Between Russification and divide and rule: Russian nationality policy in the western borderlands in mid-19th century

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Nacionalizmas; Rusifikacija; Kultūrinė asimiliacija; Etnopolitinė programa; Šiaurės Vakarų kraštas. Keywords: Nationalism; Russification; Linguistic assimilation; Ethno-political program; North-Western krai.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Rusifikacija; 19 amžius; Šiaurės Vakarų kraštas; Russification; 19th century; Northwest Provinces.

ENIn this article, an attempt is made to answer the question of why and on what scale the imperial government in the mid-nineteenth century attempted to support various national groups against the Poles who dominated the western periphery of the Russian Empire. The centre of attention is the so- called Northwest Region and the Augustow Province in the Kingdom of Poland, where there were Lithuanians living. Although there had previously been individual attempts to support non-Poles, nevertheless the methods of a more systematic policy to "divide and rule" only began to be considered at the begin- ning of the 1860s after the strengthening Polish liberation movement was encountered. Most, if not all of the actions associated with this policy (the February 1862 proposals submitted to Alexander II, the attempt to set up a West Russia Association, the preparations for an ethnographic expedition in the province, the propaganda campaign in the press, and so forth) were the result of coordinated action. All these projects and proposals came from the same group of "enlightened bureaucrats" and Slavophiles, and the key figure in this group was Alexander Hil'ferding. Although local officials discussed the possibilities of attracting the Jews to their side (after ob- serving the Aleksandr Wielopolski reforms) and of somewhat supporting the Belarusian ethno- culture, nevertheless due to various reasons government renounced such methods in respect to these two national groups. Meanwhile, in the case of the Lithuanians, the methods of this policy were not only discussed but also partially implemented in the Augustow Province of the Kingdom of Poland. The Article also discusses how one concrete measure of nationality policy (the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet in Lithuanian writing) originally conceived as a "de-Polonisation" measure became a Russification measure. [From the publication]