Bound by Exclusion and Violence: A History of Belarusian Armed Struggle in the Twentieth Century

In Bound by Exclusion and Violence: A History of Belarusian Armed Struggle in the Twentieth Century (published by University of Toronto Press, 2025) Aleksandra Pomiecko follows a group of Belarusian nationalists from the First World War through to the Cold War era to show how Belarus was a key hub of ideological and political conflict throughout the twentieth century. To mark its recent publication, Peripheral Histories? editor Siobhán Hearne spoke with Aleksandra about twentieth-century Belarusian history and the transnational archival research methodology that underpins this fascinating book.

PH: What motivated you to focus on Belarus and Belarusians to explore Europe’s violent and tumultuous twentieth century?

My interest in Belarus stemmed from my own lack of understanding of the country, and this became more evident to me during my undergraduate and MA studies. I was fortunate enough to meet with and take classes run by experts who focused on particular regions of Eastern Europe – especially Poland and Ukraine – but I rarely came across Belarus as the historical subject of study. When I began my doctoral studies at the University of Toronto, I decided to spend a summer in Minsk learning Belarusian, which further piqued my interest in the country’s past. I decided to try to merge my long-time interests in the study of war and conflict with Belarus as the setting. As I continued my archival research, I came to realize that although the story is about Belarus and Belarusians, the settings were multiple, and this drew Belarus into more global aspects of the world wars.

PH: The book follows a ‘multigenerational group of Belarusians’ whose lives occurred against the backdrop of imperial collapse, revolution, and war, as well as profound political, societal, and economic upheaval. Could you describe the life trajectories of some of your protagonists and reflect upon what they can tell us about Belarusian history and the development of national movements in Eastern Europe more generally?

The lives of many of my protagonists were as varied and tumultuous as the events that enveloped them. Some came to the world wars as more seasoned veterans and national activists, whereas others were students and teachers who experienced their early formative years during the Second World War. Others were writers and artists. Moreover, times of war and peace oftentimes dictated the trajectory of their activities. One of the actors I followed was an individual by the name of Frantsishak Kushal′, who began his career as a soldier in the Tsarist Empire and later served as an officer in the Polish Army between the world wars. He was involved in Belarusian affairs already during the First World War and he served on various committees. During his time in interwar Poland, he took advantage of the opportunities offered to him within the military and rose through the ranks until the Second World War. In 1939, he was captured by the Red Army and imprisoned. Thanks to the efforts of his wife and famous poet, Natallia Arsenneva, he was eventually released. During the German occupation of Belarus, he collaborated by helping to organize Belarusian armed groups, such as the auxiliary police and later the Belarusian Home Guard. He escaped Belarus in 1944 and spent several years in a Displaced Persons camp before eventually moving to the United States. His memoir documents some of these activities, but certainly not everything.

Frantsishak Kushal′ at the Second All-Belarusian Congress, June 1944

In some ways, their trajectories reflect the experiences of other national actors in the region.  Loyalty and advocacy for one’s nation was envisioned through different political projects, including through some more radicalized, violent methods and the espousing of racial and antisemitic views. The increased attention and turn to these national projects surged after the collapse of the Tsarist empire, within which national movements had been tamed or even completely suppressed.

When it comes to the Belarusian national movement, many scholars have noted that it emerged later when compared to neighbouring movements. Furthermore, its subscribers included a small group of Belarusian activists and elites. Nevertheless, however embryonic the Belarusian national movement was, the ways in which it developed very much moved in parallel with other movements within the region. Following the First World War, the creation of new and re-constituted nation states brought about the development of some national movements within state parameters. In the case of Belarus, this iteration took the form of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, which forced those critical of the Soviet project to advocate for Belarus abroad. Later, during the Second World War and German occupation of Belarus, these Belarusians promoted their national identity, albeit in a much more violent and deadly context. After the Second World War, they struggled to connect with their homeland and forged connections with western institutions in order to continue advocating for their movement. This post-war trajectory was one that befell other national actors in the region who were critical of Soviet power.

PH: Many of your protagonists engaged with the idea of, and fought for, the Belarusian Homeland (Bats′kaŭshchyna). How did their different backgrounds and life experiences shape their visions of this homeland? How far did these visions diverge?

Indeed, interpretations of the Bats′kaŭshchyna were multiple and varied, but especially murky and at times unclear. This range has to do, in part, with the diverse population of the different historical regions of Belarus, which included a multi-confessional and multi-lingual group of people. There were some individuals in the Belarusian movement who strongly advocated for the promotion of the Belarusian language, whereas others sought a softer approach, noting that that not all of their potential constituents spoke Belarusian and needed to be taught. Similarly, the idea of a Belarusian Homeland was not anchored to a specific confession, in order not to alienate any potential supporters.

In addition to this diversity, many Belarusian activists held an array of ideological proclivities throughout the span of their lives. Many began as socialist revolutionaries around the time of the First World War and advocated for greater socio-economic benefits and land reforms for Belarusians. Between the world wars, some were part of the Socialist Hramada Party, the Communist Party of Western Belarus, and even the National Socialist Party of Belarus, where they expressed openly racist and antisemitic views.

I suppose that this variety shows how multifaceted the Belarusian national movement was; in that those who claimed to be Belarusian patriots held an array of ideological beliefs. Some even began as ardent communists in their earlier lives and morphed into anti-communist actors years later. After the Second World War, many of these individuals kept their specific political beliefs murky, mainly operating within a broad anti-communist movement. They also avoided any specific discussion of their activity during the Second World War. Hence, throughout my period of study, their visions of the Bats′kaŭshchyna appear quite diverse and, ultimately, were never put to the test in practice and nor implemented.

PH: Bound by Exclusion and Violence traces life stories through transnational archival research. Could you tell us about the challenges and opportunities of this methodological approach?

When I originally embarked on the research portion of this project, I did not anticipate it to be as transnational as it ended up being. I started doing the research in Toronto and initially spent a summer in Minsk trying to see if a project like this would be feasible. I soon found out that I would not be able to access certain files and archives. In hindsight, however, I am very thankful for this initial limitation because it pushed me to go to other places and procure interesting materials that I might have never sought out otherwise.

My research in Lithuanian and Czech archives was largely because of the limitations elsewhere. In doing so, the periodization of my research largely expanded, as it was evident that the movement that my actors belonged to extended beyond certain periods of war, occupation, or peace. While this was all very exciting, it also made it challenging to know when to stop chasing different research leads and potential avenues of analysis. Indeed, even now I am made aware of certain personal archives, documents, or organizations in various countries pertaining to my actors and the Belarusian national movement. In the end, however, I really enjoyed the process and the opportunity to be able to work in different archives and research cultures, as well as to talk to many individuals who pushed this research further forward in small and larger ways.

PH: How have your protagonists been remembered in present-day Belarus and has public memory of their activities shifted over time?

These individuals do not garner much academic nor even popular attention more generally in Belarus. Moreover, they certainly do not draw intense debate as, for example, key figures in the more radical parts of other national movements do. Most of the discussion around these Belarusian figures is relegated to online chats and forums. In Belarusian diasporas, however, there is more discussion about them, which is perhaps not surprising as many of them eventually tried to make it to places outside of Belarus. The opinions surrounding them have developed generationally. Now, there seems to be a consensus that their lives need to be examined critically in the context of the period and of their actions – whether they were violent or not.

PH: Were there any aspects of the topic that proved more difficult to research or left you with unanswered questions?

Another, related, challenge was that I was following individuals who appeared in the historical record only when they wanted to or when the state “saw” them. For some of my protagonists, I was left with gaps of years without knowing their whereabouts. I would see them last in files in Vilnius dated from 1944 and then again in College Park Maryland in 1953. Sometimes, they appear in personal correspondence in passing, and other individuals involved in this network were unaware of their whereabouts. I have completely lost track of some notable individuals and am left wondering what happened to them, beyond mere speculation and rumour.

Aleksandra Pomiecko is a Lecturer in Modern History at King's College London. Her research centres on histories of war and conflict in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet space, primarily in the twentieth century. Her current research explores banditry and insurgency in the Eastern European borderland regions, after the First World War.