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Belarusian Priests in Interwar Poland: Patriots or Nationalists?
Abstract
After World War I, a range of territories inhabited largely by Belarusians, a religiously diverse group whose members included Roman Catholics, became part of interwar Poland. Catholic priests originating from this ethnic group (including Kostanty Stepowicz, Jan Siemaszkiewicz, Wiktor Szutowicz, Wincenty Godlewski, Adam Stankiewicz, and Władysław Tołłoczko) preached sermons in Belarusian, which sparked protest from the Church authorities. Before World War I, still in the Russian Empire, they had been associated with the Belarusian Catholic periodical Belarus (1913–1915) which advocated the idea of Belarusian national rebirth. In interwar Poland, the Church authorities, particularly the archbishop of Wilno, Romuald Jałbrzykowski, was adverse to the involvement of Catholic priests in the Belarusian national movement, especially in Belarusian Christian Democracy, and opposed preaching in Belarusian.
Although they were Belarusian patriots, the Church authorities treated them as nationalists or even communists. Their choice to self-identify as Belarusians earned them persecution on the part of the Polish authorities, including searches, arrests, imprisonment and transfer to Polish-language parishes. We could ask why in ethnically-diverse interwar Poland these Belarusian priests were treated as enemies of the state, why they were forbidden to preach in the language of their local parishioners, why they were not allowed to collaborate with the Belarusian Christian Democratic press (Krinitsa, Belarusskaya Krinitsa, Christianskaya Dumka) coming out in Wilno, and why they were sent on missions or transferred to other parishes. Those who survived World War II and found themselves in postwar Poland carefully concealed their national identity, faithfully serving the Catholic Church (for example Rev. Jan Siemaszkiewicz).
Keywords:
interwar Poland, Belarussians, patriotism, Kostanty Stepowicz, Jan Siemaszkiewicz, Wincenty Godlewski, Adam StankiewiczMost read articles by the same author(s)
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