Lithuanians in Belarus

According to the 1897 census , large compact groups of Lithuanians lived in Lida (17,285 people), Oshmyany (8754), Grodno (2814), and Orsha (about 1400) counties. Lithuanians of Belarus were engaged in agriculture and various crafts ( woodworking , weaving , beekeeping , etc.). In 1906 - 1907 In the village of Malkovka, Cherikovsky district, a national Lithuanian school worked. Before the First World War , more than 20 thousand Lithuanians lived in Belarus. However, during the First World War and the Civil War, the number of Lithuanians in Belarus decreased significantly. According to the 1926 census , only 6,564 people lived in the BSSR , mainly in rural areas.

In the 20s . XX century in the BSSR there were about fifty separate Lithuanian settlements. The village of Malkovka in the Mstislavl region became the center of the Lithuanian national village council. There was a seven-year school with teaching in Lithuanian. The only Lithuanian secondary school in the BSSR worked in the village of Dymanovo, Vitebsk region . Under the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) B , the Lithuanian Bureau acted.

The cultural and educational programs of the Lithuanians of Belarus were consistently implemented. Ten years ( 1927-1937 ), the newspaper Raundonasis Artojas (Red Plowman) was published. Radio broadcasts in Lithuanian. Under the Belarusian Association of Proletarian Writers (since 1932 - the joint venture of the BSSR) since 1928 there was a Lithuanian section. Under the Belarusian Publishing House in 1932 , the Lithuanian sector was formed. At that time, a department of Lithuanian history was opened under Inbelkult (since 1929 , the Lithuanian sector of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR , since 1933 the Lithuanian section of the Institute of National Minorities of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR). In the late 1930s . these processes were curtailed, and activists of the Lithuanian national revival in Belarus were repressed.

The demographic structure of the Lithuanians of Belarus changed in the 30-50s. XX century In 1940 , the Lithuanian SSR withdrew a significant territory of Belarus (an area of ​​2.6 thousand km²) with a population of about 80 thousand people (mainly Belarusians and Lithuanians). In the postwar period, Lithuanians of Belarus actively migrated to the Lithuanian SSR. According to the census of 1970 , 8092 people lived in the BSSR, and in 1979 - 6993 people, mainly in rural areas. About half of the Lithuanians considered Lithuanian their native language.

The Lithuanian minority of Belarus is largely cultivated in the Belarusian and Belarusian- Polish environment. The Lithuanian language is spoken by both older people and young people who are native to them. At the same time, Lithuanian language was not taught under the USSR; schools with teaching in Lithuanian were absent. There are currently two Lithuanian schools in the republic, financed by Belarus, but built at the expense of Lithuania. Where Lithuanians live, folklore ensembles are created everywhere, and publications in Lithuanian are distributed. The republic has a small book publishing in Lithuanian - in 2009, 6 books and brochures were published with a total circulation of 5.3 thousand copies ^[1] .

The dynamics of the number of Lithuanians in Belarus according to censuses ^[2] :

• 1959 - 8 363 - 0.10%
• 1970 - 8 092 - 0.09%
• 1979 - 6,993 - 0.07%
• 1989 - 7 606 - 0.07%
• 1999 - 6 387 - 0.06%
• 2009 - 5,087 - 0.05%

• T. A. Navagrodsky [ іінш .] Ethnology of Belarus: the traditsy culture of the population ў gistarychny prospect. Vucheb.-metad. dapam. - Minsk, BDU, 2009 .-- 335 s. іл. ISBN 978-985-518-121-8
• Steponas Maculevičius, Doloresa Baltrušiene . Znajomość z Litwą. Księga tysiąclecia. Tom pierwszy. Państwo. - Kaunas: Kraštotvarka, 1999 .-- 416 p. - ISBN 9986-892-34-1