Belarusians in Poland

In time, the Belarusian culture and nationality started to develop in that region, but also increasing number of people became Polonized.

Later influences, particularly Lithuanization and Russification, further contributed to the blurry ethnic border and resulted in a region with many territories with significant minority of one culture or another.

[citation needed] In 1921, at the end of the Polish–Soviet War, Belarusian territories were divided between Second Polish Republic and Soviet Russia under the terms of the Peace of Riga.

Thus the newly reborn Poland gained a disputed territory, known as Kresy or West Belarus, inhabited by both Belarusians and Poles.

[8] In the elections of November 1922, a Belarusian party (in the Blok Mniejszości Narodowych coalition) obtained 14 seats in the Polish parliament (11 of them in the lower chamber, Sejm).

In 1935, after the death of Józef Piłsudski, a new wave of repressions was released upon the minorities, with many Orthodox churches and Belarusian schools being closed.

[6][7] In 1938 about 100 Orthodox churches were destroyed or converted to Roman Catholic ones in the eastern parts of Poland, the majority of them in ethnically Ukrainian territories.

Earlier, Belarusian political leaders reported to the League of Nations of tens of thousands being flogged by police, and subject to torture in interrogations.

[citation needed] The results of the 1931 census (questions about mother tongue and about religion) in voivodeships with significant Belarusian populations.

In 2019 Eugeniusz Czykwin has been elected to the Polish Sejm on the Koalicja Obywatelska list, being the representative of the Belarusian and Orthodox minority in the parliament.