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Czechoslovakia and Belarusian emigration

Publication at Faculty of Social Sciences |
2019

Abstract

The dynamics of the promotion of the Belarusian National Program in the interwar Czechoslovakia was largely derived from the development of the Belarusian movement in its centres - Vilnius, Kaunas and Minsk. Czechoslovakia was able to provide Belarusians with effective assistance at a time when the state was not endangered.

It focused on the education of youth, which the founders of Czechoslovak statehood, based on their own experience, considered to be crucial for the future successful development of any society. However, Czechoslovak institutional willingness to support the anti-Soviet activities of the emigrants responded sensitively to the international situation.

It disappeared when international conditions revealed the limitations of Czechoslovak possibilities. The potential of the emigrants themselves to integrate into the majority of Czechoslovak society was of advantage, but it depended on individual abilities and was not encouraged by the state.

Furthermore, any positive contribution of the Czechoslovak environment to the development of pre-war immigrant communities and vice versa was virtually forgotten after the Second World War.