1. Armstrong, John A., Nations before Nationalism (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982), p. 5. Armstrong bases his discussion of language on the work of Norwegian anthropologist Fredrik Barth whose social interaction model of ethnic identity focuses on the perceptions of members which distinguish them from other groups. See Armstrong, pp. 2–7.Google Scholar

2. For an interesting study of nationality differences and collective memory, see Howard Schuman, Cheryl Rieger, and Vladas Gaidys, “Generations and Collective Memories in Lithuania,” University of Michigan, unpublished manuscript, 1990. The authors found that for Lithuanians “memories of the past overwhelmingly concern not world events or events of the Soviet Union (except insofar as they have involved Lithuania), nor, at the other extreme, events at the regional or city level, but events that concern Lithuanian nationality. Lithuanian identity provides the matrix within which events are remembered as important in answer to a question about world and national history over the past sixty years.”Google Scholar

3. Zaprudnik, Jan, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), p. 35.Google Scholar

4. Ernest Renan suggests that the nation is a soul and only two things constitute this soul. The first is a legacy of remembrances. The second is the desire to live together and the will to continue to value the common heritage, “Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?” in John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, eds, Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 17. See also Hobsbawm, Eric, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).Google Scholar

5. An interview with a leader of the Union of Poles of Belarus, Tadeusz Gawin, began with the words, “We are not guests here. No one brought us here; we were not dropped here by parachute. Our grandfathers and fathers for centuries have lived on this land, held on to their language, their faith, their culture,” Dziennik Polski, 16 February 1993. In an article titled “Poles in Ukraine, are they for sure Polonia?” the author notes that “Poles in Ukraine are an autochthonous people; they have lived on the territory which is their heritage for many generations. Polonia, on the other hand, refers to those of Polish descent who have left their native land,” Slowo, 25 February 1993.Google Scholar

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13. , Similarly in the nineteenth century, the Moldavian language “came to be identified as a lower class, illiterate idiom as against Russian—the language of literature, politics, cities, and public discourse. In Russian Bessarabia the little tradition was Moldavian, the great tradition was Russian,” Irina Livezeanu, “Irredentism as a Question for Empirical Study: The Moldavian Case,” Paper delivered at the Conference on Soviet Ethnic Relations and International Peace, The University of Michigan, 6 May 1991. Livezeanu writes that Moldavians came to believe that Moldavian was strictly a “‘kitchen language’ used by uneducated, illiterate peasants” and that it could not be used for educated discourse.Google Scholar

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17. On 14 August 1385, Grand Duke Jogaila (Jagiello) issued a declaration known as the Kreva Union Act in which he agreed to baptism and to marry Hedwig (Jadwiga), the crowned queen of Poland. He also pledged to keep the Lithuanian and Russian regions united with the Kingdom of Poland. The Kreva Union is most notable for bringing Christianity to Lithuania, Juozas Jakstas, “Lithuania to World War I,” in Albertas Gerutis, ed., Lithuania: 700 Years (New York: Manyland Books, 1969), p. 59.Google Scholar

18. In Russian eyes, Poles and Catholics were virtually the same. Hence, Lithuanian and Belarusan Catholics were affected by the 1865 law forbidding those of “Polish origin” to purchase land. See Wandycz, Piotr S., The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795-1918 (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1974), p. 242.Google Scholar

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24. Ibid., p. 46.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., p. 53.Google Scholar

27. In Latvia and Kazakhstan the language of assimilation has been Russian. In Latvia, 15% of the Polish population claimed Latvian as their native language, 54% Russian and 27% Polish. In Kazakhstan, 76% claimed Russian as their native language and 12% Polish.Google Scholar

28. Burant, Stephen R. and Zubek, Voytek, “Eastern Europe's Old Memories and New Realities: Resurrecting the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 72, 1993, pp. 370–393, 376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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34. Ibid., p. 188.Google Scholar

35. While Belarusan assimilation to Russian has been quite high, there is a great degree of variation between rural and urban areas. According to 1979 data, 40.5% of urban Belarusans claimed Russian as their native language, while in rural areas it was only 7%, Solchanyk, p. 184. According to 1989 data, in Belarusan oblasts where the Polish population was more heavily concentrated in the rural areas, their linguistic assimilation was more likely to be to Belarusan (Vitebsk, Grodno, and Minsk oblasts). In those oblasts where the Poles were more urban, there was greater assimilation to Russian (Gomel and Mogilev oblasts).Google Scholar

36. Natsional'nyi sostav naseleniya SSSR (Moscow: Finansy i statistika, 1991).Google Scholar

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39. Natsional'nyi sostav naseleniya SSSR (Moscow: Finansy i statistika, 1991). Figures for Donetsk, Ternopol, and Krymsk oblasts were derived from 1979 percentages, Itogi Vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya, 1979 goda, Vol. IV, Part 1, Book 2.Google Scholar

40. Gazeta Robotnicza, 23–24 May 1992.Google Scholar

41. Vardys, V. Stanley, The Catholic Church, Dissent and Nationality in Soviet Lithuania (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), p. 19. Despite Russia's anti-Polish policies many of Lithuania's pastors and hierarchs still had a pro-Polish orientation. In 1912, a group of Vilnius priests, concerned with the behavior of their Polish and polonized colleagues and bishop, directly petitioned Pope Pius X to interfere and protect the rights of the Lithuanian language and Lithuanian clergy, ibid., p. 18.Google Scholar

42. Ibid., p. 224.Google Scholar

43. While the Catholic Church in Lithuania faced severe repression from the Soviet government, Soviet attempts to separate the Lithuanian Church from Rome failed. In 1984, there were 630 Catholic parishes in Lithuania, served by 693 priests, and 104 students in the seminary in Kaunus, Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, “Nationalities and Soviet Religious Policies” in Hajda and Beissinger, p. 154.Google Scholar

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47. According to a 1978 issue of the Paris-based Polish weekly Kultura, there were six Roman Catholic priests in Vinnitsa oblast, three in Zhitomir, five in Khmelnitsky and one each in Ternopol, Odessa, and Ivano-Frankovsk oblasts, Borys Lewytzkyj, Politics and Society in Soviet Ukraine, 1953-1980 (Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, 1984), p. 196.Google Scholar

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49. For the purposes of this article Lithuania's Polish population is treated as a single actor, even though it is not monolithic. In doing so, there is a focus on those members of the Polish population who have resisted assimilation into either Russian or Lithuanian society and who have supported a revival of Polish national identity. Clearly, there are Poles who see their future in an accommodation with the Lithuanian government, who prefer to work for greater regional autonomy, or who see their future interests in migration to Poland.Google Scholar

50. OMRI Daily Digest, No. 23, Part I, 1 February 1995. See also, Czas Krakowski, 1 February 1995.Google Scholar

51. According to an article in Znad Wilii, 17–30 March 1991), of 194 teachers teaching in Polish, 66 did not have the proper educational certification or diploma. In addition, many of these teachers are ready to retire.Google Scholar

52. example, For, see Kurier Wilenski, 18 March 1993, p. 4.Google Scholar

53. Kurier Wilenski, 16 April 1993, pp. 3–5.Google Scholar

54. See Kurier Wilenski, 26 June 1993, p. 5.Google Scholar

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59. Glos Znad Niemna, 16–30 June 1992. According to a report in Kurier Wilenski, there are 305 schools in Belarus offering Polish language courses in different forms, Kurier Wilenski, 9 March 1993.Google Scholar

60. Kurier Wilenski, 23 February 1993.Google Scholar

61. Dziennik Polski, 16 February 1993, interview with Tadeusz Gawin, leader of the Union of Poles in Belarus.Google Scholar

62. Slowo Powszechne, 29 April 1992.Google Scholar

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66. , Zaprudnik p. 221.Google Scholar

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68. , Motyl p. 80.Google Scholar

69. Hrytsak, Yaroslav, “Ukraine: A Special Case of National Identity?” The Ukrainian Weekly, 26 January 1992, p. 7, as cited in Motyl, p. 80.Google Scholar