Yuri Shorin
In ancient times, the lands of Smolensk and Belarus were inhabited by the Krivich tribes. According to established tradition, we consider them Slavs. However, according to modern scientific views, the Krivichs are not pure Slavs, but a mixture of Slavic and Baltic populations. The Balts, which in the Middle Ages included the Yatvingians, Prussians, Lithuanians, and Latgalians, had already settled the territory of Smolensk and Belarus from the first centuries of our era. From the 8th century, Slavic populations began to penetrate these same lands. This marked the beginning of a gradual mutual influence between two different peoples, two cultures. Moreover, scholars tend to classify the incoming Slavs to our lands as belonging to the northwestern dialect group, close to the Poles, while the Ilmen Slavs, Polans, and several other tribes are classified as Eastern Slavs. The Krivichs were bearers of a more ancient culture than their neighboring Slavic tribes. The direct heir of their culture became the Belarusian nation.
Historically and geographically, the Smolensk region turned out to be a borderland between Belarusian and Great Russian lands, which is why the Smolensk people were ethnically heterogeneous. By the mid-19th century, the first researchers of the folk culture of Smolensk revealed that ethnographically, the Smolensk province was divided into two parts. In the first, which included the northeastern districts (Vyazemsky, Gzhatsky, Sychevsky, Yukhnovsky, and most of Belsky), there was a Great Russian population, while in the second (the Smolensk, Krasninsky, Dukhovshchinsky, Dorogobuzhsky, Yelninsky, Roslavlsky, and Porechsky districts) – a Belarusian one. Of course, there was no sharp boundary between these two parts of the province.
If the Belarusian population significantly prevailed over the Great Russians in terms of territory, they were roughly equal in quantitative terms. According to data from 1857, the Great Russian population constituted 46% of the total number of residents in the province, while the Belarusian population constituted 54%.
Census of the Smolensk province of 1897.
Belonging to the Belarusian or Great Russian population was determined by language, appearance, customs, and the character of the inhabitants. Gradually, due to seasonal work and the development of education, Smolensk peasants increasingly absorbed Russian national culture and the Russian language. Belarusian culture, under the pressure of Russian, official, and state culture, retreated further west into Smolensk, closer to the Belarusian provinces. Nevertheless, even at the beginning of the 20th century, a significant part of the population of Smolensk retained characteristic Belarusian traits.
The priests who, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, compiled historical and statistical descriptions of their parishes left interesting testimonies about the ethnic traits of their parishioners. Here are some of them. “The ethnic composition of the population, judging by their language and customs, is Belarusian. Their speech still shows a very noticeable Belarusian accent, for which they are called ‘Poles’ by the inhabitants of other Russian provinces. Here, it is customary to say ‘ti’ instead of ‘li’, to call a chest ‘skrynka’, and the burial of the dead – ‘khavtury’, etc.” (Village of Yurov, Krasninsky district). “The parishioners of Pushkin, by language and customs, all belong to the Belarusian tribe, except for the landowners. In their pronunciation, they insert ‘z’ between the letter ‘d’ and the vowel, for example, instead of money, they say dziengi. They use the letter ‘z’ at the beginning of words instead of the letter ‘s’, for example, instead of saying ‘s lukom’, ‘s maslom’, they say – ‘zlukom’, ‘zmaslom’; instead of ‘luchshe’, they say ‘zaluchshe’. Before each word, they pronounce the particle ‘ti’, and at the end of the word, they change the letter ‘l’ to the letter ‘v’, for example, ti-khodiv, ti-vidiv; the particle ‘ti’ is a feature of the inhabitants of the Dorogobuzh district, without it they do not pronounce a single word; therefore, a native of the Dorogobuzh district can be recognized by their speech among millions of people.” (Village of Pushkino, Dorogobuzh district).
Similar features of folk speech were also found in the Yelninsky district: “In the conversations of the peasants, some Polish words can be heard, for example: potraflyat, zrobity, ni triasza, vecherity, uslon (bench), poshukay, yak zhe, ti dasi mine; instead of the sound ‘s’, they pronounce ‘z’: ‘z lukom’, ‘ti vidiv’, ‘ti prishiev’, etc.” (Village of Yakovlevichi). Or here is another series of characteristic words: “yak” (how), “syanni” (today), “nu nyazh” (really), “bydnu” (stole), “skhapiv” (the same), “demberity” (to explain), “kazav” (said), “puga” (whip), “syolita” (now), “pozychat” (to borrow), “koli” (if), “khavtury” (funeral), “deykaty” (to talk)… (Village of Yazveno, Yelninsky district).
Belarusian influence persisted in the early 20th century in the Belsky district: “It is impossible to definitively say what origin or tribe the parishioners of the village of Zaozerya belong to: they cannot be called purely Belarusians or Great Russians; their pronunciation of words (the peasants) is not entirely pure, there are words from the Polish language in their speech, and there are also some Little Russian words, for example, ‘vecherity’, i.e., to have dinner, ‘harno’ – bravo, i.e., good, skillful, neat; most of all, a Polish accent can be heard in their pronunciation: so in almost all words, between the letter ‘d’ and the vowel, ‘z’ is inserted, for example, instead of ‘dengi’ they say ‘dzengi’, ‘degot’ – ‘dzegot’, ‘devka’ – ‘dzievka’; ‘t’ in the pronunciation of words changes to ‘ts’, for example, instead of ‘put’ they say ‘puts’, ‘plavat’ – ‘plavats’, etc. Paying attention to their appearance and way of life, one can say that the parishioners are more Belarusian than Great Russian.”
At the same time, a priest from the village of Kazulino in the same Belsky district writes: “The language of the peasants in the parish is correct, pure, and clear, closer to the Moscow dialect, but without the characteristic predominance of the sound ‘a’. The Smolensk ‘dz’ instead of ‘d’ and ‘ts’ instead of ‘t’, as well as verb endings in ‘tse’ instead of ‘te’, are not found here at all.”
In the Vyazemsky district, the peasant speech was already purely Russian: “The language of the local peasants is quite correct” (Village of Solovitsy). The priest from the village of Klushino in the Gzhatsky district characterized his parishioners similarly: “Their language and customs are closer to the language and customs of Muscovites, more tender, cleaner, and more correct than those of Smolensk.”
Even now, “ti vidiv”, “ti khodiv”, “nu nyazh”, and “syanni” are in use among the older generation of residents in many of our villages. Indigenous Smolensk peasants have preserved remnants of the living speech of their ancestors. But this is already a fading nature. Along with the village, its language is dying.