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Chronology for Poles in Belarus
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| Date(s) |
Item |
| Oct 1990 |
Byelorussia and Poland fail to reach agreement on a declaration of friendship and cooperation, despite the fact that Poland was able to do so with the Ukraine and Russia. Byelorussia does not trust the intentions of the Polish who have the potential to make claims on Byelorussian territory. |
| Aug 25, 1991 |
The Supreme Soviet of Byelorussia declares independence. Shortly thereafter, they suspend the Byelorussian Communist Party for its support of the coup attempt against Gorbachev. |
| Sep 18, 1991 |
The Supreme Soviet of Belarus renames their independent republic, the Republic of Belarus. |
| Oct 1991 |
Relations between Poland and Belarus begin to warm at the impetus of Polish President Walesa. A Declaration on Good-neighborliness, Mutual Understanding, and Cooperation along with a couple of accords on trade and economic cooperation are signed. The status of the border is not officially resolved, but it is no longer an obstacle (Burant, 1992, p.42). |
| Mar 3, 1992 |
An education agreement is signed with Poland allowing for the establishment of Polish-language schools in Belarus. It establishes an avenue for teacher exchanges and the right for their respective minorities to choose the language of their education. |
| Jun 1992 |
The Supreme Soviet passes a law prohibiting discrimination against national minorities. The law made it illegal to ask, in any way, a person's nationality for employment or other official reasons. |
| Jun 23, 1992 |
Poland and Belarus sign a Treaty on Good-neighborly Relations and Friendly Cooperation. The treaty secures their present border and obligates each to observe international principles in the treatment of their minorities. Belarusia has 400,000+ strong Polish minority and Poland has a 300,000+ strong Belarusian minority. It secures the "free maintaining, development and expression of one's own ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity without any form of discrimination and in conditions of full equality before law" (PAP News Wire, June 23, 1992). |
| Oct 29, 1992 |
Parliament votes down a petition for a referendum to disband parliament and call for new elections. Deputies cited alleged breaches of the law in the collection of the petition signatures by the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF). The BPF is the main opposition party (holding less than 10% of the seats in parliament) and largely supports the communist-dominated government. While the party supports democratic reforms, it does hold some divisive nationalistic positions. |
| 1993 |
The BPF continues to call for a new Constitution and new elections. They push for the referendum once again to no avail. |
| Feb 1 - May 31, 1993 |
The suspension of the Communist Party is lifted in February. By May, the Communist Party of Belarus and the Party of Communists of Belarus merge, taking the latter group's name. |
| Apr 1993 |
The Supreme Soviet orders Shushkevich to sign an amended version of the Commonwealth of Independent States collective security pact. Shushkevich refuses claiming the pact would violate Belarusian neutrality. |
| Jun 1993 |
The Supreme Soviet calls for a vote of no confidence for Shushkevich, but the vote fails to achieve a quorum due to the abstentions of the BPF deputies. |
| Jul 15, 1993 |
The Law on Citizenship is passed by the Supreme Soviet. This law grants citizenship to any person living on Belarusian territory as of October 11, 1991. Those going to Belarus desiring citizenship must know the Belarusian language (minimal requirements), swear an oath to the Constitution and laws of Belarus, have a legal source of income, and have lived in the country for seven years. The last of these requirements is waved for former citizens of the Byelorussian SSR and members of the armed forces of Belarus. |
| Oct 2, 1993 |
A party made up of the Polish minority holds its first congress. The party, the Polish Democratic Alliance, describes themselves as democratic, and open to all Belarusian citizens. Their goal is to gain representation for Poles on the Supreme Council (of Ministers). |
| Nov 1993 |
Shushkevich fails to support the BPF's call for early elections, despite the BPF's role in saving him from removal from office and the collection of 738,000 signatures in support of the early elections. Demonstrations are threatened, but the Supreme Soviet stations troops outside the parliament building and warns against anyone holding a demonstration in Minsk. |
| Jan 26, 1994 |
The Supreme Soviet gives Chairman Shushkevich (the head of state) a vote of no confidence. The vote came in response to Shushkevich's refusal to move Belarusian policy closer to Russia's, though there were official charges of misconduct and corruption leveled at him. Shushkevich has demanded a constitutional assembly be held. The post is filled two days later by conservative, Mechislav Grib (Hryb). |
| Mar 15, 1994 |
Belarusian Supreme Soviet adopts a new constitution. A few days previously, they had passed a law which set up a presidency for the executive branch (on March 1). Grib signs the new constitution into law on March 28, and it goes into effect on March 30. Presidential elections are scheduled for June 23. |
| Jun 16, 1994 |
An assassination attempt is made on presidential candidate Lukashenka. Later, a journalist who had taken pictures of the incident is kidnaped and beaten before being released. |
| Jun 23, 1994 |
Elections for president do not designate a winner so run-off elections must be held. The two candidates for the run-off are the anti-corruption minister, Lukashenka, and the current prime minister, Kebich. The second round of elections is set for July 10. |
| Jul 10, 1994 |
Aleksandr Lukashenka becomes the first president of Belarus, winning the popular election with 80.1% of the vote. He won on a platform of monetary union with Russia, a freeze on food prices, and anti-corruption. The Central Electoral Commission reports that 69.9% of the electorate voted. |
| Jul 11, 1994 |
Prime Minister Kebich resigns his government, though they remain on until the resignations are accepted. |
| Jul 20, 1994 |
Lukashenka is inaugurated as president and nominates his first 6 positions. The following day, all but one are approved by parliament. |
| Aug 4, 1994 |
President Lukashenka moves towards opening up the Belarusian markets, removing price supports on some commodities (including staples such as bread). These moves are in direct contradiction to his campaign statements. He appears to be moving to bring Belarusian inflation under control, either in order to facilitate Belarus' incorporation into the Monetary Union with Russia, or to facilitate greater investment from the West (or perhaps the former as a short-term goal, and the latter as a long-term goal). A week later further moves are initiated by Deputy Premier Chyhir to remove price supports from most commodities in order to stem their flow to neighboring states where the prices are much higher. |
| Aug 23, 1994 |
The Belarusian opposition party, the Belarusian Popular Front, wants air time in the media in order to advance its views. This is not the first time the opposition has asked for media time, but the previous government always denied the request. There has been no response to this request reported. |
| Aug 28, 1994 |
The Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on national television says he favors Belarusian unification with Russia and all Slavic countries. This statement is in line with his campaign statements, but reverses a trend in his statements of late which talked of the pragmatic reality that the CIS had to be based on sovereign, independent states. |
| Oct 19, 1994 |
The Belarusian parliament votes to make the Belarusian ruble the sole legal tender in Belarus. By January 1995, all hard-currency shops in Belarus must accept the Belarusian ruble for exchange. |
| Dec 15, 1994 |
The economic situation in Belarus is worsening. Price hikes are increasing the prices of basic commodities by as much as 600% and residents of two eastern districts in Belarus have been issued ration cards for food staples. The shortages are especially acute in eastern Belarus near the border with Russia as both Russians and Belarusians have been buying up the heavily subsidized commodities to resell them back in Russia. The price increases are designed in part to stem this tide. |
| Dec 21, 1994 |
A Belarusian border guard was seriously injured and three others detained by Polish border officials as they pursued a group of illegal immigrants (Asians and Africans) trying to tunnel their way into Poland. The incident has been attributed to the confusion and chaotic nature of the scene. The incident is not likely to have a negative effect on Polish-Belarusian relations; on the contrary, some observers expect this incident will speed moves towards closer cooperation in border patrols. |
| Mar 25, 1995 |
Belarus and Poland sign an agreement on preserving the cultural heritage of both nations' peoples residing in the other's borders. They agreed to encourage the mutual presentation of musical and theatrical productions, and to promote the conditions for cultural development. |
| May 16, 1995 |
Belarusians voted in a referendum to reduce the independence of their republic vis-ŕ-vis Russia and to strengthen the powers of their populist President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Between 75 and 83 per cent of voters gave their approval to extending the power of President Lukashenko. The popular vote would enable Lukashenko to dissolve parliament whenever he considers it appropriate. Belarusians also voted in favor of establishing Russian as an equal official language with Belarusian, restoring the Soviet flag and symbols of Belarus, as well as economic integration with Russia. Voter turnout was 64 per cent. Parliamentary elections were held simultaneously. It was reported that the elections had been a fiasco and that in many constituencies the elections had been invalidated because less than half the electorate had bothered to vote (The Times). |
| May 17, 1995 |
A commentary in the Financial Times observed that the referendum held in Belorussia marked a victory for the large former Communist elite in the country and delivered a bitter blow to nationalists. The country’s liberals feared that the plebiscite meant that Belarus would never break free from Russian cultural and political dominance (Financial Times). |
| Nov 27, 1995 |
Belarusian Prime Minister, Michail Churkin paid a one-day official visit to Poland. He was received by President Lech Walesa. Walesa said that all Poles want good relations with their neighbors. He also drew attention to the considerable possibilities of direct cooperation between both countries (PAP News Wire). |
| Mar 11, 1996 |
It was reported that Russian President Boris Yeltsin planned to build a motorway and a railway linking the enclave of Kaliningrad with Belarus via Poland. The Polish government noted that neither Moscow nor Minsk had consulted Warsaw about the project. Yeltsin’s plans caused considerable unease among most Poles who saw it as an attempt at establishing a new corridor. Historically, the term Polish Corridor refers to a strip of territory between Germany and East Prussia (1919-1939) that was set up under the Treaty of Versailles to give Poland an outlet to the Baltic. One of the demands of German dictator Adolf Hitler, who was obsessed with destroying the provisions of the treaty, was that Poland should agree to the construction of an extraterritorial motorway and railway linking the Third Reich with Danzig (now Gdansk) and East Prussia. The row over the corridor eventually became one of the pretexts for the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, which ignited World War II. |
| Mar 31, 1997 |
The chairman of the Union of Poles in Belarus, Tadeusz Gawin, said that the statement by Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka about the provocation of the Polish minority into actions against the authorities in Belarus was completely at variance with the truth. In the course of a meeting on spring sowing work that was broadcast across the whole country, Lukashenka stated that he had received reports about the existence of an anti-Belarusian center in Poland which wanted to establish contacts with Poles in the Grodno Region and involve them in anti-government activities. According to Tadeusz Gawin, the statement by Alyaksandr Lukashenka was another attempt to pit Belarusians and Poles against each other and also drag the Polish minority into political games (BBC). |
| Mar 6, 1998 |
On March 5, the Polish Sejm endorsed the main Polish foreign policy guidelines presented by Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek. Geremek declared that Poles should be thinking in terms of the political realities that would emerge after the enlargement of NATO. As the most pressing problems in the region Geremek listed Slovakia and Belarus. Geremek said that the scope and nature of Poland’s relations with Belorussia would very much depend on the situation in that country. He added that Poland would renew attempts to organize a round-table meeting of the Belarusian opposition and the government and would try to break Belarus's self-imposed isolation (Polish News Bulletin). |
| Mar 11, 1998 |
Aleksandr Pupeiko, a Belarusian businessman, was arrested in Poland. His extradition had been demanded by Belarus. The incident deteriorated the relationship between the two countries to the extent that Minsk came to accuse Warsaw of interfering in Belarus' internal affairs. An article in Moskovskie novosti, No. 4 (Feb. 1-8), said that Belarus was seeking the extradition of Pupeiko, who had been arrested at the Warsaw airport on an Interpol warrant on charges of fraud and embezzlement. Pupeiko claimed that his only transgression was to have openly supported the Belarussian opposition to President Lukashenko (The Current Digest of the Soviet Press). |
| Mar 11, 1998 |
Poland introduced stricter border-crossing procedures for Belarusian citizens. This step irritated Minsk which felt that Warsaw had put political concerns above economic interests. "The West approved a plan for the unofficial establishment of a 'cordon sanitaire,' and Warsaw quickly got the hint and is working very hard at this", a publication of the President’s staff says. On 6 February President Aleksandr Lukashenko visited a border checkpoint near Brest. He made a point of criticizing Poland's new border-crossing regulations, which, he said, were introduced "in a gangster-like manner". Belarus recalled its ambassador to Warsaw for consultations. Vladimir Matskevich, the Belarusian Chairman of the State Security Committee, accused Poland of expanding intelligence operations against Belarus and asserted that espionage had become Polish state policy (The Current Digest of the Soviet Press). |
| Mar 11, 1998 |
A two-day seminar called "Democracy: Our Common Cause" was held in Bialystok, not far from the Polish-Belarusian border. The seminar was organized by the Poland- Belarus Civic Education Center, which according to its founders, was created to support democratic institutions in Belarus, help consolidate freedom of speech in the country, develop an independent press, and promote harmony between Poles and Belarusians. The center was established in part with the help of influential sponsors, including the Polish division of the Soros Foundation, and its leadership included well-known Polish politicians, most of them from Solidarity. The seminar in Bialystok was the center's first event. Its participants concluded that steps should be taken to unite the Belarussian opposition. The seminar instantly drew a negative reaction from official Minsk. The Belarussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered a protest note to the Polish ambassador, and Foreign Minister Ivan Antonovich stated that the seminar discussed plans for destabilizing the country's legitimate presidential authority and constituted interference in Belarus' internal affairs. |
| Jun 29, 1998 |
The President of Belarus was quoted as saying that there were no ethnic conflicts or discrimination in the country, unlike in some other republics of the former USSR. Belarusians live side by side with Poles, Jews, Russians and other ethnic groups. "Last year 120,000 people came to 'undemocratic' Belarus and only 2,000-3,000 left," Lukashenka said (BBC). |
| May 28, 1999 |
The Belarusian State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs submitted a report to the Council of Ministers stating that there were no grounds for opening a new school in Belarus with instruction in the Polish language. The report was in response to a demand by the Union of Belarusian Poles (UBP), the largest national and cultural association in Belarus, to build a Polish-language school in the town of Navahrudak, where about 1,500 ethnic Poles live. Two Polish-language schools, one in Hrodna and the other in the town of Vawkavysk, were opened after 1996 with money provided by the UBP and the Polish diaspora. The committee pointed out that most of the conflicts that it had with the UBP were in the area of education. The report said it was a problem that Polish diplomatic offices, various Polish charitable organizations and foundations, and the Catholic Church paid "particular" attention to pupils of Polish-language schools. The report blamed the UBP for straining relations with governmental agencies and taking part in opposition activities. The State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs sent a report on the UBP's political activities to the Ministry of Justice and the State Committee for the Press, which it expected to issue a warning to the UBP's newspaper Glos znad Nemna'. The report recommended that the government focus its attention on cooperation with other associations of ethnic Poles, exploit the discontent of some local organizations of the UBP with the activities of the central leadership, and organize a thorough inspection of Polish-language educational institutions. The State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs believed that the time has come "to thoroughly inspect the UBP's economic activities, including the distribution of humanitarian aid and money that the UBP receives from abroad". The Committee suggested that changes should be introduced into the law "On Public Associations" to bar national and cultural associations from political activities (BBC). |
| Jul 1, 1999 |
Representatives of the Polish parliament paid a one week official visit to Belarus at the invitation of the Union of Poles in Belarus (UPB). During the visit, UBP leaders complained to the Polish parliamentarians that the union had to virtually write off all contacts with the Belarusian government as "absolutely useless". The UBP's deputy chairman, Tadevush Malevich, said that "since the UBP was established ten years ago, the authorities have never had the initiative to consider our problems". The UBP asserted that it could not accept the policy of State Committee for the Press which places the union's publication, Hlos znad Nemna', under its control. The UBP leadership called on Polish parliamentarians to raise the union's problems with European human-rights organizations. Czerniecki, a representative of the Polish parliamentarians, recognized the UBP's active contribution to the social and political life of the country and said that the Polish parliament would remind the Belarusian side about the rights of Belarusian Poles, including the right to be provided with education in Polish (BBC). |
| Sep 19, 1999 |
Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko attacked Moscow for not forewarning its CIS neighbors about an imminent economic crisis. Never before had the Belarusian President assailed the Kremlin so harshly. Analysts believed that by doing so Lukashenko might have decided to use the crisis in Russia as an opportunity to shift the responsibility for Belarus’ own economic difficulties onto Russia and revive his claims to leadership in the Russia-Belarus union (Russian Press Digest). |
| Mar 25, 2000 |
Police detained 100 people during an opposition demonstration against authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko was elected in July 1994; in August 1996, in the midst of a struggle for power with parliament, he announced a referendum to increase his powers and extend his mandate to 2001. A new constitution extending the president’s authority was accepted in that year despite criticism from the opposition and abroad. The demonstration marked the 82nd anniversary of the founding of the Belarusian Republic. Nearly 5,000 people were estimated to have taken part despite an official ban on protests. The demonstration was organized by the Popular Front, Belarus' main opposition group, which criticized Lukashenko for human rights abuses and demanded free elections. Fifty journalists were detained in a Minsk sports stadium. Among the detainees were Polish MP Mariusz Kaminski, his fellow Mrs, Wojceh Hausner, and another Pole, Pavel Gras. Kaminski said that their detention was "an international scandal" (Agence France Presse). |
| Mar 15, 2005 - Dec 31, 2006 |
Following March elections of the Union of Poles in Belarus, the government took over the UPB newspaper and harassed and detained UPB activists and journalists covering their activities. (Belarus General Newswire, 8/25/2005, “Over 1800 delegates to converge at Poles’ Union Congress”; Radio Free Europe, 2006, “Belarus: Why is Poland so interested in Belarus’ fate?”) |
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