The Landed Gentry Over the Berezyna River and La Plata

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to describe the landed gentry in Belarus. Until the early 20th century, population speaking eastern Slavonic dialects and of Orthodox denomination prevailed in the eastern part of Belarus. Among this part of the population, awareness of the connection to the Belarusian nation was generally low. Poles who lived there were Polish-speaking Catholics, who were mostly aware of belonging to the Polish nation. A fairly large percentage of them belonged to the landed gentry. Novels written by Florian Czarnyszewicz, written in emigration to Argentina, are set in that part of Belarus. Czarnyszewicz was of gentry origin and came from the landed gentry settled in the region along the Berezina river. Living there until the early 1920’s, in his novels he presented all the experiences of that community.