# Belarusians in Latvia. VIII. Belarusians and Russians

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/belarusians-in-latvia-viii-belarusians-and-russians/
- Published: 1924-06-08T19:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T21:03:11+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/bielarusy-u-latvii-viii-bielarusy-i-rasiejcy.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/byelarusy-v-latvii-viii-byelarusy-i-russkiye.md

> The Russians in Latvia are divided into the Orthodox and the Old Believers. The Orthodox are hostile to the Belarusian cause, and Deputy Koretsky, who is also a beer-brewery representative, incites parents against Belarusian schools.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-1094-1024x585.webp)

(See No. 3 of «Сын Беларуса»).

VIII.

Belarusians and Russians.

The Russians in Latvia are divided by faith into two unequal parts: Orthodox Muscovites and Old Believer Muscovites. The latter are about three times as numerous as the Orthodox Muscovites. But circumstances have somehow turned out so that the leading role and weight in the life of the Muscovites has belonged to the Orthodox element, which is made up of the former Russian administration.

The Old Believer groups do not touch the Belarusians, and relations with them have become fairly good, because the Old Believers, oppressed in their time by the Russian government itself, are not used to commanding roles and have no pretension to lord it over the Belarusians.

As for the Orthodox Russians, they still cannot give up the idea that the Belarusians must remain under their guardianship, and they still regard the existence of a separate Belarusian Department and Belarusian national work in Latvia as "treason" and "предательство (betrayal) of the common (?) interests".

To this day these Russians have not abandoned the hope that they will succeed once more in uniting both the Belarusians and the Great Russians "въ одну общую русскую семью" (into one common Russian family).

For this "holy aim" they spare no effort in throwing out fine words and hunting up brilliant proofs; they stop at the most groundless reproaches, and do not hesitate to use slander in the press, as, for example, the newspaper "Ряжскій Курьеръ"; and at times they do not stop even at approaches to the Latvian Government.

The Russian deputy of the Saeima, Citizen Koretsky, shows particular energy in this crusade against the Belarusians.

This deputy has contrived to be at one and the same time a deputy and a representative of a beer brewery.

He traveled around Latgale with a portfolio under his arm, in which lay side by side the promissory notes for the barrels of beer supplied to the factory's agents on the spot, and the papers of the "Russian National Democratic Union", which he headed in Rezhitsa.

His work was set up on an American footing.

He boasted that he had about a hundred points for the bottling and selling of beer, and beside each such point huddled a "Sub-branch of the National Democratic Union".

The Americanization of the business went even further. The manager of a beer-bottling point would very often be at the same time the chairman of a Sub-branch of the Union. Some citizen, for example Citizen Anisimov of the town of Ludza, signs promissory notes for the barrels of beer received, does the bottling of the beer, and at the same time conducts the affairs of the Union.

In recent times it has become clear that this "respectable work" does not much please the population, and it has begun to leave the "National Democratic Union".

The first to leave were the Old Believers, who are now firmly united around their deputy in the Saeima, Citizen Kalistratov, and around the Old Believer Committee.

Then the Orthodox intelligentsia began to run away.

The "National Democratic Union", seeing the results of Citizen Koretsky's work, turned away from him.

Then Citizen Koretsky, looking for new votes and ways to get into the Saeima again at the coming elections, rushed into the Orthodox Belarusian parishes of Ludza county.

Taking advantage of the fact that in most Belarusian parishes the priests (batiushkas) are still Great Russians, he, with their help and also with the help of his assistants in the beer bottling business, began in these parishes an agitation against the Belarusian language and its teaching in the schools, and incited the parents to various declarations and resolutions in that sense. Some of the Great Russian teachers still working in the schools (for example the teacher Biruchinsky in Stara Slabada) willingly helped him.

In this way one more folder was added to Citizen Koretsky's famous portfolio: "Requests of parents for the conversion of Belarusian schools into Russian ones".

Citizen Koretsky had already tried to operate with these requests in the Saeima last summer, demanding the closing of the Belarusian Department.

The Saeima paid no attention to these demands, because Koretsky's role in fabricating all these requests was clear to everyone.

It is interesting to stress here that Citizen Koretsky not only dared to prepare these requests, but had the shamelessness to assert from the Saeima tribune that he had never himself been in the district of these schools and did not even know "where they are". And this after he had personally, several times, read various lectures in Stara Slabada and founded there another sub-branch of the "National Democratic Union".

To characterize this "public figure" it must be added that he is not at all particular in choosing his collaborators. Thus his right hand in Dvinsk, the chairman of the Dvinsk Branch of the Union, Citizen Vasilyev, turned out to be a murderer and robber who faces a field court-martial.

(To be continued).