# Belarusians in Latvia: The Lucyn schools

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/belarusians-in-latvia-the-lucyn-schools/
- Published: 1924-05-25T19:40:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T19:50:54+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/bielarusy-u-latvii-liucynskija-shkoly.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/byelorusy-v-latvii-lyutsinskiye-shkoly.md

> Inspector Svene has declared that there are no Belarusians in Latvia, and he is replacing Belarusian schools with Latvian ones, but teaching in them in Russian. Kastusionak describes the closing of the school in Eversmuiža, the Polish and Muscovite teachers, and the number of foreigners.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-907-1024x585.webp)

(See No. 2 of "Syn Biełarusa").

IV.

"There are no Belarusians in Latvia at all."

This sensational piece of news was "discovered" by the Inspector of primary schools of the Lucyn district, Citizen Svene.

This learned researcher argues that the Belarusians in Latvia are not Belarusians but the most genuine… Latgalians, who were first Polonized for some two hundred years, then Muscovitized for about a hundred and fifty, and then, as the result of this whole procedure, became Belarusians.

To return these Belarusians to the bosom of the Latgalian nationality, they must be deprived of the Belarusian school and given a Latvian one.

By virtue of this theory of his he has already turned half a dozen Belarusian schools in the Janovola and Landskorona rural districts of the Lucyn district into Latvian ones.

But here is the strange thing: in these "Latvian" schools the teaching is somehow conducted not in Latvian but in… Russian.

People thought and thought: "Why is this a Latvian school, yet in the Russian language?"

"Surely Citizen Inspector Svene does not mean to carry out the process of returning these 'former Latgalians' to the bosom of their native people in such reverse order, so that they would be de-Muscovitized for 150 years again, then Polonized for 200 years, and only then return to their original state and become Latgalians once more?"

And here people also recalled one more thing.

In 1921, when the Belarusians began their national work in Latvia, they appealed through the "Backaŭščyna" Society to all public institutions, school councils and inspectors of primary schools in Latgale, asking for help in Belarusian cultural and educational work and especially in supporting the Belarusian national school, which was then only just being planned.

Every institution and person replied in their own way, depending on their acquaintance with the Belarusian cause and the degree of their sympathy for it, but there was not a single hostile or improperly negative letter, except… except the letter of Inspector Svene.

This gentleman informed the "Backaŭščyna" Society that the Belarusians, in his opinion, "understand the literary Russian language very well, and for that reason he considers the creation of a separate Belarusian school and of a Belarusian Department at the Ministry of Education unnecessary."

When, against his will and wish, Belarusian schools were nevertheless established in the Lucyn region, this citizen at first seemingly reconciled himself to them, then began to fight them in secret, putting various obstacles in their way, and now has thought up a new move, in which he hopes to find the support of the Latgalians as well.

V.

The closing of a Belarusian school.

Having begun his struggle against the already existing Belarusian schools, the Inspector of the Lucyn district, Citizen Svene, whom we know, apparently at the same time resolved not to give the Belarusian population a single new Belarusian school.

And indeed, in this school year not one new Belarusian school has been opened in the Lucyn region, despite the demands of the population.

In the Eversmuiža rural district 90% are Catholic Latvians. This district lies right on the border with Soviet Belarus, and it contains several Belarusian villages that belonged to the Orthodox parish of Slabadzin, in the Sebiezh district.

When the border was drawn, part of the villages of the parish came within the borders of Latvia, while the rest of the parish and the church itself remained on the other side of the border.

Finding themselves within the borders of Latvia, these Belarusians began by forming a new parish and building a tiny church, and then demanded to build a school for their little children.

Several times they appealed to the District School Council and to the Inspector to have a Belarusian school opened for them, but the Inspector refused.

Finally the peasants invited a private teacher-tutor and entrusted him with teaching their children and at the same time with working for the opening of a permanent school. The teacher turned out to be an energetic, conscious Belarusian. Many children gathered. Instruction was conducted in the Belarusian language.

The Inspector, learning that more than 25 children were going to the tutor, sent a denunciation to the police, claiming that a secret school had been opened in the village of Kushniary, and asked for the school to be closed.

The chief of police arrived, forbade the teacher to teach any further, and even wanted to seal the room where he lived and taught the children.

The parents sent a delegate to the Minister of Education. The Ministry gave an order that the school be opened, especially if it would have Belarusian as the language of instruction.

The delegate returned with the Ministry's document.

The board adopted a resolution: to open the school, or a parallel class, but…. it has not carried out the resolution to this day.

And when the parish priest appealed to the board, he was advised to ask for a…. Russian school.

"Then we'll open it right away!"

Meanwhile the winter has passed, and the illiterate Belarusian little ones, who had eagerly taken up their native primers, have had to take up the whips instead.

VI.

Poles and Muscovites in Belarusian schools.

The same Lucyn Inspector Svene does not want to admit into Belarusian schools Belarusian teachers who have completed Belarusian teacher training courses.

For two years the applications of Belarusian male and female teachers have been lying with him, while in the Belarusian schools he still keeps Poles and Great Russians, who happened to remain in the Belarusian schools three years ago, when the Belarusian Department took over a few small schools in the Lucyn region from the Russian Department.

Some of these teachers not only do not know the Belarusian language but are openly hostile to it and allow themselves to mock it.

Several of these teachers are foreigners to Latvia and, as such, ought long ago to have left their posts. The others could already have been transferred several times to Russian and Polish schools, without any harm or unpleasantness to themselves and especially to the school.

Feeling the Inspector's support behind them, various Liakhovichs, Biruchynskis and others run the Belarusian schools as they see fit, very often paying no regard to the Belarusian Department.

And the Belarusian Department lacks the courage to put the matter in its full breadth and to press with due determination for the dismissal and transfer of these elements.

VII.

Foreigners in Belarusian schools.

In the Belarusian schools in Latvia there are 10 or 12 foreigners, while in the Russian schools there are nearly 200.

There are many foreigners in the other minority schools in Latvia as well.

Belarusian schools have the fewest foreign teachers of all.

This, however, does not spare the Belarusians from attacks claiming that they have "too many foreigners."

It is interesting that to this day not a single official of the Ministry of Education has hit upon the simple idea of fixing, for each national minority, the number of foreigners that it "may keep."

One must assume that then, in percentage terms, the Belarusians would not only have no one to dismiss among the foreigners already working, but would even receive the right to invite a few more new workers.