Why do most Belarusians speak Russian while most Polish Belarusians speak Belarusian?

2 Comments

1. Erik Van Thienen says:

   July 28, 2010 at 11:56 am

   Because of Stalin.

   "[After WWII] Joseph Stalin implemented a policy of Sovietization to isolate the Byelorussian SSR from Western influences. This policy involved sending Russians from various parts of the Soviet Union and placing them in key positions in the Byelorussian SSR government. The official use of the Belarusian language and other cultural aspects were limited by Moscow. After Stalin died in 1953, successor Nikita Khrushchev continued this program, stating, "The sooner we all start speaking Russian, the faster we shall build communism"."
2. Eugene says:

   July 28, 2010 at 11:56 am

   I call BS!
   Belarusian,has a great mutual intelligability with standard Russian,so there is no way to ban it,without banning regular Russian.