P. A. Ambrosovich
New Year’s holidays of 1918–19 in the ancient city of Smolensk. By decision of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) and for a whole range of objective reasons, on the night of January 2, 1919, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belorussia (SSRB) was proclaimed. To illustrate how quickly this news could have reached Chernigov Governorate, I will quote the Belarusian writer Janka Skryhan: “I remember the Revolution. I remember the German occupation. I remember other small details of life. But I do not remember the proclamation of the BSSR. I don’t remember any manifesto, any solemnity on this occasion. No noise, no enthusiasm. At that time I was studying in Slutsk, in a first-grade school. And the teachers told us nothing about this event. So I say I don’t remember anything, and I keep thinking: why? By January 1, 1919, I was already approaching my fourteenth year. If something had been happening, I would surely remember. And this was in Slutsk! What can one say about the countryside?! Back then the words ‘Belarus,’ ‘Belarusian’ were rarely heard among the people. It was all ‘tutejšy’ and ‘tutejšy.’ The consciousness of Belarusianness grew with the strengthening of Belarusian Soviet statehood. It became more or less established by the mid-twenties.”
This is a record from 1987 (see “Pačesny pasad miž narodami. Belaruskija piśmenniki i hramadskija dziejačy pra abviašč́enne BSSR. Publ. U. Sodalja // Šliacham hadou. pp. 162–163, 172). And the writer J. Skryhan was much closer to the center of events than, for example, the inhabitants of Starodoub.
By the northern districts of Chernigov Governorate one usually means the Surazh, Mglin, Novozybkov, and Starodub districts. But in January 1918, the Pochep district was initially formed as well, consisting of 10 volosts. In July 1919 it was transferred to the newly formed Gomel Governorate of the RSFSR, although the northern districts of the Chernigov region were juridically part of the SSRB from January 2 to February 2, 1919. Soon the party leadership ordered the liquidation of the Pochep district, but apparently this was never carried out. On August 31, 1919, a decree was issued by the joint Mglin and Pochep district congress of Soviets on the merger of these districts and the formation of a unified Pochep district “with a section in Mglin.”
In October 1920, the independent Mglin district was restored, existing until May 1922, when its territory was finally divided between the Pochep and Klintsy districts. In May 1923, the Pochep district was transferred to Bryansk Governorate, and in 1924 almost the entire territory of the abolished Trubchevsk district was incorporated into it. Let us recall that before the 1917 revolution, Trubchevsk was part of Oryol Governorate.
The Klintsy district is the successor to the Surazh district and was formed in July 1921 by transferring the district center from Surazh to Klintsy. It expanded mainly at the expense of the dissolved Mglin district.
Ethnographic map of the Belarusian tribe, 1903
As we can see, the inhabitants of the former northern Chernigov region had enough news of their own. The proclamation of the SSRB in territorial terms was based on the “Map of the Belarusian Tribe” of 1903 by Yefim Karsky, which was republished in 1917. According to this map, the eastern “border” of Belarusians in the region under consideration runs approximately along the line from Vygoničy settlement to Jurovo village (now in Trubchevsk district) to Selec village (also in Trubchevsk district) to the city of Novgorod-Seversky. According to the map of the Moscow Dialectological Commission of 1914–15, this “border” runs from Žyriatino settlement to Pjany Rog (today the village of Pervomajskoje in Pochep district), then to Selec and on to Novgorod-Seversky.
Attention should also be paid to the cartogram “Percentage of persons of so-called ‘unknown nationality’ in Gomel Governorate according to the census of 1917” (Materials on the question of regionalization of the Western Oblast of the Union. Issue I. Gomel Governorate. State Planning Committee of the BSSR. Minsk, 1926. (V+88) pp.). We read: at the junctions of nationalities, the population, for various reasons, declines to name its national affiliation. It is not difficult to assume that it was mainly the “weaker” nationality that refused to identify itself — in these conditions, the Belarusians. As G. Goretsky writes, at the border of Gomel district the Belarusian nationality breaks off and immediately passes into the unknown. The population did not have national self-awareness, considered themselves “tutejšyja” or “ruśkija”; it is particularly valuable that these data, never before analyzed and appearing here for the first time, were collected in 1917, when socio-class contradictions could not yet have affected the data on national composition.
Map of the Moscow Dialectological Commission, 1915
After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, in 1918 Belarusian people’s committees were organized in the Novozybkov, Surazh, Mglin, and Starodub districts of Chernigov Governorate, which in 1919 became part of Gomel Governorate, and a Belarusian national circle was formed in Chernigov (see: newspaper “Belorusskoe Echo,” May 30, 1918). Only the establishment of Soviet power in 1919–20 halted this process.
In socialist Belorussia in the 1920s, attention was paid to developing Belarusian schools, which helped introduce and officially spread the native language. It should be noted that in the BSSR, unlike the Belarusian ethnic territories of the RSFSR, Belarusians had the status of the titular ethnic group, so the Belarusian question here was a top priority. In Gomel, unlike Vitebsk and Mogilev, the absence of higher educational institutions and the small number of humanities intellectuals hindered the development of the Belarusian movement. In Gomel region, rejection of the Belarusian national idea was not uncommon, which can be explained primarily by the non-Belarusian national composition of the party and Soviet apparatus of the governorate.
In the spring of 1921, through the efforts of the People’s Commissariat of Education of the BSSR and the Plenipotentiary Representation of the BSSR under the RSFSR government, the Belarusian Central Bureau (BCB) was established. In its cultural work, it was supposed to cover all of Gomel and Vitebsk governorates and nine western districts of Smolensk Governorate. The head of the BCB, who was also the authorized representative of the NKP BSSR, was to maintain “a living connection between both parts of ethnographic Belorussia” (State Archive of the Russian Federation, hereafter GARF. F. A 296, op. 1, d. 21, l. 1).
On January 15, 1922, the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR sent a directive to Gomel, Vitebsk, and Smolensk governorates, in which it strongly recommended that the educational institutions of the governorates expand instruction in the native language of the population. The BCB in the NKP RSFSR allocated funds for organizing Belarusian pedagogical courses in Gomel and Smolensk governorates.
In Gomel Governorate, the Belarusian section under the gubernatorial department of education (gubONO) was being created throughout the spring and summer of 1922. This process was complex — the gubONO cited the absence in the governorate of personnel qualified for work in Belarusian institutions, insufficient financial resources, and the unwillingness of Belarusians themselves to study in their native language. As a result, a single staff position was introduced (he was also the head). The typical position of the Gomel gubernatorial committee at this time was: there is no significant basis for special work among the Belarusian population in the governorate. Only in late summer to early autumn of 1923 did the Belarusian section receive de facto recognition from the gubernatorial council on education of national minorities (gubSNM) and the gubONO.
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Members of a school drama club
In the summer of 1923, the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR sent a circular to the Gomel, Vitebsk, and Smolensk gubONO about studying the possibility of transferring schools with a Belarusian student body to their native language and the need to allocate funds for purchasing Belarusian textbooks and opening teacher training courses on Belarusian studies in the governorates.
The Novozybkov executive committee on October 20, 1923 reported that the introduction of the Belarusian language in schools was “completely impossible” (questionnaire, see State Archive of Gomel Region [GAGO], f. 60, op. 1, d. 1547, l. 37). The Starodub executive committee gave the same answer (ibid., l. 38).
At the end of 1923, the Jewish and Polish Sections under the Central Committee of the VKP(b) petitioned the USSR authorities to annex the Rechitsa, Gomel, and Novozybkov districts to the BSSR (for details see: Central State Archive of the October Revolution [TsGAOR] of the Russian Federation, f. 3316, op. 16, d. 206, l. 34).
According to the decision of the Presidium of the VTsIK of March 3, 1924, the Bykhov, Klimovichi, Mogilev, Rogachev, Chausy, and Cherikov districts, along with the Domanovich, Dernovich, Duditsa (together with Kalinkovichi station), Karpovich, Krukovich (Savich), Mukhojedov, Narovlya volosts and parts of the Avtyukov, Yurovich, and Yakimovo-Sloboda volosts, were transferred from Gomel Governorate to the BSSR. After the merger of part of Gomel Governorate with the BSSR, work among national minorities in the districts remaining in the RSFSR intensified. A gubernatorial meeting of heads of district education departments on work among national minorities, held in the Gomel region, recommended paying special attention to the Belarusianization of schools.
However, the plans of the 1924/25 academic year by the Belarusian section under the Gomel gubONO for the Belarusianization of some schools in the Gomel, Rechitsa, Klintsy, and Novozybkov districts were thwarted by local authorities and educational bodies.
In 1925, authorized representatives for national minority affairs began to be appointed in the USSR at local levels — in 2 oblasts and 17 governorates, including Vitebsk, Gomel, and Smolensk. Nevertheless, Belarusian work in the regions was developing very slowly and continued to encounter misunderstanding and reluctance to support it, not in words but in deeds, from local leadership. At the same time, Belarusian residents of the governorate increasingly showed interest in their language and culture. District authorities received the expansion of Belarusian work with restraint. They even directly obstructed its implementation.
Novozybkov. St. Nicholas Church, 1782
The position of volost executive committees and volost education departments was characterized by a certain aggressiveness. When transferring schools to Belarusian-language instruction, they set a number of conditions, threatening teachers with “disciplinary action” for non-compliance (National Archive of the Republic of Belarus [NARB], f. 4, op. 21, d. 101, l. 97). The head of the Gomel Belarusian section under the gubONO in 1925, Prokop Shcharbinski, stated that “one must marvel at the heroism of those teachers who work in Belarusian schools, because the threats being made could drive Belarusian work underground.” As a result, only 25–30% of schools in Gomel Governorate in the 1924/25 academic year with an absolute majority of Belarusian children operated in their native language.
In early August 1925, the VTsIK was presented with a list of measures to deepen work among national minorities in Gomel Governorate (resolution of its Presidium, item 584, see: GAOOGO, f. 1, op. 1, d. 2066, l. 93). In particular, staff positions of inspectors of the Council of National Minorities under the Gomel and Rechitsa district education departments were established first, and under the Novozybkov and Klintsy departments second. All this came after the conference on the Ukrainian-Belarusian question on April 29–30, 1925 at the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR.
But on the ground, everything was different. At the bureau of the Gomel gubernatorial committee on October 9, 1925, it was emphasized: “We will not strive to organize Belarusian districts, however we will not formalize this.” The publication of a Belarusian page in newspapers was prohibited, as was the organization of radio broadcasts in Belarusian.
As of January 1, 1926, in Krasnogorsk volost there existed only 2 Belarusian schools (GAGO, f. 60, op. 1, d. 1484, l. 4–6).
However, in early 1926 circles of the literary association “Maladniak” were formed at the Novozybkov polytechnic and at the Klintsy industrial technical school (Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art of Belarus [TsGAMLI], f. 225, op. 1, d. 16, l. 14).
Percentage of persons of “unknown” nationality in Gomel Governorate
On April 8, 1926, the Belarusian section under the Gomel gubONO held a meeting of Belarusian inspectors. The plan for future Belarusianization of the Novozybkov and Klintsy districts and the work of the Belarusian section on compiling the “Dictionary of the Living Belarusian Language” were discussed (GAGO, f. 60, op. 1, d. 1480, l. 2).
At the same time, in June 1926 the secretary of the Gomel gubernatorial committee, on the eve of a tour through the Gomel region by the troupe of the Belarusian State Theater of V. Golubek, declared to the event organizers: “You intend to stage performances in the Belarusian language, but we will not let you onto the territory of the Gomel region.” There were many such examples.
During 1924–26, “thanks to the efforts of the gubernatorial leadership,” the question of Belarusianizing the Gomel General Pedagogical Technical School was never resolved definitively.
At the Central Belarusian Courses (CBK) in Minsk in June–August 1926, there were 11 future Belarusian teachers from Gomel district, 14 from Rechitsa, 4 from Klintsy, and 2 from Novozybkov.
In the summer of 1926, in accordance with the BSSR government program, Belarusian scholars conducted a series of expeditions in the Gomel region to study the national composition of its population. A. Serzhputovsky, P. Buzuk, A. Polevoy, and G. Goretsky conducted research here. Their conclusions about the Belarusian character of the local population were based not only on statistical data but also on materials from history, ethnography, linguistics, and folklore.
To prevent the possible annexation of the Gomel region to the BSSR, local leadership tried to use the negative attitude of part of the population toward Belarusianization. Cases of terror against conscious Belarusians were known: a case was recorded of a teacher being threatened with a revolver for speaking in favor of increasing the number of Belarusian schools, young people were expelled from the Komsomol for their Belarusian consciousness, lectures, radio broadcasts about Belorussia, and performances in the Belarusian language were banned, etc. (see: “Gomelščyna: staronki minulaha. Narysy.” Issue II. Gomel, 1996. Article by R. Lazko and M. Murashko, pp. 144–145).
For the 1926/27 academic year, the Belarusianization of 28 schools in Gomel district, 37 in Rechitsa, 14 in Klintsy, and 10 in Novozybkov was planned.
In 1926, the researcher Gavrila Goretsky, in the above-mentioned article “Population of Gomel Governorate,” wrote, in particular, about the Starodub and Novozybkov districts. And “here national consciousness is strengthening, spreading through individuals (teachers) in clusters…”
One of the reasons for parents’ reluctance to send their children to Belarusian schools was the discontinuity of education from primary school to technical college or university, since not a single Belarusian secondary school operated in Gomel Governorate.
On November 5, 1926, in view of the principled position of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the VKP(b), a Belarusian bureau was created in Gomel under the Agitation and Propaganda Department (APO) of the gubernatorial committee to coordinate the work plans of national minority sections. According to its work plan for November 1926 – April 1927, attention was drawn to organizing circles for studying the Belarusian language, Belarusian literature, and Belarusian culture at the Gomel Gubernatorial Party School, at the Klintsy District Party School, and in the Trans-Railway District (see GAOOGO, f. 1, op. 1, d. 2066, l. 336).
In particular, it was planned to take a course toward deepening Belarusian work in 2 cells of Churovich volost and in 2 cells in Klintsy district.
In 1926, it was still impossible to organize the work of the Komsomol Belarusian section under the Gomel gubernatorial Komsomol committee.
On November 18, 1926, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the VKP(b) reviewed the findings of a special commission it had created to study the composition of the population of 2 districts and resolved to include the Gomel and Rechitsa districts of Gomel Governorate in the BSSR; 3 districts of the former Vitebsk and 4 districts of the former Chernigov governorates remained within the RSFSR.
On December 6, 1926, the Presidium of the VTsIK adopted a resolution on the abolition of Gomel Governorate and the annexation of the Gomel and Rechitsa districts to the BSSR. The subsequent annexation of the Novozybkov and other Belarusian ethnic districts of the RSFSR planned by the BSSR government was not carried out for a number of reasons.
Daughter of the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the BSSR, Chervyakov, in national costume
Despite the argumentation of this decision, in which economic factors were put in the foreground, the most important factors were political. After a stubborn struggle within the Bolshevik party in the late 1920s, a course was set toward accelerated “construction of socialism” in one country at the expense of the peasantry — and therefore at the expense of the bulk of the population of national districts. This course dictated the need for rigid centralization of power while ignoring the interests of the republics and establishing an absolute ideological monopoly.
Overall, it should be noted that Belarusian cultural and educational work in Gomel Governorate did not receive proper development. The main reason for this situation was the negative attitude of local Soviet and party leadership toward the return of the Gomel region to the BSSR and the cultural and educational needs of the Belarusian population of the governorate. All this negatively affected the process of forming the national consciousness of the Belarusian population, which, due to the objective conditions of regional development, was still in its formative phase. The Belarusian population of the governorate had the lowest cultural and educational level and national consciousness was growing slowly.
Belarusianization in the Gomel district began to be pursued more actively from the spring of 1928, when in the BSSR it was already in decline. As for the population of the former Pochep (from 1923), Klintsy, Novozybkov, and Starodub districts (from 1927) of the Bryansk Governorate created in 1920, I, as the author of the topic raised in the title of this article, still need to conduct quite lengthy research. May the respected reader exercise a certain degree of patience.
*In my notes I rely on archival research and materials of historians Alla Zelenkova and Yuri Chudin-Vasilevsky.
April–May 2013