[BRIEF NOTE] On the Poles of Belarus
Dec. 4th, 2009 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldIt isn't everyday it looks like Russia's preparing to nuke Poland.
It goes without saying that the cause of this conflict is implausible. The Polish military isn't geared for offensive operations, and more importantly Poland isn't an ultranationalist country and its population is geared towards "let's-get-rich" as opposed to "let's-imitate-Turkey-in-Cyprus." Besides, Lithuania is a much more tempting target with a highly concentrated population of ethnic Poles in the Vilnius Region, forming a majority of the population in the rural area of that region, a larger share of the population in Vilnius proper than the Russians, and Vilnius having a long history as "Wilno" and included in the Second Polish Republic under that name. Should the Baltic tree-worshippers be permitted this territory, I ask you?
Belarus' Poles are much more dispersed, the remants of a Polish population expelled after the Second World War and substantially descended (as in Lithuania) from local Slavs and Balts who were assimilated into the more prestigious Polish culture and to the Polish language in past centuries. The Polish minority hasn't fared especially well, true, with schools regulated, the Catholic Church suspected, and claims that the minority might be a "fifth column" made, although these seem to be associated less with ethnic animosity and more towards the Lukashenko government's strongly association of Belarus' Poles with an autonomous civil society and a Polish-cum-Western influence aimed at undermining his government. That latter makes a certain amount of sense, immoral as the treatment may be, given Poland's strong support for the Eastern Partnership of the European Union that aims to bring the western and Transcaucasian republics of the former Soviet Union into the European Union orbit. That analysis, though, suggests that the status of Belarus' Polish minority might change given Belarus' intermittant attempts to distance itself from Russia.
The armed forces are said to have carried out "war games" in which nuclear missiles were fired and troops practised an amphibious landing on the country's coast.
Documents obtained by Wprost, one of Poland's leading news magazines, said the exercise was carried out in conjunction with soldiers from Belarus.
The manoeuvres are thought to have been held in September and involved about 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops.
Poland, which has strained relations with both countries, was cast as the "potential aggressor".
The documents state the exercises, code-named "West", were officially classified as "defensive" but many of the operations appeared to have an offensive nature.
The Russian air force practised using weapons from its nuclear arsenal, while in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which neighbours Poland, Red Army forces stormed a "Polish" beach and attacked a gas pipeline.
The operation also involved the simulated suppression of an uprising by a national minority in Belarus – the country has a significant Polish population which has a strained relationship with authoritarian government of Belarus.
It goes without saying that the cause of this conflict is implausible. The Polish military isn't geared for offensive operations, and more importantly Poland isn't an ultranationalist country and its population is geared towards "let's-get-rich" as opposed to "let's-imitate-Turkey-in-Cyprus." Besides, Lithuania is a much more tempting target with a highly concentrated population of ethnic Poles in the Vilnius Region, forming a majority of the population in the rural area of that region, a larger share of the population in Vilnius proper than the Russians, and Vilnius having a long history as "Wilno" and included in the Second Polish Republic under that name. Should the Baltic tree-worshippers be permitted this territory, I ask you?
Belarus' Poles are much more dispersed, the remants of a Polish population expelled after the Second World War and substantially descended (as in Lithuania) from local Slavs and Balts who were assimilated into the more prestigious Polish culture and to the Polish language in past centuries. The Polish minority hasn't fared especially well, true, with schools regulated, the Catholic Church suspected, and claims that the minority might be a "fifth column" made, although these seem to be associated less with ethnic animosity and more towards the Lukashenko government's strongly association of Belarus' Poles with an autonomous civil society and a Polish-cum-Western influence aimed at undermining his government. That latter makes a certain amount of sense, immoral as the treatment may be, given Poland's strong support for the Eastern Partnership of the European Union that aims to bring the western and Transcaucasian republics of the former Soviet Union into the European Union orbit. That analysis, though, suggests that the status of Belarus' Polish minority might change given Belarus' intermittant attempts to distance itself from Russia.
