According to research by the “Center for New Ideas” in Belarus, more than 500,000 Belarusians have left the country since 2020. Have Belarusians ever left in such large numbers before? And if so, where did they go? Belarusian men's magazine It tells the story of the mass emigration of Belarusians and the challenges our compatriots faced a hundred years ago.
Was Francis Skaryna the first emigrant?
Belarusians have been leaving the country throughout their recorded history. Among the first emigrants were Franciszek Skaryna, Piotr Mstislavets, and hundreds of other young residents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who left to study at universities in Western and Central Europe. Some returned freely and went on to make their mark in their homeland.
After emigrating, they were involved in various political events in what is now Belarus. The partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Kościuszko and Kalinowski uprisings, and the war with Napoleon—all of these contributed to the exodus of part of the population.
Large-scale economic emigration began in the 19th and 20th centuries. By the start of World War I, more than 700,000 people had migrated from Belarus to Siberia alone for economic reasons (landlessness, unemployment), while 500,000–800,000 people had left the Russian Empire. They mainly left for the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Western European countries.
Political emigration in the early 20th century consisted of the government and military units of the Belarusian People's Republic.
During the interwar period (1921–1939), 180,000–250,000 people left Western Belarus for Canada, Argentina, the United States, France, Lithuania, and other countries. The reasons for this mass exodus were primarily the difficult economic situation, as well as ethnic and religious persecution.
В советской части Беларуси дела обстояли не лучше. В 1924 и 1925 году иностранный отдел НКВД выдал 1658 и 1787 загранпаспортов соответственно. Беларусы среди этой части составляли только 10-15%. В 30-е годы выезд из страны почти закрыли, зато расцвела внутренняя эмиграция. В 1926-1938 годах из БССР в другие концы советского союза выехало около 617 тысяч человек.
They traveled to the United States, France, and Latin America
It was never easy to just up and leave the country—not even a hundred years ago. To buy a ticket on a steamship, people would sell their real estate and, in effect, purchase a one-way ticket. And there were plenty of risks involved.
To the U.S. Government needed They were healthy and literate people. Therefore, in order to enter the United States, Belarusians had to submit a large number of documents to the consulate.
At the consulate, officials might have asked whether a person had sufficient funds to enter the United States, and they also assessed the literacy and mental health of those wishing to travel to the United States.
Going to France was also no easy task. The selection process was rigorous; they were looking for young men between the ages of 21 and 40 or families. The strictness of the selection process was also due to the fact that even back then, people were issuing “fake” job offers.
It was easiest to get into Latin American countries. For example, between 1926 and 1938, more than 6,000 people left the territories of the Białystok, Vilnius, Nowogródek, and Polesie Voivodeships for Brazil. The Brazilian government encouraged families to emigrate, since, under the laws of the time, teenagers as young as 13 were allowed to work on coffee plantations.
And they faced discrimination and low wages
Life for a Belarusian emigrant (just as it is today) was not easy. For example, in France, Belarusians worked in vineyards or sugar factories. And that was in the best-case scenario. At worst, they did farm work, where pay was 2–3 times less than at factories.
In France, Belarusians were forced to sign contracts that placed them at a disadvantage compared to the French. The salary under such a contract was 30–40% lower than that of the native population.
“So here’s what some friends of mine in France wrote to me: Immigrants in France are treated practically like slaves, and they especially don’t like it when any of these ‘slaves’ speak French. Everyone must sign a contract or agreement and live in camps until a specified time, without the right to leave. “The pay is significantly lower than one might even expect,” wrote the Western Belarusian newspaper *Syn Belarus*.
They formed their own diasporas
Despite all the difficulties of emigration, the Belarusians settled in and even tried to come together in some way. In 1923, emigrants in Chicago founded the Belarusian-American National Association, which was led by Yazepp Varonka, the first head of the BPR government.
In Latin America, the Ukrainian diaspora in Argentina was the most organized. In the late 1920s, the Union of Ukrainian and Belarusian Workers’ Organizations in Argentina was established.
The diaspora also had its own press. Articles were published in Russian to attract the attention of Belarusians who had come to the United States. Notable among the newspapers and magazines of the Belarusian community in the U.S. are *Pravda*, *American Belarusian*, *Belarusian Tribune*, and others.
A hundred years later, the Belarusian diaspora is going through exactly the same thing. Quarrels, political ambitions, media in exile and for the exiles. They’ve even formed their own proto-parliament.
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