia was not recognized as a separate nation by the Western powers at the end of the war, and those Byelorussians who came in due course to Britain mainly arrived as Poles. If they had come from Western Byelorussia this was quite correct, and many had in fact been in the Polish Forces and were demobilised through the Polish Resettlement Corps. Those from the eastern part of the country had usually been forced labourers in Germany and succeeded in remaining in Germany by adopting the Polish label.( 12)
For the record, however, it should be stated that approximately two-thirds of Belarusan displaced persons had originally come from Western Belarus.
o D.P. Camps
The majority of displaced persons were assembled in the camps, called D.P. camps. The number of those who remained "in private apartments," i.e., outside of the D.P. camps, was insignificant. The D.P. camps were organized largely along national lines, viz., Baits, Belarusans, Poles, Ukrainians, et al., each group in its own camp. In large industrial areas there also existed "international" camps, sometimes with nationalities sections. Some authors mention fourteen Belarusan D.P. camps, but Belarusan-generated statistics show that there were about twenty Belarusan camps in West Germany and many smaller Belarusan groups in Austria.(13)
The organization and administration of the "national" D.P. camps was entrusted to the elected leadership of the nationality involved, the UNRRA authorities generally concurring. Although the majority of Belarusans chose the Belarusan camps, there were many who went to Polish camps on the assumption that they would be safer from the possibility of repatriation to the USSR if they were with Poles.
The D.P. camps functioned as "states within states." The German authorities had no jurisdiction and the Allied occupation forces and the UNRRA Administration exercised only nominal supervision over them. The camps were essentially self-governing with their own administration, churches, schools, police, various clubs and societies. SHAEF, UNRRA, and later, IRO provided food, clothing, judicial and administrative assistance to the residents.
o Belarusan Political Representation
As memories of the war faded and displaced persons began to realize that these D.P. settlements were not temporary way-stations on the road back to the homeland, but more like springboards to a permanent—and unclear—future, the national leadership began to consider ways and means of establishing an on-going political representation to promote and publicize the notion of Belarusan statehood and the nation's drive for independence.
It was well-known to Belarusan refugees that somewhere in West Germany, there was a group of persons who had served as the top Belarusan political and administrative leadership during the German occupation of Belarus, 1941-1944. The central body of this group was called the Belarusan Central Council (Bielaraskaja Centralnaja Rada/BCR) and was headed by Professor Radaslau Astrouski.
The average Belarusan D.P. felt that the role of the BCR group as a political institution had ceased as of May 1945. A great many Belarusan political leaders concurred with this view and thought that it was time to establish a new representative Belarusan authority untainted by the events of the war and association with the Nazis. They saw such a symbol in the Belarusan Democratic Republic, or BDR. One should keep in mind that the Council of the Belarusan Democratic Republic had been located in Western Europe since 1919-1920. This Council had never been involved with Nazi Germany in any way. In fact, it had rejected invitations from that quarter to cooperate. Thus, it is understandable that many Belarusan political leaders would turn to the BDR Council and accept it as a viable and legitimate political representative. As a consequence of the burgeoning support, the Council of the BDR was renewed, transformed, its membership increased, and, within a short time, it was recognized by a very sizeable portion of the Belarusans in Western Europe as their legitimate political representative abroad. The head of the reconstituted Council was Mikola Abramchyk.(14)
Many Belarusans and a number of political leaders, however, were of the opinion that neither the Belarusan Central Council, nor the Belarusan activists who had worked during the German occupation should feel guilty or ashamed of their work during the years 1941-1945. They considered that the activities of the BCR had been undertaken on behalf of a Belarusan cause, for the benefit of the Belarusan nation, and that, in fact, they could take pride in a number of significant accomplishments. This faction of Belarusan society thought that the Belarusan Central Council should continue to be the political representative of the Belarusan people. In this way a political dualism—BDR versus BCR—emerged. By 1947-1948 the Belarusan emigrants in the D.P. camps and elsewhere throughout Western Europe were split in their convictions about Belarusan political representation. The division became increasingly sharp and the two political camps began to compete for followers among the Belarusan masses, while trying simultaneously to convince the American, British, and French military authorities in West Germany, as well as the UNRRA and IRO administrations, that each had the sole authority to represent Belarusans. This political polarity hurt the Belarusan cause: it prevented people from concentrating on other, often more important issues, such as recruiting more members into the Belarusan D.P. camps and promoting Belarusan political ideas among non-Belarusans.
The divisions within the Belarusan communities in Western Europe during the late 1940s were unfortunately transplanted to the American continent where they exercised some influence on Belarusan-Americans, as became clear in a survey of Belarusan communities in the United States taken by the Common Council for American Unity in 1950-1951.(15) However, the culmination of the political splintering among Belarusan immigrants was on the European continent; it decreased steadiily in the United States.
As time passed and the younger generation moved into the arena of Belarusan diaspora politics, this divisiveness has gradually subsided and, in day-to-day affairs, it has faded into insignificance, remaining at this juncture merely a theoretical issue of interest to political scientists.
The Belarusan-American community has accepted as the political ideal for the Belarusan nation an independent state—the Belarusan Democratic Republic as proclaimed on March 25, 1918— with subsequent political events in concordance with this historic act.
o A Sociological Profile of the Post-World War II Immigration
The immigrants who came to the United States after World War II represent a wide cross-section of the Belarusan nation, although the age bracket is not reflective of the total population. Two groups predominated: those under 20 years of age, and those over 35, with a slight preponderance of females. The occupational and educational profiles were as follows: the largest group consisted of farmers and people from small settlements. A second group belonged to the working class: all kinds of laborers from a wide variety of industries. Everyone in these groups averaged four to seven years of schooling and was reasonably sophisticated in political matters. A third group was made of members of the intelligentsia—teachers, educators, administrators, technical personnel—the group that forms the administrative-educational-technical apparatus in any state.
The majority of these immigrants were from former Western Belarus, i.e., those regions of the country which had been part of the Polish state prior to World War II; about 80 per cent of them were Eastern Orthodox Christians; the level of material possessions among them being quite uniform, rather on the very modest side, if one were to judge by Western standards.
One characteristic, however, stands out and is typical of this wave of immigrants. Without exception, they were to a person staunch anti-Communists. It was Communism that had reduced their material wealth to a uniformly low level, and robbed them of their spiritual and national heritage, and it was chiefly the oppression initiated by the Communists which had led them to emigrate.
o Fresh Initiatives in the Post-World War II Era
Belarusan immigrants of the post-World War II period began to arrive in America during the last few months of the war and in the months after hostilities ended. This immigration was not large; those who came at this time belonged to identifiable categories: either they were Belarusan-Americans born in the United States whose parents had reemigrated to Belarus during the pre-War years, or they were Belarusans who had close relatives in the United States. Although the total number of these "new" Belarusan immigrants was many fewer than the masses of Belarusans who arrived in America a few years later, i.e., in the late 1940s and early 1950s, these early arrivals played an important role in setting in motion a mechanism to bring more of their compatriots from Western Europe who were residing in Austria, Denmark, France, West Germany, and Italy, in D.P. camps, for the most part.
One of the early arrivals, Janka Nichajonak, an American-born Belarusan, after coming here from France, was able to bring together and organize many Americans of Belarusan descent who began to arrange the formalities that made it possible to bring more Belarusans from Europe.
Another "early" Belarusan activist who was able to come to the United Sates thanks to his pre-War contacts with Americans in Prague, Dr. Ivan Ermachenka, turned to the Ukrainian-American community and, through various Slavic-language newspapers, appealed to "older" Belarusans to provide assistance to Belarusan emigrants in Western Europe.
Still other Belarusans who had come to the U.S. shortly after World War II, such as Dr. Barys Kit, not only developed an effective network of people capable of processing the necessary paperwork for immigration, but also started the first post-World War II organizations in the Belarusan communities. The activities of these pioneers created a chain reaction. Later arrivals procured new sponsors and institutions which regularized and expedited the process of bringing to America new Belarusan immigrants, a process that was in full swing by late 1948, early 1949.
o The Mass Arrival of Belarusan D.P.s in America
The U.S. Displaced Persons Act was enacted on June 25, 1948 and provided for the admission into the United States of 205,000 DP/Refugees by June 30, 1950.(16) Apparently, some input in support of this legislation was provided by American ethnic groups, as can be judged from a letter to Congressman Thomas L, Owens, 7th Congressional District in Illinois, by the Belarusan organization in Chicago.(17)
To set the mechanism in motion, the Displaced Persons Commission was established with regional offices, and the United States foresaw the arrival of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants, chiefly of Eastern European stock: Belarusans, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, et al.(18)
The majority of Belarusan D.P.s left Europe from West German ports such as Bremerhaven and others; many also came from England, France, and Italy.
This mass emigration process resembles in some ways the mass Slavic emigration during the first decade of the 20th century. The same desire to get to "promised, golden America," the very appearance of the emigrants was in many ways comparable: dressed in new clothes, solid old-fashioned wooden suitcases, and anxious looks. But there were differences as well. The biggest difference was the reason for emigration—these were political emigrants forced to emigrate by the Soviet occupation of their homelands. A second disparity between the two waves of emigrants was their intellectual level: virtually uneducated laborers and peasants at the beginning of the century contrasted with sophisticated and politically-minded people at mid-century. For Belarusans the differences were even more apparent: Belarusans were, by the 1940s, emigrating as a separate, identifiable ethnic group, with a specific national name. The Belarusan-language press was on display in the transition camps, notices on bulletin boards, and announcements were also in Belarusan, and Belarusan D.P. camps were listed as the point of origin of many emigrants in Bremerhaven and other ports.
The presence of Belarusans was also noticeable on trans-Atlantic transports. On some of the ships medical assistance was provided by Belarusan doctors.(19) The emigrants on these ships published souvenir journals and bulletins: publications frequently appeared in various languages, including Belarusan.(20) These facts in themselves would not be of significance for some nationalities, but they have considerable import for Belarusans because they attest to the growth of national self-awareness and a determination to obtain accurate identification. These are among the most important differences between Belarusan immigrants at the opening of the century and those at mid-century.
The procedure for bringing new immigrants under the category of D.P.s was relatively simple. A party interested in inviting an immigrant would initiate the process and issue an affidavit for a person or a family according to the required rules and standards. That document would then go to the Displaced Persons Commission in Washington, D.C. At one point an additional co-signature was needed for a religious body because, for the majority of Belarusan immigrants, transportation was arranged through religious organizations such as Caritas Catholica, the World Council of Churches, or a similar body.
Belarusan immigrants were faced with problems at this stage because the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Metropolia (the predecessor name of the jurisdiction now called the Orthodox Church in America) was not anxious to sponsor Belarusans, owing to its pro-Russian stance.(21) For this reason, assistance was extended, for the most part, by various Protestant churches and by the Roman Catholic Church; by the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches; and by the Tolstoy Foundation. Finding sponsors was basically the responsibility of those Belarusans who had come to this country earlier. While the sponsors were very diversified, the majority of them were located in the eastern and midwestern industrial states and cities. A few sponsors, however, who were obtained through religious groups, mostly Protestant, were located in rural areas in states like Arizona, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Thus, the original distribution of these new immigrants, like their compatriots of earlier decades, was governed by the availability of jobs.
Many new Belarusan immigrants took care of procuring the sponsors. But especially active were: Dr. Jan Stankievich, Rev. Mikalaj Lapitski, Rev. Nikalaj Krauchanka, Rev. Leanid Stadnikau, Prof. Nikalaj Sciapanau, Michas Bielamuk, Dr. Ivan Ermachenka, and others.
The experiences of these D.P. immigrants are reflected in a few letters, like this one by Olga Kanarchuk:
We were met by our American friend, whom we had never seen before, in New York harbor. He was an extremely warm person, but unfortunately, our conversation was terribly limited. He gave us $5.00 per person and put us on a train to Chicago with a follow-up to Kansas. In Chicago we were met again by a very friendly person who greeted us and took us to a cafeteria. The cafeteria was new to us and for the first time in many years we had to pay for our food. The stay in Chicago lasted for a while. Then we were put on a train to Kansas. I don't remember the name of the station where we were told by the trainman to get off. There at the station we were met by a minister and by a farmer who sponsored us from Europe. The farmer brought us, this time in his car, to the farm which was quite a distance from the railroad station. We were put in a small farm house with four rooms but no bath or shower in the house. But that was all right—it was a real house. My husband and I began to work immediately, the same day. My job was taking care of about 200 chickens and other small jobs around the house. My husband milked the cows. The children stayed at home or played around the house until it was time to go to school. When we came, we had three children: two daughters and a son; a year later one more daughter was born. Our farmer was a very friendly and compassionate man. We asked to find sponsors for the rest of our family who had stayed in a Belarusan D.P. camp in Bavaria. The farmer did this and we were very happy. The rest of the family came about a year later. We all stayed on the farm for about a year and a half. Then we decided to move to the city where we heard the pay was better. Besides, our relatives had come to the city and were writing to us to move to an urban area. Se we did: we moved to Baltimore. There were very many Belarusans in Baltimore, "old" and new immigrants. Our people helped us to find jobs and an apartment. Like most Belarusans in Baltimore, my husband went to work in the Domino sugar refineries and I went to a small factory. The children went to school and our happy life began. Presently both of us are retired, the children have received an education, and have their own families. Our happiness is with the grandchildren and the realization that we have had a very good life in our new country. (22)
Here are a few different letter-memoirs:
I arrived in New York City on March 27, 1950. All of us newly-arrived bachelors were put on a special bus and transported to a labor-distribution center near Baltimore in the State of Maryland. I told the administrators that I was willing to take any job, including farming. But, unfortunately, the farmers did not want to hire single men because they thought that singles would not stay on the farm too long. Then I remembered that I had the address of a Belarusan friend who had come to the United States a few months before me. I wrote to him and literally in a couple of days I received a reply telling me to come to the State of New Jersey where, according to my friend, there were very many Belarusans and finding a job would not be a problem. I was happy about this news and told a representative of the World Church Organization about it. The officer was extremely nice and happy for me; he took me to Baltimore and put me on the bus to New Brunswick, New Jersey. My address, however, was in South River, New Jersey, not too far from New Brunswick. When I got off the bus in New Brunswick, I started to look around to spot someone who could understand me. My English was limited to a couple of words. So was my German. And somehow I had to get to South River. To my great surprise, the first man I asked understood me. He made a hand sign, inviting me to follow him. We walked to the next corner where a bus was standing. The man said something to the driver and purchased a ticket for me. I was excited. The driver told me where to get off in South River and the first man whom I asked there how to get the address, understood me, and replied in Belarusan. There was no limit to my excitement and satisfaction. The town of South River was full of Belarusans. The next day I went to work and in the afternoon I found a place to stay: the top floor over a saloon with one bed. The price I had to pay was five dollars per month. I was very happy with my successes. In later years I also went to Chicago, Rockford, and several other cities. It was not that I was looking for a better job. I liked all my jobs, but I was looking for Belarusans. Finally I came back to South River, New Jersey and will stay either here or not too far from here. I started my new life in the United States when I was 41 and I am so happy that life in this country was so wonderful.(23)
I had a very pleasant experience from the start: I worked on the ship and all of us were looking forward to making a living in our new country. When we arrived in New York, we were shipped immediately to the State of Maryland, to the Town of Windsor. From there I went to Kansas where I worked on a farm for a couple of years and then came back East. I got married in the United States, my wife is also Belarusan and for the past forty years my family and I have lived very happily. (24)
I came to the United States in September of 1950. Our Belarusan friends found sponsors for us. From New York we went directly to Syracuse, Indiana. The trip for the family cost $83.00. I began to work immediately at "Pyle Orchard" and received my first pay, $25.00, after five weeks. This was a very small sum even to me and, after a verbal exchange with the owner of the company, I quit the job. I did not stay without a job for too long. My friends helped me to get work at the railroad. This was a good job and paid about $1.26 an hour. I stayed there for about two years. There, in Syracuse, I found sponsors for eight Belarusan families and they soon came to Syracuse. I moved to Chicago in 1952 where I worked in the construction industry until 1982. Life in Chicago was just fine. I got good money on various construction sites, and took an active part in Belarusan community life. I am proud of my work in Chicago and felt that I did the right thing. Soon after I retired, I moved back to Syracuse because I have a summer place in Indiana. I am trying to reactivate the Belarusans in Syracuse.(25)
As was indicated earlier, procuring an affidavit for a potential immigrant was a relatively easy task. And, if the job which was listed in the affidavit was still available when the immigrant arrived in the United States, then all was well. Quite often, however, the jobs were no longer available; and, almost as often, the jobs mentioned in the affidavit were not real but simply invented for the occasion. In that case, the newly-arrived immigrant was in a difficult situation; he was on his own. A few such examples are instructive.
We came to the United States in 1951 and went directly to Minneapolis. Our Ukrainian friends whom we met in the D.P. camp had found sponsors for us. Unfortunately, the jobs that the sponsors had listed in the affidavit were fictitious and we had a hard time finding jobs. It was a rough time for our family: no jobs, no apartment. We slept on bare floors wherever we could find a place. But we looked very hard and in a month or so we found jobs. Then we rented a small apartment. As life began to take shape, I was drafted in 1953. For one year and a half I served in Korea. Boy! Did life change when I came back from the service! I got a job as a mechanic, then I went into the construction industry. Unfortunately, there were not too many Belarusans in Minneapolis to organize community life or a church. Almost all the Orthodox Belarusans who were in Minneapolis joined the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and Belarusans of the Roman Catholic faith joined the Polish parish. Life in Minneapolis is quite monotonous. The younger generation is not much interested in their community. The Minneapolis Public Library has no Belarusan books, but over the years I have built up my own nice Belarusan library. Reading is my hobby. I keep in touch with Belarusans through mail and newspapers.(26)
After long years of waiting and uncertainty as to the future, we finally came to the United States on December 21, 1950. Our first apartment was at 325 East 100th Street in Manhattan. To my great—and unpleasant—surprise, from the mouth of my sponsor I learned that my job as listed in the affidavit was fictitious. I was faced with a big problem: how to find a job. Fortunately, our people were very helpful; they suggested a couple of places in Manhattan. But everywhere I had to wait for a couple of weeks. In Connecticut I also had Belarusan friends who invited me there. I must say that New York City did not appeal to me at all and I was glad to go to Connecticut. There I tried several jobs until I found Pitney-Bowes, Inc. I was hired by them and stayed with this company for almost thirty years. I must say that I am very grateful to this company where I was able to make a fine living, raise a family, educate my children, and enjoy life in America.(27)
Letters like those cited above could be multiplied by the hundreds. The common thread in these letters is that the immigrants had a variety of experiences, and although they seldom had an easy time, they succeeded, and all of them are enjoying life in their adopted homeland, and are grateful to America and the opportunities it has afforded them.
The majority of the new Belarusan immigrants came through New York Harbor, but a number of people also came through Boston and Baltimore. New York City, however, became the center of a multitude of new Belarusan initiatives and political activities.
o The Organizational Period
The "old-timer compatriots," i.e., Belarusan immigrants who came to the United States prior to World War I, did not become interested in organizational life until much later. By contrast, the need to establish Belarusan organizations became apparent to the newly-arrived post-World War II immigrants as soon as they stepped onto American soil. First of all, these new immigrants felt that a Belarusan organization would represent them and their ideals; secondly, it would provide them with moral support, if needed; and thirdly, such an organization would help to bring more of their compatriots from Europe.
The question inevitably arose of cooperating with the "old-timers" and with their organizations. But this option was soon discarded for a variety of reasons, chief of which was a lack of national consciousness on the part of the earlier immigrants and their seeming satisfaction with matters as they stood. They were members of existing organizations (which often styled themselves "Russian") and, in addition to their generally left-orientation, they were, of course, not supportive of any expression of separate national identity, much less Belarusanness. Many of them had an outright pro-Soviet stance; others were inclined to the right, with pro-tsarist, Russian-nationalist tendencies. A corollary of this situation was the religious dimension. These left-leaning, so-called "Russian" organizations, were not partial to any church jurisdiction or denomination, although they often supported parishes of the Russian Orthodox Exarchate, under the aegis of the Moscow Patriarchate. Rightist Russian groups tended to support the jurisdiction sympathetic to Imperial Russia and the ancien regime, the Russian Synod Abroad.
The newly arrived Belarusan immigrants held views that were completely incompatible with those of earlier immigrants: they wanted to establish Belarusan organizations which would promote an independent Belarusan state; and they also wanted an independent Belarusan Orthodox Church. In short, there was little common ideological ground between the two groups; thus, the new immigrants determined to establish their own secular organizations and religious communities.(28)
There was, additionally, a psychological barrier common to most groups of immigrants, viz., the "old" immigrants considered their "new" countrymen to be "green" Americans who needed to be taught how to become adjusted to their new lives as well as being educated about political realities in America. The older group found it difficult to accept the fact that the intellectual level and degree of national awareness of the newer group were different from theirs at the time when they arrived in America.
Although many Belarusan leaders attempted to develop broader cooperation between the two generational groups; such cooperation existed on only a very limited scale.(29)
However, one cannot say that the "older" compatriots did not help the newcomers. Often they assisted in getting them jobs; they rented them apartments at convenient prices. Here and there they provided important hints about how to do better in a specific situation. In short, cooperation with the earlier Belarusan immigrants occurred almost exclusively on a personal level. Meanwhile, only a limited number of the older immigrants joined the newly-formed Belarusan organizations and churches.
One aspect, however, should be emphasized regarding the relationship between the old and the new Belarusan immigrants. A generous-spirited cooperation existed in the area of obtaining charters for new Belarusan organizations. U.S. laws require that in order to apply for a charter for a new organization, at least one of the applicants should be an American citizen. The assistance in this matter on the part of the "old" immigrants was quite common and much appreciated.
Thus, Pavel Bunchuk, an "older" Belarusan immigrant, helped to obtain a charter for the Belarusan-American Association from the State of New York in Albany; in fact, Bunchuk even became an officer of that organization. Anton Sacevich, a real estate agent, cooperated with his newer compatriots in forming their organizations in the states of New Jersey and New York, as well as helping new Belarusan immigrants to find employment and purchase houses and property. Others were instrumental in chartering new organizations in several other localities.(30)
The topic of cooperation and lack of cooperation with the older imigrants was on the agenda of many forums of the new Belarusan immigrants during the late 1940s and early 1950s; and this issue was covered extensively in the Belarusan press.(31)
The Belarusan American National Council of Chicago (known also as the White Russian-American National Council) and the New Immigrants.
Although the idea of cooperation with the old immigrants was almost totally rejected by the post-World War II Belarusan immigrants, the Belarusan-American National Council (Bielaruska-Amerykanskaja Nacyjanalnaja Rada) [B-ANR] in Chicago was an exception. This was the only Belarusan national organization in this country founded by members of the earlier wave of Belarusan immigrants with which the new immigrants found a common language. The ideology of this organization was shared by the newly-arrived Belarusans: it included among its goals the restoration of an independent Belarusan state. In addition, the B-ANR was active in providing affidavits for the new immigrants and it successfully brought many of them to Chicago during the period from 1948 to the early 1950s. The leadership of the council during that time consisted of Rev. John Tarasevich, Rev. Jazep Reshats, John Charapmk, Ihnat Labach, Makar Ablazhej, Paval Chopka, and to a lesser degree, Jazep Varonka. The Council grew stronger in membership as new immigrants began to arrive in Chicago. Mikola Dziamidau, a new immigrant and widely-known Belarusan activist, was elected to the Board of Directors in 1950 and gradually the majority of the board came to consist of new arrivals. In fact, it included only two persons from the earlier, older group, Ihnat Labach, President; aid John Charapuk, member of the Board. All the others were post-World War II immigrants: M. Shastkouski, Vice-President; V. Panucevich, Secretary; M. Volach, Treasurer; M. Dziamidau and J. Limanouski, Members. The Council began to become involved in numerous political programs, youth programs, religious affairs, specified and voiced its national and anti-Communist ideology, and started to publish a bulletin, activities which prompted the Soviets to attack the Council.(32)
The new leaders of the Council and of the Belarusan community in Chicago were more politically dynamic in ways different from their predecessors, who had founded the Council. Rev. John Tarasevich and Rev. Jazep Reshats and some others stepped down from active leadership in order to devote themselves to their primary responsibility, religious affairs. The untimely death in 1952 of Jazep Varonka contributed significantly to changes in the council's programs and priorities, and heralded a new leadership team. The political divisiveness which the new arrivals brought with them infiltrated this, the country's oldest Belarusan-American organization. The idea was even suggested that the Council should be merged and absorbed by the newly formed Belarusan-American Association. This, unfortunately, brought a degree of instability to the organization. At first, the Council was somewhat influenced by the leaders associated with the camp of the Belarusan Democratic Republic. However, a strong feeling of resentment surfaced among the "old timers" when Jazep Varonka became the object of political isolation by the BDR leaders, thus opening the way for new initiatives.(33)
Later on, during the mid-1950s, members of various Belarusan organizations and political groups began to work through the Council and thus, once again, shifted its orientation. As a consequence, this senior Belarusan-American group, although revered as the premier continually active Belarusan-American organization, exercised relatively little influence on the new wave of immigrants. It soon became one of many Belarusan organizations in Chicago, for the most part associated with the activities of the Belarusan Orthodox Church of St. George. Recent (1993) leadership of the Council consists of Michas Kalenik, Chairman; Mikola Latushkin, Vice-Chairman; Piatro Niahoda, Treasurer; and Anatol Novik, Secretary.(34)
o New Organizations (including commercial groups)
Organizations of new Belarusan arrivals began to be established from the late 1940s on. The organizational process is, of course, an on-going, never-ending phenomenon. Some organizations originate, play a role, and then fade away. Some enjoy long lives, changing with the times. New organizations, institutions, and agencies spring up as conditions change, new people arrive, new needs surface, and new goals are defined.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to record all the Belarusan-American organizations that have come into existence over the past forty-plus years. There follows a survey of the major groups which have made a notable contribution and been formative of various aspects of Belarusan community life in America, as well as some minor organizations which reflect the kaleidoscope of political and social agenda and programs that have been expressed at different times and places.
The arrangement of the organizations is a somewhat mixed bag: chronological, topical, structurally related, and, whenever this writer has first-hand or recorded knowledge of the group, with some characteristics provided. Most of the organizations were listed in the Belarusan-language print media, although many of them were also registered in a variety of American directories.(35)
The organizations are entered under the English-language title with the Belarusan title, whenever available, following.
The United Whiteruthenian (Belarusan) American Relief Committee, Inc. (Zlucany Bielaruska-Amerykanski Dapamahovy Kamitet)
What can be considered the first move toward organizational activities of the post-World War II Belarusan immigrants was an address by Dr. Ivan Ermachenka to Belarusan-Americans who had come to the United States prior to World War I. Appealing to this group in 1948 through the Ukrainian and Russian-language newspapers, periodicals, and radio broadcasts, Dr. Ermachenka pleaded for assistance for those Belarusans who were living in D.P. camps in Western Europe.(36)
Dr. Ermachenka did not succeed in arousing a strong response among the "old-timers" to help their compatriots to emigrate from West Germany. However, his address, in particular his outline of the political goals of post-World War II Belarusan immigrants, was a clear signal about the renewal of Belarusan political activities in the United States. At the same time, his approach to the subject generated praise and criticism in the Belarusan-language press in Western Europe.(37)
In any event, the need for a Belarusan organization was apparent and time was pressing: Belarusan refugees in Western Europe were waiting for some assistance from across the ocean. A group of Belarusan activists made a decision to establish an organization. The organization was chartered in Albany, New York, under the title of "The United Whiteruthenian (Belarusan) American Relief Committee, Inc." On November 8, 1948.(38) Its address was given as 198 West 89th Street, New York 24, N.Y. The original leadership of this committee consisted of Dr. Ivan Ermachenka, Chairman; Dr. Barys Kit, Mikalaj Filipovich, and Mrs. Jean Skuba, members. The goals of this organization were: to assist Belarusan immigrants during the process of their emigration and settling into this country. The committee sought to find sponsors for immigrants and undertook an active campaign of grouping their newly-arrived compatriots. Little-by-little the organization began social, cultural, and political programs and activities such as organizing literary soirees, lectures for the study of English, finding jobs, and initiating such publications as Bielarus и Amerycy [The Belarusan in America], Bielaruskaje Slova и Amerycy [The Belarusan Word in America], and the newspaper Bielaruskaja Trybuna [The Belarusan Tribune], which were the first post-World War II Belarusan-language periodicals in the United States.
The committee established branches in the following localities: Passaic, New Jersey, early 1950, Chairmen: E. Jasiuk and A. Shudziejka; South River, New Jersey, July 1950, Chairman: A. Sienkievich; North Hollywood, California, November 23, 1950, Chairman: С Najdziuk; New York City, July 1951, Chairman: W. Pielesa; the State of California, January 1952, Chairman: Dr. Barys Kit.
The chairmanship of the national organization included: Dr. Barys Kit, who succeeded Dr. Ivan Ermachenka in November 1949; for a brief period, Dr. Mikalaj Sciapanau, and Dr. Mikola Scors, elected Chairman on February 5, 1950. The general convention of the organization meeting in South River, New Jersey on March 18, 1951, elected the following Board of Directors: Rev. Mikalaj Lapitski, Chairman; Messrs. Leo Vysotski, Michas Kavyl, Aleh Machniuk, Lavon Surak, Dr. Mikola Scors, Dr. Mikalaj Sciapanau, and Mrs. Langina Bryleuskaja, Members; Members-at-Large included Uladzimir Bryleuski, Michas Sienka, Francisak Saurouski. Rev. Sviataslau Kous became the Chairman of the Committee in 1976; and Rev. Miachyslau Brynkievich headed the organization through the 1980s and chairs it presently.
The United Whiterathenian (Belarusan) American Relief Committee continues its activities to the present. It has acquired its own printing facilities, has sponsored an annual periodical, Bielaruskaja Dumka [Belarusan Thought] since 1960, and is involved in numerous social, cultural, and educational programs, as well as representing Belarusan political views and needs in various appropriate venues.(39)
The Belarusan-American Association, Inc. (Bielaruska-Amerykanskaje Zadzinocannie, abbreviated BAZA)
As the United Belarusan-American Relief Committee began to establish its network of representatives throughout the metropolitan New York-New Jersey area and into other states, Belarusan organizations with broader political and social goals and a potential for larger membership also started to organize. One of the most influential and dynamic of these new groups was the Belarusan-American Association.
The first step in setting up this association was taken at a meeting of Belarusan political activists in Brooklyn, New York in June 1949. The founding group then convened a broader meeting of interested leaders in Manhattan (New York City) on July 31, 1949. The leaders assembled there-Dr. Jan Stankievich, Mikola Haroshka, Piotra Kazhura, Janka Nichajonak, Mikola Darashevich and several others-intended to create a central Belarusan organization that would establish branches in all those communities where Belarusans lived (40). Founded at this meeting, it took the name "The Belarusan Association in America." (Bielaruskaje Zadzinocannie u Zadzinocanych Haspadarstvach Ameryki), with headquarters at 325 East 100th Street, New York, N.Y. (The Belarusan title "Bielaruskaje Abjednannie u Amerycy" was sometimes used).
A special committee was selected to work out the Statute and By-laws of the organization, needed for obtaining a charter from the State. At the same time, a plan was designed identifying individuals to be contacted about organizing chapters in various localities and states.
"The Belarusan-American Association, Inc." received its charter in the state capital, Albany, New York, on July 26, 1950. The certification of incorporation lists its goals as follows:
a: To promote and disseminate the ideals of the Constitution of the United States of America and to promote the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy;
b: To promote interest and encourage research in various cultures, including Belarusan culture;
c: To voluntarily provide assistance to its members and their families in their own homes in cases of need;
d: To acquire real and personal property by gift, devise, bequest, or otherwise for carrying on its corporate purposes and exercising its corporate powers;
e: To practice and advocate tolerance; to promote the friendly association of one person with another without regard to race, religion, or social status.
"The Belarusan-American Association, Inc. is composed of Belarusans (also known as White Russians) who have a similar cultural background. Within the membership of this association are Belarusans who have immigrated to the United States in order to escape religious and political persecution under the Soviet government. "(41)
The Encyclopedia of Associations describes the objectives of this organization in the following terms:
To coordinate and intensify Byelorussian-American participation in the peace efforts of the U.S.A. and to strengthen and propagate the American way of life; to support the Byelorussian people in their struggle for freedom and independence; to help the Byelorussians in their native land to receive fair and equal treatment with other nations, as a free member in the family of nations. (42)
The Belarusan-American Association, Inc. became the first mass-membership organization, numbering several hundred members within the first year of its existence; its membership steadily increased to thousands within a very few years. Its ideological position derived from the renewed representation of the Belarusan Democratic Republic. It established chapters and branches in the following cities and states: The Belarusan-American Association in the State of Michigan was established on December 17, 1950 and chartered on February 3, 1951. In the State of Ohio on October 1, 1950, chartered in February 1951. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1953 (renewed in 1965) and in the State of Illinois on June 28, 1953. The Illinois group soon became an independent organization, although remaining closely associated with the Belarusan-American Association, and continuing to share its political goals. A representative of the Belarusan-American Association was active in Peoria, Illinois. The organization was established in the State of New Jersey in 1950, incorporated in 1953, and proceeded to form branches throughout the state-in Hoboken-Jersey City, the South River- New Brunswick-Highland Park area, and in Trenton, the state capital. In the state of Connecticut, it was established in 1953 and chartered on January 15, 1954.
The organization was especially active in New York where it established delegations in Beacon, Hempstead, Long Island, and Krumville, New York, and branches in Manhattan, , the Bronx, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Maspeth, Queens.
The chapter in Los Angeles, California, was established on May 17, 1959; in the State of Maine in July, 1976; and in Washington, D.C. on August 12, 1979.(43)
The dynamics of organizational activities were reported in the press, where it was said that by the mid-1950s the Belarusan-American Association had organized ten chapters, and two regional offices. (44)
Although the organization had formed affiliates in states such as Georgia and Texas, and in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, organizational activities continued to be viable only in those places where substantial numbers of Belarusans lived and there were enough activists to promote Belarus; because of a lack of those, a number of affiliates and branches were dissolved during the 1960s and 1970s.(45)
The passage of time has demonstrated the importance of the Belarusan-American Association in the life of the community. Although each chapter or affiliate is an independent unit whose activities are guided by the general charter and the by-laws, according to the document granted by the State authorities in Albany, New York, coordination and a systematic review of organizational issues is accomplished by convening biennial congresses of the Association in the New York-New Jersey area. These meetings are:
The First Congress of the Belarusan-American Association is identical with the initial meeting of the founding leadership group, held on July 31, 1949 at 325 East 100th Street, Manhattan, New York. The following Board of Directors was elected: Mikola Haroshka, President; Dr. Jan Stankievich, Vice-President; Prof. Mikola Darashevich, Second Vice-President and Treasurer; Members: Janka Nichajonak, Michas Tulejka, and Uladzimir Mashanski.(46)
The Second Congress, February 17-18, 1951.
The Third Congress, March 1-2, 1952.
The Fourth Congress, February 28-March 1, 1953.
The Fifth Congress, February 20-21, 1954.
The Sixth Congress, May 28-29, 1955.
The Seventh Congress, June 1-2, 1957.
The Eighth Congress, May 30-31, 1959.
The Ninth Congress, May 27-28, 1961.
The Tenth Congress, June 12, 1963.
The Eleventh Congress, September 18-19, 1965.
The Twelfth Congress, May 27-28, 1967.
The Thirteenth Congress, May 30-31, 1969.
The Fourteenth Congress, May 30, 1971.
The Fifteenth Congress, September 1-2, 1973.
The Sixteenth Congress, May 24, 1975.
The Seventeenth Congress, September 3, 1977.
The Eighteenth Congress, September 1-2, 1979.
The Nineteenth Congress, September 5-6, 1981.
The Twentieth Congress, September 3, 1983.
The Twenty-first Congress, August 31-September 1, 1985.
The Twenty-second Congress, September 5-6, 1987.
The Twenty-third Congress, September 2, 1989.
The Twenty-fourth Congress, September 14-15, 1991.
The Twenty-fifth Congress was held in Highland Park, New Jersey, on Labor Day Weekend, September 4-6, 1993. Because it was jubilee event, it attracted a larger than usual number of delegates from California, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio, as well as guests from Illinois, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. The routine reports from chapters were followed by extensive discussions of organizational matters, in particular the financial situation of the newspaper Bielarus and the English-language quarterly bulletin, Belarusan Review, which is published in California under the sponsorship of the Belarusan-American Association. It is emphasized that the newspaper Bielarus has also been issued in Minsk since the Spring of 1993. The Congress unanimously adopted a resolution to continue support of both publications. Since the 1993 Congress, the Executive Committee has functioned as the governing body of BAZA. On the following day, the convention hosted a testimonial dinner for the departing Belarusan Representative to the United Nations and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Henadz Buraukin.(47)
Because the current president of the organization, Mr. Anton Shukeloyts, requested that his candidacy not be put forward for the next term, and since no one present agreed to stand for the position of president, the Congress adopted a resolution extending the term of the present administration for four additional years. A special convention and election was held in 1997.
The Congresses of the Belarusan-American Association, Inc. are important signs of vitality and demonstrate the integral role of the organization within the Belarusan-American community. These assemblies not only satisfy the legal requirement of periodic meetings, but provide the opportunity to review organizational matters and serve as forums for the discussion of events which are of interest to the entire Belarusan-American community, Belarusans in the diaspora, and the Belarusan nation. In addition to numerous important topics of national concern, problems of a local nature are also regularly taken up. It should be noted that the Belarusan-American Association was not immune from strong disagreements among its members. Conflicts have arisen and caused splits which inevitably were harmful to the entire organization. Nor were the problems only internal. On numerous occasions this organization (and many of its members, individually) were the targets of vicious attacks by the Soviet Byelorussian and the Moscow press; in some ways, unique in the diaspora.(48)
Notwithstanding these difficulties, the Belarusan-American Association has survived many tests and setbacks and continues to work effectively among its members, keeping close contact with American political officials and administrators at all levels: local, state, and federal, as well as advancing Belarusan political ideals in the broader community. The organization has generated hundreds of political documents, expressing the Belarusan national view in conjunction with ever-changing Soviet policies, the Helsinki Conferences on Human