The Polish Peasantry in Soviet Belarus: From the NEP to Collectivization (1924–1930)

Abstract

This article explores the Bolsheviks’ social and economic policies towards Polish rural communities in the Belarussian Soviet Socialist Republic (the BSSR) during the transition from the New Economic Policy (NEP) to forced collectivization. The article focuses on how the Soviet apparatus and its propaganda actively promoted kolkhozes among Polish peasants. To combat so-called bourgeois classes, the Soviet authorities methodically drove out Polish landlords and wealthy peasants from all forms of social and economic life. In 1930, during mass collectivization and so-called dekulakization, Polish families were subjected to deportation from Soviet Belarus. Forced collectivization also saw attacks on the Roman Catholic Church. The authorities established a few Polish collective farms to attract Polish peasants to collectivization, but they were not popular among the peasants.