Ukrainians in Belarus

Often, autochthonous Ukrainians living in the territory that in the 20th century became part of Belarus stand out as a separate group ^[2] . However, due to the cultural proximity of Belarusians and Ukrainians, difficulties arise in drawing ethnic boundaries between the two peoples in Polesie ^[3] .

However, most Ukrainians living in Belarus today are descendants of migrants from Ukraine. This was facilitated by the fact that the territories on which Belarus and most of Ukraine are located today were for a long time part of the same state entities ( Kievan Rus , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the Commonwealth , the Russian Empire , the USSR ). The first mass migration of the population from the territory of modern Ukraine occurred during the Mongol-Tatar invasion. It is also known that many Zaporozhye Cossacks settled in the Dnieper in the XVII century. The last significant wave of immigrants from Ukraine arrived in Belarus during the existence of the USSR. For a long time, Belarusians and Ukrainians were not divided in historical documents. The identification of the two peoples took place, as a rule, on the basis of common religion (Orthodox and Uniates) and under the general name "Rusyns" ^[3] .

According to the census of 1897, 10,069 Ukrainians (Maloros) lived in the territory of Minsk province , 362,526 Ukrainians (Maloros) lived in the Grodno province , 419 Ukrainians in the Vitebsk province, and 3,559 Ukrainians in the Mogilev province . ^[four]

The 1926 census counted 34,681 Ukrainians in the BSSR (that is, without taking into account Western Belarus) ^[5] . According to the 1939 census , there were 104,247 Ukrainians in the BSSR, ^[ 19 ^] according to the 1959 census , 13,061 Ukrainians ^[7] , 1970–190,839 Ukrainians according to the census , 990–239,085 Ukrainians, from the 1979 census, and 29,298 Ukrainians according to the 1989 census. ^[10] . The 1999 census totaled 237,014 Ukrainians ^[11] , the 2009 census - 158,723 Ukrainians ^[12] . The leadership of the Ukrainian community in Belarus, however, believes that the number of Ukrainians in the Brest region alone can reach half a million people ^[2] . 122 550 Ukrainians (77%) live in cities.

Most Ukrainians in Belarus (61%) during the 2009 census named Russian as their native language. 88.3% of Ukrainians of the republic spoke Russian at home in 2009 ^[13] . 29% of Ukrainians in Belarus consider Ukrainian their native language and 4% use it at home ^[13] . There is also a small Belorussianized part of Ukrainians - in 2009, 6% of Ukrainians in the republic spoke Belarusian at home, and 8% of the Ukrainian minority were named Belarusian native ^[13] .

As of January 1, 2014 in Belarus in the Ukrainian language there were only two periodicals in the Ukrainian language: the newspaper Ukraіnets in Bularusі created in 1992 (not published in 1993-2001) with a circulation of 500 copies and the bulletin founded in 2012 " Ukrainian Newsletter " ^[14] . Book publishing in the Ukrainian language is practically absent in the republic - in 2009 there were only two titles of books and brochures with a total circulation of 300 copies ^[15] .

• Ukrainian House