White Russia

The White Russians are by Leroy Beaulieu considered to be the purest of the three great Slav divisions, Great Russians, Little Russians (Ukrainians) and White Russians. They took refuge from Tatar raids in the swamps and marshes. Their dialect is akin to Great Russian, but political causes separated the two races, and the White Russians, like the Ukrainians, were for some time under non-Russian rule. In physical type they are brachycephalic, aver age cephalic index 85, greater than that of the Great Russians, possibly because of intermixture with the Poles. Their hair is light brown or brown, with a decided reddish tinge and their eyes light brown. Apparently they received the name "White" Rus sians because of their costume, white smock, bast shoes with white leggings, and a white homespun coat.

History.

Af ter the rise of Lithuania, the region became sub ject to the princes of that country and when the Litva prince became king of Poland, the White Russian territory fell under Polish rule. The official documents of the Litva dukes, however, continued to be written in White Russian for some time after this. Under Ivan the Great (1462-1505), part of the White Russian territory was wrested from Poland. Under Basil III. (15o5– 1533), the power of Moscow extended to the Dnieper river, but during the "Time of Troubles" the territory was regained by Poland, and by the truce of Deulino, Poland retained Smolensk and all the territory west of it. The struggle between Russia and Poland continued at intervals, but White Russia remained in Polish hands until the Treaty of Vilna 1656, when Poland ceded White Russia and the Ukraine to Russia. But war broke out again between the two countries and ended disastrously for Russia, though she retained the district of Smolensk, and the Ukraine east of the Dnieper. The deep division between the Poles and the Russians on the question of religion ultimately led to further troubles, and when in 1766 the Polish diet refused to grant equal rights and full liberty of conscience to non-Roman Catholic subjects, the flame of rebellion broke out at Slutsk in White Russia.

In 1772 the first partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria made the Western Dvina and the Drut the Russian frontier, so that a portion of White Russia with 1,600,000 in habitants came under Russian rule. By the second partition of

Poland in 1793, Russia acquired all the rest of White Russia, a large part of Black Russia (the territory between the Pripet and the Niemen, west of the Berezina), and the Ukraine west of the Dnieper, and in 1795, by the third partition extended her terri tories to include Courland and all the rest of Lithuania and Black Russia. During this long struggle between Poland and Russia, the territory of the White Russians was repeatedly fought over and devastated, and a general low level of cultural and economic conditions in the region ensued and is still evident to-day. In the unfortunate country was crossed by Napoleon's army on its march to and from Moscow via Smolensk, and suffered further devastation, from which it had not recovered when war broke out in 1914. It then lay close to the war zone and shared in the disorder and disasters of the Russian retreat in 1916.

After the 1917 revolution a Committee of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants of the Western Front was formed and an attempt to establish a soviet system was thus made. But in February, 1918 Minsk and the whole region as far as the Dnieper was occupied by German troops, withdrawn in November 1918, after the revolution in Germany. The Soviet of Workers and Peasants then declared an independent White Russian Republic and efforts were made to form a joint Lithuanian and White Russian Re public. But early in 1919 war again broke out with Poland and Polish troops occupied the district. Finally, by the treaty of Riga, 1921, peace was declared between Poland, Russia and the Ukraine, the western part of White Russia passing under Polish rule. For exact details of the new boundary, see British and Foreign State Papers, 1921, vol. cxiv., published in 1924. The Soviet govern ment in 1924 and 1926 extended the boundary of White Russia eastwards, and the towns of Vitebsk and Gomel, with a strip of territory on the east bank of the Sozh, are now included in it.