SMOLENSK PROVINCE IN THE 1921s-1925s: BELARUSIZATION FROM ABOVE?
In its program, the Bolshevik party initially declared the right of nations to self-determination up to separation. In October 1917 having come to power, they did not abandon their principles in the national issue, and what is more, the Bolsheviks began practical activities for their implementation. The outskirts of the multinational Russia fell far behind the central region in their economic, cultural and political development. Therefore, in March 1921 the Xth Congress of the RCP(B) set the first tasks for the development of national republics, primarily based on their national languages. At the XIIth party Congress in the spring of 1923 the agenda was already devoted to the need to transfer all spheres of life in the regions according to the national basis. This policy was called «indigenization» («korenizatsiya»). In the republics the name was specified: «ukrainization», «belarusization», etc. However, belarusization, for example, was not to be confined only within the borders of Belarus; its implementation was also expected in the Russian Federation in places with compact residence of Belarusians. Smolensk province was one of such Russian regions. But unlike Belarus, the problem of transferring the office work into the Belarusian language was not raised here and the public servants were not forced to learn Belarusian. The foreground issue was about introducing the Belarusian language and studies of Belarus at schools and the subsequent transition of schools to the Belarusian language. It was not expected in the whole province, but in districts with a significant number of Belarusian population. However, in practice the local population turned out to come first among those who did not welcome the policy of belarusization, the people did not see the need for it and rejected it. The example of the Smolensk region is a case in point.