The southern part of the Pskov region, along with the northern part of Belarus, the northwestern part of Smolensk, and the western part of Tver regions, is currently highlighted by some authors as a special historical and cultural region — the Dnieper-Dvina dialect zone. What unites these Russian and Belarusian lands? These territories have maintained their cultural uniqueness for several thousand years, as confirmed by archaeological and linguistic data.
For example, the border of the Dnieper-Dvina dialect zone corresponds to the southern limits of the distribution of long burial mounds of the Krivichs, dated to the 6th-7th centuries, and outlines the area of long burial mounds of the Smolensk-Polozsk type from the 8th-9th centuries. Later, the Polotsk and Smolensk principalities formed here, which then merged into the composition of the Lithuanian and Polish-Lithuanian states. Throughout this period, one of the East Slavic ethnic groups — the Belarusians — was forming.
The territory of the Dnieper-Dvina dialect zone coincides with the area of settlement of the Polotsk (Polochans) and Smolensk Krivichs, who mixed with the local Baltic population. In terms of their anthropological features, the Krivichs differed somewhat from the Radimichs and Dregovichs, who, together with the Polochans, became the foundation of the future Belarusian ethnicity.
Researchers consider the first Belarusian state formation to be the Polotsk principality (sometimes referred to as the Polotsk republic, as many elements of state structure similar to the Novgorod and Pskov veche republics were present here). However, the final distinction of Belarusians from the East Slavic proto-ethnos occurred during the existence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, whose full name was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia, and Samogitia. The state language in the duchy was Old Belarusian, which was only replaced by Polish at the end of the 17th century.
Where did the name “White Ruthenia” come from? The final establishment of the concepts “Belarus” and “Belarusians” occurred only in the second half of the 19th century. Before that, the names “White Ruthenia” and “Black Ruthenia” roamed across the territory of Ruthenia: sometimes Moscow was referred to as White Ruthenia, and sometimes Novgorod or Polotsk lands. The same regions were referred to at other times as Black Ruthenia: Pskov land, the western part of Moscow.
There are several hypotheses regarding the origins of the names “White Ruthenia” and “Black Ruthenia.” According to some researchers, White Ruthenia is the territory that accepted Christianity earlier than others. Other scholars believe that White Ruthenia is a free territory, politically independent from the Mongol-Tatars (some Russian principalities voluntarily submitted to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to avoid dependence on the Mongol-Tatars). A third group of researchers links both names to the anthropological features of the population, for example, to weakly or strongly expressed pigmentation (hair, eye, and skin color). There is also a version that derives the name “White Ruthenia” from the word “to whiten,” meaning “to recognize as innocent, to free from feudal obligations.” The second version, which does not particularly contradict the third assumption, seems more plausible.
Subsequently, both names (White Ruthenia and Black Ruthenia) moved to the territory of modern Belarus. Over time, the name “Black Ruthenia” began to be used less frequently, and in our century, Black Ruthenians were no longer distinguished in statistics, becoming part of the Belarusian ethnicity.
However, Belarusians in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania most often referred to themselves as Lithuanians, and less frequently as Krivichs. The name “Lithuania” was applied not so much to the Baltic part of the duchy but rather to all predominantly Slavic lands of the state. At that time, Lithuanians referred to their land as “Letu-va,” with Samogitia (named after the Baltic people — Samogitians, Žemaitis) considered its core.
The conclusion of the Union of Lublin in 1569 between Poland and Lithuania created the prerequisites for the Polonization of Belarusians. This occurred primarily through religious means — the imposition of Catholicism. Only the establishment of the Uniate Church (the Brest Union of 1596) allowed the preservation of Orthodox rites, which by that time had become an integral part of Belarusian culture.
At the beginning of our century, the northern ethnic boundary of Belarusians was drawn along the border of the Pskov and Vitebsk provinces. Thus, all modern southern districts of Pskov were then considered purely Belarusian territory. What distinguished the inhabitants of the Vitebsk and Pskov provinces? Primarily, their dialects.
The dialects of the Nevelsky, Sebezhsky, and Velizhsky districts, after their annexation to the Pskov province in 1924, were thoroughly studied to identify the northern Great Russian, southern Great Russian, and Belarusian features within them. The local dialects turned out to be very mosaic. Elements of the Polish language were even found in them, and of course, Pskov-Novgorod dialect features. Nevertheless, the predominant characteristics were identified as those of southern Great Russian and Belarusian dialects.
The following Belarusian features were noted: the typical Belarusian hard [n] (trapka); the combination [ri] (less frequently [ry]) instead of the Russian [poj: “blood — krivi (крыви), to crumble — krishit (крышить)” and others; as one of the southern Russian features of the local dialects, the replacement of [u] with [v]: “v menya” instead of “u menya”; “vkral” instead of “ukral.” There was a very high degree of mosaicism in the pronunciation of the sound [g]: northern Russian explosive variants of pronunciation [g], close to [k] (“tyuk” — iron, “yuk” — south); Belarusian guttural (“hat” — gad, “takda” — then) and southern Russian variants (section: Ethnographic and Linguistic Differences. Linguistic Geography).
The local dialects were united with the Middle Russian and southern Russian dialects by akanye; however, the Pskov-Novgorod “tsokan’e” was not characteristic of them. At the same time, the most characteristic feature of Belarusian dialects, such as “dzekan’e” and “tsakan’e” (that is, the pronunciation of soft [d] and [t] with a hissing shade) was not a typical phenomenon in these places, except for the Velizhsky district.
Such a variety of linguistic layers was even more vividly reflected in the vocabulary of local dialects: for example, in some villages they said “kartoshka,” in others — “hulba,” in third — “bulba.” That is, already at the beginning of our century, a smooth transition of local dialects from Belarusian to Middle Russian and southern Russian dialects, which did not strictly belong to any of these groups, was observed.
One peasant woman in Nevelytsina, unaware of it, provided a vivid illustration of the transitional nature of local dialects: “When we go to the north (north) beyond Velikiye Luki, they call us bulbashas (Belarusians), and when we go to the south (south) beyond Nevel, they laugh at us for speaking a little Russian.”
The distinct self-awareness of the local population compared to the Pskovites and the specificity of dialects were reflected in the opposition of the inhabitants of southern Pskov to the “skobary.” The local Russian population was called “katsapy”: “Skobary of Opochka, and the Pustoshka ones are katsapy.” The residents of the Sebezhsky district clearly knew where the border with the skobary lay: “Beyond this river, they are called skobary.” The local population created proverbs and sayings that emphasized the difference of their dialects from the Pskov ones; “Pskopatsane are the same as Anglicans, only the dialect is a little different” (a taunt at the “tsokanye” Pskovites in the Pustoshka district).
Belarusian features in the south of modern Pskov began to disappear in the 19th century. The reasons for this process were seasonal labor, the predominance of Russian schools, and similar factors. Local historians note that Nicholas I contributed to the process of Russification of the residents of the Nevelsky district by placing several regiments of guards in Nevel, but upon seeing the poverty of the district, he left part of the guards for permanent settlement.
By the end of the 19th century, in the Velizhsky and Nevelsky districts of the Vitebsk province, Belarusians made up 85% of the total population (with 1-7% of the Russian population, respectively), in the Sebezhsky district — 47% (with the same share of the Russian population). In 1926, after the annexation of these three districts to the Pskov province, 32-35% of Belarusians were registered in the Nevelsky and Velizhsky districts (with 60% of the Russian population), in the Sebezhsky district — 27.5% of Belarusians and 68.5% of Russians.
In the 1920s, the question of teaching the Belarusian language in rural schools of the Nevelsky district was raised, as this district was recognized as Belarusian. Nevertheless, the transitional nature of the ethnic self-awareness of the local population led to almost complete assimilation of Belarusians in our century. Despite the preservation of some Belarusian features in dialects in rural areas, almost the entire population considers itself Russian.
According to the 1989 census, in the Sebezhsky, Usvyatsky, and Nevelsky districts, Belarusians constituted 2.5-3.5% of the total population, and even then, a significant part of this was migrants from Belarus in recent decades. The proportion of Belarusians in the south of the Pskov region is even lower than, for example, in the Pytalovsky district (5.5%); in the Kunyinsky and Pustoshkinsky districts, the proportion of Belarusians is even more insignificant.