Белорусский паспорт Бялика: Белорусская народная республика и евреи в 1921 году

Abstract

Starting from a seemingly anecdotal detail – Bialik’s Belarusian passport -, this article explores a little known page of the Belarusian People’s Republic history and of Jewish/non-Jewish relations in Eastern Europe, i.e. the rapprochement between Jewish and Belarusian political activist in Berlin in 1921, before and after the peace treaty of Riga. Using published and unpublished archival sources, the author reconstitutes the efforts of three Jewish officials of the BNR government – David Anekshtein, Isaac Lur’e and Samuil Zhitlovsky – to raise awareness of the Belarusian cause among Jewish, and particularly, Zionist circles in Berlin and in the West. The article explores the BNR government in exile’s last attempt to secure statehood at a turning point in the history of the region through active cooperation with the Jewish community. It confirms the central role attributed to the Jewish nation in the Belarusian national project but also reveals the tensions and frustrations on both sides. While this cooperation failed to produce the expected outcome – BNR independence – it was crucial in shaping the BNR’s response to the violent anti-Jewish pogroms during the summer 1921 and broadening the public knowledge about the Belarusian cause to various émigré circles in Berlin, as well as laid the basis for mutual political and cultural recognition in the BSSR.

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ORCID for Claire Le Foll: orcid.org/0000-0003-2261-6431

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