Belorussification, Russification and Polonization Trends in the Belorussian Language 1890–1982

The Belorussian (Br) speech territory is contiguous with three Slavic and two Baltic languagues — Russian (R), Ukrainian (U), Polish (P), Lithuanian and Latvian — and is coterritorial over large areas with R and Yiddish; there are also small pockets of German, Karaite, Latvian, Lithuanian and Romany speakers. Most of the Br ethnographic territory now lies in the Belorussian SSR (BSSR), with small areas in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Modern Br language planning, which begins in the last decade of the 19th century, can be divided into three distinct stages: (a) a puristic orientation advocating closure to Ρ and R (1890-1932 [in Poland until 1939], 1941-1944), (b) an antipuristic orientation advocating receptivity to R but continuing closure to Ρ (1933-1941, 1945-1953), and (c) a modified anti-puristic orientation, implicitly involving a merger of elements from both the puristic and anti-puristic orientations (1954-1982). The role of the R runs like a leitmotiv through all discussions of Br language planning — and affects both the selection of R loans as well as native components.