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Belarus Ethnic Composition
The 1989 census of the Soviet Union, its last, showed a
mainly Slavic population in Belorussia: Belorussians (77.8
percent), Russians (13.2 percent), Poles (4.1 percent),
Ukrainians (2.9 percent), and others (2.0 percent). Other
ethnic
groups include Lithuanians, Latvians, and Tatars. A large
number
of Russians immigrated to Belarus immediately after World
War II
to make up for the local labor shortage, caused in part by
Stalin's mass deportations, and to take part in rebuilding
the
country. Others came as part of Stalin's program of
Russification.
There has been little conflict with the major
non-Belarusian
group, the Russians, who account for about 13 percent of
the
population. The Russification campaign in what is now
Belarus
used a mixture of subtle and not-so-subtle coercion. The
campaign
was widely successful, to the extent that Russian became
the
language of choice for much of the population. One-third
of the
respondents in a 1992 poll said they consider Russian and
Belarusian history to be one and the same. A large number
of
organized Russian cultural bodies and publications exist
in
Belarus.
Ethnic Poles, who account for some 4 percent of the
population, live in the western part of the country, near
the
Polish border. They retain their traditions and their
Roman
Catholic religion, which has been the cause of friction
with
Orthodox Belarusians, who also see a decidedly political
bent to
these cultural activities
(see Religion
, this ch.).
Ukrainians account for approximately 3 percent of the
population. Belarusians and Ukrainians have been on
friendly
terms and have faced similar problems in trying to
maintain their
ethnic and cultural identities in the face of
Russification by
Moscow.
Jews have been present in Belarus since medieval times,
but
by the late eighteenth century were restricted to the Pale
of
Settlement and later to cities and towns within the Pale
(see Ethnic Composition
, ch. 2). Before World War II, Jews were
the
second largest ethnic group in Belorussia and accounted
for more
than 50 percent of the population in cities and towns. The
1989
Soviet census showed that Jews accounted for only 1.1
percent of
the population, the result of genocide during World War II
and
subsequent emigration.
Data as of June 1995
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