# The Collapse of the Polish-Belarusian Society

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/collapse-of-the-polish-belarusian-society/
- Published: 1924-06-13T18:20:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-24T21:01:37+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/krach-polska-bielaruskaha-t-va.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/krakh-polsko-byelorusskogo-obshchyestva.md

> The Director of the Vilnia Belarusian Gymnasium writes to the lawyer Abramovich that, given such a policy on the part of the Poles, Belarusians cannot take part in the Polish-Belarusian Society, lest they give their own persecutors the chance to use it before the world.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-1263-1024x585.webp)

To Mr. V. Abramovich, Lawyer, in Vilnia.

Dear Sir,

On the instructions of my colleagues and acquaintances, in the matter of the organizational meeting of the Polish-Belarusian Society, I have the honor to inform you that the political war, which continues to this day, does not allow even those Belarusians who only so recently expressed their sincere wish to find some way of weakening and easing the terrible persecution which the Polish authorities so systematically and unceasingly carry out against the Belarusian public, to take part in the Society.

Since the beginning of our efforts to bring the two peoples closer together, Belarusians have seen no change in the attitude toward them, not only on the part of the Polish authorities, but even on the part of the Polish public.

For example: instead of satisfying our undoubtedly just demands, necessary for us at the very least as a minimum, for an improvement in the position of our schools, which are grounded in our right as just citizens of this land and in the will of the people, the Government School Authority "is inclined" to grant our Vilnia Belarusian Gymnasium, as some kind of favor, a matriculation Commission in the Polish language, ignoring the eight years in which the pupils were prepared in Belarusian; while the Polish public, in the person of the Vilnia Voivodeship Committee "dla głodnych dzieci" (for hungry children), has "improved" its attitude toward us by depriving (in April and May) hungry Belarusian children of the piece of bread due to them from this Committee.

In your attitude, Honored Gentlemen, we see a sincere wish to heal these abnormal Polish-Belarusian relations; yet apart from good will and desire you have no other means, whereas the other part of your public, the reactionary-chauvinist part, which at the present moment almost alone has influence on the course of life in our land, as we see, is trying to exploit before Europe the very fact of the existence of the Polish-Belarusian Society and, by clouding the opinion of the whole world, makes our life in Poland, already bad, still worse.

Taking all of the above into account, in order not to let ourselves be used by your reactionary chauvinists, we consider it useful for our common cause to refrain from carrying out our projects until the general political situation in Poland improves.

Vilnia, 29 V 1924.